A LOCAL public school has revealed its dramatic transformation over the past 18 months was achieved through a new way of teaching.
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Cooranbong Public School has embraced the principles of the ‘explicit instruction’ teaching methodology.
And before parents roll their eyes and think “here comes another over-complication of the curriculum” they should know one thing: explicit instruction is championed by a man who believes it’s paramount that children learn the multiplication tables and how to spell.
John Fleming is an education consultant with the Haileybury Institute, and a leading advocate for education reform. For a consultant paid to talk up a “new” way of teaching, he is remarkably and impressively old school.
He acknowledges that learning outcomes in Australian schools, across the board, “are going backwards” and that some teachers have lost their way in a crowded curriculum.
And it seems education authorities are coming around to his way of thinking.
In Victoria, Mr Fleming was a member of the Minister for Education's School Improvement Leadership Group.
In NSW, he was guest speaker at Parliament House in 2005 for the launch of the national inquiry into literacy, and in 2014 was appointed to the federal government's ministerial advisory group to review teacher training in Australia.
He’s been working with Cooranbong Public School since 2014.
“In that time we’ve seen Cooranbong change from a good school into a great school,” he told the Lakes Mail.
“This school is ahead of the pack. This is what the best educational systems in the world are doing.”
So what, exactly, is explicit instruction?
As the name suggests, it’s an unambiguous and direct approach to teaching.
Put very simply, explicit instruction involves teachers demonstrating a new skill, giving the children clear statements about the purpose and rationale for learning it, then testing, honing and retesting the children’s grasp of the new skill until they demonstrate independent mastery of it.
Mr Fleming calls it the “I do. You do. We do”.
But surely this is what good teaching has always been about? How can we have arrived at a point in our primary schools where explicit instruction is new, and teachers need to be taught how to deliver its methods?
“Because the curriculum has become over crowded, and teachers have come to feel time poor,” Mr Fleming said.
“We’ve lost track of the things that make teachers effective. There’s too much opinion about education in Australia that is not evidence-based. Teaching has got to become more like medicine – based on evidence and not opinions.”
And when it comes to the evidence supporting explicit instruction, Mr Fleming said the jury was in.
Internationally, and in Australia, schools that have introduced explicit instruction have achieved desired results, he said
Cooranbong principal Megan Avery said her school had been reinvigorated by explicit instruction.
“Our results have improved across the school in the first year,” she said. “There has been a significant change here. The learning environment has improved dramatically.”
Mr Fleming said Cooranbong’s had been a textbook transformation.
“The culture has shifted to one of high performance,” he said.
“What we have here now is research-based practices that make the kids more comfortable and more responsible in their learning.”
Teacher Isaac O’Dell co-ordinates the explicit instruction approach at Cooranbong, schooling fellow teachers in the methods.
Other positive spin-offs from the new teaching approach have included an increase in student enrolments at the school, and improved student behaviour and engagement in lessons.
“Because the lessons are so explicit, the kids are engaged and it’s fun,” Mr O’Dell said.
Teachers, too, have bought in to the new approach.
One Cooranbong teacher who had planned to retire at the start of the year opted instead to continue working so they could be a part of the explicit instruction shift, Ms Avery said.
One of the interesting features of some explicit instruction classes at Cooranbong is the use of personal whiteboards.
During lessons, children are asked to write their answers on the whiteboards and display them to the teacher. This gives the teacher immediate feedback on how the lesson is being received, and who needs help.
Simple. Explicit. Effective.