I am delighted to be sharing this fortnightly news and insight blog, offering short summaries of the latest news and studies, reports, and opinions across the education arena. If there is a topic, report or event you would like QELi to explore, please email your thoughts to marketing@qeli.qld.edu.au.

Neil McDonald
Chief Executive Officer, QELi

How to talk to children about gratitude

How can adults help children understand the feeling of gratitude? This short video by the Greater Good Science Center unpacks a simple four step practice to identify, engage with and respond to moments of gratitude.

Understanding ‘aha moments’

You know that feeling when you’ve been grappling with a problem and finally a solution just arrives in your brain? That’s an ‘aha moment’, and you’ve got to it through the process of ‘insight’, a problem solving technique. This article by Kylie Andrews published by ABC News explores how this knowledge can help students understand their own learning processes, including the importance of confusion.

Government funding tied to uni performance

From 2020, government funding will be tied to university performance. In this article from The Conversation, Emmaline Bexley, Senior Manager, Higher Education Policy, La Trobe University explores the implications and challenges of this approach.

AI: to revolutionise teaching?

“There is a profound mismatch between the way we are educating our young and the world we’re educating them for, and what should, and could, be happening.” So says Sir Anthony Seldon, former headmaster of Wellington College and vice-chancellor of Buckingham University. Seldon’s claim is that AI could transform schools, enabling education to be personalised to each pupil, removing the need for exams and allowing every child in the country, whether they’re at a top public school or an almost failing state, access to the same technology. It will be technology that is driving the teaching. Camilla Swift explores this further in this article from The Spectator.

Deeper learning outcomes

Joanne McEachen and Matthew Kane are learner-centered leaders at The Learner First — an organisation that is “putting the learner first by focusing all activity within our schools and school systems on the development of deeper learning outcomes: self-understanding, competency, knowledge, and connection.” In the first of a two-part series, McEachen and Kane highlight how these deeper learning outcomes were developed and why they are significant to every learner in every context.

Hear from Joanne McEachen at the Deep Learning Lab, 9 and 10 October 2019, Howard Smith Wharves, Brisbane. Joanne will join fellow Global Directors of New Pedagogies for Deep Learning, Michael Fullan and Joanne Quinn at this event.