Generation Next Blog

November 2020

A social dilemma: The heavy burden on schools during lockdown

By |2020-11-09T14:49:39+11:00November 9th, 2020|Categories: Education|Tags: |

Australia is gradually emerging from an unprecedented lockdown, where we continue to face major threats to our health and economy. Schools have acted as shock absorbers during this period, switching in a short period of time to online learning, and supporting children and their families to learn from home while simultaneously attempting to remotely manage [...]

Curious Kids: how can we concentrate on study without getting distracted?

By |2020-11-09T14:43:43+11:00November 9th, 2020|Categories: Education, Learning|Tags: |

John Munro, Australian Catholic University How can we concentrate on a particular thing (like studies) without getting distracted? Melvina, aged 14 Thanks for this great question, Melvina! Many students are probably wondering the same thing as end-of-year assessments approach. To concentrate best we need to resist distractions. To do this, it helps if you know [...]

Tracking young people’s mental health since 2006. COVID has accelerated a worrying decline

By |2020-11-25T00:18:11+11:00November 9th, 2020|Categories: Mental Health & Wellbeing, Society & Culture|Tags: |

Zlatko Skrbis, Australian Catholic University; Jacqueline Laughland-Booy, Australian Catholic University, and Jonathan Smith, Australian Catholic University We have been following more than 2,000 Queenslanders from their adolescence into adulthood. The aim of the Our Lives study is to investigate how young people think about their future and how they master their trajectories in a world [...]

Is learning more important than well-being? Teachers told us how COVID highlighted ethical dilemmas at school

By |2020-11-24T17:42:34+11:00November 9th, 2020|Categories: Learning|Tags: |

Daniella J. Forster, University of Newcastle As an educational ethicist, I research teachers’ ethical obligations. These can include their personal ethics such as protecting students from harm, respect for justice and truth, and professional norms like social conformity, collegial loyalty and personal well-being. Moral tensions in schools can come about when certain categories of norms [...]

Heading back to the playground? 10 tips to keep your family and others COVID-safe

By |2020-11-09T11:52:53+11:00November 9th, 2020|Categories: Society & Culture|Tags: |

Thea van de Mortel, Griffith University In some Australian states, kids have been back on slides, swings and monkey bars for months. But in Victoria, many families are only now getting back to playgrounds, after they were closed for much of the second lockdown. With lots of kids running around, and parents looking on, how [...]

Fear of going out? Here’s how Melburnians can manage anxiety when returning to ‘normal’

By |2021-03-03T16:14:14+11:00November 9th, 2020|Categories: Anxiety, Mental Illness, Society & Culture|

Jill Newby, UNSW Many Melburnians are joyous at the prospect of a return to socialising, as the city regains some old freedoms this week following significantly eased coronavirus restrictions. Social media is teeming with images of people looking ecstatic about the end of lockdown. But in stark contrast to these images, some people might feel [...]

October 2020

Inclusive education during COVID-19: Lessons from teachers around the world

By |2020-10-21T16:15:10+11:00October 19th, 2020|Categories: Education|

Umesh Sharma & Fiona May COVID-19 has disrupted education systems on a global scale, creating unexpected challenges. Approximately 1.6 billion children around the world have been unable to attend school due to COVID-19 lockdowns, with schools required to make rapid adjustments in the move to online teaching and learning. The pandemic has increased the educational divide [...]

Am I coping well during the pandemic?

By |2020-10-21T16:15:35+11:00October 19th, 2020|Categories: Uncategorized|

Nick Haslam, University of Melbourne The pandemic has posed unprecedented challenges. Many of us have lost work, gained carer responsibilities and grappled with social isolation. Experts have warned of a looming wave of mental illness as a result. Research suggests they’re largely correct. Surveys in Australia, the UK and the USA point to rates of [...]

COVID-19: How to maintain those good routines after lockdown

By |2020-10-21T16:15:54+11:00October 19th, 2020|Categories: Uncategorized|

Breanna Wright & Fraser Tull Lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic uprooted a lot of our usual routines, and did it twice for those of us in Melbourne. But the ‘great disruption’ has also given birth to new routines. While lockdown one may have been the time for baking bread, language apps, musical instruments and home [...]

Will COVID lockdowns hurt your child’s social development? 3 different theories suggest they’ll probably be OK

By |2020-10-21T16:16:16+11:00October 19th, 2020|Categories: Social and Emotional Learning|

Laurien Beane, Australian Catholic University and Anthony Shearer, Australian Catholic University Social distancing during COVID-19 has seen a radical upheaval to the way we work and socialise. But what are the implications for young children? Many children have been uprooted from their places of education and care, and may struggle to understand why their routine [...]

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