Articles

The 2025 Australian Primary Principals Association (APPA) National Conference, taking place from 26 to 29 August in Brisbane, is shaping up to be one of the most significant and inspiring events on this year’s professional learning calendar for primary school leaders across Australia. 

It has been an exciting month here at Teacher magazine because we launched our new monthly themes. In this Teacher Staffroom podcast, I’ll take you through our theme for May. I’ll also run you through some of the highlights from our editorial, including 2 pieces on the topic of AI, and chat about a new report by the Australian Council for Educational Research that explores teacher self-efficacy in classroom management. 

At ACER’s Research Conference 2025, poster presenter Peter Axford – a Senior Teacher at Malanda State High School and PhD candidate at James Cook University – showcased his research exploring an agency approach to student engagement with the curriculum. Here he shares the impetus for this research and how the findings influenced his own classroom practice.

The largest ever study on the job ambitions of 15-year-olds has revealed a stark mismatch between teenagers’ career expectations, education choices and labour market demands. In particular, the newly released OECD data show more needs to be done to help young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

With growing time pressures, rising transport costs, difficulty securing relief teachers – not to mention the hours of paperwork, risk assessments, budgeting, and logistics – excursions can feel almost impossible to organise. For many teachers, the scale of planning means getting out of the classroom regularly just isn’t feasible. That's where ForestVR comes in.

How can teachers meaningfully integrate Indigenous perspectives? In this expert Q&A, Indigenous curriculum specialist Melissa Serrurier discusses culturally responsive teaching, making the shift from tokenism, using authentic resources, and the ways schools can respectfully build and sustain genuine partnerships with local communities.

In this episode of The Research Files podcast, Teacher editor Jo Earp chats to Jenni Ingram, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford, about the OECD’s Unlocking High-Quality Teaching report. Alongside insights from 150 schools in 50 countries, it explores 20 practices that teachers draw on to achieve 5 key teaching goals.

New research from academics at the University of the Sunshine Coast shows that maths and science educators can use visual cues in nature like animal trails and patterns to explore both simple and complex mathematical concepts with students. 

New findings from a survey of over 700 teachers across 95 primary schools in New South Wales shine a light on their current understanding and own experience of music education. Here are some of the survey results on teacher confidence and professional learning. 

‘Our recent and ongoing partnership … has been a really fulfilling journey.’ In this Q&A, Renee Ladner from the Mathematical Association of Victoria (MAV) discusses educators engaging with associations for professional development, and 2 examples of how she’s partnered with schools on maths PD.