About What Works Best
What Works Best is a suite of resources for teachers and school leaders that succinctly outlines 8 themes of the most effective practices from the growing bank of research on what works to improve student learning and wellbeing. First released by the Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation (CESE) in 2014 and updated in 2020, the 2025 edition builds on this strong evidence base and directly connects it to the work of NSW public schools.
We are committed to giving teachers essential knowledge to deliver teaching practices strongly grounded in evidence. What Works Best 2025 translates the latest research on the best evidenced education practices into 3 key resource types for teachers and school leaders:
- the What Works Best 2025 – Evidence guide for excellent schools, which provides an overview of the evidence that underpins each of the 8 themes
- the What Works Best 2025 practical guides, which provide teachers and school leaders with practical ideas for implementing the evidence for each theme in their classrooms and schools
- the What Works Best 2025 illustrations of practice, which provide examples of how individual schools are implementing the themes.
What is in the What Works Best 2025 update
What Works Best 2025 once again comprises a suite of resources for teachers and school leaders that outlines 8 of the most effective practices to improve student learning outcomes: high expectations, explicit teaching, effective feedback, using data to inform practice, assessment, classroom management, wellbeing and collaboration.
The 2025 evidence guide for excellent schools continues to provide:
- an overview of the evidence that underpins each of the 8 What Works Best practices
- data from students and teachers in NSW to give insights about their experience of What Works Best practices
- a list of references
What is new in 2025?
- updated data and evidence to capture new insights and research published since the 2020 update
- publication as 8 separate ‘extracts’, in addition to the single document containing all 8 practices.
The 2025 practical guides include:
- suggestions about how to translate the evidence for each of the 8 practices into actionable ideas
- reflection questions for teachers and school leaders
- links to additional resources.
What is new in 2025?
- suggestions for school leaders, in addition to the suggestions for teachers
- greater detail for each of the suggested practical ideas, including not only the ‘what’, but also the ‘how’ and the ‘why’
- a greater number and range of examples, including for different key learning areas, stages and school types
- a greater number of reflection questions, with separate questions for teachers and school leaders
- a section outlining the relationship between each of the practices and explicit teaching
- a list of references
- publication as 8 separate documents – one per practice – rather than a single document.
The 2025 illustrations of practice feature:
- examples of how different types of schools in diverse NSW communities are implementing aspects of the 8 practices.
What is new in 2025?
- publication of 8 detailed illustrations of practice
- links to resources related to each key strategy used by the school to implement the relevant practice.
The 8 What Works Best themes
Research consistently demonstrates 8 themes in what works to improve outcomes for students:
- high expectations
- explicit teaching
- effective feedback
- using data to inform practice
- assessment
- classroom management
- wellbeing
- collaboration.
While the What Works Best suite has evolved over time, the fundamentals remain the same: 8 important themes that research consistently shows make a difference to student outcomes, regardless of background, age or stage of learning.
The 8 themes are not an exhaustive list of effective educational practices, but they do represent some of the strongest evidence-based strategies in education. A focus on these practices is typically seen in our highest performing schools.
How the resources can be used
The What Works Best resources are intended to support teachers and school leaders with an overview of the key evidence for the 8 themes as they reflect on their practice and make important decisions about next steps for teaching, learning and leading.
The 8 What Works Best effective practices are interconnected and complementary. When used together they create a framework that helps teachers and school leaders to improve student achievement, skills, participation and wellbeing.
Each What Works Best resource is designed to be accessible and easy to use. School leaders and teachers can engage with the resources individually or together. The 8 themes and practices profiled in these resources are also not confined to what happens in classrooms. Whole-school engagement and consistent implementation matters.
The What Works Best resources act as companion pieces to other key resources for NSW public school teachers and school leaders, including Our Plan for NSW Public Education. They are consistent with evidence-based elements of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST) and with the School Excellence Framework (SEF). They can also be read in conjunction with materials from the Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO) – in particular, the How students learn best evidence paper and the Model of learning and teaching resource.
These materials have been produced to provide clear information about the latest and most rigorous research to strengthen knowledge and inform practice. Each of the resources can be used by all teachers and school leaders to enhance the work they are already doing, transforming lives through learning.
Further resources
- Access the full list of What Works Best resources.