Enhancing rural teachers' instructional decision making: An application of the SOLO model

This paper reports on the underlying theory base and implications for practice of two large-scale research projects carried out in rural and regional schools in Australia by teams of academics associated with the SiMERR National Centre. The research was a collaborative effort with funding provided by the Australian Quality Teacher Project and the Australian Research Council. The two research projects ran for a two-year and three-year period with the Catholic Schools Office in the Diocese of Armidale and the New South Wales Department of Education, respectively. Both projects aimed at empowering groups of teachers in rural areas to develop and use theoretically-based knowledge about assessment to improve teaching in ways that best fit their students' needs. To achieve this, teachers were required to assess the quality of their students' learning, and to use the information obtained to inform where teaching might start and in what direction to best proceed. The driving philosophy of the research was that student learning and, consequently, well-being is enhanced when instructional decision making involves teachers understanding what knowledge their students posses, and the nature/quality of that knowledge in order to build upon students' understanding. This paper (i) describes briefly the background to the projects and rationale; (ii) explores the theoretical framework, referred to as the SOLO model; and (iii) discusses some findings and implications associated with the use of the SOLO model by rural teachers.