Articles

In their series for Teacher on Virtual Reality in education, Dr Susan O’Donnell and Adrian Rayner have explored the potential of VR technology and five elements of a successful school program. In this final instalment, they share feedback from students and staff who have been using the technology in their learning and teaching.

We’re delighted to let you know our annual reader survey is opening today. It’s the seventh year in a row we have invited you to share your feedback, and this year, if you complete our survey you’ll go into the draw to win a $500 VISA prepaid gift card.

Dr Gary Stager joins Teacher to discuss his 30-year study into laptop use in schools. We discuss the challenges they faced in the early 1990s in the implementation of the program, how students engaged with the technology in the early days, but also what he’s learned about the way computers are used in schools today.

Findings from an action research project in three West Australian schools suggest the use of quality mentor texts when explicitly teaching how to write narratives can improve students’ storytelling ability. Ron Gorman and Dr Sandy Heldsinger share more details about the teaching and assessment strategies used, and samples of student writing.

Families will often engage in the shared reading of picture books about starting Kindergarten to help children with their transition. But, how are Kindergarten teachers demographically represented in the books that children read during this time? And importantly, who is missing from these representations?

Dr Karen Maras, from the University of New South Wales, has been presenting on the opening day of ACER’s Research Conference 2021. In this Q&A with Teacher she talks about student learning progressions in visual arts, and shares some examples of how their conceptions of art change with age.

How many adults experience sleep problems? What are the financial and health costs? And, what can help to improve our chances of getting a good night's sleep? Find out in this infographic.

We know that getting a good night’s rest is important for our overall health and wellbeing, but are there certain foods we can eat that will actually improve our ability to sleep? We ask Dr Chris Irwin, an Accredited Practising Dietitian and Senior Lecturer in Nutrition and Dietetics at Griffith University.

In this monthly series, we take a look at some further readings available on a particular topic, including open access research papers from various online databases, and Teacher archive content you might not have come across yet. This month we’re looking at teaching spelling.

‘[Virtual Reality] cannot be an outcome in itself but needs to be a tool that creates meaningful, authentic and integrated learning opportunities when fully embedded with the curriculum.’ Dr Susan O’Donnell and Adrian Rayner share the five pillars of a successful VR program in education.