Despite billions of additional experts and concerted efforts at reforming several pillars of the Australian education ecosystem, students’ results continue to plateau. While the focus on teaching quality and effective, evidence-based practices is welcome, it is incomplete. Australian education needs to position the science of learning as the foundation for policy and practice.

The establishment of the Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO) — in particular its recent work How students learn best — and the Strong beginnings report into initial teacher education reforms are important because they create space for shifting focus towards the science of learning.

The teaching approach best supported by the evidence is explicit instruction of a well-sequenced, knowledge-focused curriculum. Some key features of explicit instruction include:

• Careful ordering of curriculum content so that new information and concepts are built sequentially;
• Explanation of new information in small steps, taught through modelling and worked examples, with student practice after each step;
• Asking questions and checking for all students’ understanding of what has been taught before gradual release of students for independent work and more complex tasks; and
• Regular review of previous content to ensure retention.

There are many implications for the science of learning:

• For teachers, it is an opportunity to design instruction in a way that is likely to lead to most students’ success with learning;
• Parents can become more informed about how their child will learn best and more empowered when selecting or having conversations with their child’s school; and
• For policy-makers, it provides a foundation for future reform of policy at all levels.