Teacher planning overload slows down students
It doesn’t have to be like this. Some schools have other methods. They provide a school-wide approach to curriculum planning that reduces teachers’ individual planning workload, builds teacher expertise, and ensures that students have access to common, high-quality learning opportunities in every class. I have been working on the approach.
The Grattan Institute has scrutinized this approach in five schools across the country to understand how it works in practice. Visitors to these schools can immediately see the difference. They find that the 3rd grade reading class tackles the same content as her other 3rd grade reading classes, with minor adjustments to the lesson pacing, extra practice opportunities, and each teacher’s unique personality. I guess. The same goes for 6th grade math, 7th grade history, and so on.
As our teachers have revealed to us, the benefits are enormous.
Marsden Road Public School, for example, is a public primary school in southwest Sydney with a shared ‘core programme’ that includes detailed study procedures for each subject, common assessment schedules, lesson plans and classroom materials. This general approach means that teachers are sharing the planning load and using their collective expertise. As one teacher said: you have no gaps. “
But such adjustments don’t just happen. Getting there takes a lot of hard work behind the scenes and a strong culture of professional trust.
Unfortunately, a new Grattan Institute survey of 2,243 teachers and principals suggests that these schools are the exception rather than the rule. Half of the teachers surveyed said they planned their own lessons, and only 15% said they had access to a common bank of quality curriculum materials.
To end the lessons learned lottery, governments need more practical help. All schools should have access to comprehensive and carefully curated curriculum materials that can be adapted and used as needed. These materials must be quality assured by an independent reviewer. This gives teachers confidence that they are field-tested and ready for classroom use.
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These materials should be comprehensive. It provides everything teachers need to teach, right down to classroom-level materials, so teachers can focus on tailoring their approach to student needs. The school needs ready access to a wide range of options to avoid the perception that the government is forcing her one option over another.
Of course, this is no silver bullet. Curriculum-specific professional learning for teachers and principals also needs a major boost. The ever-increasing workload of teachers needs to be reduced so that they can focus on preparing lessons.
But having these materials available, and that teachers know how to find them and use them effectively, is critical to ending the Australian Tuition Lottery. would have made a big difference for
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Teacher planning overload slows down students
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