Thanks for listening to this episode of Teacher Staffroom, where we catch you up on the latest evidence, insight, and action. I'm Rebecca Vukovic. In 2015, Teacher columnist and ACER CEO Professor Geoff Masters penned a column for Teacher on the ‘big five’ education challenges facing Australian schools. This influential column remains the most popular article to ever be published on Teacher, collecting hundreds of thousands of page views over the past six years. This year, ACER decided to hold a five-part webinar series to revisit the big five challenges and ask what progress has been made on each, and what needs to happen next? To date, three of the webinars have already taken place, and in today’s podcast, we’ll be exploring each of them and providing details on how you can catch the next two, which will take place in May. By the way, if you’ve missed any of the earlier webinars, not to worry, they’ve all been recorded and I’ll provide links on how to watch them in the transcript of this episode. Host: Rebecca Vukovic

We’re taking you to Tasmania in today’s episode, where staff at Bowen Road Primary School have been working with a local electrical engineer for a few years now to teach students about coding. The partnership came about through the CSIRO’s STEM Professionals in Schools program, which invites STEM industry professionals from across the country to volunteer in schools to share their expertise and real-world perspectives with students. We're joined in this episode by the electrical engineer volunteering at Bowen Road Primary School, Robbie Bell, from Hydro Tasmania, which is Australia’s largest generator of renewable energy. Lynne Hanlon, the educator at Bowen Road Primary School who facilitated this partnership, also joins us to offer her perspective. Host: Dominique Russell Guests: Robbie Bell, Lynne Hanlon

A study has followed primary school teachers through an entire school year to document how they taught mathematics to be inclusive of children with Down syndrome. Each teacher involved in the study had a student with Down syndrome in their classroom, and the researchers took note of examples of innovative mathematics teaching practice by observing lessons, looking at the maths work completed by children with Down syndrome, and one-on-one interviews with the teachers involved. As a result of this research, four different ways that teachers can include students with Down syndrome in their maths classrooms have emerged. Associate Professors Rhonda Faragher, from the University of Queensland, and Associate Professor Barbara Clarke, from Monash University, have published their findings in the Mathematics Education Research Journal. Dr Faragher joins us today to discuss the research. Host: Dominique Russell Guest: Rhonda Faragher

As we settle in to the 2021 school year, teachers and school leaders are certainly grappling with the continued disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. But how can school communities begin to implement change from things already learned from previous periods of remote teaching and learning? For instance, how has remote teaching and learning changed the way school communities collaborate? How can schools work more effectively with tutors to support students who might have fallen behind last year? These are two topics we’ve covered at Teacher recently, and in today’s episode we’re going to take you through some of the most important points. And, like all episodes of Teacher Staffroom, we’ll be posing some questions throughout the podcast, so feel free to pause the audio as you go, gather some colleagues and discuss together how these stories could be relevant to your school context. Host: Dominique Russell

How can teachers go about identifying the underlying causes of a student’s behaviour, and then approach responding to it in a respectful and effective way? To dissect these questions further, we’re joined today by Senior Lecturer at Monash University, Dr Erin Leif, and PhD student and former primary school teacher, Russell Fox. Erin joined Monash University in 2018 after working as a therapy assistant in a school for children with developmental disabilities in Massachusetts in the United States and completing her masters and doctoral degrees in behaviour sciences. Now, in her capacity at Monash University, Erin heads up a postgraduate course in applied behaviour analysis. Russell’s PhD research – which you’ll hear him speak about throughout the episode – focused on understanding what is required to support teachers to successfully and sustainably implement evidence-based behaviour support practices, specifically School-wide Positive Behavioural Interventions and Supports (or SWPBIS). Host: Dominique Russell Guests: Russell Fox, Erin Leif

What contributes to a teacher’s decision to leave the profession? And, at the same time, why do others thrive and find success and personal fulfillment at work? Hugh Gundlach is a researcher and pre-service teacher educator at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education at the University of Melbourne. He is completing a PhD on teacher wellbeing and retention, exploring the reasons why some teachers feel satisfied in their jobs, while others choose to leave the profession altogether. In today’s School Improvement episode, Hugh delves into his research and explains what attracts people to the teaching profession in the first place, some of the key reasons some people choose to leave, and shares some anecdotes from teachers who’ve found practical ways to manage the pressures of the job with success. He also shares insights into how school leaders can better support staff to feel successful in their roles. Host: Rebecca Vukovic Guest: Hugh Gundlach Sponsor: Bank First

Welcome back to a new school year. We know that for many of you, 2020 brought a whole host of unique challenges to the way you teach, collaborate with others, and undertake professional learning, amongst many other things. We hope you all enjoyed a well-deserved break and are ready to face whatever 2021 will bring. Over the past few weeks, here at Teacher we’ve been busy putting together content to help support you for the year ahead, and in today’s episode we're going to take you through some of the highlights. We’ll be discussing school leadership, gifted education, setting up your classroom and resources for planning. Host: Rebecca Vukovic

In October last year, the winners of the annual Prime Minister’s Prizes for Excellence in Science Teaching in primary and secondary schools were announced. Darren Hamley from Willetton Senior High School in Western Australia and Sarah Fletcher from Bonython Primary School in the ACT were awarded with the prizes, and they both join us in today’s episode. Darren Hamley, who is the coordinator of Willetton Senior High School’s gifted and talented program, was recognised for his efforts to use science to promote environmental issues, as well as his implementation of several extra-curricular programs. Sarah Fletcher is the STEM specialist at Bonython Primary School and has been recognised for her contributions to STEM teaching, both within her school, and in the wider community. Sarah is also motivated by her view that learning happens most effectively when students have an emotional attachment to the topic. We caught up with both Sarah and Darren at the end of last year to discuss the work they’re doing in these areas in their own school contexts to improve science learning. Guests: Darren Hamley, Sarah Fletcher Host: Dominique Russell Sponsor: QUT's Faculty of Education

It’s no surprise that a teacher’s self-efficacy has a huge impact on their classroom teaching. But what aspects of work as a beginner teacher has an influence on how perceived self-efficacy develops? A research report has looked into this and we're joined in this episode of The Research Files by two of the paper’s co-authors, Professor Helen Watt from the University of Sydney and Professor Paul Richardson from Monash University. Host: Dominique Russell Guests: Paul Richardson and Helen Watt

Well, we’re at the end of another year and what a year it’s been for everyone. It’s been a massive effort from teachers, school leaders, parents and students – everyone really pulling together to keep going through the pandemic lockdown and then the return to a different school life than before. From the Teacher podcast team then, we started the year at our recording studio in Melbourne and we’re ending it still working remotely from home. We’ve spoken to some amazing educators during 2020, and we’ve spoken to experts around the world to bring you the latest in education research. So, today we’re going to take a look back at some of our personal highlights. Let’s get started.