This paper contributes to the ongoing discourse on the rationale and purpose of religious education (RE) in Catholic schools. RE in Australian Catholic schools has always been a feature of the curriculum and the expectation is that all students take part in this. Several salient features of contemporary culture that impact on faith-based schools…

A knowledge-rich curriculum is a common feature of educationally high-performing countries and an important step towards achieving Australia's education goals. It provides the foundation for excellence and equity in the education system by prioritising and explicitly outlining the essential knowledge and related skills students should be taught…

This article considers higher education's role in climate crisis, reflecting on the potential of action-oriented pedagogy. As a reflection on practice, the authors consider a new postgraduate course, Climate Crisis and Action (CCA), launched in 2022 as one of a suite of new courses using inside-out pedagogy in one of the oldest (and most recently…

This article explores challenges faced when curriculum designers address pre-service English teachers as digital writers, in a "teacher as writer" program. The article considers the resilience of print dominance in writing, including in tertiary digital education spaces and how the rhetoric of digital expansion is accompanied by…

Calls for increased monitoring and evaluation of education policies and practices have not, so far, included widespread and consistent assessments of the inclusiveness of education settings. Measuring inclusion in education has proven to be a challenging exercise, due not only to the complexity and different uses of the concept, but also to its…

This paper considers aspects of a course redesign that focuses on motivating Pre-service Teachers to engage in negotiating relevant literacy teaching pedagogies in their discipline. The purpose of this article is to describe how we approached the teaching of literacy with Pre-service Teachers, in ways that valued the Preservice Teachers'…

First-year students' literacy deficits are not the problem. They are emblematic of an overall skill set which can be scaffolded from the first year of university study. If we treat literacy deficits as contingent upon other items of motivation, and as an element of Academic "Motivational" Literacy, we can usually also see these deficits…

The development of curriculum requires dialogue with both past and future. As the state of Victoria gears up to revise the current study design for Literature, one of three 'Englishes' students can study at senior levels, numbers of students opting to take the subject have dropped over recent years. With high-stakes exam-based assessment dominant,…

The focus of this paper is the design and development of an innovative project-based work-integrated learning (WIL) course that enables undergraduate students from all faculties to work in interdisciplinary teams with partner organisations from the public, private, and community sectors. Projects are co-designed with partners interested in…

This document was produced by the authors based on their research for the report "The Best of Both Worlds? Integrating VET and Higher Education" and is an added resource for further information. This support document includes two sections: (1) Tables and Figures; and (2) Literature Review. [For the full report, see ED616032.]

COVID-19 has led to unprecedented disruption and many providers have swiftly adapted their normal business operations in response to the challenges and changed environment. The focus of government and the sector has now shifted to the COVID-19 recovery period. The guidance in this report sets out key, high-level, principles-based considerations…

Environmental Health (EH) is an essential profession for protecting human health and yet as a discipline it is under-recognised, overlooked and misunderstood. Too few students undertake EH studies, culminating in a dearth of qualified Environmental Health Officers (EHOs) in Australia. A major deterrent to students enrolling in EH courses is a lack…

This paper diffracts a curriculum design workshop via online collaboration of a collective emerging from that event. Through the workshop, involving theory, conceptual art, writing, photography and curriculum planning, and the subsequent sharing of words and images, we move beyond interrogating designs for future subjects to asking how the…

Enabling education has existed in Australia for over 40 years. It is a significant entry pathway for students who have not been able to access university education through the traditional school pathways. Such programs routinely include mathematics subjects as part of the core curriculum. To prepare students for the rigours of university study…

This paper outlines a seven-step process for developing problem-solving tasks informed by cognitive load theory. Through an example of a task developed for Year 2 students, we show how this approach can be used to produce challenging mathematical tasks that aim to optimise cognitive load for each student.