Outdoor Education has evolved as a learning area in Western Australia over many years. In this paper we document historical elements of an investigation into the nature and scope of Outdoor Education in Western Australia. Previous investigations conducted by other researchers on the nature and scope of Outdoor Education focused on Victoria, South…

This publication presents information on the vocational education and training (VET) undertaken by school students as part of their senior secondary certificate of education (SSCE). Students can undertake VET through a school-based apprenticeship or traineeship pathway, or other pathway. Highlights include: (1) In 2022, in Australia there were 242…

The topic of the seasons is covered in both primary and secondary schools in Australia. It may be difficult for some students to comprehend how the Sun alters its position throughout the year. This article shows how to calculate the changing rising and setting positions of the Sun for one's locality and the extremes of its elevation near noon over…

Positive Education equips students with the skills and mindset to lead fulfilling lives, navigate challenges, and contribute positively to society. Geelong Grammar School (GGS), the largest co-educational boarding school in Australia, is dedicated to fostering student wellbeing through Positive Education. With four campuses and a vibrant community…

At the school level statistics begins with exploratory data analysis, or EDA. Statistical learning goes on to include statistical inference, which will be discussed in the second part of this article. In this article, the author will talk about EDA and CODAP. EDA can be thought of as looking for patterns in data using graphs and simple statistics…

On September 21, 1922, an eclipse of the Sun at Wallal in north-west Australia provided definitive proof that Einstein's theory of gravity is correct. By proving that space is elastic, it paved the way for the discovery of gravitational waves in 2015, in which Australia also played a major role. David Blair, Jyoti Kaur, and Anastasia Popkova are…

Research to date has pointed out that during periods of curriculum reform, public debate gets politicised resulting in an over-emphasis on top-down approaches to curriculum making. As a group of curriculum inquiry researchers, we are concerned that teachers, students, school leaders and community organisations are often side-lined as integral…

This article discusses a recent Australian study that examines the relationship between teachers' beliefs in inclusive education and their levels of teaching self-efficacy, which previous research finds is correlated with more effective teaching practices. Whereas inclusion in the United States usually refers to placing students with disabilities…

Australia participated in the eighth cycle of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). TIMSS is an international sample study that assesses the mathematics and science achievement of Year 4 and Year 8 students every 4 years. Australia has participated in all cycles of TIMSS since it commenced in 1995 and over this 28-year…

This paper, the second in a series of three, explores the representation of Earth System Science (ESS) in the Australian Curriculum (ACARA, 2018a)) through the Cross Curriculum Priority area of Sustainability and the Australian Curriculum: Science (F-12), with a focus on F-10. Part I (in Teaching Science, 68.1) overviewed the current…

The teaching of writing in secondary English subjects in Australia, as in other countries including England and the United States, has become increasingly formulaic. Pedagogies including direct instruction, modelling, scaffolding, and genre-based approaches involve the implementation of formulas for writing sentences, paragraphs, and entire…

Context/Background: This article provides an introduction to the special issue. It includes an overview of a collection of articles from scholars across the globe who are committed to deepening an understanding of the experiences of trans students and gender-expansive education in schools. The special issue grew out of concerns about the need to…

In 2022, an ASTA working group researched the career life cycle of a science teacher from preservice to retirement in order to better support professional learning programs for its members. The project resulted in the production of a framework showing the relationships between individual teacher contexts in their personal and workplace life and…

This paper explains how an original conceptual framework model for mathematics pedagogy, the Australian Curriculum Conceptual Rubric (ACCR), has continued to be used successfully by the author in pre-service and in-service teacher education programs over the past ten years or more. Now further enhanced by a deeper reflection upon Peter Sullivan's…

This paper, the third in a series on Earth System Science Education, describes various pedagogical ways forward when science teachers are addressing the curriculum implications of the recent interdisciplinary field of Earth System Science (ESS). Parts I and II introduced the key ideas of ESS and the implications for the Australian Curriculum:…