This style of teaching gets results, say governments. But resistance to it is growing

A backlash against the state and federal governments’ “evidence-based” teaching reforms is growing among teachers and academics, despite early claims they are raising test scores.

Jenny Donovan, chief executive of the Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO), will tell The Age Schools Summit next month that the job of reform is far from done and that governments should avoid complacency in the face of growing resistance to change.

The two big evidence-based education reforms of recent years – phonics and explicit learning at schools, and uniform standards for teacher training at universities – have been driven enthusiastically by the Victorian and federal governments respectively.

But the AERO chief told The Age that there was growing pushback among academics and teachers.

One of the leading critics of the evidence-based agenda – The University of Sydney’s Nikki Brunker – said opposition to what she called the new “orthodoxy” was gaining momentum.

Donovan will make her case at The Age Schools Summit at Melbourne’s Crown Conference Centre on June 10, which will once again bring together the state’s leading educators, policymakers, and thought leaders to tackle the most pressing challenges and opportunities in Victoria’s education landscape.

Keynote speakers this year include state Education Minister Ben Carroll, opposition education spokesman Brad Rowswell and Department of Education deputy secretary David Howes.

Donovan said her organisation, which is funded by the Commonwealth and state governments, had been a leading force for the evidence-based reforms beginning to sweep through Australia’s schools and universities.

“Since AERO was established five years ago, a lot of the jurisdictions around Australia have begun to move towards evidence-based practice, which is pretty exciting in education because we haven’t traditionally been so driven by evidence or science,” Donovan said.

Carroll used the 2024 summit to launch his evidence-based shake-up of literacy teaching in Victorian public schools, announcing at the event that children in the state would be taught to read through phonics, with the explicit learning model subsequently rolled out in other subjects.

Carroll seized upon the nation-leading performance of Victorian children in last year’s NAPLAN testing as early evidence the policies were working, but Donovan warned that not everybody was convinced.

“A couple of elements of the backlash come from higher education, from academics who have been associated with initial teacher education, and their view is there’s no problem to fix,