Reading

This term, thousands of 15-year-olds around Australia are sitting PISA – showing how they can apply their knowledge and skills to real-life problems and situations. Here, we look at what’s new for the 2025 cycle of this global assessment, and how teachers and leaders can use PISA insights to inform their own practice and drive school improvement.

Today’s students are entering school with more digital literacy than ever before and there is an advantage to leaning into this skill. Educators can meet students where they are and introduce screen time with a purpose.  Sora, used in thousands of schools across the world, including Australian schools, provides access to ebooks, audiobooks, comics and more – all in one platform.

The world’s largest study on shared book reading has highlighted the importance of having books in the home. The Australian research found bringing books into the home has a significant impact on a child’s positive shared book reading habits, emerging language and literacy skills, as well as family engagement.

In the latest PISA test cycle, one of the topics explored in the questionnaire was the disciplinary climate of classrooms. In today’s article we take a look at one of the drivers of Australia’s less than favourable index score – digital distractions.

Are Australian students getting better or worse at mathematics? Are they more or less creative than their OECD peers? Andrew Broadley chats to ACER Senior Research Fellow and National Project Manager for PISA, Lisa De Bortoli, about what we can learn from the latest PISA results.

A new paper by ACER’s Greta Rollo and Dr Kellie Picker unpacks the science of reading. In a 3-part series for Teacher, they explain each of the components that make up the science of reading, and share implications for teaching. This final article explores the unconstrained skills.

A new paper by ACER’s Greta Rollo and Dr Kellie Picker unpacks the science of reading. In a 3-part series for Teacher, they explain each of the components that make up the science of reading, and share implications for teaching. This second article delves into constrained skills.

A new paper by ACER’s Greta Rollo and Dr Kellie Picker unpacks the science of reading. In a 3-part series for Teacher, they explain each of the components that make up the science of reading, and share implications for teaching. This first article provides an overview of all 6 components.

Researchers from Edith Cowan University have recently highlighted the ongoing importance of explicitly teaching both handwriting and keyboarding skills to students, starting in the primary years. Dr Anabela Malpique joins Teacher editor Jo Earp to discuss findings of the meta-analysis and follow-up study, and tips for helping students become hybrid writers.

The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) recently released an in-depth analysis of Australian student and principal questionnaire responses, collected as part of the OECD’s latest Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). In this Q&A, we speak with ACER’s Lisa De Bortoli and Catherine Underwood about what Australia’s results tell us.