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Welcome to Episode 1 of our Teaching Methods series. Today we speak to John Fleming, a leading advocate for education reform and someone whose views are highly sought-after by education professionals throughout Australia, about the method known as explicit instruction.

Teaching Methods - John Fleming

Want to use explicit instruction in the classroom but aren’t sure how to approach it? Teacher asked John Fleming for some tips.

Teaching methods: John Fleming - explicit instruction myths and strategies

We find out about Harvard University's Best Foot Forward project, which is exploring the effectiveness of videoing lessons as a feedback tool in teacher observations.

The Research Files Episode 16: Video, observation and teacher feedback

Teacher speaks to Professor David Lynch about a five year pilot study that explored the characteristics of an outstanding school.

Research Files Episode 17: Creating an 'outstanding' school

Dr Kevin Anthony Perry talks to Teacher magazine about a collaborative research project exploring classroom wellbeing in Denmark.

Global Education Episode 9: Dr Kevin Anthony Perry on classroom wellbeing

What kind of leader are you, and is your leadership style truly effective? 

After looking the UK’s performance in the 2012 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) study and comparing it to other countries, Dr Alex Hill and his research team decided to find an answer to the question: Why does the UK still lag behind its peers, despite investing more than them? In the process of this research, the team studied over 400 leaders from schools in the UK – the results of which have been published in the Harvard Business Review. In doing so, the team identified that there are five different types of leaders: surgeons, soldiers, accountants, philosophers and architects. Dr Alex Hill, Co-Founder and Director of The Centre for High Performance, joined me on the line from the UK, to discuss why there are five different types of leaders, but only one type that is truly effective.

The Research Files Episode 26: The five types of school leaders

By building strong professional learning communities (PLCs) school leaders can improve not only the quality of teaching, but also student outcomes. So, what does an effective PLC look like and how do you go about building one? My guest is Dr Lawrence Ingvarson, a Principal Research Fellow at the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER). He’s developed ACER’s Professional Learning Community Framework (PLCF). The framework covers five key domains: professional culture; leadership; a focus on student learning, wellbeing and engagement; a focus on improving professional knowledge and practice; and teachers who think systematically about their practice and learn from experience.

School Improvement Episode 10: Effective professional learning communities

School leaders play a crucial role in improving outcomes for students and the success of a school community. But, what happens when they leave? In today’s episode of School Improvement we’re talking about succession planning.

School Improvement Episode 13: Succession Planning

Dr David Armstrong from Flinders University is our guest in today’s Behaviour Management podcast. We explore how certain behaviour management models are simply ineffective, particularly for students with learning or mental health difficulties, and discuss his research in this area.

Behaviour Management Episode 4: Behaviour approaches for children with disabilities

School leadership is an increasingly complex role and research suggests the demands certainly take their toll on the health and wellbeing of principals, assistant principals and deputy principals. Associate Professor Philip Riley joins The Research Files to discuss the latest findings of the Australian Principal Occupational Health, Safety & Wellbeing Survey.

The Research Files Episode 41: Principal health and wellbeing

Our guest today is Dr Danny Steele, Principal of Thompson Sixth Grade Center in Alabama in the United States. Danny has worked in public education for more than 25 years, he runs a hugely successful blog and Twitter account, and in 2016 he was named Alabama's Secondary Principal of the Year. He joins us for this School Improvement podcast to talk more about the role of a principal in building and maintaining a positive school culture. We cover a whole range of things including how to build positive relationships with students, the importance of genuinely listening to parents, and making difficult decisions as a school leader.

School Improvement Episode 14: Being a positive school leader

In this episode of The Research Files we're joined by Helen Egeberg, the Master of Teaching coordinator at Edith Cowan University in Western Australia. Her recent report, 'What do students believe about effective classroom management? A mixed-methods investigation in Western Australian high schools' has produced some clear views students have about their favourite teachers.

The Research Files Episode 44: Student perspectives on effective classroom management

The team’s on the road this week at the ACER Research Conference in Sydney, where the theme for 2018 is ‘Teaching practices that make a difference: Insights from research’. In this special episode, we share highlights from the ‘In Conversation’ session on evidence-based teaching practices between Laureate Professor John Hattie and ACER CEO Professor Geoff Masters AO. The facilitator was Tony Mackay AM, of the Centre for Strategic Education in Melbourne.

Podcast Special: John Hattie And Geoff Masters In Conversation

What are some practical strategies teachers could use in the classroom to assist students with ADHD? That’s just one of the questions we ask Dr Emma Sciberras in this episode of The Research Files. Dr Sciberras is a Senior Lecturer and Clinical Psychologist from the School of Psychology at Deakin University. Since 2009, she’s been working on the Children’s Attention Project, a research study conducted by the Murdoch Children's Research Institute at The Royal Children's Hospital. The project explores the long-term effects that Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (or ADHD) has on children's behaviour, learning and day-to-day living, and also on their parents' wellbeing.

The Research Files Episode 46: Practical strategies to assist children with ADHD in the classroom

A new study examines the gender differences in the friendships and conflicts of both girls and boys with autism, relative to their neurotypical peers. In today’s podcast two of the researchers, Dr Felicity Sedgewick and Dr Liz Pellicano, join us on the line from the UK.

The Research Files Episode 48: Autism and navigating friendships

My guest today is Dr Jeff Thomas, a lecturer in the Master of Teaching and Graduate Certificate of Education at the University of Tasmania. Jeff’s research and teaching interests include the relationship between engagement and classroom behaviour, and reengagement approaches for disengaged students.

With the start of the school year fast approaching here in Australia, many teachers will be busy preparing for those first, initial weeks in the classroom. And according to Jeff, the beginning of the year is an amazing opportunity to engage students, to build relationships and to establish explicit expectations around student behaviour. But, he says, it’s important to plan for positive behaviour. 

Our discussion today covers many different areas including how to plan for that positive behaviour in your classroom, which routines are critical to establish in the initial weeks of the year, and practical things to keep in mind when responding to particularly challenging behaviours as they arise in class.

Behaviour Management Episode 5: Planning for positive behaviour

If you were to visit any preschool or kindergarten classroom, you’d surely find that shared book reading is a common activity used to facilitate discussions and support a young child’s language and literacy development. A new study, published in Early Childhood Research Quarterly, examined the extent to which preschool teachers use different types of questions during classroom-based shared book reading. Researchers from the Children’s Learning Institute at the University of Texas, Ohio State University, the American Institute for Research and Michigan State University all collaborated on this study. They found that only 24 per cent of what teachers said during the shared book reading were questions, and the kids answered the questions accurately 85 per cent of the time. In today’s episode, I’m joined by one of the study’s authors, Dr Tricia Zucker, who is an Associate Professor with the Children’s Learning Institute at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth in Houston. We chat about what the main findings were to come from the research, whether the questions teachers were asking were too simple for students, and how teachers could improve their questioning practices to ensure children are given the appropriate level of challenge. 
Guest: Dr Tricia Zucker
Interviewer: Rebecca Vukovic
Podcast supporter: Seven Steps to Writing Success

The Research Files Episode 54: Questions during shared book reading in the early years

Scoresby Secondary College in Melbourne’s east is on a mission to improve instructional practice by embedding student voice in the school’s improvement cycle. To do this, they’re using the Scoresby Secondary College AMPLIFY model, which are seven interrelated steps which synthesise a range of student voice and agency literature, as well as research on reflective practice and leadership. The goals of the model are simple: to support teachers, students and leaders to work collaboratively with the full range of student perspectives; and, to clearly define what collaborating with students for improvement-related processes looks like. For today’s podcast, we headed out to the school to sit down with Murray Cronin, Head of Curriculum and Pedagogy. We discuss how the school has engaged students in decision making and improvement-related processes, and the impact that student voice has had on school culture. Murray also goes into quite a lot of detail about the AMPLIFY model and how they’re going to further develop it in 2020 and beyond. 
Host: Rebecca Vukovic
Interviewee: Murray Cronin
Podcast supporter: Bank First

School Improvement Episode 21: Student voice and agency

Thanks for downloading this episode of Teacher Staffroom, where we catch you up on the latest evidence, insight and action. 

And just like that, we’re already into a new school year and already in the full swing of things here at Teacher magazine. Throughout this episode, we're going to be sharing some of the highlights of the past month and giving you a bit of an overview of what we’ve been working on. But remember, there’s links to all the stories we mention in the transcript of this podcast, so if you’d like to delve deeper into any of the topics, you’ll find everything you need at teachermagazine.com.au. 

Host: Rebecca Vukovic

Teacher Staffroom Episode 11: Books and school libraries

Researchers have found that to improve behaviour in class, teachers should focus on praising students for their good behaviour, rather than telling them off for being disruptive. Professor Paul Caldarella joins Teacher to discuss his three-year project that looked at the relationship between the praise-to-reprimand ratios and the extent to which students focused on class activities.
Guest: Professor Paul Caldarella
Host: Rebecca Vukovic
Sponsor: EnhanceTV

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Robyn Arri