Education & teaching
School’s in
Driven by alumni, the business of learning reaches far beyond the university campus, with innovative, research-backed thinking that is transforming the lives of students of all ages. Literacy organisation MultiLit – short for Making Up Lost Time In Literacy – has just celebrated its 20th anniversary. Many MultiLit staff, including the Literacy Centre director, tutors and members of the ...
Students struggle to hear in open-plan classrooms
Recently some schools have begun converting classrooms to open plan learning spaces, with as many as 200 children in one area. While the classroom settings make group work easier and improve children’s social skills, noise can be a big problem for both students and teachers. According to Kiri Mealings, a PhD candidate researching speech perception in open plan classrooms, noise is a real ...
Australia Day Honours
It was another outstanding year for alumni and staff who were recognised in the Australia Day honours. Four Macquarie University professors were recognised for their contribution to education and to their disciplines. Emeritus Professor Farhat Yusuf, Professor Rosalind Croucher and Professor John Croucher all received Order of Australia (AM) awards, while. Adjunct Professor Jim Patrick A...
New UNESCO physical education guidelines aimed at longer, more productive lives
The time children and adults all over the world spend engaging in physical activity is decreasing, with dire consequences for their health, life expectancy, and ability to perform in the classroom, in society and at work. It’s a trend that the World Health Organization (WHO) has described as a pandemic that contributes to the death of 3.2 million people every year, more than twice as many...
Multilit on track for big things
Macquarie’s hugely successful children’s literacy program, MultiLit, is celebrating 20 years of helping children read in 2015. MultiLit began in 1995 under the leadership of Macquarie University’s Emeritus Professor Kevin Wheldall AM, with a remit to improve children’s literacy with an approach based upon scientific, evidence-based best practice. It has supported various communit...
Edward and the Great Discovery
Macquarie alumna Rebecca McRitchie fulfilled a lifelong ambition when her children’s picture book, Edward and the Great Discovery not only hit the shelves earlier this year, but sold out of its first print run in two months. Rebecca, who says she wishes she could tell her young readers that she was raised by wolves in a snowy forest until she saved a village from the fiery peril of a disg...