Teachers are often encouraged to take up opportunities to mark external exams or tests. There is extra money to be earned, but they are also often told that it is good professional development. But what do people mean when they say that, and what parts of your professional practice does marking help to develop?

In the first of a series of articles on how schools communicate student learning progress, Dr Hilary Hollingsworth and Jonathan Heard examine some of the recent history of reporting in Australian schools and highlight some of the competing forces that have influenced current practices in student reporting.

Why is it important to teach algorithmic thinking skills? Is algorithmic thinking the same as coding? Educators Greg Breese and David Shigrov answer these questions and more in today’s Q&A.

When Greg Ashman took on a job at Ballarat Clarendon College, he was immediately impressed by the school’s focus on research. This inspired to him to pursue a PhD in instructional design and led him to his current role as Head of Research at the school. In today’s Q&A, we find out more about the role.

Findings from an evaluation of upper primary and middle school students’ science inquiry skills suggest there is room for improvement in implementing an inquiry-based teaching approach, at least in terms of students’ abilities to undertake scientific inquiry.

Brisbane’s Parklands Christian College has introduced a new STEM Studies elective for Year 10. Lead Teacher of Mathematics and Science Kristie Schulz explains the course design and implementation process.

Results from the latest cycle of the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) show the literacy achievement of Year 4 students in Australia has improved. However, there are significant achievement gaps by gender, Indigenous status, socioeconomic status and school location. ACER Deputy CEO (Research) Dr Sue Thomson, joins Teacher to discuss the results further.

The latest Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) results have been released today. Here, we take a closer look at PIRLS 2016: Reporting Australia’s results, which describes the reading literacy achievement of a nationally representative sample of Year 4 students in the international context.

A key initiative of the Science of Learning Research Centre (SLRC) in 2017 has been the establishment of the SLRC Partner Schools project, involving six schools in south-east Queensland, grouped in two networked clusters.

In today’s podcast special we speak with Neil Bramsen and Brett McKay who were named winners of the Prime Minister’s Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching – one for primary and one for secondary.