Action research

In this episode of School Improvement Editor Jo Earp is joined by Jake Compton, Director of Academic Culture and a teacher in the Senior School at Canterbury College, which has been working with academics at the UQ Learning Lab since 2020. We’ll be talking about some of the projects, how they’ve evolved over the years, and the challenges along the way.

Highly effective schools enhance student outcomes by fostering strong 2-way partnerships. In this podcast Dominique Russell is joined by Lesley Johnson from Trinity College in Adelaide, and Simon Leonard from the University of South Australia to discuss the success of their partnership that has been ongoing since 2017, including how it’s improving practice for both school and university staff.

‘Increasingly, schools will need to support their young people to not just develop content knowledge and skills through effective learning, but also ensure their students know how to learn, individually and with others.’ Today’s article shares how the UQ Learning Lab is helping educators to set their students up for success at school and in life.

Last year, staff at Skillset Senior College investigated the impact of school-based interventions on student mental health. The research findings have recently been published. In this article, we speak to Dr Martin Hughes about the interventions and the positive impact of the action research project on students and staff.

Last year, we heard about an action research project which was occurring at Queenwood School for Girls in Sydney to build a culture of reading for pleasure across the school. The research project has concluded, and in this article, we get an update on the project’s impact on student outcomes and wellbeing.

‘Learning is complex – students need explicit and implicit knowledge, skills, and dispositions to succeed across the diverse and often crowded curriculum. But do our students actually know which learning strategies are the most effective?’ Today’s article shares details of the Learning to Learn program and Learner’s Toolkit at Goulburn Valley Grammar School.

Findings from an action research project in three West Australian schools suggest the use of quality mentor texts when explicitly teaching how to write narratives can improve students’ storytelling ability. Ron Gorman and Dr Sandy Heldsinger share more details about the teaching and assessment strategies used, and samples of student writing.

At Skillset Senior College, a senior secondary school educating young people experiencing barriers to schooling, Dr Martin Hughes has been investigating the efficacy of the wellbeing and mental health strategies they have in place. Here, he shares more about his research and some of the early findings.

Reading for pleasure has been shown to have a powerful influence on children’s learning. In our latest reader submission about learning during lockdown, Junior School Curriculum Director Vanessa Collins shares details of the ‘Just Read’ action research project to build a culture of reading at Sydney’s Queenwood School for Girls, and ignite in students a love of reading for pleasure.

Helping students to retain information is a fundamental challenge in education. Staff at Coolum State High School have partnered with researchers to investigate one promising technique for improving retention: Retrieval Practice.