Framing the features of good quality knowledge for teachers and students

In this chapter we have two concerns. First we consider the features used to describe good-quality, or high-quality, learning actions and knowledge representations. Our second concern is the need to develop students’ and teachers’ knowledge of how to act during teaching-learning transactions, in order to generate good-quality knowledge representations. There is a convergence of views, at a broad level, about the character of good-quality knowledge. Although there are frequent specifications of the features of good-quality learning, these discussions mostly do not build on one another so that a coherent representation of such learning is built up. There is therefore a need to consider further the characteristics of learning that are regarded as being of good quality. For this purpose, we set out a framework based on six dimensions of good-quality knowledge, namely extent, well-foundedness, structure, complexity, generativity, and variety of representational format. Students’ and teachers’ knowledge about how to act, in strategic cognitive and metacognitive ways, is a critical factor in the generation of good-quality knowledge representations. Introduction Macedon Primary School is committed to providing a comprehensive and progressive program leading children to become confident, independent, responsible self-learners, equipped with skills and knowledge for the future. Academic achievement in Math and English is high, with quality learning programs provided in a range of curriculum areas.