Professor Claire Wyatt-Smith
Institute Director
Areas of expertise: assessment standards; initial teacher education; assessment and learning analytics; human judgment and moderation practice; language and literacy education; digital assessment
HDR Supervisor accreditation status: Full
ORCID ID: 0000-0003-1190-9909
Phone: +617 3623 7112 / +61407 654 391
Email: claire.wyatt-smith@acu.edu.au
Location: Brisbane CBD
Claire Wyatt-Smith is the Director of the Institute for Learning Sciences and Teacher Education at ACU and Professor of Educational Assessment and Literacy. She is also the Director of the Research Centre for Digital Data and Assessment in Education at ACU. Her research addresses standards, professional judgement, and the implications of digital disruption for teacher professionalism.
Claire’s body of writing includes research on digital learning assessment, big data and learning analytics. The most recent outcome in this area includes a co-authored UNESCO paper.
Her research examines assessment as viewed through research, practice and policy and she has an extensive history of collaborations across these domains. Since 2016, she has worked with a large team of researchers, teacher educators and industry partners across 6 Australian states and territories to lead the design and implementation of the Graduate Teacher Performance Assessment (GTPA), hosted by ACU. The GTPA project is large scale. It involves research-informed approaches to professional standards, cross-institution moderation, instrument validation, and data analytics for benchmarking with 19 participating Higher Education Institutes. This work is generating new knowledge about instrument validity and reliability of judgement against an established standard, and the use of customized Performance Assessment Reports for summative purposes as well formative purposes including teacher education curriculum review and program renewal.
Other current work includes: i) an ARC funded study of teacher judgement of student samples, in collaboration with assessment and measurement specialists and education authorities in Queensland and Western Australian, and ii) a review of NAPLAN involving Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory.
Her work has attracted funding from the Australian Research Council (Discovery and Linkage Schemes), and governments at national and state levels, as well as international educational agencies. This has supported her publications in leading international journals and publishing houses including Routledge, Sage and Springer. She is the Foundation Editor of 2 book series with Springer Publishing.
View CV
Select publications
- Series Editor, Teacher education, learning innovation and accountability. Springer International. 2018 - 2024
- Series Editor, The enabling power of assessment. Springer International. 2014 -2024
Authored monographs
- Wyatt-Smith, C., Adie, L., Haynes, M., & Day, C. (2022). Professionalising teacher education and teaching: Performance assessment, standards and evidence. Routledge.
- Klenowski, V., & Wyatt-Smith, C. M. (2014). Assessment for education: Standards, judgement and Moderation. London, England: Sage.
Selected articles
- Wyatt-Smith, C., & Kimber, M. (2024). Teaching, Learning and Assessing in the AI-Era: Considering the Framework for Generative AI in Schools. Australian Educational Leader.
- Volante, L., DeLuca, C., Barnes, N., Birenbaum, M., Kimber, M., Koch, M., Looney, A., Poskitt, J., Smith, K., & Wyatt-Smith, C. (2024). International trends in the implementation of assessment for learning revisited: Implications for policy and practice in a post-COVID world. Policy Futures in Education [Online First]. https://doi.org/10.1177/14782103241255855
- Adie, L., Wyatt-Smith, C., Finch, M., & DeLuca, C. (2024). Evidence of teacher assessment work and its relationship to their assessment identity. Teaching and Teacher Education, 141, 104518, 1– 10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2024.104518
- Wyatt-Smith, C., Adie, L., & Harris, L. (2024). Supporting teacher judgement and decision-making: Using focused analysis to help teachers see students, learning, and quality in assessment data. British Educational Research Journal, 00, 1–29. https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3984
- Adie, L., Gallagher, J., Wyatt-Smith, C., Spina, N., DeLuca, C. (2023). Mediating teachers’ assessment work. The Australian Educational Researcher. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-023-00675-z
- Lingard, B., & Wyatt-Smith, C. (2023). Socially just assessment practices in systems and schools: The place of the new technologies. UNESCO: The Blue Dot.
- Harris, L., Adie, L., & Wyatt-Smith, C. (2022). Learning progression-based assessments: A systematic review of student and teacher uses. Review of Educational Research. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543221081552
- Wyatt-Smith, C. & Adie, L. (2021). The development of students’ evaluative expertise: Enabling conditions for integrating criteria into pedagogic practice. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 53(4), 399-419. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220272.2019.1624831
- Wyatt-Smith, C., Humphry, S., Adie, L., & Colbert, P. (2020). The application of pairwise comparisons to form scaled exemplars as a basis for setting and exemplifying standards in teacher education. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy and Practice, 27(1), 65-86. https://doi.org/10.1080/0969594X.2020.1712326
- Alexander, C., Wyatt-Smith, C., & Du Plessis, A. (2020). The role of motivations and perceptions on the retention of inservice teachers. Teaching and Teacher Education, 96, 103186. doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2020.103186
- Harris, L., Wyatt-Smith, C., & Adie, L. E. (2020). Using data walls to display assessment results: A review of their affective impacts on teachers and students, Teachers and Teaching, 26(1), 50-66, https://doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2020.1739018
- Adie, L. E., Harris, L., & Wyatt-Smith, C. (2020). Examining research into the use of data walls for teaching and learning: How are they being implemented within data use cycles? Teaching and Teacher Education, 89, 103012. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2019.103012
- Volante, L., DeLuca, C., Baker, E., Harju-Luukkainen, H., Heritage, M., Schneider, C., Stobart, G., Tan, K., Wyatt-Smith, C., Adie, L. (2020). Synergy and tension between large-scale and classroom assessment: International trends. Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice. doi:10.1111/emip.12382
- Adie, L., & Wyatt-Smith, C. (2019). Fidelity of summative performance assessment in initial teacher education: The intersection of standardisation and authenticity. Asia–Pacific Journal of Teacher Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359866X.2019.1606892
- Wyatt-Smith, C., & Adie, L. (2018). Assessment: The trilogy of standards, evidence and judgement in Australian education reform. In A. Reid, & D. Price (Eds.), The Australian Curriculum: Promises, problems and possibilities (pp. 163–176). Canberra, Australia: Australian Curriculum Studies Association.
- Wyatt-Smith, C., & Looney, A. (2016). Professional standards and the assessment work of teachers. In D. Wise, L. Hayward, & J. Pandya (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment (pp. 805–820). London, England: Sage.
- Wyatt-Smith, C., & Klenowski, V. (2013). Explicit, latent and meta–criteria: Types of criteria at play in professional judgement practice. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy and Practice, 20(1), 35–52.
- Wyatt-Smith, C. M., Klenowski, V., & Gunn, S. (2010). The centrality of teachers’ judgement practice in assessment: A study of standards in moderation. Assessment in Education: Principles, policy & practice, 17(1), 59–75.
Edited books
- Wyatt-Smith, C., Adie, L., Haynes, M., & Day, C. (2022). Professionalising teacher education and teaching: Performance assessment, standards and evidence [in press]. Routledge.
- Wyatt-Smith, C., Adie, L., & Nuttall, J. (Eds.). (2021). Teaching performance assessments as a cultural disruptor in initial teacher education: Standards, evidence and collaboration. Springer.
- Wyatt-Smith, C., Lingard, B., & Heck, E. (Eds). (2021). Digital Disruption in Teaching and Testing: Assessments, Big Data, and the Transformation of Schooling. London, England: Routledge.
- Wyatt-Smith, C., & Adie, L. (Eds.). (2018). Innovation and accountability in teacher education: Setting directions for new cultures in teacher education. Singapore: Springer.
- Wyatt-Smith, C., Klenowski, V., & Colbert, P. (Eds.). (2014). Designing assessment for quality learning. Foundation book in the series: The enabling power of assessment. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.
Projects
Selected studies with ARC funding
- 2023-2025, Australian Research Council (Discovery Project; DP No. 230101905). Ng, C., Renshaw, P., & Wyatt-Smith, C. Improving disadvantaged students’ writing engagement and achievement. $423,000
- 2022, Queensland Department of Education and Training (Education Horizon) & Queensland Department of Education and Training (State Schools – Performance Division): Wyatt-Smith, C., Adie, L., Pendergast, D., Blayney, W., Dargusch, J., Doyle, T., Haynes, M., Spallek, M., & Smith, A., Improving post-graduate pathways: Evidence-informed innovations for attraction, progression and supporting transition into teaching. $99,401
- 2019-2023, Australian Research Council, Linkage Scheme: Adie, L., Wyatt-Smith, C., Humphry, S., Cumming, J., Andrich, D., DeLuca, C., & Gallagher, T., Improving teacher assessment capability using scaled annotated exemplars of achievement standards in online moderation. $858,658
- 2017, Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL), Teaching Performance Assessment Grant Program: Wyatt-Smith, C., Nuttall, J., Cumming, J., & Adie, L., Building an evidence base of teacher quality and classroom readiness: A focus on teaching performance assessments. (The Standards Project: Graduate Teacher Performance Assessment (GTPA) Trial). $350,000
- 2016, Queensland Department of Education and Training (Education Horizon) & Queensland Department of Education and Training (State Schools – Performance Division): Wyatt-Smith, C., Cumming, J., Unsworth, L., Humphrey, S., Adie, L., Neville, M., & Jackson, C., Research Partnerships and Improvement Science: Using data to inform the teaching of writing and assessment. $170,000
- 2015-2018, Australian Research Council, Discovery Scheme: Cumming, J., Wyatt-Smith, C.M., Dickson, E., Webster, A., Harris, K., & Graham, S., Raising the Bar not the Barrier: Effective, Enriching and Enabling School-Based Assessments and Optimal Adjustments for Secondary School Students with Disabilities. $310,900
- 2011-2014, Australian Research Council, Discovery Scheme: Ng, C., Wyatt-Smith, C. M., & Bartlett, B., Improving disadvantaged students? Reading outcomes through overcoming reading avoidance and building reading engagement. $492,725
- 2011-2013, Australian Research Council, Discovery Scheme: Cumming, J. J., & Wyatt-Smith, C. M., An investigation of school and teacher use of National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) for student learning improvement. $230,000
- 2011-2013, Australian Research Council, Linkage Scheme: Mayer, D., Doecke, B., Dixon, M., Kostogriz, A., Allard, A. C., White, S. J., Walker Gibba, B. M., Rowan, L. O., Wyatt-Smith, C. M., & Bates, R. J., Investigating the effectiveness of teacher education for early career teachers in diverse settings: a longitudinal study. Industry Partners: Queensland College of Teachers, Queensland Department of Education and Training, Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, Victorian Institute of Teaching. $293,000
Selected industry funded studies
- 2024, Faculty of Education, University of Canterbury, New Zealand: The Review of the Centre for Assessment and Monitoring. $31,500
- 2023, Australian Government Department of Education: Developing a Quality Measure for ITE courses. $325,707
- 2022, Catholic Schools NSW: Wyatt-Smith, C., Adie, L.., Unsworth, L., Holloway, J., & Lewis, S., COVID Intensive Learning Support Symposium modules. $16,500
- 2022, Association of Independent Schools of NSW: Wyatt-Smith, C., Holloway, J., Alexander, C., Harris, L., Day, C., & Marcy, A., Growing and nurturing education: Rapid literature review. $19,922
- 2021, Australian Institute of Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL): Wyatt-Smith, C., Adie., L., Haynes, M., & Day, C., The nature and function of cross-institutional moderation in initial teacher education: Quality assurance processes through longitudinal analysis of linked ITE and workforce data. $30,000
- 2021, Queensland College of Teachers: Wyatt-Smith, C., Adie. L., Day, C., & Alexander, C., Assessing professional experience in initial teacher education: Evidence, judgement and self-efficacy. $20,000
- 2020-2021, Australian Government Department of Education, Skills and Employment. Wyatt-Smith, C., Haynes, M., Spallek, M., Smith, A. and Day, C. (2020). Quality of initial teacher education through longitudinal analysis of linked ITE and workforce data. $99,980
- McGaw, B., Louden, W., & Wyatt-Smith, C. (2020). NAPLAN Review Final Report. State of New South Wales (Department of Education), State of Queensland (Department of Education), State of Victoria (Department of Education and Training), and Australian Capital Territory. ISBN: 978-0-6480638-1-0. NAPLAN Review Final Report
- 2019, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO): Wyatt-Smith, C., & Lingard, B., Digital Learning Assessments and Big Data. €6,000
- 2019, Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA): Wyatt-Smith, C., Review and evaluate the current writing assessment marking rubrics in National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) . $50,000
- 2019, Victorian Department of Education and Training, Wyatt-Smith, C., Adie, L., & Du Plessis, A., Guiding principles for curriculum supports. $50,000
- 2017, Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL), Teaching Performance Assessment Grant Program: Wyatt-Smith, C., Nuttall, J., Cumming, J., & Adie, L., Building an evidence base of teacher quality and classroom readiness: A focus on teaching performance assessments. (The Standards Project: Graduate Teacher Performance Assessment (GTPA) Trial). $350,000. https://www.graduatetpa.com/ https://www.graduatetpa.com/#video
- 2016, Queensland Department of Education and Training (Education Horizon) & Queensland Department of Education and Training (State Schools – Performance Division): Wyatt-Smith, C., Cumming, J., Unsworth, L., Humphrey, S., Adie, L., Neville, M., & Jackson, C., Research Partnerships and Improvement Science: Using data to inform the teaching of writing and assessment. $170,000
Accolades and awards
- 2020 European e-Learning Excellence Awards, second place awarded to the Graduate Teacher Performance Assessment project team
- ACU Vice-Chancellor’s Staff Excellence Medal Winner: Excellence in research and research partnerships, 2018
- Australian Council for Educational Leaders, Queensland Honorary Fellowship Award, 2015
- Research Excellence Award, Griffith University Griffith University, Arts, Education and Law Faculty Group, 2012
Appointments and affiliations
- Director, Research Centre for Digital Data and Assessment in Education, Australian Catholic University, April 2020 -
- Director, Institute for Learning Sciences & Teacher Education (formerly Learning Sciences Institute Australia), Australian Catholic University, 2014 -
- Executive Dean, Faculty of Education and Arts, Australian Catholic University, 2013 - 2014
- Group Dean (Academic) Arts, Education and Law Group, Griffith University, 2010 – 2013
- Dean, Faculty of Education, Griffith University, 2006 – 2010
Public engagement
Teachers weren’t taught grammar in school, now they’re rushing to brush up, Christopher Harris, Brisbane Times, The Sydney Morning Herald, WA Today, The Age (Licensed by Copyright Agency), 21 May, 2023
Teachers rush to brush up on grammar, Christopher Harris, The Sun-Herald (Print version) (Licensed by Copyright Agency)Sat May 20, 2023, page: 5
Victorian students have posted the biggest drops in NAPLAN results overall, but some schools shone, Susie O’Brien and Olivia Jenkins, The Herald Sun, The Advertiser, The Daily Telegraph, The Courier-Mail, The Mercury, The Toowoomba Chronicle, Cairns Post, Gold Coast Bulletin (Licensed by Copyright Agency), 31 October, 2022.
State’s NAPLAN Fail, Susie O’Brien and Olivia Jenkins, The Herald Sun (Print version), 30 October, 2022
NAPLAN reveals’ serious decline’ of writing skills in Australian schools, 4BC, 18 October, 2022
‘We can use the word illiterate’: The writing crisis in Australian schools, Jordan Baker, Brisbane Times, The Age, WA Today, The Sydney Morning Herald (Licensed by Copyright Agency), 18 October, 2022
Schools writing standards in crisis, Jordan Baker, The Sydney Morning Herald (Print version), 18 October, 2022
Students’ writing skills in ‘serious decline’, Jordan Baker, The Age (Print version), 18 October, 2022
Push to stop wannabe teacher dropouts, Olivia Jenkins, The Herald Sun (Licensed by Copyright Agency), 22 September, 2022
Chalk it up to placement, The Herald Sun (Print version), Olivia Jenkins, 23 September, 2022
Study finds reasons for teacher exits, The Advertiser (Print version), 23 September, 2022
‘Danger times; for quitting teaching, Olivia Jenkins, The Daily Telegraph (Print version), 23 September, 2022
Teachers fleeing the job, The Catholic Weekly (Print version), Marilyn Rodrigues, 25 September, 2022
Education problem solvers receive grants for vital research, Toli Papadopoulos, Education Matters, Mirage News, 2 August, 2022
Queensland’s brightest research minds receive funding to tackle educational challenges, Freya Lucas, The Sector, 29 July, 2022
Calls to slash teaching degrees in half to address workforce shortage, Matty Holdsworth, Herald Sun, The Mercury, Gold Coast Bulletin, NT News, The Daily Telegraph, Geelong Advertiser, Cairns Post, The Courier-Mail, The Chronicle, Townsville Bulletin, The Advertiser (Licensed by Copyright Agency), 8 July, 2022
Surge in early uni offers comes under fire from education experts, Jordan Baker, The Sydney Morning Herald, 30/05/2022
2GB 30/05/2022
Teacher shortage opens gate to country lifestyle, Anna Patty, The Sydney Morning Herald, 17/01/2021
Writing needs to be taught and practised. Australian schools are dropping the focus too early.
Total media coverage: 21 online and/or print articles and 21 separate items of broadcast (radio) coverage. Selected outlets below:
Are teachers prepared to teach writing?, Mark Rosanes, The Educator K/12, 22/09/2020
Teachers ill equipped to teach keyboarding skills amid NAPLAN concerns, Jordan Baker, The Sydney Morning Herald, 20/09/2020
Writing wrongs: ‘Our society is about to hit a literacy crisis’, Jordan Baker, The Sydney Morning Herald, 19/09/2020
Teachers admit feeling ill equipped to teach grammar and spelling, 3AW Radio
Half of NSW teachers say they were poorly trained to teach writingJordan Baker, The Sydney Morning Herald, 16/09/2020
Students struggle as review finds writing skills neglected in NSW high schools, Jordan Baker, The Sydney Morning Herald, 15/09/2020
Teachers’ new test, Ashley Argoon, 28/06/2019, Herald Sun
ATAR debate needs to shift, Brett Henebery, 6 Nov 2018, The Educator Online
Teachers must show they’re a class act, Lauren Martyn-Jones, The Courier Mail, 22/10/2018
Prove teaching skills in classroom or fail course, Stefanie Balogh, The Australian, 31 Aug 2017
