With explicit teaching gaining renewed attention across Australia, many schools are being encouraged to adopt more structured, evidence-based approaches in the classroom.
However, one of the key challenges is not understanding what explicit teaching is, but how to implement it consistently in practice.
Haileybury has developed a structured Explicit Teaching program that breaks this down into a clear, repeatable framework used across classrooms — including defined lesson phases such as “I Do, We Do, You Do”, warm-ups that build automaticity, and what they call the ‘six givens’ that underpin effective learning.
These include setting high expectations, creating and managing relationships and setting a positive classroom tone.
Importantly, the approach is demonstrated through real classroom footage, showing how these strategies translate into practice across different year levels and subject areas.
Grenville Green is Haileybury’s Deputy Principal (Junior School). Since joining Haileybury in 2004, Green has been at the forefront of shaping innovative teaching practices that make a real difference at the school. From his early days as Literacy and Junior School Coordinator to leading Haileybury’s celebrated Explicit Teaching Model as Head of Junior School, Green’s initiatives have made a meaningful difference.
His work has inspired teachers at over 40 schools across Australia, and as Deputy Principal (Junior School) since 2020, he has continued to drive collaboration, coaching, and a relentless focus on improving outcomes for every student.
Below, The Educator speaks to Green about why explicit teaching is back in focus, the gap between theory and classroom implementation, and what effective teaching actually looks like in practice.
TE: Why is explicit teaching back in focus?
Explicit teaching works! The reason explicit teaching is experiencing renewed attention is because it’s proven effectiveness to deliver strong, measurable learning outcomes for students, particularly in literacy and numeracy. Other professions, such as medicine and engineering, are driven by evidence-based practice to ensure the best results. Too often, education has been influenced by trends or fads that lack solid evidence, often taking the focus away from quality teaching and learning. Teachers, schools and education systems that have implemented explicit teaching effectively, have seen significantly improved student outcomes.
TE: How can the gap between theory and classroom implementation be reconciled?
Bridging the gap between research and classroom practice can be challenging. Over the past 20 years at Haileybury we’ve continually looked to not only understand the ‘why’ and the ‘what’ of explicit teaching, we’ve constantly explored the ‘how’. How do we translate the theory into classroom practice? How do we develop teaching frameworks to move learning to long term memory? How do our lesson structures best embed explicit teaching? Over time, we’ve developed and embedded frameworks, lesson structures and routines that incorporate what research shows works, into our everyday teaching and learning. This has also become an integral part of professional learning, instructional coaching and pee observations.
TE: What does effective teaching actually look like in practice?
Effective teaching is purposeful, clear, and is responsive to students’ needs and understanding. In practice, it involves setting clear learning intentions, modelling concepts step-by-step (I Do), actively checking for understanding, providing timely feedback and support as students build confidence through worked examples (We Do), through to embedding their learning with growing independence (You Do). Learning doesn’t finish at the end of the lesson. It is revised through subsequent retrieval practice and application through lesson Warm Ups, ensuring students not only embed their learning, but can apply it flexibly to differing contexts. Effective teaching also fosters a safe and focused learning environment, where students feel comfortable to take on challenges and grow their skills and confidence.
TE: What are some structured teaching approaches being embedded at scale in junior schools?
Our Junior School classes use consistent frameworks for explicit teaching. We follow a consistent set of ‘6 Givens’ which help facilitate a safe, focused learning environment underpinned by relationships and high expectations. Learning is strengthened through Warm Ups, which build fluency of core skills as well as support students to embed recent learning to long term memory. All lessons follow a clear, consistent lesson structure which is breaks learning into explicit steps through an I Do, We Do, You Do model of gradual release. The clarity and consistency of our explicit teaching structures support teachers across classes, subject areas and campuses to have a shared understanding of effective practice. This consistent approachsupports teachers to collaborate, co-create and share planning and resources for the benefit of students across Melbourne campuses and Darwin.
TE: What do schools need to do to move from concept to consistency?
Moving from concept to consistency requires a whole-school commitment and shared understanding of effective teaching practices. Something that is vital, is to have a clear understanding of what quality explicit teaching looks like at the classroom level. Both at Haileybury, and with the 100+ schools across Australia that we’ve worked with over the past 20 years, observing and having a clear picture of effective explicit teaching in action is so important. To support this, we’ve built online professional learning courses that include video demonstrations of our programs across year levels and subject areas. This helps teachers understand the ‘why’, the ‘what’ and importantly to see the ‘how’ in action. It also allows teachers to reflect and refer back to videos and support materials as they grow their knowledge and implementation of explicit teaching. Following the success of our ‘Phonics 101’ online course, we’re excited to share our ‘Explicit Teaching 101’ course, available to teachers both within and beyond Haileybury.
TE: Why does structure matter in teaching?
Education is immensely important, and the way teachers teach shouldn’t be treated as a ‘choose your own adventure’. Structure provides predictability and clarity for both students and teachers. A well-structured lesson reduces confusion, manages cognitive load, and makes learning intentions explicit, which leads to better outcomes for student learning. For students, structure creates a safe environment where expectations are clear, boosting confidence and engagement. Having consistent structure also supports students as they move between subjects and year levels. For teachers, it provides alignment with their teaching teams, ensuring they are working with a consistent understanding of effective teaching and learning. Clear alignment of structures supports collaboration, which in turn reduces teacher workload. A new teacher to the school expressed to me, “I love the clarity of what I’m teaching and how I’m teaching it. It allows me the opportunity to focus more specifically on supporting and challenging the needs of my students.”