Improving Results Through Data-Informed Teaching

As we settle into the routine of term 2, schools are moving from the diagnostic phase into the heart of curriculum delivery. With the initial experience from early-year assessments now in hand, the challenge shifts: how do we act on these insights to ensure every student makes real, measurable progress before the semester ends?

Reflective’s approach to data-informed teaching has been studied to determine whether it impacts NAPLAN results. In 2025, Brody Hannan of the University of Southampton conducted an independent analysis with NAPLAN data and Instructive data, analysing over 10,827 students across 152 schools.

The findings of Brody’s research can be interpreted as follows:

• Attainment data from Instructive correlates well with NAPLAN scores.
• Students can learn and progress the equivalent of more than 2 years of maths each year with Instructive.
• Within the study, each year of use put students more than a full grade level above their peers.
• Everyone benefits from using Instructive. Schools whose students completed more modules in Instructive tended to achieve higher results on NAPLAN.
• This effect was found across all types of schools, regardless of wealth.
• The use of Instructive moderated the usual association between socio-educational advantage (ICSEA) and NAPLAN performance; reducing it to only a slight effect. This means that Instructive may close the wealth gap between schools. 

For a teaching workforce facing record-high workloads and increasingly complex classrooms, these findings offer a rare moment of clarity. When instruction is misaligned with student readiness, some learners experience cognitive overload while others disengage.

Instructive solves this by blending high-quality, explicit whole-class lessons with individualised pathways based on actual learner readiness. This ensures that:

1. Teachers save time: No more creating thirty different learning pathways by hand.
2. Consistency is guaranteed: Out-of-field and early-career teachers are supported with ready-to-use lesson ideas and background theory.
3. Growth is visible: Students can track their own progress fortnightly, fostering a positive mindset and owning their learning.

If you are looking to future-proof your maths program and see real growth in your own faculty, our Fast Track Pilot is designed to provide 10 weeks of certainty. This structured, low-risk trial allows you to stress-test the Instructive model in 1–3 mixed-ability classes with maximum support. It is easier to implement at scale when you have evidence of success in your own context.

Brody recently joined us to present his research and discuss the findings: