As a student in the 1970s, I got it. Traditional, conventional, mainstream education worked for me. I lapped up the lectures, the monologues, the explaining, the direct instruction. It all made sense, and I thrived. My teachers talked as much ...

Education authorities remain insistent that the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) tests are an effective tool and useful in tracking student learning, three years after a survey found teachers disagree. This is the second year NAPLAN was held ...

In the shadows of last year’s teacher strike in New South Wales, a number of people asked me how the Finnish education system would deal with the issues causing dissatisfaction for Australian teachers. It is an excellent question. It is ...

The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) CEO David de Carvalho has recently written an article that addresses whether change or improvement is required in our country’s education system. The article, which was adapted from a speech the ACARA ...

He’s the author of Testing 1, 2,3: What Australian education can learn from Finland, and this month teacher, writer and tragic Midnight Oil fan Michael Lawrence joined other educators in Orange, NSW, to take teachers through a one-day session of ...

 EducationReview · Finnish education is coming to Australia | Michael Lawrence The last time I interviewed Michael Lawrence the experienced music and English teacher had just published his book Testing 3, 2, 1: What Australian Education Can Learn from ...

A pithy quote sets the tone early in Michael Lawrence’s latest book about the state of education in Australia and why it’s so important: Testing 3,2,1: What Australian Education can Learn from Finland. Penned by English educationalist Sir Ken Robinson, ...

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 ...