Evaluation shows TEP enhances teacher confidence and student engagement

The Teaching Excellence Program (TEP) delivered by the Victorian Academy of Teaching and Leadership (the Academy), is a 12-month professional learning experience, grounded in 8 key discipline areas. The program draws on practitioner inquiry, teacher agency, reflective practice and contemporary, evidence-informed research. Open to Victorian government, Catholic and independent schools, the TEP is Australia’s first advanced professional learning program for highly skilled teachers.

Graduates of the TEP are eligible to apply for a Teaching Impact Fellowship¹ (TIF).

Academy fellowships provide a pathway for excellent teachers to further raise the capability, confidence, and status of teachers in the practice and science of teaching. The TIF provides funding and support to TEP graduates to design and implement a project to transform teacher practice and student learning in their school. Through these projects, teacher fellows will develop and enhance their individual and collaborative expertise by sharing their professional learning and exemplary practices with colleagues in their schools and beyond. Those who complete a TIF are known as Fellows.

A thorough, independent evaluation of the TEP and TIF was undertaken in 2024 using data from 10 school case studies encompassing 11 classroom observations and 11 principal interviews; 22 teacher interviews; 4 focus groups with Academy staff; results of pre and post surveys conducted with participants; and the thematic analysis of over 1,000 artefacts from the TEP 2024 collaborative and independent practitioner inquiries. The evaluation focused on the design, delivery, implementation and impact of the programs.

Key insights

The evaluation identified the following key findings related to the Teaching Excellence Program and/or Teaching Impact Fellowships. 

These have improved teacher practice in at least one of the 4 ways: 

• improved confidence
• improved processes for collecting and using data
• increased use of evidence-informed teaching practices and/or
• increased use of responsive approaches to engaging with students.

Focusing on evidence-informed practice, 

• the TEP and TIF have had a positive impact on teacher practice through increased use of a range of evidence-informed teaching practices. Teachers report that these changes have led to improved student understanding and engagement.
• through completing the TIF, Fellows have applied evidence-informed practices into their broader school contexts, demonstrating impacts on the practice of other teachers around them.

TEP graduates and Fellows believe changes in their teacher practices from the TEP (or TEP and TIF combined) are contributing to improvements in one or more of the following student outcomes:

• engagement
• confidence
• attendance
• interpersonal relationships
• emotional regulation and/or
• critical thinking skills.

The TEP and TIF have enhanced student agency across various schools by encouraging teachers to adopt innovative teaching practices. Teachers have embraced student-centred methodologies. Teachers have implemented diverse teaching and learning models, shifting their role from primary knowledge providers to facilitators. This shift has supported active participation in the classroom and increased opportunities for students to take ownership of their learning.

There is strong evidence that the TEP is enhancing teaching. TEP graduates report:

• a deeper understanding of how excellent teachers teach
• greater confidence in their knowledge of teacher dispositions that support excellent teaching
• more frequent use of existing research to inform teaching practices, and
• greater frequency of experimenting with new pedagogical practices.

Further, the evaluation found that these positive changes are likely to be sustained, given the following additional key findings:

• Outcomes from the TEP continue to be demonstrated in the classroom years after completing the program.
• There is evidence that TEP and TIF participants who have experienced first-hand the benefits of TEP- or TIF-induced changes to their professional practice plan to continue implementing these teaching practices moving forward, even after the TEP/TIF concludes.
• TEP and TIF case study participants have shared learnings with their peers within their schools and, increasingly, with peers outside of their schools.
• Schools involved in the evaluation are providing appropriate organisational support to sustain the outcomes driven by their participating TEP and TIF participants.

The TEP and TIF also provide a valuable pathway to support teachers’ movement into broader classroom, school and system leadership roles.

It appears from the evaluation evidence that the TEP and TIF are contributing to the Academy meeting its legislated objective to raise public awareness of the status and capability of educators as per the following key findings:

• TEP and TIF help raise the status of the teaching profession by improving the capability of teachers across Victoria. This is because as teacher skill increases, so too does public perception of teachers as highly-skilled professionals.
• TEP and TIF can also help raise the status of the teaching profession by promoting cross-sectoral engagement, which unites excellent teachers across Victoria to work together towards a common goal of strengthening the quality (and indirectly, the status) of the teaching profession.

The TEP has given graduates “new drive,” “reignited a spark,” and “reinvigorated” them to “keep on contributing to school education.” Some respondents reported “feeling more positive about the teaching profession.” Others referred to feeling “appreciated and valued” in the profession as “there isn’t always acknowledgement” of the work they do otherwise.

There are also indications that TEP and/or TIF are contributing to retaining teachers in Victorian schools. The evaluation found that both the TEP and the TIF are supporting teacher retention by giving teachers a renewed sense of value in their role.

The evaluation concludes that the impact of the Academy’s professional learning can reach across the Victorian schooling system, driving coherence in evidence-informed teaching practice, improving mobility and creating new pathways for exceptional teachers.

¹ Teaching Impact Fellowships were named Teaching Innovation Fellowships in 2023 and 2024.