Science of Reading
This resource explains the Simple View of Reading (SVR) framework and its connection to Scarborough’s Reading Rope, showing how decoding and language comprehension work together to support skilled reading.
Cognitive Load Theory
This paper (CESE, 2017) explains how Cognitive Load Theory helps teachers design instruction that aligns with cognitive sciences, how the brain processes information, reducing unnecessary mental effort, and improving learning outcomes through explicit, structured teaching.
Principles of Instruction
This resource presents ten evidence-based teaching principles that support effective learning, emphasizing daily review, small steps, guided practice, and checking for understanding to help students master new material.
Connecting early language and literacy to later reading
This foundational paper introduces the Reading Rope model (Scarborough, 2001), showing how early language and literacy skills intertwine to support fluent reading, and how weaknesses in these strands can lead to later reading difficulties.
Science of Language and Reading (SOLAR)
This article (Snow, 2020) presents the Science of Language and Reading (SOLAR) framework, highlighting oral language as the foundation of reading development and advocating for evidence-based instruction that integrates language, literacy, and social-emotional wellbeing.
Inquiry-based approach harm students' learning
The Centre for Independent Studies’ paper, Why Inquiry-Based Approaches Harm Students’ Learning (Sweller, 2021) argues that inquiry-based learning—where students discover information with minimal guidance—is less effective than explicit instruction, as it overloads working memory and lacks empirical support, leading to lower academic performance.
Explicit Direct Instruction
This resource explains how evidence-based Explicit Direct Instruction (EDI) uses clear teacher modelling, guided practice, and independent tasks to help all students master new concepts through structured, step-by-step teaching. EDI is the pedagogical model used here at Victorian College for the Deaf.
Direct Instruction
This resource outlines the evidence-based Direct Instruction (DI) model, a highly structured, scripted teaching approach designed to ensure all students learn through repetition, immediate feedback, and mastery-based progression. Victorian College for the Deaf use Direct Instruction resources to teach literacy and numeracy from Foundation to Year 10.
VTLM 2.0
The Victorian Teaching and Learning Model (VTLM 2.0) emphasises evidence-based practices, particularly explicit teaching, to enhance student learning by aligning instructional strategies with cognitive science, neuroscience, and educational psychology insights.
Bilingual Science (STEAM) Deaf Education
This case study highlights a ground-breaking partnership between Science Gallery Melbourne (at the University of Melbourne) and Victorian College for the Deaf which co-designs and delivers bilingual STEAM workshops in Auslan and English through the Explicit Direct Instruction (EDI) model to engage Deaf students in hands-on science learning and improve equitable access to the science curriculum. The two-way partnership was established in 2020 and is ongoing.
Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS)
This resource introduces Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) as a structured framework for identifying and supporting students with literacy, numeracy, and wellbeing needs through evidence-based instruction and interventions delivered across three tiers.
The Reading Guarantee (Grattan Institute)
This report outlines a national evidence-based strategy to ensure 90% of Australian students become proficient readers, calling for explicit instruction in phonics, a knowledge-rich curriculum, universal screening, targeted intervention, and system-wide support across all Australian schools.
Teach Like A Champion
This book presents 62 practical, evidence-informed teaching techniques focused on high expectations, student engagement, and classroom management to help all students succeed.
Sharing Best Practice
Sharing Best Practice (SBP) is a not-for-profit education movement in Australia that brings together teachers, allied health professionals, and researchers at conferences and workshops to exchange scientifically backed pedagogical strategies and the latest evidence-based teaching practices.
Deaf Mental Health (2025)
Both studies (McRae et al., 2025) found that deaf Australian adults who lacked early access to signed communication (particularly in families and schools without sign language) faced long-lasting negative mental health impacts, underscoring the urgent need for early inclusive communication, deaf spaces, and supportive interventions from childhood. Click on two links above to access both articles.
Science of Learning
Watch Lorraine Hammond’s presentation exploring the research-based ‘Science of Learning’ and its implications for teaching and learning. It is an evidence-based framework that draws on cognitive psychology and neuroscience to show how students best acquire, retain, and apply knowledge.
Five from Five
Five from Five is an Australian initiative, supported by the Academy for the Science of Instruction, that offers free, evidence‑based resources and professional learning to ensure every child receives systematic instruction in the five essential components of reading—phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension .
AERO Report (2025)
The AERO report reveals that English as an Additional Language (EAL) students in public schools typically require several years—averaging six years for beginners—to attain the English proficiency necessary for equitable curriculum participation, with progress influenced by factors such as socio-educational disadvantage, refugee background, gender, and the age at which they commence schooling.