Category: Teaching
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Brad Gobby and Rebecca Walker discuss Powers of Curriculum
Curriculum as the entirety of learners’ experience in an educational setting. Powers of Curriculum explores education in Australia today through the notion and practices of curriculum. It broadens our conception of curriculum to include the lived experiences of learners in educational settings. It also explores historical and current forces within and beyond education that constitute…
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Forget about Maths experts, Australian schools need well-supported teachers
By Brian Murray Hardly a year seems to pass by without some survey or other exposing a slip in numeracy standards in Australian schools. In late 2016, Education Minister, Simon Birmingham, said he was “embarrassed for Australia” because of the way Year 4 students had fallen behind other countries in Maths. Bodies such as the…
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Maths skills need to serve students beyond the next 30 minutes
By Peter Sullivan, Professor of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education, Monash University. A lack of consensus about what works can make debates about education frustrating. This is especially true for the teaching and learning of mathematics. Not only is there a high level of disagreement about the teaching of the subject, but even the most…
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How to make maths memorable
By Annie Facchinetti Recent research in the area of neuroscience has revealed that the brain has a greater ability to change and adapt than was previously thought. However, brain changes are generally not instant. For lasting neurological pathways to be built, much like wearing a physical pathway between one place and another, they need to be…
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Don’t underestimate the value of practice in maths education
By Annie Facchinetti It is often easy to assume that because students appear to have understood an idea or demonstrated a skill on a particular day, they have mastered the associated concept. However, research is increasingly confirming the importance of practice in embedding learning in long-term memory. The adage ‘practice makes perfect’ is proving particularly relevant…
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Why flipped learning makes sense in the STEM classroom
By Andrew Douch The current generation of STEM teachers is the first that must choose between teaching important skills and teaching urgent skills. In the past, there was no difference — the important skills were the urgent skills. Now there is a fork in the road, presenting a threshold challenge for STEM teachers that flipped…
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Phonics is not a dirty word
By Kate Gurjian, Director, Time to Shine Australia Phonics is a word that is often misused, misunderstood and abused. Despite what some might argue, it is a method of learning that has much to offer Australian children. I am often asked why it is so important to teach children phonics, as opposed to learning words…
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Using real voices to inspire student teachers
OUP Authors Neil Harrison and Juanita Sellwood show the importance of using real stories in teaching by sharing their own experiences. Be generous and stay a while Numbulwar is a tropical paradise, replete with coconut palms and golden beaches. This was my first school appointment in Arnhem Land, Northern Territory. I had been teaching for…