Sequencing and Scaffolding

Improved learning outcomes can only come from our teachers' classrooms. Sequencing and scaffolding is a practical guide to develop and strengthen explicit teaching practices through strategic leadership and thereby make those classroom enhancements achievable. Most teachers will have experienced professional learning processes that have been irrelevant to their needs, have failed to be sustained, have been ignored by colleagues or have simply failed to make any impact on their teaching. The research indicates that up to 80% of professional learning fails to be incorporated in teacher practice in the medium to longer terms. The book's prime focus is to describe and explain the kind of secondary school leadership strategies that make positive classroom reform realistic and achievable by clearly outlining the means to make professional learning relevant, impactful and sustainable.

As a 'how to' manual, it translates the 'what and why' of contemporary educational research into the 'how and when' of actual teaching. Through numerous, actual and trialled classroom and school examples, it carefully signposts the methods to enhance instructional leadership capacity of existing and aspiring secondary school executives. Based firmly on the principles of explicit teaching and grounded in the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers and the Australian Professional Standards for Middle Leaders, the textbook melds diverse educational topics such as cognitive science, academic literacy, intellectual quality, Teaching and Learning program and assessment design, evaluating teaching programs based on the research evidence, classroom management, evaluative thinking and informed decision-making processes and the issues surrounding generative AI.

The book's main argument is that improved learning outcomes cannot be achieved through pursuing just one element of teaching. You cannot have teaching without assessment; you cannot have curriculum without pedagogy. This is a crucial point for instructional leaders. If teachers are to learn more about the process of teaching and learning, they need to develop a repertoire of ways to address this multiplicity. The book outlines an efficient and respectful way to foster this teacher meta-awareness.

These professional practices are contextualised within a single, coherent professional Learning strategy for elevating learning outcomes titled, the Programming and Assessment Renovation Strategy or PARS. The PARS directly contributes to:

• • fostering professional trust relationships that both challenge and respect colleagues
  • identifying, translating and applying research-based strategies for action
  • growing and sustaining teachers' awareness of, and practice in, explicit pedagogy
  • providing a clear, logical, coherent and practical Professional Learning pathway
  • directly aligning coherent Teaching and Learning programs with assessments
  • fostering better-taught and therefore more engaged secondary students
  • improving schools' externally measured performance
  • establishing clear leadership pathways and authenic structured processess that engage and text ideas

Each chapter explores a major issue in depth. For example, in examining the reading proficiency issue, the relevant chapter analyses the externally-measured Australian performance trends, summaries the research pertinent to secondary schools and provides two elaborated examples of classroom application that have been shown to produce enhanced student reading performance. The book is fully indexed and has a detailed table of contents for easy access to those specific issues. It contains numerous figures or models to assist staff presentation