Transforming quality teaching to improve student outcomes
Ground-breaking research and a commitment to supporting teachers and students alike is delivering incredible results in classrooms across Australia.
Researchers at the University of Newcastle’s Teachers and Teaching Research Centre have developed an evidence-based approach to teacher development that is improving teaching quality, transforming student outcomes and influencing education policy.
The Quality Teaching program of research and commercialisation is the culmination of two decades of research and engagement across the education sector.
Comprised of three components — an evidence-based model, an implementation program and a social enterprise to scale-up outcomes — the program is transforming thousands of Australian primary and high school classrooms.
Quality Teaching Model
Developed by Associate Professor James Ladwig and Laureate Professor Jenny Gore AM, the Quality Teaching (QT) Model provides teachers with a tested conceptual framework for articulating, assessing and refining their own and each other’s practice. It develops teachers’ understanding of what it means to teach well in accessible and measurable ways.
It focuses on three dimensions of teaching that are linked with improved student outcomes: intellectual quality, quality learning environment and significance.
The QT Model underpins the Quality Teaching Rounds professional development program and can be used to plan, observe, analyse and discuss classroom and assessment practice.
Quality Teaching Rounds
Quality Teaching Rounds was developed by Professor Gore and her former University of Newcastle colleague Dr Julie Bowe. It enables teachers to draw on their collective strengths and the advice of their peers to find creative ways to improve their teaching practice.
Quality Teaching Rounds involves a rigorously tested process where small groups of teachers come together to observe a lesson, which is followed by analysis, coding and collaborative discussion using the QT Model. Over several weeks, each teacher in the group takes a turn to host a round in a process like the medical rounds used to teach junior doctors in hospitals.
Quality Teaching Academy
Launched in 2020, the Quality Teaching Academy is a non-profit social enterprise that delivers high-impact, evidence-based professional development. It supports teachers across Australia and the world to successfully implement Quality Teaching Rounds and other QT-based programs to improve outcomes for millions of students and teachers.
The Academy has translated the extensive work of the Teachers and Teaching Research Centre into a range of offerings, including webinars, hands-on workshops, tailored whole-of-school programs, and a major annual Quality Teaching in Practice conference.
Research impact
Quality Teaching Rounds is being used by teachers in every Australian state and territory. Almost 7,500 teachers and one million students Australia-wide have benefited from the program to-date.
No other school-based intervention has been so thoroughly tested in Australian schools or amassed such rigorous evidence. Outcomes and confidence in the program’s effectiveness has led to a strong track-record of investment to further expand the program’s reach and impact.
- A $17.2 million philanthropic investment from the Paul Ramsay Foundation supported gold-standard randomised controlled trials which found that Quality Teaching Rounds improves teaching quality, teacher morale and efficacy, and student achievement. The investment also included seed funding to scale the program nationally via the Quality Teaching Academy.
- In 2023, the University of Newcastle entered into a $5 million, four-year agreement with the Australian Government to expand Quality Teaching Rounds to support early-career teachers Australia-wide. More than 1,600 teachers will benefit from this national expansion program.
- In 2024, the Paul Ramsay Foundation provided $4.3 million to support a Thriving Schools research partnership with the NSW Department of Education, centred on Quality Teaching Rounds. It will see 20 NSW public schools in communities with the least access to socio-educational advantage benefit from partnerships based on the successful Cessnock model. The collaborative project aims to enhance teaching quality, support teacher wellbeing, and build positive school cultures, ultimately to lift student academic outcomes and improve equity.
Awards & Recognition
- The Teachers and Teaching Research Centre won the Australian Financial Review Community Engagement Award at the 2024 Higher Education Awards for its partnership with Cessnock High School, which centred on Quality Teaching Rounds.
Between 2020 and 2024, Cessnock High School partnered with the University on a tailored program to provide to every teacher at the school the opportunity to participate in Quality Teaching Rounds. In 2023, the school was ranked first in the Hunter region and 11th in NSW for its growth in NAPLAN results from Year 7 to Year 9. HSC results also improved by more than 50 percent. - The Teachers and Teaching Research Centre won the 2024 Australian Rural Education Research Excellence Award for the Quality Teaching at Cessnock High School partnership.
- It also won the prestigious Engagement Australia 2022 Excellence Award for Outstanding Engagement for Research Impact for its 20-year relationship with the NSW Department of Education focused on Quality Teaching Rounds.
- Cessnock High School won the 2024 Teacher Magazine Awards Leadership Award for Driving School Improvement for its partnership with the University.
- Kotara School was awarded the 2023 NSW Department of Education Secretary’s Award for an Outstanding School Initiative for its Quality Teaching Rounds Special Education project.
- Broadwater Public School won inaugural the Teacher Magazine Awards Special Contribution Award for the strength and resilience of its community following major floods in the Northern Rivers region of NSW, including its novel use of the QT Model to re-engage students in learning.
Last updated October 2025.
More information:
Laureate Professor Jenny Gore AM
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Laureate Professor Jenny Gore
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