Same, Same, but Different
Why We Need a Secondary Science of Learning Network at Think Forward Educators
By Olivia Grant
AI was used to support editing and proofreading. All ideas, arguments and conclusions are the author's own.
In recent years, evidence-informed practice has gained significant momentum across Australian education. Increasing numbers of schools are exploring explicit instruction, knowledge-rich curriculum, predictable classroom routines and the science of learning. Yet while many examples of sustained implementation are emerging, secondary educators often find themselves asking a different question:
What does this work look like in a large, complex secondary setting?
The challenges of implementation are not identical across sectors, and secondary schools require opportunities to learn from others navigating the same terrain. This brings us to an important question. Why are there not more secondary schools that have successfully embedded evidence-informed practice across an entire organisation?
Is it because there are fewer passionate educators in secondary schools? Less hard-working teachers? Less knowledgeable leaders?
Clearly not.
I would suggest there are equally passionate educators, who are equally hard-working and equally knowledgeable. I know many secondary educators who are deeply committed to the science that underpins effective learning. So perhaps the better question is not why secondary schools have been slower to adopt evidence-informed approaches, but whether we have underestimated the unique challenges they face.
Same, Same, but Different
The argument I want to make is that primary and secondary schools are same, same, but different.
Yes, they both aim to educate young people. However, secondary schools have structural, cultural and organisational features that are distinct from those found in primary settings. I am not suggesting that one context is more difficult than the other. Rather, they are different. If we want to achieve successful implementation of evidence-informed practice in secondary schools, we need solutions that align with the realities of secondary education. That requires leaders who understand three things deeply:
The secondary school terrain
The science underpinning how humans learn
The architecture of successful organisational change
The structural, social and cultural characteristics unique to secondary settings include:
Highly complex timetables
A broader range of disciplines and subjects
Larger populations of staff and students
Students taught by multiple teachers each week
Teachers responsible for large numbers of students across multiple classes
Significant movement between rooms and learning spaces
Rising rates of adolescent mental health challenges
Greater student access to technology, both at school and at home
The pressures and incentives created by senior secondary assessment systems
Students arriving from diverse primary school experiences
Wide variation in student readiness for secondary curriculum demands
Taken individually, none of these challenges are insurmountable, yet taken together they create a landscape that requires thoughtful, context-specific solutions.
Nine Years Behind
A Year 8 student struggling with reading, writing and numeracy is not two years into secondary school. They are nine years into their education. And it is likely they have been struggling for much of that time in a system that has repeatedly asked them to do things they have never been adequately taught how to do. Imagine what that feels like.
Day after day, lesson after lesson, they move from Science to Humanities to Mathematics to English being asked to read, write, think and communicate at levels beyond their current capabilities. Often, the adults around them do not fully understand the extent of their difficulties. These students can become labelled as lazy, disengaged, difficult or incapable when the reality is often far more complex.
Secondary schools bear the weight of what happens when students arrive having experienced years of cumulative disadvantage. Stanovich's Matthew Effect is no longer a theory discussed in professional learning sessions; it is sitting in classrooms every day.
I believe these students are among the most vulnerable in our education system.
Research consistently shows that students who leave school without strong literacy, numeracy and knowledge foundations face significantly poorer life outcomes. Yet many of these young people have learned something else during their years at school: that learning is frustrating, that success belongs to other people, and that adults who promise to help often cannot.
This is not because there is something wrong with them but because too many students have not received the instruction they needed when they needed it. When viewed through this lens, it is perhaps unsurprising that many secondary schools are grappling daily with school refusal, disengagement, challenging behaviour and poor wellbeing outcomes.
These are not separate issues and they are often the downstream consequences of students struggling to access learning for many years.
The Implementation Challenge
Alongside these student challenges sit the implementation challenges faced by schools seeking to improve.
These include:
Supporting a workforce that has often received inconsistent preparation through Initial Teacher Education (ITE)
Building shared understanding around effective instruction
Designing and implementing coherent, knowledge-rich curriculum
Developing high-quality curriculum resources
Moving from inquiry-based approaches towards more explicit approaches when teaching novice learners
Providing effective professional learning for new and existing staff
Sustaining change despite limited time, funding and competing priorities
Implementation science tells us that most large-scale change efforts fail. When we combine this reality with the complexity of secondary schooling, it becomes easier to understand why many schools feel they are climbing a steep hill.
Uphill, yes, but not insurmountable.
Schools in Australia and internationally have demonstrated that meaningful change is possible. Some of the most inspiring examples have emerged from contexts serving highly disadvantaged communities, proving that circumstance alone does not determine success.
Why We Need to build a Secondary Community
This is why I believe secondary educators need spaces where they can learn from one another. Not because secondary schools are incapable of improvement. Not because the answers already exist somewhere waiting to be copied.
The challenges of implementation in secondary settings are distinct enough to warrant dedicated collaboration and a secondary science of learning network would provide opportunities for teachers and leaders to:
Share implementation successes and failures
Learn from schools navigating similar challenges
Examine evidence together
Develop practical, context-specific solutions
Build professional relationships with others doing the same work
Most importantly, it would remind educators that they are not undertaking this journey alone. The stakes are too high for us to work in isolation. There are thousands of young people sitting in secondary classrooms today whose futures depend on schools getting this work right. Together, we can improve outcomes for those students, and together, we can build secondary schools where every student has a genuine opportunity to succeed.
If you are keen to join the network and discussion - click on this link: TFE Secondary SOL Network. We are more than a little excited to connect with like-minded educators who are keen to develop evidence-based excellence across the secondary sector.