Ever tried to play chasey in a skirt? The thing flaps and billows like a clumsy tornado about your knees. If you’re serious about not getting tagged, nine times out of ten, undergarments will be exposed. Pride will be lost. ...
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Podcast: Issue of the week – ATAR overhaul?
This week NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell announced she wanted “an overhaul” of ATAR. Her decision was based on research showing the population has lost faith in it and it was causing students too much stress. As 61,000 NSW students ...
More »The secret to Singapore’s meteoric rise in education rankings
In the 2015 Programme for International Students (PISA) tests, Singapore topped the world rankings in all three areas: reading, science and mathematics. Singapore’s steep trajectory to the top since 2009 has coincided with many Western countries, including Australia, the US ...
More »Podcast: News just in – maths teacher shortage hits crisis point in Vic
A major story that emerged today appeared in The Age and is related to an earlier story we wrote on a maths teacher shortage in Australia. According to the article, far too many secondary school teachers who are unqualified to ...
More »Standardised tests are holding our children back: opinion
Australia's high school leaving certificates are holding back our entire education system. They’re a disservice to schools, teachers, and students because how we test affects how we teach. Unfortunately, the current testing regime is geared largely towards testing a student’s ...
More »Podcast: Moving beyond ATAR and rethinking the senior secondary and post-school years
A new report is proposing a rethink on how educators approach senior schooling and tertiary education, and calls for the ATAR to be supplemented with a more comprehensive “learning profile”. The Australian Learning Lecture (ALL) position paper, titled Beyond ATAR: ...
More »Keeping the best teachers: disrupting pathways and busting myths
Almost half of teaching graduates leave the workforce within five years of entering it. The push factors are complex, often context-specific and interlocking. But understanding and addressing some of the major reasons behind teacher attrition is vital to high-quality education, governments, ...
More »Teachers behaving badly: destructive leadership in education – Video
https://youtu.be/0QVzS0WNWkQ Bad leadership practices and resulting toxic work environments can develop in all employment sectors, and this has been the focus of much study, debate and more than a few popular books in recent times. Of course, the education environment ...
More »Book Review: Changing Australia’s Education – teachers must take charge
It’s not often a book comes along that encapsulates the myriad ways in which Australia’s school system has changed since its inception during the colonial era. But Alan Reid’s new book, Changing Australian Education: How policy is taking us backwards and ...
More »Teachers’ pay: keeping the best out of the profession
We’re often told that Australia’s teachers are among the best paid in the world, based on OECD figures, which is true, but the other – more important – part of the story is that teachers’ pay is falling behind that ...
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