Australian students’ performance and engagement in mathematics is an ongoing issue. International studies show Australian students’ mean performance in maths has steadily declined since 2003. The latest Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) in 2018 showed only 10% of Australian teenagers scored in the top two levels, compared to 44% in China and 37% in Singapore. Despite attempts to […] … learn more→

From sleep trackers to wakefulness drugs, the 21st century has seen an influx of new technology that could radically alter the way we sleep. Many of these new technologies chase the dream of optimised slumber. They promise to help tailor our sleep schedules to fit around our social lives, help us sleep for longer or even […] … learn more→

Your 18-year-old daughter announces she’s in love, dropping out of college and moving to Argentina. Your yoga-teaching brother refuses to get vaccinated for COVID-19 and is confident that fresh air is the best medicine. Your boss is hiring another white man for a leadership team already made up entirely of white men. At home, at […] … learn more→

Children living in relative poverty in England have worse average educational outcomes, including lower grades in exams, than other pupils. This situation is often referred to as the poverty attainment gap. Closing this gap, so that poorer students do as well at school as their peers, is a concern for countries around the world. The […] … learn more→

Whenever the Scripps National Spelling Bee takes place, parents and children may wonder: What does it take to become a champion? Is it worth the effort? But to the extent possible, competitive spellers, including several previous Scripps National Spelling Bee winners, have purchased special word lists to gain a competitive edge. These word lists, which may come in the form […] … learn more→

The latest reform of the professional path was presented on Thursday May 4, 2023 by President Macron. The press kit that accompanies these announcements highlights the need to make the sector attractive and to make it a path to success and excellence. Implicitly, it paints the portrait of a student in lack of success undergoing a default orientation and prone to […] … learn more→

How is writing research like story? Last post I wrote about Kurt Vonnegut’s man in hole structure and how that might help you think at a very macro level about how to organise your material. This post is also about structure – this time a four part structure I’ve called C3REC. The C3REC structure is an academic […] … learn more→

Hey – Before I start, here are some upcoming events I’m doing at Cambridge University, which are open to the public: A lecture at Wolfson College, Cambridge on Tuesday 6 June at 5:30pm, which touches on themes from my new book with Simon Clews ‘Be visible or Vanish’. There’s an in-person option if you can get to Cambridge, […] … learn more→

As part of the federal government’s bid to overhaul higher education, the Universities Accord discussion paper is seeking to “widen” opportunities for people to access university. It also wants to “grow a culture” of lifelong learning in Australia. As the review team note, most people in Australia who study at university are under 35. Lifelong learning can […] … learn more→

On social networks, it has become common for some parents to post photos of their children and we see these publications in the news feeds mingling with images of little cats and other “like” content. According to a survey carried out in 2021 by the Gece polling institute, 39% of babies have a digital footprint even […] … learn more→