Literacy News

• 1st Jan 70 12:00 AM

  Mobile phones may help get kids active

  19 December 2011: Children who know how to use a mobile phone, as opposed to those who don’t, are more likely to move about their neighbourhood without adult supervision, new research from the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) suggests.

• 1st Jan 70 12:00 AM

  Future academics need encouragement to stay in Australia

  The higher education sector must focus on creating roles for early career academics and retaining research graduates or it risks impeding Australia’s ability to meet its university attainment targets, according to an Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) research review paper. In the seventh research briefing for the Joining the Dots series, ‘Where are the academics of tomorrow? Supply and demand issues for Australian universities’, ACER Senior Research Fellow Dr Daniel Edwards explored how the academic workforce is placed to cope with the forecast rise in student numbers that will result if university attainment targets are…

• 1st Jan 70 12:00 AM

  Don’t miss out on a scholarship for 2013

  Parents risk having their children miss the opportunity to receive a scholarship to an independent school if they wait too long. In 2012, ACER’s Cooperative Scholarship Testing Program (CSTP) test date has been brought forward and will now occur in February, instead of May as was the case in previous years.

• 1st Jan 70 12:00 AM

  Opinion split on walking to school

  A new study of neighbourhood satisfaction has revealed older residents believe it is safer for children to walk to school than the parents of primary school-aged children believe to be the case. The study, by ACER Research Fellow Ms Catherine Underwood, examined survey responses from over 800 residents aged 60 years and over and from over 500 parents of students aged 5 to 12 years living in six Victorian municipalities.

• 1st Jan 70 12:00 AM

  Australia a key player in international higher education student market, but competition is building

  Australia is a key player in international higher education student provision and is now ranked third in the world, according to the latest Joining the Dots research briefing released by ACER. Dr Daniel Edwards, ACER Senior Research Fellow, said Australia’s net flow of international students is one of the highest in the world, even when calculated in the context of the total size of the higher education sector.

• 1st Jan 70 12:00 AM

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

  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.

• 1st Jan 70 12:00 AM

  Business potential lies untapped in schools

  A focus on education business management is key to improving student outcomes, according to the author of an ACER Press book to be launched this week. In 'Above and Beyond the Bottom Line: The extraordinary evolution of the education business manager', Deakin University’s Professor Karen Starr argues ‘business’ can no longer be seen as a dirty word in education.

• 1st Jan 70 12:00 AM

  Parents urged to develop maths in kids from birth

  Parents, grandparents and early childhood educators should use play time to help develop mathematical concepts in young children, advise the authors of a new book published by ACER. In 'Young children learning mathematics: A guide for educators and families', Australian academics Robert Hunting, Judy Mousley and Bob Perry explore how adults can stimulate young children’s mathematical thinking from birth through to when they start school.

• 1st Jan 70 12:00 AM

  95% of staff in schools experienced workplace bullying

  Over 95 per cent of staff in schools experienced some form of workplace bullying, with a zero tolerance approach needed to stamp out this behaviour, according to a book being launched in Sydney tomorrow by General Peter Cosgrove AC, MC. Written by Dr Dan Riley, Dr Deirdre J Duncan and John Edwards, and published by ACER, 'Bullying of Staff in Schools' aims to assist school employees to understand the phenomenon of staff bullying, its existence, the forms it takes, and its impact on staff and their schools.

• 1st Jan 70 12:00 AM

  National productivity linked to adult literacy and numeracy

  Investment in increasing adult literacy and numeracy levels may be the key to boosting Australia’s productivity, delegates at the first national conference on adult language, literacy and numeracy assessment will be told tomorrow. ACER has convened the National Adult Language, Literacy and Numeracy Assessment Conference in response to increasing national and state interest in addressing and improving the language, literacy and numeracy skills of Australian youth and adults participating in the vocational, education and training (VET) sector and in Australia’s workforce.