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Education – Articles, Analysis, Comment

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Larger class sizes can have negative impacts on disadvantaged students. www-audio-luci-store-it/Flickr

Class size does matter: at least for disadvantaged students

David Zyngier, Monash University

A recent report by the Victorian Competition & Efficiency Commission has suggested that reducing class sizes in the state has not improved student academic performance. The report said that despite…
Migrant kids may struggle to make friends in English class and do so more easily through other activities. AAP

The importance of teaching more than English to refugee students

Clemence Due, University of Adelaide; Damien Riggs, Flinders University, and Martha Augoustinos, University of Adelaide

Refugee and migrant students entering Australian schools bring with them a range of complex experiences. These may include experiences of trauma, violence or displacement. Some of these young people are…
Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Industry Minister Ian MacFarlane have unveiled their plan for Vocational Education and Training - but do they really know what they’re doing or should they leave it to the States? AAP

Changes to VET might be good for business, but not for students

John Pardy, Monash University

Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Industry Minister Ian MacFarlane yesterday announced funding to engage young people in education and employment, and reforms of apprenticeship support services. This announcement…
Kids drop out before finishing school for many reasons. Flexible learning caters to these. Flickr/Gus Estrella

Flexible learning helps students with disadvantages finish school

Kitty Te Riele, Victoria University

Despite encouragement from federal, state and territory governments to complete school – and a legal obligation to “learn or earn” – one in five young Australians still leaves school before the end of…
Parents can help prevent bullying in the way they model acceptable behaviour and problem solving. AAP

How parents can prevent and deal with bullying

Sheryl Hemphill, Australian Catholic University

Parents are one of the most influential factors when talking about bullying - in that they are the most likely to be able to prevent it. The way parents model appropriate interactions and communication…
Fee deregulation mightn’t be ideal, but it’s the best option we have given underfunding of the higher education sector. AAP

Higher education – how did we get to here?

Sandra Harding, James Cook University

For years the Australian Vice-Chancellors’ Committee - and then Universities Australia - warned higher education in Australia was moving inexorably towards a tipping point. Without substantial increases…
Should we put a cap on uni fees? Shutterstock

Which cap fits? Putting a ceiling on university fees

Gavin Moodie, RMIT University

In all of the debate about the government’s plans for higher education, what people seem to worry about most is the prospect of ballooning student fees, with predictions of A$100,000 degrees or more. So…
Gough Whitlam’s free university didn’t greatly improve access for students from low socio-economic backgrounds, but if Pyne thinks his reforms will, he’s badly mistaken. Flickr/Gostalgia

Maybe free university didn’t improve access for all, but neither will fee deregulation

Hannah Forsyth, Australian Catholic University

Education Minister Christopher Pyne defied historical orthodoxy last week by declaring Gough Whitlam’s free tertiary education a failure. Free education only helped reinforce the place of the rich, Pyne…
International students are more likely to be satisfied with their university when they make local friends. Julian Smith/AAP

Why international students need to make Aussie friends

Catherine Gomes, RMIT University

A recent report on the satisfaction levels of international students in Australia, the United States and Britain has found that a student’s social life plays a big role in their happiness with their study…
Universities have other options rather than just raising fees to astronomical levels. Flickr/Philip Nordmeyer

Fee deregulation is not the only answer for universities

Leo Goedegebuure, The University of Melbourne

Debate begins this week on the higher education bill introduced to parliament last week. If political bartering can result in some sort of compromise, there is potential for the higher education sector…
How can students be sure their high distinction would be a high distinction at any other university? Flickr/Alan Rampton Photography

Comparing uni grades: is a distinction always a distinction?

Glenn Finger, Griffith University and Heather Alexander, Griffith University

Perhaps the biggest concern for students in higher education aside from the cost is their grades. Grades influence retention and attrition rates, scholarships, future employability and a sense of identity…
The higher education bill has been debated by students, university leaders and the opposition. What is likely to pass and what will be blocked? AAP

Higher ed bill explainer: what will pass and what will be blocked

Tim Pitman, Curtin University

The much-awaited higher education reform bill has now been introduced to parliament. If passed, it will result in the most significant changes to the Australian higher education system since the Dawkins…
The higher education bill opens up government subsidies to anyone who can call themselves a university. But can anyone call themselves a university? AAP

Bill opens door to putting private and public universities on same footing

Emmaline Bexley, The University of Melbourne

There’s a devil lurking in the detail of the higher education reform bill presented to parliament. As expected, the bill, introduced yesterday, proposes to open Commonwealth subsidies for undergraduate…
Recent debate about the government’s school chaplaincy program has been informed by deficient understandings of what ‘secular’ is. AAP/Alan Porritt

School chaplaincy debate ignores what ‘secular’ actually is

Audrey Statham, Monash University

Despite recent calls for its elimination and the High Court (again) finding that it was funded unconstitutionally, the Abbott government announced this week that it would continue its school chaplaincy…
While MOOCs are free, their value lies in providing information about how students learn. Flickr/Ilonka Talina

MOOCs: learning about online learning, one click at a time

Gregor Kennedy, The University of Melbourne

Massive Open Online Courses, or MOOCs, took the world by storm in 2012. After years of experimentation at the fringes of higher education, prestigious universities from around the world progressively surged…
Education Minister Christopher Pyne’s radical changes to the education sector have been wildly unpopular, perhaps because he has no evidence to defend their worth. AAP

A year in, Pyne’s radical education changes have ignored evidence

Peter McPhee, The University of Melbourne and Glenn C Savage, The University of Melbourne

Education Minister Christopher Pyne was appointed at a time of innovation, contention and uncertainty at all levels of schooling and higher education. One year in, his distinctive agenda is becoming clearer…
Tactics that experts say help deter bullies are often not the tactics employed by young people. Flickr/Daniel Foster

How to handle bullies

Phillip Slee, Flinders University

Being bullied is a stressful experience – in fact it is one of the most stressful experiences we can face. International research shows bullying occurs in every school. We now better understand that bullying…
NAPLAN results do have their uses, but they are often overstated and they certainly don’t paint a picture of a child’s overall success at school. AAP

NAPLAN results don’t tell us the whole story

Suzanne Rice, The University of Melbourne

Results are out for NAPLAN 2014, and already the discussions have started around the meaning of those results. The program remains controversial, with academics and the public debating its impact on students…
Many students drop out of online degrees because they don’t feel a sense of belonging with the course or university. Flickr/Fleep Tuque

‘Sense of belonging’ enhances the online learning experience

Lisa Thomas, University of Wollongong and James Herbert, University of South Australia

For the past couple of years Australian universities’ enthusiasm for online learning has increased, following the lead of international universities in realising the potential of MOOCs to replace traditional…
What the government sees as a quality university isn’t necessarily the same as what students see. University of Nottingham. Flickr/Simon Paterson

In higher education quality is in the eye of the beholder

Jane Kotzmann, Deakin University

In his National Press Club address, Christopher Pyne argued that higher education deregulation will “transform opportunities for Australians, particularly young Australians to get the quality higher education…
It is possible for schools to drag themselves out of low participation, low academic results and high attrition rates. AAP

How schools across the country are helping themselves

Maxine McKew, The University of Melbourne

I’m over it. The endless binary debates that fuel the great education wars. Public vs private, phonics vs whole language, autonomy vs command and control. So yesterday as my young friends would say. It…
Universities have an opportunity to build a closer relationship with industry, but it won’t come cheap and it won’t come easy. AAP

Commercialising university research: a good but costly move

Tim Mazzarol, The University of Western Australia

Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane this month suggested that the funding of research grants to universities should be decided on the basis of the number of patents generated rather than the number of academic…
Teachers and curriculum officials have complained about the way the coalition government has tried to frame the teaching of history. AAP

Evidence-free beliefs: history in the hands of the Coalition

Tony Taylor, University of Technology Sydney

Back in January, Education Minister Christopher Pyne set up a contentious review of the national curriculum, to be led by two controversial appointees, ACU’s Kevin Donnelly and business academic Ken Wiltshire…
Indigenous languages won’t survive if Indigenous kids don’t have the opportunity to speak their native languages at school. AAP

Indigenous languages won’t survive if kids are learning only English

Jane Helen Simpson, Australian National University

The question of what language(s) to teach Indigenous students, what languages to teach them in, and how to go about it has been generating a little political heat (but not quite so much light) of late…