Australia Association for Research in Education
COVID-19 and schools
Seven great ways to connect with students during snap lockdowns
This research might be about students with added learning needs but could easily apply to all students. The snap school lockdowns required to combat the Delta variant of Covid-19 disproportionately affect different cohorts of students and teachers. When the first school lockdowns were implemented in NSW in 2020, a group of researchers undertook a study …
Why we must abandon the 2021 HSC now
A stop-start directive to return to schools has been going on for over a month and produced anxieties for teachers, students and their families. How can we respond to the confusion this has produced, particularly regarding Year 12 students? The argument mounted here is that there really is only one way to respond and that …
Teachers deliver powerful mindfulness programs for students. Now they might need space to strengthen their own minds.
Since the first confirmed case of COVID-19 appeared in Australia in late-January 2020, the country has been through …
The White Paper: old, tired and lacking evidence
In the months before the pandemic gripped the world, the NSW Productivity Commission released a presciently titled discussion paper, Kickstarting the Productivity Conversation. Its recently released followup White Paper sets out its plan for rebooting the economy. Lifting school results is part of the plan. The Commission acknowledges the ‘pandemic has shown how quickly schools, …
COVID coaches: tutoring only works when backed by quality teaching directed at the students who really missed out
The injection by NSW and Victorian State Governments of more than half a billion dollars on tutoring programs to help students catch up after Covid-19-related disruptions to normal schooling is welcome. However, there is a need to ensure the intervention is more than an economic ‘sugar hit’ and that it leads to sustained improvement in …
More help needed for vulnerable learners in the age of COVID-19 school closures
During lockdowns due to the COVID-19 virus outbreak, school closures were hotly debated. Complete school closures were perceived …
TikTok teachers go viral in these #COVID-19 times
TikTok is one of the world’s fastest growing apps, with an estimated two billion total downloads since its …
Pandemic Collection: Reflections on inequities amplified by the COVID-19 global crisis
The pieces in this collection are our reflections on the ongoing inequities in education that have been amplified …
The shock of dealing with Covid-19 has made teachers even stronger and better at their craft
Cast your mind back to the end of the first school term for 2020: Australian states and territories were rapidly moving into lockdown because of COVID-19. Political leaders were signaling – often using mixed signals – the likelihood and need to close schools and transition to distance learning. Here in New South Wales schools switched …
How teaching online during COVID-19 lockdown made me think deeply about how physical presence matters
There’s a general feeling among teachers of pride and relief that we got through the recent few months when were teaching online. And at the moment, all of us are feeling for our school teacher colleagues in Melbourne who face returning to the challenges of teaching remotely again in just a week with their city …