There are substantial and ongoing concerns in the Australian and international secondary and tertiary education sectors about students' transition from secondary to tertiary mathematics. Of recent concern is the number of students choosing Advanced Mathematics (AM) in the last two years of secondary school. Declining enrolments in AM in secondary…

This replicated research project [see Hine, G. S. C. (2019). Reasons why I didn't enrol in a higher-level mathematics course: Listening to the voice of Australian senior secondary students. "Research in Mathematics Education," 21(3), 295-313. https://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2102/10.1080/14794802.2019.15999982019] explored the reasons why senior secondary…

In Australia, it has been observed that there have been significant declines in the proportion of students studying senior sciences over the last two decades (Commonwealth of Australia 2017 & 2018; Steidtmann et.al, 2023). It has been suggested that one of the causes for this decline could be a link between students' literacy achievement and…

The visibility of female role models in science is vital for engaging and retaining women in scientific fields. In this study, we analyse four senior secondary science courses delivered across the states and territories in Australia: Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Science, and Physics. We compared male and female representation within the…

Young people aged >15 years (Years 11 and 12 students) in Australia are unlikely to receive school-based sexual and reproductive health (SRH) education. The aims of this study were to gather the perspectives of young people regarding their experiences of school-based SRH education and explore what they considered should be the core components…

In this study, the evaluation of mathematical proficiency (MP) in one NSW Year 12 standardised exam paper was investigated. By considering the multi-strand model of MP, a literature-based criteria for scoring the assessment of MP in individual exam questions was first developed. The criteria were then applied to quantitatively evaluate the 2023…

Addressing the participation rates in senior secondary mathematics courses in Australian schools remains a critically important issue. In this paper, the authors report on quantitative findings from a study in which all year 11 and year 12 (aged 17-18 years) Australian Tertiary Admissions Ranking (ATAR) students in Western Australia were invited…

Launched in 2010 by the Gillard Labor Government, the Australian Tertiary Admissions Rankings (ATAR) system is the first national unified system for reporting the educational attainment of successive cohorts of Year 12 school leavers. The system is widely regarded as fit for purpose, being both predictive of academic success and rates of…

In 2020, Year 12 students at John Curtin College of the Arts, were required to model COVID-19 data from five different countries in order to find correlations between daily infections and unemployment rates, in order to make future predictions. Work received from students demonstrated how the task successfully provided unique learning…

Rurality is an identified point of disadvantage in measures such as the Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage (ICSEA) and school resourcing models. However, socioeconomic disadvantage is commonly used as an explanation for lower average student achievement in rural locations. Thus, policies are often directed towards reducing disadvantage…

This paper argues for effective sequencing of mathematics content to aid transition from junior (Year 7 to Year 10) to senior mathematics (Year 11 to Year 12) curriculum in Queensland, Australia and provides a tool for sequencing the mathematics content. Planning templates and samples are available to schools; however, it is imperative for…

Young people tend to have low levels of sexual health literacy. The aims of this work were to explore health professionals' perspectives of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) education in Australia and what they considered should be the core components of SRH curriculum, particularly for Year 11 and 12 students. In September and October, 2021,…

Despite adolescent girls' superior school achievement and high career aspirations, fewer women than men achieve career eminence. Understanding early influences on the development of gifted girls' career-related values and aspirations may help to explain this discrepancy in career outcomes. This article reports findings from a qualitative,…

Background: teen Mental Health First Aid (tMHFA) is an Australian school-based universal program for grade 10 to 12 students. tMHFA teaches teens how to recognize and respond to a peer in crisis or experiencing mental health concerns. Methods: Schools implementing tMHFA in 2019 and 2020 were propensity score matched, yielding a sample of…

In a world where English has achieved global dominance, it is unsurprising that the instrumental value of learning a language other than English (LOTE) for those already fluent in English is increasingly deemed unnecessary. There are significant enrollment declines postcompulsory second language (L2) learning in all English-speaking countries. To…