Professional Learning Day
Teach, Track, Respond: Reflections from our Professional Learning Day
On Wednesday 20 May, teaching staff came together for a whole-school professional learning day focused on strengthening one of the most impactful elements of our classroom practice: active student participation during the New Knowledge phase of lessons.
Auburn has a well-established culture of evidence-informed teaching. Our GANAG instructional model is visible across every classroom, with 91% of staff affirming in the 2025 Staff Opinion Survey that they ‘use an explicit pedagogical model to guide [their] practice’. Similarly, our last School Strategic Review in 2023 celebrated GANAG’s visibility across the school as a particular strength of our teaching and learning program. The work of this professional learning day was to build on that foundation, shifting from GANAG as a familiar structure to GANAG implemented with even greater fidelity and impact. This aligns directly with our School Strategic Plan priority (KIS 1a) and the Department of Education’s Victorian Teaching and Learning Model 2.0 (VTLM 2.0), which affirms that our existing approach remains fit-for-purpose while challenging us to deepen its application to be responsive to student learning needs.
A central message of the day was that learning is an active process. Drawing on cognitive science, including Daniel Willingham’s model of memory and cognitive load theory, staff explored why it is students, not teachers, who must do the thinking in order for learning to ‘stick’. Research tells us that for knowledge to be encoded from working memory into long-term memory, students need to actively engage with it: by writing, discussing, responding, and retrieving. Simply listening is not sufficient.
With this in mind, staff developed their skills in five key ‘checking for understanding’ techniques informed by the work of instructional coach Bronwyn Ryrie-Jones – Pair Share, Stop & Jot, Hinge Questions, Cold Call, and Choral Response. Many of these techniques are already in use across our classrooms. The focus was on refining their application: understanding the nuances that make the technique most effective in improving learning outcomes. Importantly, the day also emphasised consistency: when these techniques become predictable routines across subjects, students spend less cognitive energy working out what’s expected of them and more energy on the learning itself.
Underpinning all of this is a commitment to ensuring that the benefits of participation reach every student, not just those who volunteer an answer. When a teacher checks understanding and a student discovers that their thinking was correct, that moment of success is a powerful motivator. It builds confidence, reinforces effort, and signals to the student that they are both capable and keeping up. Research presented on the day highlighted that we often think about motivation the wrong way around, assuming students need to feel motivated before they can achieve, when in reality it is the experience of achievement that generates motivation. Structured checks for understanding are our mechanism for creating those moments of success intentionally and equitably. The student who eagerly volunteers is rarely the one who most needs to hear the feedback that their thinking is correct. It is often the quieter, less confident student who needs that feedback most. By embedding regular, structured participation into every lesson, we aim to ensure that encouragement, feedback, and affirmation get to the students who need it most, rather than defaulting to those who seek it out.
In the weeks ahead, students can expect to see these techniques used more deliberately and consistently across classrooms. We look forward to hearing more voices, more often.
This year has marked the official launch of our new student-led program, RWEI, Real World Education Initiative. The program was created to give students the chance to hear directly from people with real world experience across different areas, including business, leadership, education, politics, advocacy, and community service.
From 13 to 15 May, Auburn High School and Unley High School in Adelaide proudly inaugurated the first exchange program between our two French bilingual programs.
