The winners of the inaugural Teacher Awards were announced this month, and over the coming weeks we’ll be sharing their stories. In this article, we speak with Kate O’Donnell from GOAL College, winner of the Improving Health and Wellbeing Award, sponsored by Bank First.

New research from the United States involving mathematics teacher teams in 4 schools – across a period of 4 years – investigated specific strategies that support a collaborative approach to coaching in schools that are under significant pressure to improve. Find out more in today’s article.

Our guest for today’s School Improvement episode is Ruth Rogers, Principal of Karonga School in New South Wales. Ruth joins us today to talk about her school’s immersive classroom, and how it allows students – all of whom have an intellectual disability – to access a world beyond the classroom and practice skills that they can take with them when they are out in the community.

In our latest expert Q&A we talk to Kristy Osborne, a physicist, former pre-service teacher and Research Fellow at the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) about the science concepts that primary students struggle with and why it’s important for teachers to identify and address student misconceptions early on.

In this episode I’m joined by Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report Director Manos Antoninis to discuss the 6 key messages in the major international study Technology in Education: A tool on whose terms?, including what governments, systems and schools should be thinking about when planning to bring technology into the classroom.

Our latest Teacher’s Bookshelf features Building a World-Class Learning System: Insights from some top-performing school systems, by Professor Geoff Masters. It explores what British Columbia, Estonia, Finland, Hong Kong and South Korea have in common, the strategies they employ, and the decisions they are making to support students now and in the future.

Our guest for this episode of The Research Files is Professor Anne Castles. She’s a Keynote speaker at ACER’s Research Conference next month, which is exploring how to improve continuity of learning in the first 12 years of a child’s life. We’ll be discussing some of the research on learning to read, and getting a taster of what delegates can expect from her presentation.

‘The result of unresolved concerns could well lead to an unwillingness to use immersive technology with students. Yet, often, the barriers are surmountable.’ Dr Susan O’Donnell and Adrian Rayner, from the VR Learning & Design Hub, look at teacher’s prior concerns and some of the solutions.

A major international report released today calls for smartphones to be banned in schools, pointing to concerns about data privacy, cyberbullying, wellbeing and among children themselves. Here are the key messages from the UNESCO 2023 Global Education Monitoring Report on technology in education.

‘[When] fully embedded and aligned with the Australian Curriculum, AR can be an extraordinary tool for learning, particularly suited to use by primary-aged students.’ Dr Susan O’Donnell and Adrian Rayner give an update on the work of the VR Learning & Design Hub, which has been exploring the benefits of Augmented Reality in the classroom.