General education

Today's students need facilitators, mentors, curators and advocates, not teachers

Hannah Lewis / 15 August 2018

40 years into my career, a program called The Paradigm Shifters gave my students 21st Century skills and was transformational for me. As I approach retirement, I realise I am no longer a teacher, but instead a facilitator, mentor, curator and advocate. And what matters most is not the detail and requirement for us to meet benchmarks, but relationships and authentic opportunities for student involvement in decision making about their own learning.

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Rural and Regional education

A worrying picture emerging for country students

Wendy Cohen / 10 July 2018

With fewer high school completions, shrinking opportunities for TAFE and apprenticeships, and the burden of low expectations, higher education and training is becoming a pipedream for many students in the country. But the recent review into regional, rural and remote education offers solutions and the Country Education Foundation is on the front foot when it comes to helping country students realise their dreams.

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General education

Students from Sydney's West embrace the future of Australian schooling

Sean Barrett / 21 June 2018

For today’s school students, and their parents, the education discourse is largely negative and reports like Gonski 2.0 can be a by-word for complexity. So it’s refreshing to see that some schools, like Rooty Hill High School in Sydney’s west, and its students aren’t waiting for consensus among the warring parties on the best way forward. They are getting on with building an education framework based on innovation, passion and adaptability.

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Building a stronger community sector

Further education needed to professionalise humanitarian aid

Professor Matthew Clarke / 07 May 2018

Humanitarian workers are usually the first to respond to large-scale emergencies, which affect more than 120 million people each year. The complexity and size of responses has propelled international agencies to professionalise the work they undertake. Professor Matthew Clarke calls for the sector to work more closely with tertiary institutions, to develop a curriculum that meets the needs of this sector as it continues its path of professionalisation.

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The power of strong foundations

Hannah Barber / 28 June 2017

It’s hard to escape a week at the office or even a dinner party conversation where the topic of education isn’t mentioned (typically just before the subject of house prices). There are numerous discussions about the merits of NAPLAN testing, whether or not you give a Gonski, the cost of tertiary education and of course, the never-ending debate around public verses private education. However, there appears to be one thing that is missing from these discussions, and that is the importance of quality early childhood education.

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General education

Today’s education, is it worth having tomorrow?

Dr Michelle Anderson / 17 November 2017

If you think our kids are just 'adults in waiting', think again. Young people have access to more information than we ever had as children, so holding on to old ways of ‘preparing’ them for life not only holds them back, it also holds us back as a nation.

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Postcodes should not impede the dreams of young people

Wendy Cohen / 20 June 2017

The overwhelming financial cost of participation in higher education or training of choice is the most pressing challenge facing rural and regional students. Not only because of the immediate obstacle it creates but also because, over time, it really does lead to the formation of almost intractable social and cultural barriers, across multiple generations.

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