When English and Music teacher Michael Lawrence visited Finnish schools in 2017, many teachers asked him why Australia used a test like NAPLAN to assess students, particularly young ones. For them, education is all about learning, not testing. The ultimate ...
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Online tool matches students to careers – podcast
Weeks have gone by since students across the country received their ATAR results, and many have already been offered places at university and accepted them. However, a large number of former students will be pursuing other options – such as vocational ...
More »Education Review: The year that was – podcast
The year in review is available on the podcast above or you can read the summary below. Education is not just important to us for what is does – educating our youth for their future – it’s also important, almost ...
More »Getting the best out of a school’s workforce
After a long career in the public service and and working as a education consultant, Fleur Johnston built the data analytics platform PeopleBench to help principals, in particular, "build an organisational strategy that could set the direction for a school ...
More »Maths expert calls on academics to go back into the classroom – Podcast
Dr Majeda Awawdeh is a former high school teacher who exited the education sector after "15 years of frustration". In this podcast, she talks about some of the causes of Australian students' slide in maths across the years and considers ...
More »Education sector’s response to latest PISA results – podcast
This week was all about Australia’s underwhelming 2018 PISA results, so I thought it would be appropriate to produce a 'response from the sector', a quick rundown of what Australia’s education experts think about the results. Dr Steven Lewis, a ...
More »Joanna Barbousas on the decline in interest in teaching: Podcast
A recent Indeed report concluded that searches for teaching jobs declined in 2019, with some states recording sharp dips. This follows an article in The Conversation last year lamenting the drop in first-preference applications in teaching, as well as a ...
More »The role of feelings and intuition in mathematics – podcast
Feelings. It's probably not a word that many of us would associate with mathematics. But according to Dr Carol Aldous from Flinders University, feelings and intuition play a critical role in solving novel maths problems – problems that require students ...
More »“The pen is mightier than the sword”: Podcast on the art of writing
Linguist, writing aficionado, consultant and founder of Lifelong Literacy, Lyn Stone explains – through her trademark eloquent language – just how difficult writing is, and the number of things teachers can do to improve their students’ writing, which has been ...
More »Parent tells of son being babysat and secluded for most of his primary school years: Podcast
Last week's damning revelations about the treatment of some students with a disability in Australia's school system involved tales of seclusion, segregation and even abuse. While the disability royal commission heard of a few horrific stories only, there are doubtless many more ...
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