The Future of Education: An ACT Education Strategy for the Next Ten Years

Education enables people to participate effectively and respectfully in a diverse society.¹ It prepares children for adult life by developing the full potential of their personality, talents and mental and physical abilities.

The inherent humanity of children and their growing individual capacity requires an education system that appropriately gives students control over their learning. Every child has their own interests and needs, background and circumstances, which an education system must recognise and address.

What Does This Mean?

Students need to be engaged in their learning, which requires support and begins by enabling participation.

A holistic view of students as people recognises that basic welfare and wellbeing needs, things like nutritious food and physical and mental health support, provide the basis on which learning can occur. Meeting these needs allows the full opportunity of education to be available.

Providing an equitable foundation for learning begins in early childhood settings and schools where children and young people can access what   they need for their wellbeing, which leads to a stronger, deeper engagement in learning. Some students need additional or specialised support.

Respecting the human agency of a child requires that students are active participants in their learning, making informed choices about what and how they learn, contributing to decisions about how their learning environment operates.

Each student treads their own educational pathway based on their developing interests, knowledge and skills. They each have gifts and talents across a range of areas that both allow their participation in life and enrich their personality and contribution to society and culture. Every child has a great potential to learn, progress, achieve and contribute.

Learning necessarily begins by ensuring a high standard of literacy   and numeracy because these skills are the gateway to a much broader range of skills and capabilities students need to become active, responsible and engaged.³ Equally, participation in education develops vital personal attributes like empathy and the ability to work with others, a sense of responsibility, self-control and self-efficacy.

“I know that every child learns differently and has different things going on in their lives and so everybody needs to be supported to take into account their different needs so that they get a really great education and have fun at school.”
- Student

“We need to be more prepared for the outside world. We need to be taught relevant things. Teach us things we will use.”
- Student

“For every student to be listened to and to be able to have their own opinion for everything they do. That every pupil has a chance to do whatever they want to do and accomplish in life.”
- Student

1. UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
2. Ibid.
3. OECD, The Future of education and skills. 2018

Teachers and school leaders, together with a team of people including other educators, allied learning professionals, and support staff, make education happen.

Teachers are the most important part of [a child’s] school experience.
- Parent

I do way better in classes with teachers that I bond with, with whom I ‘click’ with and who let me learn the things I am interested in.
- Student

Teachers are expert professionals highly skilled at working with students to lead them through their learning journey. A high quality education system enables teachers to achieve this in partnership with a range of other professionals and support staff meeting student needs and nurturing school communities.

What Does This Mean?

Teachers are the facilitators of learning, which begins through establishing positive relationships with students and their families. Teachers need to know the students that they are working withand the impact of their teaching on student learning and wellbeing. From this base teachers are able to work together and collaborate with other professionals and support staff to effectively meet the needs of every student.

A respected, professional teaching workforce requires high quality initial teacher education that attracts the right kind of people to this field, and leads to well- prepared and enthusiastic graduates entering the profession. As a profession, however, teachers are themselves engaged in ongoing learning and continual growth in their expertise. Professional learning, mentoring and coaching, and the sharing of effective practice allows good teaching practice to be widely adopted.

Leadership among the teaching profession drives high quality teaching. School leaders create the culture, environments, structures and systems to develop and extend high performing, expert teaching teams. They act as mentors for other teachers, shaping and guiding their less experienced colleagues to grow in competence and confidence. Because of this, the focus for school leaders, as with teachers, needs to be their expertise as practitioners rather than administrative and other functions.

The core role of teachers is educative but they work within the broader support system that assists student learning. A range of other allied learning professionals and support staff enable schools to function. Meeting student wellbeing and learning needs requires teachers to collaborate with families, community and human service providers. Through this schools become inclusive learning communities that support all children and young people to learn.

While the core function of schools is to provide education, schools are also key community hubs providing more than access to learning. Through schools, children and their families connect with each other and form enduring relationships. Schools are an integral part of a broader human service system that builds relationships and brings services and people together to meet the diverse needs of children and their families.

What Does This Mean?

Taking a holistic view of students and their needs, and recognising that teachers and school leaders work in partnership with families, other professionals and support staff, results in a reorientation of schools as multi- service environments, better positioned to meet the diverse range of student academic and wellbeing needs.

Collaborative partnerships between schools, government and community service providers also allows schools to be community hubs for people beyond current students, such as their families. Schools in doing so enhance wellbeing, resilience and connections throughout the community.

This means that parents and carers are active participants in school life, involved in the learning of their children. Professionals such as social workers, psychologists and other health professionals bring their expertise to support student wellbeing and engagement in learning, and provide families with convenient access to services including through outreach models. Other partners, like community service providers, unions, business, cultural and sporting organisations, enrich what schools can offer to students and the wider school community.

Education aims to achieve outcomes for young people that are equitable, irrespective of gender, economic, social, cultural or other causes. It can most effectively achieve this when it brings services and people together. Practitioners, policy makers and system leaders must therefore routinely operate in collaboration.⁴

Treat early childhood as part of the education system... Co-location of primary school, childcare, community services and maternal health clinics... and help increase awareness of what is available... linking in services for those with particular needs.
- Parent

A new review has found strong evidence that community schools (schools that partner with community agencies to provide an integrated focus on academics, health and social services and youth and community development) contribute to school improvement.
- Community Sector

4. Bentley & Butler, 2017, Collaboration in pursuit of learning in Bentley and Savage: Educating Australia. 2017.

Providing the education of the future requires systems that are harmonious with the directions set by this strategy. Education in the ACT is being increasingly focused on equity so that every child has the opportunity to achieve excellent outcomes, regardless of their background and circumstance. Legislation, resources, organisational structures, culture, public accountability and reporting, teaching tools, data and IT, in many ways dictate the outcomes achieved and therefore need to be aligned with pursuing educational equity.

What Does This Mean?

Learning and development begins from birth and the systems supporting education need to respond to this context.

Children and young people access a range of services including health, education and community services as they grow and acquire the skills and attributes need for a healthy and productive adult life. Education provision occurs through early childhood education, school-aged education, tertiary education and vocational education and training. These services and settings must be personalised and well-coordinated, especially at points of change or transition. A range of flexible delivery approaches are required to meet diverse learning needs.

The system elements that support education include:

• Legislation
• Resources and teaching tools
• Organisational structures and culture
• Public accountability and reporting
• Data and information technology.

Decisions relevant to students need to be made by those as close as possible to the student, including the student themselves. But schools cannot be burdened with   functions that distract from providing high quality education. The balance between school-based decision making and external or centralised support is key to achieve strong student outcomes.5

The right mix of school led innovation and external assistance and accountability will result in quality teaching and learning for every student.

Importantly, appropriate assessment tools allow students, their parents and teachers   to monitor growth of knowledge and skills. When well-designed, these tools recognise the different starting point of every child and provide personalised feedback. Data also supports good policy, service design and decision-making about school improvement and evidenced-based decisions to target resourcing and support to where it can be most effective and is most needed. The use of data for these purposes needs to respect the people involved, maintain their dignity, and direct accountability to those with responsibility and control.

“If I could change one thing it would be the types of education that are offered because I think really the only thing offered in schools is the academic side of things but I don’t think that’s necessarily the most important. It’s important to understand how the world is working around you, how people who are different from you work and how they experience life. Like more emotional understanding of other people and of your community because I think in the grand scheme of things this will put you in better stead for life than knowing every math trick there is on earth.”
- Youth Centre participant

5. Schools for All Children and Young People: Report of the Expert Panel on Students with Complex Needs and Challenging Behaviours, by Roy, Shaddock and Packer, November 2015.

Student achievement sets aside economic, social and cultural barriers.

Equity means students are supported according to their personal needs rather than being treated identically. All children and young people deserve the support they need to achieve a good education. Community members, parents, students, teachers and education experts all believe that equity is important. Quality education systems must be equitable.6

Equity requires a differentiated approach, recognising that students have different backgrounds and starting points in their learning. Some students may (at times and with some of their learning) require more assistance in order to achieve their best.

Education is an opportunity to develop ALL our kids into the best people they can be. All over the world a good education appears inversely proportional to poverty. Education not only provides a springboard of opportunity but promotes dignity, health and freedom.
- Parent

As a signatory to the Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians, the ACT Government is committed to promoting equity and excellence in schooling.

Students make decisions about their learning and how their learning environments operate.

Young people want a greater say in what and how they learn. They see themselves as decision makers within their learning environments. The capacity to set goals and take personal responsibility will be important for their future success. Acquiring this skill begins during childhood learning.

What helps me learn is having a choice in what we learn.
- Student

We need student-directed and student centred learning and students having a greater say in what they are learning.
- Student

With changing patterns of work and social interaction, personal agency is becoming an increasingly important attribute in life after school.

6. McKinsey. How the world’s best performing school systems come out on top. 2007.

Supports for learning and wellbeing are available and provided to all students.

Access means that each student has the supports they require because educators know them and can respond to their individual experience. Access is related to equity. It could mean providing free breakfast or counselling support that allows each child to learn effectively.

Every child learns differently and has different things going on in their lives and so everybody needs to be supported to take into account their different needs so that they get a really great education and have fun at school.
- Student

Collaboration between schools, students, families, the community sector and other government services is necessary for students to gain access to the right supports at the right time. The importance of access to early childhood learning is well understood and valued. Embracing and harnessing cross-sector collaboration strengthens school communities and lifts student outcomes across the education system.

Diversity is embraced, all students are accommodated and a universal sense of belonging fostered.

Students seek a sense of belonging as a prerequisite to achieve in their learning. Inclusion means embracing diversity in all its forms, as well as specifically ensuring students with disability and their families are included in a way which suits them.

You can’t learn if you don’t feel included.
- Student

What enables me to learn is an inclusive environment where you can be yourself.
- Student

Positive school cultures that are child centred and inclusive improve engagement and learning outcomes for all students.⁷

In a thriving and inclusive education community, all students and their families feel welcomed and valued for who they are and what they can contribute. Schools have culturally aware environments that welcome Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and their families. Diversity of background, culture, gender, class, religion, sexuality, wealth and ability, all contribute depth and richness to the learning experiences of all. Inclusive learning cultures ensure schools reflect the global and connected world young people are living in.

7. Shaddock, Packer & Roy. Schools for All Children and Young People. November 2015.

Teachers and school leaders will expand their skills to engage and support students so they are involved, resilient and equipped for the future.

This phase includes initiatives funded in the 2018 Budget. Future initiatives may need to be developed and considered for future budgets.

Students at the Centre

• Expand and evaluate effective rigorous inquiry and project-based learning models.
• Ensure students have a voice in their schooling and that their learning is personalised and flexible.
• Position 21st century capabilities as an increasing focus within the curriculum.
• Enhance student wellbeing and psychological supports, and identify effective case co-ordination approaches to ensure students are resilient and equipped for the future.
• Identify and build upon evidence-based approaches to successful transitions and implement programs such as the Continuum of Education Support Framework in government high schools.

Empowered Learning Professionals

• Develop recruitment processes and incentives to identify the right new staff, strengthen internship models for new teachers and principals, and design a workforce plan to increase diversity and expertise in the school workforce.
• Build upon and expand learning opportunities through professional learning communities within and across schools
• Invest in school staff and work towards ensuring a highly accomplished and lead teacher is in every school.
• Increase consistency in supporting teachers’ knowledge, skills and confidence with a focus on 21st century capabilities, personalised learning, impact of teaching, student wellbeing and inclusion.
• Ensure that school leaders are supported in strengthening their instructional and data literacy leadership roles and community partnership skills.
• Introduce a more structured approach to teacher mentoring for early career teachers, including training for mentors, to support best practice approaches.
• Build on the ACT Teacher Quality Institutes's (TQI) work to provide a framework for professional experience during initial teacher education.

Strong Communities for Learning

• Identify, build upon and trial effective community school models that partner with community agencies and businesses to ensure schools support student and family needs. This could include out of hours programs and partnerships with agencies to support families, particularly those who are marginalized or experiencing disadvantage.
• Identify and develop models of partnerships between early childhood providers, community and government agencies, and primary schools to ensure that young children (3-8 year olds) have the strongest possible start to their education journey.
• Collaborate across sectors to review policy and service designs, shared personal development and accessing multidisciplinary support.

Systems Supporting Learning

Develop an Early Childhood Strategy for the ACT, with an emphasis on helping each child gain a strong start through quality and accessible early childhood education.

• Review and amend the Education Act 2004 to strengthen student agency, equity, access and inclusion.
• Review and amend the ACT Teacher Quality Institute Act 2010 to strengthen the regulatory for framework for teachers.
• Enhance the role of the ACT TQI to share excellent practice and contemporary research evidence across the ACT, and explore the creation of an ACT teaching evidence clearing house, possibly as an extension of the TQI.
• Leverage national efforts to develop digital formative assessment tools to monitor and evaluate student progress and the impact of teaching strategies throughout their schooling.
• Develop and implement a model for ‘research and development’ schools to identify and build upon evidence-based approaches and interventions that successfully address student learning and wellbeing needs.
• Develop and implement an accountability framework that robustly measures the results of this strategy.
• Enhance performance measures and data sets to help schools pursue learning and wellbeing growth.
• Design and trial digital technology to deliver and monitor personalised learning programs, and enable educational access across different settings.
• Review and build upon existing policies, supports and practices that enhance personalised learning, student agency and 21st century capabilities particularly with regard to the learning needs in the middle and older years.

Students Will Notice:

• They have an increased say in their learning and in how their learning environment operates.
• Their wellbeing is a focus in schools and they can access support when they need it.
• They are developing the knowledge, capabilities and skills to operate in the changing world.
• They can pursue their learning passions, which will take into account their learning needs.

Teachers And School Leaders Will Notice:

• Improved training, practicum, recruitment, induction and professional learning opportunities.
• They are encouraged to achieve and enhance certification under rigorous national standards.
• School leaders have time to develop quality teaching through coaching and mentoring.
• They can push the traditional confines of schooling to explore where, when and how learning can occur, what is learnt and who provides the learning experience.

Each School Community Will Notice:

• They can contribute to a conversation about the learning going on in their school.
• They are asked to comment on how community services in schools can provide support to students and families.
• School staff value collaboration and partnerships with community services and parents.
• Students are supported through transitions from early childhood education and preschools to primary schools and secondary schools.

Partnerships with the broader community will ensure students have the best supports in place for their learning and wellbeing.

Students at the Centre

• Expand approaches for measuring and evaluating student achievement and growth in the areas of personalised and project based learning.
• Implement case-coordination approaches, and collect data to monitor and make changes to student wellbeing approaches and psychological supports in schools.
• Implement evidence-based transition processes, and evaluate and refine existing models such as the Continuum of Education Support Framework.
• Review delivery of senior secondary education with a focus on personalised pathways.
• Explore placement of more experienced and accomplished teachers with students of greater learning needs.

Empowered Learning Professionals

• Work with other jurisdictions and universities to enhance the quality of candidates and the training program for teachers.
• Implement and monitor internship models for graduate teachers and new principals.
• Build teachers’ and school leaders’ knowledge, skills and confidence to work as part of a team in a full-service community school.
• Prioritise career pathways that recognise teacher expertise needed for school improvement.
• Continue to support growth in teachers’ knowledge, skills and confidence on 21st century capabilities, personalised learning, impact of teaching, student wellbeing and inclusion including through professional learning communities.
• Continue to invest in school leaders to be leaders of learning, wellbeing and community partnerships.

Strong Communities for Learning

• Build strong partnerships with services and local communities to ensure the needs of students are met in the early years.
• Evaluate ‘community school’ and early intervention pilot projects and expand successful models to other schools.
• Promote effective models of partnering with industry that will bring real life learning into the classroom and take learning into the broader community.
• Continue to strengthen partnerships across government and non-government schooling sectors.

Systems Supporting Learning

• Implement digital platforms to:
  • efficiently support teachers’ delivery of personalised learning for all students, including learning pathways for student with particular needs.
  • allow teachers to efficiently monitor, evaluate and report on student learning and wellbeing growth
• Research and development schools are expanded in partnership with local universities.
• Implement a consistent process to identify student learning and wellbeing needs, including early intervention and monitoring of progress using data.
• Introduce technology platforms to deliver personalised learning across a variety of settings.
• Equity, inclusion, access and student agency are strengthened as the bottom line for school initiatives.
• Review the balance between government, system and school level responsibilities so that initiatives and effort have the right focus.

Students will Notice

• They are experiencing connected and personalised learning in their secondary settings.
• They feel known and welcomed when they move from one year level to another and particularly during transitions, such as from primary to high school.
• They can participate in accelerated or advanced learning in areas where they have particular attributes and interests.
• They are provided support when they find learning difficult.

Teachers and School Leaders will Notice:

• Opportunities to learn about different approaches to personalised learning support for every child.
• Growing expertise in schools through quality recruiting and broadening of the workforce.
• Professional development focused on the skills of teachers and school leaders with attention to 21st century capabilities, personalised learning, student wellbeing and the inclusion of students with diverse and complex needs.

Each School Community will Notice:

• Models of community services in schools and early intervention approaches are being developed through their participation and sharing of examples of good practice across communities.
• Schools exploring how resources can be used better to support disadvantaged families.

Community schools’ are providing every child the best start and a learning journey that will lead to a successful, fulfilling adult life.

Students at the Centre

• Embed and monitor student voice and evaluate the impact of personalised and project-based learning on student outcomes.
• Affirm evidence-based case coordination approaches and report on student achievement and growth in 21st century capabilities and student wellbeing.
• Evaluate and refine transition approaches across all stages of early childhood education and schooling.
• Target a minimum of a year's growth for year's learning for every child and young person, having regard to their starting point.

Empowered Learning Professionals

• Implement and monitor a career pathways model.
• Review the impact of enhanced professional development on teacher and student outcomes.
• Ensure para-professionals and allied learning professionals are part of the teams to support meeting the needs of students.

Strong Communities for Learning

• Implement ‘community school’ and early intervention models, appropriate to the individual school community context.
• Enrol children in their learning and development journey from birth to ensure that strong supports engaged from the start.

Systems Supporting Learning

• Provide each student with a connected and personalised learning pathway.
• Embed and refine Research and Development schools and continue to share effective practices across the school sectors.
• Evaluate the impact of interventions to address the learning and wellbeing needs of students.
• Evaluate the impact of interventions to address equity, inclusion, access and agency on the learning of students with diverse needs.
• Embed systems to allow individual student information to follow the student between sectors and learning contexts, having regard to privacy considerations.

Students Will Notice:

• That in every school they engage in connected and personalised learning.
• That a connected learning pathway occurs from early childhood through to graduation from formal schooling
• That they are appropriately and well prepared for the next learning or work destination.
• Each level of schooling gives them the knowledge, skills and disposition to continue to learn and thrive in a changing world.

Teachers and School Leaders Will Notice:

• They are confident, highly capable and inspired ‘facilitators of learning’.
• Teaching is valued as a high status profession in the Canberra community.

Each School Community Will Notice:

• Robust partnerships between schools, community agencies and families in the interest of their children and young people.
• Access to a range of coordinated supports for children and young people and their families, with a focus on parents as first teachers.

The results of this strategy will be grounded in improved learning and wellbeing outcomes for each and every student. In the first phase of its implementation revised accountability frameworks will be developed to provide robust measurement of the results being achieved.

Accountability frameworks will strengthen the focus on:

• Greater equity through reduced student achievement gaps for all students regardless of their background
• Increased student sense of belonging leading to increased attendance and retention rates
• Increased student agency, resilience and wellbeing
• Learning and growth, year on year, achieved through personalised learning strategies and individualised student support.

System and school success will be articulated through robust evidence, driven by solid data, which enables the effective monitoring of progress on education equity in the ACT.

Acknowledgements

The ACT Government acknowledges and thanks the many individuals and groups who generously participated in the Future of Education conversation and the development of the ACT Future of Education Strategy. A special mention to the 2,400 children and young people who participated for all their insightful input. Thank you also to the Minister’s Student Congress who came together throughout 2017/18 to put forward the views of young people.

Future of Education Community Partners

• Professor John Hattie
• Ms Cathy Hudson
• Professor Chris Sarra
• Ms Susan Helyar
• Dr John Falzon

Future of Education Partnership Group

Community Organisations Who Participated/Provided A Submission

Contributing Schools

Thank you to the many School Board Chairs who worked in partnership with their school principal to engage their community in a conversation about the Future of Education and make a submission. The Government also acknowledges the contribution of teachers from all sectors through a survey.

A full listing of the schools is available from the design version pdf document.

Others Who Participated

A number of parents and carers, teachers and school leaders, individuals and community members participated in the Future of Education conversation. The views of those who participated in the consultation for the Student Resource Allocation project were also considered in the Future of Education conversation.