Opposition Education spokesman Christopher Pyne’s comments to the Sydney Institute this week provoked a new debate on teacher training. Most of the educational community would agree, and have for at least…
Overcrowded Australian universities must find a way to promote small-group learning if they are to revive education standards, says the incoming vice-chancellor at the University of Adelaide. In his inaugural…
Entire universities may one day fit in students’ pockets.
KidzConnect
More than 1,000 years of formal university learning and teaching does not change quickly, or without a struggle. But we are starting to see some key tech trends engaging staff and students – and therein…
We should not be looking to East Asia as a model for our education system.
EPA/Vincent Jannink
Results from the Chinese university entrance exam, the Gaokao, were released last week. For students, it’s the long culmination of years focusing on tests and learning by rote. Again and again, East Asian…
Students from the next generation are heading to university, how should we teach them?
Flickr/iwouldstay
Narcissistic, lazy, and overly confident – this is the way some see the new generation of young people starting to go to our universities. According to teacher Lynn Van Der Wagan, who sparked an online…
There’s knowing science, then knowing how to teach it.
B Rosen
Last week’s Health of Australian Science report, by the Chief Scientist of Australia Ian Chubb, has again highlighted the issue of declining student engagement in science in primary and secondary schools…
The days of ‘sit down, shut up and do your science’ are over. Today’s students ask hard questions.
University of Iowa
Two recently published books suggest that the public - and school children in particular - are being fed lies about environmental issues such as climate change. The books - “How to Get Expelled from School…
We should be focusing on students’ performance not teachers’.
Flickr/cybrarian77
Teacher bonus schemes are yet another example of education reform with the wrong focus. They narrowly look at teachers and their performance, and not the needs of students and their learning. It’s the…
Campus life is going to get more crowded in coming years.
Flickr/University of Saskatchewan
A 4% increase in the latest round of offers at Australian universities will place overstretched teaching staff under more strain and lower the quality of education for ballooning student ranks, the higher…
Almost half of all Australians aged 15-74 years had literacy skills below the level required to participate effectively in our society, according to a 2008 study from the Australian Bureau of Statistics…
That “Eureka” moment when a student thunders over an educational hurdle opening up a new realm of learning, is the holy grail for educators. The technical term is a “threshold concept”, and they’re being…
More maths teachers means better outcomes for students.
Flickr
Jan Thomas, Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute
There is a crisis in the education system, and it’s affecting the life chances of many young Australians. The number of secondary teaching graduates with adequate qualifications to teach mathematics is…