The Time for Change?

Education in Victoria is experiencing an exciting shift with the launch of the Victorian Teaching and Learning Model 2.0. This significant update incorporates elements of learning and teaching including an emphasis on Cognitive Load Theory and explicit instruction. The current education minister's active engagement, including attending professional learning sessions and mandating phonemic awareness and phonics in F-2 classes, marks a significant departure from past years when such topics received little attention. 

Reflecting on my own experiences, four years ago I participated in a department-sponsored professional learning course where phonics was merely an elective. At the course's conclusion, my school’s efforts in implementing a systematic synthetic phonics program were dismissed by the facilitator: the exact words were “We’ll just have to agree to disagree”. Two years ago, any mention of literacy and numeracy was notably absent from the then minister’s remarks at the Victorian Educational Excellence Awards. During another year-long program, decodable readers were described as "contrived". Less than six months ago, another department funded PL the need for and importance of explicit teaching was being dismissed. While hopeful about the impact of new initiative, these experiences underscore the significant work still needed to support educators in navigating change effectively.
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I have now helped lead my last three schools through significant change. I know that it is not a simple process, but our students are absolutely worth the effort it takes to ensure our teaching is as effective as possible.​

Change Takes Time

Although it is tempting to expect change to happen immediately, the reality is that it is a gradual process. This can be frustrating as every day we have a cohort of learners in front of us and we want the best learning experience for them TODAY. However, if we want the change to be substantive and meaningful then we need to take the time to ensure we do it effectively. 
It will take time to develop the knowledge of many leaders and teachers within our system. This new model challenges some of the ideas that were presented as truths during my initial teacher education, and I have no doubt that many colleagues will find some of these challenging. It will take time to access professional learning,  explore these ideas, and understand how to implement these effectively.
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The length of time taken to embed meaningful change is compounded by how stretched and overworked teachers already are. Our workloads tend to be massive, and having time to learn about new approaches often has to compete with a myriad of other things such as our day-to-day planning, assessment, reporting, managing behaviour, communicating with families, organising excursions and extracurricular activities… the list goes on.
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Our time is our most precious resource in education. We need to make sure that we spend it wisely.

Set the Priority

Because our time is finite, prioritisation is essential. Teachers are stretched thin and often overwhelmed, raising the question of how we can be expected to adopt new practices while managing our current responsibilities. It is vital that any new initiatives are clearly prioritised, ensuring that educators are not inundated with conflicting demands. Schools should focus on a very limited number of goals, allowing teachers to engage deeply without feeling overwhelmed.
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Unfortunately, schools are complex places which generally means that there are a number of issues that compete to be a priority. It is too easy to get caught up in a new trend, or to spend too much time on things that only have a small impact on the education of our children. We should be critically assessing what our goals are and whether they will have a significant effect on our core business of teaching and learning.

The Power of Alignment

In order to maximise our impact and our time, we need to ensure our priorities are aligned. When our teaching practices, curricula, assessments, and professional development all point in the same direction, we significantly enhance our potential for success. 

Too often competing priorities can end up with schools working at cross purposes. This is why it is exciting that the Victorian Teaching & Learning Model 2.0 highlights how we learn. This means that we are better positioned to ensure alignment by checking that our understandings are consistent across subjects and domains. A great example of this is evident in how explicit teaching is a core aspect of not only English and Mathematics, but also School-wide Positive Behaviour Support. This means that schools could align their priorities by focusing on ‘explicit teaching’ so that all staff are heading in the same direction.

The Role of Pruning

It’s not enough just to make sure that we are aligned with our priorities. Because time is such a critical factor, we also need to stop doing things as well. We have to evaluate and ‘prune’ non-essential tasks that do not contribute to our core objectives. Just as a gardener removes excess growth to promote flourishing blooms, we should identify activities that divert time and energy from impactful work. Streamlining efforts frees up time for professional development, collaboration, and focusing on teaching. Sometimes the pruning we need to do is obvious and we get trim things that we are happy to see go. The harder task is in identifying practices that may be nice to do, but get in the way of the ones that are essential.

Meaningful change in education is a complex and multifaceted journey that requires intentional prioritisation, alignment of goals, and the courage to let go of non-essential tasks. With patience and commitment, we can continue to create thriving educational environments that support our students.

5 Tips for Change

Prioritise
   Reflect on your current practices and identify one core priority that will drive change in your school.

Align
   Ensure that there is consistency in priorities across the school. Focus first on techniques or methods that are transferable, such as explicit instruction, or checking for understanding.

Prune
   Identify tasks or routines that are "nice-to-do" but don’t significantly impact student learning outcomes. Gradually phase these out to free up time for high-impact strategies that align with school priorities.

Engage  
   Actively seek out professional learning opportunities to deepen understanding and application in the classroom. There is so much great PL already available through sources like Think Forward Educators, Sharing Best Practice or What Works Series.

Collaborate
   We are fortunate that we schools have amazing expertise within them. Work together with colleagues to share insights and strategies, visit each others classrooms and lean on each other. 

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