Understanding the effective implementation of evidence-based practices in schools is a critical step to maximising educational outcomes for all students. The Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO) has been working closely with a small number of schools on the Learning Partner project to learn about implementation in their settings and…

This document summarises key findings from research on how to better support students who enter secondary school with gaps in their foundational literacy and numeracy skills. It includes: (1) a national survey of secondary school staff -- accompanied by in-depth interviews -- which explores the support currently offered to these students, and…

The National Snapshot provides a baseline of how evidence is used by teachers and leaders across Australian schools. Better use of evidence is proven to lift student outcomes, so it's important to understand and advance its use in schools. The National Snapshot helps to do this by bringing together new and existing information to see a more…

This research summary provides an overview of a study on peer mentoring for professional learning conducted by the Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO) in partnership with the Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation (ALNF). The full findings are presented in our report "Peer Mentoring for Sharing Skills and Knowledge from…

Background: Seeing how governments formulate decisions on our behalf is a crucial component of their ability to claim democratic legitimacy. This includes being seen to draw on the knowledge and evidence produced by their civil service policy advisers. Yet much of the advice provided to governments is being increasingly withdrawn from public…

Background: Recent complex and cross-boundary policy problems, such as climate change, pandemics, and financial crises, have recentred debates about state capacity, democratic discontent and the 'crisis of expertise'. These problems are contested and open to redefinition, misunderstanding, spin, and deception, challenging the ability of…

Research shows that when students engage with mathematical inquiry their problem-solving skills are strengthened. Demands in the revised Australian curriculum raised problem-solving of new senior secondary mathematics assessment, specifically in Queensland Problem-solving and Modelling Tasks (PSMTs). The challenge for Queensland was to scale…

These national research snapshots aim to understand how evidence is used by educators, teachers and service leaders in early childhood education and care (ECEC) services in Australia. This research found that ECEC educators, teachers and leaders primarily rely on practitioner-generated evidence rather than research evidence to inform their…

This paper, the third in a series on Earth System Science Education, describes various pedagogical ways forward when science teachers are addressing the curriculum implications of the recent interdisciplinary field of Earth System Science (ESS). Parts I and II introduced the key ideas of ESS and the implications for the Australian Curriculum:…

The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) has created an open-access classroom observation tool based on research conducted for the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's (DFAT) Teacher Development Multi-Year Study Series, which studied teaching practices in Timor-Leste, Vanuatu and Lao PDR (see…

The "National Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) School Education Strategy 2016-2026" (the National Strategy) supports a long-term change agenda aiming to ensure that students have a stronger foundation in STEM and are inspired to take on more challenging STEM subjects. The National Strategy acknowledges that there…

Every Australian student has a right to a complete, relevant and responsive education that is designed and delivered to give them the educational success to which they aspire. To achieve this for First Nations students and their families, schools and systems should be culturally responsive and strive to create culturally safe learning…

At the commencement of 2022 there was an opportunity to be engaged in a curriculum development project focused on reimagining mathematics learning in primary schools. Schools were seeking new experiences to support engaging students and teachers in mathematics learning. Laburnum Primary School participated in the project with Monash University,…

Post-truthism entered mainstream consciousness after being named "Oxford Dictionary's" word of the year in 2016, denoting a turn in the Western relationship with truth as a certain and indisputable object. Simultaneously, and paradoxically, rising distrust around teachers' professional judgement and a desire for certainty in practice saw…

The purpose of this article is to describe what needs to happen in Australian schools to provide effective literacy support for adolescent students with reading difficulties. The central thesis of this paper is that the Response to Intervention (RtI) model provides a useful framework for organizing multi-tiered evidence-based reading interventions…