LearningYou delivered a multi-tiered professional learning plan aligned to the school’s Triennial School Numeracy Action Plan.
The Challenge
The school’s triennial review had identified 3 target areas to improve student numeracy:
- Discrete Naplan preparation for Years 7 & 9 including numeracy lessons and practice testing.
- Develop a culture of data-driven improvement for numeracy.
- Develop the capacity of teachers to be effective teachers of numeracy.
The diversity of teacher experience in teaching mathematics and numeracy within the Mathematics faculty and across the learning areas necessitated a differentiated professional learning plan.
How we helped?
LearningYou worked alongside the Numeracy Head of Department to develop and deliver a multi-tiered professional learning plan to address the specific learning demands of the staff.
Phase One Mathematics faculty:
Half day Problem Solving in workshops were delivered to two identified staff groups – experienced Mathematics teachers and out of field teachers of mathematics. Ongoing implementation support was provided to staff through modelled lessons delivered by LearningYou and via the in school coaching model.
Phase Two Data driven improvement:
LearningYou built teacher capacity to use data collected through a trial testing to inform their teaching and planning. Teachers were able to use student specific data relating to misconceptions and problem solving strategies to inform their planning and align to learning experiences to key numeracy outcomes.
Furthermore the direct link between student data and planning challenged teacher assumptions and mindsets regarding student readiness. Ongoing support was provided to teachers to deliver tiered lessons through twilight workshops and school based coaching.
Phase Three Numeracy Across the Curriculum:
LearningYou responded to school identified learning area specific numeracy demands to develop bespoke professional learning workshops. Using the existing teaching programs and assessment items teachers were able to make direct links between contextual know how, the underpinning mathematical know how and classroom practice.
Value delivered
Through extensive consultation with the school’s Numeracy team, LearningYou was able to deliver a framework aligning data analysis, professional learning and embedded classroom practice.
Significant gains were made in the student results in the 12 week period between the collection of trial data and the Naplan test. Year 7 students improved from 6.4% below the nation on the trial test to 1.2% above the nation on the 2015 Naplan paper. Year 9 students improved from 8.6% below the nation on the trial test to 1.3% below the nation on the 2015 Naplan paper.
Ensuring that professional learning was followed by school based support has built teacher capacity and laid the foundation for the development of professional learning teams within the school. Ongoing consultative support will be provided to support these teams as the school builds its capacity to deliver classroom based professional development.
