Partnerships in education

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.

For many schools, the shift to remote learning during the pandemic has led to new conversations about the possibilities of Blended Learning as a more integral aspect of regular learning and teaching programs. Today’s article looks at how a research-practice partnership is supporting four schools in Queensland to investigate this further.

Staff at St Rita’s College in Brisbane have worked with researchers to implement an academic reading skills intervention for Year 7s. The ‘Lost in Transition’ project merges evidence from the literature with research in the context of the school to meet student needs.

Translating academic research into classroom practice is traditionally a one-way relationship – from research to practice. University of Queensland colleagues Stephanie MacMahon, Jack Leggett and Annemaree Carroll share details of a collaboration with educators making it a two-way process of engagement.

Creating and implementing a school Reconciliation Action Plan is a way to formalise your commitment to building and sustaining strong relationships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, embedding respect, and providing opportunities to improve outcomes for students and the wider community.

Integrating Indigenous perspectives into the curriculum has seen these Queensland students conduct a hands-on inquiry into the science of the woomera – an Australian Aboriginal spear-throwing device. Find out more about the project and curriculum links in today’s article.

Staff at Bowen Road Primary School have been working with a local electrical engineer for a few years now to teach students about coding. In this podcast, we speak with educator Lynne Hanlon and electrical engineer Robbie Bell about how the partnership is broadening students’ understanding of careers in STEM.

In his first video for the new school year, Greg Whitby sits down with Renee Blyth from Xavier College in Llandilo, western Sydney, to discuss how staff have maintained a culture of continuous change at the school.

The Knox School has been working with academics to research what teachers learned from the lockdown experience. In this final article of a three-part series, middle leader Melodie Matheson shares how teacher wellbeing became a transformative influence on her leadership.

The Knox School has worked with Monash University to research what teachers would like to take forward (and leave behind) from the remote learning experience. Three key areas of change were identified. This second article in a series focuses on school community collaboration.