Photo by Alex Padurariu on Unsplash

Over 2024, I have again had the privilege to work, read, interact, listen and learn across all three sectors of education: primary, secondary, and tertiary. It is a wonder and privilege to be engaged in learning across the human lifespan.

Through my day job as CEO of the Victorian Academy of Teaching and Leadership, I routinely engage with hundreds of primary, secondary, P-12 and specialist school teachers and leaders accessing professional learning programs, resources and events. I am fortunate to frequently receive invitations to visit schools and there, and at various Academy events, to have the opportunity to interact with countless children and young people as well as teachers and school leaders.

In addition, this year as an honorary/adjunct education professor, I proudly watched my most recent PhD student graduate with a thesis that examined the impact of an innovative university-wide pedagogy on student outcomes. I also examined a PhD thesis on determining factors in university student uptake of educational support. I accepted an invitation to sit on an expert panel discussing the future of education with a group of young entrepreneurs who are disrupting traditional university models. I accepted invitations to moderate a panel at an Australian Centre for Student Equity and Success event and co-launch a friend and colleague’s book on dislocated complexity and crisis in education, and I delivered my first university graduation speech.

Education sector commonalities

Across my interactions, conversations and reading this year, I observed that there are many commonalities across the three sectors of primary, secondary and tertiary education. I outline some of these below.

Students

One shared phenomenon across the three sectors is a focus on engaging students in learning. It is well understood that disengaged students, whatever their age or level, are not primed to participate in class, persist to overcome challenges, learn, nor grow. While there are nuances in the approaches and mechanisms used to engage students between sectors, the purposes of putting effort into engagement are the same – to motivate students to co-construct their learning and ultimately improve their learning outcomes.

Another common interest across education sectors is a dual focus on student wellbeing and learning. This has become normalised as the post-COVID world continues to be one that better understands the value of good mental health per se, and where educators increasingly understand the relationship between good mental health and high-quality learning. As part of this growing understanding, trauma-informed pedagogy is being discussed and increasingly used across sectors.

Student voice and agency and engaging students as partners in learning continue to be of interest across all levels of education.  All sectors are focused in various ways on helping students find and explore their strengths and passions. Pedagogies based on student agency, founded on the increased sharing of power between the educator and the student, and students supporting students through discussion groups and peer assessments, are evident at all levels.

I observe an ongoing focus on inclusivity, including for students with disability and mental health issues, and for students from disadvantaged backgrounds, particular locations and particular cultural groups. There are nuances in the reasons for these foci but ultimately all sectors of education appear to agree with the notion of ‘success for all’. That said, the gulf between elite and non-elite institutions remains – whether schools or universities – and who ‘all’ encompasses differs between types of institutions.

Student engagement, facilitating student agency, encouraging students to follow their interests and ensuring every student is included and supported to succeed all help create a sense of belonging in their education setting for students – another common interest across sectors.

Curriculum, pedagogy and assessment

Curriculum and pedagogical debates continue, with the scale of disagreement seemingly related to the strength of position taken by an institution or system. Debates about disciplinary versus inter-, trans- and cross-disciplinary approaches, also continue although not as forcefully as at other times in history. So too an increased and strong interest in applied learning is evident from the earliest years to postgraduate education.

While assessment foci range from phonics checks in foundational years through high stakes written exams at the end of high school to the many and varied means of assessing learning in TAFE and universities, all sectors continue to grapple with the best ways to undertake assessment of student learning. Across all levels, an interest in authentic, meaningful assessment prevails, even while seemingly inauthentic assessment continues to dominate.

Digital transformation

Digital changes are also everywhere, with the increasing use of AI, smart devices and other tools by both students and educators across sectors. Evidence of innovative and new pedagogies that leverage technology to engage and interact with knowledge to help students find, analyse, evaluate and apply the knowledge that is relevant to them at the time is also emerging across sectors.

There is a rise in the use of data analytics no matter the age or stage of the students. Data harvested from schools and institutions’ systems are now easily accessible and manageable via dashboards that inform decision-making that can benefit students and learning. The ability to analyse patterns and trends in student behaviour and learning progress and to identify opportunities for intervention is increasing across sectors, alongside growing awareness of the risks associated with student privacy and the use of labels such as ‘at risk’ for some students.

Conclusion

All education sectors are concerned with engaging student in learning, student wellbeing, enacting student voice and agency, inclusivity in learning, and high-quality curriculum, pedagogy and assessment. All are grappling with widespread digital change, including the need to better understand and use data analytics.

A final observation is that competition continues within sectors – for students, for funding, for resources, for political attention, and to be ‘the best’ – and all institutions and sectors are engaged in competition to a greater or lesser extent.

The sectors interact with each other a bit around certain aspects of education, but in the main, are too busy with all of the above to engage much further than that. Perhaps given the range and depth of common interests across education sectors, interaction and engagement between them might usefully increase into the future.

This article was first published on LinkedIn in December 2024.