Research Partnerships and Improvement Science: Using data to inform the teaching of writing and assessment

Overview

ILSTE and the Queensland Department of Education collaborated on a one-year project involving a research-informed intervention designed to improve teacher pedagogy and student writing outcomes. The project was titled Research Partnerships and Improvement Science: Using data to inform the teaching of writing and assessment and involves Australia's first large-scale survey of the teaching of writing. This research partnership is part of the Education Horizon grant scheme initiative and has been endorsed by the Education Minister. The project takes a sharp focus on the teaching of writing in curriculum areas.

This project built a research informed evidence-base about what counts as quality teaching of writing in the middle years, developing teachers' knowledge of language features, while improving knowledge and understanding of year level writing expectations and achievement standards to improve writing assessment and generate exemplars of quality writing for further classroom use.

Funding

• Education Horizon Research Grant Scheme, $170,000

Duration

2016-2017

Industry Partners

• Department of Education and Training (Queensland)
• State Schools — Performance, Department of Education and Training.

Chief Investigator/s

Professor Claire Wyatt-Smith

Associate Professor Lenore Adie

Christine Jackson

Dr Jin Wang

Caroline Hollis

Research Partners

Ms Mary Neville

Research Papers or Reports

Wyatt-Smith, C., Jackson, C., Adie, L., Wang, J., & Hollis, C. (2017). Research Partnerships and Improvement Science: Using data to inform the teaching of writing and assessment. Queensland Department of Education and Training (Education Horizon) & Queensland Department of Education and Training (State Schools – Performance Division). Brisbane, QLD.

Wyatt-Smith, C., & Jackson, C. (2020). Australian writing Survey: Building an evidence base. Research Brief. Retrieved from https://www.acu.edu.au/-/media/feature/pagecontent/richtext/research-at-acu/research-institutes/ilste/our-research/australian-writing-survey---building-an-evidence-base---writing-policy-brief-26022020.pdf?la=en&hash=9E3CF1BE2045FB98ACE4CE0719913A2C

Presentations

Wyatt-Smith, C.M & Jackson, C.J (October 2018) Improving reading and writing in Years 5-9, the Australian Writing Survey and possible applications of quality practice and support for schools. Research Dialogue Series. Institute for Learning Sciences and Teacher Education, Brisbane.

Re-framing the [Middle Years Slump]

State Schools-Performance: strategies, tools and resources to support writing improvement