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Headteacher of Brimsdown Primary School in the UK, Dani Lang joins Teacher for this School Improvement podcast to talk about her school’s focus on staff wellbeing. Establishing the staff wellbeing team has been one of the factors in helping the school achieve a vast improvement in its Ofsted grade, and it has created a new harmony in the staffroom.

School Improvement Episode 15: Staff wellbeing teams

Participants in a school-based mentoring program, along with the program coordinator, join Teacher for this podcast to explain why partnering students with an adult mentor can encourage a higher level of engagement in school.

A school-based student mentoring program

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

Teacher magazine celebrates its 100th podcast by taking a closer look at some of our audio highlights over the last four years. Stay tuned for more from John Fleming, Dr Bill Rogers, and more.

Podcast Special: Teacher celebrates its 100th episode

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

Moving to a new school is an important time in any child’s life. For students from a migrant or refugee background it often means learning a new language or joining outside of the normal transition period, at different points throughout the school year. In this podcast we're at Noble Park Primary School to speak to Principal David Rothstadt about how staff support new students and their families, and create a safe and secure learning environment.

School Improvement Episode 17: Supporting migrant and refugee students

In this episode of The Research Files, we're joined on the line by Professor Helen Christensen, The Director and Chief Scientist at Black Dog Institute. Black Dog Institute is an Australian organisation focussed on identifying, preventing and treating mental illness. They’re also pioneers in mental health research, and one research area is concerned with suicide prevention. This area is named CRESP, which stands for the Centre of Research Excellence in Suicide Prevention and brings together key researchers to focus on projects and trials with the aim of lowering suicide rates. Professor Christensen is currently leading a phase of CRESP research – which she labels CRESP 2 – that aims to deliver suicide prevention strategies across the country, taking a technology-based approach. Their work will include intervening at both primary and secondary school levels, with strategies centring on the use of different smartphone apps.

The Research Files Episode 45: Suicide prevention strategies in schools

In this episode of Global Education, we're joined on the line by Dr Louise van Rhyn from Cape Town, South Africa. She’s the founder of a program named Partners for Possibility, which pairs business leaders with principals for a 12-month structured leadership development program. The program was recognised internationally after winning a WISE Award for innovative solutions to education challenges and their positive social impact.

Global Education Episode 16: Principal partnerships in South Africa

Our guest for today’s episode of the Research Files is Dr Carol Newall, a Senior Lecturer in Early Childhood Education at Macquarie University. She joins us today to talk about a study she led which investigates how a child’s gender impacts an adults’ perception of their ability and their enjoyment of Science. The 80 adult participants in this study were all Macquarie University students, 20 of whom were education students and 60 were studying psychology. 

These adults were given a fictional profile of an eight-year-old child with the task of teaching that child over Skype. Each child’s fictional profile was experimentally manipulated depending on whether they were boy or girl, and the stereotypes associated with that gender. For example, one child liked tea parties and the colour pink and another liked climbing trees and the colour blue.

As Dr Newall will explain in today’s episode, the results from this study revealed that participants rated girls as less academically capable than boys in Physics, and they delivered less scientific information during their teaching module when they believed they were teaching a girl.

The Research Files Episode 47: Gender bias in Science education

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

Imagine knowing you have a one in 10 chance of winning US $1 million. Well, that’s the reality for Rooty Hill High School teacher Yasodai Selvakumaran. Yasodai has been an educator for the past nine years and has won a slew of awards throughout her career. But this year, she has found herself amongst the top 10 finalists for the 2019 Global Teacher Prize, an award that recognises one exceptional teacher who has made an outstanding contribution to the teaching profession.

Yasodai is a Humanities teacher and a Leader in Professional Practice at her western Sydney school. She’s passionate about her job and the students she works with. She joins us today to talk about her interest in social justice, how she connects with students from different backgrounds and how she uses her lessons to help students to understand the world around them and their place in it. We also discuss her approach to personalised learning plans and how to go about building confidence in students.

Podcast Special: Yasodai Selvakumaran on teaching Humanities

ACER’s Research Conference took place this month with the theme – ‘Preparing students for life in the 21st century: Identifying, developing and assessing what matters’. In this episode, we’ll take you to the closing session of the conference – the ‘In Conversation’ between ACER CEO Professor Geoff Masters AO and Neil Selwyn, a Professor in the Faculty of Education at Monash University. We’ll share highlights from their discussion about what schooling might look like in 10 years’ time. 
Now, this session began directly after Neil delivered the conference’s Karmel Oration, so, as you’re going to hear a few references to that talk, it’s important I give you an understanding of what he discussed. 
Neil’s Oration was titled ‘On with the 21st century! Preparing Australian education for the 2020s and beyond.’ 

 So, it’s clear from that title that he took the conference theme to heart. In particular, Neil focused on what education might look like in 2029. He spoke about how there are often three different kinds of predictions when we speak about predicting certain things for the future – the probable, possible and preferable – and how it’s important we try to stick to speaking about probable futures, rather than a future that is possible or preferable. This led him to speak about the role of an educator during the times of climate change, the rise of online education and how we can best prepare students for careers of the future.

Podcast Special: In Conversation with Geoff Masters and Neil Selwyn

Childhood and adolescent anxiety is something many classroom teachers will come face-to-face with, so it’s important to understand what a teacher’s role could be in identifying and managing anxiety. Are there behaviours a teacher could be observing in the classroom that might be typical of anxiety? How can a classroom educator help to reinforce the work of a student’s psychologist or therapist? And, what can teachers do to make their classroom more comfortable and accommodating for students experiencing anxiety?

To discuss all of this, I’m joined in today’s episode by Dr Rowena Conroy, a clinical psychologist who works with children, adolescents and families at the Children’s Private Medical Group in Victoria. We sat down together at the National Education Summit in Melbourne after her presentation on student anxiety. 

Presenter: Dominique Russell
Interviewee: Dr Rowena Conroy

Podcast Special: Identifying and managing student anxiety

In this special episode, we're delighted to be joined by the two recipients of this year’s Prime Minister’s Prizes for Excellence in Science teaching. Sarah Finney, a Grade 3 and 4 classroom teacher at Stirling East Primary School in South Australia was named winner for primary school teaching, and Dr Samantha Moyle from Brighton Secondary School, also in South Australia, was named winner for secondary teaching. Both educators are remarkably dedicated to harnessing curiosity about Science in their students, and providing them with authentic, real-world learning experiences. 
Interviewees: Samantha Moyle and Sarah Finney
Host: Dominique Russell
Sponsor: University of Melbourne's Graduate School of Education

Podcast Special: Achieving authentic learning experiences in Science

In this special episode, we take a look back over our favourite moments from the podcasts we published throughout 2019. With dozens of episodes to choose from, this highlights reel takes you through some of our fascinating guests and thought-provoking conversations.

A school-based student mentoring program

Teacher Magazine (ACER)