Professional learning programs

In 2025, Learning First will be offering professional learning programs for teachers, school leaders, and system leaders. We are offering these programs following growing requests for support from schools across the country to translate the evidence-base on how students learn best to tangible instruction, curriculum and assessment practices, supported by effective school and system leadership. These programs will be highly practical, and focus on what teachers and leaders need to know and do to drive student learning.

The programs are based on years of research and are being benchmarked against the leading professional learning providers around the world. This ensures each program has clear objectives and learning outcomes, rigorous participant selection procedures, quality program content and world-class blended learning design with practical action-learning tasks tied to people’s school and system.

Programs will be supported by practical tools that participants can use in their schools and classrooms. For example, curriculum planning and evaluation tools, low-variance curriculum tools, instructional improvement guides, professional learning protocols, school improvement templates and guides, and personal leadership handbooks.

Most programs will run over a 6-12-month duration and will be complemented by masterclasses and workshops.

Register your interest in these programs and we will contact you with further details once the 2025 program schedule is finalised.

The programs include:

  • Leading school improvement
  • Curriculum planning and improvement
  • Effective instruction
  • Leading professional learning communities
  • System leadership

 

Leading school improvement

This program provides participants with the latest research and global best-practice in school improvement. This includes:

  • Effective strategy: The research, essential practices and common pitfalls.
  • Implementation science and its application to school education
  • Organisational change theory and research and what this means for roles and responsibilities, professional learning communities, and data systems
  • Principles of multi-tiered systems of supports.

This program builds on the above and provides tangible steps for participants to effectively lead school improvement. Tools will be provided for participants to use in their schools so at the end of the program participants will be able to:

  • Undertake an effective strategic development process
  • Develop and implement high-quality school plans with meaningful goals and targets for tangible change across schools and classrooms, supported by school planning templates
  • Conduct audits of current practice
  • Prioritise evidence-based approaches and practices to deliver improvement
  • Lead school improvement with supporting guides and resources
  • Develop and implement effective multi-tiered systems of support
  • Establish effective monitoring and evaluation structures to check progress.

Curriculum planning and improvement

This program provides participants with the latest research behind effective curriculum in schools. This includes:

  • the cognitive science on how students learn and what this means for effective curriculum (and curriculum sequencing)
  • the relationship between knowledge acquisition and skill development (and how this differs between subjects)
  • curriculum and assessment (including different assessments and assessment plans)
  • the impact of different types of curriculum.

This program builds on the above and provides tangible steps for participants to undertake effective curriculum and assessment planning and improvement. Tools will be provided for participants to use in their schools so at the end of the program participants will be able to:

  • Evaluate critical aspects of how curriculum and assessment are currently being delivered at their school, to determine the degree of change required to align current practice to best practice. This includes tools to analyse curriculum alignment, measure low/high-variance curriculum, and assess curriculum resource decisions in schools.
  • Develop whole-school approaches to curriculum improvement
  • Develop whole-school and faculty/year level curriculum plans
  • Build curriculum maps by coherently sequencing content to support knowledge and skills to build vertically and horizontally as students progress through school
  • Use evaluative criteria to select high-quality curriculum resources
  • Use effective units of work that are sequenced in comprehensive teaching programs
  • Build an assessment plan to optimally link curriculum and assessment
  • Develop and effectively use common assessment tasks
  • Lead effective assessment moderation

Effective instruction

This program provides participants with the latest research behind effective instruction. This includes:

  • Research and theory on effective teaching practices and how this can be translated into school and classroom practice
  • The cognitive science behind how students learn, including the relationship between working and long-term memory and the principles of cognitive load theory, and what this means for effective instruction.
  • The impact of school and classroom environments on student learning.
  • The research on high-expectations and why it matters in schools and classrooms.

This program builds on the above and provides tangible steps for participants to undertake effective instruction. Tools will be provided for participants to use in their schools so at the end of the program participants will be able to:

  • Use a sequence of effective instruction 
  • Use practices for regular review to support content recall based on spacing and retrieval principles
  • Implement a range of effective and tangible practices in classrooms
  • Use formative assessment to check for understanding and provide timely student feedback
  • Modify supports for different learners through scaffolding
  • Implement effective classroom management practices and develop classroom environments conducive to quality learning

Leading professional learning

This program provides participants with the latest research on professional learning, instructional coaching, group dynamics and learning in teams. This includes:

  • Research on effective professional learning and instructional coaching and how it can be effectively translated in schools
  • Effective communication research and skills
  • Group dynamics and how to lead and manage productive teams
  • Psychological safety; what it means, how it can be developed, and why and where it falls down
  • Organisational change and improvement.

This program builds on the above and provides tangible steps for participants to lead professional learning in schools. Tools will be provided for participants to use in their schools so at the end of the program participants will be able to:

  • Lead professional learning in schools with clear structures and activities to get improvements in student learning
  • Lead collaborative teacher teams the get real improvements in schools and classrooms
  • Have effective professional conversations (that can be difficult and challenging)
  • Create and maintain psychologically safe teams
  • Tie professional learning to school improvement and classroom practice, linking school goals to classroom practice

System leadership

This program provides participants with the latest research behind effective leadership and school system leadership. This includes:

  • Role of system leadership in high-performing education systems and how different system roles effectively operate and interact
  • School and system effectiveness, and relationship with quality instruction, curriculum and assessment
  • Psychological safety; what it means, how it can be developed, and why and where it falls down
  • Establishing continuous improvement structures and processes in schools, organisational change, professional learning and effective data and monitoring systems
  • Effective strategy: The research, essential practices and common pitfalls to identify strategic issues in and across schools.
  • School autonomy, differentiation and tight and loose in school systems.

This program builds on the above and provides tangible steps for participants to lead system improvement. Tools will be provided for participants to use in their schools so at the end of the program participants will be able to:

 

  • Improve role clarity and prioritise key aspects of system leadership
  • Develop leadership identity to lead system improvement
  • Establish and maintain effective teams within and across schools
  • Improve communication skills and lead difficult professional conversations
  • Identify psychological safety issues in schools and lead psychologically safe productive teams
  • Clearly articulate the why, what and how of effective school improvement
  • Evaluat school performance and understand root-causes of performance issues
  • Undertake effective planning, review and intervention strategies
  • Lead collaborative teams and networks.