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Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER)

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Articles 1 - 30 of 2219

Full-Text Articles in Education

Learning Through Play At School Ukraine: Final Research Report, Rachel Parker, Amy Berry, Kellie Picker, David Jeffries, Prue Anderson, Oksana Zabolotna Apr 2024

Learning Through Play At School Ukraine: Final Research Report, Rachel Parker, Amy Berry, Kellie Picker, David Jeffries, Prue Anderson, Oksana Zabolotna

Student learning processes

The Learning Through Play (LTP) at School Research Study Ukraine was a four-year intervention study funded by the LEGO Foundation and implemented by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) and the Ukrainian Educational Research Association (UERA). The intervention was a two-year professional learning program that blended online, and face-to-face learning called the Teacher Innovative Play Program (TIPP). The TIPP was designed based on documented evidence that reports that teachers need opportunities to experiment and reflect to change practice. The study was guided by three research questions which were revised following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russian armed forces …


Infographic: Teacher Views On Issues Facing Students, Andrew Broadley Apr 2024

Infographic: Teacher Views On Issues Facing Students, Andrew Broadley

Teacher infographics

How well do you know the issues facing your students? Beyond Blue asked Australian teachers to name the top 3 health issues facing people under 18. In today’s infographic, we look at the 10 most common responses.


Infographic: Comparing The Length Of Primary School Breaks By Country, Andrew Broadley Apr 2024

Infographic: Comparing The Length Of Primary School Breaks By Country, Andrew Broadley

Teacher infographics

Do you feel like you’re getting enough time off each year? Recent data from the OECD’s Education at a Glace report reveals Australian primary school teachers and students have less time off each year than the majority of OECD countries measured.


Reconciliation Action Plan: 31 March 2024–31 December 2025: Reflect, Australian Council For Educational Research (Acer) Apr 2024

Reconciliation Action Plan: 31 March 2024–31 December 2025: Reflect, Australian Council For Educational Research (Acer)

Indigenous Education Research

ACER’s Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) was developed in a collaborative partnership with Reconciliation Australia. This RAP covers March 2024 to December 2025. It is a statement of ACER's commitment to build deeper mutual understanding and more effective relationships with First Nations peoples, and to promote the integration of First Nations’ cultures, histories and knowledges into Australian educational processes. The four RAP types — Reflect, Innovate, Stretch and Elevate — allow continuous development and strengthening of reconciliation commitments. This Reflect RAP will lay the foundations, priming the workplace for future RAPs and reconciliation initiatives.


Infographic: What Support Do School-Aged Children Want To Quit Vaping?, Dominique Russell Mar 2024

Infographic: What Support Do School-Aged Children Want To Quit Vaping?, Dominique Russell

Teacher infographics

Survey data from the Office of the Advocate for Children and Young People has offered new insights into the ideas school-aged children have to offer support to a young person trying to quite vaping. Find out more in today’s infographic.


Infographic: An Average Working Day In Early Childhood, Dominique Russell Mar 2024

Infographic: An Average Working Day In Early Childhood, Dominique Russell

Teacher infographics

Australian research involving 321 educators who directly work with children in centre-based early childhood services involved completion of a time use diary over 10 working days. From the data, the research team created an ‘average working day’, which we share in today’s infographic.


Acer’S Mathematics Anxiety And Engagement Strategy (Maes): A Framework, Sarah Buckley, Kate Reid, Catherine Pearn, Shani Sniedze Mar 2024

Acer’S Mathematics Anxiety And Engagement Strategy (Maes): A Framework, Sarah Buckley, Kate Reid, Catherine Pearn, Shani Sniedze

Student learning processes

The Mathematics Anxiety and Engagement Strategy (MAES) was established by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) in 2018 in response to declining mathematics achievement and participation among Australian students. Findings from the 2022 cycle of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) show that 15-year-old students in Australia had significantly lower levels of mathematical literacy than students in 2003 (De Bortoli et al, 2023). The 2022 results also showed that male students outperformed female students and only 30 percent of students from more disadvantaged backgrounds achieved the National Proficient Standard in mathematics compared to 72 percent of students from …


Infographic: Teachers Needed Across The Globe By 2030, Dominique Russell Feb 2024

Infographic: Teachers Needed Across The Globe By 2030, Dominique Russell

Teacher infographics

According to new research from UNESCO, 44 million additional teachers will be needed globally by 2030 to educate every child. In today’s infographic, we explore the key figures from this research, and share the recruitment targets for replacing attrition in primary and secondary schools.


Infographic: Teachers Spending Their Own Money On School Purchases, Dominique Russell Feb 2024

Infographic: Teachers Spending Their Own Money On School Purchases, Dominique Russell

Teacher infographics

The latest 'State of our Schools' survey from the Australian Education Union - conducted in early 2023 - shows that of almost 6,000 respondents, a vast majority are spending hundreds of dollars of their own money each year on items for work.


Infographic: How Valued Do Teachers Feel By Society?, Dominique Russell Feb 2024

Infographic: How Valued Do Teachers Feel By Society?, Dominique Russell

Teacher infographics

A recent study analysed TALIS (Teaching and Learning International Survey) 2018 data to examine teachers’ perception of occupational value in 28 OECD countries. The findings show an overwhelming majority feel undervalued in almost all countries. Here, we look at teachers’ perception of their overall occupational value, and drill down into 4 specific aspects.


Discover Acer India, Acer India Feb 2024

Discover Acer India, Acer India

ACER India

Established in 2005, ACER India is a wholly owned subsidiary of ACER that operates in South Asia and neighboring regions. Informed by ACER’s evidence-based approaches, we support policy reform and the development of innovative resources and tools to enable ongoing learning progress


Pairwise Comparison Method Toolkit. A Toolkit For Countries To Measure Global Learning Outcomes., United Nations Educational, Scientific And Cultural Organization (Unesco), Australian Council For Educational Research (Acer) Feb 2024

Pairwise Comparison Method Toolkit. A Toolkit For Countries To Measure Global Learning Outcomes., United Nations Educational, Scientific And Cultural Organization (Unesco), Australian Council For Educational Research (Acer)

Global education monitoring

This toolkit has been co-authored by the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Centre at the Australian Council for Education Research (ACER) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Institute for Statistics (UIS). ACER provides technical support to UIS, which has been mandated to monitor the progress of countries towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) in education to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and to promote lifelong learning opportunities for all” (United Nations, 2021). The GEM Centre sponsors and contributes to public goods and activities that facilitate education systems reporting against SDG 4 in a globally …


Acer 2022-2023 Annual Report, Australian Council For Educational Research (Acer) Feb 2024

Acer 2022-2023 Annual Report, Australian Council For Educational Research (Acer)

ACER Annual Reports

No abstract provided.


Collaboration In East Africa: A Contextualised Approach To Defining The Construct, Claire Scoular, David Alelah Otieno Feb 2024

Collaboration In East Africa: A Contextualised Approach To Defining The Construct, Claire Scoular, David Alelah Otieno

Assessment and Reporting

Collaboration has been highlighted internationally as a key skill for learning, working, and living in the twenty-first century. However, to teach it well, enhance its performance, and measure its growth, it is essential to have a clear and consistent definition of the skill. There are a number of frameworks that describe collaboration in a way that is meaningful to learning and growth. Despite some differences across frameworks, it is clear there is a common core set of contributing subskills. This suggests that collaboration is of global interest, and that there are components that transcend national or cultural specificities. Notwithstanding, definitions …


Australian University Outcomes: A National Study Comparing Ibdp And Non-Ibdp Students, Kylie Hillman, Daniel Edwards, Leyna Clarke Jan 2024

Australian University Outcomes: A National Study Comparing Ibdp And Non-Ibdp Students, Kylie Hillman, Daniel Edwards, Leyna Clarke

Higher education research

This study compares the university outcomes of students who completed the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme (DP) in Australia compared to non-DP students nationally. The findings are based on population-level data for all students who applied to and entered universities in Australia between 2013 and 2018. To address differences in DP and non-DP student characteristics, the researchers further examined outcomes by groups within the populations that are more alike, for example, by gender and socio-economic status. Across all cohorts, DP students gain offers of university admission, continue to their second year of study, and complete university for all check points …


Gaml/Tcg Criteria For Use Of An Assessment To Report On Sdg 4.1.1, Kemran Mestan, Maurice Walker, Colin Watson Jan 2024

Gaml/Tcg Criteria For Use Of An Assessment To Report On Sdg 4.1.1, Kemran Mestan, Maurice Walker, Colin Watson

Monitoring Learning

The Global Alliance to Monitor Learning (GAML) is the working group of the Technical Cooperation Group on SDG 4 Indicators (TCG) that focuses on learning data and aims at improving learning outcomes by supporting national strategies for learning assessments and developing internationally comparable indicators and methodological tools to measure progress towards key targets of Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4). Indicator 4.1.1 is defined as the percentage of children and young people who have achieved a minimum proficiency level in (i) reading and (ii) mathematics during primary (Grade 2 or 3) and at the end of primary and lower secondary …


Baseline Study For A Refugee Children’S Programme In Sudan, Acer India Jan 2024

Baseline Study For A Refugee Children’S Programme In Sudan, Acer India

ACER India

This is a brief report on a project to measure the baseline metrics of UNICEF’s Integration and Mainstreaming of Refugee Children into the Sudanese Education System (IRCSES) programme.


Education Out Loud Case Study: The Gear Alliance, Alexander Towne, Sladana Krstic, Sam Boering Jan 2024

Education Out Loud Case Study: The Gear Alliance, Alexander Towne, Sladana Krstic, Sam Boering

International Education Research

This case study is part of a larger body of work funded by the Global Partnership for Education’s (GPE) Education Out Loud (EOL) programme. It explores the advocacy and policy influencing (API) activities of the GEAR Alliance, a transnational alliance of four East African civil society organisations (CSO) receiving funding from EOL, and the process, results and impact of action research project they conducted in partnership with MDF/ Australian Council for Education Research (ACER), an EOL ‘Global Learning Partner’ (GLP). EOL is the GPEs fund for advocacy and social accountability. The fund aims to support CSOs to be active and …


Education Out Loud Case Study: School For Life, Alexander Towne, Sladana Krstic, Jolanda Butler Jan 2024

Education Out Loud Case Study: School For Life, Alexander Towne, Sladana Krstic, Jolanda Butler

International Education Research

Children living in remote rural parts of Ghana experience inequality in basic education, in terms of both access and outcomes. This issue is particularly acute in the north of the country and for girls. For example, 30 percent of children in the north have no school nearby and 20 percent will never enroll. Furthermore, transparency and accountability within Ghana’s education system is weak. Generally, information is not disseminated in a way that is accessible to most citizens (for example it is not produced in a local language), which means they are denied the opportunity to understand and engage with the …


The Scottish Government International Development Fund: Designing A New International Development Inclusive Education Programme, Alexander Towne, Desmond Bermingham Jan 2024

The Scottish Government International Development Fund: Designing A New International Development Inclusive Education Programme, Alexander Towne, Desmond Bermingham

International Education Research

This document was commissioned by the Scottish Government following a review of Scotland’s approach to international development in the wake of Covid-19, and incorporates a needs analysis and evidence, review, a detailed description of the global and national policy contexts relevant to partner country education systems and inputs from partner country governments, civil society and development partners on their priorities for investment in Inclusive Education. Drawing on these inputs, the report proposes a focus for the Scottish Government’s inclusive education programme on learners with disabilities and girls and young women, which is due to begin implementation in 2024. It also …


Education Out Loud Case Study: Iid, Alexander Towne, Sladana Krstic, Miriam Linder Jan 2024

Education Out Loud Case Study: Iid, Alexander Towne, Sladana Krstic, Miriam Linder

International Education Research

The education system in Bangladesh has undergone significant change since the country’s independence from Pakistan in 1971. In 1973 the community-sponsored school system, in which communities felt a moral obligation to take an active role in schools, was transformed into a centralised national system. This caused a shift in the sense of ownership of the education system and a disconnect between community and school. This in turn led to the development of a system, which lacks accountability and community monitoring, and has left the system vulnerable to shocks that disproportionately affect already disadvantaged students. Nevertheless, there have been some notable …


Civil Society Contributions To Improving Learning Outcomes: An Education Out Loud Global Learning Partner Report, Alexander Towne, Sladana Krstic, Desmond Bermingham, Jolanda Buter, Miriam Linder, Sam Boering Jan 2024

Civil Society Contributions To Improving Learning Outcomes: An Education Out Loud Global Learning Partner Report, Alexander Towne, Sladana Krstic, Desmond Bermingham, Jolanda Buter, Miriam Linder, Sam Boering

International Education Research

This report shares the findings from an action research project conducted on behalf of Global Partnership for Education’s (GPE) Education Out Loud (EOL) programme by the Management for Development Foundation (MDF) and the Australian Council for Education Research (ACER) Consortium, in its capacity as global learning partner (GLP). The project involved working directly with three organisations (grantees) in receipts of EOL funds, across five GPE countries. The Consortium supported them to conduct action research projects, which tested the underlying assumptions of their programme’s theory of change, in order to validate their approaches to advocacy and policy influencing (API) and support …


Learning Through Play At School: Ukraine, 2019-2024, Rachel Parker, Amy Berry, Kellie Picker, David Jeffries, Prue Anderson, Oksana Zabolotna Jan 2024

Learning Through Play At School: Ukraine, 2019-2024, Rachel Parker, Amy Berry, Kellie Picker, David Jeffries, Prue Anderson, Oksana Zabolotna

Student learning processes

The Learning Through Play at School Research Study Ukraine was a four-year longitudinal intervention study funded by the LEGO Foundation and implemented by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) and the Ukrainian Educational Research Association (UERA). The study was implemented between 2019 and 2024, during COVID-19 and the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russian armed forces. Despite, at times, insurmountable challenges, the professional learning intervention was successful in supporting most teachers to progress from a surface level understanding of learning through play to a deep level. In addition, almost all children’s literacy and social-emotional skills grew significantly from start …


Student Assessment In Madhya Pradesh, Acer India Jan 2024

Student Assessment In Madhya Pradesh, Acer India

ACER India

ACER will build a student assessment system in Madhya Pradesh as part of Rajya Shiksha Kendra (RSK)’s School Certification Programme. Under this initiative, schools will be certified as gold, silver, and bronze based on their performance. We will develop assessments for students in grades 3, 5, 8, and 10 in schools that meet the qualifying criteria.


School Improvement Tool Elaborations: Student Engagement And Wellbeing. Background Report And Literature Review, Fabienne Van Der Kleij, Pauline Taylor-Guy, Tanya Vaughan, Marijne Medhurst, Christina Rogers Dec 2023

School Improvement Tool Elaborations: Student Engagement And Wellbeing. Background Report And Literature Review, Fabienne Van Der Kleij, Pauline Taylor-Guy, Tanya Vaughan, Marijne Medhurst, Christina Rogers

School and system improvement

This literature review outlines the evidence that underpins the development of a set of evidence-informed elaborations, or specific practices, that support student engagement and wellbeing across the 9 domains of the National School Improvement Tool (NSIT). These observable, measurable practices to support student engagement and wellbeing have been developed from a review of relevant literature in the areas of socio-emotional learning (SEL), health and wellbeing, student engagement and a sense of belonging, and motivations for engagement. They also take account of commissioned research reports by the Queensland Department of Education and the Department's (2018) approach to student learning and wellbeing …


Infographic: Wise Words On Continuous Learning, Dominique Russell Dec 2023

Infographic: Wise Words On Continuous Learning, Dominique Russell

Teacher infographics

Our ninth annual reader survey recently concluded and in it, we invited you to share a piece of advice you'd give to a fellow educator. Here are some of your responses on the topic of continuous learning.


Infographic: Pisa 2022 – Australian Performance Trends Over Time, Dominique Russell Dec 2023

Infographic: Pisa 2022 – Australian Performance Trends Over Time, Dominique Russell

Teacher infographics

Results from PISA 2022 have been released and the data show Australian student performance in maths and reading has been holding steady since 2015, and in science since 2018. However, when looking at the past 20 years, performance has dropped significantly across the board.


Collective Efficacy Tracking Tool. Development Framework 2023, Kerry Elliott, Hilary Hollingsworth Dec 2023

Collective Efficacy Tracking Tool. Development Framework 2023, Kerry Elliott, Hilary Hollingsworth

Educational leadership

Collective efficacy has become a prominent feature in educational policy and practice with growing evidence that a strong sense of collective efficacy amongst educators leads to better outcomes for students. With growing interest in the importance of collective efficacy and how to cultivate it, the Collective Efficacy Tracking Tool was created to address challenges associated with understanding, diagnosing, and developing collective efficacy. This Framework describes the development of the Collective Efficacy Tracking Tool, defining collective efficacy in a way that it can be operationalised to leverage improvement efforts. The Framework and accompanying Collective Efficacy Tracking Tool provide a practical resource …


Pisa In Brief 2022: Student Performance And Equity In Education, Lisa De Bortoli, Catherine Underwood, Sue Thomson Dec 2023

Pisa In Brief 2022: Student Performance And Equity In Education, Lisa De Bortoli, Catherine Underwood, Sue Thomson

OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) Australia

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is an assessment that measures the knowledge and skills of 15-year-old students, an age at which they have nearly completed compulsory schooling. PISA assesses young adults’ ability to apply their knowledge and skills to real-life problems and situations rather than how well they have learned a specific curriculum. This PISA in Brief report provides a summary of student performance in the PISA 2022 assessment and tells us about their capacity to apply knowledge and skills in the domains of reading, mathematical, and scientific literacy.


Pisa 2022. Reporting Australia’S Results. Volume I: Student Performance And Equity In Education, Lisa De Bortoli, Catherine Underwood, Sue Thomson Dec 2023

Pisa 2022. Reporting Australia’S Results. Volume I: Student Performance And Equity In Education, Lisa De Bortoli, Catherine Underwood, Sue Thomson

OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) Australia

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is an international comparative study of student performance directed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). PISA measures 3 core domains of reading literacy, mathematical literacy, and scientific literacy. The assessment focuses on young people’s ability to apply their knowledge and skills to real-world problems and situations. The term ‘literacy’ reflects a focus on broader skills. As a concept, literacy is more than simply being able to read and write. Eighty-one countries or economies, involving around 690,000 students, participated in PISA 2022. In Australia, 743 schools and a total of 13,437 …