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Effective Teaching News, Commentary and Analysis

The Educator Australia
Turning assessment into a catalyst for literacy growth
Thoughtful assessment, when paired with regular feedback and progress tracking, can drive literacy growth and foster student agency. The article highlights the importance of using data to inform teaching decisions.
The Fordham Institute
We have lost the plot on the science of reading
While the Science of Reading focuses on explicit phonics and decoding, the article warns against neglecting the joy of reading. It calls for curricula that balance mechanics with meaningful engagement and rich texts.
Language Magazine
Mastering the Science and Art of Teaching Reading
A Master’s in Literacy Education or Teaching Reading enhances teaching quality and professional growth, focusing on explicit instruction in foundational skills like phonics, vocabulary, and comprehension.
The Educator Australia
National push to improve how teachers teach
AERO’s research highlights that impactful professional learning includes strong relationships, goal-setting, feedback, and sustained engagement, rather than one-off sessions, to improve teaching quality in schools.
National Indigenous Times
Aboriginal knowledge is reshaping climate education in NSW schools
Embedding Aboriginal ecological knowledge into climate education improves student engagement and understanding. Students work with Aboriginal knowledge holders to learn about environmental change and deepen connections to place.
The Educator Online
Radical new approach to boost teaching quality
The RiTE project embeds teaching students in classrooms from week one of their course, providing real-world experience and mentoring to ensure they graduate school-ready and improve teacher retention.
The Australian
Back to basics to tackle classroom disadvantage
Returning to explicit teaching methods and a knowledge-rich curriculum can address educational disadvantage. The article warns against trendy practices that distract from core instruction and maximise class time.
Education Week
How teachers can take care of themselves
Teachers are encouraged to prioritise self-care by setting boundaries, getting enough rest, staying connected with colleagues, and maintaining relationships with family to improve well-being and effectiveness.
The Educator Online
Hands Off Lesson Planning, Teachers Warn
The co-principalship model is gaining traction in Australia, helping to reduce workload, improve work-life balance and make school leadership less isolating.
lesson planning for teachers
EduResearch Matters
Change doesn’t happen by doing more of the same
Plans to form a new Teaching and Learning Commission aim to tackle inequity through standardisation, focusing on explicit instruction and classroom management.
Australian Education Union
Campaigning for equity in education
The AEU says equity requires full funding for public education, targeted to disadvantaged students, to close gaps and ensure no child is left behind.
ABC Radio National
Are the reading wars really over?
With explicit instruction now official policy nationwide, experts discuss how this approach will finally solve Australia’s widespread student reading proficiency issues.
Education Week
How Principals Can Help Teachers in a New School Year
Teachers want more less administration so they can be instructional leaders. Principals can help by protecting their time, backing their decisions and genuinely listening to their needs.
Pearls and Irritations
Australia’s school system: losing common ground
Australia’s school system stands out in comparison with OECD countries but not in a good way. It now works to increase the concentration of disadvantaged students in disadvantaged schools at a rate second to only one other country. The time has come for an urgent reality check.
Education HQ
School transformation as easy as A, B, C if we follow the evidence
This op-ed examines the impact of explicit teaching on transforming schools. Including case studies and strategies that school leaders can prioritise when seeking to implement change management processes that aim to lift student achievement schoolwide.
The Conversation
Fostering a love of stories in a child’s first years is key to lifelong reading
Most reading scientists and teachers agree direct instruction in letter-sound relationships (phonics) is necessary for children to become readers. Skilled reading also involves comprehending the meaning of words. This article expands on how to balance a higher focus on phonics while fostering joy for reading.
The West Australian
WA inks $785m deal to bring schools up to full Gonski
West Australian school students will have early phonics and numeracy checks, catch-up tutoring and greater support at schools under a $785 million funding deal to cover the next four years.
Teacher Magazine
A new vision for instruction
An article discussing the Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools’ (MACS) ‘Vision for Instruction (MACS 2024a)’ outlining the goals, methods and processes for embedding a refreshed and system-wide approach to achieving teaching and learning excellence.
The Saturday Paper
Making meaning of the reading wars
OP-ED: Amid sliding literacy rates, Australian governments are finally picking a side in a longstanding, global war over how children should learn to read.
ABC News
Teenage dropouts a key target in major funding agreement for Australian schools
A major education agreement is being signed in an attempt to improve the quality of Australia’s schooling system across public and private institutions. It will set out key funding priorities targeting better student performance and an increase in the number of kids completing high school across the country.
ACER
Education expert responds to curriculum changes
Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) Chief Executive Geoff Masters’ 2020 review of the New South Wales (NSW) curriculum informed new syllabuses released this week. This is the transcript of his conversation with ABC Radio Sydney’s Sarah Macdonald about his review and what must accompany a good curriculum to improve student learning.
The Australian
State’s ‘old school’ switch offers a template for the nation
The new primary school curriculum for NSW, launched on Wednesday, is a clear and concise document that focuses on phonics and facts, erasing the gobbledygook and feel-good theories that still clutter curriculum documents across the nation. NSW is returning to the old-school method of teaching children vital facts, in sequence. It is based on cutting-edge research that proves children learn best when they are explicitly taught facts and given practice to embed them in long-term memory.
Teacher Magazine
Unpacking the science of reading – teaching the constrained skills
In their new paper on the topic, ACER Senior Research Fellow, Greta Rollo, and ACER Research Fellow Dr Kellie Picker, from the Effective Practice in Education team illustrate how three constrained constructs contribute to the body of evidence that is the science of reading: phonemic awareness (a part of phonological awareness), phonics and fluency.
The Australian
Gonski failed on maths teaching, says new report
Students’ falling maths scores can be stemmed and reversed by focusing on teacher effectiveness instead of dedicating resources to measures such as increasing teacher-to-student ratios or lifting funding for disadvantaged groups, a new report claims.
EducationHQ
Noel Pearson reveals Direct Instruction’s power to close the achievement gap
A powerful advocate for Indigenous education over several decades, Noel Pearson – Chairman of Good to Great Schools Australia – has long championed the teacher-directed teaching method’s proven results in assisting struggling students to catch up and succeed in school, particularly in regards to literacy and numeracy skills.
EducationHQ
Ditching balanced literacy: why Victoria’s secondary teachers should be cheering
Last week’s announcement by Education Minister Ben Carroll that Victorian primary schools will shift to a structured approach to teaching literacy using phonics in F-2 from next year has given secondary teachers reason both to hope and cheer. This is because children reading well in the early years is going to make secondary teachers’ jobs easier. Reading is a foundational skill for school. It’s vital that students get off to a strong start in reading, otherwise they risk falling further and further behind throughout school.
The Educator
Why early intervention is key in lifting maths outcomes
Too many Australian students struggle with maths and aren’t identified early enough or accurately enough, according to new research. Lead researcher, Kelly Norris, says early intervention is possible but requires the support of efficient, informative, accurate, and universal screening of core numeracy skills in Year 1.
The Educator
How these NSW teachers are empowering Indigenous youth
TAFE NSW is up-skilling Indigenous Australians in remote and regional areas as Student Learning Support Officers and Aboriginal Education Officers, aiming to improve learning outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. Experts have highlighted the need for tailored support, cultural safety, and enhanced educational and employment opportunities to make any meaningful difference in improving outcomes for Indigenous students.
ACT Government
Strengthening literacy and numeracy education in ACT public schools
A new suite of system-wide literacy and numeracy initiatives – called Strong Foundations – will ensure all students at ACT public schools have access to evidence-informed and consistent teaching practices in every classroom, common assessments, including a year 1 phonics test, advice and resources for parents, to support their children with literacy and numeracy, and multitiered systems of support for students in every public school.
The Sydney Morning Herald
Numeracy in schools doesn’t add up. Here’s how experts would solve the problem
The Grattan Institute Education Program Director, Jordana Hunter, highlights how numeracy performance has flatlined in the past decade and improving primary school outcomes is key to lifting achievement for older students. According to Dr Katherin Cartwright, President of the Mathematical Association of New South Wales and a former primary school teacher, there is a lack of consistency across Australia and access to national data for our younger students.
The Educator
Why Victorian schools are going all in with phonics
Under the updated Victorian Teaching and Learning Model, to be implemented from Term 1 in 2025, all students from Prep to Grade 2 will be taught using a systematic synthetic phonics approach as part of their reading programs, with a minimum of 25 minutes daily explicit teaching of phonics and phonemic awareness. At the core of the plan is a stronger focus on explicit teaching, which has been shown by research to be the best approach for the largest number of students.
The Courier
Going back to basics: why phonics will teach more children how to read
Starting from 2025, Prep to Year 2 students will learn to read using the back-to-basics phonics approach where they will learn to ‘decode’ the sounds that different letters make, as part of a new explicit teaching approach which is to be rolled out across all Victorian public schools.
The Educator
What does Australia’s education system need to do differently?
An analysis of what can be done different for Australia’s education system, considering Australian 15-year-olds rank ninth in the world for reading and science and 10th in the world for maths, but almost half still failed to reach national standards in those subjects.
The Educator
How teachers can make Australia more equitable
A new report brings to light that Australia has one of the most unequal education systems among the OECD nations, highlighting the critical role teachers play in giving young people the tools to improve their academic and life outcomes. The achievement gap between children from advantaged and disadvantaged backgrounds is equivalent to two years of learning by Year 5, an issue that impacts not just the academic progress of young people, but also their post-school opportunities.
National Indigenous Times
Chloe Allen: on a mission to close the education gap
Effective literacy instruction helps all students reach their potential. Read up on how Chloe Allen, an Awabakal and Dunghutti woman who grew up in the Northern Rivers on Bundjalung Country, is working to close the education gap.
7 News
H
undreds of Victorian schools are going back to basics Hundreds of Victorian schools are turning back time and reverting to past methods of teaching. After decades of declining results, the back-to-basics move is paying off for young students.
EducationHQ
‘Twenty years overdue’: ACT public schools shift to evidence-based instruction
The ACT Government has backed an expert panel’s call to dismantle its ‘highly autonomous’ public school system and implement a system-wide shift to literacy and numeracy instruction that aligns with the science – but one expert says the messaging for teachers and school leaders remains somewhat cloudy.
Yahoo Lifestyle
We asked 900 Australian teachers if evidence informs how they teach – and found most use it, but there are key gaps
In a survey of more than 900 teachers from across each state and territory for an Australian Education Research Organisation (AER0), results found that m ost teachers surveyed said they were using evidence-based practices most of the time, but they were not using all the strategies that make those practices effective. This has serious impacts on student learning.
The Australian
Indigenous ‘carve out’: Is this a return to the ‘reading wars’?
All non-Indigenous trainee teachers must pass a test known as LANTITE (Literacy and Numeracy Test for Initial Teacher Education students) during the first year of their degree. Indigneous trainee teachers can demonstrate proficiency in an Indigenous language instead. Janet Albrechtsen considers if different standards for Indigenous trainee teachers risk reinforcing the curse of low expectations for these teachers and their students alike.
The Australian
High school students are ditching maths subjects
AMSI analysis showing high school students are ditching high-level maths subjects follows new rules revealed last week that all trainee teachers will be taught to use explicit instruction – a practical step-by-step teaching method embraced by NSW and Western Australia and championed by Aboriginal leader Noel Pearson.
The Australian
Bipartisanship delivers a lesson worth learning
Conceived by the Coalition and delivered by Labor, fundamental reforms to teacher training prove the power of bipartisanship. Reforms to teaching degrees mean they teach how to teach children to read, and to teach using the logical step-by-step method known as ‘explicit instruction’.
The Australian
Universities to raise bar on entry rules for trainee teachers
Universities will be forced to raise the bar for enrolment in education degrees, with trainee teachers taught to use explicit instruction, and Indigenous trainee teachers will be exempted from tough new entry rules for university and be tested on Aboriginal language ability instead, in a bid to bolster the First Nations teaching workforce.
ABC News
How back to basics literacy and numeracy teaching transformed a struggling public school
When Manisha Gazula started teaching at one of Australia’s most disadvantaged schools, nine out of ten students were moving on to high school with subpar reading skills. Now, the students are outperforming the ‘good schools’ and ‘punching above their weight’. She credits the transformation to abandoning ‘fashionable’ teaching practices, such as whole language, for explicit teaching.
ABC – 7.30
How one school transformed its maths and reading results
One-third of Australian school students can’t read properly – statistic experts are increasingly blaming outdated teaching methods. An increasing number of schools are changing their teaching styles, and a public school in Sydney’s outer west is leading the way.
The Educator
NAPLAN writing top performers share a common approach – explicit instruction
With report after report of Australian students falling behind in writing, how is it that some schools are bucking the trend? What are they doing differently to help students outperform their peers in NAPLAN writing results? One common theme is clear: the implementation of explicit, practical writing instruction that’s based on best practice.
The Educator
Evidence-based teaching drives stronger reading outcomes – research
A recent report by the Grattan Institute found one-third of Australian children cannot read proficiently, calling for an overhaul in reading instruction and the need for ‘a systematic, evidence-based curriculum’. What’s needed, say the experts, is a curriculum that focuses on phonemic awareness, phonics, and comprehension. They argue that reading, a critical skill for lifelong learning and empathy, requires explicit teaching, challenging the belief that children learn to read naturally.
The Australian
Rote learning adds up to success, says CIS report
Rote learning and explicit instruction are the key to children mastering the basics of reading and mathematics, a new report reveals. The Centre for Independent Studies has criticised universities for failing to train student teachers in the most effective ways to help children learn. ‘Myths must be busted to help build all teachers’ understanding of the science of learning,’ the CIS report states.
ABC News
Education experts break down the best ways to teach children how to read
A Grattan Institute report earlier this week found one-third of students are failing to learn to read proficiently due to persistence with an older, discredited way of teaching. The report urged schools to abandon the ‘whole language’ method of teaching children to read in favour of evidence-based ‘structured literacy’.
ABC News
The teaching change this school made that supercharged its students’ reading skills
A reading revolution at a small, disadvantaged public school in regional Victoria could provide the blueprint for turning around alarming literacy rates in Australia’s 10,000 primary schools. Churchill Primary, about two hours southeast of Melbourne, has twice the number of students in the lowest socio-educational advantage bracket as the national average. The game-changing move for the school was switching to a style of teaching known as ‘structured literacy’, which is anchored in phonics and involves breaking all the key components of reading into lessons taught explicitly to students.
ABC Education
What does and doesn’t work when it comes to maths anxiety?
Intervention research shows the best bet to meaningfully address maths anxiety is through direct instruction, particularly in intensive dosages in small-group settings. Addressing the growing prevalence and impact of maths anxiety will be important to turning around Australia’s generally declining and disappointing maths outcomes of recent decades.
The West Australian
Hopping mad over outdated teaching
MultiLit released a checklist to help parents find out if their school is using effective instruction. Catholic Education WA has been criticized for mandating the use of Running Records which is on the list as inaccurate assessment tools.
Sky News Australia
Australia can fix its ‘jack of all trades, master of none’ curriculum by ditching complacency, experimental methods that have churned out tanking NAPLAN results
Student-centred approaches have led to chaos. A La Trobe Valley school introduced explicit instruction, and ‘The results were nothing short of miraculous. In just a year, NAPLAN scores improved drastically, and five years later, the school is outperforming its counterparts and the national average – an impressive feat considering the socio-economic challenges faced by its student body.’
The Australian
Content reboot for teacher training
Reforms ordered by the nation’s education ministers include explicit instruction becoming mandatory in teaching degrees. Trainee teachers must also learn how children’s brains develop through early childhood to the teenage years so as to understand how students learn best at different ages. They will be instructed to avoid the trend of ‘self-directed learning’ for students who are learning a new concept or subject
The Guardian
Schools funding and reforms panel: five key takeaways
One of the takeaways is ‘screening student progress’ including a universal phonics check in year 1, with targeted programs like small group or individual catch-up tutoring to be offered to children failing to meet standards.
Queensland Government Media Statement
Queensland turns the page on reading in schools
Queensland state schools are set to take a consistent statewide approach to teaching reading that reflects the latest research and has a strengthened focus on phonics.
Sydney Morning Herald
Education boss calls for doubling down on explicit teaching in schools
The head of the NSW public education system has called on schools to double down on the use of explicit instruction – a teaching method that gives students step-by-step and clear instructions – in a bid to boost results and close the stark achievement gap. Murat Dizdar, who was appointed secretary of the NSW Education Department in June, told the Herald that evidence shows schools using explicit teaching practices have the most sustained improvements in academic outcomes.
ABC News
How a more explicit teaching style helped this school defy NAPLAN struggles elsewhere
Ms Hassan is a teacher at Auburn’s Sydney Adventist School, in the city’s west, where staff have been trained to focus on direct, explicit instruction informed by the latest science on the way kids’ brains work. The school’s education model also emphasises strong classroom management, with teachers aiming to engage the entire class in a task every two minutes. These methods are what Ms Hassan and Ms Efstratiou credit as helping the school turn around its NAPLAN results, which are now well above average in numeracy and literacy.
ABC News
How to keep teachers and improve learning
A new way of teaching in the classroom is being adopted in some schools, with a focus on how young brains absorb knowledge. But is this the revolution in teaching that its proponents suggest? Includes interview with Canberra Goulburn on the Catalyst program.
The Australian
One in three teachers needs training to teach children to read and write, new study reveals
Edith Cowan University researchers have discovered that the time dedicated to the explicit teaching of writing in primary school each week varied from 15 minutes to 7½ hours. Literacy specialist Jennifer Buck­ingham, director of strategy at MultiLit, said writing needed to be taught explicitly for at least half an hour a day in primary school. ‘It should be taught in the context of learning other curriculum areas so it is integrated with knowledge building,’ she said. ‘This means students will eventually spend several hours each day doing writing of some kind.’
ABC News
Universities given two years to overhaul teaching degrees after education ministers’ meeting
Ross Fox, the Director of Catholic Education Canberra Goulburn, said he realised standard teaching methods were not working – and wanted to make dramatic changes across the more than 50 schools he oversaw. Mr Fox decided the problem was the way his staff were taught at university and moved to retrain his entire teaching workforce of 1,500 in what’s called the ‘science of learning’. It emphasises direct, explicit instruction tailored to young brains with the teacher ensuring a tight, disciplined classroom.
The Age
Department blocks ‘good news story’ on schools’ reading transformation
Victoria’s education department blocked the publication of a taxpayer-funded study into six primary schools that changed their approach to teaching reading and improved their results. The report, which The Age has obtained in redacted form, studied six government schools that dumped entrenched strategies for teaching reading for an intensively structured approach centered on explicit direction of young students using phonics. The schools transformed their approach to literacy to address plateaued or declining results, and are now reporting gains in students’ outcomes, the study found. It also observed that each school made the transformation without guidance from the Department of Education, with change often being driven by one individual within the school.
Sydney Morning Herald
‘We changed everything’: How 56 schools transformed their teaching and boosted results
56 Catholic schools in NSW and the ACT have embraced ‘high-impact’ explicit instruction, an approach partly embedded in old-school teaching methods. It shuns student-led and inquiry-based learning in favour of a direct, traditional instruction style. After 2 years, these schools are showing statistically significant improvement in NAPLAN.
Sydney Morning Herald
How one Sydney school turned around its reading and maths results
Since 2016, the Liverpool primary school (1 in 5 students are refugees) has had a curriculum plan known as the ‘core program’ that involves ‘explicitly teaching every component of reading, writing and maths’ in a bid to turn around students’ stagnating academic results. The school is making above-average NAPLAN progress.
The Age
‘Results came really quickly’: How one tiny Victorian school turned literacy around
Churchill Primary, a small, disadvantaged school in the Latrobe Valley had persisted for years with an approach known as balanced literacy, with its mix of levelled readers and traditional children’s storybooks as reading tools, but achieved stubbornly poor results. Tired of seeing so many children leave the school with low literacy, principal Jacquie Burrows abandoned balanced literacy for a ‘purist’ phonics-based approach. What followed was a remarkable turnaround in the school’s NAPLAN data.
Sydney Morning Herald
The reading wars are over – and phonics has won
Authored by the NSW Minister for Education, arguing the reading wars are bizarre because the evidence behind how reading should be taught is so one-sided. Overwhelmingly it tells us that phonics must be explicitly and systematically taught within a literacy program that also develops language and reading habits.