The current teacher shortage in Australia has been building for years. The pipeline of new teachers entering the profession is inadequate, and attrition rates are high, particularly in science and mathematics. Shortages have led to more teachers teaching subjects “out of field”. Recent estimates show 29% of science classes are taught by someone who is not trained as a science teacher. […] … learn more→
Author Archives: Kevin
‘I’d just like to get on with my job’ – the barriers facing science teachers in Australia
Why women’s studies programs in Canada are more important than ever
As we witness the reversal of women’s rights worldwide, it’s clear that women cannot become complacent about protecting their civil liberties. According to the UN’s Sustainable Development Agenda, the world is not on track for meeting its goal of gender equality for women by 2030. Although Canada has committed to gender equality, there is still an ongoing struggle for women […] … learn more→
African ubuntu can deepen how research is done
Many academic studies have been centred on Western theories and methodologies for a long time. This approach to research is broadly defined as “universalist”. It assumes that “one-size-fits-all” and set norms can be applied across cultures. For example, Western ideas about identity revolve around the individual. That shapes how research is conducted: it focuses mainly […] … learn more→
A review into how university research works in Australia has just begun – it must confront these 3 issues
Education Minister Jason Clare has just announced an independent review of the Australian Research Council (ARC). This is the body that oversees funding for non-medical research in Australian universities and plays a critical role in the careers of academics. After years of concerns about the ARC – about political interference and low success rates – the review is a welcome step. […] … learn more→
We can predict final school marks in year 11 – it’s time to replace stressful exams with more meaningful education
Year 12 students around Australia are preparing to sit their final exams. For many young people this is one of the most stressful parts of school, with their future supposedly coming down to one number. This is an outdated way of finishing school and working out what students do in the next phase of their lives. […] … learn more→
Who understands teenagers?
To think of adolescence is to think of problems such as alcohol, bad moods, abuse of new technologies and social networks, first sexual relations, drugs, unwanted pregnancies, fights… It is to think of a complicated stage that adults hardly remember and rarely understand. Being a teenager is a challenge, as is being a baby who […] … learn more→
Should students continue to be graded?
The evaluation of students by notation has been the subject of numerous criticisms, in particular from the didactician of mathematics André Antibi, who denounced, in a resounding way, a “macabre constant” . The formula refers to the social pressure that would push teachers, for the assessments to be considered credible, to put a certain percentage of bad marks regardless of […] … learn more→
Removing author fees can help open access journals make research available to everyone
Open access (OA) journals are academic, peer-reviewed journals that are free and available for anyone to read without paying subscription fees. To make up for lost subscription revenue, many journals instead charge author fees to researchers who wish to publish in them. These fees can reach thousands of dollars per article, paid out of publicly funded […] … learn more→
Memory problems during the pandemic? It’s just your brain trying to distinguish one day from the next
Without a doubt, we are living through a historically significant period. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic severely impacted the global economy, imposed extreme strain on health-care systems and precipitated a sudden and dramatic change in our daily lives. Intuitively, it seems logical that the magnitude of disruption caused by the pandemic should generate many memorable moments of […] … learn more→
Traditional or competency-based teaching? The difficult transition of educational model
Times change, students too, and the educational model finds it difficult to keep up with the rapid pace of these changes. The transition from a traditional model of knowledge accumulation to a skills model and, now, to a results model, demands a vision of the future. It is necessary to make efficient use of the efforts […] … learn more→
