Explicit Teaching

Explicit teaching

What is explicit teaching?

Explicit teaching encompasses a range of instructional practices which deconstruct and demystify the learning process for students. It is particularly helpful for reducing cognitive burden when students are introduced to new concepts or content as it frees up students’ working memory. As a result, students can experience greater success when moving on to more complex tasks which build on the new conceptual knowledge.

These practices are beneficial for a wide spectrum of learners, from EAL/D students and those receiving Learning Support, to highly capable students. Evidence suggests that gifted learners benefit from experiencing explicit teaching practices in the early stages of learning a new skill or concept. They are better equipped with the necessary foundational knowledge to successfully engage in open-ended and complex tasks at a later stage in the unit.

Explicit teaching practices include:

• Learning intentions and Success Criteria (particularly student-constructed Success Criteria);

• Teaching and Learning Cycle (modelled, joint and independent construction);

• Activating prior knowledge;

• Frontloading important vocabulary and conceptual information;

• Systematic and well-sequenced lessons and activities;

• Ongoing formative assessment which pinpoints student understanding and informs teacher guidance and support through the students’ Zone of Proximal Development; and

• Questioning students - to check concepts, to review learning, to assess student understanding, to challenge thinking and facilitate higher-order thinking.

These strategies form ‘pedagogical pathways’ that model, scaffold, and provide opportunities for students to practise and master new skills and concepts. The Victorian Department of Education has identified a number of explicit teaching practices as being High Impact Teaching Strategies, as summarised in their publication: https://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/teachingresources/practice/improve/Pages/hits.aspx

Explicit teaching is evidence-based best practice

Lyn Sharratt asserts that teaching instruction is the strongest predictor of student achievement. Several studies have found that students who received explicit teaching achieved significantly higher academically than their peers who did not. A longitudinal project in North America found that students who received explicit teaching had ongoing higher academic and positive affect scores, several years after the original instruction had been provided. They were also much more likely to attend university.

Australian research indicates that students who identified receiving explicit teaching practices achieved higher scores in both NAPLAN and PISA assessments.

John Hattie’s analysis of effective methodologies found that explicit teaching yielded an effect size of 0.59 on student achievement.

Balancing teacher instruction and independent practice

Consideration should be given to when, and how much, teacher instruction should be balanced with the provision of opportunities for independent activities, or application of the new knowledge, skills or understanding. PISA scores were highest for students who had received a combination of explicit instruction and independent activities, compared with students who undertook a high number of inquiry-based learning activities with relatively little teacher instructions.

Mariani (1997) introduced the idea of high challenge being combined by high support, so that students are scaffolded through their Zone of Proximal Development to achieve beyond their present individual capacity.