Teacher Magazine (ACER)

To mark the end of another fantastic year, the Teacher editorial team have taken a walk down memory lane to share some snippets from their favourite podcasts for 2016.

The Programme for International Student Assessment, more popularly referred to as PISA, measures how well 15-year-olds are prepared to use their science, reading and mathematics skills in real-life situations. More than half a million students from 72 countries and partner economies took part in the 2015 test cycle and the results have just been released. The Australian report, PISA 2015: A first look at Australia’s results, from the Australian Council for Educational Research, doesn’t make for pleasant reading. Dr Sue Thomson, ACER Director of Educational Monitoring and Research and lead author of the report, joins me to discuss the results.

The results from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) were released earlier this week. Conducted every four years, this major international assessment compares the achievements of Years 4 and 8 students in mathematics and science. A report released by the Australian Council for Educational Research, shows that while many other countries have improved, Australian performances have largely stagnated. In fact, the Australian results have been labelled a ‘cause for grave concern’ after they indicated Years 4 and 8 student achievements have flatlined over the past 20 years. I sat down with Dr Sue Thomson, Director of Educational Monitoring and Research at ACER and the report’s lead author to discuss the results.

What sort of learning environments does your school have? Are you making the best use of your teaching space? Our guest on The Research Files this month is Wes Imms, Associate Professor in the Melbourne Graduate School of Education and Lead Chief Investigator of the Innovative Learning Environments and Teacher Change. Over the next four years the research team will be investigating how teachers are using these environments to improve student learning outcomes, and they’ll be sharing strategies and best practice.

The Research Schools Network in the UK is a joint project involving the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) and the Institute for Effective Education. Each school, selected as a leader in bridging the gap between research and classroom practice, receives GBP200,000 – that’s around AUD320,000 – over three years. Teacher caught up with Dr Jonathan Sharples, Senior Researcher at EEF, to find out more.

The guest for this episode is Professor Brian Caldwell, Professor Emeritus at the University of Melbourne and Deputy Chair of ACARA. His new book The Autonomy Premium, published by ACER Press, explores the link between student achievement and autonomy in school management and professional practice and includes case studies of Australia government schools. We caught up with him in Melbourne to find out more.

Are teachers ever influenced by bias when it comes to grading student work? This is the focus of a new report from researchers at the University of New England, which looks at different types of potential bias in grading including gender, race and physical attractiveness. Associate Professor John Malouff joins me in this episode to discuss the findings from his research and what schools can do to minimise bias in the classroom.

Welcome to the second part of our Teaching Methods podcast on Engineering. In part one Lyn English, Professor in STEM Education at the Queensland University of Technology, talked about the importance of Engineering in the primary years and the resources available to teachers. Here, she chats to Editor Jo Earp about the Engineering Design Process learning framework, the steps involved in the process, and the role of the teacher in scaffolding learning.

A new study has found that positive teacher-student relationships at age 10 can significantly reduce problem classroom behaviours, and the effects last for up to four years. Teacher talks to lead author Dr Ingrid Obsuth.

Teacher magazine talks to Professor in STEM Education Lyn English about the importance of Engineering in the primary years and resources to support teachers in the classroom.