Building Capability at Scale with IMPACT: MSC Stories

This paper provides a summary of key findings and messages through presenting three Most Significant Change (MSC) Stories from the larger Project 600 research report (Watt, Finger, Smart & Banjer, 2014) and builds upon the earlier research of this project provided elsewhere (Authors’ names removed). Project 600 was initially a literacy and numeracy initiative implemented in Queensland, Australia. The authors suggest that this provides an excellent example of how a networked professional learning community can be scaled up to build capability. This scaling up has seen this networked online initiative expand to directly deliver literacy, numeracy, critical thinking, STEM, and other initiatives to approximately 45,000 students from over 600 primary and secondary schools in Queensland as at February 2016. The Project 600 networked learning community includes students, teachers, school leaders, parents and caregivers, the IMPACT Centre, and a teaching team of literacy and numeracy experts. As reported elsewhere (Watt, Finger & Smart, 2016; Watt, Finger, Smart & Banjer, 2014), there have been demonstrable improvements in NAPLAN results. Subsequent to outlining the background and the features of Project 600, providing a summary of the MSC methodology, and presenting the selected MSC stories, key findings and messages are provided. The IMPACT Centre continues to innovate on the Project 600 model, and the latest developments and information can be found at www.impact.edu.au .