Teachers from Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales have been recognised as nominees for the 2021 Telstra ARIA Music Teacher Award for their contributions to music education by fostering students’ self-esteem; keeping them engaged and inspired during periods of remote learning; and providing performance opportunities.

What challenges do teachers face when delivering inclusive education? How could we begin to address this? In the first of two articles on the topic, Dr Erin Leif, Dr Laura Alfrey and Dr Christine Grove from Monash University explore these questions.

Can doing martial arts improve our cognitive function and mental health? In today’s Q&A, we speak to Dr Paloma Mari-Beffa, a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Bangor University in the UK about her research into the way martial arts make us more alert and vigilant, boost our concentration and improve wellbeing.

‘Let’s face it, when cooperative learning, in the form of group or teamwork appears on the classroom agenda, most students utter a groan of discontent.’ Dr Karin Oerlemans discusses the key steps to a successful experience, and how they can be supported by technology.

Students in Australia and across the world faced disruptions to their learning in 2020 as they moved to remote learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Small group tutoring has emerged as a strategy to support those students who’ve fallen behind. In today’s article we explore how to identify these students and why school leaders have a critical role in co-designing the programs.

‘The underachievement of gifted and high-achieving students is, in part, propagated by the dangerous myth that they will succeed regardless.’ In this reader submission, Gifted and Talented Coordinator Michelle Lucas looks at some of the misconceptions.

It is widely acknowledged that teaching is a stressful job, and the global events of this year have added an enormous amount of extra pressure on those working in education. In today’s article, we take a look at the research into the prevalence of stress and burnout for teachers and school leaders, and explore some of the protective factors.

‘There are several cognitive strategies that support the development of resilience … these are the skills we want to encourage children to develop in the early years.’ In part two of her series on resilience, Dr Sarah Tillott discusses the adaptive and maladaptive traits of resilience.

The emerging definition of ‘student voice’ involves young people in a true partnership with adults, so they can influence what happens to them in school, and become meaningfully involved in their own learning. In today’s article Roger Holdsworth from the Youth Research Centre at The University of Melbourne discusses how the definition has evolved since it first emerged in the 1980s.

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented some unique challenges for early years educators as they move to a remote learning approach. In today’s article, Dr Deborah Price discusses some practical ways for embracing the teaching and learning opportunities this new environment provides.