Short articles

As an educator working in a rural community, what are the most pressing challenges you face that are directly related to the location of your school? Is professional learning an area you need support in? What about staff turnover or opportunities for students? Here are five resources that analyse the experiences of staff and students in rural schools.

‘A teacher can be effective, efficient, inclusive, and strategic. Still, unless they are professionally kind along with these things, the learners suffer.’ In today’s reader submission, Professor Nan Bahr argues kindness is an essential general trait for all people, but it is also applied expertise for the teacher and should be a professional standard.

In the latest instalment of Teacher’s bookshelf, we share an exclusive extract from Thrive: the purpose of schools in a changing world, by Valerie Hannon and Amelia Peterson. In this 2nd Edition the authors advocate a new purpose for education and explore what thriving might look like in an age of disruption.

The final webinar in a series tackling major challenges in school education in Australia will explore the ‘wicked problem’ of how to raise the status of the teaching profession. Topics up for discussion include how to attract and retain highly capable people, and changing attitudes towards teachers and teaching.

Planning ahead to meet the professional learning needs of staff to improve teaching effectiveness in your school is an important aspect of a principal’s work. But, what happens when these plans get overtaken by events?

Russell Vale Public School recently commissioned a local artist to revamp buildings in the school grounds. Here, Principal Paul Cuthbertson shares why the school decided to commission the work, and why it was important to depict local wildlife.

‘While we found that a lot of elements in our lives can be replaced by an online substitute, after a year of lockdowns we still have not been able to replicate the “human” element. The lack of peer-to-peer interaction was perhaps felt most by children.’ Professor John Toumbourou discusses the role of peer support programs in rebuilding student resilience.

Teachers play an important role in the mitigation of bullying, particularly in the early years, where children are more likely to rely on their teachers to help them fix their problems. So, as an early years educator, how do you approach assessing behaviour to decide whether it is bullying?

Translating academic research into classroom practice is traditionally a one-way relationship – from research to practice. University of Queensland colleagues Stephanie MacMahon, Jack Leggett and Annemaree Carroll share details of a collaboration with educators making it a two-way process of engagement.

Learning to read is a complex task for children, and there are many evidence-based approaches to teaching children to read. So, how do children learn to read? How can teachers be most successful in reading instruction? We share five resources which seek to answer these questions.