Aussies quit teaching early, the demise of outdoor play and science teacher shortage

A poll shows parents are stopping their children playing outside due to fear of upsetting their neighbours. Photograph: Alamy

Around half of Australian teachers leave the profession within five years, university researchers have found.

Overwhelming workloads, unsupportive staff rooms and employers' preference for short-term contracts have been cited as the main points of discontent by recent graduates. Dr Philip Riley, who is leading the study at Monash University, estimates that between 40% to 50% of graduates seek work in another profession within their first five years of teaching.

The study is due to be published later this year and Riley is carrying out ongoing global research into teachers exiting the profession with Dr Andrea Gallant at Deakin University. They plan to conduct in-depth interviews with about 200 former teachers from across the world in order to better understand early career teacher disillusionment.

Read more about why teachers are leaving the profession early on Education Guardian.

A shortage of science and maths teachers could hit England next summer, a professor has warned.

More than 800 training places for Stem subjects have been unfilled on the government's new School Direct scheme, according to professor John Howson from Oxford Brookes University, who analysed acceptances onto the scheme.

Physics had the highest number of empty places, with more than seven out of 10 positions unfilled. In chemistry, 63% of salaried places and 57% of unsalaried positions remain open. For maths, the figures were 56% and 61% respectively. Recruitment for biology was stronger, with 71% of salaried trainee roles taken.

Read more about the potential teacher shortages on BBC News.

Fear of annoying the neighbours is stopping a third of parents from letting their children play outside, a survey suggests.

The poll, carried out by the campaign group responsible for Playday 2013, found people were worried residents would be upset by the noise. More than a quarter of the 1,000 parents questioned said they were apprehensive they would be judged by neighbours if their kids played outside unsupervised. Traffic, stranger danger and lack of dedicated play areas were further cited as major barriers.

Playday 2013 also spoke to 1,000 children. Around one in 10 said adults in their area tended to disapprove of them playing outside and thought they were up to no good when they were with friends.

Read more about the findings on BBC News.

Children can now build their own digital camera and learn how its technology works thanks to a computer science professor.

Concepts that would usually only be taught at university have been made accessible to kids as young as eight. The Bigshot camera, created by Professor Shree Nayar from Columbia University, comes with an interactive guide explaining the science behind its components. Nayar said he wanted to enable children to understand concepts like image processing and display technology, as well as know how to build hardware.

The camera features a hand crank that allows owners to take pictures when its battery runs out and a rotatable wheel enables users to choose between regular, panoramic and 3D shots.

Read more about the Bigshot camera on BBC News.

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Education research in brief: mindfulness, video games and social mobility in early years

Education research: evidence shows that teenagers who took part in a mindfulness programme increased their feelings of well-being. Photograph: Alamy

Studying mindfulness in schools has been shown to reduce depressive symptoms, lower stress and increase well-being in teenagers, researchers have found.

Academics from the universities of Exeter, Oxford and Cambridge compared results from a cohort 522 secondary school pupils who took part in either the Mindfulness in Schools intervention programme or studied the usual school curriculum.

The programme of mindfulness training consisted of nine lessons given weekly and the pupils were assessed before the intervention and again at both two months and three months after the end of the course. After the course the researchers found strong evidence of lower depression scores and also increased feelings of well-being and lower stress.

The authors are now hoping to build on the study and continue their research looking into how long the effects of mindfulness last and also examining key processes and outcomes.

Video games could be the key to helping more youngsters stay interested in education.

Researchers from Lancaster University's Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) have discovered that basing educational projects around video games can offer disengaged students a bridge to help them rekindle an interest in learning. It may also help to encourage more pupils to follow a career path into the games and technology industry and reduce the amount of teenagers who end up not in employment, education or training (NEET).

The project involved more than 100 children in 15 secondary schools in the Wolverhampton area. As part of the scheme teachers were encouraged to bring together teams of young people to use the PlayStation 3 game Little Big Planet 2 to create new levels that would be published and used by other players.

The relationship between social class and achievement in the early years of schooling has been the subject of a new piece of research.

Researchers from the Institute of Education and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health used data from the Millennium Cohort Study to examine the extent to which social class inequalities in early years' cognitive scores can be accounted for by parental education, income, social resources and parental behaviours.

The researchers found that the links between social class and education on the one hand, and children's test scores on the other, were only very modestly mediated by family social resources and parenting. However, the study found that parents' educational qualifications were the strongest predictors of children's scores. It also found that authoritative parenting and, surprisingly, TV viewing, had positive effects.

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It's too early to write off the lecture

Not much has changed in the world of lecturing since this picture was taken in 1949; but that's because no one has invented a better way, argues Jonathan Wolff. Photograph: Ralph Crane/Time & Life Pictures/Getty

Sometime in the late 15th century someone must have said "Now Gutenberg has invented the printing press, the university lecture is doomed". Before books, the lecture was an incredibly efficient delivery system. Someone in a cassock, reading at dictation pace to rows of younger, equally cassock-clad men, was the best way of spreading the word. But in the age of printing, why bother?

Yet the lecture survived the book. It survived the cassette recorder, although students did occasionally record their lectures, as I did once as an undergraduate. Sadly, I fell asleep at exactly the same place in the re-run as I did in the lecture.

I predicted the end of the live lecture when VHS tape became popular. Who would want to hear me when they could watch a tape of the great contemporary philosophers such as Bernard Williams or Philippa Foot? With a heavy heart, I bought a series of video recordings of philosophy lectures for the departmental library. As far as I know no one even borrowed the tapes, and 10 years later we chucked them out to make room for more books.

Now we are told that lectures are finished, and that internet-based teaching will take over. Well, if the book, cassette and video didn't see off the lecture, why should the internet? Clearly the internet does introduce something new: it is, potentially at least, interactive. It is social. No doubt some forms of internet-based learning will come to be regarded as superior to the lecture. I'm told that this is already happening in some technical areas, where excellent lecturing is hard to find, and people learn at different speeds. I understand. But how generalisable is the argument?

Internet-based learning, like other technologies, offers many advantages, especially to students who, for whatever reason, cannot attend university. While Oxbridge students sat at the feet of great scholars, who ruminated in front of them, their Open University peers received superb teaching materials – books, tapes and TV programmes – covering similar topics, probably in much better organised form. New technologies have been superb for increasing access to education, and long may it last.

My question is only whether the efficiencies and cost-effectiveness of internet technologies will spell the end of the traditional lecture, as some expect. Remember, though, there have been many occasions when a cheaper, more efficient product has failed to dominate its market. Think nylon sheets and polyester shirts. Think the winebox. In some respects excellent products, but we still take bottles of red wine, with corks, to our picnics, while dressed in white cotton clothes: a truly reckless combination.

It is a surprising fact about human economic behaviour that we are prepared to pay a lot more for items that are only a little bit better. You can spend the summer playing tennis and going swimming (assuming you live in a country where summer still exists). You can do so in municipal leisure facilities, or in members' clubs, or, for the select few, in your own court and pool. True, each one is better than its predecessor in the list. But thousands of pounds, or tens of thousands of pounds better? Similar examples abound. Most of the functional value of a handbag can be achieved by buying one at a market stall for a tenner. Nevertheless … And then there are mobile phones, cars, and perhaps even houses.

For as long as the lecture is regarded as better than internet-based learning, it will survive on a substantial scale. And wherein lies its superiority? An interesting question. It is live. It is real. It is put on with you in mind, even if you are one of a large crowd. You experience it with other people. And, perhaps the clincher: it takes place in a university, bursting with life and interesting people who will inspire you in unexpected ways. Somehow live learning can be open and transformative in a way that transcends its educational function. Maybe one day we'll work out how to do this better some other way. For the moment, while internet technology, if used well, can certainly enhance university teaching, and provide smooth access to excellent education for those unable to attend university, it is too early to write the lecture's obituary.

‧ Jonathan Wolff is professor of philosophy at University College London and dean of arts and humanities

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