Pilbara schools trained in high-performance program

A world expert in a high-performance education program visited Karratha to share his expertise with a handful of local schools earlier this month.

Dataworks lead consultant Joe Ybarra spent a week delivering classes, workshops and coaching sessions on Explicit Direct Instruction, a learning approach founded by his family, to hundreds of students and educators in the region.

The sessions were hosted by Baynton West Primary School, , which opened them up to several other schools in the City of Karratha area.

Baynton West Primary principal Lisa Ledger said the program had attracted a lot of interest from local teachers and students.

“EDI is all about developing higher-order thinking in students, so students can take their learning to the next level, and teaching teachers how to facilitate that,” she said.

“Teachers are already pretty good at doing that, but this is just moving to the next level.”

EDI is a research-based learning program based on prompting students to ask questions and engage at a higher level in the classroom.

It was developed by Mr Ybarra’s parents and is now taught through their family business, based in the US.

His parents have also published a book on the method.

Mr Ybarra said EDI could help schools boost academic results and student engagement.

“When implemented correctly, you see tremendous growth in schools. You see a lot of students getting positive results so they’re more engaged, are more active participants, and are more likely to want to be part of a productive learning environment,” he said.

“Teachers have been really excited about it, but now the hard work comes, which is the actual implementation, through gaining the confidence and automaticity to deliver these strategies.”

As well as Baynton West Primary, Tambrey, Peg’s Creek and Karratha primary schools and Karratha Senior High School also took part in the training.

Ms Ledger said her school planned to bring Mr Ybarra back to Karratha in future and open those training sessions to all schools in the area.