Minnis Journals

For Education Leaders

Flipped learning to facilitate a Problem Solving Teaching Strategy in the BYOx classroom

We flip our classrooms because it employs technology to efficiently package and present the lecture part of a lesson (Bloom’s lower two levels) and sends that to the out-of-class space, which liberates significant time for richer meaning-making activities and higher-order thinking lesson segments in the classroom. Read more

Children can develop resilience at school with the right challenges and support

Macarthur Anglican School puts a strong focus on developing resilience in its students by introducing them to appropriate challenges with support from teachers.
Dean of Students, Tim Cartwright, says that resilience is about facing tough things and developing an ability to push through them. “Until children do those harder things, they don’t realise their potential. It’s like a muscle that needs to be strengthened by hard work." Read more

Experts look for utility in NAPLAN

After a year off, NAPLAN is back. Many experts are asking why, but some concede that there could be value in the data if the right questions are asked.
Professor Jihyun Lee of UNSW Sydney thinks a comparison between results this year and previous years might be used to determine whether schooling is as effective as it could be.
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‘Invasion’ or ‘colonisation’?

The proposal to use ‘invasion’ to describe the arrival of white people in Australia in the curriculum is sure to be contentious; argument around the word has been going back and forth for years now and the debate shows no sign of cooling.
The Australian curriculum is often interpreted as the ‘warm fuzzy’ dots and didgeridoos approach that avoids uncomfortable conversations about our history. Read more

Women need mentors and systemic changes for STEM

A generous $42.4 million to pursue STEM qualifications and expand the National Careers Institute Partnership Grants Program to get girls and women into STEM careers is great but some needs to be spent on programs that change the culture around STEM.
Women are still under represented in STEM disciplines, even those with tertiary qualifications in the field often don't end up working there. Read more

ACER gets slice of PISA

ACER will lead the development and implementation of the 2025 PISA ‘Learning in the Digital World’ assessment, which will measure students’ abilities to engage in self-regulated learning while using digital tools.
The PISA 2025 Learning in the Digital World domain will examine the extent to which students can use digital resources to learn to solve problems computationally.
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Optimising the future of learning

As we look forward, it’s important that schools don’t revert entirely to pre-pandemic ways. Our world is becoming increasingly digital and schools aren’t exempt from this. Rather than being concerned about the possibility of chronic disruption and change, educators should embrace the potential of new technologies to truly deliver on the education of tomorrow and meet the evolving needs of their students.
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