Translating the science of learning into bite-sized, actionable strategies for teachers is what gives the team leader of learning and innovation at a K-12 Perth school a tangible sense of impact – so much so he’s produced a new book to widen the positive ripple effect.

Released this year, Teaching One-Pagers has got the firm tick of approval from some of education’s biggest heavyweights, the likes of  Dylan Wiliam, Tom Sherrington and Professor John Hattie among others. 

Clark says the response to date has been terrific.

“There was definitely an appetite for it leading up to the publication, and since then, it’s hit the nail on the head with what teachers want,” he tells EducationHQ.

“It’s kind of a new wave of cognitive science that’s coming through education at the minute, where teachers want to know about the science of learning, and this is a very practical way of getting it out there.

“So, teachers have really embraced it.”

Multiple bulk orders have been coming through from the UK, too, Clark reports, with school leaders busily securing copies for whole staff teams and professional learning groups.

The idea behind ‘one-pagers’ has its roots in a short and sharp PD practice underway at Clark’s own school.

“We run something called ‘15 minute forums’, which is like a mini, informal professional Learning Forum in the morning before briefing,” Clark explains.

“We have a light breakfast out for the staff, and the presenter presents 15 minutes on an idea or a strategy … it’s a very concise, very short space and time to present in.

“So, giving a little one-page summary of the presentation as well really helps teachers, and from there we develop it into further conversations about focus areas in the school.”

Whether they be honing their formative assessment or questioning skills, or working towards another strategic goal, Clark says teachers love short and informal PD as a launchpad for improving their practice.

“That’s where it started: just putting ideas down onto A4 pages.”

Clark cites cognitive psychologist Daniel T Willingham’s book Why don’t students like school as a ‘standout’ and a resource that has been influential in clarifying his own understanding about how learning occurs in the brain.

“His [step by step] approach is very simplified in terms of the working memory and long-term memory.

“So, that kind of drew me into thinking about teaching teachers of this process, how learning actually happens.

“Because if they know that, they can then structure their teaching and learning practices around those concepts of limitations of working memory, and encoding information into long-term memory and those kind of ideas,” Clark says.

Also in Clark’s toolkit is Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli’s Teaching WalkThrus guides, which he suggests have been instrumental in guiding his knowledge of evidence-based teaching techniques.

“For instructional coaching and for putting those ideas into action, I think Teaching WalkThrus is incredibly practical and powerful.”

Although there is “a lot of good work” underway in Victoria and NSW in the push for the science of learning to inform all teachers’ instruction, Australia is lagging behind the UK on this front, the expat says.

“I think [Australia is] catching up. I don’t think it’s near the UK, yet – the UK is definitely excelling in terms of the teachers knowing about the science of learning and then embedding it into professional development and instructional coaching.

“They’re way ahead in that sense.”

In June, Victorian Education Minister Ben Carroll announced ‘the evidence is in’, unveiling a plan to embed explicit instruction and structured literacy in every public school.

Meanwhile, NSW has begun its biggest syllabus overhaul in 30 years as explicit teaching is rolled out in primary classrooms in a curriculum shift aimed at reversing sliding results.

“…[We now have] lots of prominent voices that are speaking about it, and we’ve got AERO," Clark adds. 

“They are doing some great work around cognitive science and getting the word out there." 

As the host of The Saturday Show Live on the Teachers Talk Teachers podcast, Clark says he makes a point not to delve into controversial topics or educational trends, and instead keeps discussion welded to evidence-backed pedagogy and learning with a solid peppering of actionable insights.

“It’s great. I mean, I love talking to educators…” he says of the gig.

“For me, it’s a way of talking about those things with other educators who are like-minded, and sharing those important ideas on a practical level that’s not too highbrow – it’s not too dense and packed with research.

“It’s kind of like taking the golden nuggets out of the research and talking about it on a practical level with a fellow teacher.”

Nevertheless, Clark is well aware of how the teacher shortage crisis might impact on schools’ drive for excellence.

It makes sense that there is a focus on teacher retention and not instructional improvement for some schools that are struggling to patch staffing holes, he says.

“I guess it goes hand in hand, really. If you need to keep your teachers and look after your teachers, and making it a sustainable thing is quite tough because the workload is really intense, [then] I feel sometimes the professional development falls off the edge.

“It’s the last thing people want to think about.

“They just want bums on seats, and they just want to get the basics right first…”

Clark is fully cognisant of the current workload pressures teachers are facing. This is precisely what drives his bid to distil research down into useable prompts.

“Teachers are really time poor, and big, dense research papers are very difficult to get through for any full-time teacher or part-time teacher.

“So, any way we can make that accessible, I think that’s probably where my interest [comes] from.”