Last year, we heard about an action research project which was occurring at Queenwood School for Girls in Sydney to build a culture of reading for pleasure across the school. The research project has concluded, and in this article, we get an update on the project’s impact on student outcomes and wellbeing.

Recent research has shown that 32% of young adults in Australia are not consuming enough vitamin D. So, why is it important to consume vitamin D? What function does it perform in our body? And which foods are rich in vitamin D? Dr Eleanor Dunlop from Curtin University answers these questions in today’s article.

In this video for Teacher, Mathematics teacher Holly Millican shares the resources for 3 activities she has implemented in her classroom to engage students when learning about statistics.

Australia is falling behind when it comes to children’s physical activity, with new challenges for schools brought to the fore through the COVID-19 pandemic. In this article, we outline 5 further readings which explore children and young people’s physical activity in Australia.

While schools across the country are grappling with critical teacher shortages, it’s certainly no surprise to hear that out-of-field teaching is occurring. A new Deakin University report which was co-written by ACER and Griffith University, looks at the issue of out-of-field teaching and proposes 46 recommendations.

School closures have undoubtedly affected all students. However, some impacts have been more pronounced for students experiencing disadvantage. A recent study looks at the unequal impacts of COVID-19 school closures on the attendance rates of high-SES and low-SES secondary students in a quasi-experimental analysis.

In this episode in our Action Research series, we hear from Sarah Durack, a secondary Science and Mathematics teacher based in Sydney. Sarah shares her experience of combining researching part-time with a full-time teaching job, and shares some of the findings from her study on school to university transition.

‘Ultimately, our pilot … has transformed the way we meet the needs of our students and staff, particularly in a post-pandemic landscape.’ In this reader submission, Bridget Garing shares the details of a pilot Pittwater House in New South Wales undertook earlier this year to encourage staff to work collaboratively to support students.

In this episode, we’re joined by two international guests ahead of their presentation at ACER’s Research Conference 2022, Louisa Rosenheck from Kahoot! and YJ Kim from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. They share what playful assessment is, and how teachers can embed this practice in the classroom.

ACER’s Global Academic Challenge was held for the first time this year and offers higher-performing students in Years 4, 6 and 8 the opportunity to attempt the kinds of questions sat by students in international schools around the world. ACER Senior Research Fellow Frances Eveleigh, who led the development of the challenge, shares some of the insights in this article.