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Scotland has recently implemented a new approach to assessing children’s progress in its schools. It’s an online national assessment called the Scottish National Standardised Assessments, or SNSA for short, and it aims to support improvement in classroom practice by providing information to teachers to inform the next steps in learning. All of this is done while still overseeing what’s going on locally and nationally. It’s delivered to students in Primary 1, Primary 4, Primary 7 and Secondary 3 – which in Australia is equivalent in age to Prep, Grade 3, Grade 6 and Year 9. Now, the particularly unique aspect of this assessment is the fact that it places teacher professional judgement at the centre. It’s also been developed to be accessible for students with additional support needs. And, as well as this, the test is adaptive – so, students are presented with questions according to how well they’ve answered the questions previous. To find out more about how all of this was achieved, and how the assessment i

Welcome to the first ever Teacher Talks, a podcast event hosted by Teacher magazine, and proudly brought to you by our podcast supporter, the Melbourne Graduate School of Education. My name is Rebecca Vukovic, I’m Deputy Editor of Teacher magazine, and it is my pleasure to share with you the very special interview we recorded in Melbourne in front of a live audience of teachers and school leaders. Our guest, Dr Lyn Sharratt, is a highly accomplished practitioner, researcher, author and presenter. She holds a doctorate from the University of Toronto, and coordinates the doctoral internship program in the Leadership, Higher and Adult Education Department at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. In this episode, I sit down with Lyn to discuss one specific leadership approach, Learning Walks and Talks. We have a lot to cover in this episode, from building a culture of trust amongst staff for Learning Walks and Talks, to the nuts and bolts of how to do a Learning Walk and Talk effectively and confi

What a month we’ve had here at Teacher magazine! It’s been busy but exciting – and safe to say it’s been packed full of interesting stories and content for our readers. From Research Conference, to Science Week, to our very first live event with Dr Lyn Sharratt – there’s so much we'd like to look back on and share with you. Host: Rebecca Vukovic

ACER’s Research Conference took place this month with the theme – ‘Preparing students for life in the 21st century: Identifying, developing and assessing what matters’. In this episode, we’ll take you to the closing session of the conference – the ‘In Conversation’ between ACER CEO Professor Geoff Masters AO and Neil Selwyn, a Professor in the Faculty of Education at Monash University. We’ll share highlights from their discussion about what schooling might look like in 10 years’ time. Now, this session began directly after Neil delivered the conference’s Karmel Oration, so, as you’re going to hear a few references to that talk, it’s important I give you an understanding of what he discussed. Neil’s Oration was titled ‘On with the 21st century! Preparing Australian education for the 2020s and beyond.’ So, it’s clear from that title that he took the conference theme to heart. In particular, Neil focused on what education might look like in 2029. He spoke about how there are often three different kinds of p

If you were to visit any preschool or kindergarten classroom, you’d surely find that shared book reading is a common activity used to facilitate discussions and support a young child’s language and literacy development. A new study, published in Early Childhood Research Quarterly, examined the extent to which preschool teachers use different types of questions during classroom-based shared book reading. Researchers from the Children’s Learning Institute at the University of Texas, Ohio State University, the American Institute for Research and Michigan State University all collaborated on this study. They found that only 24 per cent of what teachers said during the shared book reading were questions, and the kids answered the questions accurately 85 per cent of the time. In today’s episode, I’m joined by one of the study’s authors, Dr Tricia Zucker, who is an Associate Professor with the Children’s Learning Institute at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth in Houston. We chat about what the main findings were t

These past couple weeks at Teacher have been jam-packed. We welcomed a number of guests – from the eSafety commissioner to the ARIA Music Teacher of the Year – and we also featured a lot of content on the topic of literacy. Catch up on anything you might’ve missed in today’s podcast episode. Presenter: Dominique Russell

A supportive school reading culture is one where there is availability, opportunity, encouragement and support for reading. But how do schools actually go about building this kind of culture in their own contexts? To answer this question, Senior Lecturer at Edith Cowan University Dr Margaret Merga went straight to the source – teacher librarians – to gain their valuable insights into the factors that enable and constrain the development of a whole school reading culture. The results from this research were published in the Australian Journal of Education in a paper titled, Building a school reading culture: Teacher librarians’ perceptions of enabling and constraining factors. In today’s episode, I sit down with Margaret to talk more about her study and its findings, including the role that school leadership plays in the development and maintenance of a school reading culture. Guest: Dr Margaret Merga Interviewer: Rebecca Vukovic Supporter: QUT Podclass

Keeping kids safe online is a constant challenge for parents and teachers. And it can be easy to understand why it’s such a worry. Data show 99 per cent of Australian parents with children aged between two and 17 report having an internet connection in the home and one in five Australian children have been cyberbullied online between the ages of eight and 17. The statistics on this are clearly alarming, but the good news is there is help out there. My guest for today’s episode is Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, who was appointed to lead the eSafety Office in 2017, and charged with the role of promoting online safety for all Australians. Julie has an impressive resume that includes working for the US Congress, Twitter, Adobe and a 17-year stint at Microsoft. In today’s episode we talk about the common cyberbullying incidents that young people report to her office, how her team work to protect children online, and where teachers can find resources to help them to navigate cyberbullying c

Teacher Staffroom takes a look at some of the research we’ve covered on Teacher this month including the latest TALIS results on the state of the teaching profession. We also share some exciting updates about the publication. Presenter: Rebecca Vukovic Podcast supporter: QUT Podclass

There have been many research studies published that explore how adolescents perceive school discipline, but only a few papers have examined the perceptions of primary school students. Dr Lotem Perry Hazan is Head of the Educational Management Program in the Department of Leadership and Policy in Education at the University of Haifa in Israel. She’s also the Head of the Jewish Education Research Center. She joins us today to discuss her study of lower primary school students, aged seven to 10, and their perceptions of due process in schools’ disciplinary procedures. Published in the British Educational Research Journal, the study was based on semi-structured interviews and focus groups with children recruited from 19 public schools in Israel. In today’s discussion, we cover what her aims were for this study and what the main findings were. We also discuss student voice and the role of students in managing their own school discipline. And finally, Dr Perry Hazan shares some of her most recent work on surv

How do children experience hope? And, what does it mean to be hopeful? These are some of the questions we discuss with our guest, Dr Avivit Cherrington, in today’s Global Education podcast episode. Dr Cherrington is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Faculty of Education at Nelson Mandela University in South Africa. She stopped by our Melbourne office for our interview today where we chat about some of her latest work with rural South African children and their conceptualisations of hope. We talk about what it means to be hopeful from an Afrocentric worldview; its emphasis on belonging, connectedness and community; and how children around the world experience hope in their own settings. To begin though, we ask Dr Cherrington to tell us about her professional background, and to give us some insight into the work she’s currently doing at Nelson Mandela University. Interviewer: Rebecca Vukovic

Thanks for downloading this episode of Teacher Staffroom – where we catch you up on the latest evidence, insight and action. I’m Dominique Russell. We’re going to be delving into a lot of recent research in today’s episode. That’s because a lot of interesting studies have been published recently, and quite a few point to the importance and impact of mental health in a school setting. And, don’t forget, I’ll be posing some questions about this content throughout the next 10 or so minutes, so if you’re listening along with colleagues, that’d be a great time to discuss your thoughts and ideas, because this a topic that affects each and every one of us. So let’s dive in.

In this episode of The Research Files, we’re looking at a project that was conducted in New Zealand, and it’s all about game-based learning practices. Our guest is Rachel Bolstad. She’s a Senior Researcher at the New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER) and began this research with the aim to investigate how games of all kinds might deepen and enrich student engagement with learning across the curriculum. Students as young as Grade 3 and as old as Year 13 were involved, along with their teachers, and the results really do point to the potential game-based learning could have.

In today’s episode of our School Improvement series we're joined by Tasmanian educator Steve Harrison. Steve is Assistant Principal in Senior Secondary at Huonville High School, and he also coordinates the nationally accredited Aquaculture course at the Huon Valley Trade Training Centre – a vocational training centre which was established in 2012 for both student and adult learners. He joins us today to chat about the establishment of the centre, who was involved in the process and the courses available to students. Steve also shares more about the hands-on skills that students are learning in particular industries like Aquaculture, as well as the broader ‘soft skills’ that they could apply to any future employment opportunities. And importantly, Steve also shares more about the success of the program and how students are choosing to move into the Tasmanian Aquaculture industry once they leave school. We cover a lot in today’s episode, but to kick things off, I ask Steve to explain why there was a need in the

Australia’s school principals are overwhelmed by the amount of work they’re doing; they’re having great difficulty sleeping; and they are experiencing high rates of offensive behaviour and physical attacks, according to 2018 data collected for the Principal Health and Wellbeing Survey. The survey monitors school principals', deputy or assistant principals’ health and wellbeing annually. Since it first began in 2011, data has been collected from about 50 per cent of Australia’s 10 000 principals. Associate Professor Philip Riley from Australian Catholic University’s Institute of Positive Psychology and Education is the survey’s chief investigator and he is our guest in this episode of The Research Files. In today’s chat we discuss some of the interesting points to come out of this data collection, and why principals receive interactive feedback after completing the survey. We also discuss the impact that long work hours are having on principals’ wellbeing, their family life and their ability to maintain a he

In today’s episode I’m going to share some of the interesting interviews and articles we’ve published on Teacher this month. There were plenty to choose from but I’ve gone ahead and selected the pieces that I think you’d find the most useful in your own school settings. After all, here at Teacher we’re always focusing on the practical ways that you can use the research in your own classrooms. Throughout the episode you’ll hear me posing lots of questions. They’re designed to get you talking with your colleagues – in staffrooms or team meetings perhaps – and to get you thinking critically about the content we’re sharing.

We’re taking you to the Northern Territory in this episode of Teaching Methods, where a primary school was purposefully built to house classrooms of students taught by co-teachers. The school, Rosebery Primary, is in its ninth year this year, and Principal Gail Smith joins us on the line today to discuss how co-teaching has improved outcomes for students, how trusting co-teacher relationships are maintained and some possible hurdles to adopting the process. We begin this episode with Gail providing some context of her school.

Teacher Staffroom is an opportunity to change the pace a little, and really take some time out with your colleagues to discuss what implications the content we’ve covered recently could have for your own school setting. You’ll hear me posing some questions throughout the episode, so you can chat about your thoughts with co-workers, and let us know where those conversations end up.

Imagine knowing you have a one in 10 chance of winning US $1 million. Well, that’s the reality for Rooty Hill High School teacher Yasodai Selvakumaran. Yasodai has been an educator for the past nine years and has won a slew of awards throughout her career. But this year, she has found herself amongst the top 10 finalists for the 2019 Global Teacher Prize, an award that recognises one exceptional teacher who has made an outstanding contribution to the teaching profession. Yasodai is a Humanities teacher and a Leader in Professional Practice at her western Sydney school. She’s passionate about her job and the students she works with. She joins us today to talk about her interest in social justice, how she connects with students from different backgrounds and how she uses her lessons to help students to understand the world around them and their place in it. We also discuss her approach to personalised learning plans and how to go about building confidence in students.

Our guest today is Dylan Wiliam – Emeritus Professor of Educational Assessment at University College London. He’s a former school teacher, over the last 15 years his academic career has been focused on the use of assessment to support learning, and he now works with teachers all over the world on developing formative assessment practice. We caught up with him in Melbourne to talk about effective questioning in the classroom. Over the next 20 minutes, he’ll be explaining what’s wrong with the traditional teacher approach of ‘I’ll ask a question and you put your hands up to answer’, sharing a classroom display technique called ‘the parking lot’, and describing how to plan your lesson around checkpoints that he calls ‘hinge questions’.