Research news

In her final Teacher column of the year, Dr Sue Thomson explores data from a new large-scale survey of young people’s social and emotional skills that reveals significant differences between students from advantaged and disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds.

A survey of education officials and union leaders from all levels of education in 94 countries has given insight into how the teacher profession is viewed at a global scale. In this infographic, we share some of the survey responses in relation to K-12 settings.

A report released by the Australian Government Department of Education, Skills and Employment, addresses the unique challenges faced by school leaders in regional, rural and remote schools and outlines four key qualities of school leaders achieving high impact in these settings.

In this episode of Teaching Methods we’ll be looking at how PE teachers adapted to online learning during the pandemic. My guest is Dr Vaughan Cruickshank and we’ll be discussing in this ‘emergency mode’ of teaching and learning, did PE happen at all? If it did, it more Physical Activity than Physical Education? And what lessons can we learn from this experience for the future?

What are the future directions of teaching writing? Do students write differently when supported by ICT? And, how often do teachers teach writing? In this edition of Researching education: Five further readings, we’re sharing resources on the topic of teaching writing that seek to answer these questions.

‘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.

As Australia marks World Teachers’ Day, a new survey report released to coincide with the celebrations shines a light on school educators’ passion for and dedication to the profession and lifelong learning. But it also reveals how the job is taking a toll on their wellbeing.

One of the most popular Teacher articles of all time includes a section on looking at things from a student perspective – for example, checking to see if they have an obstructed view of the board. As a teacher, you also need to be thinking about possible issues with students’ eyesight. Two recent studies from different parts of the world explore the topic of vision screening in schools.

A new issue of Snapshots, from the Australian Council for Education Research (ACER), looks at self-reported levels of effort students invested in the PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) 2018 test. Today’s infographic looks at the percentage of students in 20 participating countries and economies who indicated they would have invested more effort in the test if it counted towards their school marks.

Algorithms are a key component of computational thinking, and the foundations for developing these skills starts in the early years. What are some of the day-to-day ‘unplugged activities’ that offer teachers easy opportunities for emphasising and building these skills?