Long reads

‘Climate change is likely the biggest test facing humanity. Equipping young people with solid scientific knowledge and understanding of environmental issues is key to their realistic appreciation of the environmental threats ahead.’ In his final Teacher column for 2021, Andreas Schleicher discusses student awareness and knowledge of environment issues, and how schools can develop their sense of empowerment and agency to make a difference.

‘Health and Physical Education (HPE) is fundamental for supporting young people to develop the skills and knowledge that will enable them to engage in lifelong health, movement and physical activity behaviours. Ensuring all young people have the opportunity to develop this knowledge is a crucial responsibility for all physical educators.’ Dr Laura Alfrey and Professor Ruth Jeanes share practical strategies for promoting inclusion in HPE.

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Education Endowment Foundation designed and established the National Tutoring Programme in England, with the aim to support the educational outcomes of children from disadvantaged families. In today’s Q&A, we sit down with Emily Yeomans from EEF to discuss the design and implementation, challenges, and key lessons learned that could help others in the future.

‘Our strong recommendation is to get creative and put real life contexts front and centre of your lessons, making mathematics relevant, engaging and meaningful…’ Justine Sakurai, Carly Sawatzki and Dave Tout discuss contextualised teaching and learning of mathematics through the exploration of six numeracy contexts, and provide several examples of what this could look like in the classroom.

What is excellence in Indigenous education? And, how is it conceptualised in practice? In this article, researchers from the University of Queensland, Dr Marnee Shay, Dr Jodie Miller and Dr Suraiya Abdul Hameed, share details of their pilot study in Queensland schools that explored these questions.

‘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.

In today’s article, Dave Tout, Justine Sakurai and Carly Sawatzki discuss numeracy and its relationship with mathematics, and the importance of real-world contexts. They’ll also share a problem-solving cycle to help students develop their skills, and a classroom example of health numeracy, using trampolining as a focus for mathematical investigation.

In today’s article, Dr Erin Leif, Dr Laura Alfrey and Dr Christine Grove describe how teachers can integrate the Universal Design for Learning framework and High Impact Teaching Strategies in a complementary way in the classroom in order to teach more inclusively.

What challenges do teachers face when delivering inclusive education? How could we begin to address this? In the first of two articles on the topic, Dr Erin Leif, Dr Laura Alfrey and Dr Christine Grove from Monash University explore these questions.

The Learning Specialist role in Victorian schools is aimed at building excellence in learning and teaching. At this high school, the Learning Specialist Team looks through a leader and teacher lens to utilise the strengths of staff, and meet individual professional learning needs.