Quotes from Bruce Robertson

Knowing which teachers' practice is typically strong or less strong in relation to specific pedagogy is important if school leaders are to be able to target professional learning, guide and facilitate teachers to learn from each other, and support teachers to develop and improve their practice. Without this knowledge, schools will fail to achieve consistent, high-quality teaching and learning across the school. Teaching

Assigning ratings to lessons is high-stakes; evaluating the quality of particular elements of pedagogy is low-stakes.

Knowledge and skills are different but linked – knowledge underpins the development of skills

Bloom's intention was to communicate the idea that knowledge is the foundation of skills development, not that it is more important to focus on teaching skills than knowledge

Higher-order thinking draws upon and pulls together smaller pieces of knowledge. The ability of a student to interpret, compare, contrast, differentiate, question, appraise, argue, justify, critique and design relies upon the breadth, depth and strength of the knowledge they are drawing upon and pulling together.

Schools that don't make use of lesson observations, or in which lesson observations are used exclusively for the purposes of quality assurance, are not learning schools: they are static schools.

Schools do need to measure, but they also need to move. Moving is more important than measuring. Accordingly

the best school leaders are present in classrooms a lot, working constructively and supportively with teachers.

in order for students to develop skills of the type they are pushing for (such as creativity, problem-solving, teamwork and leadership), they must first have been taught knowledge.

actually believe that giving feedback to teachers about teaching practice is one of the most important things that school leaders can do with their time.

Some teachers will appreciate being invited to a school leader's office to receive feedback, perhaps because they value time out of their classroom and they feel that doing so formalises the process, which they like; others will feel intimidated by this and would much prefer to receive feedback in the more familiar environment of their own classroom.

If you hadn't been there, the teaching and learning would have been the same.

As a general rule, I don't write down anything that I wouldn't be happy for the teacher to read if they wanted. I think this is important, because it helps create a climate of trust. Generally, though, nobody ever asks

Specific Teaching can be thought about as the cake; Non-specific Teaching is the icing.

As a guide, I would suggest that Specific Teaching typically makes up 80–90% of teaching and learning time; Non-specific Teaching should make up 10–20%.

Pre-existing knowledge is what allows students to think.

In every subject, the student experience should be summed up by '3Es': exciting, engaging and enjoyable. The extent to which this holds true will be determined by the quality of teaching.

Schools are, first and foremost, about supporting, challenging and inspiring young people to learn.

Teachers should take advantage of every opportunity to observe and learn from other teachers.

Teachers should take advantage of every opportunity to observe and learn from other teachers. Because the perfect teacher does not exist, every teacher has something to learn and improve in their teaching. An essential part of this learning is watching other teachers teach.