Science

The PISA 2022 international results have just been announced. In this special episode we’re joined by Professor Geoff Masters, CEO of the Australian Council for Educational Research, to talk about Australia’s performance, what we could learn from top performer Singapore, and some of the education reforms taking place in other parts of the world.

Australia appears to have put the brakes on a long-term decline in student performance levels, according to the latest international PISA assessment in reading, mathematics and science, but its top 10 position globally is largely due to other countries falling lower. Find out more in this round up.

How many female scientists are mentioned in high school science curricula here in Australia? This question kicks off today’s Teacher Staffroom podcast that highlights some of the key articles, podcasts and infographics we’ve published this month that celebrate women and girls in STEM.

Each year, the Prime Minister’s Prizes for Excellence in Science Teaching recognise the critical role primary and secondary school educators play in inspiring and encouraging students to take up an interest and consider careers in STEM. Last night, Judith Stutchbury and Donna Buckley were named winners of the 2023 prizes.

In the latest episode of our podcast series, The Research Files, we spoke with Dr Kathryn Ross about the gender bias evident in Australian high school science curricula. In this article, we speak with primary school STEM teacher Megan Hayes about how she ensures her students learn about the contributions of Australian female scientists in order to improve girls’ participation in STEM.

How many scientists are mentioned in high school science curricula in Australia and how many are women? After discovering that Marie Curie was absent from the radioactivity section of a state Physics syllabus, astrophysicist Dr Kathryn Ross set out to explore if the contributions of other women were being overlooked. She joins us on this episode to share the shocking findings.

So far in a 3-part series on teacher planning, educational leader Michael Rosenbrock has looked at how teachers can pro-actively plan to tackle student misconceptions in STEM and support them to build and use their vocabulary in science and mathematics. In this final article, he explores how teachers can best plan to make effective use of manipulatives and representations to help students build understanding.

In our latest expert Q&A we talk to Kristy Osborne, a physicist, former pre-service teacher and Research Fellow at the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) about the science concepts that primary students struggle with and why it’s important for teachers to identify and address student misconceptions early on.

‘Deliberately planning to support students to build and use their vocabulary is critical to ensuring that students can both access the curriculum content and effectively demonstrate their understanding.’ Educational leader Michael Rosenbrock shares what this might look like in practice for maths and science teachers.

‘Teacher knowledge of misconceptions and explicitly planning to uncover and address them is vital for supporting student learning growth.’ Educational leader Michael Rosenbrock looks at how teachers can pro-actively plan to tackle student misconceptions in STEM, and steps though an example from the forces and motion topic in physics.