A select group of “model schools” will set the standard for new teaching practices in Victoria as educators work to meet a government deadline to make the switch to explicit instruction methods.
Victorian government schools have been given three years to move to structured phonics and explicit instruction from prep to grade 2 after State Education Minister Ben Carroll announced a system-wide shift in June.
La Trobe University’s new Momentum Schools research project will investigate how best to support this change, linking schools that have successfully adopted explicit instruction with others just starting the transition.
More than 80 schools have expressed interest in the program since its launch in August.
La Trobe University Dean of Education Professor Joanna Barbousas said the response showed many schools were keen to adopt new practices but were uncertain where to begin.
“They’re telling us they want to make the change, but it’s very hard to know what steps to take next,” Professor Barbousas said.
“This mandate has the power to change the way we educate our children for the better, but schools need consistency and guidance to ensure that the change is producing quality teaching and improved student outcomes.”
La Trobe has led the way for evidence-based teaching practice in Australia, launching its Science of Language and Reading (SOLAR) Lab in 2020 which has since trained more than 12,000 educators and other professionals.
Explicit instruction, a key component of the new Victorian Teaching and Learning Model 2.0, promotes breaking down new concepts and modelling each step before progressing, checking for student understanding and re-teaching concepts and ideas if needed.
The government’s shift is a significant move away from Victoria’s historically autonomous system, which allowed principals to choose their own approach to teaching.
Explicit instruction practices have already been adopted by numerous Victorian schools, which have formed grassroots clusters to share knowledge, but until now there has been no guidance from government on which instruction is preferred.
By following the example of “hub schools” in the UK, La Trobe hopes to support meaningful school-wide change as schools adopt explicit instruction practices.
The research is funded by the Bertalli Foundation, which donated $2.5 million over five years to the University’s science of learning programs to provide evidence of the benefits to schools. Over the project’s three-year lifetime, researchers hope to track the rollout of explicit instruction practices and expand its adoption across the school years, including secondary.
Momentum Schools researcher Associate Professor Melissa Barnes said the study aimed to identify opportunities and barriers to change, as well as helping schools to be successful with school-wide transitions.
“Every school will be at different points in their change journey, with some who are just being introduced to explicit instruction practices and others who want to apply these principles to a broader range of learning areas and year groups,” Associate Professor Barnes said.
“For explicit instruction to become meaningful, impactful and sustainable, we need to think of the application of these practices beyond early reading and consider how they can be meaningfully taught from prep to year 12 and across a range of contexts.
Momentum Schools is now in the process of interviewing interested schools. The project will begin as early as October.
Templestowe Heights Primary School principal Rhys Coulson said his students’ results had improved dramatically after he made the switch to phonics and explicit instruction following the pandemic.
The programs had since rolled out schoolwide and the school has hosted 96 tours in 15 months from others keen to learn from their experience.
Templestowe Heights will be one of 10 initial host schools in the Momentum project.
“Now that we have a clear understanding of how we learn effectively, we can now teach effectively,” Rhys said.
“Explicit instruction provides the most effective instructional teaching approach that allows all students with the greatest opportunity to learn effectively.”
La Trobe University has been leading a push to overhaul the way children are taught to read for many years, pushing the science behind reading and language development.
Its SOLAR Lab brings together teachers and allied health professionals such as speech-language pathologists and psychologists to ensure new knowledge is incorporated into classroom intervention practice.
