I have often argued that I would not let any teacher into a school unless – as a minimum – they had read, carefully and well, the three great books on education: Plato’s Republic, Rousseau’s Émile and…
In The Importance of Teaching white paper in 2010, the government committed itself to developing a “self-improving system of schools”. Four years on there is a risk that a two-tier system will emerge in…
Who should teach the teachers? The answer seems obvious. The best teachers should teach the teachers in the way that the best cooks teach the cooks. That’s the apprenticeship, the craft or “sitting with…
The bi-partisan federal legislation in the US popularly known as “No Child Left Behind” was passed during George W Bush’s first term. It had two important goals: to increase scientifically based education…
We assume that digital technology can improve education and that the challenge is how to bring innovative technology and educational professionals together. But the evidence shows that despite massive…
“The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living from the dead.” While Aristotle’s axiom is purposefully exaggerated for dramatic effect, modern research confirms that there is indeed an…
Australia has on average had one review of teacher education every year for the past 30 years. As I have noted previously: Each inquiry reaches much the same conclusions and makes much the same recommendations…
Do you become a teacher through intellect, reading, discussing, thinking and writing about the issues? Or is it a collection of behaviour, responses, routines and techniques that can only be learnt by…
For more than a decade, Singapore, along with South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Finland, has been at or near the top of international leagues tables that measure children’s ability in…
Watch the video of Maxine McKew interviewing Stanford professor Linda Darling-Hammond below. Australian schoolkids are scoring higher than their US counterparts in maths, science and literacy, but a visiting…
Sunanda Creagh, The Conversation and Hannah Valmadre, The Conversation
Governments should invest in postgraduate school teacher education and primary-level specialist teachers in maths and science, according to a new green paper released today by the Melbourne Graduate School…
With the newly announced federal government reforms to teacher training announced this week, emotional intelligence is now firmly on the agenda for trainee teachers. Under the proposed rules, prospective…