In this episode in our Behaviour Management series, Dr Erin Leif and Russell Fox from Monash University join us to answer questions submitted by Teacher readers on trauma-informed practice, strategies for casual relief teachers, and the links between positive behaviour support and academic outcomes.

Attending a professional learning event is a great way to reflect on what’s happening in your own school and improve practice. For leaders at this Brisbane college, it prompted a new approach to supporting and retaining pre-service and early career teachers. Find out more in today’s Q&A.

To be fit for purpose well into the future, learning spaces within schools will need to be flexible. Two schools in Victoria, Australia, have recently undergone refurbishments to develop new, flexible facilities, and have both been recognised at the 2022 Learning Environments Australasia Awards.

How can a student’s social-emotional motivation at school impact their behaviour and achievement? In what ways can we support students’ social-emotional development? These are some of the questions explored in Dr Rebecca Collie’s study into the role of prosocial motivation in the classroom.

With plenty of ‘get rich quick’ hype circulating around social media, and well-marketed trading apps luring people in to investing, it’s important to understand cryptocurrency. In this context, schools and teachers have an important role to play. Here, Dr Carly Sawatzki, Dr Jill Brown and Peter Saffin explore how teachers can understand students’ learning needs in this area.

There are many examples in the Teacher archive of schools giving students the opportunity to be critical and creative thinkers, and in this edition of Teacher Staffroom, we share some recent examples with you.

‘One way of making full use of reclaimed classroom spaces, whilst building collaborative and pro-social skills and behaviours, is Socratic Circles.’ English and History teacher Steven Kolber explains how to use this technique in your own classroom, the benefits and outcomes for students, and the role of the educator.

In the second part of our Q&A, author-educator Vanessa Hamilton discusses what consent education is (and some of the misconceptions), examples of what it looks like for students in primary and secondary, best practice for schools, and some of the challenges faced by teachers and leaders.

Helping students to develop their skills in the general capabilities is essential for preparing them to succeed in a modern society. At St Hilda’s Anglican School for Girls in Perth, Western Australia, primary school students are given these opportunities through the school’s STEAM program.

‘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.