Oxford Australia Blog

Sharing our love of education, language, and books

Tag: teaching

  • How to prepare pre-service teachers to be complex problem solvers

    How to prepare pre-service teachers to be complex problem solvers

    Problem-solving is central to the daily work of teachers. In education, people work to improve the lives of students, often very young children, who are on steep learning curves, academically, socially, emotionally, physically and morally. Often, a quick chat with a student can solve a problem, but sometimes further steps need to be taken when…

  • 20,000 children wrote about their experience during lockdown. Here’s what we learned.

    Thank you to Shane Hill (Storyathon) for contributing to this article. Data from Oxford University Press in partnership with Storyathon, the largest story-writing event in Australia, reveals the impact COVID-19 has had on children’s vocabulary in Term 2 with students responding to the theme: ‘A Different World – Living in lockdown’. Words used in students’ stories…

  • Forget about Maths experts, Australian schools need well-supported teachers

    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…

  • Using humour to inspire young writers

    Hey, want to hear a joke? Novice pirates make terrible singers because they can’t hit the high seas.  (Cue collective groan) Sometimes humour can be in-your-face and silly (like the joke above), and other times it can be more subtle. Whether it’s a pun, a child’s knock-knock joke, a funny movie, or situation comedy on…