Australia Association for Research in Education
It takes more than a great ATAR to make a great teacher
The question of how to encourage the best candidates to become teachers in Australia is complex and requires much more than just standalone measures like mandatory levels of ATARs for teacher education students. Educators like me welcome debate on educational issues, including this particular conversation around ATARs. We are keen to hear a range of …
Multimodal texts surround us. What are they? How can we use them in our teaching?
The ways in which we communicate with each other in today’s world are wide ranging. We live in a time where politicians tweet national policy announcements, a YouTuber can have 75 million subscribers from around the world, and pre-teen children communicate using images on Instagram. It seems strange then, that assessment practices in schools largely …
How knowledge about China flows between teacher and students in a Mandarin language class in Australia
We exchange ideas in every day life within the ordinary things we do. As I see it, each exchange is a flow of knowledge. It happens all the time in classrooms, of course, which is where my research interests lie. I am particularly interested in how knowledge flows between teachers and students. My belief is …
Here’s what Australian parents think about teaching phonics to pre-schoolers
Phonics remains one of the most controversial literacy instruction topics debated in Australian education. Early childhood prior-to-school settings have not been immune to the phonics debate, usually centered on the first years of formal schooling. Media, policy makers, academics and teachers views often dominate the phonics debate, but parents and carers of young children also …
Don’t lock the doors on students who are first in their family to go to university. Aspirations matter
The funding freeze imposed on Australian universities by the Federal Government brings grave concerns that the chances of securing a place at university will be dramatically reduced. Vice-Chancellors warn they will need to cut the number of places they offer and say the budgets of regional universities will be hardest hit. Universities Australia, the voice …
Ask a child ‘what works’. How classroom teachers can consult children with communication difficulties
In Australia children with disabilities have the right to be consulted about what can be done to help them participate fully in school life. The Australian Disability Standards for Education specifically directs teachers to “consult the student” about what adjustments they could reasonably make within their classrooms to help students with disabilities “participate in education …
Time’s up. Australia needs to ditch its bad education policies
What kind of schooling system do we want for our kids in Australia? I ask because In England, after almost thirty years of high stakes testing, the Chief Inspector of Schools, Amanda Spielman, is talking about a decline in England’s quality of education and blaming “an endemic pattern of prioritising data and performance results, ahead …
The trickery used to marginalise and silence Indigenous voice in education
Indigenous education policy, reviews and reports have consistently sought for the inclusion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in all levels of decision-making. However, actions and evidence suggest otherwise: the silencing and marginalisation of Indigenous peoples continues. My research focuses on the various mechanisms put in place that counter the goodwill intentions shared by …
Doing my research work is like walking a city. How would you walk this city?
How do you feel about walking around a city? If you were in Sydney would you head down to the harbour? Join the throng of tourists and day-trippers taking in the sights? Or do you prefer to find the hidden gems? Perhaps you would insert yourself into a comfortable space that might have excellent coffee, …