Articles

Getting to know parents A friend who was employed in a large retail store for almost 20 years told me that the first lesson she learned from her manager when she started was “A lot of customers are sometimes right.”      She said this realisation made her able to deal effectively with the difficult customers, the impatient customers, the angry customers – as well as with the lovely ones.

Principals lose hiring freedom in WA Independent Public Schools Since 2010, IPS principals have had complete autonomy over staff selection, but under a change of direction ordered by Education Minister Sue Ellery, they will have to consider education department "redeployees" before hiring  teachers, support and admin staff.

New suite of STEM experiences at Vic Scienceworks Museums Victoria has announced two new permanent exhibitions and a suite of parallel programs at Scienceworks to prepare the next generation for a world of science, technology, engineering and maths. Beyond Perception: Seeing the Unseen will open in April 2018.

Noel Pearson's literacy program funding extended Noel Pearson's Good to Great schools program, designed to boost remote students’ literacy and numeracy has been backed with a further $4.1 million from the Turnbull Government, following the release of an independent report highlighting its positive impacts.

Study investigates age when children start to regulate their learning A Uni QLD study led by Phd Student Melissa Brinums is helping parents and teachers understand the capacity of young children to learn independently, by providing insight into children’s understanding of practice. The study investigated the age at which children start to regulate their own learning to achieve their long-term goals.

‘Equality’ trends in school yard conversation Oxford University Press has announced the 2017 Australian Children’s Word of the Year and it's... equality. Primary school children were invited to take part in the inaugural competition. Participants nominated their ‘Word’ through a piece of free writing up to 500 words based on their chosen word.

Early childhood investment wasted without quality educators A new paper by Mitchell Institute at Victoria University finds that quality is lagging in key early childhood education and care areas and improving teaching should be a top priority. Highly skilled educators are the most important ingredient but many early childhood educators don’t receive sufficient training or support.

Virtual puzzles can teach kids to solve real-world problems Swinburne researchers have shown that children can apply the skills they learn on a tablet to the real world. The research shows that when four to six-year-olds learn how to solve a puzzle using a tablet, they then apply this learning to the same puzzle in the physical world.

2.5m maths activities completed in Mathletics Challenge Over 6000 schools from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa took part in the recently completed 2017 Mathletics Tri-Nations Challenge. 1.5 million students were registered for the event and completed over 2.5m maths activities. Over half of the students on the winners list were Australian.

Digital devices add to exam time stress: Family Zone survey A survey of 1000 teenagers and their parents shows that electronic devices are causing sleep and study problems for teenagers as they come up to end of year exams. The survey, commissioned by cyber safety platform, Family Zone, found teenagers are being robbed of sleep in the lead-up to exams

Notre Dame MA (Writing) to aid NSW teachers with English syllabus A new writing course introduced by The University of Notre Dame will equip NSW teachers to deal with major changes set to shake-up the English HSC syllabus next year. The new Master of Arts (Writing) program will play a key role in answering the professional development needs of English teachers

Heather Schnagl named Victoria’s best educator Heather Schnagl, Principal at Ivanhoe Girls’ Grammar School has been awarded the Sir James Darling Medal, which recognises a Victorian educator who has made an outstanding contribution to Victorian education.