The best evidence syntheses (BESs) bring together research evidence about ‘what works’ for diverse (all) learners in education. Recent BESs each include a number of cases that describe actual examples of professional practice and then analyse the findings. These cases support educators to grasp the big ideas behind effective practice at the same time as they provide vivid insight into their application.
The writing achievement of New Zealand primary school students has been of concern for some years, lagging as it does behind reading achievement.
This case describes how a years 1–8 rural school began to address its concerns about writing achievement by asking its students three questions: “What are you learning?”, “How will you know whether you have succeeded?”, and “How does your teacher help?” It explains how the students’ responses prompted the teachers to explore the impact of their teaching and enhance their practices and beliefs about writing in ways that led to improved student outcomes.
This case describes some of the highly effective professional learning processes that underpinned the high-impact Literacy Professional Development Project.