The Queensland Institute

What’s one interaction strategy you keep coming back to?

At The Queensland Institute, we love using digital tools to support learning. But we’re often reminded that some of the most effective strategies are also the simplest.

In our latest blog, we share six low-prep activities we use to:

• promote interaction and student communication
• increase speaking time
• support idea generation and writing
• work across primary, secondary, and tertiary contexts

From Stretchy Sound (rubber band pronunciation) to Sticky Storm (collaborative writing), these are practical strategies we return to time and time again with teachers globally. We're looking forward to including them in our program with English Education trainers in Timor-Leste this month!

👉 Read more: https://thequeenslandinstitute.com/news/designing-for-interaction-classroom-strategies

What’s one strategy you use again and again?

A special shout out to our Vietnamese colleagues and alumni from past workshops in Nha Trang and Brisbane, featured in these photos. We loved working with you!

Singing our way into the new semester! 🎶

We are so proud to be in our 5th year supporting UQ Voices Choir as a community sponsor. 💛

This week we kicked off the new semester of singing at The University of Queensland, and it was wonderful to see so many new and returning members come together through music, connection, and wellbeing. UQVoices continues to create a welcoming space where students, staff, and community members can sing, belong, and support one another.

Research on the choir’s impact highlights its role in strengthening students’ sense of belonging and wellbeing during their transition to university life. If you have been thinking about joining a choir in a friendly and inclusive environment, new members are welcome every week. You can watch or sing, no experience needed, no auditions.

⭐ Next performance:
English Australia's PD Fest, Saturday 21st March at UQ College

Join us at rehearsals:
Tuesdays 6.00pm to 8.00pm
Sir Llew Edwards Building 14, Room 212
UQ St Lucia Campus
Free and open to all

Read more about the choir’s impact here: https://thequeenslandinstitute.com/news/uq-voices-choir-for-international-students-brisbane

Follow us on Instagram or reach out for more details:

Special thanks to Conductor Vicki Bos and our dedicated committee members Fiona Wiebusch QI (The Queensland Institute), Prof. Genevieve Di**le, Rong Han, and Catherine Mann from UQ School of Psychology, and Lena Bell for their leadership and commitment to sustaining this special initiative. Shoutout to: Matt Kairl Music for the guitar tunes!

Just keep singing... Just keep singing... 🎶

🧧 Happy Lunar New Year to our friends and colleagues celebrating this week!

Last night, The Queensland Institute team visited 🏮 Fo Guang Shan Chung Tian Temple in Priestdale, Brisbane, to experience the beautiful annual lantern display created by local school children. It was wonderful to see many families celebrating this important festival and learning about its cultural traditions.

Lunar New Year offers rich opportunities for intercultural learning in the classroom and beyond. If you are looking for teaching ideas, SBS Australia has developed a comprehensive collection of curriculum-aligned resources suitable for Foundation to Year 8 across English, Mathematics, Science, Humanities and Social Sciences, and Languages (English, Cantonese, Mandarin, Korean, and Vietnamese).

🔗 Explore the resources here:
https://www.sbs.com.au/language/english/en/lunar-new-year

Wishing you a year of good health, happiness, and classroom success!

New to observing teachers — or looking to strengthen your observation practice?

We’re delighted that The Queensland Institute (QI) is featured on the English Australia Online Learning portal, highlighting our recent webinar:

🎓 Optimising developmental teacher observations: Ensuring a positive and productive process

Designed for academic managers and staff who conduct classroom observations, this webinar offers practical, evidence-informed guidance across the full observation cycle — from purposeful scheduling and observation focus, to constructive feedback and follow-up that supports genuine professional growth.

▶️ Watch the webinar on English Australia TV:
https://youtu.be/ElOSXFdopWE?si=e9odn-cM7M2MTwkM

🔐 English Australia members can access the PD portal here:
https://www.englishaustralia.com.au/teachers-register/teachers-register

Coming up next:
📅 English Australia PD Fest – 21 March, Queensland
📍 Hosted at UQ College

Registrations are now open, with presenter abstract submissions closing 11 February — always a valuable day of collaboration and practical professional learning.

👉 Learn more and register:
https://www.englishaustralia.com.au/events/event/qld-pd-fest-2026

We’re proud to contribute to PD that supports best practice and strong academic leadership in international education.

Happy New Year! As we step into 2026, our team at The Queensland Institute took time to reflect on a year shaped by connection, collaboration, and learning across borders.

From classrooms in Vietnam and Taiwan to campuses in Brazil and Brisbane, 2025 reminded us why we do what we do: helping schools and universities empower educators to teach in English with confidence and creativity — and creating plenty of smiles along the way.

🎥 Watch our Year in Review video on YouTube:
https://bit.ly/QIYearInReview25

In 2026, we’re excited to return to much-loved contexts and explore new places as our work continues to connect educators, classrooms, and communities around the world.

Thank you to our partners, alumni, and colleagues for joining us. We look forward to learning and working alongside you in the year ahead! 🌏

Summer at Straddie with our Hong Kong student teachers!

What a joy it was for our future teachers to experience one of Australia’s most loved island adventures on North Stradbroke Island (Minjerribah). We were gifted a perfect blue-sky day as we wandered through the koala forest, dipped our toes in the pristine waters at Amity Point, enjoyed a classic fish ’n’ chips lunch at the local 'bowlo', and spotted manta rays and turtles gliding through the waves along the North Gorge Walk.

A warm thank you to our partners at Brisbane 360 - Bus and Coach Charterfor supporting such a memorable excursion, and our team at The Queensland Institute for showcasing the best of Straddie on the day.

Planning your own summer escape? Explore Straddie: https://stradbrokeisland.com/ or reach out to the QI team for our favourite local tips: https://thequeenslandinstitute.com/

The Queensland Institute team will be heading on summer vacation from 17 December – 9 January. We hope you and your loved ones enjoy a restorative pause over the festive season and we look forward to reconnecting with you in the New Year. Here's to more adventures in global teacher education!

🧠 Cultivating Calm Brains in the Classroom

This November, our Hong Kong postgraduate Education students joined guest educator Faye Lawand for an engaging session on brain-based strategies for learning and teaching success.

Faye is an award-winning educator, NLP Practitioner, and founder of The School of Resolution, drawing on more than 20 years of international teaching and training experience—spanning Lebanon, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia—to enrich our Blended Immersion program at The Queensland Institute.

In this session, Faye introduced practical, science-backed techniques that help teachers create calm, focused learning environments—essential for students studying in English for the first time and navigating high-pressure academic settings.

Our future teachers explored strategies they can apply immediately in their own classrooms, including peripheral vision, bilateral stimulation, and working intentionally with brain-wave frequency to support focus, recall, and learner confidence.

Two favourite resources Faye introduced were:

🧠“How to Make Stress Your Friend” — TED Talk by Kelly McGonigal (18 mins)

“When you choose to view your stress response as helpful, you create the biology of courage.”

🧠Alpha brain-wave music (8–12 Hz) on YouTube to promote relaxed alertness, creativity, and mental coordination before exams or focused tasks.

🖇 Access them here: https://thequeenslandinstitute.com/news/brain-based-teaching-calm-classrooms

A warm thank you to Faye for sharing such meaningful approaches with our future teachers!

🖇️ Exploring AI Accessibility + Accountability in Instructional Design

Our student-teachers from Hong Kong recently participated in an insightful guest lecture on AI accessibility and accountability in instructional design — a key skillset for today’s global educators.

We were delighted to welcome Tim Magoffin from ITaLI at The University of Queensland, who led an engaging and practical session on the types of AI available to materials designers and the considerations for using these tools across diverse educational settings, including the English-language classroom. Tim’s strong TESOL background made the concepts especially applicable and relevant.

📈 One tool tip we loved was using *Napkin AI* to generate flow charts and infographics for presentations — such a timesaver!

At The Queensland Institute, we love welcoming experts who enrich our programs and broaden our participants’ perspectives. Keen to learn more? Connect with us via our website: https://thequeenslandinstitute.com/

🏆 Thank you for joining us, Tim!

✨ Sharing Best Practice in EMI: Alumni Spotlight

What a privilege to gather for our recent Alumni EMI Mini Conference — a chance for lecturers from Australia, Taiwan, Thailand, Japan, Brazil, and Nepal to reconnect, exchange insights, and share best practice in English Medium Instruction (EMI) with The Queensland Institute team and each other.

Key themes explored included:

• Cascade learning and peer mentoring models
• Tiered frameworks for EMI implementation
• Lecturer and student engagement in EMI delivery
• Concurrent course delivery approaches
• Strategies for strengthening EMI visibility
• Staff incentive and recognition programs

Thank you to everyone who joined us. Your thoughtful questions and contributions will continue to shape effective EMI practice across diverse higher education contexts.

Special thanks to our featured speakers, Eric Wei-Chih Lien, Carolina Tavares de Carvalho, Bhirawit Satthamnuwong, and Yukari Abe for inspiring us. 👏

Deepening our understanding of our unique EMI contexts, challenges, and opportunities, with our global alumni is always so valuable.

We loved seeing you all!!