Nearly all teachers who participated in the Overseas Study Program said their confidence to implement the Asia priority had improved and reported a change in their work practices.
Nearly three quarters of principals said there had also been an increase in non-participating teachers' confidence and capacity to implement the Asia priority, indicating the impact of the Overseas Study Program beyond participants
Intercultural understanding
Teachers used their strengthened intercultural understanding:
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In the ways they worked with students, especially to connect their students with students in Asia
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To improve learning and teaching programs
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In leadership roles as knowledge they had to share with others and as skills they could use in the ways they worked with others.
Experiences in Asia
Those who had experienced the Overseas Study Program with time in-country and the opportunity to form professional and personal connections through the sister school wanted to provide the same opportunities for other teachers, students and parents in their schools.
As a consequence schools are giving more teachers experiences in an Asian country with visits to sister schools, reproducing aspects of the Overseas Study Program in-country cultural program and strategically targeting teachers across the school.
The teacher from Leongatha Primary School says the program has made her very conscious of including Asia in her classroom program. The in-country experience was crucial for learning about the culture, the people and forming relationships. It also gave her the resources and knowledge to implement Asia related content into her learning and teaching program.
Learning from high performing systems and schools
Participants across all programs into China, but especially those who experienced the high performing schools in Shanghai program, identified instructional practices, professional mentoring and structured observation as lessons they had learnt from China.
Principals and school leaders applied learning from the Singapore School Leaders Study Program to build teacher capacity through mentoring, coaching and feedback programs.
The principal of Canterbury Primary School says their school in Suzhou is in one of the most successful areas in the world for student achievement and that Canterbury is exchanging planning, processes and curriculum ideas seeking to identify and use the best instructional practices in order to improve their students' achievement outcomes.