Review, refine and innovate
This cycle of implementation will take several years to develop. Each year the leadership team and staff will build on their learning and incorporate this into future planning.
Gather evidence against the goals and success criteria identified in the plan and document the learning through a scheduled review. Identify ways to celebrate successes.
Review
Review is an important stage after the planning and implementation. It provides a chance to reflect on successes and challenges and in the next phase to refine and innovate.
- How will success be measured?
- What might innovation look like in your own school's context?
- What will this curriculum look like when fully implemented?
- How will your school's implementation evolve as more of the curriculum is taught?
- How will you cater for rapidly evolving skill sets in your students?
- Are there problems within your own community that students can solve using digital technology?
- Are there opportunities within your own community that provide a context for students to problem solve and develop a digital solution?
Schools may find it useful to identify barriers that impacted implementation of the plan. Use this document to identify barriers that impacted implementation. This template could also be used to inform the whole school plan prior to implementation. Incorporate the proposed strategies to address barriers in your next cycle of implementation.
Measuring success
When measuring success it is important to first think about the intended outcomes of the plan.
- What where the outcomes and to what extent did you achieve them?
- What evidence did you collect or need to collect to help answer this?
- How might pre and post-surveys be used to collect data and inform our plan?
View this example of the Assistant Principal from St James Catholic College Tasmania, describing the approach taken to evaluate progress against criteria for success. Refer to the video that is part of their Progress report 3 in ACARA’s DTiF project.
Milestones and key stages
Meeting deliverables is one way to gauge success. What were the key deliverables or milestones? Was the plan implemented on time? If yes, what contributed to meeting these deliverables? If not, what were the challenges? How might these be overcome next time?
Budget
What budget was proposed for the whole school plan implementation? For example, was further funding required for technology-based resources? Was professional learning undertaken to develop teacher expertise? Was the proposed budget sufficient? Was the project delivered on budget?
Staff satisfaction
What insights can staff provide about the whole school plan after implementation? What worked well? What needs changing?
Use an approach that enables individuals or teams to reflect on the plan implementation with the focus being continuous improvement. Use a Plus/Delta tool.
Student satisfaction
What insights can be gained from the students? How might these insights influence future planning?
Quality
How would you describe the quality of the project? In what way might key milestones provide an opportunity to provide feedback and evidence of quality? What aspects of the plan provide an opportunity to innovate?
CloseShare and celebrate success
Schools involved in ACARA’s DTIF project have indicated the importance of sharing and celebrating success. Some ideas include:
- Share success at classroom and year level, in grade or faculty meetings, and whole staff meetings for example, ‘We tried (X) and this is what happened’.
- Share success with your community through school newsletters, the school website and social media channels for example, ‘This week year 1 learned about computational thinking by …”
- Share with wider professional networks at face-to-face events, conferences or online forums and groups.