Short articles

Once a fortnight the Teacher team ventures down to Room 3 – the basement archives at the Australian Council for Educational Research – to bring you education quotes from some of our favourite historical titles.

In our latest reader submission, Dr Tanya Vaughan discusses the growth and advancement of evidence in education, and the parallels with scientific progress.

Miss Chen shares some of the F-2 resources she’s been using in her classroom. In today’s activity, the students conduct an experiment to see which animals live in the school environment.

A new research study has compiled a list of the 500 most frequently used words written by students in Australia in their first three years of schooling. What influences their word choices? Are there any gender differences? And, how has the list changed in a decade?

Chapter three of the Gonski report discusses the value of excellent teachers, the importance of upgrading their professional practice, and the need for expert educators ‘who foster the learning growth of their students through collaboration, mentoring and continuous learning’.

New South Wales public school principal Hamish Woudsma recently returned from the professional learning trip of a lifetime – a six-day school leadership course at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education. In today’s article, he shares what he learned during his time in Boston.

It’s Science Week this week in Australia, and plenty of schools across the country are marking the event by involving students in real-world science activities, including monitoring local bird life and building prosthetic hands.

Prep teacher Sarah Ferguson has been working with Australian academics Dr Jill Cheeseman and Dr Andrea McDonough to explore young students’ perceptions of maths learning.

Miss Chen shares some of the F-2 resources she’s been using in her classroom. In today’s activity, the Foundation students learn more about the ocean in their Science lessons by visiting the local beach.

Student expectations of their future in education are shifting, a report released today has found. The report – which analyses PISA results from 2003 to 2015 – has shown an overall decline in the proportion expecting to go on to tertiary education.