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When we ask readers and listeners about the professional learning topics that interest them and what they’d like more support on, teacher wellbeing is always right up there. We're here today at the University of Queensland in Brisbane to find out about a teacher wellbeing study, looking at the impact of two stress interventions.

The Research Files Episode 33: Teacher stress intervention programs

Professor Simone Reinhold joins Teacher to discuss inquiry based learning in primary mathematics, including the benefits of students working on a common task with differentiated outcomes, and the role of the educator in finding a balance between explorative and informative learning.

Teaching Methods: Inquiry based learning with Professor Simone Reinhold

For the last three years school leaders and staff at Jordan River Learning Federation Senior School have been focusing on evidence-based teaching and reflection. It’s included the development of a professional learning approach called CCRP – that’s Connect, Collect, Reflect and Progress. Assistant Principal Murray Cronin joined Teacher magazine on the line from Tasmania to talk about the evidence base for the model and what each of the four stages involves.

School Improvement Episode 12: Evidence-based professional learning

In today’s Behaviour Management podcast we talk to Dr Anna Sullivan from the University of South Australia. She’s been working on the Behaviour at School study which explores the existing state of student behaviour and its management in South Australian schools. Here, she shares her insights into what it means to enact respectful, school-wide behaviour policies and the role of school leaders in doing so.

Behaviour Management Episode 3: Enacting respectful behaviour management policies

In today’s podcast special we’re speaking with Neil Bramsen and Brett McKay – two educators who are changing the lives of the students in their schools by instilling a love of Science in them. Both teachers were named winners of the Prime Minister’s Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching – one for primary and one for secondary. Here, they share more about how they’ve formed innovative partnerships with scientists, the community and other schools.

Podcast Special: Science – student engagement, teaching excellence and outside expertise

Early career teacher attrition is seen as an issue of concern around the world. Here, scholarly articles and media reports regularly state that between 30 and 50 per cent of Australian teachers leave the profession within the first five years. But, where do those figures come from and how accurate are they? A study published in the Australian Journal of Education, suggests there is no robust Australian evidence and data. Author Dr Paul Weldon joins The Research Files to discuss his findings.

The Research Files Episode 39: Early career teacher attrition

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

In this episode of The Research Files podcast series we speak to Adjunct Professor of Curriculum and Pedagogy at James Cook University, Brian Lewthwaite. We have him on the line from Canada, where he is currently based in the role of program coordinator at the Yukon Native Teacher Education Program. He’s been working on a four phase study centred on Indigenous perspectives of quality teaching in Australia, and joins us today to talk about phase one of this study. This included speaking to 30 teachers, 30 high school-aged students and 30 parents across approximately 12 schools, about what quality teacher practice is for them.

The Research Files Episode 40: Indigenous perspectives on quality teaching

Our guest today is Associate Professor Lynn Barnett-Morris from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. For the last three years she’s been researching Kindergarten-aged children to determine how playfulness in the classroom is viewed by the children themselves, their classmates and their teachers. The result – a longitudinal study titled 'The education of playful boys: class clowns in the classroom'. She joins The Research Files today, on a bit of a scratchy line from the US, to discuss the key findings, but to kick things off, I ask Lynn to tell listeners why she decided to conduct this research in the first place.

The Research Files Episode 42: Playfulness and class clown behaviour

In this episode of Global Education, we’re joined by Andria Zafirakou from London, the winner of this year’s Global Teacher Prize. The Arts and Textiles teacher explains how she develops meaningful relationships with parents, the importance of professional development and why she thinks schools should stay open outside school hours.

Global Education Episode 14: Global Teacher Prize winner Andria Zafirakou

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

Our guests on this episode of School Improvement are Cobram Primary School Principal Matt Knight and teacher Cassie Ryan. Cassie is a PE teacher at the rural school, but it’s the role of Attendance Officer that has seen her develop and lead an initiative that has dramatically reduced the number of unexplained and chronic student absences.

School Improvement Episode 16: Lifting student attendance

Can therapy dogs decrease anxiety and stress in students, and improve school attendance? These are just some of the questions Monash University academics are trying to answer as they push for more research in this area. In today’s podcast we're joined by Dr Linda Henderson and Dr Christine Grove from the Faculty of Education at Monash University. 

Both researchers have trained their own therapy dogs – Daymon the black Labrador and Bronson the Labradoodle, who you might hear moving around in the background of this episode. Dr Henderson is a Senior Lecturer and a former teacher, and she raised Daymon from a puppy. He initially worked as a guide dog before retiring and retraining as a therapy dog. Dr Grove is a Lecturer at Monash and also an educational and developmental psychologist. She has been using Bronson in both educational and clinical settings to help children to overcome their fears.

Podcast Special: Therapy dogs in school settings

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.

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