Jo Earp

‘The metaverse is upon us. Soon it will be as omnipresent as TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook (now Meta).’ So reads the first line of a new Policy Brief exploring the potential of the metaverse to enhance teaching and learning in the future, and why we need to start planning for it now.

A new framework for learning through play has been developed to support teachers in the classroom and help guide policy and practice in the early years of schooling. The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) and the LEGO Foundation have worked together to develop the framework.

Involving leaders, teachers, students, families and the wider community in the design and build of schools is relatively commonplace nowadays. However, a new study from the UK highlights that ‘collaboration in itself does not necessarily lead to effective innovation,’ sharing lessons learnt from three schools.

Our guest for this episode of School Improvement is Judith Weir, Principal of Our Lady of Mercy College (OLMC) Heidelberg. We caught up with her at the start of the school year here in Australia, to talk about leadership, strategic planning, how to balance competing priorities, the impact of COVID on student wellbeing and the importance of professional mentoring.

Readers often get in touch with Teacher to share how their school is making a difference to student outcomes. New South Wales educator Mary Semaan contacted us recently to talk about how the teaching and leadership team at Al Sadiq College has been working to improve primary students’ writing skills.

We know that participating in sport and physical activity benefits health and wellbeing. New research has found it also has a small positive effect on students’ academic performance, particularly in mathematics and science.

An Australian survey has found that the vast majority of teachers value financial education, but only 52 per cent had taught it at school, and only 21 per cent in the last year. Find out more about their responses and the finance-related topics that students of different ages would like to learn about in today's infographic.

If you’re in a co-education school, look at student enrolments for STEM subjects and participation in STEM-related clubs and extracurricular activities – is there a gender imbalance? A new report shares global examples of effective interventions from primary and secondary education settings.

Our guest on episode 72 of The Research Files is Professor Joseph Ciarrochi from Australian Catholic University’s Institute for Positive Psychology and Education. He’s the lead researcher for projectHOPE – a program that’s notched up success in re-engaging at-risk secondary students with their schooling.

An overwhelming majority of teachers don’t get enough time to prepare for effective classroom practice or high-quality lesson planning, according to new Australian research. The Grattan Institute report says teaching quality is suffering and students are losing out.