AbstractsExpectations of successful female small school principals
Volume 14
Number 1, 2008;
Pages 72–91
A study has explored the experiences of 12 female teaching principals commencing roles in small, isolated rural schools. The research is part of a wider study of rural female principals in Queensland. The principals were interviewed just prior to their commencement. During the principals' first term at the school further interviews were conducted with 15 female and two male stakeholders, including teachers, administrative assistants, teacher aides and staff from district offices. Both the principals and other respondents emphasised the need for the principals to possess strong communication skills and teaching ability. Stakeholders saw teaching as more central than leadership to the role, and stressed the need to be able to teach different year levels and types of student. The principals expressed a wish to balance community engagement with separate personal time, and maintain a work–life balance, whereas the other respondents wanted them to make the community 'not only their work life but their social life'. The responses relating to gender issues broadly supported earlier studies which indicated the strength of sexual stereotypes in isolated rural settings. A Canadian study of female rural principals had found that these communities were less tolerant of women who departed from established social norms than men, that women principals were seen by parents as easier to manipulate or intimidate, and that these women met greater resistance from female than from male staff. The current study's finding supported research by HM Sungalia in 1982 and G McMurtie in 1997, which found that female principals are expected to emphasise compassion and nurturance over resolution and assertivess. The results show the need for explicit training in broad communication skills to be given to these principals, and also to community members active in the school. The principals' administrative workload should be reduced to create more time for teaching. A program for mentoring teachers into rural and isolated areas could combine experience of remote living with relevant teaching strategies and system processes. The communities should be offered educational programs showing 'that females are as capable as males of being school principals'. KLA Subject HeadingsEducational planningEducational evaluation School and community School culture School principals School leadership Social life and customs Rural education One step at a time
Volume 29
Number 3;
Pages 38–42
Professional learning teams offer a powerful means to improve teaching and learning. Such teams tend to develop through characteristic stages, and helping them make these transitions is an important aspect of building the teams. The first stage involves initial meetings, structured so they are neither too frantic nor too empty of purpose. Groups may become frustrated when guidance is lacking, so there should be clear expectations and well-defined tasks for completion. Sample meeting agendas, suggested team roles and information about the process give teams structure and direction. In stage two, teachers share and discuss their classroom practice. This helps create an atmosphere of openness and security. Many teams fail to move beyond this stage unless prompted. Requiring group decisions about curriculum, assessment or instruction is usually an effective prompt. Stage three involves collective planning. Standardised curricula often emerge here, with internal delegation of workload responsibilities. Teams must then focus primarily on student achievement data with the questions ‘Are your students learning what you want them to learn? How do you know?’. Stage four involves developing common assessment tasks. Since assessment is linked to teachers’ individual educational philosophies, there can be some disagreement at this stage; however, this develops teachers’ ability to handle conflict productively. Teams ‘struggling with personalities’ should receive mediation or modelling of joint decision making. Stage five is analysing the data. Technical training in data analysis leads to motivated, results-driven teams. However, results often indicate varying performance across classrooms and lead to feelings of guilt, failure and defensiveness. It is essential to create a safe, supportive environment and to separate the person from their classroom practice. School leaders can model data-driven changes in practice by sharing their own results and experiences. Stage six is responding to student data. Often improvement will involve non-traditional measures outside the classroom, such as partnering with other schools or rethinking staff roles. Stage seven involves reflection on the question ‘Which practices are most effective with our students?’. Teams at this stage may benefit from observing each other’s teaching or from opening dialogue with other teams who have reached this stage. KLA Subject HeadingsProfessional developmentTeaching and learning Group work in education Beyond externalising and finalising definitions: standards for teachers of English Language and Literacy in Australia (STELLA)
Volume 42
Number 3, 2007;
Pages 31–42
While highlighting the contribution of teachers to student learning, government policy tends to restrict teachers’ individual professional discretion by imposing standardised tests, by channelling paid professional development towards schools’ strategic plans and government priorities and by allowing large class sizes and inadequate facilities in some schools. In this context, emphasising pedagogy as the key to lifting students’ learning may lead teachers to blame themselves unreasonably for limitations in their students’ progress. This policy context also means that official teaching standards are likely to act more as regulatory mechanisms than vehicles to improve teaching. Despite this challenge, the STELLA professional standards for teaching English language and literacy empower teachers by helping them to share relevant knowledge, practice and forms of engagement. The standards have been collaboratively developed by groups of English teachers. These ‘insiders’ have worked hard to ensure their relevance to ‘outsider’ teachers not involved in their creation, who have since tested the standards. STELLA avoids superficial, misleading generalisations about best teaching practice, incorporating detailed narratives that capture the deeply contextualised nature of good teaching. The STELLA approach is quite distinct from using standards to evaluate and reward teachers. Within such managerialist approaches, the central importance of context tends to be ignored, and teachers are pressured to present their work in the best light rather than reveal their developmental needs. Despite efforts to distinguish STELLA from these approaches, they represent the dominant concept of teaching standards. As a result, a managerialist concept of teaching standards ‘continues to haunt the project’. Standards also obscure the growing fracture between public and private education, which increasingly differentiates teachers’ professional experiences. The question is whether English teachers can use STELLA to criticise and confront these trends. It is unethical to treat students simply as an economic resource and ‘a means for keeping the world in exactly the same condition as we know it’. STELLA reflects English teachers’ commitment to the broader cultural value of their work and the contribution it makes to students’ overall welfare. Key Learning AreasEnglishSubject HeadingsEnglish language teachingStandards Teaching profession Educational evaluation Whither/wither STELLA? A sea change or a bureaucratic chore? A Victorian perspective
Volume 42
Number 3, 2007;
Pages 9–12
Standards for professional teaching have been developed by State and Territory authorities such as the Victorian Institute of Teaching (VIT) for regulation of the teaching profession. Professional standards have also been developed by a range of teacher subject associations, including those representing History, Modern Languages and Geography. In doing so these associations have drawn on the STELLA standards for English language and literacy teaching developed by the AATE and ALEA. While these sets of standards vary between subject associations, they establish similar criteria around professional knowledge, practice and engagement, and they recognise the importance of containing narratives in which teachers demonstrate their achievement in differing work contexts. ALEA instituted a national project to examine how STELLA could be used as a framework for teachers’ professional learning. The study identified challenges in developing standards of generally recognised validity among English teachers, and in terms of balancing managerial regulatory needs of education systems with the developmental needs of the profession. However, there are grounds for optimism that these tensions can be contained, and a creative balance achieved. In Victoria the main grounds for optimism are in ‘the “realpolitik” regarding standards that confronts teachers’. The VIT standards draw heavily, and appropriately, on the prior work in standards development by subject associations, so that terminology and expectations are aligned. The VIT standards used to assess new graduates moving from provisional to full registration are in essence 'very benign'. Despite some reasonable criticisms around their implementation, they involve mentoring, collaborative work and, most importantly, recognition of working contexts. The use of standards is now mandated in the registration renewal process for existing teachers, which will ‘concentrate the collective mind of the profession wonderfully on the “fact” that standards do exist’. Teaching associations have the opportunity in this process to educate members to see registration renewal not as a bureaucratic chore but a process for professional renewal and growth. The author has been heavily involved in standards development while President of the AATE, as a member of the interim board of what is now Teaching Australia, and a Council member of the VIT. (View full article on AATE website.) Key Learning AreasEnglishSubject HeadingsEnglish language teachingStandards Teaching profession Educational evaluation Understanding pedagogical reasoning in history teaching through the case of cultivating historical empathy
Volume 35
Number 4, 2007;
Pages 592–630
Research into history education tends to overemphasise the contribution of teachers’ content knowledge to their overall teaching practice. A study of four history teachers in English secondary schools examines this issue with reference to the topic of school students’ historical empathy. The study included several interviews with each teacher, classroom observations and examination of curriculum documents. The research found that the teachers used different types of knowledge to cultivate historical empathy in students, and the choice of which knowledge to apply varies according to circumstance. The first type of knowledge related to judgements about students. Students’ needs and ideas were often the starting point for lesson plans. The teachers made preliminary evaluations of students’ capacity for historical empathy, which had emotional, analytical, literary/linguistic and imaginative dimensions. The teachers sought to allow for students’ preconceptions and also how students react to given topics. General student factors, including behavioural disruptions, were also significant to teachers. A second group of factors concerned structural issues. They included the sharp limitation of curricular time, the availability of accessible, age-appropriate resources, and also curricular and assessment specifications. Other structural factors included equipment, school policy on excursions, parental interests and the role of related subjects such as religious studies. The teachers themselves contributed a third set of factors influencing their treatment of historical empathy. Their own learning processes were important. All four teachers described learning from trial and error in classes, through ‘observing, diagnosing, reflecting, refining, practicing, and experimenting anew’. They also learnt through peer discussion and reading professional literature. Control of classroom discourse was another factor, influenced by time constraints, clarity of teachers’ questioning and the depth of responses they encouraged. Teachers’ content knowledge remained important, influencing their ability to offer firm guidance, flesh out details of topics, challenge anachronisms and other inaccuracies, and provide initial grounding for later student discussion of a topic. Teachers’ goals and the roles they set themselves were influential filters for teacher content knowledge. These factors included teaching style but also their willingness to teach sensitive topics and the significance they attributed to students’ personal feelings to build historical empathy. Teachers’ disposition and emotional and physical wellbeing were also factors. Key Learning AreasStudies of Society and EnvironmentSubject HeadingsTeaching and learningHistory Social life and customs Curriculum planning Motivation Teacher-student relationships Bringing ordinary people into the picture
Volume 41
Number 1, November 2007;
Pages 25–37
In past eras ordinary people wrote little about their lives, which can lead modern students to ignore or downplay the importance of ordinary people in history. In Europe the cultural practices of ordinary people were rarely documented after they began to diverge from those of the wealthy in the early Renaissance. Privileged layers of society have attempted to document ordinary people's lives at times, to understand trends or incidents of concern to rulers, to build notions of national identity or in pursuit of other ideals such as those of the Romantic movement. These attempts to record ordinary life from above are distorted by their selectivity and by their tendency to portray popular culture, such as folk dancing, in static, standardised forms. There are, however, a number of resources that offer authentic details of the past that may interest today's students. One group of resources concern ordinary people in trouble, such as the court records of prostitutes or witches, or divorce proceedings of relatively wealthy but not elite women. There are also micro-histories which record very unusual or sensational incidents and also some everyday details of life surrounding the central events. Demographic studies are available, which in some cases apply computer analysis to revealed hitherto unseen patterns in past societies. Finally, anthropological studies may include records about artefacts or rituals surviving into modern times, such the carnivals of Venice or Rio de Janiero, which can be used to stimulate discussion about their nature and purpose. Key Learning AreasStudies of Society and EnvironmentSubject HeadingsHistoryTeaching and learning Social life and customs Social classes Can we move beyond 'Indigenous good, non-Indigenous bad' in thinking about people and the environment?
Volume 11
Number 2, 2007;
Pages 3–9
While Indigenous knowledge has a very valuable contribution to make to Outdoor Education curricula, students' understanding of it can quite often take the caricatured form of ‘Indigenous good, non-Indigenous bad’. This conception was evident, for example, in many answers to the 2006 Victorian Certificate of Education Outdoor Education examination, marked by the author and colleagues. This simplistic notion reflects the handling of race in Australian society. Although in scientific terms race is an imaginary construction, it is still widely used to categorise people in society. There is growing social awareness of Indigenous knowledge about the Australian landscape, but there is also a tendency to draw a line around this body of knowledge and automatically label it as 'good'. Drawing on concepts of the noble savage, this view dates back to colonial times and portrays Indigenous cultures as primitive, utopian and having a deep connection with nature. This idealisation, a ‘freezing and sealing’ of Indigenous knowledge, denies the reality of change in Indigenous knowledge systems and limits our possibilities for understanding human interactions with the environment. The Outdoor and Environmental Studies (OES) curriculum is to some extent influenced by these views. The subject's curriculum is designed to cover the ways in which people understand and interact with natural environments; however, the question of race receives surprisingly limited coverage. The Outdoor Education curriculum documents contain language that demonstrates the perceived separation between Indigenous and mainstream Australian views, often using the terms ‘non-Indigenous’ and ‘Australian’ almost interchangeably. Passages in an OES textbook imply that Indigenous knowledge of the land is fixed and not subject to change, in contrast with the rapid development of Western natural science. Educators must be aware of the way whiteness and European culture are often constituted in public discussion of people and environments. In examining these invisible assumptions, we can begin to transcend the good/bad binary that limits discussion and reinforces outdated ideas of race and place. Key Learning AreasStudies of Society and EnvironmentSubject HeadingsEnvironmental EducationAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Aboriginal peoples Australia Senior secondary education Victoria Victorian Certificate of Education Some ideas on culture teaching in ChineseJune 2008;
Pages 1,4–7
While native speakers tend to be relatively forgiving about mistakes in pronunciation and grammar, they are far less forgiving about mistakes in the unspoken rules that govern conversational interactions. Violations of normal communication procedures may be interpreted as rudeness or disrespect. Developing students’ communicative competence, as well as their linguistic competence, is crucial to prevent such misunderstandings. English language teaching in Key Learning AreasLanguagesSubject HeadingsLanguage and languagesSocial life and customs China A shift in school culture: collective commitments focusing on change that benefits student learning
Volume 29
Number 3, Summer 2008;
Pages 14–17
There is now general agreement among education researchers and practitioners that significant improvement in schools comes through reconceptualising schools as professional learning communities. However, this is easier in rhetoric than practice. It is not enough for schools to simply make small attempts at reorganisation, adopt a new mission statement, change schedules, or develop organisational charts. Successful reorganisation begins with a deliberate transformation of the school’s culture. For a professional learning community to flourish, the focus must be shifted comprehensively from teaching to learning. This ‘seismic’ shift reverberates throughout the organisation, leading to fundamentally different ways of thinking and working. Those in professional learning communities structure their work around students’ educational interests. They are also constantly searching for evidence of improved student learning. Research evidence supports the effectiveness of teachers forming collaborative teams, as part of a broader shift from relative isolation towards a culture of collaboration. To change culture, behaviour must be changed, and one very powerful way to do this is to support the formation of shared values. One school in Washington, USA asks its staff members to consider the questions ‘What would it look like if we really meant it when we said we embrace learning as our fundamental purpose, or we will build a collaborative culture…? What commitments are we prepared to make to every student who walks into our schools this fall?’. Staff are asked to suggest specific ways they can act to improve their organisation. Collective commitments are distinct from a shared school vision because they relate to the present, stating what educators can do today. Leaders must be aware of the gap that commonly exists between abstract theoretical knowledge and how that knowledge is implemented in practice. There may also be a gap between what school leaders say they expect and what they are ultimately willing to accept. Good leaders ensure that the standards they expect are actually met in practice. As the leaders of professional learning communities, principals take on the valued role of protector and promoter of the shared moral commitment staff have created. KLA Subject HeadingsSchool cultureSchool leadership School principals Making the very most of classroom read-alouds to promote comprehension and vocabulary
Volume 61
Number 5, February 2008;
Pages 396–408
Reading texts aloud in class is an effective and enjoyable way to enhance primary school students’ literacy levels. However, it can be time consuming, crowding out content in other areas such as science or social studies. A program using targeted read-alouds has been shown to increase students’ comprehension and the richness of their narrative retellings. The program has now been evaluated for its impact on the literacy skills of Grade 1 children. The program’s aims were to improve comprehension skills, support vocabulary learning and introduce topics related to science and social studies. The program consisted of 15 week-long topic-based units, each comprising five lessons of 20–30 minutes each. Two lessons in the week were dedicated to a narrative text and two to an expository text, with the fifth lesson free for rereading or further discussions. Texts were selected according to predicted student interest, length (around 32 pages suited the time frame), richness, clear storyline and diversity in characters in the case of fictional texts. In all lessons a selection of important or difficult vocabulary items was pre-taught, and children were briefly introduced to the book and asked to determine the type of text it represented. For narrative texts, the teacher would stop periodically during reading to discuss plot predictions or use a ‘think-aloud’ to clarify events or vocabulary. Students were then guided through a retelling of the story, made aware that only important events should be selected to retell, and shown, through teacher modelling, that a good retelling ends with a personal response. In the second lesson, the same text was read aloud, but the reading incorporated more pauses for longer teacher–student discussions. Students were provided with prompt sheets and worked with a partner to give 90-second retellings. In information lessons, the text reading was spread over two lessons rather than being repeated. A modified K-W-L (What you Know, What you Want to know, What you Learnt) framework was used, with the students using these fact sheets for their retelling. Overall the program improved comprehension and vocabulary and led to longer and more detailed retellings from the students. KLA Subject HeadingsLiteracyReading Gifted education: debunking the myths
Volume 7
Number 2, June 2008;
Pages 6–7
A number of ‘obnoxious myths’ persist in KLA Subject HeadingsGifted and talented (GAT) childrenGifted children Australia Feedback on feedbackMay 2008;
Pages 20–26
Research studies have consistently found that good feedback is one of the most powerful ways to improve student achievement. Feedback can be broadly defined as any response from a teacher about a student’s performance. It may be given through written, spoken or gestural means. Expert teachers and coaches are distinguished because they are able to spot and explain faults in performance, and take steps to correct them as early as possible. At school, feedback helps to keep students on task and is important in classroom management. Negative feedback can do damage to students’ effort and achievement, and should be scrupulously avoided. The most effective feedback is frequent, task-based and constructive. Rewards, praise or punishment were found to be less successful than task-based feedback. If feedback is too general it is not useful, and impersonal tick-box marking without comments is also unhelpful. In one study of successful New South Wales senior secondary teachers, all provided their students with punctual, frequent, focused and constructive feedback. One teacher asked students for written work on key lesson points at the end of every class, while others insisted on active ‘note-making’ rather than passive note-taking or copying. One of the most effective forms of feedback is one-on-one student interviews, either during class or at another scheduled time. In general, students want the answers to four questions: ‘What can I do?’, ‘What can’t I do?’, ‘How does my work compare with others’ work?’ and ‘How can I do better?’. Teachers should make sure they address all questions regularly, but should prioritise the final question. Often teachers who favour constructivist learning theories avoid giving feedback and assessment, worried that this will discourage their students. However, feedback and direct instruction are demonstrably more effective than purely problem-based or inquiry-based learning (see for example Mayer’s 2004 paper). A very fast school-wide way to improve teaching and learning is to focus on providing students with improved teacher feedback. First, an audit of current feedback methods and their consistency and effectiveness can be conducted, followed by a consideration of how this could be improved and how the improvement could be measured. KLA Subject HeadingsTeaching and learningTeacher evaluation There are no Conferences available in this issue. |