[Music plays. Title slide reads, Explicit teaching in NSW public schools. Resources to support the implementation of explicit teaching]

Jarrad Cox

Good afternoon everyone. Happy week seven on this very warm Tuesday afternoon, and thank you for joining us. My name is Jarrad Cox and I'm very lucky to be currently leading work in curriculum on explicit teaching. We work from Kindergarten all the way through to Year 12, across all key learning areas in my team. My school-based position is Head Teacher, Teaching and Learning, and I'm passionate about professional learning opportunities that create exceptional classroom practice. I'll be joined this afternoon by Nicole McGee, who is an experienced primary school teacher and leader. We're really excited to share with you this afternoon and talk to resources that are available as we continue to focus on explicit teaching as an equitable and effective teaching practice in classrooms across the state.

[Slide shows an artwork titled, ‘Kariong – Our meeting place’ created by Stella Haynes from Cammeray Public School on Eora Country as part of the 2022 Calendar for cultural diversity.]

Can I please start the presentation by acknowledging the many countries you're all joining the meeting from today. I acknowledge that I'm joining the meeting from Dharug and Gumbaynggir Country and I pay my respects to Elders past, present and emerging, and to our Aboriginal colleagues joining us today. This land always was and always will be traditional Aboriginal land and it's my great privilege to be presenting to you today from this country.

[Transitions to next slide, titled, Housekeeping. The dot points are mentioned in the following text.]

I'd like to start with some minor logistics for the session. There will be a recording available and this will be located on the leading explicit teaching webpage. We've turned off the video and chat for this session as we are recording and I know that for me, if I can forget to turn my camera and microphone off, I do forget to turn my camera and microphone off. The Q and A function is where questions can be submitted and it will also be where we'll make links available that we discuss throughout the session.

[Transitions to next slide, titled, Overview. The dot points are referred to in the following text.]

In this session, we'll provide an overview of key ideas related to explicit teaching in New South Wales public schools and share with you resources we're developing that we hope are useful to you as you focus on explicit teaching in your schools. After we've looked at the resources, we'd like to delve into the evidence and rationale for the resources as we talk through implementation.

[Transitions to next slide, listing a quote from Deans for Impact, p6. The quote is read out as follows.]

The first key idea I'd like to talk to, relates to the quote on this slide. What do we mean by mental model? All teachers, whether implicitly or explicitly, employ a theory of learning when they teach. By this, we simply mean that teachers have a set of beliefs and expectations about how their instructional decisions, will foster learning with their students. Those beliefs and expectations, comprise a teacher's mental model.

[The words, ‘All teachers… employ a theory of learning when they teach’, from the quote, are highlighted in red.]

As we all know, teaching is a complex job. This quote from the Deans for Impact Report, called Learning by Scientific Design, discusses the idea that our approach to teaching is influenced by our beliefs, experiences and learning, related to curriculum, pedagogy and assessment. Building shared accurate knowledge and understanding of how learning happens with key ideas like cognitive load theory, schema theory and retrieval practice is a necessary step in creating excellent learning opportunities for all of our students. A commissioned report written by the Australian Education Research Organisation, AERO, concludes that evidence shows us that greater gains in positive student outcomes and a significant reduction in teacher workload could be achieved if teachers were armed with a knowledge and understanding of what works best and why. They suggest that this knowledge should be built up from the core foundational content, delivered first through initial teacher education, then tried and tested during professional experience and built on coherently through ongoing professional learning and practice.

[Transitions to next slide titled, Core knowledge informs practice. On the slide, there is:

• An image from the AITSL Addendum containing a teacher sitting with 2 students in a classroom.
• The Explicit teaching strategies graphic
• A list reading, Workshop 1 – What is explicit teaching? Workshop 2 – How learning happens. Workshop 3 – Planning for learning.]

This aligns with recent changes to expectations for initial teacher education in Australia. These expectations detailed in AITSL Addendum pictured here, highlight the importance of understanding about how learning happens and effective instructional practices as core professional knowledge for all teachers. A shared deep understanding of how the human brain learns and stores knowledge allows teachers to skilfully select the best strategy to use at the right time and for the right purpose. It allows us to be responsive to students as they learn. When we start looking at the resources available, we'll talk about some school facilitated workshop resources that focus on this core knowledge for explicit teaching. This includes the workshops listed on this slide.

[Transitions to next slide titled, Explicit teaching resources. There are graphic boxes that represent the order in which the resources should be used: Workshops 1 – 3, Learning modules and strategies, then technique guides.]

There are three types of resources we'll discuss today, workshops, learning modules and technique guides. Workshops one to three that I mentioned on the previous slide, focus on core knowledge for explicit teaching. We suggest all schools start with these 3 workshops to develop a shared and accurate understanding of theoretical principles for explicit teaching. Learning modules focus on each of the 8 evidence-based teaching strategies, depicted in the explicit teaching graphic from the previous slide. There is one for each strategy with the exception of learning intentions and success criteria, which will be a combined module. Technique guides are short printable material that provide a brief summary of the techniques introduced in each learning module. Techniques are practical examples of the strategies in action and we'll discuss some examples of this in just a few slides time.

[Transitions to next slide titled, Resources on a blue background.]

I'm now going to hand over to Nicole who will step you through the resources available now and how they fit together.

Nicole McGee

Thanks, Jarrad. Hi everyone. It's great to be here with you today.

[Transitions to next slide titled, Statement on explicit teaching in NSW public schools. There is a screen shot of the first page of the Explicit teaching in NSW Public Schools document. The image is only on screen for several seconds and cannot be read in its entirety.]

Let's put our walkthrough of the resources. The first resource that can be used to establish a shared understanding of explicit teaching is a statement on explicit teaching in New South Wales public schools. It provides a common language that enables professional discussions and reflections. This clarity is essential as we focus on explicit teaching Next slide.

[Transitions to next slide titled, Explicit teaching strategies and resources. There is an image of a laptop on the lefthand side of the screen, showing the Explicit teaching strategies webpage. To the right, a list reads:

More information is available about:

• explicit teaching
• how learning happens
• the enabling factors
• the explicit teaching strategies
• Leading explicit teaching.]

All of the resources we are about to step you through are available on the explicit teaching webpage. We'll share the link at the end. We will also step you through how to navigate the website shortly. The webpages have additional content for each of the eight evidence-based teaching strategies, depicted in the explicit teaching graphic and like the statement can be useful in guiding collective dialogue on what explicit teaching is and what it isn't as we develop a shared understanding. The website will continue to be updated as new resources are released in the future.

[Transitions to next slide titled, Workshop 1–3, with the subheading, Building a shared understanding of core knowledge. A list reads:

The core knowledge workshops are:

• PowerPoint presentations with speakers notes and a facilitator guide to support the presenter
• designed to support schools to develop a consistent understanding of the core knowledge required to implement explicit teaching effectively
• designed to be delivered in schools by school leader/s
• expected to take about 45 minutes each.

To the right of the list there is a rectangle image with the title, What is explicit teaching? Workshop 1 of 3. Overlapping this image to the bottom-right is a screenshot of a page titled, Workshop 1 – What is explicit teaching. The page outlines the facilitator guide, its purpose, outcomes and timings.]

Workshops 1 to 3 are 45-minute sessions that are designed to be school facilitated, so that schools can engage with core knowledge, about explicit teaching. A whole school approach is recommended to create the shared understanding we know is so important to a successful implementation. Workshop one explores the explicit teaching in New South Wales public school statement and invites teachers to reflect on their current practice. Workshop 2 focuses on the enabling factor. Know the students and how they learn and dives into the evidence base that underpins why explicit teaching works. Workshop 3 unpacks other enabling factors. Know the content and how to teach it, high expectations, safe inclusive learning environments. A school-based facilitator, for instance, an AP, APC&I, DP or Head Teacher, Teaching and Learning, uses a PowerPoint presentation, supported by the facilitator guide to lead learning with staff. Schools can adapt the duration of these workshops to suit their context. For example, schools may choose to complete a workshop, over multiple sessions and take time to establish a deeper focus on the core knowledge that underpins explicit teaching practice.

[Transitions to next slide showing a graphic that highlights one of the 8 explicit teaching strategies – checking for understanding and some techniques for this strategy, student response systems and responsive teaching.]

Aside from workshops one to from Term 4, we are releasing resources focused on the explicit teaching strategy. The row of pink boxes represents, each of the eight evidence-based teaching strategies. The white row underneath are the techniques we have selected for that strategy. Techniques are practical examples of the strategies in action. Learning modules for the strategies are designed to be school facilitated and are aligned to the principles of high impact professional learning. Each learning module provides the opportunity to identify the student need and determine evaluation measures, supporting a whole school approach to implementation.

The learning modules provide a scaffold for leaders to guide collaborative planning, rehearsal and feedback to develop whole school understanding and routines for the chosen strategy. We are also developing the technique guides for each of the techniques shown in the white boxes. We recognise that the techniques listed, connect across multiple teaching strategies. They are not meant as an exhaustive list of every approach teachers may use in their explicit teaching practice. The first learning module, checking for understanding and technique guides for student response systems and responsive teaching are now available on the website. Let's take a closer look at all of the resources and see how they fit together.

[Transitions to next slide titled, Explicit teaching strategy learning modules, with the subheading, A dive into each strategy. A list on the left of the screen reads:

Learning modules are:

• PowerPoint presentations with speakers notes and embedded advice for presenters
• Designed to be delivered in schools by school leader/s
• Recommended to be completed over multiple sessions, with time to practice implementation of the strategy in between

To the right of the screen, there is a smaller PowerPoint slide titled, Checking for understanding – Strategy learning module.]

The learning modules are also PowerPoint presentations, designed to be led by a school-based facilitator. There are extensive speaker notes and embedded advice in each. Our recommendation is to split the presentation over multiple sessions with enough time in between for practice and reflection on the strategy and technique implementation.

There are 3 sections in each learning module, Part A, Part B, and Part C. Each learning module is grounded by the enabling factors for explicit teaching and suggest starting points to evaluate early indicators of success. Part A is understanding the strategy. This section outlines what the strategy is and why it works. Part B is implementing the strategies through techniques and includes the explanation of how and why techniques work within the strategy. It offers guidance about how to plan, rehearse and feedback during professional learning. Part C is information and activities for a whole school approach with evaluation of implementation outcomes over time.

[A title on a white background reads: Strategy learning module structure.

Below the title are 3 parts:

• Part A: Understanding the strategy
• Part B: Implementing the strategies through techniques
• Part 3: Evaluating a whole-school approach.]

Each strategy learning module is supported by technique guides.

The guides are designed to be brief with condensed information about the technique. They could be used in discussions amongst staff, about the implementation of the technique or while rehearsing or even printed and displayed as a reminder to practice the technique.

[A title on a white background reads: Explicit teaching technique guides.

On the left are the following dot points:

The technique guides:

• Provide further support for the techniques introduced in the strategy learning modules
• Offer a summary of the technique and practical examples of its use
• Are brief documents

On the right side are two supporting documents including the Student response systems, and Responsive teaching.]

We will now show you how to navigate the website. If you start at the department's homepage, click on Teaching and learning from the top menu. This will give you the dropdown menu, select Curriculum. On the curriculum page, under Teaching practice, you will find Explicit teaching. This brings you to the Explicit teaching homepage. You could bookmark this page for easier future access. From here, you can easily download copies of the statement, navigate, scroll down to the Leading explicit teaching. The On this page section has a summary of the content available. This is where you will find the three, Core Knowledge Workshops. Here you will see the links to the PowerPoint presentation and the facilitator guide for each workshop. Further down the page, you can access the strategy learning modules. On each strategy page as they are released, you will find the learning modules and technique guides. We'll now return to the slide deck to continue our walkthrough of the resources.

As you just saw, the first learning module and technique guides for checking for understanding are now available. Future strategy learning modules and technique guides, will have a staggered release date. Connecting learning and gradual release of responsibility will be available on the website in the coming weeks. Chunking and sequencing will be available by the end of Term 4, along with sharing learning intention and sharing success criteria, which will be a combined learning module. Using effective questioning and using effective feedback, will be released in Term 1, 2025. We will continue to make professional learning opportunities available in 2025 focused on core knowledge for explicit teaching and developing focused aspects of practice, through the strategy learning modules and guides. When these opportunities become available, we will share this through staff notice board, statewide staff rooms and via the leading explicit teaching webpage. I'm now going to hand back to Jarrad to discuss using these resources as you focus on explicit teaching.

Jarrad Cox

Thanks, Nicole. So, now we've had a quick look at the resources available. I'd like to highlight some of the concepts that we've kept in mind when designing these resources for implementation.

[A title on a navy background reads: Implementation advice.]

A narrow and deep focus is really important for successful implementation of explicit teaching. You'll of course recognise the graphic on the left as depicting the high impact professional learning process. The starting point for this is a strategic decision that focuses on student need. This helps to narrow our focus to one or two initiatives that will be most beneficial. To make that narrow focus deep, schools commit to sustained professional learning to galvanise their knowledge and practice. By narrowing the focus to a few strategies, school leaders and staff are able to implement professional learning that is continuous and coherent, reducing the cognitive load and potential for change fatigue, and allowing strong fidelity of the practice to be embedded. Fidelity means that the way the strategy is used, reflects the evidence we have about precisely how it works. The opposite of this is when a strategy is used without fidelity and in turn becomes what Dylan William and others dub as a lethal mutation, where the strategy is used in a way that no longer has high value, because it isn't being used in the way it was intended.

A focus on learning and refining, just one or two of the strategies can support stronger fidelity. This is because aligning our thinking and actions is easier when we're only focusing on certain things. This alignment between thinking and actions, helps us to habitualise our new practice into everyday routines and more, it allows us to pursue that practice, over a sustained period.

[A title on a white background reads: Narrow and deep focus.

On the left is the ‘Professional learning is continuous and coherent’ graphic. Four navy boxes appear slowly, which read:

• Manages cognitive load and potential for change fatigue
• A few high-value strategies which are sustained with fidelity
• Aligns thinking and actions
• Embedded into teacher everyday practice over a sustained period.]

To achieve a narrow and deep focus, we need to acknowledge that there are enablers and barriers in implementation. Take a moment to read and compare the enablers and barriers you see on the screen.

[A title on a navy background reads: Explicit teaching professional learning.

On the left is a list of enablers:

• Shared and accurate understanding
• Precise focus on instructional strategy
• Incorporating mechanisms of effective professional development
• A deliberate and responsive approach.

On the right is a list of barriers:

• Assumptions
• Imprecise focus on instruction
• Theoretical knowledge only during PL
• Student reluctance to participate.]

This isn't an exhaustive list and whilst all enablers are important to consider, today, one of the key ideas we've been discussing is the importance of developing shared and accurate understanding. This is a crucial foundation for practice.

[The first enablers dot point is highlighted: Shared and accurate understanding. A navy box appears at the bottom of the screen that reads: ‘A whole-school approach creates a common language around practice which in turn supports teacher collaboration and strengthens classroom observation practice.’ (CESE, 2020, p15).]

Shared understanding means every teacher in your school could provide the same answer if asked the question, what is explicit teaching? Shared understanding is an agreement to accept and use, bulletproof or you might say, a stable and set definition to anchor knowledge and practice. This enables a common language.

In the initial phases of professional learning, teachers may provide their own understanding of explicit teaching practice and through collaboration, the collective understanding will be developed and refined into the agreed upon bulletproof definition. Shared understanding occurs when individual understandings are refined, revised and synthesised. Without establishing and checking our shared understanding regularly, we can run the risk of lethal mutations and lower fidelities in classroom practice and this would create an implementation barrier.

We can think about the development of knowledge, practice and a whole school approach in terms of the school excellence framework. For example, you will know that reflecting the current evidence base is called out in the delivering description and although many schools are already sustaining and growing or excelling, creating a common base of shared understanding is a great first step.

[A title on a white background reads: Professional learning for school excellence.

A table of 3 columns and 1 row appears. The first column represents ‘delivering’ and states: Explicit teaching is the main practice used in the school, reflecting the current evidence base. Teachers explicitly review previous content and preview the learning planned with students in each class.

The second column represents ‘Sustaining and growing’ and states: There is a school-wide explicit teaching approach which incorporates modelled, guided and independent practice. Teachers are skilled at explicit teaching techniques such as questioning and assessing to identify students’ learning needs and use a range of explicit strategies to explain and break down knowledge.

The third column represents ‘Excelling’ and states: Teachers consider students’ cognitive load and employ explicit teaching strategies to optimise learning progress of students across the full range of abilities. Effective methods are identified, promoted and modelled, and students’ learning improvement is monitored, demonstrating growth.]

This is an important consideration ongoing, like when running early career teacher induction programs, for example or as a regular reflection point for executive, building and maintaining core knowledge is a strong foundation for explicit teaching practice in the school.

[An arrow appears on the screen with 3 navy boxes next to each other horizontally. The first box to the left states, ‘core knowledge’, the second box states, ‘developing focused aspects of practice’, and the third box states, ‘integrating strategies for a coherent, refined and embedded approach’.]

Making sustainable and lasting impact, requires an evidence-based approach to professional development. What you're seeing here is guidance provided by evidence for learning, and it's based on a systematic review and meta-analysis on the characteristics of effective teacher professional development. It shows domains that are necessary for effective professional learning. They're shown in the dark blue boxes and in the white boxes, mechanisms that have been shown to make professional development successful. Our strategy learning modules address mechanisms from each of these domains. The modules are designed to manage cognitive load and revisit prior knowledge, including from core knowledge from workshops 1 to 3. In developing teaching techniques, the learning modules provide instructions on how to perform techniques and provide social support through activities focused on rehearsing and giving feedback. All of mechanisms are important to consider, but we would like to bring your attention further to the idea of rehearsing the technique.

[A title on a white background reads: Mechanisms for effective professional development. Below is a graphic of ‘Evidence for Learning (2022) Effective Professional Development, Sydney: Evidence for Learning.]

Here's a slide you'll see several times in the learning modules, the research from evidence for learning shows teachers are more likely to put professional learning into practice when they plan and rehearse during professional learning, before implementing techniques in the classroom. By collaboratively planning and rehearsing outside of the classroom, we're able to practice the target strategy in a lower stakes environment with less demands on our working memory. We all know there's a myriad of things that require our attention in the classroom, so by practicing first outside of this space, we create better opportunities to think through strategically how we'll perform the technique.

[A title on a white background reads: Rehearsing the technique. Below are 3 navy boxes that state, ‘plan’, ‘rehearse’, and ‘feedback’. On the right is a graphic of the Evidence for Learning, ‘Effective professional development’ document.]

Another slide featured across all strategy learning modules, discusses the importance of a whole school approach to routines. When a group of expert teachers from across the school, come together and create a whole school approach, they are far more effective than when they go it alone.

We know that teaching routines save learning time can free up students' working memory, provide certainty and expectation for students to contribute to a learning environment where they're safe to participate, that they're efficient, because when done the same way across the school, students can learn the routine more quickly and that they foster a strong sense of belonging. This whole school approach also speaks to the important idea of collective efficacy in the school.

[A title on a white background reads: The importance of all moving together. Below are the dot points mentioned.]

Schools are best placed to determine which strategy to focus on to start with, based on their context and students. That being said, I'd like to share with you our thinking as to why we've released the Checking for Understanding Strategy learning module to start with.

[A title on a white background reads: Explicit teaching resources. Below is a graphic that states at the top: start here.

In the navy box, it reads: Workshops to build understanding of core content. Next to this are boxes labelled 1, 2 and 3.

An arrow on the left of this points downwards to a pink box that reads: Learning modules. Next to this is a box labelled ‘strategies’.

An arrow on the left of this points downwards to a white box that reads: Technique guides.]

Checking for Understanding, offers multiple benefits simultaneously. It has greater impact on student learning when used regularly during short cycles of learning, because it generates immediate and relevant feedback. So, this idea of checking for students understanding as learning is happening so we can be responsive to this, within the lesson. Another important feature is that it gets all students to think and it helps make this thinking visible, across every student in the classroom. This is critical so we can address misconceptions or flawed background knowledge and also acknowledge when students have developed accurate ways of thinking about the concepts they're learning, so we can move on with the lesson. Because checking for understanding, seeks for all students to be thinking, it can support students' participation and investment in the lesson. Checking for understanding is a great focus as it intersects frequently with all other explicit teaching strategies. For example, checking for understanding helps to expose the extent to which feedback is effective. It helps us recognise the way students have interpreted the learning intentions and success criteria for the lesson and it's crucially important when using a gradual release of responsibility.

[A title on a white background reads: Checking for understanding. Below is a blue box that states: Why check for understanding? Followed by 3 dot points:

• It informs teachers’ next steps in the lesson
• It elicits deeper student thinking
• It supports students’ engagement.]

When we try something new in the classroom and our students experience it for the first time, it might not have the desired impact, but over time the strategy should reveal more success.

Our learning modules offer advice about measuring success in the short, middle and longer term. Short-term success can be measured by looking for early indicators of changes in engagement and learning. For example, students may be harnessing their attention more effectively or are able to explain the purpose of their learning with increasing articulation. If we are seeing indicators that the focus in practice is having the desired impact, it may be worthwhile to interrogate what factors, could be influencing the gap between intention and outcome. As we evaluate medium and long-term success, we look for evidence of increased student achievement as indicated by things like significant increase in engagement and increased performance in assessment and growth data. The things we consider in the collection of this evidence, may include student learning data, formative assessments, teacher judgements, student work samples and pre and post-test data for units of work.

Our colleagues from the School Leadership Institute, have provided leaders and schools with material to engage with rigorous evaluation practices. We'll share these resources with you with the rest of our links this afternoon.

[A title on a white background reads: Evaluating success: what should be our early measures of impact?

Below is an arrow with two navy boxes inside of it. The first box represent short term success with the dot points as follows:

• Increased engagement
• Increased ability to articulate the lesson’s learning intention(s) and success criteria

The second box represents longer term success with the dot points as follows:

• Increased understanding
• Increased learning
• Student data indicates learning gains.]

Could I please say an enormous thanks to everyone who has attended this information session. We're excited to share with you resources that are available as we focus on strengthening explicit teaching practice in all of our schools. Could I please ask you to take a moment to provide your feedback and complete the short survey via the QR code or using the link in the Q and A? We'll return in 2 minutes and we'll leave you with our details for any questions, feedback or observations.

[A title on a white background reads: Feedback.

Below reads: Please complete the survey to help us improve future professional learning and provide further support.

On the right is a QR code to the Leading explicit teaching information session feeback survey (staff only).]

It has been 2 minutes, so, thank you to everyone who has been able to complete the survey for us. Your feedback is very valued and important to us in making sure that we are providing the best information for you as your leading explicit teaching in your school. Can I please ask for you to leave any questions that you may have in our Q and A and we'll send replies to unanswered questions to you or you may like to contact us via email and our email is listed on the screen here. Can I say again, a big thank you to everyone for your attendance this afternoon, and a thank you to the small but mighty, explicit teaching team who've been working behind the scenes in our webinar today. I hope things are smooth as we move towards the end of term four for you all and that you have a restful break and that we're able to share again with you in 2025. All the best and goodbye for now.

[A title on a navy background reads: Questions? Ask your questions in Q&A.

Below is another title that reads: Contact us. With the Curriculum Reform email: ContactCurriculumReform@det.nsw.edu.au.]

[End of transcript]