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by Pak Chan
In early August, the Australian education sector received its report card – the 2025 NAPLAN results had been released, and they paint a picture not-so-bright about the learning outcomes of students.
Nationally, 11.5% of Year 9 students require ‘additional support’ for Reading, while in the Territory, it is 37.9%. The same also occurred in numeracy for Year 9 students, where 10.2% of students require additional support, while it is 38.2% in the NT.
Students in the Northern Territory had scored the lowest in every subject across every year level in Australia, and it has sounded the alarm for policymakers to act.
Earlier in June, the NT Government had introduced a mandate for explicit teaching in primary and middle schools – a teaching method that involves clear scaffolding of lesson plans and direct instructions for students from teachers. Explicit teaching is often compared with inquiry-based learning, where students are encouraged to explore problems themselves under teacher supervision.
Dr Andrew Martin is an expert in education psychology from New South Wales, a state that has also taken on the explicit teaching approach last year. He said that explicit teaching is a way where students could feel empowered, as evidence shows that students achieve more under an explicit approach.
Dr Martin said that explicit Teaching is an evidence-based approach (Supplied)
“Students like keeping up with the class… and when they understand what the teacher is saying, and they can do what the teacher is asking them to do in class, they feel like they belong,” he said.
Dr Martin said the approach is often confused with the old teaching method of ‘direct instructions’, where students are told directly what to do and have very little room for exploration. He said that the new model of explicit teaching will enable teachers to give explicit instructions while preserving room for student-led problem-solving.
“[Explicit instruction] is when students are learning something new, teachers engage in quite systematic and linear instructions,” he said, “and when the teacher is satisfied, that’s when they will move them on to independent tasks and problem solving.”
But the new approach that has been embraced by state and territory governments around the nation has also drawn criticisms from experts. Professor Alan Reid from the University of South Australia said the reality is that teachers use more than one approach when teaching, and putting two teaching methods against each other harms education.
“Undoubtedly, in the early years [of education], you would tend more to explicit teaching a little bit more than you would later on,” he said.
“But only focusing on explicit teaching in the early years means that students are hampered at the most critical times of their development, when they’re learning how to think.”
Dr Reid said that the push for explicit teaching mandates from governments across the nations stems from the standardisation of education – a system he said is damaging education outcomes for children.
“Everything conforms in this standardising approach, and explicit teaching, I think, fits into that,” he said.
“No body is saying that [literacy and numeracy] are not important, but such a focus [tends] to narrow the curriculum down.”
“Rather than closing down, [we need to start] opening up to get students excited about learning,”
The Student Spotlight spoke to a group of students from the Darwin High School Student Representative Council, and it was a mix of responses when they were asked about how they learn best.
Member Wil Gow said that the teaching methods teachers use depend on who the students are.
“All teachers are different…. Some teachers would tell you exactly what to do, but also kind of let you do it,” they said.
But one thing all the members could agree on was that NAPLAN is not taken seriously by students, hence the grim picture it paints.
“I have siblings who are doing NAPLAN, and they do not care,” member Nova Sobby told the Student Spotlight, “If they don’t do well, there [are] no consequences or anything.”
To achieve better learning outcomes, Dr Martin is urging more explanation and communication from policymakers to teachers and schools about the explicit teaching approach.
“Schools are pretty much on board with this, provided that researchers and policymakers take the time to explain what they mean by explicit instruction,” he said. “We need to guard against the misconception that [explicit teaching] is direct instruction.”
But Dr Reid suggests that the changes that need to take place are more systemic.
“We’ve got to move away from that standardising agenda. We’ve got to support our teachers in thinking about new ways of teaching and supporting them in doing that [by] providing the resources,” he said.
