Teacher ACER

'For teachers, seeing a student’s thinking and understandings in visual form can provide valuable insights into the choices made to represent an idea, and possible preconceptions and misconceptions about curriculum content – the subtleties of what they do and do not yet understand.' Educators refer to multiple forms of student data to help them plan out the next steps in teaching and learning, including informal feedback, classroom conversations and written assessments. As Dr Anne Knowles explains in this reader submission, student drawings could also be a useful addition to your toolkit. This research was originally shared at ACER's Research Conference 2024. Research posters and multimedia presentations will once again be on display throughout #ResearchConf25 – which takes place in Melbourne on 6 and 7 February. Australian Council for Educational Research

How does your school use its role in the community to help address wider community issues? This year, our Fostering Strong School-Community Partnerships award went to the team of principals, deputy principals, senior school and VET HODs, and the industry liaison officers at ENABLE – a coalition of 14 state secondary schools in Logan, Queensland. The ENABLE team were recognised for their Logan Education into Employment Roundtable (LEERT) partnership, which works with local council, local businesses, tertiary providers, and more, to address youth unemployment in their community. Donna Harvey

Fostering a sense of school pride and meeting the individual needs of every student are just two priorities for Melanie Macmillan, Principal of Warwick Farm Public School. In today’s article she shares how she focuses on community partnerships, visible leadership and student engagement to achieve those goals. #TeacherArchives

‘I guess some of the capabilities are rather abstract; they’re about attitudes and they’re not easily defined in the first instance and perhaps easily identified in pedagogical practice.’ There are 7 General Capabilities (GCs) in the Australian Curriculum – so, how are teachers implementing them in the classroom? A research study offers some insights. #TeacherArchives

In this series, we take a look at some further readings available on a particular topic, including open access research papers from various online databases, and Teacher archive content you might not have come across yet. Today, we’re bringing you 5 pieces of content on the topic of Health and Physical Education (HPE), from a research paper delving into the issue of public schools outsourcing HPE to external providers, to insight from students on how they feel about fitness testing, and how they would change it.

This year, when we asked you what topics you’d like to see us cover in the future, many of you said curriculum implementation. So, that’s something we’ve been focusing on this month at Teacher, and in this episode, we catch you up on what we’ve shared.

‘Our findings provide insight into how imaginative, adventurous, confident and capable Australia’s 15-year-olds are in their creative thinking and how it is being fostered in classrooms across the country.' International results from the OECD Education and Skills' first ever PISA assessment on creative thinking revealed Australia’s 15-year-olds were among the world’s top performers. Now, new analysis from the Australian Council for Educational Research offers insights into student performance and attitudes, and how teachers in different states and territories are fostering #creativethinking in the classroom.

What strategies does your school have in place to ensure all students feel seen, understood and respected? In today’s article, we speak with Cathy Cook from Marryatville Primary School in South Australia – winner of the Cultivating an Inclusive and Positive Culture Award – about her comprehensive approach to inclusion.

Helping students to retain information is a fundamental challenge in education and one that staff at Coolum State High School recognised the need to support. They've partnered with researchers to investigate one promising technique for improving retention: Retrieval Practice. #TeacherArchives

'... there’s always the question that we’re asking as leaders – how do we know that all of our students are learning? ... Learning Walks and Talks are a tool to support leaders and teacher leaders to answer that question.' In this episode of Teacher Talks from the #TeacherArchives, Dr Lyn Sharratt sits down to discuss a powerful school leadership approach, Learning Walks and Talks, in front of a live audience of teachers and school leaders in Melbourne.