Resources

Conversations with some of the world’s biggest thought leaders in education. Listen below, or wherever you get your podcasts.

In this episode Carol Hodgson (Department of Education, regional) and 2022 Teaching Excellence Program (TEP) alumni Melissa Pavey from South Street Primary School in Moe and Cathy Buchanan-Hagen from Hamlyn Banks Primary School in Geelong discuss all things literacy, education and mentor texts.

Principals in Residence Samantha Jeacle and Justine Mackey are joined by Chris Varney and Rachael Hamilton of the I CAN Network. In this episode, they discuss practical ways educators can support students with autism in the classroom.

Webinar with Tasneem Chopra OAM - Consultant, Speaker, Broadcaster on Cultural Safety, Competency, and Inclusion.

Written by Leah Myers, a leading teacher and instructional coach with the Victorian Department of Education, this article discusses how to maximise student learning through understanding the basics of human cognitive architecture and its implications for classroom design.

A broad range of professional learning and resources to support implementation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in schools.

In this webinar, Kirra Pendergast delves into the implications of cyber security with emerging technologies in the classroom.

In this episode, Academy Principal in Residence Justine Smyth is joined by executive class principals Gail Hardman and Prue Pisani who currently work in Differentiated Support School Improvement (DSSI) in the Northwest Victorian Region.

Hosted by Academy Principal in Residence Simone Eirth, this episode delves into all things instructional coaching with internationally recognised thought leader Dr Jim Knight.

Principals in Residence, Kendra Parker and Simone Eirth are joined by Distinguished Professor Emeritus Viviane Robinson, to discuss the Academy Leadership Excellence Framework (ALEF) and how it can be used by school leaders and leadership teams to identify, develop and support educational leadership excellence across our system.

Polya's problem-solving process, developed by mathematician George Polya, provides a structured approach to problem-solving that can be applied across various domains.

An engaging and practical set of mathematics resources for use in schools. Printable and podcast resources were co-designed by the Australian Council for Educational Research and the Academy to improve student outcomes and the approach towards mathematics.

Valuing maths positively impacts student learning outcomes and determines whether a student will continue to engage with maths at school and beyond. This episode is hosted by Teaching Excellence Program Master Teacher Emma Moore and features Dr Sarah Buckley from the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER).

Master teacher Adam Brodie-Mackenzie reflects with colleagues on the rich history of educational practice of Australia's First Nations people and what this means for students of the Humanities.

Adam knows the power of building Indigenous perspectives into teaching and learning and believes it is paramount for all educators to make these connections in their discipline and classroom.

Hosted by 2023 Academy Principal in Residence Greg Lacey, this episode features EC by Go1 CEO Dave Faulkner and learning designer and facilitator Glenn Solomons. In this episode Greg, Dave and Glenn cover all things middle leadership and the impact they can have as “the engine room of change in schools”. 

Teaching Excellence Program Master Teachers Lorena Pellone-Gismondi and Francés Braithwaite are joined by neurologist, former teacher and change maker Dr Judy Willis to discuss the connections between neuroscience, teaching and learning.

A broad range of professional learning and resources to support positive student behaviour. 

This blog provides 6 essential behaviour management tips that can serve as a checklist as you begin the school year or teaching a new class.

Master Teacher in Residence for Technologies, Anam Javed, explores artificial intelligence and how educators and schools can work with AI not against it.

International thought leader Dr Judy Willis recently visited our Shepparton and 41 St Andrews Place sites as part of the Teaching Excellence Program. With over 15 years as a practicing neurologist and another 10 years as a classroom teacher, we asked her for some insights into the neuroscience of learning and practical guidance that can influence change in the classroom and at home.

In this webinar, Dr Peter DeWitt provides an insightful session on empowering leadership and fostering a sense of efficacy among educators.

Teaching Excellence Program Master Teacher Emma Moore is joined by international thought leader, Dr Gary Stager to discuss how educators can create better mathematical experiences for students.

This episode delves into the ever-evolving technology and computational environments used to support both student and educator learning. With a focus on practical and engaging project-based numeracy development, this a must-listen episode for classroom teachers with the desire to improve student outcomes in mathematics.

Check out the graphic illustrations that capture the inspiring messages from our Government Schools Principals’ Conference 2023.

The Academy Leadership Excellence Framework (ALEF) sets out the practices, capabilities and dispositions required for excellence at all levels of leadership.​ 

Renowned positive psychology expert Professor Lea Waters has partnered with the Academy to develop bite-size professional learning sessions for school leaders to help replenish staff wellbeing without depleting leader energy, and the recharging power of micro moments.

In this webinar, Dr Helen Street provides an opportunity to broaden understanding of student behaviour by considering context and how it relates to student motivation and actions.

Practitioner inquiry with Christopher Hudson and RMIT’s Amanda Berry

Join Professor Yong Zhao to better understand and support student engagement. Consider how students can be involved in decision-making in your school and how to best engage them for impact.

Learn specific skills to influence school change with Professor Andy Hargreaves, world-renowned speaker, author and researcher focused on school improvement. 

Aimed at middle leaders, this webinar recording will enhance your ability to influence school wide change and help children become engaged in problem solving.

Leading school improvement is a challenging and rewarding role for educational leaders. It means disrupting aspects of business as usual, and learning more effective ways of working with students and colleagues to achieve positive results.

How can educators best meet the needs of students in a changing world?

Michael Fullan explores what it means for educators to be dynamic and responsive, and build trust within their school community, to advance student outcomes and wellbeing.

Student voice is having a long overdue renaissance in education. As teachers, we have a growing expectation that we embed opportunities for students to speak about and have a genuine impact upon the teaching and learning occurring in our classrooms.

Look beyond the idea of ‘learner engagement’ and explore what is learning for?

Valerie Hanon introduces research findings and insights around the future-focused design principles for schools and how they are being brought to life around the world.

The impact of leadership on student and school improvement cannot be underestimated.

Tracey focuses on the importance of self-understanding in leading others, and useful ways to recalibrate and build an approach of Ferocious Warmth leadership.

Changes over the past decade have allowed our world to be more ‘iConnected’ than ever before.

Aasha Murthy defines the key dimensions of the ‘iConnected’ world and how you can identify the emerging patterns in your sector by analysing its driving forces and critical uncertainties.

As the inaugural Master Teacher for the Arts, Teaching Excellence Program, Toby Wilkins has a depth of knowledge and insight into what it takes to successfully apply for a competitive process.

In this blog, Toby shares with you his top tips for completing a high-quality and impactful application that will resonate with others and help you put your best foot forward.

Successful education systems have principals who are well connected to their peers through active partnerships or learning networks of schools. In Victoria, these learning networks are known as Communities of Practice.

This publication outlines how to embed a networked system of schools to powerfully lift the performance and achievement of all students.

Effective school networks are at the heart of implementing the Framework for Improving Student Outcomes.

This publication outlines the Communities of Practice approach and the role networks play.

The Communities of Practice approach builds the collective efficacy of principals to strengthen teaching practice and improve student outcomes.

Develop the right skills, expertise and dispositions to support the communities of practice approach as a network executive or network chair.

This worksheet allows you to reflect on your areas of competency and identify opportunities for improvement.

There is a range of evidence that sits behind the Communities of Practice approach.

Explore the research underpinning this work with this fact sheet.

The Communities of Practice approach supports the ambitious and powerful vison for Victoria’s education system outlined in the Education State.

This publication outlines a set of guidelines to assist with network governance and supports network chairs and executives to fulfil their roles confidently and effectively in a CoP.

As a system, we need to grow a strong, sustainable pipeline of great leaders.

Explore how the Talent Management Framework can be adapted and used in a range of school and network contexts.

Using data and evidence to identify students at risk of disengagement from school.

Understand and improve how Victorian schools can identify students who are at risk of disengagement, and the processes and enablers for taking early action to keep students engaged with their education. 

Forming new habits is the start of enhancing your wellbeing. 

This recording focuses on the physical and environmental strategies you can use to structure your day around wellbeing. 

What does it mean to have good wellbeing? 

The recording explores the science of wellbeing and the variable that contribute to individual wellbeing and the wellbeing of students. 

Part of our Numeracy Webinar Series, this recording deepens understanding of the 4 proficiencies for mathematics learning: fluency, reasoning, problem-solving and understanding.

Steve Munby believes that the more we seek to become the perfect leader, the more likely we are to disempower those around us.

In this recording, Steve explores key principles to navigate leadership expectations and learn how imperfect leadership can help you balance leading with power and love.

What does it take - and what does it mean - to be the best version of yourself?

Being your Best Self explores how you can boost your self-awareness and ability to manage emotions to engage your considered response more readily and frequently.

Pasi Sahlberg's 'mission possible' is fixing inequality in Australia's education system.

In this recording, Pasi illustrates how placing equity at the centre of education reform can result in the conditions that make achievement for all students more likely.

Dr Ryan Dunn believes that by using adaptive approaches as a response to uncertainty we build school resilience in the face of continual change.

In this recording, Ryan explores how to cultivate cohesive, empowered teams ready for change and innovation.

Maintaining confidence and calm while navigating challenges and seizing opportunities during complex times can be difficult.

This recording provides practical tools and techniques to help you enhance your capacity to demonstrate empathy and positively influence the way people are thinking and feeling.

Part of our Numeracy Webinar Series, this recording provides practical steps to develop a growth mindset style of teaching and resources for effective numeracy teaching, including the Birth to Level 10 Numeracy Guide.

This webinar investigates the Communities of Practice approach and the value it can add within your own and across other schools.

This webinar explores the various approaches and platforms used by schools to facilitate reading lessons with emergent readers.

This webinar considers how your school approaches phonics instruction by examining the approaches that some schools implemented in the remote learning environment.

Explore how a small school adapted the Talent Management Framework to ensure unexpected talent was identified and developed.

Student disengagement and dropout from school are major challenges for education jurisdictions
internationally.

This report explores a range of frameworks and tools that support school leaders and teachers to act on insights developed about students at risk of disengagement and take a preventative approach to disengagement.

Student disengagement and dropout from school are major challenges for education jurisdictions
internationally.

This report summarises the findings of a review of recent international research on the early identification of, and early intervention with, students at risk of disengagement.

Explore how the Talent Management Framework supports a systematic, transparent and equitable approach to talent management.

Explore how the Talent Management Framework was used alongside a distributed leadership approach to identify talent.

Explore how schools are embedding the Talent Management Framework into their existing development processes.

Explore the benefits and uses of formative assessment and feedback to facilitate reading growth and drive future planning.

This webinar examines how you can identify the next point of learning for your students, with a focus on identifying what you know and what you need to find out. Understand how to establish achievable learning goals and how to monitor progress.

How do school leaders capture the hearts and minds to establish community during challenging times?

This webinar explores the models, tools and techniques to bring about constructive change and engage school communities.

Being aware of our emotions during times of crisis can support us to take intentionally and constructive action to support wellbeing.

This recording provides an overview of practical tools and techniques for bringing balance to the way you think and feel in a crisis environment.

This webinar examines how you can identify the next point of learning for your students, with a focus on identifying what you know and what you need to find out.

What are the fundamental skills for successful leadership in education?

In this podcast, Neil Barker discusses the value of leaders continuing their own learning journeys, the meaning of true collaboration, and the importance of a clear leadership vision.

Part of our Numeracy Webinar Series, this recording provides an in-depth look at the assessment tools, opportunities to reflect on your mathematics assessment practices and elements of effective formative assessment.

How can we change our education systems to give young people the skills they need to become global citizens? 

In this podcast, Joanne Quinn talks about the key drivers for transforming learning to prepare students for the future.

Rigour involves raising expectations and teaching and learning to the highest level.

In this podcast, Dr Barbara Blackburn explores the building blocks of motivation and how teachers can implement them in their classroom to create a rigorous learning environment.

Parent engagement is one of the strongest predictors of a child's success in school. But what does it look like in an already busy curriculum?

In this podcast, Debbie Pushor explores the high impact teaching strategies of family-centric schools, and how her own experience as a parent prompted her work, particularly the sense of marginalisation parents can feel in their children’s schooling.

Change is complex, because people are complex. How can educational leaders adapt and respond through the change journey to achieve their intended impact?

In this podcast, Simon talks about how his desire to use research and scientific knowledge to make an impact lead to his work in education.

An inside look at how McKinnon Secondary College implemented the Talent Management Framework in their school.

What does effective system leadership look like for schools in an increasingly collaborative world?

In this podcast, Viviane talks about her strong interest in researching problems of practice that help teachers improve student outcomes.

It’s not paint-by-numbers, and there’s no rule book – so how do we lead ourselves and others to make the biggest difference in our schools?

In this podcast, Steve talks about how he got into educational leadership – from the challenges to the importance of modelling leadership, mentoring and understanding that change takes time.

We live in a time of unprecedented change. Valerie Hannon believes our education systems are lagging behind.

In this podcast, Valerie shares what it is about education that drives and inspires her – from her early schooling, doing her masters with David Hargreaves and, most importantly, working with students in different capacities to help change their lives.

Wellbeing is not just a state of feeling good, it is also a lifelong resource students can draw on to stay healthy, build good relationships, deal with stress and learn effectively, writes Professor Lea Waters.

Leading with principles is important, but principles alone are not enough to make an effective leader. School leaders also need an ability to lead and manage effectively, writes education thought leader Steve Munby.

The strongest school leaders are driven by an intense moral purpose. They strive to provide quality learning and equitable outcomes for all students, write academics Linda Kaser and Judy Halbert.

The benefits of supporting students to work within their Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) are well known, but so are the challenges. The Sunshine College Maths Program provides teachers with a practical model for effective differentiation, write educators Yvonne Reilly and Jodie Parsons.

Computational Thinking is a process that applies a 4-step problem-solving cycle to real-world challenges, and it should feature in every subject, writes mathematician and entrepreneur Conrad Wolfram.

What should students learn in the 21st century? Specific content does not matter. It is what students do with the content, how they respond to it, shape it and apply it, that matters, write educators Rob Riordan and Larry Rosenstock.

Mathematics’ fundamental role in school curricula across the globe makes mathematics classrooms important sites from which to investigate the social nature of learning, write education academics David Clarke, Man Ching Esther Chan and Carmel Mesiti.

Historically, confusion and error have been feared and avoided in learning spaces. Yet, research shows these experiences can enhance learning and may even be integral to the learning process, writes neuroscientist and educator, Dr Jared Cooney Horvath.

Effective instructional leadership has a positive snowball effect. It impacts the development of teacher collaboration for instructional improvement, which leads to collective efficacy, which, in turn, impacts student outcomes, write Yvonne L. Goddard, Roger D. Goddard and Greg Cameron.

Common approaches to learning assessment can send adverse messages and confuse students’ understanding of the relationship between effort and success. Reform is needed but it requires a shift towards a growth mindset, writes Professor Geoff Masters.

System leaders are principals who take on responsibility to improve other schools as well as their own. And system leadership practice could be a key driver for system reform, writes Professor David Hopkins.

School leaders need to be catalysts for change. To do this, they must also become digital leaders, writes thought leader, educator and author, Eric Sheninger.

Thinking strategies are one way to enhance your wellbeing.

In this recording, you will deep-dive into 3 thinking strategies - creating boundaries, using perspective and generating new ideas - that support and enhance wellbeing.  

Mary Jean Gallagher advocates for a broader vision of education that acknowledges that education isn’t just about academic achievement.  

This recording explores how school leaders can stay focused on the thing that really matter to their school community during times of change.

The Talent Management Framework (TMF) is a dynamic approach to identify, develop and support individuals with high potential for leadership – from teachers to experienced system leaders – in an intentional and systematic way.

Find out how the Academy supports the work and contribution that system leaders make to the Victorian education system.

Victorian schools take a Communities of Practice (CoP) approach so networks and system leaders can share knowledge, experience and resources to improve leadership practice and student outcomes.