Research news

In this 3-part series on student engagement, Dr Amy Berry and Dr Kellie Picker are sharing insights from their study Student perspectives on engaging in learning at school. In today’s article, they share student perspectives on learning at school, and explore what it means to be a good learner. 

It’s our first episode of Teacher Staffroom for 2025, and there’s plenty to take you through today to catch you up on content that’s kicked off our publication schedule for term one here at Teacher.

‘Do you want to be a teacher?’ Is this a question you’ve asked your own students? A new Australian study aimed at boosting the number of First Nations teachers has found that Aboriginal students would like someone to speak to them about teaching as a possible career.

What are the essential skills we need for learning and life, and how can teachers help students to develop them? The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) has been working with more than 30 countries to identify 5 essential skills and design a suite of free educator resources. Dr Claire Scoular shares more details in this expert Q&A.

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.

Previous exposure to similar mathematics tasks that appear in assessments significantly increases student mathematical self-efficacy and confidence, a new Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) report highlights.

Have you ever asked your students for advice on how you could help them to get more engaged in learning at school? That is exactly what Dr Amy Berry and Dr Kellie Picker did in their recent study, Student perspectives on engaging in learning at school. In part one of their 3-part series for Teacher on student engagement, the authors explore students’ top tips on how teachers could help them get more engaged in learning. 

One of the topics in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) student questionnaire is the quality of student-teacher relationships. This infographic looks at the responses of Australian students in the 2022 test cycle, by state and territory.

The annual Ethics Index by the Governance Institute of Australia measures the population’s overall view of how ethical the behaviour of major sectors is. The education sector continues to be perceived as the most ethical sector. Here, we see 2024 results for all 8 sectors, specific occupations within education, and how public perceptions have changed from 2023.

Thinking about your own school context, is there a gender imbalance in STEM-related subjects? How do you encourage girls to consider taking STEM subjects? In this infographic, we look at gender inequality in students entering tertiary education in a STEM field.