Research shows linking teachers’ pay to performance has little impact on student achievement. Similar tests to the ones the government proposes for young children now face a backlash in the UK and US.
The Grattan Institute’s new report, Widening Gaps, invites us to think differently about how to measure student progress and tackle entrenched inequalities in achievement.
The political obsession with back to basics literacy is leaving schools behind. What is taught in school is becoming increasingly distant from what is required in the real world.
2013 was the year of Gonski; 2014 the year of higher education reform; 2015 has been the year of … hmmm … wait, what actually happened this year? Just a lot of chat really, with much debate, but little…
There is little evidence to suggest that testing teaching students on their literacy and numeracy will have any impact on the quality of teaching and learning in Australian classrooms.
Textbooks have been at the centre of two major South African court cases. They may not be a magical cure for all the country’s education ills, but research shows they are a critical part of learning.
A new report finds children in care are less likely to achieve the national minimum standards in literacy and numeracy – with the gap growing as they get older.
Why are we splitting our children up into arts and sciences at an age when hormones are raging and peer pressure is so powerful? It’s time for an overhaul of post-16 education.
What if instead of dismissing wrong answers as a sign of failure, maths teachers tried to understand how their pupils came to that answer and then guided them in the right direction?
There are about one million children not attending formal school in Ghana, but a programme in two small villages is a reminder that learning happens outside traditional classrooms too.
When rote learning and parroted answers replace real engagement with the material, children are bound to battle with maths. After-school homework clubs offer a different way of thinking.
With England once again in the spotlight for having poor adult skills, it’s timely that we have a new report from MPs calling for a campaign to fix the problem. But while there is lots of evidence out…
Adults in England have a very unequal spread of basic skills – some are highly skilled while others do poorly at literacy and numeracy tests. It’s likely that entrenched inequality in our education system…
There’s been plenty of commentary recently on the “numeracy crisis” threatening the economies of many developed nations, including Australia. A 2009 report by the National Academies in the US was not the…