Chief Scientist Ian Chubb’s Health of Australian Science report, launched today at the National Press Club, starts on an optimistic note. Australian science is generally in good health: school students…
The NAPLAN tests are about getting the best results for students.
Flickr/Elizabeth Albert
A small but vocal group is calling on parents to withdraw their children from the National Assessment Program: Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) tests.
But if this call is successful and enough children…
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…
Do we need to go down the Confucian path of learning - or is there another way?
AAP Image/Alan Porritt
As the fifth year of NAPLAN testing gets underway this week, it has prompted the usual debates. Are the tests in our student’s best interests? Are students adequately prepared? If teachers are “teaching…
Despite being considered a scientific taboo in the past, the study of consciousness is slowly gaining momentum.
emmakate deuchars
Until 20 years ago, scientists interested in empirical work on consciousness – our private subjective experiences – hid it by minimising or eliminating the “c-word”, the use of which was a career-limiting…
The government supports an NDIS, but funding must be extended to schools.
AAP/Paul Miller
On being asked the question, “what do you think of disability support in Australia?”, I would have to quote Gandhi’s fabled response when he was asked what he thought of Western civilisation: “I think…
Students learn Korean, one of four principal Asian languages being promoted in Australian schools. The others are Mandarin, Japanese and Indonesian.
EPA/STR
Language experts have applauded Opposition Leader Tony Abbott’s pledge to dramatically boost foreign language education, but warn that a financial investment of about $2 billion and a long-term commitment…
Australia can stand out in the region with the right education priorities.
Night Owl City
AUSTRALIA IN THE ASIAN CENTURY – A series examining Australia’s role in the rapidly transforming Asian region. Delivered in partnership with the Australian government.
Here, Dr Neil Hooley explains how…
Congratulations class of 2011, you've been given the opportunity to have real-life professors – future classes might not.
Flickr/Pauls Creative Cakes
The University of Melbourne was founded in 1885 with five professors teaching 15 students. In 1952, at the start of the post-war tertiary boom, there were around 3,000 Australian academics teaching 30…
Australia’s Chief Scientist, Ian Chubb, released a worrying report earlier this year.
Unhealthy Science? University Natural and Physical Sciences 2002 – 2009/10 revealed the number of students studying…
Learning an Asian language will change how you think about the world.
no_typographic_man
AUSTRALIA IN THE ASIAN CENTURY – A series examining Australia’s role in the rapidly transforming Asian region. Delivered in partnership with the Australian government.
Today, Dr Yuko Kinoshita looks at…
The Gonski report was illogical. Now schools have to work out what to do with it.
Foto_di_Signorina
Last month’s review into school funding by esteemed businessman David Gonski was released with much fanfare. But as the dust settles, it is increasingly clear that the report is, overall, a disappointment…
The Gonski review presents a generational opportunity to reform our school funding system.
AAP/Graham Porrit
The Gonski Review sought to create a new funding system for Australian schooling, because what we currently have is a mess. It was to be transparent, fair, financially sustainable and effective in promoting…
David Gonski has conducted the most far-reaching review into school funding in Australia since the Whitlam years.
AAP
School funding has been a tortured issue for government, and especially federal Labor governments, for most of the past half century.
Since the seminal Karmel Report of 1973, the funding levels and relativities…
While the wheels of bureaucracy turn, schools wait for more funding.
Andreas Ebling
A two-year process of research, consultation, public input and expert consideration and analysis is a reasonable route to follow for a government-appointed independent inquiry into a major policy issue…
School funding is under the microscope for the first time in nearly 40 years.
torres21
A much-anticipated review of Australian school funding, spearheaded by businessman David Gonski, was handed to the Gillard government today.
We asked Australian education experts to respond to the report…
Our academic experts crunch the numbers on school funding.
Pink Sherbet Photography
The biggest review of school funding in decades has been handed to the government. The report recommends an injection of A$5 billion to the education sector, three-quarters of which would go to public…
Western Australia may have mining wealth, but how do we fund schools in remote areas?
AAP/Rebecca Le May
At first glance, the Gonski review presents an opportunity to correct the funding gap between “winners” (understood as the private schools) and “losers” (understood as the public schools).
And it is timely…
The Gonski review on school funding is made public on Monday. But how does the division of resources between the government, independent and Catholic sectors affect how students learn in the practical…
Handing out marks is usually for teachers, now the whole school system is under review.
AAP/Stefan Postles
Australia’s educational system must be one of the most over-reviewed in the OECD.
Hundreds of Select Committees – Federal and State, Upper and Lower House in the past 20 years have reviewed teacher quality…
Will Gonski be brave enough to point out what's wrong with our schooling system?
AAP Image/Jenny Evans
The Gonski review of school funding promises to be a watershed in the history of Australian education. Much is at stake. There is a real chance to fundamentally change the way our divided school system…
The government's merry dance may come to nothing.
AAP/Joe Castro
When an Australian government is willing to risk losing an election over the way it funds our poorest, most disadvantaged schools, rather than our wealthy schools, only then will meaningful change be possible…
The Federal government has secured rare uniform cooperation from the states on its early years learning reform.
AAP/Paul Miller
Would you pay the equivalent of a coffe a day to guarantee a system whereby Australian children got the best start in life?
From January this year, the Australian education system is changing its approach…
When jobs are disappearing, why are we training more journalists?
flickr
By Diana Bossio, Swinburne University of Technology
It usually begins mid-way through their university career.
My office begins to fill with panicked journalism students who have seen the dismal job vacancies in their field and are starting to think their…
The days of bulky textbooks could soon be behind us.
Apple
Late last week, Apple announced the launch of a new piece of software, iBooks Author, and a new version of its eBook reader, iBooks 2. It’s a development that promises to accelerate the move to interactive…
The mining boom has protected Australia from ill economic winds but will not continue forever.
AAP/Le May
2012 will be a critical time in our development as a nation with huge uncertainties in many areas both in Australia and globally.
Over more than ten years we have lived through a remarkable mining boom…
Australian universities must raise their game to compete in the global education market.
Flickr/Reality-check
The world is in a state of transition.
The Indian and Chinese economies continue to grow at around 9 and 10 per cent respectively each year, while the North Atlantic economies – the 20th century epicentre…
We should be questioning the benefits of holding students back a year.
Wikimedia Commons
Making students repeat a year when they’re not doing well socially or academically is not uncommon in Australia. About 8-10% of students repeat a grade at some point in school life.
But there is a major…
Some students may benefit from leaving school earlier.
Flickr/University of Denver
We claim that society’s most important investment is in the education of its people. But prescribing a school leaving age of 17 is not only
uncomfortable for some but downright constraining for others…
Aborginal students deserve better.
AAP Image/Peter Holmes a Court
There is no excuse for Indigenous education in Australia to be in such a terrible and shameful state.
Given the billions of dollars that are allocated to primary and secondary schooling Australia-wide…
Chinese students may have a different take on the media, but universities in Australia can learn from them.
Flickr/badbrother
There is a vast difference between how China is reported inside and outside the country. And that extends to how media and communication is taught in China and Australia.
One of my new PhD students, who…
Students conquering a threshold concept open up a world of new possibilities.
Flickr/Cayusa
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…
Despite ideas to the contrary, the evidence shows that texting does not make us bad spellers.
Flickr/lanier67
Children and teenagers today do all the things that children and teenagers have always done – they talk to their friends, have dinner with the family, and watch TV.
However, as even the casual observer…
Former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd promised an education revolution, but where are the results?
AAP
All is not well in the Australian school system.
Australian schools are struggling to meet the achievement levels of OECD leader Finland.
With the release of the commissioned research reports for the…
A year four slump can be avoided if children are given the tools to read when very young.
Flickr/Éole
Human speech has long been present in every culture, and our brains have evolved specialized features to enable its rapid development when we are exposed to the speech of others. Reading however is a relatively…
Australians want to learn more about science - it's more interesting than sport.
travelskerricks/Flickr
Late last year, the media reported the surprising results of an ANU poll. Apparently Australians are “more interested in science than sport”!
But the really interesting news was a small clarification…
A new generation of architects is needed to build our cities.
Flickr/MorBCN
The “future” is something which manifests nowhere more potently than in our cities.
Yet a substantial transformation over the past twenty years in the way cities are being made – both in terms of their…
More maths teachers means better outcomes for students
Flickr
By 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…
Welcome to “One small thing …”. We asked our authors what one small thing they, or you, could do for the environment. We’ll bring their answers to you on Friday afternoons.
Today’s one small thing comes…
Some parents send their children to a religious school, but others struggle to choose.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Australia has an unusually high proportion of children enrolled in non-government schools, when compared to similar nations. This dates back to the struggles between colonial governments and Catholic bishops…
Exams aren't the only way to turn out graduates ready for the world of work.
Flickr/Reality-check
The time has come to abolish university examinations. Just because something has been around a long time there’s no reason to assume it’s outdated. But in the case of exams that assumption would be right…
Pupils at this charter school appreciate President Obama's support, but it's not the only option.
Flickr/The White House
Education policy in the United States is paved with some glaring failures. Despite this, many Australian reformers are looking west for inspiration, as the Gonski review of education funding is carried…
The best and the brightest put themselves put themselves through an intellectual ordeal to end up here.
Flickr/Tejvan photos
The most feared exam in the world has been dropped. For over a century those hoping to study at All Souls College in Oxford opened an envelope with trepidation to discover just one word inside. They then…
The Gonski review presents the Government a once in a generation chance to review school funding.
AAP
The current debate about government funding to private schools is misdirected. The issue is (or should be) not at what level should private schools be funded, but whether they are entitled to any funding…
The University of New South Wales Chancellor, David Gonksi, is chairing a review into school funding.
AAP
As a five member panel headed by noted business figure and University of NSW chancellor David Gonski reaches the final stages of its review into the structure of school funding in Australia, lobbying by…
Early intervention is the way to turn children's chances around.
Paul nine-o/Flickr
Speak to any teacher who has worked in a school with a high level of social disadvantage and you’ll find plenty of concern about the links between educational failure and long-term social exclusion.
Teachers…
The university funding system discourages research on volunteers like these men who are risking their lives to help their community.
Flickr/Rob Down Under
In Australian universities at the moment research is everything. They obsess over the rankings in the new ERA system which measures research performance. For academics publishing in the top journals isn…
International students are not fuelling immigration as much as first thought.
AAP/Tracey Nearmy
If you’re in politics, population matters. Rival studies on what constitutes a sustainable Australian population project wildly different statistics. But behind the figures are real people whose lives…
