Evaluation of the Teacher-Led Innovation Fund: Final Report Publications
Publication Details
The purpose of this evaluation was to provide timely and relevant information to:
- Inform continuous improvement of TLIF’s design, implementation and monitoring;
- Complement monitoring and review information sources to provide information about how the fund is operating;
- Expand the knowledge base about the nature of innovative teaching practice, collaborative inquiry, and mobilisation of new knowledge.
Author(s): Associate Professor Claire Sinnema, Dr Mohamed Alansari, and Hana Turner UniServices, University of Auckland. Report for the Ministry of Education.
Date Published: April 2018
Executive Summary
The Teacher-led Innovation Fund
The Teacher-led Innovation Fund (TLIF) is a Ministry of Education initiative designed to support quality practice that improves student achievement and that can be shared and adapted for use across schools and kāhui ako. It is open to all primary and secondary kaiako/teachers in state and state-integrated kura/schools that meet application criteria1. TLIF is one of three initiatives that are part of the broader IES Government initiative aimed at raising student achievement and strengthening teaching and education leadership. TLIF provides funding for groups of teachers to develop innovative teaching practice in order to improve learning outcomes, particularly for Māori students and Pasifika students, students with special education needs and students from low socio-economic backgrounds.
TLIF provides teachers with time and expert support to inquire into their practice to find ways to help students succeed; and to share what works with other schools and educators. TLIF aims to have long-term impacts on students, the workforce, early learning centres/schools/kura and on teaching practice.
The underpinning principles of the TLIF fund are:
- Collaborative Inquiry: groups of teachers working together to understand their practice and the impact on students
- Expertise: leveraging expertise within schools and kāhui ako, complemented by support from external experts
- Flexibility and adaptability: project teams and fund administration need to respond to change
- Knowledge mobilisation: knowledge gained from projects needs to be shared.
Purpose of the Evaluation
The purpose of this evaluation was to provide timely and relevant information to:
- Inform continuous improvement of TLIF's design, implementation and monitoring;
- Complement monitoring and review information sources to provide information about how the fund is operating;
- Expand the knowledge base about the nature of innovative teaching practice, collaborative inquiry, and mobilisation of new knowledge.
Key Evaluation Questions
The evaluation was designed to provide insights into the following key evaluation questions:
- What does an effective TLIF project look like? How can success be described?
- To what extent are TLIF projects achieving early outcomes, that is, developing sector capability and capacity for collaborative inquiry?
- To what extent is new knowledge about effective teaching, particularly for target groups, being mobilised from TLIF projects?
- What factors (barriers, enablers, others) contribute to successful and less successful outcomes for TLIF projects?
- To what extent is TLIF making a difference for learners?
Summary of Methodology
Conducted in 2017, this evaluation took a mixed-methods approach, drawing on both qualitative and quantitative data from several sources and involving TLIF project participants in both completed and in-progress projects (teachers, project leads and external experts) as outlined below.
Sample and data sources
Questionnaires:
A total of 149 respondents completed the online teacher questionnaire. Of these, 108 were TLIF project team members (72.5%) and 41 were project leads (27.5%). The 41 project lead responses indicated a project-level response rate of 47%. Of the 41 projects respondents were involved in, 16 (39%) were nearing completion or completed. Twenty two were well underway (53.7%) and three were recently started (7.3%). A total of 23 external experts also responded to the online questionnaire.
Documents:
Final reports from Round 1 were analysed and key themes extracted relating to:
- Project Constraints: Explanations about the reasons project participants were doing and not doing particular things;
- Actions: Descriptions of what project participants were doing and not doing;
- Project Consequences: Indications of what happened as a result of TLIF project participants' actions.
In addition, for case study projects, all available documentation including concept forms, proposals and reports, was reviewed and summarised prior to case study data collection.
Case studies:
Case studies were based on data from interviews, focus groups, observations and documents
- Case study A: Primary - eight interviews (with five teachers), four observations;
- Case study B: Secondary - 10 interviews and two observations;
- Case study External Experts: 23 questionnaire responses two focus groups and five interviews;
- Case study Proposals: five interviews with those responsible for both successful and unsuccessful proposals.
Summary of Key Findings
Findings from across the data sources indicate notable successes in terms of the initiative overall, and some problematic patterns that could be addressed in ways that continue to strengthen the TLIF initiative. The findings are summarised below.
Problematic Patterns | Successes and Promise |
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These points are elaborated below with reference to data from the evaluation.
Problematic Patterns |
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Successes and Promise |
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Characteristics of Effective TLIF Projects
Insights from the various data sources suggest that the following characteristics are associated with more effective TLIF projects. By effective, we refer to the TLIF purposes of a positive impact on outcomes for teachers (their knowledge and understanding, skills, dispositions and practice), for students (their learning experiences, relationships, and achievement), and the generation of new knowledge, understandings and learning that can be mobilised to others. These characteristics both increase the likelihood that innovations teams try are successful and, equally important, the likelihood that teams will determine, in a timely manner, when and why they are not successful where that is the case.
Enablers and barriers
The extent to which project teams were able to carry out high quality inquiries into their innovation was influenced by a range of barriers and enablers, summarised below:
Barriers | Enablers |
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Summary of Key Messages
With a focus on the purpose of the TLIF evaluation to inform continuous improvement of TLIF's design, implementation and monitoring, the following figure presents a summary of key messages, the current 'story' of TLIF as it were. These messages, derived from the evaluation evidence are key because, if attended to, they hold much promise for next steps in improving the initiative overall. Some of these messages represent problems to be solved, but there are strong grounds and good conditions for solving them, given the widespread endorsement of and regard for TLIF, the establishment (or strengthening) of relational conditions conducive to inquiry and innovation, and the presence of some exceptional projects to learn from.
Recommendations
The following recommendations, in response to the evaluation findings, are proposed for discussion.
Conclusion
In summary, TLIF is making a difference. It is making a difference to how teachers work with each other, and with their learners, and creating opportunities for trying innovations and exploring practice. The extent of the difference TLIF is making, and the quality of the opportunities to explore practice, varies somewhat across projects. This signals a need for continued attention to building the capabilities teams require, and to mobilising knowledge about how to do this challenging work, well. How can teams be supported to gather and analyse data to inform their inquiry, and strengthen the claims they can make about the impact of the innovations they try? How can teams be supported to strengthen the rigor of the discussions they have as their inquiry is initiated and unfolds? How can the most successful projects be identified and shared with others in ways that help others both learn about innovative practice, and improve the quality of their own projects?
It is hoped that the insights from this evaluation are useful for informing inquiry into how to further improve TLIF, an initiative that has much to offer teachers and students alike
Footnotes
- Note, since 2017 TLIF has also been open to early learning services.
- Items were scored on an 8-point Likert scale ranging from '1' for 'Strongly Disagree' to '8' for 'Strongly Agree': Strongly disagree (1); Mostly disagree (2); Moderately disagree (3); Slightly disagree (4); Slightly agree (5); Moderately agree (6); Mostly agree (7); Strongly agree (8)
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