Aspect (Autism Spectrum Australia) has adapted a mainstream learning framework to suit an autism-specific environment, explains National Director Maryanne Gosling, and initial results are promising.
Aspect has been a pioneer in autism-specific education for over five decades. Since opening Australia’s first autism-specific school in Sydney in 1971, Aspect has expanded to include nine dedicated schools and 113 satellite classes across New South Wales, and South Australia, educating 1,250 students with the support of 720 staff members. Aspect’s approach to education involves preparing students for transition into mainstream schools, tertiary education, or the workforce, according to each individual’s needs.
In 2023 the Aspect Learning Improvement Collaborative (ALIC) was launched, a professional development program aimed at strengthening teacher practice to measure and increase student growth.
However, what makes this program ground-breaking is that Aspect is adapting a renowned mainstream learning framework, to suit an autism-specific education environment.
ALIC employs an innovative, evidence-based teaching framework developed by global education leader Dr Lyn Sharratt. The framework comprises 14 parameters that emphasise the importance of fostering a collaborative school culture where all stakeholders are actively engaged to ensure every child receives the support they need to succeed.
ALIC’s initial qualitative results are promising and suggest it may soon become a model for autism-specific schools worldwide.
Program aims and outcomes
ALIC focuses on refining and advancing classroom practices to support individual student needs in an autism-specific setting. The program aims to:
- Enhance teacher understanding of evidence-based strategies to improve teaching quality and student outcomes.
- Promote personalised learning paths, making each student’s learning needs and progress visible through data.
- Develop leadership within the teaching staff to sustain the program’s goals and ensure continuous improvement.
The program also includes a robust online Professional Learning Community (PLC) which serves as a central hub for ongoing dialogue and sharing of best practices among educators. Through this community and regular in-person and online sessions, ALIC aims to foster a culture of collaboration and continuous learning.
Development and implementation of ALIC
Leading up to the implementation of ALIC, Aspect began with a thorough assessment of its existing educational practices and how they could be adapted and enhanced. This involved partnerships with various educational bodies and a detailed analysis of current student outcomes to establish clear growth benchmarks.
The collaboration with Dr Sharratt was pivotal, ensuring the program’s alignment with proven educational strategies while tailoring them to the unique needs of autism education. Comprehensive strategies were implemented to ensure staff engagement, setting clear expectations and aligning their professional development plans with ALIC’s objectives.
A multidisciplinary core team was established so that co-ownership was fostered across many arms of the organisation to support the success of work in schools.
Progress and achievements
Since the launch of ALIC, Aspect has seen positive results including full participation of staff across its extensive network, ensuring that the strategies reach every classroom. Alongside this, Aspect has developed sophisticated data walls designed to track and display individual student progress. The data walls don’t just serve as records but facilitate a targeted and individualised approach to education, allowing teachers to adjust teaching methods and interventions in real-time, based on specific needs.
ALIC certainly exemplifies innovation in program design and delivery, aligning with global best practices in education while addressing the specific learning outcomes of students on the autism spectrum. Its positive progress highlights its potential to set new standards in education for autism globally.
The 14-parameters explained
Dr Sharratt’s comprehensive model is designed to enhance school effectiveness and improve student learning. Each parameter serves as a guideline or area of focus for educators and administrators to ensure that every aspect of the educational system is aligned and functioning to support student success.
Here’s a snapshot of each parameter:
- Shared beliefs and understandings: This involves all stakeholders, including educators, students, parents, and community members, sharing a common vision and understanding of educational goals and practices.
- Embedded knowledgeable others: Identifying and training instructional coaches to assist classroom teachers with assessment-driven instructional strategies, ensuring longevity of the program.
- Quality Assessment informs instruction: There should be a strong alignment between what is taught (curriculum), how it is taught (instruction), and how it is measured (assessment). This alignment ensures that educational efforts are cohesive and targeted.
- Principal as Lead Learner: Principals engage deeply with educational data and practices, gaining a thorough understanding of effective classroom techniques through regular participation. Alongside their leadership teams, they engage in systemic learning sessions and strategise ways to implement these insights in their schools.
- Early and ongoing interventions: The determination of individual student needs is achieved through continuous analysis of various assessment data. It is essential for all teachers to collaboratively plan and structure their approach, designing and delivering lessons and units that incorporate an integrated co-teaching strategy to support every student.
- Case management approach: Utilising data to manage individual student needs effectively. This involves prevention, where the collaborative creation of data walls enables staff members to review and discuss each student’s needs; while intervention involves case management meetings where a teacher is supported by a wider group on how best to support a student.
- Focused professional learning at staff meetings: Utilising meeting times for professional development enhances the collective capacity of teachers and leaders and fosters collaboration across learning areas.
- In-school meetings: Collaborative assessment of work: Regular co-teaching discussions to refine teaching strategies and use of assessment data for targeted instruction.
- Book rooms of levelled and multi-modal resources: Providing diverse and accessible teaching materials in a dedicated space empowers teachers with access to high-quality, timely, and appropriate materials.
- Allocation of systems and school budgets for learning: Strategic budgeting to support learning needs, deliberately allocating budget funds for resources that meet instructional needs.
- Collaborative inquiry: A whole system approach: Groups of teachers work together, reviewing data to determine impact of actions, leading to shared learning and improvement.
- Parental and community involvement: Active involvement of families and the community in the educational process enhances support for students and bridges the gap between the school and the external environment.
- Cross curricular literacy connections: Enhancing literacy skills across the curriculum, assessing data to identify the literacy skills each student needs.
- Shared responsibility and accountability: Fostering a culture where everyone is invested in student success, within and across schools. This means that each person understands and can clearly articulate the priorities at the system, school, and classroom level.
About the author
Maryanne Gosling joined Aspect in January 2020 as National Director of Aspect Education. She completed a Bachelor of Teaching (majoring in Special Education) and Bachelor of Education, before undertaking her teaching career as a primary teacher and then special needs teacher in a range of Queensland schools. As a teacher of learning difficulties, Maryanne also led teams to develop and implement Gifted Education Programs across several schools. Later as a school leader in large metropolitan schools, Maryanne completed an MBA before translating her skills into the corporate sector of education.
