Well-measurED: Evidence-Based Instruction with Professor Pamela Snow
Table of contents
Table of Contents
The evidence that schools overlooked: what’s at stake when teaching ignores the research
This observation cuts to the heart of a debate that has shaped classrooms across regions for decades. Teacher autonomy and school-level flexibility have long been valued as strengths of the education system. Professor Pamela Snow’s work asks what those strengths have cost the students who depend most on consistent, structured, evidence-based teaching to reach the same outcomes as their peers.
In this conversation with Dr Jill McGuire and James Santure, Snow draws on decades of research to examine why evidence-based instruction is not a step backwards, what happens to students when foundational learning has gaps, and why the distance between what the research shows and what happens in classrooms has proved so difficult to close.
She also looks at what it takes for school leaders to close that gap in practice: not just accessing research, but building communities of practice, visiting schools already further along the change journey, and creating conditions where teachers are genuinely supported through a sometimes significant shift in how they teach.
This is a direct, evidence-grounded conversation for school leaders who want to understand what the research asks of them, and what getting this right looks like on the ground.
“You can’t have high variability and high quality; you’ve got to choose one.” — Professor Pamela Snow
What this episode covers:
- Why evidence-based instruction reflects the complexity of how novice learners build knowledge, rather than a return to simpler teaching.
- The “Swiss cheese” phenomenon: how gaps in foundational learning compound over time, and what schools can do about it.
- Why the current momentum toward evidence-informed practice is increasingly coming from teachers, not from policy reform.
- What school leaders can do to support their staff through a significant shift in practice, including visiting schools already further along the change journey.
- How technology adoption in schools has followed the same pattern as other approaches that got ahead of the evidence.
- What a shared understanding of evidence actually requires, and why it matters before schools move to tool selection.
About the guest
Professor Pamela Snow is a University Distinguished Professor of Cognitive Psychology and co-director of the Science of Language and Reading Lab (SOLAR) at La Trobe University. Named one of Australia’s five most powerful people in education by the Australian Financial Review, she has spent decades researching how language and literacy skills shape academic success and life outcomes, with a particular focus on students facing disadvantage. She is a registered psychologist, maintains The Snow Report blog, and SOLAR’s online short courses have been completed by close to 13,000 educators.
Meet the hosts
Dr Jill McGuire and James Santure host Well-MeasurED, Education Perfect’s interview series exploring what the evidence says about teaching, learning and the tools schools use. Jill leads Learning Innovation at EP; James leads Product Impact. Both bring years of experience working alongside teachers and school leaders across Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
Dr. Jill McGuire
Group Head, Learning Innovation, Education Perfect
James Santure
Head of Product Impact, Education Perfect
Resources
Further resources
Don’t have time to listen to the entire episode? Read the blog diving into this episode’s key takeaways.
More from Well-MeasurED
Professor Pamela Snow is one of several guests in the Well-MeasurED interview series exploring what we know works to improve student outcomes, and what doesn’t hold up under scrutiny. Find the other episodes here.
