Next month, we are expecting the results from the annual NAPLAN tests, which students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9 sat earlier this year. Each year, the tests are widely promoted as a marker of student progress and are ...

A University of New England researcher has collated 25 years' worth of Australian students' test results and found there has been no significant decline in three out of the four major tests students take. Since the year 2000, when Australia ...

The global pandemic has forced us to rethink many aspects of our lives, including education. In an attempt to accommodate students during the challenging times of lockdowns, remote learning and great uncertainty, many countries eased graduation requirements and made tests ...

If there is a one-word answer to the often-posed question, 'What is the one thing that’s most different about the Finnish system?', it is trust. As I led a tour group through Finnish schools, a number of the group were ...

Universities and tertiary admissions centres are allowing year 12 students across Australia to apply for – and accept – course offers to university before they sit their final exams, complete year 12, and receive their ATAR. Critics of early university ...

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 ...

While many Australian schools have spent the last few decades admiring the old school tie, tightening standardisation and rubrics while chasing NAPLAN and ATAR scores, Finnish educators have been told to study best practices, and then try and improve on ...

The National Assessment Plan for Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) has commenced today in Australian classrooms, with approximately one million students across years 3, 5, 7 and 9 expected to sit the test.  Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the national test ...

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 ...

It’s not often a book comes along that encapsulates the myriad ways in which Australia’s school system has changed since its inception during the colonial era. But Alan Reid’s new book, Changing Australian Education: How policy is taking us backwards and ...