Media Centre

Occasional Essays

Preparing 21st Century Learners: The Case for School-Community Collaborations

Posted on: Thursday, 22nd March 2012

Highly effective schools have high levels of parent and community engagement.i ‘Community’ here includes parents, business and philanthropic organisations, and various services and not-for-profit groups. How ‘engagement’ is defined and what it looks like in practice will vary from school to school. But, as the growing body of research makes quite clear, support from those beyond the school gates is an essential part of preparing learners for the twenty-first century.

Preparing 21st Century Learners: The Case for School-Community Collaborations (PDF)

The Hard Work of Improvement

Posted on: Tuesday, 18th October 2011

A common strategy for promoting improved employee or organisational performance is to place a strong focus on organisational results. For example, in commercial businesses, it is common to focus on results such as sales volumes, total business revenue, annual company profit or share price. With desired results clearly identified, results metrics are then established to measure existing performance levels, set targets for improvement, monitor improvement over time and hold employees accountable for achieving better results.

The Hard Work of Improvement (PDF)

Assessing Student Learning: Why Reform is Overdue

Posted on: Wednesday, 10th August 2011

Advances in our understanding of human learning require new approaches to assessing and monitoring student learning. Much assessment thinking has changed little over the past fifty years. The field continues to be dominated by twentieth century introductory textbook concepts, including such dichotomies as formative versus summative assessment, criterion-referenced versus norm-referenced testing, quantitative versus qualitative assessment, informal versus formal assessment – distinctions that often hamper rather than promote clear thinking about assessment.

Assessing Student Learning: Why Reform is Overdue (PDF)

The Power of Expectation

Posted on: Friday, 15th July 2011

Success in most fields of endeavour depends on an ability to visualise success. It has long been known that elite athletes mentally rehearse each performance prior to its execution. Advances in neuroscience show why this may be so important: the neurological processes involved in visualising a performance are almost identical to those involved in the performance itself. Indeed, simply watching somebody else perform activates ‘mirror’ neurons in the observer paralleling neuronal activity in the performer. The ability to visualise success and an accompanying belief that success is possible appear to be prerequisites for most forms of human achievement.