Middle Years Research and
Development (MYRAD) Project
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
February– December 2001
April 2002
A Report to the
Learning & Teaching Innovation Division
Department of Education & Training
by
the Centre for Applied Educational Research
Faculty of Education
The University of Melbourne
Acknowledgements
MYRAD Team at CAER: Main Consultants
Peter Hill (to December 2000)
Graeme Jane
Tony Mackay
Jean Russell
Focus Cluster Consultants
Tony Bell
Carmel Crevola (to December 2000)
Jane Maine (2001)
Pam Russell
Other Consultants
Peter Cole
Bill Griffiths
Mike Rowland
Vic Zbar
CAER Office
Karen Corneille
Tim Jones
Cheryl Umoh
The support and assistance of the following people is acknowledged and appreciated:
Directors of CAER
Peter Hill (to December 2000)
Peter Cuttance (from 2001)
Senior DE&T Personnel
Michael White
Glenda Strong
Dina Guest
Lyn Place
Gay Morris
Don Tyrer (1999/2000)
Ross Kimber (1999/2000)
Bruce Kiloh (1999)
Acknowledgements (cont.)
DE&T Regional Middle Years Consultants (1999 - 2000)
Leigh Emanuelle/Kerry Sidaway (Barwon South West)
Jim Bond (Central Highlands Wimmera)
Robyn Rivett (Eastern)
Terry Harrington (Gippsland)
Robyn Clarke/Kerry Ballinger (Goulburn North East)
Jan Buckland (Loddon Campaspe Mallee)
Gordon Harvey/Pauline Rice (Northern)
Karen Underwood (Southern)
Joanne Roberts/Natalie Bakai (Western)
DE&T Regional MY Project Officers (2001)
Yvonne Kane (Barwon South West)
Paul Baker (Central Highlands Wimmera)
Robyn Rivett (Eastern)
Alex Panayiotou (Gippsland)
Ray Gallagher (Goulburn North East)
Sue Winbanks (Loddon Campaspe Mallee)
Pauline Rice (Northern)
Karen Underwood (Southern)
Natalie Bakai (Western)
Very special thanks to the schools that participated, in particular to the
Cluster and School Co-ordinators
Middle Years Teachers
Middle Years Students
Leadership Team Members
Executive Summary
Ten Key Messages of the Middle Years Research and Development
(MYRAD) Project
1.
The Challenge
One of the more long-standing unresolved problems for educators has been to establish the
conditions that result in all students in early adolescence wanting to pursue productive learning
within the school setting and experiencing success. Research findings focused on the middle
years (Years 5-9) of schooling reveal a strong pattern of under-achievement, and
disengagement from school, particularly for boys.
2.
Improving Educational Outcomes
The MYRAD project was established to develop, evaluate and refine a research-driven
approach to the improvement of student learning outcomes in the middle years of schooling. It
was an ambitious project involving sixty-one clusters of schools made up of 61 secondary
colleges and 195 primary schools. The MYRAD project was a deliberate attempt to transform
the whole ecology of schooling and it has been successful in identifying the elements that are
essential for promoting improved learning in the middle years.
3.
Whole-School Design Model
MYRAD identified a model for reform that can be applied across all school types, giving
guidance to schools about where to focus reform energies. The Hill and Crévola model has
provided the project with a coherent and integrated set of general whole-school design
elements that need to be taken into account when initiating action to improve student learning
in the middle years.
4.
Data/Evidence Based Approach
MYRAD recognised the essential value of reform actions being informed by the collection and
analysis of data and developed a systematic approach to observing and analysing cognitive and
affective dimensions of student learning. It assisted schools to audit their practices against the
conceptual framework of the general design elements. This enabled schools to recognise their
relative strengths and weaknesses and identify the areas on which to focus reform activities. An
extensive range of data was collected and analysed by schools and the patterns of perceptions
and outcomes emerging from various surveys and tests informed program goals and targets.
5.
Managing the Transition
MYRAD identified a critical point of middle schooling as being the transition from primary to
secondary schooling and designed the project to build a strong interface between primary and
secondary schools. The MYRAD clusters typically consisted of a secondary college and three
associated primary schools. Clusters were required to meet and plan together and to see the
task of reforming schooling in the middle years as a joint activity.
6.
Action Planning, Reporting and Sharing
MYRAD identified that reform activities need to adopt a strategic focus and be clear in their
intentions. Consequently, all MYRAD schools identified needs and established an action plan
designed to address reform agendas. They refined their targets and implemented programs that
clearly defined their improvement focus and intent, and described their improvement strategies,
identifying their data collection needs and processes. They reported on their progress at the end
of the first year of a three-year action plan. Three focus groups were established in the areas of
Literacy, Well-being and Engagement and the Thinking Curriculum. Research and
development activities that advanced practice in these areas were undertaken and practices
shared across all MYRAD schools.
7.
Support Strategy/Professional Development
MYRAD recognised that reform is a long-term process. Although there are many pathways
that can lead to reform in the middle years some pathways clearly offer a greater likelihood of
sustained improvement than others. It is also understood that those on the reform journey
often need support and advice about how best to make this journey. A network of regional
consultants and a program of professional development was an essential element in assisting
schools to identify the focus for action and the strategies to employ when initiating changes in
practice. The partnership between the CAER Team, DE&T senior officers, regional Middle
Years Project Officers, cluster coordinators and school level coordinators (i.e. multi-level
activities and personnel — state-wide, regional, cluster and school) is acknowledged as vital.
8.
Progress and Continuing Challenges
It appears that all of the elements needed by the school to tackle reform in the middle years
were established by the MYRAD Project. However, MYRAD schools were still in the early
stages of reform when the Project concluded. For the reform to be sustained, continued action
is required. Indeed, evidence from the program over the past two years indicated that:
 more work needs to be done to equip school leaders to manage and support middle years
reform and to develop strategies
 teachers need to be supported by ongoing professional development
 schools need to continue data collection and analysis and interpretation processes
 there is a great need to apply across all schools those strategies that are effective for
producing the desired changes in schooling, as the capacity to implement change varies
considerably between schools.
Trend data at the end of 2001 revealed that leaders and teachers in the MYRAD program
displayed a desirable shift in their assumptions about teaching and learning. It was also
evident that many schools still have significantly more to learn in terms of establishing the preconditions for students to become literate, to become connected to school, to engage with
learning and to become independent and thoughtful learners. In short, having secured a
number of the pre-conditions for improvement, the key challenge remained, namely to adopt
highly effective pedagogical practices.
There should be recognition of the qualitative evidence from the analysis of Cluster School
Reports that MYRAD programs are making a difference to students' attitudes and outcomes,
and that there is a pattern of teachers being more positive about their capacity to make a
difference to students' learning and of being more open to initiating changes in school
structures, school relationships and teaching practices.
Whilst schools in each of the focus groups initiated substantial reforms to practice, some of the
more advanced work to emerge from the MYRAD project was undertaken by schools in the
Thinking Curriculum Focus Group. They identified the need to integrate thinking and learning
skills across core learning areas and all worked towards this end. They also discovered that
infusion of thinking skills into teaching requires fundamental change for teachers and that
changing ‘taken-for-granted’ practices not only posed a challenge to the acquisition of new
knowledge and skills, but also to one’s understanding of what it means to be a teacher.
Changes of this magnitude take time to implement and require a great deal of targeted
professional development to help sustain their impetus.
9.
The Focus of Current Work
MYRAD work in 2001 exhibited strengthened project specifications/requirements in the areas
of data collection, target setting, DE&T consultancy support, school level co-ordination, school
principal involvement, and enhanced data entry and analysis services through an on-line
capacity.
Given an understanding of the need for and nature of middle years reform and the commitment
to a planning process and the gathering of base line data, the emphasis of MYRAD work in
2001 shifted to:
 an action plan implementation focus — with attendant targets and performance measures,
and
 measuring and monitoring progress in student attitudes, attendance, retention, and 'at-risk'
students in the area of literacy.
It should be noted that challenges in each of the areas of attitudes, attendance and retention are
well understood. The challenges associated with improving literacy in the secondary years are
equally compelling.
10.
Applying the Most Effective Strategies and Practices
Several general MYRAD strategies, therefore, confirmed in the analysis of Cluster Final
Reports, contributed to improvement in middle years provision:
 primary-secondary cluster co-operation, planning and consistency;
 securing a whole-school commitment;
 structured three-year action planning based on a whole-school design approach;
 strong investment in targeted, on-going professional learning by teachers and leaders;
 a data-driven, evidence-based, evaluative approach;
 provision of resources and specialist support at all levels.
The next stage of the process is to:
 extend, intensify and embed successful approaches in schools that are making progress;
 help other schools to adopt more successful approaches; and
 provide advice about related changes at the system level
To do this, there is a need to translate the general into the particular — to identify highly
specific, successful practices that exemplify critical aspects of the middle years improvement
strategies, particularly in the following areas.
10.1 Teaching and learning practices in the classroom
This is the most critical area and has been very slow to change. There is a need to move right
inside the classroom, to illustrate the actual teaching-learning approaches and practices that are
successfully directed to the learning outcomes for the knowledge society, particularly those
that:
 strengthen both teacher-student relationships and the challenge of learning;
 are based on a constructivist method of learning
 involve students in decision-making about content, process and assessment;
 present authentic tasks that require complex thought and allow time for exploration;
 include processes involving co-operation, communication, negotiation and social
competencies generally;
 provide for individual differences in interest, achievement and learning styles.
10.2 Curriculum and assessment
This is an area where examples of practices at the classroom and school level need to be
identified. Illustrative practices concerning the following are needed:
 use of the learning outcomes for the knowledge society as the curriculum goals;
 significant reduction in the amount of curriculum content included;
 curriculum and teaching and learning structure that includes extended cross-disciplinary
problem-solving tasks;
 direct teaching about thinking and learning;
 involvement of all students in deciding content, structure, process and assessment;
 assessment and reporting of the learning outcomes for the knowledge society.
10.3 School organisation for learning
Change to school organisation to enhance learning has been slow. Examples of good practices,
particularly about the following, are needed:
 time-tabling for sustained thinking and learning;
 teacher-student-class arrangements for strengthened teacher-student knowledge and
relationships;
 team-teaching and professional learning;
 monitoring systems for tracking individual students;
 data-driven, evidence-based processes;
 leadership team development and professional learning.
Five Conclusions and Recommendations
1.
Teacher Change and Development
Teacher change and development is a pre-condition for student change. There have been many
areas of development and improvement, but much more is needed, especially
 in relation to classroom teaching practices, and
 at the secondary level.
Examples:
 Attitudes to the need for middle years change:
Improved – but for secondary teachers only in relation to perceived need for general middle
years improvement. Secondary teachers were less enthusiastic than primary teachers about
changing their own approaches to teaching.
 Teachers’ perception of their involvement in professional learning teams
Improved - but ratings still very low, especially for secondary teachers.



Achievement of change in teachers’ capacity, awareness and adoption of new focusspecific classroom practices:
Very low ratings
Teachers’ acceptance of responsibility for student engagement in learning and focus-related
development:
Improved - but much more improvement needed, especially at secondary level.
Primary-secondary planning and co-ordination:
Improved - but scores still very low and need to improve much further.
Recommendation — Identify and document particular practices used successfully by
MYRAD schools in relation to each of the elements of the whole-school design for
improvement (and the processes used to establish the changes), but particularly those
concerned with teaching and learning practices in the classroom, curriculum and
assessment, and school organisation for learning, as outlined above in Key Message 10.
2.
Leadership Learning and Development
There is strong evidence of the need for leadership learning and development.
Examples:
 There is a very strong link between teachers’ perception of leaders’ vision for improved
student learning, the quality of their professional learning culture and the adoption and use
of desirable pedagogy. Teachers’ ratings of their leaders’ vision about student learning is
very low and showed only slight improvement. Leaders need to be educational leaders
and have a strong knowledge of learning.
 Similarly, teachers’ perception of the degree of stimulation/motivation provided by their
work setting (ratings on this were low) linked closely to their perception of leadership
practices. Leaders need to learn more about motivating teachers and accept that this is an
area of leadership responsibility. Leaders’ perceptions of their responsibility for
sustaining teachers’ motivation in teaching needs to improve.
 Leadership loss of interest in innovations after the initial stage was of concern to teachers.
Some evidence of this in MYRAD was seen in the decline of the number of leaders who
responded to leader questionnaires as the project progressed.
 While there was significant change in some aspects of school and classroom organisation,
there was little change in key aspects over the two years. For example, there was little
change to time-tabling for sustained, in-depth learning and in the reduction in the number
of different students teachers teach each week. Leaders need to understand student
learning and apply that understanding to all aspects of the school. This means bringing
about change in areas, such as time-tabling, that are difficult to alter. These are areas that
require leadership decision-making.
• At the outset, Focus leader ratings were more positive than General leader ratings.
Examples: ratings of their own leadership improvement practices, their perceptions of their
teachers’ attitudes to change.
• Leaders’ perceptions were significantly more positive than teacher perceptions of the same
things, eg. regarding teachers’ attitudes to change, teachers’ sense of efficacy, teachers’
professional learning culture, the school as a motivating environment for teachers, leaders’
improvement practices, leaders’ vision for improved student learning.
• Leaders’ perceptions of their own improvement practices showed little change.
• Although leaders’ acknowledgment of responsibility for sustaining teacher motivation and
increasing teacher effectiveness in Focus-specific areas improved during the project, there
is need for much further improvement.
Recommendation — Plan, co-ordinate and implement a systematic program of leadership
learning to enable staff and student learning.
3.
Improving Student Attitudes and Learning
Since improvement in student perceptions is dependent on teacher and school change, it was
less likely that improvement would be found in student perceptions within the two-year period
of the project. Nevertheless, what could be the beginnings of change can be seen in the
lessening or halting of year level declines in perceptions in some areas, eg. motivation (Well
Being and Engagement); engagement in learning (Literacy).
The more generic attitudes to school and to teaching and learning will take much more time
and effort to change. The year levels in which most change was recorded were the years 5 to 6
Examples: Improvement in motivation, thinking and learning, reading self-efficacy and social
well-being.
Note also, the 2001 cohort of year 5 students recorded more positive perceptions in many areas
than the year 5 cohort of 2000.
Recommendation — Whilst there is an urgency to demonstrate improvement in educational
outcomes in the middle years of schooling — in terms of foundational learning, attendance,
retention and attitudes — there is a need to commit to long term programs designed to
achieve fundamental change across the school system. A shared and common purpose and
commitment is required to close the achievement gap in the middle years of schooling and
priority given to raising literacy levels in the early secondary years as a pre-condition for
improved student learning.
4.
Embedding Successful Practice and Maintaining the Momentum of Improvement
Focus teacher ratings showed evidence of longer involvement in improvement implementation,
especially in the first year of the project.
Examples: Attitudes to change, leadership and co-ordination, teacher learning culture, sense of
efficacy.
However, improvement generally did not follow a smooth path and there seemed to be times
when there were impediments or set-backs (eg. complexities of task or influx of teachers new
to the project).
MYRAD schools, programs and progress seemed to be vulnerable to many contextual factors:
 time of year of data collection;
 changes of co-ordinators and principals;
 influx of new teachers to the program;
 leaders’ fluctuating interest.
Recommendation — Deepen and embed successful practices in schools where the processes
have begun while continuing to monitor and evaluate change. Provide strong support at the
central, regional and local levels for the next stage of middle years reform, with the
desirability of change connected to a clear moral purpose (values and beliefs), namely to
work for successful outcomes for all students in the middle years of schooling. Ensure
continued collection of attitude and achievement data from students, teachers and leaders.
5.
Alignment between Curriculum, Assessment, Pedagogy, Structures, Accountability
MYRAD established many of the pre-conditions for systemic reform of the middle years. It
targeted the goals of increasing student attendance and retention, of changing attitudes about
learning and schooling, and of improving student learning outcomes. More fundamentally, it
identified the need to embed a strong and pervasive thinking curriculum approach in schools as
this appears to offer the greatest promise for establishing schooling experiences that fully
engage young adolescents and equip them for on-going participation in post-compulsory
education and training and productive and satisfying activity in a knowledge society and
economy.
It is widely recognised that the MYRAD Project informed the Department's major Middle
Years Reform Program initiative in terms of intended outcomes, planning process, guidelines
and professional development materials. The findings of the MYRAD Project suggest the need
for more system-level support for change to align curriculum, assessment, pedagogical,
structural and accountability dimensions of schooling.
Recommendation — Create coherence and alignment at the policy level in relation to CSF
II, the Standards and Accountability Framework, advice on powerful pedagogy for the
middle years, leadership development opportunities, and network and regional support
structures which collectively would underpin the reconceptualisation of and improvement in
student learning — required of graduate middle years students for the knowledge society
and economy.
In Summary
Victoria's Middle Years Research and Development (MYRAD) Project has shown that positive
advances are made when:
• schools and their communities recognise that there is a need for change
• school leaders and teachers believe that they have a responsibility for sustaining motivation
and improving skills of students and teachers respectively
• primary and secondary schools collaborate through clusters to build curriculum consistency
and facilitate student transition
• professional learning teams are established to support teachers to plan, implement and
evaluate school change
• reforms are supported by targeted increases in resources
• data driven, evidence-based approaches to school improvement are adopted
• three-year action plans and targets are established and tested against data
It is clear that the MYRAD experience has focused attention on the value of:
• co-operation, consistency and partnership between primary and secondary teachers/schools
• sustained system support
• resourcing and support across all levels — school, cluster, regions, centre and CAER
• use of whole-school design model and set of strategic intentions as conceptual guide
• securing a whole-school commitment
• data-driven, evidence-based, evaluative approach
• investment in professional development
and the need for:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
fundamental reconceptualisation of learning and development of shared understanding
within each school of the need for meaning and implications of this
focus on the teaching-learning practices in the classroom
profound, continuing professional development of teachers
profound, on-going professional development of leaders to enable staff and student
learning
reduction of crowded curriculum to enable depth of understanding
system to support and press for, but not mandate, change
understanding that fundamental change is not likely to be achieved quickly or easily.