In Re-imagining Schools and School Systems I declared that “It is likely that the various curriculum wars, along with interventions by ministers, will ebb and flow in the years ahead, as they have in the past” (Caldwell, 2023, p. 82). The context at the time of writing was the recent adoption by ministers of a …
“Evidence-based practice” has become an over-used mantra in education, as it has in most fields. The Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO) was established to provide teachers and school leaders with evidence to guide their practice based on research in areas of priority. There is an assumption that school personnel know how to use research. The …
The Australian Education Research Organization (AERO) has released in four parts its evidence-based guide to strategic planning in schools (available on the AERO website). AERO worked with Learning First to develop the guide. A review of literature accompanied it (Chiong & Pearson, 2023). AERO notes on its website that “These guides were developed with input …
The results for 2023 of the country-wide NAPLAN (National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy) were released on August 23. Conducted by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), tests were administered early in the school year for all students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9. I built part of the case for …
The debate on the educational merit of Artificial Intelligence (AI) was heating up as Reimagining Schools and School Systems went to press. ChatGPT had made its appearance and I took the opportunity to try it out. I noted on page 190 that “An unknown known had suddenly become a known known. I had no difficulty …
An important recommendation in my book Reimagining schools and school systems was that there should be ‘Urgent and full implementation of recommendations in Australia’s latest review’ of teacher education (p. 182). This statement was made in an assessment of Australia’s schools systems against eight international benchmarked characteristics, one of which was “Teaching staff are carefully …
This update refers readers to what I consider to be a classic case of reimagining a public secondary school. It is consistent with the definition of transformation given on page 4 of Reimagining schools and school systems: “Transformation is significant, systematic and sustained change that secures, or has the evidence-based potential to secure, success for all …
The funding of public (government) and private (non-government) schools has been a contentious issue in Australia for more than fifty years. This contrasts with its non-contentious nature in many other countries, including some of the world’s top performers. The issue surfaced again on 21 April 2023 with a proposal to fund all schools on the …
The OECD released on 10 April 2023 its Education Policy Outlook in Australia. It is the most detailed, comprehensive yet concise document on the state of education in Australia, but there is one telling statement that raises a serious concern about expectations for schools, namely, that Australia is described as a high performing country. This …
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