Sets out responsibilities, evidence and follow-up as an evidence-led approach to teaching and learning quality, covering responsibility, outcome evidence and sustained effect.
In 2013, consideration of teaching and learning quality must take account of the global teaching and learning policy debate in 2013 and the responsibilities it places before education systems. Effective improvement requires ownership, a time-bound intervention and independent confirmation that the intended result has been achieved. The decision should address both public impact and the responsibilities attached to entrusted educational resources. System context should determine the appropriate administrative arrangement within the governing requirements.
For teaching and learning quality, the central objective should not be obscured by the form of the administrative response. Education quality depends on sufficient numbers of competent staff who are prepared, supported and assigned work they can perform effectively. Inputs and formal commitments should be distinguished from demonstrated operation and outcome. Assurance should address actual effect and provide a means of correcting disadvantage that the arrangement did not intend.
Defining the problem
Relevant evidence for teaching and learning quality will normally include observation and learner feedback, workforce plans and vacancy information, workload and allocation data, support and supervision records, and induction and professional learning participation. Evidence outside the relevant period or scope should be identified and given no more weight than its limitations permit. Contradictory evidence should be investigated and resolved, not omitted from the record.
This analysis is informed by global teaching and learning policy debate in 2013. Its relevance to corrective action should be assessed against the affected jurisdiction, learner population and form of provision. Within the scope under review, any consequential application should rest on evidence suited to the affected scope, not on the existence of an international development alone.
For teaching and learning quality, the 2013/4 Education for All Global Monitoring Report, Teaching and Learning: Achieving Quality for All, places teaching quality and equitable learning at the centre of the post-2015 discussion. It links teacher preparation, deployment, support and working conditions with learner outcomes. Workforce indicators should consequently be interpreted alongside evidence of classroom practice, access to qualified teachers and differences between locations and learner groups.
Effectiveness is the demonstrated change in the condition the action was intended to address. For teaching and learning quality, completion of training, publication of guidance or installation of a system is an output and should not be reported as an outcome without further evidence. The judgement should state its supporting evidence and any condition limiting application to the declared scope.
Risk assessment of the relevant practice should give particular attention to weak evaluation of teaching support, deployment unrelated to learner need, and professional learning disconnected from practice. A provider should also consider vacancies or turnover affecting continuity and workload that limits preparation and feedback.
Improvement method
In work concerning teaching and learning quality, responsibility should be identifiable at the point where consequential decisions are made. A complete improvement record should define the baseline, affected scope, causal hypothesis, responsible owner, resources, milestones and measures of effectiveness.
Accountability for teaching and learning quality should follow decision-making authority. Evidence of material risk should be placed before the body with authority to act, together with a traceable decision. Delegation of delivery does not remove the need for a named authority to oversee material learner impact.
The assurance record for the intended improvement should retain the date of the evidence, the source responsible for it, the scope examined and the version of any instrument or definition applied. In the context of teaching and learning quality, revision should not remove an earlier conclusion from the record where reliance has occurred.
- Prioritise support where learner need is greatest, identifying the accountable function and affected scope.
- Protect time for preparation and feedback.
- Maintain continuity arrangements, identifying the accountable function and affected scope.
- Forecast workforce need before it informs a consequential decision.
- Monitor workload and turnover.
Measures and review
Authorities and providers reviewing teaching and learning quality should proceed in a defined sequence. For corrective action, the reviewer should set a baseline and success measure before intervention, define the review period, compare the result with the intended outcome and examine adverse or unequal effects. Continue monitoring long enough to determine whether the improvement is sustained.
A decision to close improvement work on teaching and learning quality should be made by a person with authority and sufficient independence from implementation.
In work concerning teaching and learning quality, analysis should remain within the limits of the evidence. For the intended improvement, improvement data should not be selected only because it is readily available. Qualifications and participation in training are inputs. Within the scope under review, if uncertainty could change a consequential decision, additional evidence or a narrower conclusion is required.
The current development provides a basis for examining whether the matter is supported by responsible action and demonstrable result.