Teacher Magazine (ACER)

Our guest on today’s episode of School Improvement is Bernadette Hawker, Head of Department Teaching and Learning at Goondiwindi State High School in Queensland. We caught up with Bernie to talk about the school’s award-winning STEAM Program, which has been successful in improving student writing outcomes. You’ll also hear about the strong culture of sharing and collaboration among staff, including through Professional Learning Communities, that’s been key to the program’s continued growth and success.

Host: Jo Earp

Guest: Bernie Hawker

More than half of Australia’s population is under COVID-19 lockdowns, which means many of you are right in the thick of a long period of remote learning, maybe while trying to homeschool your own children at the same time. We’ve been separated from loved ones, we’ve missed important milestones and celebrations, and been restricted from doing some of the things we enjoy most. It’s no wonder our wellbeing has taken a hit. That’s why our fortnightly publication, Wellbeing by Teacher, may be just what you’re looking for. In today’s episode we run through some of the recent wellbeing pieces we’ve published, as well as some other highlights from a busy month here at Teacher.

Host: Rebecca Vukovic

Sponsor: The Hatchery Schools Learning Community

Our guest today is Dr Gary Stager, one of the world’s leading experts and advocates for computer programming, robotics and learning-by-doing in classrooms. He’s also a journalist, teacher educator, consultant, professor, software developer, publisher, school administrator, and presenter at conferences around the world – but we’ll have Gary explain to you a little more about his extensive and impressive work early on in the episode. The reason for our interview today is to talk about his 30-year study into laptop use in schools. In fact, in 1990, Gary led the professional development in the world’s first laptop school. We ask him about the challenges they faced back then in the implementation of the program, how students engaged with the technology in the early days, but also what he’s learned about the way computers are used in schools today.

Guest: Gary Stager

Host: Rebecca Vukovic

Sponsor: The Hatchery Schools Learning Community

In this episode of School Improvement, we’re taking you to a school in rural New South Wales where they’ve seen students in Years 5 to 9 read 12 books a year, and a 40 per cent increase in male students reading beyond their assigned texts.

It’s all because of the reading culture they’ve developed and Head of Middle School and English teacher Alex Wharton has had a key role in this. He’s been named a Commonwealth Bank Teaching Fellow this year for his work, and he joins us in today’s episode to discuss what they’ve implemented at Carinya Christian School to see more students pick up novels to read in their spare time. Alex shares some fantastic insights in this episode, so let’s jump straight in and hear first a little bit about the school context.

Host: Dominique Russell

Guest: Alex Wharton

Sponsor: Australian Volunteers Program

With ACER’s Research Conference 2021 fast approaching, at Teacher magazine, we’ve been catching up with some of the keynote speakers that are on the line-up for the five-day online conference. The theme is: ‘Excellent progress for every student: What will it take?’ and, at the time of publishing this episode, you can still secure your registration. The conference kicks off on the 16th of August.

In today’s episode we're going to get you up to speed on these exciting stories at Teacher, and also some more of my highlights. And, like all episodes of Teacher Staffroom, we’ll be posing some questions throughout the podcast, so feel free to pause the audio as you go, gather some colleagues and discuss together how these stories could be relevant to your school context.

Teachers are thought of by many as an important role model in the community. And when it comes to drawing a line between a teacher’s professional and personal life, this can be challenging, particularly when it comes to their private use of social media.

This idea has been explored by two researchers from the School of Law at Western Sydney University – Dr Sandy Noakes and Dr Sarah Hook. Their paper, which looks at the status of regulation of teacher behaviour on social media in Australia, found a huge variance in the social media policies that are in place for educators at schools across the country, and that there is room for teachers to be more aware of their rights in this area.

The impetus for this research was a decision made by the High Court in Australia in 2019 on the Comcare and Banerji case, which you’ll hear Sarah and Sandy refer to throughout this episode. This case involved an employee of the Australian Human Rights Commission who used a private, anonymous Twitter account to criticise their employer’s policies. Their employment was terminated because of this behaviour and when they fought this decision in court, the decision of the employer was upheld.

So, could something similar to this happen in the education field? What should school leaders keep in mind when creating or reviewing social media policies? And, what rights should teachers be aware of? Both Sandy and Sarah join me today to discuss these points and more.

Host: Dominique Russell

Guests: Dr Sandy Noakes and Dr Sarah Hook

Sponsor: Australian Volunteers

ACER’s Research Conference is back in 2021, after a COVID-19 pandemic pause last year. The fully online event kicks off in August, and runs from the 16th to the 20th. The 2021 theme is ‘Excellent progress for every student: What will it take?’ and will feature international researchers from a range of disciplines.

One of the keynote speakers this year is Rich Lehrer, Professor Emeritus and Research Professor of Education at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. A former high school science teacher, Rich is a member of the National Academy of Education, a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association, and a recipient of the American Psychological Association’s Distinguished Contributions in Applications of Psychology to Education.

Ahead of the event next month, we sat down with Rich to discuss his research that explores science and mathematics education for elementary school students in the US. He also gives listeners a taste of what he’ll be sharing at the conference and why he decided to name his keynote address ‘Accountable Assessment’.

Host: Rebecca Vukovic

Guest: Rich Lehrer

Sponsor: Australian Volunteers

In today’s episode we're shining a spotlight on reading, as it’s been a topic covered quite a lot on Teacher recently. From encouraging students to find a love of reading, to ensuring they have access to a wide variety of texts, to the books children borrowed most frequently from libraries in 2020 – there is so much to squeeze into this Teacher Staffroom episode. We’ll be posing questions throughout, so as always, feel free to pause the audio and consider the questions either by yourself or perhaps with some colleagues.

Host: Rebecca Vukovic

A literature review undertaken by Hannah Yared from Monash University has examined racism and racial bias in the Australian primary school context.

In total, six studies were examined for this research which uncovered four main themes. The first is a lack of teacher confidence and competency regarding racial issues. This meant that in general, teachers tend not be have the confidence to engage fully with racially diverse students, and to discuss racial issues in a meaningful way. The second theme was white normativity, which is in reference to the fact educators tend to position whiteness as the norm for which everything is compared to.

Third was colour-blindness which in this instance refers to the belief that minimising discussions about racial differences or racism is actually better than drawing attention to them, which Hannah’s research found many teachers tend to believe. And the final theme was silencing, which refers to the silencing of discussions about racial issues.

Crucially though, Hannah’s research uncovered some important points on how school communities can best tackle this issue; the role of school leaders in supporting teachers address their behaviour; and how teachers themselves can address their own biases.

Host: Dominique Russell

Guest: Hannah Yared

In this Teaching Methods episode, we speak to education consultant Michael Minas about a study he conducted to measure primary school students’ attitudes towards completing challenging problem solving tasks in maths. Michael shares details of the lesson structure he utilised, and why students responded to it so positively.

Host: Dominique Russell

Guest: Michael Minas