Student engagement

‘To say that teachers have a significant impact on students’ motivation and engagement is not controversial, nor particularly enlightening. Trucks can be filled with the research papers that show this.’ In this reader submission, Professor Andrew Martin says a more informative exercise is to dig into the ways teachers make a difference to students’ motivation and engagement.

Mathematics teacher Holly Millican shares three fun classroom activities she uses with her students to help engage her students in learning algebra: Solve Me Mobiles, Digit Disguises and combining like terms.

Effective classroom management can be bolstered by an informed understanding of student behaviour, and a reliable toolkit of tips and strategies. In this article, we outline five further readings that examine effective approaches to classroom management.

In her first video for 2022, Mathematics teacher Holly Millican shares three engaging activities for teaching lower secondary students about directed number. She also shares some resources and worksheets.

Our guest on episode 72 of The Research Files is Professor Joseph Ciarrochi from Australian Catholic University’s Institute for Positive Psychology and Education. He’s the lead researcher for projectHOPE – a program that’s notched up success in re-engaging at-risk secondary students with their schooling.

Researchers have held forums with students about their views on moving up to high school and, in a new report, share that students are most concerned about academic expectations, high school systems and social challenges during the transition process.

Back in 2018, we brought you the story of a new intervention program for disengaged male students at Cherrybrook Technology High School in New South Wales. Nearly four years later, in today’s article, we hear how the program has evolved over the years and the impact it’s had on student learning and wellbeing.

In a three-part series, we are delving into the Civics and Citizenship learning area of the Australian Curriculum, and some aspects of the Australian Curriculum: History to explore students’ misconceptions, and to share some lesson activities to help your planning for 2022. This final article focuses on ‘Australian history’ and ‘Civics and citizenship and history skills’.

In this video, Learning Support and Information and Software Technology teacher at St Agnes Catholic High School in New South Wales, Olivia Phillips, shares with Greg Whitby how she is working to give all students the opportunity to access the curriculum.

In a three-part series, we are delving into the Civics and Citizenship learning area of the Australian Curriculum, and some aspects of the Australian Curriculum: History to explore students’ misconceptions, and to share some lesson activities to help your planning for 2022. This second article focuses on the themes of ‘Laws and citizens’ and ‘Citizenship, diversity and identity’.