Short articles

In her first column of the year, Julia Gillard discusses a new national mental health initiative from Beyond Blue. The program spans mental health promotion, prevention, early intervention and also provides a critical incident response service in the event of a suicide.

Tom Bentley, Executive Director for Policy and Impact at RMIT University, reviews A Commitment to Growth: Essays in Education, by Professor Geoff Masters AO.

In this extract from his new book, Professor Adrian Piccoli – Director of the Gonski Institute for Education – discusses the importance of strong school-parent partnerships, and why parents need to cut teachers and principals some slack.

After surveying staff to assess where their strengths and areas for improvement lie, Principal Daryll Kinnane of Maningrida College in the Northern Territory began working on the next steps for growing the college as a Professional Learning Community (PLC).

Every three years, a sample of Year 6 and 10 students in Australia are tested on their ICT Literacy. The scoring scale has six achievement levels. So, what activities might students at different levels be able to confidently complete?

Once a fortnight the Teacher team ventures down to Room 3 – the basement archives at the Australian Council for Educational Research – to bring you education quotes from some of our favourite historical titles.

In this extract from Rethinking Homework: Best Practices That Support Diverse Needs, US education professor Cathy Vatterott discusses the importance of making tasks relevant and giving students more control over their learning.

Students in Year 6 and Year 10, from a sample of schools in Australia, have been assessed on their ICT literacy abilities. The results have recently been released and show that females significantly outperformed males.

Principal Kerrie Russell explains why Professional Learning Communities with a particular focus on feedback were implemented at Alice Springs School of the Air, and how they could be set up with a small team of teaching staff.

In today’s reader submission, teacher educators Dr Dawn Castagno-Dysart and Dr Bryan Matera consider the importance of learner persistence and the role of both teacher and student in the ‘productive struggle’.