Minnis Journals

ET News Digest

Your Weekly Education Newsletter

Deep-seated discrimination for disabled in Victorian schools
Schools in Victoria have been given the right to assess their own progress around inclusiveness for disabled children and they have dropped the ball.
The Department of Education and Training does not have comprehensive systems in place to make sure that all schools are doing the right thing by children with disability and there are few or no consequences for failing to accommodate disabled children. Read more

Marshmallow test indicates SES not future success
In the entire history of pop science, the marshmallow test has yielded some of the cutest results.
We've all seen the vision of kids presented with the option of eating marshmallow now or waiting 15 minutes and getting two.
Whether the kids struggle and give into temptation and eat the lolly or stop themselves and receive the payoff is supposed to indicate the child’s future success, after all delayed gratification is at the centre of all achievement. Read more

Rural youths with mental health issues need help through technology
Rural youth lag their city counterparts in a lot of ways but in terms of mental health issues they are very much in the game, almost a quarter report struggles with their mental wellbeing.
Technology has a big part to play in any strategy to address the issue as most reported that they were accessing advice through the internet; 43.4% of young people indicated that they would access the internet for help with important issues in their life. Read more

Victorians roll out Minecraft to state schools
Victorian schools are deploying Microsoft Office 365 and a statewide rollout of Minecraft: Education Edition (Minecraft: EE) which will be made available to more than 600,000 students attending Victoria’s 1,500 state schools.
The purpose of Minecraft: EE is to develop 21st century skills in schoolchildren, including collaboration, problem solving and communication, while encouraging students to both think for themselves and collaborate with peers. Read more

Training and standards boosted for pre-service teachers
A close eye on the quality of pre-service teachers’ training and standards will help to develop teaching graduates who are up to scratch and work ready.
The Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) is to lead a standard setting process to establish what it means to meet the accreditation standards and to lead benchmarking (in cooperation with all jurisdictional authorities) of the passing standard between different teaching performance assessments (TPAs). Read more

Music helps language skills
Studies have suggested that intensive musical training enhances children's linguistic skills. Researchers at Cognitive Brain Research Unit in the University of Helsinki studied in a community setting whether a low-cost, weekly music playschool provided to 5-6-year-old children in kindergartens affects their linguistic abilities.
The children were tested four times over two school-years with phoneme processing and vocabulary subtests, along with tests for perceptual reasoning skills and inhibitory control. Read more

Five new Directors on AITSL Board
The Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) has appointed five new Directors to its Board.
AITSL Chair Laureate Professor John Hattie said the appointments will drive the organisation’s focus on supporting and promoting high quality teaching and leadership. “I’d like to acknowledge the astute directorship of AITSL for promoting excellence and supporting teachers and leaders to have the maximum in-school impact on student learning,” Prof Hattie said. Read more