Articles

It’s our first episode of Teacher Staffroom for 2025, and there’s plenty to take you through today to catch you up on content that’s kicked off our publication schedule for term one here at Teacher.

‘Do you want to be a teacher?’ Is this a question you’ve asked your own students? A new Australian study aimed at boosting the number of First Nations teachers has found that Aboriginal students would like someone to speak to them about teaching as a possible career.

The book featured in this edition of Teacher’s Bookshelf is a practical guide that explores the mechanisms behind masterly Mathematics teaching in China. In this extract for Teacher readers, the authors share how 3 teachers are using modelling to clearly define the goals and standards for students’ independent and group work.

What are the essential skills we need for learning and life, and how can teachers help students to develop them? The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) has been working with more than 30 countries to identify 5 essential skills and design a suite of free educator resources. Dr Claire Scoular shares more details in this expert Q&A.

The world’s largest study on shared book reading has highlighted the importance of having books in the home. The Australian research found bringing books into the home has a significant impact on a child’s positive shared book reading habits, emerging language and literacy skills, as well as family engagement.

For the last 6 months, Series 3 of our School Assembly podcast has been following Dan McShea, Foundation Principal of Notre Dame P-12 College on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. The big day finally arrived, and in this episode Teacher Editor Jo Earp checks in with Dan on how that first day of the new school went.

Previous exposure to similar mathematics tasks that appear in assessments significantly increases student mathematical self-efficacy and confidence, a new Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) report highlights.

‘Educational provision includes what students learn … how they will be taught … and the culture in which they will be taught ... Gifted students benefit from the opportunity to interact with differentiated versions of each of these.’ Professor John Munro explains 3 areas of differentiation, and shares examples of what this could look like in the classroom.

The winner of the 2025 Global Teacher Prize has been announced. Mansour Al Mansour from Saudi Arabia has walked away with the US $1 million prize. One Australian teacher was a top 10 finalist this year – Brett Dascombe, a Senior Geography Teacher from Wavell State High School in Brisbane. In this special podcast episode, Brett shares how he exposes his students to real-world, project-based learning by embedding geospatial technologies like GIS, drones and remote sensing data into the geography curriculum.

The winner of the 2025 Global Teacher Prize has just been announced. Mansour Al Mansour from Prince Saud bin Jalawi School in Saudi Arabia has walked away with the US $1 million prize. Mansour was recognised for his strategic vision and unwavering belief in his students' potential, and for building an inclusive and innovative learning environment.