It’s tempting to copy places outperforming Australia in international tables, but academics say their methods may not translate here. By Dallas Bastian. Australia’s slipping performance in international league tables has raised questions about whether our education systems should try to ...
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EduTECH 2014 aims for the future
Conference speakers focus on the environments, methods and students of the coming century. By Lara Caughey. The EduTECH 2014 conference brought thousands of attendees, international speakers and exhibitors to the Brisbane Convention Centre to discuss how to reshape the K–12 ...
More »The architect finally speaks
Head of contentious review says Budget’s changes will hurt state schools in need. By Antonia Maiolo. David Gonski, the architect of Labor’s 2011 school funding review, broke his silence on his controversial scheme, slamming the government for its decision to ...
More »Budget reverses Gonski spending
Changes add up to billions in funding reductions for public schools. By Antonia Maiolo. The government has signalled it will freeze any increases in schools funding and revealed a substantial cut to the education system, triggering an outcry from the ...
More »Digital development
Preparing teachers for the new IT-heavy curriculum requires time, funding and focus. By Dallas Bastian. The new digital curriculum is causing nervousness amongst academics over teachers’ level of IT knowledge. Associate professor James Curran from the University of Sydney’s school ...
More »Health shouldn’t be an exclusive club
Placing health and PE within education faculties sends a message that physical fitness is for all. By Tim Lynch. Is health a club? There are many sporting or physical activity clubs people can join to be amongst others with similar ...
More »Preaching the good words
Lyn Stone believes everyone is born a linguist. She tells Antonia Maiolo how she makes the mysteries of the English language clear to teachers and students. Melbourne linguistic specialist Lyn Stone recently launched Spelling for Life – a handbook for ...
More »Opinion: Students – like promises – don’t matter
Broken commitments show the Federal Government’s lack of concern for education. By Lila Mularczyk. Pre-election platforms, pre-election commitments and pre-election promises all shamefully dismantled and discarded. As school leaders, we now focus on some of the darkest and most demoralising ...
More »Teacher education review: high-stakes Q&A
The upcoming taskforce on preparing educators aims for a practical approach to getting results. By Greg Craven. One of the things that strikes me as I get older is that answers seem to be fewer and fewer and questions seem ...
More »The language ladder
Abbott sets the target high for multilingual study; getting there will require some changes. By Kathe Kirby. The Abbott Government has announced a game-changing policy to revive languages education in Australian schools by setting an ambitious target of 40 percent ...
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