With staff and students returning to school in a matter of weeks across Australia, the time has come to begin brainstorming activities for lessons throughout the year. In this article, we take you through some significant themes and events to inspire some upcoming lessons.

Each year the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) Awards put a spotlight on programs that are addressing challenges in education across the globe. Here, we look at some of the initiatives recognised in the 2019 awards.

A high rank in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is desired by many nations and top performers are closely examined. Ahead of next month’s release of results from the OECD’s 2018 international study of student performance in Maths, Science and Reading, Teacher takes a closer look at one of PISA’s consistent performers – the Netherlands.

Primary school principal Lorraine Evans believes every child can learn – maybe not at the same pace or in the same way, but everyone can learn. Here, she explains how this attitude to learning led to a dramatic turnaround in student results.

At Warrigal Road State School in Brisbane, the focus on inquiry learning in Science was an identified area of improvement. Lead Science teacher Brett Crawford explains what Science education was like before he began mentoring teachers, and shares details of a couple of his budget-friendly experiments.

In today’s Q&A, we hear from Gunda Tire, the National Project Manager for PISA in Estonia, who shares more about the features of the Estonian school system, and what teachers have been doing to support students to reach their educational potential.

From a technical school of the future in Denmark to a building that reimagines school architecture in India ­– the 12 shortlisted designs up for this year’s World Architecture Festival (WAF) award in the ‘Education - Future Project’ category have the potential to redefine how students learn.

Can therapy dogs decrease anxiety and stress in students, and improve school attendance? These are just some of the questions Monash University academics Dr Linda Henderson and Dr Christine Grove from the Faculty of Education are trying to answer as they push for more research in this area.

The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) measures Year 4 students’ reading literacy achievement. When the last study cycle was conducted in 2016, students in the Russian Federation outperformed their peers in all 50 participating countries and 11 benchmarking regions.

Teacher takes a sneak peek at Andreas Schleicher’s new book World Class: How to build a 21st-century school system. This extract discusses the development of capable education leaders.