La Trobe’s School of Education, led by Professor Joanna Barbousas, has been at the forefront of evidence-informed approaches and structured literacy through short courses which have supported more than 11,000 teachers, many in Victoria.

Since 2020, La Trobe’s Science of Language and Reading (SOLAR) Lab has been instrumental in advising systems and assisting schools to adopt well-established scientific approaches to improve how they teach children to read.

The Lab’s work is premised on the critical importance of word decoding skills and language comprehension. Early reading skills strongly predict children’s educational and vocational trajectories and their chances of being part of the social and economic mainstream in adulthood.