The Science of Reading promotes best educational practices in reading (and spelling) instruction for all students. The Science of Reading draws on empirically-validated evidence from the fields of Cognitive Science, Psychological Sciences, Psycholinguistics and Neurosciences.

Together, the Science of Reading provides a roadmap for educators to ensure that students are provided with research-informed, high-quality instruction from the very start, and at all stages of their education. Drawing heavily from the Cognitive Sciences, the Science of Reading aligns with a Response-to-Intervention model of practice. This means that all students, including those who struggle to learn to read, are offered instruction and intervention to ensure that they reach their maximum reading (and writing) potential.

The science of math is a movement that focuses on using objective evidence about how students learn math in order to make educational decisions and to inform policy and practice.

Similar to reading and writing, math proficiency can be thought of as a blend of concepts, procedures, strategies, reasoning, and disposition.

To help students experiencing math difficulty with math proficiency, teachers should, for example:

Use explicit instructions

Teach clear and concise math language

Use concrete, pictorial, and virtual representations

Use number lines for learning concepts and procedures

Provide deliberate instructions on solving word problems

Use times activities as one way to build math fluency

A knowledge-rich curriculum embraces ideas from cognitive science about memory, forgetting and the power of retrieval practice.

Students thrive with a broad, solid foundation of knowledge and vocabulary built from the first days of school in every subject area.

Cognitive Load Theory is the idea that the human brain can only process a small amount of new information at once.

If a student’s working memory is overloaded, there is a risk that they will not understand the content being taught.

Research from cognitive load theory has produced a number of instructional techniques that are directly transferable to the classroom.

Explicit instruction involves breaking down what students need to learn into smaller learning outcomes and modelling each step so that students can see what is expected of them.

Providing explicit instruction limits the mental effort for students allowing them to process new information more effectively.

See the AERO report on Explicit Teaching

Responsive teaching uses evidence from cognitive science and formative assessment and involves identifying what students have understood and where they are struggling. Then, responding and adapting teaching to support students to do better.

Understanding the science behind learning and memory can help teachers understand why spacing and retrieval practice are so effective in helping students learn and remember information.

Depending on the situation, spacing can strengthen learning, or make students less likely to be mentally exhausted, and retrieval practice can strengthen memories, or make them more likely to be retrieved and connected to new information later.

See AERO report on Spacing and Retrieval Practice

Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) is a framework that helps educators provide academic and behavioral strategies for students with various needs.

MTSS has evolved from the concept of ‘Response to Intervention’ (RtI). Since 2004, MTSS, a more comprehensive model than RtI, has become the dominant conceptualisation of intervention internationally.

A tiered intervention approach is data driven, allowing all students access to intervention based on need.