Learning and Content

What students are taught, how it is designed and how it is delivered are among the most debated questions in education.

 This collection brings together research spanning curriculum design, instructional practice and the student learning experience across secondary schooling. It examines knowledge-rich approaches to student-centred models, examined through the lens of what sustains meaningful engagement in Years 7 to 9.

A Study of the Influences on Middle Years Teachers’ Pedagogical Decision Making

We know that students in Years 7 to 9 respond differently when teachers adapt their approach to the realities of adolescence — using inquiry-based learning,...

Outsourced curriculum planning to reduce teacher workload: Tracing the evolution of a policy solution.

In this paper, we trace the emergence of this positioning of teachers’ curriculum work, highlighting a trajectory in which discussions of centralised...

Secondary teachers’ perceptions of the importance of pedagogical approaches to support students’ behavioural, emotional and cognitive engagement.

The central question is whether teachers' stated pedagogical priorities align with the tri-dimensional framework of behavioural, emotional and cognitive...

Student learning: What has instruction got to do with it?

This review article from two Carnegie Mellon cognitive scientists surveys several decades of empirical research on one of the most contested questions in...

Why not have the best of both worlds? How to use direct instruction principles in inquiry-based instructional design

This is a practical commentary paper rather than an empirical study. Its argument is straightforward and deliberately conciliatory: instead of continuing the...

Beyond inquiry or direct instruction: Pressing issues for designing impactful science learning opportunities.

This paper is a rebuttal rather than a primary empirical study, which makes its structure and purpose somewhat different from the others in the collection. It...

Principles of instruction: Research-based strategies that all teachers should know.

This is one of the most cited and practically useful pieces in the instructional design literature. Barak Rosenshine, emeritus professor of educational...

Why that question? Reimagining classroom reading activities from the basis of what we understand about engaged reading

Drawing on six years of student focus groups and classroom observations across Victorian secondary schools, this practitioner-research piece captures something...

The Knowledge Revival: Why a Knowledge-rich Curriculum Matters for Deep Thinking

This report makes the case that a knowledge-rich curriculum is the most effective foundation for developing the complex cognitive skills — critical thinking,...