The Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO) has developed a deliberate and structured approach to implementation that’s being used in Australian schools. We recently spoke to Matthew Pepi, Curriculum Learning Specialist and Implementation Coordinator at Chelsea Primary School in Melbourne. Matthew provides some insights into taking a deliberate approach to implementation and shares what’s on his mind at the start of the school year.
What are you implementing and how's it going so far?
For the past year, Chelsea Primary has been working on implementing explicit instruction in maths from Prep to Year 6.
To date, we’ve developed and monitored an implementation plan, held staff activities to identify and prioritise implementation enablers and barriers in our school and supported all teachers through professional learning modules. Our greatest achievements have been establishing a clear instructional teaching model in maths and embedding recurring coaching and modelling opportunities for all staff. We’ve also developed champion teachers (middle leaders) who support sustaining this practice and influencing school direction.
What’s been the value of using a deliberate and structured approach to implementation?
The implementation approach developed by AERO is easy to navigate and scaffolds opportunities to improve school-wide success through deliberate and sustainable practices. We could tailor it to suit our school context and priorities and the evidenced-based teaching practice we’re working on.
We’ve especially learned a lot from working with staff to identify the enablers and barriers in our school. This information helped us to establish action plans to address specific barriers and guided our next steps. For example, we took actions to address misconceptions (and build acceptability of explicit instruction among staff), and used implementation strategies like professional learning and coaching to ensure all teachers were using explicit instruction with fidelity.
What’s on your mind at the start of this school year?
To continue implementing explicit instruction this year, we’ll soon revisit the enablers and barriers activity and forward-plan accordingly. Our focus is on establishing strong explicit instruction routines for new teachers, sustaining existing routines for returning staff and celebrating last year’s achievements.
Nothing in education happens overnight, and nor will our ambitions for 2025. Meaningful change takes time. We encourage our teachers to breathe, monitor and reinforce behaviour expectations and focus on building positive connections with our students.
Do you have any advice for other school leaders?
My advice to school leaders is to trust the process. While it takes time to work through a deliberate and structured approach to implementation, the rewards are profound. Our focus on implementation and the activities we’ve undertaken have strengthened our collective capacity to become better-informed educators, teach with confidence, collaborate effectively and sustain evidence-based practices in the years ahead.
Learn more
AERO’s deliberate and structured approach to implementation is based on key concepts from implementation science research. The approach aims to help school leaders and teachers embed evidence-based teaching practices effectively. We're working with Australian schools to use this approach and we're sharing what we’re learning.
Watch this space for future implementation resources, including practice resources for school leaders that will be available in late March.