'What works best' brings together seven themes from the growing bank of evidence we have for what works to improve student educational outcomes. The seven themes addressed here are: 

1. High expectations

2. Explicit teaching

3. Effective feedback

4. Use of data to inform practice

5. Classroom management

6. Wellbeing

7. Collaboration

These themes offer helpful ways of thinking about aspects of teaching practice but they are not discrete. Rather, they overlap and connect with one another in complex ways.

For example, providing timely and effective feedback to students is another element of explicit teaching – two of the more effective types of feedback direct students’ attention to the task at hand and to the way in which they are processing that task. Similarly, being explicit about the learning goals of a lesson and the criteria for success gives high expectations a concrete form, which students can understand and aim for. Wellbeing and quality teaching are mutually reinforcing – if students with high levels of general wellbeing are more likely to be engaged productively with learning, it is also true that improving intellectual engagement can improve wellbeing. 

The seven themes are not confined to what happens in classrooms. While they offer sound strategies for individual teachers to consider as part of their repertoires, evidence suggests that their effectiveness is stronger when they are implemented as whole-school approaches. For example, the literature indicates that teachers are more likely to make effective use of student data when working together than when working alone. Ideally, everyone associated with a school – including school leaders, parents, students and community members – will share a commitment not only to the school’s vision for development but to the mechanisms for achieving these goals, and will engage collaboratively in responding to the challenge.