Guides & resources

As part of AERO's School Writing Instruction Framework (SWIF), this professional learning course aims to support school leaders in delivering evidence-based writing instruction across all subject areas in upper primary and secondary school classrooms.

As part of AERO’s School Writing Instruction Framework (SWIF), this professional learning course aims to support school leaders and teachers in delivering evidence-based writing instruction across all subject areas in upper primary and secondary classrooms.

This video demonstrates how teachers explain learning objectives in alignment with AERO’s model of teaching and learning. Learning objectives are concise statements that outline the goals of a lesson, a series of lessons or a learning activity. They specify what students are expected to learn and are expressed in language that is accessible to students, with any unfamiliar terms clearly explained.

This video demonstrates how teachers teach explicitly in alignment with AERO’s model of teaching and learning. Introducing new information is most effective when teachers break it down and teach it explicitly using explanation, demonstration and modelling, especially when students are new to that learning area. It involves teaching content explicitly in ways that manage cognitive load to support students with building foundational knowledge before they practise independently.

This video demonstrates how teachers scaffold practice in alignment with AERO’s model of teaching and learning. Supports – known as scaffolds – consist of guidance from the teacher and tools and resources the student can use. Scaffolds can be designed during planning (planned scaffolding) or introduced during lessons to respond to learning needs as they arise (contingent scaffolding). Teachers select and use scaffolds to support each phase of the learning process as students retain, consolidate and apply their learning.

This video demonstrates how teachers monitor progress in alignment with AERO’s model of teaching and learning. Monitoring students’ progress by checking for understanding helps you determine what they know and can do, identify gaps in their learning and adjust your teaching to meet their needs. It helps you create a learning environment where students feel safe and supported to be active participants in the learning process, and better equips you to provide valuable feedback.

This video demonstrates how teachers revisit and review student learning in alignment with AERO’s model of teaching and learning. Revisiting learning is the practice of regularly coming back to content that’s already been taught. Revisiting learning can activate prior knowledge to connect new learning with what students already know (from their previous learning at school, in the community and at home). Importantly, revisiting what’s been taught consolidates new learning.

This video demonstrates how teachers provide varied and spaced opportunities for students to practise their learning in alignment with AERO’s model of teaching and learning. Varying the ways students practise consolidates learning better than repeatedly practising in the same ways. Spacing out practice over time supports long-term retention and fluent recall by helping to manage cognitive load.

This video demonstrates how teachers can support students to organise their knowledge, aligning with AERO’s model of teaching and learning. When students have opportunities to organise and re-organise their knowledge in memory, and understand the connections between the ideas they learn about, they develop mental models in long-term memory that become easier to recall and apply widely in increasingly complex ways.

This video demonstrates how evidence-based practices can work together in a geography lesson where students are building on previous learning to describe barriers to improving human wellbeing. The sequence of teaching shown takes place in a Year 10 humanities classroom at Aveley Secondary College – a government school approximately 30 km north-east of Perth, on Wadjak Noongar Country.

This video takes place in a Year 1 classroom at Briar Road Public School – a government primary school in Airds, about an hour south-west of Sydney, on Dharawal Country. The sequence of teaching shown demonstrates how evidence-based practices can work together in a lesson where students are learning to split numbers into their place value parts to solve addition problems. The teacher models the procedure and then guides students to practise.

This video demonstrates how evidence-based practices can work together in a lesson to consolidate students’ use of conjunctions in writing. Students will draw on their growing knowledge of sustainable land management to complete writing tasks. The sequence of teaching shown takes place in a Year 5/6 classroom at Riverwood Public School – a government primary school approximately 25 km south-west of Sydney, on Dharug Country.