In recent years, there has been ongoing discussion about whether mainstream primary and high school teachers are sufficiently prepared to fully implement the language components of the Australian Curriculum. Over the past decades, educators have successfully delivered the functional genre ...

Dear Mum and Dad, This is just to let you know that I took the torch, the hammer, the gardening trowel, the plastic strainer, the chocolate biscuits and the stuff that’s missing from the bathroom. So it’s OK, you haven’t been ...

This year, the international journal Autism replaced its cover art of overlapping grey and red puzzle pieces with scattered circles, after a team of editors decided that puzzles evoked negative connotations of the disorder. Yet autism is puzzling: we still don’t even know what causes it. Autism assumptions ...

Professor Marion Maddox is disappointed with the government. She is worried their injection of extra funds into independent and Catholic schools will further damage “one of the most religiously and economically segregated systems in the western world”. Catherine Helen Spence, ...

Citizens of the lucky country can no longer rely on good fortune for prosperity – they must rely on capabilities. This is the premise of a new Mitchell Institute report. “Today the question is not if we should seek to teach young ...

Sector politics has long plagued school funding. But with the federal government’s announcement of an extra $4.571 billion for independent schools, partisan outrage has peaked. There’s even intra-party vexation. (Liberal) NSW Education Minster Rob Stokes told ABC Radio Sydney that it’s “not fair” ...

Despite Hollywood’s (increasing) portrayal of brilliantly successful autistic savants – from Rain Man to The Good Doctor – the reality of employment for those with autism is the opposite. ABS data suggests just 40 per cent of people with autism work, compared to ...

Remember those yellow ‘Livestrong’ wristbands? In 2003, now-infamous cyclist Lance Armstrong created a charity to support cancer research after he developed testicular cancer, and promoted it using the silicone rubber accessories. They soon caught on as a philanthropic status symbol, and ...

We need to talk about Kevin. Kevin Khatchadourian is a 15-year-old boy who committed a massacre at his high school and killed his father and sister. Growing up, he exhibited early signs of psychopathy: chronic unrest during infancy, failure to ...

School’s out for summer School’s out forever For an increasing number of Australian high schoolers, Alice Cooper’s lyrics resonate. They especially do so with 15-year-olds from lower SES backgrounds, according to a new ACER report. Based on PISA data, the report collated ...