section: Education

  • EDUCATION

    Best of 2009: Stairway to international student security

    • Ben Coleridge
    • 05 January 2010
    5 Comments

    After midnight, a group of international students, on a break from their night jobs as waiters, gather in a concrete stairwell and share their stories. Victorian premier John Brumby could learn a thing or two in that shabby stairwell. September 2009

    READ MORE
  • EDUCATION

    Why universities welcome theological colleges

    • Neil Ormerod
    • 18 November 2009
    7 Comments

    The movement of existing theological schools into the university structure restores the ancient place of theology as a discipline within a university. But universities could be more interested in money than theology, with theological colleges bringing healthy student numbers and value for money research outputs.

    READ MORE
  • EDUCATION

    Sex, schools and students

    • Fatima Measham
    • 20 October 2009
    7 Comments

    A Queensland father removed his children from a Catholic primary school in protest against the graphic sexual education given to his children. Schools are best placed to cover sexual health because students can be supported in developing a mature sexual ethic.

    READ MORE
  • EDUCATION

    Stairway to international student security

    • Ben Coleridge
    • 30 September 2009
    7 Comments

    After midnight, a group of international students, on a break from their night jobs as waiters, gather in a concrete stairwell and share their stories. Victorian premier John Brumby could learn a thing or two in that shabby stairwell.

    READ MORE
  • EDUCATION

    Antique religious education policy needs reform

    • Teresa Russell
    • 29 September 2009
    20 Comments

    According to NSW education policy, if a parent wants their child to opt out of religious education, that child is not entitled to any instruction during this period. An alliance of parents and educators is pushing for an ethics-based alternative to religious education.

    READ MORE
  • EDUCATION

    Parable of the long-suffering teacher

    • Fatima Measham
    • 26 August 2009
    5 Comments

    Students are more proficient in technology than their teachers and are accessing information their elders would not have known. They wonder, if they can already function as if they have finished school, then what's the point of school? It's a fair question. 

    READ MORE
  • EDUCATION

    How Catholic schools are failing the poor

    • Ross Fitzgerald
    • 24 August 2009
    25 Comments

    A neoliberal funding policy has undermined the ability of Catholic schools to meet poor children's needs. Instead, Catholic schools have allowed millions of tax dollars to be siphoned off public schools and given to the private sector.

    READ MORE
  • EDUCATION

    How to teach 'vampire' students

    • Eleanor Massey
    • 03 March 2009
    10 Comments

    The student teacher is doing his best, trying to teach abstract ideas in a difficult play about a postmodern world. A girl in the front row is discussing her new 'vampire' boyfriend. 'He's in 12B,' she says. 'I can't take my eyes off him.'

    READ MORE
  • EDUCATION

    Higher education's dirty little secret

    • Andrew McGowan
    • 17 February 2009
    5 Comments

    A recent report into higher education is caught between discontent and fatalism about what prevents universities from doing better for students from the margins. The system's biggest failure may lie in what the report didn't ask.

    READ MORE
  • EDUCATION

    Who cares about students

    • Fatima Measham
    • 10 February 2009
    8 Comments

    Many of the things that impact upon a teacher's efficacy are beyond their control - the quality of a child's homelife, the politicisation of the curriculum. One thing they can control is much they care, though this may bring new teachers little comfort in the months ahead.

    READ MORE
  • EDUCATION

    Taking maths out of the equation

    • Frank O'Shea
    • 02 February 2009
    11 Comments

    These are earnest kids, wanting to succeed. Society has told them that to succeed they must be able to draw a parabola, find the vertex, state the axis of symmetry. This city has two million adults — how many ever heard of an axis of symmetry?

    READ MORE
  • EDUCATION

    Why the Melbourne Model is failing students

    • Ben Coleridge
    • 12 December 2008
    5 Comments

    Widespread subject cuts and reductions in staff numbers have eaten away at students' plans and rendered the new breadth component impotent. Horizons seem to be shrinking, which makes it increasingly difficult to 'dream large'.

    READ MORE

x

Subscribe for more stories like this.

Free sign-up