The last time Australia moved towards a form of nationally consistent curriculum, under John Dawkins, the exercise fell apart due to a lack of state government support. This time, an Australian Curriculum is being developed under a new authority, ACARA, ...

The Australian education context is arguably experiencing its most critical junction since the adoption of mass schooling. We have seen the implementation of a national testing regime, a forthcoming national curriculum, the My School website, and the professional standards movement, ...

There's no question that adult education has come a long way since the proclamation of the Adult Community and Further Education (ACFE) Act in the Victorian Parliament in 1991. Originally it was to provide an option for mature-aged women seeking ...

Much like Australia, there has been a lot of media swill lately in New Zealand about bullying at school. Now, I must immediately reveal that I think I was bullied at school. It happened like this. A lunch time tussle ...

"In the 2011 NAPLAN writing test, students will write a persuasive text. ... The same task is used for students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9." Everyone wants to "do" persuasive writing in schools this term because it is ...

Unlike the US, Singapore and the UK, Australia has no coherent or comprehensive strategy in place to prepare aspiring school leaders. While the UK has its own national qualification for principals, and all school leaders in the US are required ...

‘Schools battle army of unruly kids’. ‘Suspensions soar amid crackdown on schoolyard violence by thug kids’. ‘Tag team fights caught on film’. ‘Girl brutally bashed at school’. These, and other recent Australian media headlines, describe alarming levels of unacceptable student ...

The importance of quality teaching to student learning and development is undeniable. Decades of research have given us a clear picture of what quality teaching looks like and how teacher expertise develops. The big challenge is to have more high ...

Conflict has often appeared concerning ideal class size. Educators have long argued that students do better in smaller classes, but fiscal conservatives and those who want to reduce public school funding have claimed that students do just as well in ...

The most recent United Nations data continues to show that the four main Nordic European nations – Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland – have much lower levels of poverty, far less inequality, and much greater wellbeing, among children than do ...