From pipe dream to policy: How SOLAR Lab is transforming teaching
One-third of Australian students are not reaching proficiency in reading and writing, at an estimated cost to the economy of $40 billion, according to a 2024 Grattan Institute report. A key factor is the persistence of outdated teaching methods, especially in the early years of primary education.
Since 2020, the Science of Language and Reading (SOLAR) Lab has been tackling these systemic issues by promoting evidence-based literacy education across the school years.
Established by Professor Tanya Serry and Distinguished Professor Pamela Snow, the SOLAR Lab's mission is to help schools adopt scientific approaches to teaching children to read, write and spell - ensuring every student experiences high-quality reading instruction grounded in the principles of learning sciences. SOLAR Lab developed and delivers short online courses for educators. Topics span reading and writing instruction, phonics instruction, and the science of learning.
In launching the first online short course in 2020, Prof. Serry recalls aiming for 50 participants.
"In our first iteration we had nearly 900 enrolments. That told us that teachers wanted to learn more about reading instruction — how the brain learns to read, how we can best teach children, how we can identify and intervene with struggling readers at an early stage."
Five years on, more than 12,500 participants from across Australia — from government, Catholic and independent schools have completed SOLAR Lab's short courses. Some schools have embedded the introductory course into teacher induction programs.
Teacher Di Lavell is one of thousands who has benefited. "It has really improved my teaching. It's been really encouraging to see the journey that my students have been on as a part of that too."
The Lab's influence extends well beyond individual educators and schools. In 2024, the Victorian Government's "Curriculum 2.0" mandated a systematic synthetic phonics approach to reading instruction in the first three years of school — a policy partially informed by SOLAR Lab research and advocacy. Their reach has also shaped national policy and guidelines for Speech Pathology Australia, and a Language and Literacy subject stream is now embedded in La Trobe's Master of Education and Graduate Certificate in Education.
In both 2023 and 2025, a PhD student supervised by the SOLAR Lab was awarded the Nancy Millis Medal, a prestigious honour recognising an outstanding thesis conferred on only around 5 per cent of PhD completions at La Trobe. Snow and Serry also frequently deliver invited presentations across Australia and overseas, taking their research into rooms where education policy is shaped.
In 2026, some of the short courses are evolving to better suit teachers' busy schedules — moving to fully self-directed online learning experiences with recordings, quizzes and interactive modules, giving teachers flexibility to enrol and learn as it suits them.
"An aspirational goal for us both, but one we feel is achievable, is to see Australia in the top 10 OECD countries in international rankings for reading and writing by 2035," Prof. Serry said.