Dr Karen Maras, from the University of New South Wales, has been presenting on the opening day of ACER’s Research Conference 2021. In this Q&A with Teacher she talks about student learning progressions in visual arts, and shares some examples of how their conceptions of art change with age.

‘[Virtual Reality] cannot be an outcome in itself but needs to be a tool that creates meaningful, authentic and integrated learning opportunities when fully embedded with the curriculum.’ Dr Susan O’Donnell and Adrian Rayner share the five pillars of a successful VR program in education.

With ACER’s Research Conference 2021 fast approaching, at Teacher magazine, we’ve been catching up with some of the keynote speakers that are on the line-up for the five-day online conference. In today’s episode we’re going to get you up to speed on these exciting stories at Teacher, and also some more of our highlights.

Professor Dianne Siemon will be delivering a Keynote address at this year’s ACER Research Conference. In this Q&A, she expands on her Keynote, ‘Excellent progress for all – a function of a year level curriculum or evidence-based learning progressions?’

Ahead of ACER’s Research Conference next month, we sat down with Professor Rich Lehrer from Vanderbilt University to discuss his research that explores science and mathematics education for elementary school students in the US. He also gives listeners a taste of what he’ll be sharing at the conference and why he decided to name his keynote address ‘Accountable Assessment’.

In this series, we take a look at some further readings available on a particular topic, including open access research papers from various online databases. In this edition, the focus is online professional development.

The research-based reading group #edureading brings teachers and academics together on Twitter to engage with research. In today’s article, Victorian teacher Steven Kolber and researchers Dr Keith Heggart and Dr Sandy Nicoll explain why the group was formed, and how it has helped educators contribute to educational research in a meaningful way.

Over the last 12 months, schools have continued to switch in and out of remote learning in response to COVID-19, with educators working from home. As teachers and school leaders in Australia begin to prepare their 2020-21 tax returns, check out this Q&A with the ATO on what to keep in mind, and examples of what you can and can’t claim for.

After a pandemic pause in 2020, the ACER Research Conference is back. In today’s Q&A, conference organiser and ACER Senior Research Fellow Dr Claire Scoular tells us more about this year’s theme, and the focus on providing practical solutions for attendees.

The process of comparative judgement for schools in the first ever Australian project resulted in student data that provided a writing age and an assigned NAPLAN band. The question for the Year 3/4 Team at Templestowe Heights Primary School was what to do with the information.