Professional learning

‘As teachers work to address student learning needs, student engagement emerges as a key consideration for effective practice.’ In this article, 3 primary teachers share how being given time and support to explore this aspect of their teaching changed the way they thought about student learning.

We’re right at the beginning of a new school year here in Australia. That means most of you are busy setting up your classrooms, meeting new students and establishing relationships with them and their families. In today’s podcast special, we’ve spoken with several winners from last year’s Teacher Awards to ask them their most valuable tips, strategies and priorities for starting the school year off right.

Teacher dips into the pages of Leading Professional Conversations: Adaptive expertise for schools, the new book from Emeritus Professor Helen Timperley. This exclusive extract discusses the importance of firstly establishing the purpose and focus of the conversation, and some things to think about before diving in.

The Future-focused Mentoring initiative has been working with teachers in 2 Australian states. In this project update, the research team share findings from analysis of conversations between teacher mentor and early career teachers, implications for practice, and what schools can do to support genuine and authentic learning partnerships.

Highly effective schools apply their resources in a targeted manner to maximise outcomes for students. In Sydney, the Narrabeen Elanora Student and Teacher collaboration is comprised of 4 local schools and enables the sharing of facilities and resources. In this episode, we speak to 2 staff members about the collaboration.

Research shows that high quality teaching and leadership teams regularly share their skills, knowledge, expertise and best practice. In our latest expert Q&A we talk to Pru Mitchell – Manager of Information Services at the Australian Council for Educational Research – about the different ways to share and tips for getting started.

The winners of the 2023 Teacher Awards have been announced. In this article, we speak with the winner of the Improving Student Learning and Progress Award, Catherine Young from Newman College in Western Australia, about how she uses data to monitor student progress and evaluate the effectiveness of teaching.

UNESCO’s Global Education Monitoring Report for 2023 focuses on technology in education. According to the report’s Profiles Enhancing Education Reviews for 211 education systems, 51% have set ICT standards for teachers ‘in a competency framework, teacher training framework, development plan or strategy’. Here is an international snapshot for 2022.

‘The result of unresolved concerns could well lead to an unwillingness to use immersive technology with students. Yet, often, the barriers are surmountable.’ Dr Susan O’Donnell and Adrian Rayner, from the VR Learning & Design Hub, look at teacher’s prior concerns and some of the solutions.

In his Teacher article Establishing Professional Learning Communities that work, Melbourne principal Dr Lars Andersson shared details of the planning and preparation phase at Richmond High School. In this follow-up, he discusses the implementation experience and the impact on practice and student outcomes.