These schools are not only refining their practice of explicit teaching but are also developing a deeper understanding of effective change implementation within school settings.
Explicit teaching is an evidence-based teaching method that uses clear, intentional instruction; explaining, demonstrating, and modelling concepts, all whilst being responsive to learner needs.
Cluster Manager - School Progress and Performance, Lona Gill said an increasing system-wide focus on explicit teaching practices had seen a small pilot of three primary schools grow into a much broader partnership.
“Expanding the program to incorporate primary, secondary, and P–12 settings has demonstrated the efficacy of explicit teaching for learners across all age groups,” Lona said.
Explicit teaching is an effective practice that enables students to efficiently process, store and retrieve information, and complements other approaches such as inquiry-based and project-based learning.
“AERO is supporting our teachers to understand and apply explicit teaching strategies within their own school context, responding to the needs of the learners in their classroom,” Lona said.
“We are also connecting nationwide with other schools through AERO to focus on implementing a sustained explicit teaching program in our schools,” she said.
St Columban’s College Caboolture, Assistant Principal Learning and Teaching, Amanda Schimke said the project had supported the College to develop consistency in their practices.
“Being part of the project has helped us to enhance teacher practice by intentionally streamlining and connecting with our practices as a College,” Amanda said.
“By introducing consistent practices across the College, we aim to reduce the cognitive load for staff,” she said.
“We have fantastic teachers at St Columban’s and our work with AERO provides more understanding around the ‘why’, building on their practice by continually refining and improving.”
A group of Years 7, 8 and 9 Maths teachers have engaged with the program as early adopters, mentoring each other and building their own capacity in explicit teaching.
“Our aim is to ‘go slow to go fast’, get our processes right and build the confidence of our staff as mentors so that when we do roll it out across the school, it is more sustainable,” Amanda said.
BCE Head of School Performance Brett Horton said BCE was committed to providing teachers with the latest professional learning so that our students benefit from the most up-to-date teaching practices.
“This initiative is unique because it’s been driven by schools themselves - they asked for support, and now their work is feeding into broader system-level strategies.”
“We’re excited to share the outcomes of this project and professional development with more schools.”
AERO Senior Implementation Consultants Dylan Evans and Janine Shipard said that through the Learning Partner Project, AERO works alongside school leaders, classroom teachers and regional system teams across Australia.
“Our focus is on best practice implementation in different school contexts, to operationalise a deliberate and structured approach, and iterate our approach to implementation based on feedback,” Dylan said.
“Early indicators from BCE school leaders and teachers suggest that confidence to implement explicit teaching is growing across the system.”
“We are looking forward to continuing to support BCE schools into 2026 and learning with them about how practices can be implemented with fidelity and sustained over time to enhance teaching and learning.”
Practical implementation resources for all schools, informed by the Learning Partner project, are available on AERO’s website. (https://www.edresearch.edu.au/resource-collections/implementation-schools-practical-resources)