Update 24 March 2014: The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) has provided a statement as a contribution to the Australian Government’s review of the Australian Curriculum. See also letter accompanying the statement, provided by Professor Barry McGaw AO, Chair ACARA Board.
The sixth edition of Curriculum and Leadership Journal (tablet version) is now available on iPad and android devices.
For a long time, policy makers and researchers have focused on the need to deal with disengagement, in forms such as low or erratic attendance at school, negative interactions with peers, and behavioural issues. AITSL is now approaching this issue in a different way. Its new Learning Frontiers project seeks to examine the professional practices that actively promote deep engagement in learning. Learning Frontiers will be working with ‘design hubs’ (clusters of schools and other organisations) to develop teaching, learning and assessment practices that increase engagement. The design hubs will involve students, parents, business, social enterprises, professional associations and universities, amongst other partners. The current article looks at what the research has to say about engagement and how to foster it, and introduces the work of the design hubs. Future articles in this series will describe in more detail what Learning Frontiers is doing with schools and other organisations, and will also look at some examples of engaging learning environments.
The article examines the interaction of engagement and cognitive reading strategies as factors influencing the comprehension levels of struggling adolescent readers – Journal of Educational Research.
The author provides an overview of systematic reviews of research into mathematics and reading, at both primary and secondary levels – School Effectiveness and School Improvement.