In her latest Teacher column, Dr Sue Thomson looks ahead to the release of the PIRLS results, including the aims of this international assessment of Year 4 students’ reading skills, and how data for the 2021 cycle were collected during the pandemic.

Brisbane’s Brigidine College, Indooroopilly has changed the way it supports pre-service and early career teachers. In the second part of our Q&A with Allison Johansen (Assistant to the Principal, Professional Teaching and Learning) we find out more about the Pre-Service Teacher Fellowship Program and its positive impact.

An online Indigenous Science course has been launched to give students in Victoria an opportunity to learn about the knowledge systems of local Indigenous cultures about the land, water, and sky. In this article we speak with the course’s co-teachers to find out more.

‘One way of making full use of reclaimed classroom spaces, whilst building collaborative and pro-social skills and behaviours, is Socratic Circles.’ English and History teacher Steven Kolber explains how to use this technique in your own classroom, the benefits and outcomes for students, and the role of the educator.

A new study has found in the most recent New South Wales HSC Physics syllabus 10 individuals are mentioned and all are men, and in the last 25 years physicists have been mentioned 211 times in the subject examinations and, again, all were men. In today’s infographic we share just three (there are many more!) amazing women physicists to tell your students about.

School strategic priorities such as improving literacy and numeracy outcomes involve all staff. In this reader submission, art teacher Kerry Kaskamanidis shares how she responded to a whole-school focus on literacy by building a partnership with a local art museum.

Student engagement in Maths is becoming increasingly important in Australia with the demand for skilled graduates in STEM industries growing. Here we speak to researcher Dr Maaike Wienk about new data showing a decline in Year 12 Maths participation, and what schools can do about it.

How effectively are you acting on feedback given to you by students? In this episode of School Improvement, we speak with Dr Ilana Finefter-Rosenbluh about her recent research into the impact of student perception surveys on teachers’ practice, and she shares some strategies teachers and schools can employ in order to improve their practice in this area.

‘To say that teachers have a significant impact on students’ motivation and engagement is not controversial, nor particularly enlightening. Trucks can be filled with the research papers that show this.’ In this reader submission, Professor Andrew Martin says a more informative exercise is to dig into the ways teachers make a difference to students’ motivation and engagement.

What makes a Vocational Education and Training (VET) program successful? In this article, we talk to Linda Snoxall, VET Coordinator at Mildura Senior College – host of one of the eight successful VET programs identified in a recent report from the National Centre for Vocational Education on the factors of successful VET programs in schools.