In the second of 3 articles about research into Problem Based Learning in schools, teachers involved in the project discuss how it has enabled them to reconsider their classroom practice and the conditions necessary for meaningful STEM learning.

In today’s Q&A we catch up with Dr Dan Cloney – a Senior Research Fellow in the Education Policy and Practice Program and a Member of the Centre for Global Education Monitoring at the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) – to discuss early years transitions, assessment and learning progressions.

NAPLAN’s National Minimum Standard is the ‘agreed minimum acceptable standard of knowledge and skills without which a student will have difficulty making sufficient progress at school’. Ahead of the 2023 tests, we compare the percentage of male and female students in year 9 achieving at or above the standard in Literacy, over time.

In the National Assessment Program — Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) tests, the national minimum standard (NMS) is the ‘agreed minimum acceptable standard of knowledge and skills without which a student will have difficulty making sufficient progress at school’. This infographic looks at the performance of Indigenous and non-Indigenous students in Year 9, over time.

Researchers from the University of Queensland are determined to help teachers to improve the air quality in their classrooms, improve students’ cognitive performance and decrease the risk of contracting COVID-19 at the same time.

Last year, staff at Skillset Senior College investigated the impact of school-based interventions on student mental health. The research findings have recently been published. In this article, we speak to Dr Martin Hughes about the interventions and the positive impact of the action research project on students and staff.

'The importance of establishing strong positive attitudes towards learning – particularly towards reading, which underlies so much of students’ learning – is critical, particularly in view of the past two years.' Ahead of the December release of PIRLS 2021 results, Dr Sue Thomson recaps what 2016 data show about students in Australia.

In her latest Teacher column, Dr Sue Thomson looks ahead to the release of the PIRLS results, including the aims of this international assessment of Year 4 students’ reading skills, and how data for the 2021 cycle were collected during the pandemic.

How can we make assessment work for learners and learning in a rapidly changing world? How can we establish where students are at in their learning, including in the hard-to-measure skills and attributes they need to flourish in life? These questions will be explored at ACER’s Research Conference 2022, where the theme is ‘Reimagining assessment’.

‘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.