Teaching Matters Summit: Day One delivers rich insights and invaluable content

The first day of the Teaching Matters Science of Learning National Summit got off to a spectacular start. Catholic Education Tasmania (CET) Executive Director, Dr Gerard Gaskin, commenced proceedings welcoming over 400 educators and leaders from around the country to engage with global experts in the best practice teaching methodologies founded in the Science of Learning.

Professor Pamela Snow kicked off the keynote presentations, speaking on the importance of reading and its distinction from literacy. She illustrated the benefits of applying public health principles to education and reading instruction and what Response to Intervention looks like. Professor Snow emphasised why progress monitoring and evidence needs to underpin the education system to the benefit of society.

Professor Snow was followed by an insightful opening address from Catholic Education Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn (CECG) Director, Ross Fox. With three years’ of evidence-based High Impact Teaching Practice in the classroom throughout the system of 56 schools across NSW and ACT, Ross provided tangible data illustrating the significant improvement in student performance since the inception of Catalyst.

Dr Gerard Gaskin described the Insight journey, sharing early assessment data providing material evidence of improvement in their schools after only twelve months of engaging with the program. 

The CEO of the Australian Education Research Organisation, Jenny Donovan, spoke about the growing evidence for cognitive science backed teaching methodology, challenging the attendees to consider the barriers to implementing this methodology and providing strategies to overcome them.

The audience was then joined live by Tom Sherrington from the UK who shared a simplified model for everyday teaching, supporting every child to focus, think and grow knowledge through practice.

Day One ended with a lively Science of Learning (SoL) panel discussion, chaired by Dr Jenny Donovan. Panellists Glenn Fahey, Jordana Hunter, Dr Lorraine Hammond, Ross Fox and Dr Gerard Gaskin articulated the importance of teacher education and support at a system and university level. The conversation encompassed the value of high integrity curriculum to reduce variation and enable the teacher to focus on the student and their pedagogy.