Free course equips teachers with Explicit Teaching skills

Teachers will be able to upskill for free with a new microcredential course focused on explicit teaching, released this week by the University of Adelaide.

Evidenced-based and developed by experts, the new course will help to further empower teachers in the classroom and improve outcomes for their students.

The Explicit Teaching Microcredential will give teachers strategies to plan, implement and assess explicit teaching methods and adapt them to help students with different needs.

The evidence shows explicit instruction is a very efficient strategy for helping students learn by breaking down new information into smaller learning outcomes and modelling each step.

It is a focus of many reforms, including the Better and Fairer Schools Agreement and changes being made to strengthen initial teacher education.

The Albanese Government is investing more than $3 million in funding to the University of Adelaide to design and deliver microcredentials courses for teachers.

The Explicit Teaching Microcredential follows on from the first microcredential in Classroom Management, which went live earlier this year. 

After three months:

• over 1,280 educators had enrolled in the classroom management microcredential, across all states and territories
• 414 educators had begun the four-module course and completed at least one assessment task, and
• 46 educators had completed the entire microcredential – a total of 48 hours of learning.

A further microcredential, Teaching Phonics, will be rolled out in early 2025. 

Over 2,600 educators have registered interest in the overall microcredential program.

The free courses will provide vital professional development opportunities for teachers, school leaders and other school staff.

The qualifications will offer teachers a potential credit pathway towards post-graduate study with the School of Education at the University of Adelaide.

This investment is part of the National Teacher Workforce Action Plan and builds on the Government’s Engaged Classrooms initiative, which is developing free classroom management resources for teachers.

The self-paced online course can be completed in the teacher’s own time, at their own pace, to fit in around their other commitments.

For more information visit the University of Adelaide website.

Quotes attributable to Minister for Education Jason Clare:

“The reading wars are over. We know evidence-based teaching methods work and this free short course will help teachers in the classroom.

“This will support teachers and help to improve how students learn how to read and write and do maths.”