Introducing The New CEO - Katie
Katie Roberts-Hull
I am excited to be joining Think Forward Educators as its CEO.
I have been inspired by the work of Think Forward Educators and feel privileged to be able to support the community to make a difference in classrooms across Australia.
A bit about me
I started out my career as a primary school teacher in a disadvantaged community. As a new teacher, I was surprised by how much autonomy I was given to run my classroom. Whilst this endless potential was initially exciting, I soon felt overwhelmed. When I realised that more than a few of my Year 5 students couldn’t really read, I was left to stumble around for resources that might help.
I was motivated by my own challenging experience as a teacher to enter education policy as a researcher focused on teacher development. I found out that many teachers across the world, unfortunately, were having the same experience. They wanted to have a bigger impact, but without access to the right knowledge about how to teach, they were working hard and not seeing the results they wanted with their students.
Over the last decade, my work has allowed me to explore this problem up close and from multiple angles. I have visited dozens of schools throughout Australia and overseas, interviewing teachers, observing Professional Learning Communities, and talking to school leaders. Despite good intentions and some progress, the core challenge remains.
What motivates us
Too many teachers are unsupported, isolated and overworked in their classrooms. Teachers want to know that their hard work is delivering results. That their practices are leading to a significant change in student learning. That they are making a difference.
At the policy level, I have found that it is easy to get agreement on high-level ideas for how to improve support for teachers: better professional learning, strong mentoring programs, higher quality teaching resources.
But education systems have an unfortunate habit of extensively designing the structure of each professional support but not thinking too deeply about the actual content.
This means that teachers are often spending time in professional development sessions or professional learning communities focused on things that will not actually improve teaching. At its worst, precious time is wasted on instructional fads or weakly-evidenced practices that could lead to worse learning outcomes.
Enter Think Forward Educators
The organisation was founded to share specific ideas that will improve student learning: the knowledge of the Science of Learning. The ‘what’ of professional learning is rigorously defined and is limited to practices that are truly evidence-based.
What is really special about Think Forward Educators is that it is a community of more than 19,000 educators leading change from the classroom up. There was no policy, mandate, inquiry or government program behind the movement.
Instead, educators began collaborating organically, on their own initiative. The organisation grew from a few teachers, to hundreds, and now thousands of educators who are motivated to apply the Science of Learning in classrooms across the country. Think Forward Educators founder, Nathaniel, along with many incredible volunteers have devoted hundreds of hours of time to build this large and growing community.
What’s next for Think Forward Educators?
I will be working closely with Nathaniel and the Think Forward Board to grow the organisation’s impact and sustainability.
We are preparing to offer more avenues for member collaboration and to streamline our web platform to improve access to our resources. We plan to keep offering free events and resources and also offer more intensive learning opportunities for members who want to go deeper.
But our first priority is to listen to member feedback. We want to know how you would like to see the community develop and grow.
Please take a moment to fill out this survey to share your thoughts. It only takes 5 minutes.
Thank you again for the opportunity to be a part of this inspiring community. I am excited to be going on this journey with you and I look forward to meeting you soon.
Katie
