The Excellence in Professional Practice Conference 2014 features dozens of presentations and workshops celebrating the successes of school educators.

Rapid change takes its toll on teachers and school leaders. All the more reason, says Robyn Collins, to address your own wellbeing, not least to ensure your longevity and sustainability in your challenging role.

A school is made up of its people, and people are not always rational beings. Gerard Ferrara explains the importance of emotional intelligence.

If we over-inflate our students’ self-esteem, we run the risk that the air will quickly come out of the balloon when they hit the wide world, says Stephen Dinham.

Research shows that professional learning has a powerful effect on the skills and knowledge of teachers. The tricky question is how to measure the impact of that professional learning on classroom practice and, as a result, on student learning.

If we really want to improve student achievement we need to focus on the person who closes the classroom door and performs the teaching act – the teacher - but to do that we need to open classroom doors.

Ergonomic awareness and well-designed furniture and school bags can prevent pain, injury and poor posture for students. Rebecca Leech explains.

Undertaking postgraduate study, particularly a doctorate, is a big commitment, but as Terry Evans explains, there are ways to make part-time study complement your work and home lives.

Research suggests we have too many and too few teachers, but where we do have real shortages we need both to retain locally trained teachers and attract them from overseas. Danielle Roddick reports.

Catherine Scott reports on research that shows people from any ability range or age group can increase their capacity to learn.