Episode #17 PISA Cope

In this episode, Greg and Caiti start with a deceptively simple question: is the Australian Curriculum anti-boy - and more to the point, what even is anti-boy? We talk about the manosphere (again!) and the challenges schools and individual teachers face when teaching consent and respectful relationships. We also look at the role teacher bias can play in teaching these topics, and what effective teaching in this space might actually look like - and Caiti shares an example of where this has been taught well.

From there, we head into the increasingly chaotic world of PISA and all the PISA cope taking up our social media feeds in the last week. That takes us to England, where we talk about why their PISA results are so significant, but also the discourse around this. And of course, Finland gets a mention, because - would you believe - we’re still talking about Finland’s results.

Along the way, there are Twitter/X debates, LinkedIn articles, competing interpretations of the exact same data, and a bit of a side-step into behaviour in Australian classrooms - because we hadn’t opened enough cans of worms already.

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Greg Ashman

Greg is a school leader at Ballarat Clarendon College and holds a PhD in instructional design from UNSW.

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If you’re interested in working with Greg at Ballarat Clarendon College, please see here for open roles and expressions of interest.

Caiti Wade

Caiti is a leader of pedagogy at a boys’ secondary school in Brisbane, education consultant and is doing her doctorate in cognitive science.

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LinkedIn – Caiti Wade

X/Twitter – @caiti_wade

Episode resources

* Is Australia’s school system ‘anti-boy’? | Amanda Keddie

* PISA 2025 offers telling tale about what really constitutes a good education system — EducationHQ | Greg Ashman

* PISA cope in the pages of tes magazine - by Greg Ashman

* Our Kids Are Two Years Behind Where They Were in 2000. I’ve Been Looking for the Countries That Can Show Us the Way Back | Adam Voigt

* The Prophet Motive - by Greg Ashman

* Real Finnish Lessons | Gabriel Heller Sahlgren

* Classrooms in Crisis: Australian teacher views on student behaviour - The Centre for Independent Studies | Blaise Joseph

Acknowledgement of country

We would like to acknowledge The Traditional Custodians of the lands on which we record this podcast, the lands of the Wadawurrung People, and the lands of the Jagera and Turrbal Peoples, and pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging.

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