Free Talk in Sydney - 'What is Good Education for Girls AND Boys?'
Santa Sabina College Principal and Gender Education Expert, Dr Maree Herrett invites you to a free talk about gender relations in education. Read full article
NAPLAN is not Running According to PLAN
Opinion: “I’ve had enough of the NAP and enough of the PLAN.” So spoke a seven year old I met last week whose year three class is busy getting ready for NAPLAN – the National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy test – which will be taken by the vast majority of years three, five, seven and nine students in Australian schools next month. NAPLAN is supposed to tell us how we're tracking on the three Rs, but a study commissioned last year by the public policy research Whitlam Institute at the University of Western Sydney shows that the test is having unintended outcomes. Read full article
Education in Australia - Why We Should Never Return to the 3 Rs
Opinion: Ongoing calls for a rejection of “intellectual fads” and a return to “more traditional teaching methods” seem to be ramping up in the education debate. But if these advocates were talking about rejecting advances over the past sixty years in medicine, no one would take them seriously. So why then is it acceptable to champion simplistic and archaic methods when it comes to education? We should never, and in fact we cannot, return to the three Rs of reading, writing, and arithmetic for a couple of very simple reasons. Read full article
I'm Not Sure About Testing Student Teachers for Emotional Intelligence
I'm very happy and optimistic about some of the changes the Federal government is proposing to teacher training. Teachers should, I believe, be more highly trained, paid and respected in our society - along with the medical profession, they are pretty much the linchpin of a successful society...If you know anything about me, you’ll know that I believe emotional intelligence education is important. So why would I baulk at the suggestion that new Australian teachers are to be tested for emotional intelligence? Read full article
You’re Only Ever as Happy as Your Unhappiest Child
Last year, my twelve year old son went through a tough time at school. It happened in grade six, his final year at the tiny local primary he’d attended ever since he started prep… attended, that is, until we pulled him out in grade five, when our family decided to spend a year living in the north of Australia. Up until this time Declan had loved school, and was close to pretty much all the nine other boys in his year level, with whom he’d always shared a class...When we left everything was perfect, but when we returned everything had changed. Read full article
Inspiration - a Teacher's Belief Helps an Angry Child
I had just one year of teaching under my belt and was taking classes towards my master’s degree in special education. Though barely qualified to teach students with challenging behaviour disorders, I quickly assessed that academic training wasn’t going to make me a successful teacher...Vince’s mother repeated the words that seemed incomprehensible, unbearable, and repulsive to my ears.Vince killed his kitten that afternoon. Read full article
Room to Breathe - Film about Mindfulness in Schools
Room to Breathe is a story of transformation as struggling kids in a San Francisco public middle school are introduced to the practice of mindfulness. Topping the district in disciplinary suspensions, and with overcrowded classrooms creating a nearly impossible learning environment, overwhelmed administrators are left with stark choices. Do they repeat the cycle of forcing tuned-out children to listen, or experiment with a set of age-old inner practices that may provide them with the social, emotional, and attention skills that they need to succeed? Read full article
Social and Emotional Learning Programs for Schools
The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) has released the 2013 CASEL Guide: Effective Social and Emotional Learning Programs - Preschool and Elementary School Edition. The Guide identifies 23 school-based programs that promote students' self-control, relationship-building and problem-solving, among other competencies. Emotional Intelligence education has been linked to academic success and many other important social and emotional outcomes for students. Read full article
Choosing a University Course - Discover What You Love
At this time of year, Year Twelve students in Australia are studying for their final exams, and many of them are still wondering what to study at University, or which career path to follow. This speech, made by Arun Abey to the prize and scholarhsips winners at the Australian National University's (ANU) College of Business and Economics, contains some gems of inspiration for your young men and women. Read full article
Teens, Study and Lost Sleep - The Link with Academic Success
A new longitudinal study out of the U.S. finds that if teens give up sleep in order to do extra study, they are more likely to have academic performance problems the following day. Read full article
