Teachers are often encouraged to take up opportunities to mark external exams or tests. There is extra money to be earned, but they are also often told that it is good professional development. But what do people mean when they say that, and what parts of your professional practice does marking help to develop?

In the first of a series of articles on how schools communicate student learning progress, Dr Hilary Hollingsworth and Jonathan Heard examine some of the recent history of reporting in Australian schools and highlight some of the competing forces that have influenced current practices in student reporting.

Do you use ability grouping in your classroom? New research published in the Cambridge Journal of Education suggests this approach may be hindering those in the lower attainment groups because their self-confidence is likely to suffer.

In this episode of The Research Files, we speak to Adjunct Professor of Curriculum and Pedagogy at James Cook University, Brian Lewthwaite. He's the lead author of a research project exploring the perspectives of Indigenous Australians on effective teaching practice and he joins us to talk about phase one of this study.

The importance of families having fun with one another has been highlighted in a new report which shows that family cohesion is a vital ingredient for early adolescents having a good life. Lead author Dr Petra Lietz joins Teacher to discuss the impact this has on student learning.

Today the Teacher team ventures down to Room 3 – the basement archives at the Australian Council for Educational Research – to bring you education quotes from some of our favourite historical titles.

Effective use of technology to maximise student learning is now an important component of school strategic planning. For Kevin Richardson and his team at Immanuel College, introducing an online learning platform has been about much more than delivering curriculum content.

Research from beyondblue shows that boosting children’s resilience can be done in an everyday way, through the routine activities and interactions that occur in children’s lives each day, and through more structured programs. Professor Andrew Martin takes a closer look at the latter approach.

Maintaining strong links between families and schools is important to staff at Westgarth Primary School in Melbourne, which is why they work collaboratively with parents and carers to share the latest evidenced-based approaches to teaching and learning.

The Global Teacher Prize awards one exceptional teacher each year for their contribution as an educator. Here, we speak to top 50 finalist Sarah Mathews from Brisbane Bayside State College about improving numeracy abilities.