EPPC 2014

An early intervention program for Kindergarten students, a program involving professional learning teams working together to increase teacher knowledge, and an action research project looking at how to use data to support student learning and feedback.

These are just some of the successful solutions to school challenges being shared at this year's Excellence in Professional Practice Conference.

The aim of the annual conference, hosted by the Australian Council for Education Research (ACER), is to bring together members of the education community to share effective practice.

'[We are working to] build communities of teacher and principal practitioners who can share their knowledge and experience, and the EPPC conference is an opportunity for them to do that in a structured way,' EPPC Program Committee member and ACER Institute Director, Elizabeth Hartnell-Young, tells Teacher.

The theme of EPPC 2014 is Teachers driving school improvement. It features dozens of presentations and workshops that celebrate the successes educators have achieved in their classroom, within whole schools and across networks of schools.

'We asked people "Have you identified a problem from the data you've been using in your school?", “What did you do about it?" and "What improved?" - and we received more than 100 paper submissions from educators representing every state and territory, and all school sectors,' Hartnell-Young explains.

Delegates attending this year's two-day event in Melbourne include teachers, educational leaders, principals, leading educationalists and researchers.

This is the second time the conference has been held. Organisers are already busy planning next year's event, which will be held in Sydney.

Awards update:

Several presenters and schools received awards for their presentations and workshops at EPPC 2014.

ACER Foundation Award for the most outstanding presentation on school improvement in adversity
Closing the Skills Gap: An analysis of a school improvement agenda for incarcerated youth
Neil Lloyd and Andrea Hayes - Brisbane Youth Education & Training Centre, Queensland

ACER and Teachers' Mutual Bank Awards for outstanding presentations
Knowing Our Kids From Day One: Data driven early intervention
Benjamin Munday, Natalie Bratby, and Rebecca Sargent - Holy Family Primary School Granville East, New South Wales

The Write way to school improvement
Christine Hills - Glenmore State Primary, Queensland

Purposeful Teaching of Mathematics
Caroline Brown, Marj Abbey and Georgia Papadopoulos - Sacre Coeur Melbourne, Victoria

Using Data to Support Learning at Fitzroy High School
Peter Bennet - Fitzroy High School, Victoria

Modelling a Rigorous Culture of Thinking and Writing: A whole school approach to literacy
Karen Dreher and Shyam Barr - Melbourne Girls Grammar School, Victoria

Developing Literacy Skills in the Foundation Years : Linking child development to the National Curriculum
Kate Fischer, Evelyn Terry and Fiona Jones - Brisbane Boys' College, Queensland

Workshop: How Can a Professional Learning Team (PLT) Be Used to Increase Teacher Knowledge and Use of Feedback?
Kate Copping - Westgarth Primary School, Victoria

Using Data to Develop Collaborative Practice and Improve Student Learning Outcomes
Dr Bronte Nicholls and Jason Loke, Australian Science and Mathematics School, South Australia

Using New Technology for Classroom Assessment: An iPad app to measure learning in dance education
Sue Mullane - Sunshine Special Developmental School, Victoria
Dr Kim Dunphy - Making Dance Matter, Victoria

Effective Differentiation: Changing outcomes in a multi-campus school
Yvonne Reilly and Jodie Parsons - Sunshine College, Victoria

Improving Numeracy Outcomes: Findings from an intervention program
Michaela Epstein - Chaffey Secondary College, Victoria

Workshop: Developing Rubrics and Guttman Charts to Target All Students' Zones of Proximal Development
Holly Bishop - Westgarth Primary School, Victoria
Bree Bishop - Carwatha College P-12, Victoria

Raising the Bar: School Improvement in action
Beth Gilligan, Selina Kinne, Andrew Pritchard, Kate Longey and Fred O’Leary - Dominic College, Tasmania

Teacher Feedback: Creating a positive culture for reform
Peta Ranieri - John Wollaston Anglican Community School, Western Australia

Changing the Traditional Pedagogical Approach to Mathematics Instruction
Rhys Coulson - Serpell Primary School, Victoria