Professional learning

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.

Any kind of change can be exciting and sometimes daunting, and moving from primary to secondary school is no different. So, what are the worries and challenges for students, and what would help to make the process easier? In this episode we’re discussing the research behind Life Ed’s Guide to Thrive transition program and how student voice has informed the resources.

In our latest reader submission, Dr Lars Andersson ­– Principal of Richmond High School in Melbourne – shares how his school has worked to establish effective Professional Learning Communities (PLCs). In this first article, he explains the thinking behind introducing the PLCs, and the planning and training phase.

'Closely crafting questions, reviewing data, making changes, engaging with open-ended questions were already all part of my daily work in the classroom.’ Dr Jason DeHart discusses the importance of teacher voices in research, and reflects on his own study journey.