By Lauren McNamara and Pasi Sahlberg School leaders globally are tasked with the unenviable challenge of planning for school reopenings after COVID-19 pandemic shut downs. Having experienced their own isolation, anxiety, exhaustion and challenges of taking schools online, they are now challenged to redesign their schools to mitigate the effects of a pandemic. Amid concerns about social distancing, it would be easy for education…
read moreSo much has been said already about teaching and learning during the Covid-19 pandemic that it is hard to say something new. More focus on social and emotional learning, student and teacher wellbeing, authentic assessments, distance learning with technology, relationships in schools and recess during school days. Fewer high-stakes standardized tests, less unproductive consequential accountability, more direct instruction in school,…
read moreTeachers say most students have lost the ability to focus, are less empathetic and spend less time on physical activity. These are some of the results from our Growing Up Digital Australia study, in which we surveyed almost 2,000 teachers and school leaders across Australia. We asked them how students from primary school to year 12 have changed in the last five years, and what might explain these changes. Nearly four out of…
read moreIn 2015, a school district in New York State declared an educational revolution. Teachers and parents decided to rise up and liberate their schools and their children — by giving them more play. The revolution erupted at the Patchogue-Medford district on Long Island, which serves 8,700 K-12 students, over half of whom are economically disadvantaged, and it is being led by Michael Hynes, the athletic, passionate young district…
read moreBy Amy Graham and Pasi Sahlberg More than one billion young people around the world are now shut out of classrooms due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Even in Australia where many schools remain open, many parents have chosen to keep their kids home. Some Australian non-government schools have already shut their doors and moved classes online. Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania have ended the term early so teachers…
read moreThis essay was written with William Doyle and originally published in Washington Post on April 8, 2020 The coronavirus crisis has shattered one of the most dysfunctional pillars of childhood education. On March 20, U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos suspended the federal requirement for the mass standardized testing of children, announcing “Neither students nor teachers need to be focused on high-stakes tests during this…
read moreThey say an apple a day keeps the doctor away. But having an apple or a sandwich for lunch when students are supposed to be doing well in school is not enough. We all know healthy children learn better. Healthy school lunch served free to every Australian child would be a simple way to improve education and child wellbeing. Some schools offer children breakfast or lunch daily, but the majority have to get by with what’s in their…
read moreWhen people overseas ask me about Australian schools, I tell them that we have some of the best schools in the world — but they are not for all of our children. International reviews have proved that the Australian school system is one of the most unequal and socially segregated among the rich countries of the world. This is not a recent finding. During the last decade, evidence from abroad and findings in our own studies…
read moreEvery three years around this time politicians, education leaders and pundits step up to call for fixing their education systems. This has happened for two decades now. Education reforms follow one after another. Still, according to the OECD’s Program for International Student Assessment (Pisa), school systems are not getting any better around the world. Indeed, in many countries, students’ test scores in reading, mathematics…
read moreAmerican journalist and social critic H L Mencken wrote that “for every complex human problem, there is a solution that is neat, simple and wrong”. "Back to basics" or phonics tests are such answers that have been offered to improve Australian schools. Alarm bells were ringing around Australia when the latest PISA results became public on Tuesday. Australia scored its lowest ever results in the global reading, mathematics…
read more