Teaching and Learning Update

You might be aware that, over the last six months, our school has started to make some changes to the way that we teach. Your children may have come home from school talking about how some lessons are taught differently, using new resources and materials.

These changes are not just taking place at SKiPPS. In schools across Australia, there is a growing focus on something called the ‘Science of Learning’ – the research into how learning takes place and the practical implications this has for the classroom.

A major recommendation of the Science of Learning is the key role of ‘Explicit Instruction’ - teachers clearly showing students what to do and how to do it, rather than having students discover that information themselves.

This year St Kilda Park are participating in a project with LaTrobe University on the implementation of the Science of Learning. This Momentum project has already seen a team of teachers undertake extensive professional learning led by Dr. Nathaniel Swain from LaTrobe and, later in the year, we will undertake visits to partner schools to learn about and share best practice.

You may have read last year that the Victorian Education Department has introduced a new Teaching and Learning Model based on this research and centred around the role of explicit instruction.

“The evidence is clear from Victorian schools and reviews conducted by research organisations like the Australian Education Research Organisation and the Grattan Institute – showing explicit teaching works best for the largest number of students, particularly capturing those who may be struggling.”

As part of our commitment to providing the best learning experience for your child and to form strong partnerships between school and home, we are keen to share some more information about these changes – why we have taken them, what they involve and what this means for your children. 

Over the next few weeks in our newsletter we will try to summarise some of the research and science that lies behind these changes and some greater detail about the implications for teaching and learning at our school. 

Next week we will summarise some information about how learning happens and the key role of working memory in this process.

Jac Morphy

Assistant Principal - Curriculum and Instruction