By Michael Hilkemeijer
What Are High Impact Teaching Strategies?
High impact teaching strategies (HITS) are evidence-based instructional practices proven to make the greatest difference to student learning outcomes. They are not passing trends or isolated techniques — they are researched methods that, when consistently applied, help teachers support deeper understanding, skill development, and student engagement across subjects like literacy, numeracy, and beyond.
The Victorian Department of Education highlights ten high impact teaching strategies that are central to effective classroom practice. Understanding these strategies is the first step for any educator who wants to refine their teaching and maximise student growth.
Why They Matter
The importance of high impact teaching strategies lies in their ability to provide a clear, research-backed roadmap for teachers. By focusing on methods with the strongest evidence base, teachers can be confident they are using their time and energy in ways that truly impact learning. These strategies also provide a common language across schools, making collaboration and professional learning more effective.
The 10 High Impact Teaching Strategies
Here’s a concise overview of the ten HITS, adapted from the Victorian Department of Education and international evidence:
| High Impact Teaching Strategy | What It Means | .Example in Practice |
| 1. Setting Goals | Clear learning goals focus attention and make expectations explicit. | At the start of a lesson, the teacher states the objective and links it to prior learning |
| 2. Structuring Lessons | Lessons are planned with a logical sequence that builds knowledge. | Breaking content into “I do, We do, You do” steps. |
| 3. Explicit Teaching | Teachers explain and model new skills before students practise. | A maths teacher demonstrates solving equations before guided practice. |
| 4. Worked Examples | Step-by-step models reduce cognitive load and show thinking processes. | Providing sample paragraphs in writing lessons. |
| 5. Collaborative Learning | Students learn through structured peer interaction. | Pairing students to solve science problems together. |
| 6. Multiple Exposures | Revisiting key ideas across different contexts strengthens retention. | Reviewing vocabulary in reading, writing, and discussion tasks. |
| 7. Questioning | Strategic questions deepen understanding and stimulate thinking. | Asking “why” and “how” questions during class discussions. |
| 8. Feedback | Actionable feedback helps students improve and progress. | A teacher gives targeted advice on how to improve a draft essay. |
| 9. Metacognitive Strategies | Encouraging students to think about their own learning. | Students reflect on which strategies helped them solve a problem. |
| 10. Differentiated Teaching | Tailoring teaching to meet diverse student needs. | Providing scaffolded tasks for some students while extending others. |
Beyond the List: A Tiered Approach
Research suggests that HITS are best understood as part of a continuum of practice. Teachers may begin with foundational strategies like structuring lessons and explicit teaching, then progress towards advanced strategies like differentiated teaching and metacognitive development. Professional growth occurs incrementally, with strategies layered and refined over time.
Key Takeaways
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High impact teaching strategies are the most effective, evidence-based methods for improving student learning.
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They provide teachers with a common framework to plan, deliver, and reflect on lessons.
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Their strength lies not in using them individually, but in integrating them purposefully across lessons and subjects.
High Impact Teaching Strategies in Action
In the first part of this series, I showed you how high impact teaching strategies act as a research-based roadmap for effective teaching. Now, let’s take the next step together. I want to show you what these strategies look like in action — and how you can bring them into your own classroom with confidence.
This is exactly what we do inside the ICT in Education Teacher Academy. The membership gives you the Success Path: a professional roadmap that takes those research-backed strategies and helps you learn them, apply them with ICT, and reflect on them in practice.
From Research to Practice: Your Success Path
Think of it like this:
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The HITS framework gives you the roadmap.
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The Success Path is your journey along that roadmap.
When you join the Academy, I guide you through a cycle that repeats every time you pick up a lesson plan or workshop:
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Learn – understand the strategy and its purpose.
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Apply – try it out in your classroom using ICT.
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Reflect – use the observation tools and reflection prompts to grow your practice.
This way, strategies don’t just stay in your head. They become part of your everyday teaching.
HITS in Action Inside the Membership
Let me show you how this works. In our workshops, we unpack each strategy and then connect it directly to ICT teaching strategies and lesson plans you can use straight away.
| High Impact Strategy | What I Teach in the Workshop | What You Apply with a Lesson Plan |
| Collaborative Learning | “Students learn more when they work together, supported by ICT tools” | Digital Nature Walk: children use tablets to take photos and share discoveries with peers. |
| Explicit Teaching | “Modelling ICT step by step helps children build confidence” | Shapes with Paint 3D: I show how to create shapes digitally, then children try with guidance. |
| Feedback | “Feedback has to be embedded into ICT tasks so progress is visible” | QR Code Nature Hunt: children scan clues and receive feedback in real time as they explore. |
| Worked Examples & Scaffolding | “Scaffolding reduces cognitive load and builds ICT capability” | Bee-Bot Problem Solving: children follow coding sequences first, then create their own challenges. |
| Metacognitive Strategies | “Reflection on ICT tasks builds self-awareness” | Abstract Art with Bee-Bot: children evaluate how their coding choices shaped the patterns. |
This is how I take the research-based roadmap and help you travel it with ICT in your classroom.
Lesson Plans as Professional Growth
When you download a lesson plan, you’re not just getting an activity — you’re also building your own practice. Every plan includes:
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🎯 Clear learning goals linked to high impact teaching strategies.
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📊 Observation tables that map higher order thinking and ICT capability.
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🖥️ ICT resources carefully chosen for early childhood and primary.
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🔎 Reflection prompts to help you track and improve your teaching.
So every time you use one, you’re not only supporting children’s learning — you’re strengthening your professional growth.
Moving Along the Success Path
Here’s the journey I’ll guide you through:
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Adopt – Start with lesson plans that show HITS in action with ICT.
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Adapt – Change and adjust them for your own class with support from the community.
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Innovate – Create and share your own ICT-integrated lessons for others to learn from.
This is why I call it the Success Path — because it’s not just about activities, it’s about your growth as a teacher.
Why This Matters
High impact teaching strategies give us the confidence that we’re teaching in ways that work. But the real power comes when you can apply them with ICT in your classroom, with the right support around you.
That’s what the membership is designed for: to help you travel the research-based roadmap with clarity, confidence, and community.
✅ If you’re ready to put HITS into practice and grow along the Technology Integrator's Learning Journey to Transformation (your HITS roadmap/Success Path in the membership), join me in the ICT in Education Teacher Academy today — and save more with the annual plan.
The Engine That Drives Effective Teaching
In the first blog, I showed you what high impact teaching strategies are — a research-based roadmap that gives you confidence about what works in teaching. In the second, we explored how you can travel that roadmap inside the membership using the Technology Integrator's Learning Journey to Transformation: learning, applying, and reflecting on HITS with ICT.
But I know the question still sitting with many teachers is this:
“How do I actually make HITS work with technology?”
That’s where ICT teaching strategies come in. They are the engine that powers the roadmap forward. And inside the membership, I’ll show you exactly how to use them.
What These Strategies Are
ICT teaching strategies are the practical approaches you use to design, deliver, and reflect on lessons with technology. They aren’t about fancy tools. They’re about making ICT meaningful for children’s learning.
Here are some of the strategies I’ll help you master:
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Scaffolding and Worked Examples – modelling ICT step by step so students can gradually take over.
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Explicit Demonstration – showing how a digital tool works before children try it themselves.
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Questioning in ICT Tasks – asking “why” and “how” to deepen children’s thinking.
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Multiple Exposures with ICT – revisiting the same concept in different digital contexts.
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Feedback through ICT – embedding prompts and responses in real time.
Each one connects directly to high impact teaching strategies. They are the practical answers to that question: “How do I make HITS work with technology?”
How It Comes Together in the Membership
Inside the Academy, I don’t just talk about these strategies in theory. I connect them directly to HITS and then give you lesson plans that let you apply them straight away.
| Evidence-Based Strategy | Supporting ICT Approach | Lesson Plan Example in the Membership |
| Explicit modelling | Teacher demonstrates ICT use step by step | Shapes with Paint 3D: I model drawing shapes digitally, then children follow with guidance. |
| Worked examples | Scaffolded ICT tasks reduce cognitive load | Bee-Bot Problem Solving: children practise with set coding sequences before creating their own. |
| Questioning | Digital activities prompt deeper thinking | QR Code Nature Hunt: children scan clues that ask them to predict, explain, and reflect. |
| Feedback | ICT provides instant feedback loops | Digital Nature Walk: children share images, receive peer and teacher feedback immediately. |
| Metacognition | Reflection prompts on ICT choices | Abstract Art with Bee-Bot: children discuss how their coding decisions shaped visual outcomes. |
This is where the roadmap (HITS) and the engine (ICT strategies) meet. And the membership is the place that brings them together for you.
How You Grow Along the Membership's Success Path
Here’s how I’ll guide you when you join:
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Learn – in the workshops, I break down each ICT strategy and show you how it connects to HITS.
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Apply – lesson plans give you structured activities with ICT resources, observation tables, and goals aligned to HITS.
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Reflect – workbook prompts and community discussion help you analyse your teaching and refine your practice.
This is how you stop wondering “How do I actually make HITS work with technology?” and start doing it with confidence.
Why This Matters
Putting it all together, the picture is clear:
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High impact teaching strategies give you the roadmap.
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ICT teaching strategies are the engine that makes that roadmap work with technology.
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The ICT in Education Teacher Academy gives you the Success Path to travel it — with guidance, resources, and community support every step of the way.
That’s why the membership is the place to learn, apply, and grow in professional learning for ICT in early childhood and primary education.
✅ If you’re ready to stop asking “How do I actually make HITS work with technology?” and start living it in your classroom, 👉 join me in the ICT in Education Teacher Academy. With the annual plan, you’ll save more and give yourself a full year to grow along the Success Path.
Making High Impact Teaching Strategies Work with Technology
Across this series, we’ve travelled a complete journey — from understanding high impact teaching strategies, to seeing them in action, to discovering how ICT strategies are the engine that powers them in real classrooms. Let me quickly bring the key points together for you:
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📘 High impact teaching strategies give you a research-based roadmap for what works in teaching.
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🛠️ Workshops and lesson plans in the membership show you how these strategies look in practice with ICT.
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🚀 ICT teaching strategies are the engine that makes HITS come alive when you use technology in learning.
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🌱 The membership’s Technology Integrator’s Learning Journey to Transformation is your step-by-step path to learn, apply, and reflect — turning evidence into confident classroom practice.
At the heart of all this is one key question:
How do you actually make high impact teaching strategies work with technology in your classroom?
That’s exactly what the ICT in Education Teacher Academy is here to help you achieve. You can get started today for just $20 AUD per month — a simple way to trial the membership and explore workshops, lesson plans, and community support. When you’re ready, you can switch to the annual plan, save $40 instantly, and give yourself a full year for professional transformation.