When Leonie Falland was asked about her motivation for teaching and working in schools for 38 years, her response came easily: “I loved learning right from the time I was a toddler. When I was nearly 3, I packed a ...
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Policy, research on wellbeing neglect middle years: report
Educational research and policy has ignored students in their middle years and this neglect is increasing marginalisation, a new report has argued. The final report of the Australian Child Wellbeing Project (ACWP) – a collaboration between the Australian Council for ...
More »Safe Schools Coalition welcomes government review
Safe Schools Coalition Australia said it was not fazed by the announcement that it would be the subject of a government investigation and welcomed it as a chance to “demonstrate the positive impact of this important program and provide the ...
More »Report showing equal public, private funding flawed: Cobbold
Save Our Schools has spruiked figures that indicate growth in government funding for private schools has outpaced public schools. This is despite a recent Centre of Independent Students report to the contrary. One School does not Fit All revealed the per ...
More »Textbooks elude digital death blow, for now
Hard copy textbooks have survived the initial waves of digital disruption and they’re here to stay – for a little while anyway. Retailers and publishers have all been hit by digital disruption. In 2011, bookstore giant REDgroup Retail – former ...
More »‘People without jobs, jobs without people’
Rhetoric around youth unemployment must change, an expert has argued. Australian Bureau of Statistics figures rest youth unemployment at 12.44 per cent, although it declined in the last quarter. Debate on the issue has centred on the notion of a skills gap – education ...
More »Scandals don’t make apprenticeships bad idea: trainers group
The private VET scandal shouldn’t turn students off taking school-based apprenticeships, Group Training Australia has said. Jim Barron, GTA chief executive, said these apprenticeships are a great way for school students to get a career kickstart. In these programs, students ...
More »CIS report challenges school system stereotypes
Education policy rhetoric pigeonholes private schools as wealthy and the public system as strapped for cash. But a new report from the Centre for Independent Studies has aimed to bust these stereotypes as far from reality. One School does not ...
More »Computer-based tests hinder disadvantaged: research
United States government research has raised concerns that computer writing tests could disadvantage students from low socioeconomic backgrounds. A study published in December by the US Department of Education’s National Centre for Education Statistics, found conducting computer-based persuasive writing tests “appeared to widen ...
More »VU’s Dawkins challenges ATAR’s relevance
A vice-chancellor has downplayed the relevance of the ATAR as a measure of potential student success – especially when it comes to teaching degrees. Professor Peter Dawkins, of Victoria University, argued that ATARs are often meaningless when measuring a student’s potential in university. ...
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