This subject introduces participants to the International Baccalaureate (IB), as a philosophy and framework for learning and teaching. It examines the essential elements of the IB model including the IB mission statement, and the Primary Years Programme (PYP), Middle Years Programme (MYP), and Diploma Programme (DP). Participants will focus on developing understandings of international education, values education, and the centrality of the Learner Profile to an IB education as well as exploring theoretical implications of international mindedness in the IB’s programmes.

This subject investigates the integral role of assessment and reporting for learning and teaching. Participants will develop theoretical and practical understanding of the principles of assessment, focussing on assessment as a tool to promote student achievement and experiential learning, and methods of evaluation that contribute to the ongoing effectiveness of the curriculum and support different learning needs. Topics include assessment approaches across all stages of schooling; developmental assessment frameworks, feedback, assessment practices and processes in the IB PYP, MYP, and DP programmes; and criterion referenced assessment approaches and high-stakes testing.

This subject investigates the role and structure of the Primary Years Programme curriculum framework. Participants will explore how learners construct meaning, including how understanding is acquired and what differentiates it from knowledge. There will be a strong theoretical component as well as a critical evaluation of the development and implementation of curriculum that is intended to support the integration of the Essential Elements. Strategies for supporting the development of higher order thinking skills, including the role of student-directed concept-driven inquiry, the art of inquiring, and building communities of learners will be investigated. There will also be a practical emphasis on the development and implementation of a concept driven transdisciplinary curriculum.

In this subject, students will further develop their understanding of the theoretical and practical ideas underpinning the Primary Years Programme (PYP) gained from the previous core subjects and its application in different settings. Students will critically explore definitions of international-mindedness, inquiry based learning and the learner profile. They will examine transdisciplinary themes and the relationships between concept-driven curriculum, skills, knowledge, attitudes and action and how the standards and practices of the PYP can be applied in different ways.

This subject will introduce participants to clinical practice in schools as a paradigm for learning and teaching. It will explore the importance of data, theory and research in informing interventionist teacher practice and introduce participants to models of clinical practice and the notion of clinical judgment. It will enhance participants’ capacity to utilise individual student data in determining student zone of proximal development in order to establish the starting point for teaching. The developmental model of learning will provide the theoretical basis through which a range of assessment tools and feedback approaches are explored. There will be an emphasis on linking concepts studied to the school context.

The major focus of this course is the exploration of research evidence that informs and supports the implementation of Clinical Teaching in classroom contexts. Participants will consider how they can use evidence-based practice to enhance the effectiveness and impact of their classroom actions and identify appropriate interventions for students, when necessary. Specifically, they will use the clinical judgement decision-making model to examine the current evidence base about what works best, what criteria can be developed to make decisions about student success, and how to select, implement, review and communicate research-supported teaching strategies that address identified student needs.

This subject focuses on the theoretical frameworks and evidence bases that educators use in understanding the development of their students and in planning suitable instructional sequences that are responsive to the inherent variability of learners. It covers foundational concepts related to learning environments, learning processes and child and adolescent development. It also provides opportunities to explore and discuss implications for teaching that are related to the consideration of learners’ profiles of capabilities and how teachers facilitate the quality, depth and active nature of their learning.

This subject will develop participants’ skills in using student achievement data to inform teaching practice to support student learning. It will consider the use of a wide range of data types and sources to evaluate learning, teaching and assessment and make recommendations for improving practice. Through case studies and practical activities, participants will be exposed to ideas, methods and techniques to support high quality, evidence-based decision making.

This subject will consider how professionals can better understand ways in which people with autism and those identifying as Autistic interact with and experience the world, and how that impacts on engagement and learning. The subject unifies research from neuroscience, psychology and pedagogy to create a multidisciplinary evidence-base that reflects the science of learning. This will be used by students in conjunction with an intervention model of tiered response supported by the MGSE’s clinical teaching cycle. Educators will combine this foundation with their expertise to develop a sustainable intervention framework tailored to a community of learners that is both responsive and rigorous.

The subject will support participants to develop further skills in promoting student wellbeing and creating supportive and safe learning environments at a classroom and whole school level. Current research will be used to understand what teachers can do to support the social and emotional learning of their students, and how to implement school-wide approaches that foster student resilience and respectful relationships across all partners in the education process.

This subject will examine the development of literacy from the preschool years through secondary schooling. Topics will include relationships between language and literacy; language development; literacy development, oral and written language of the teacher and the learner; comprehension; literacy across the curriculum, discipline specific literacy, and evidence based literacy practices. 

This subject will highlight the importance of planning effective evidenced-based language and literacy approaches and strategies to meet the needs of diverse learners on a developmental continuum. It will illustrate how teachers, educational leaders and policymakers can cater for diversity in both policy and practice through authentic and focused assessment practices, including profiling learner’s strengths and challenges and through the use of evidence based practices in the learning environment.

This subject examines the foundations of human learning through a neurological lens, ranging from the sensory detection, encoding, storage, retrieval, storage, and behavioural outputs, to social constructs of learned information. A neuroscience of learning lens will also be used as a framework for critiquing educational practices, policies and products. The subject will provide opportunities for students to analyse ways in which findings derived from neurological research can be used to inform their professional practice.

This subject focuses on connecting theory to evaluation practice. Topics include: evaluation-specific tools and methods; planning, conducting and managing evaluations; stakeholder engagement strategies; and evaluation reporting.

This subject provides students with an introduction to evaluation fundamentals, including: the nature and purposes of evaluation, the logic of evaluation, types of evaluations, values, and professional standards.

This subject examines the origins and evolution of evaluation theories, models and approaches. Topics covered include: the nature and role of evaluation theory; pioneering figures and major debates in evaluation’s short but rich history; approaches to classifying evaluation theories; and, the relationship between evaluation theory and contemporary practice. Classes will involve examining and critiquing evaluation theorists and theories through key readings, class debates and interactive role plays.

This subject provides students with an introduction to the theory and application of qualitative inquiry. Topics that will be examined include: orientations to, and debates surrounding, qualitative approaches; the collection, display and analysis of qualitative data; the use of systematic methods of data reduction, display and analysis and how qualitative research methods are commonly used in evaluation studies.

This course provides an introduction to the theory and practice of mixed methods research and evaluation. Topics that will be covered include: the emergence of mixed methods approaches; nature and purposes of mixed methods studies; choosing mixed methods designs; synthesis of mixed methods data; strengths and limitations of mixed methods research and evaluation projects. Practical aspects of the course will involve the design of a mixed methods study incorporating qualitative and quantitative data sources.

This subject is based on a growing trend of sectors and organisations asking evaluators to build and develop their capacity in evaluation thinking and practice.

This subject will explore the fundamentals of evaluation capacity building, the concept of developing evaluation capacity with individuals, teams and organisations and how to apply these concepts in practice.

This subject analyses design options for establishing the impact of social interventions. Topics include: causation; dealing with issues of attribution; conceptual and technical considerations associated with experimental and quasi-experimental design; and alternative strategies for causal analysis.

This subject provides students with an introduction to the collection, analysis and reporting of quantitative data in research and evaluation studies. Topics will include: Philosophy of quantitative methodology; types of data; samples and populations; descriptive and inferential statistics; exploratory and confirmatory data analysis; survey design and questionnaire construction; and displaying data using SPSS.

This subject is designed to provide students with an overview of the methodologies for conducting research in evaluation. In particular, the subject provides students with an introduction to the philosophical backgrounds and influences on social research, epistemological and ontological considerations, and the basic foundations of research design, logic of inquiry, and ethics of social research. Students will work on developing research questions and operationalise them to enable data gathering, analysis and interpretation as well as evaluate existing social research.

Analysing and comparing costs with results involves a particular set of thinking and tasks – including economic methods of evaluation as well as wider considerations. In this subject, students will focus on developing the basic skills and knowledge needed to engage with evaluation in this area appropriately and effectively in their own practice.

This subject will introduce students entering, or already in, the education sector to the many ways that evaluation is used in education. The subject will begin with an introduction to the origins and the political and social contexts of evaluation as well as the nature and logic of evaluation. Subsequent weeks will focus on the applied fields of evaluation set in the context of education. There are six applied fields of evaluation that will be covered: 1) performance evaluation (student assessment; teacher reflective practice); 2) product evaluation (curriculum effectiveness); 3) program evaluation (school accreditation; organisational/systems-level evaluation); 4) personnel evaluation (teacher performance appraisal; principal performance appraisal); 5) policy evaluation (policy to practice and practice to policy studies); 6) proposal evaluation (assessing grant-making applications for funding). The subject will culminate with a look at meta-evaluation (evaluating evaluations).