Australia Association for Research in Education
Teacher quality
Happy new year reading: our most popular posts of all time
EduResearch Matters began back in 2014 under the stewardship of the amazing Maralyn Parker. At the end of 2020, Maralyn retired and I tried to fill very big shoes. The unusual thing about EduResearch Matters is that even posts published in the first couple of years of the blog’s existence continue to get readers – …
What we really mean when we talk about teacher quality
Anyone who’s being paying attention of late can tell you that we’re in the midst of a critical teacher shortage, and that attracting people into the profession is a problem, as well as retaining them into and beyond mid-career. Some people, like education workforce researcher Barbara Preston, have been predicting the current situation for years …
Why is the acting minister trying to damage Australian education?
Part two of a two-part series in response to Stuart Robert’s comments last week. Yesterday: Rachel Wilson on Dud teachers or a dud minister? Here are the facts Australia is facing a teacher shortage crisis. Schools are struggling to find enough teachers to teach their students. The situation is extremely dire. For example, modelling indicates that …
Out-of-field teaching is out of control in Australian schools. Here’s what’s happening
Assigning teachers to teach in positions outside their field of qualifications or expertise creates complex and multi-layered challenges, yet it is happening in many Australian schools. I believe out-of-field teaching can affect the quality of teaching we provide in our schools, and the wellbeing of the students, teachers, parents and school leaders involved. So it …
Teachers are NOT under-qualified and NOT under-educated: here’s what is really happening
Australian teachers are doing well. They are not under-qualified and they are certainly not under-educated, as some media stories would have you believe. They are doing an admirable job managing exhausting workloads and constantly changing government policies and processes. They are more able than past generations to identify and help students with wide ranging needs. …
TeachING quality is not teachER quality. How we talk about ‘quality’ matters
The language we use to discuss the work of teachers in the public domain matters. It matters to our shared understanding of education as a society and it impacts on teachers’ work both directly and indirectly. My research at the moment focuses in part on the notion of quality in education, specifically how issues of …
Does professional development improve teaching?
Most Australian teachers returned to their schools last week, and for many their first day back was a …
So who wants to teach these days? (Be surprised)
The quality of teachers is a growing focus of educational reform around the world, with new policies attempting …
Positive personal attributes: why teachers need them and how teacher education can help (despite negative media)
Positive personal attributes such as fairness, humour and kindness, I believe, should be considered necessary attributes for a teacher. Currently much of the discussion around ‘quality’ teaching, teacher entry and teacher education is about a suite of high-level competencies and standards. However the nature of teachers’ work and the uniqueness of the education profession should …
Do Australian teachers have poor literacy skills? Let’s look at the evidence
Australians have been sold the idea that our primary school teachers today have poor literacy standards, not only …