AbstractsDream spreads from Albany to Karratha9 September 2005;
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The Follow the Dream program in Western Australia targets high achieving Aboriginal students who plan direct entry to university courses. The program operates through a learning centre at Karratha, which was set up in 1997 and now has 35 students enrolled. There are other centres at Albany, where a new centre has 16 students enrolled, and at Roebourne. To qualify for the program, Indigenous students have to score well in WALNA literacy and numeracy tests. Other prerequisites are 'good behaviour and family support'. KLA Subject HeadingsTransitions in schoolingSenior secondary education Aboriginal students Mentors team up for year ahead9 September 2005;
Page 10
A mentoring program at the Leadership Centre in Western Australia has expanded to establish eight new partnerships between new school leaders and experienced principals. Initially mentors and new leaders meet for half an hour at least once a fortnight, to negotiate expectations and make practical arrangements. The Leadership Centre supports the program by providing resources, coordinating project training and networking opportunities. Dr Amelia Mosquera-Pardo facilitates the training of the mentors on behalf of the Leadership Centre. KLA Subject HeadingsWestern Australia (WA)School principals Professional development Mentors Hands-on boys back on track9 September 2005;
Page 9
A group of 14 boys who have issues with behaviour and attendance has been involved in an alternative, pre-vocational course at Hamilton Senior High School in Western Australia. The course aim was to re-engage the at-risk boys with school. The focus of the course was the redesign and landscaping of the school quadrangle. The students were expected to prepare a submission for funding, locate and order materials, contruct walls and benches and replant the area. The course had combined outcomes in maths, science, English and Society and Environment, and replaced mainstream classes. The students spent two days a week in their classroom, one at a TAFE college and two days in structured workplace learning. The participating students now attend school every day and are planning their future studies. KLA Subject HeadingsWestern Australia (WA)Senior secondary education Transitions in schooling VET (Vocational Education and Training) Boys' education Schools add up numeracy8 September 2005;
Page 28
The Creating Educational Communities project is assisting teachers in Victoria's south Gippsland region to implement the web-based Maths300 initiative with their students. Maths300, administered by Curriculum Corporation, emerged from two earlier programs, Reality in Maths Education (RIME) and the Maths Task Centre Program (MTCP). Maths300 provides teachers with 300 lesson plans oriented to hands-on learning and real world application. It is well suited to the new Victorian Essential Learning Standards. The Creating Educational Communities project involves two international maths experts, Charles Lovitt and Dr Neville Johnson, with sixteen maths teachers at five primary schools and three secondary colleges. Through the professional development component of the program, the teachers have engaged in workshops and observed expert Charles Lovitt teaching two maths classes. In November, south Gippsland teachers will meet to form a Professional Learning Team to analyse data from the program's initial professional development activities. Team members will then form action learning teams across their schools, and will work with Lovitt and Johnson to create an action research model, to be evaluated over the following 18 months. Key Learning AreasMathematicsSubject HeadingsEducation researchEducational evaluation Professional development Mathematics teaching PPP is top VET9 September 2005;
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The Pilbara Pathways Partnerships (PPP) program is preparing a group of students in Years 10–12 for further study, or for careers in the metal trades or business administration. The PPP is being run at Tom Price Senior High School in the Pilbara region of northern Western Australia. It combines on-the-job training and theory at school, Pilbara TAFE, and in the workplace. Now in its second year, the PPP has already produced excellent results in terms of student retention and transition rates, and has supplied the region's main employer, Pilbara iron, with 'home grown' apprentices. During the final six months of the program, industry mentors help participants prepare job applications and reinforce their training experiences. Plans for expanding the program include scholarships for students wishing to undertake tertiary level mining/business courses, and workshops for Year 9 and 10 students on work ethics and careers planning. The program has won a training excellence award. KLA Subject HeadingsTransitions in schoolingSenior secondary education School partnerships Western Australia (WA) VET (Vocational Education and Training) Models of continuing professional development: a framework for analysis
Volume 31
Number 2, 2005;
Pages 235–250
A range of models exists for continuing professional development (CPD). The models form a spectrum in terms of their compatibility with different types of educational reform. Some models are suitable for equipping teachers to implement centrally driven reforms. The ‘training model', probably the dominant form of CPD, provides teachers with the skills required to demonstrate competence. It is usually delivered by experts who set the training agenda, and is often criticised for lack of connection to the classroom context. Frequently related to a standards-based concept of teacher development, it supports centralised control of teaching, ‘often veiled as quality assurance’. The ‘award-bearing model’ emphasises or is based on the completion of programs of study, often validated by universities. The ‘deficit model’ of CPD aims to address perceived deficits in teacher performance, and may be connected to performance management. It may be seen as attributing system-based failures to weakness of individual teachers. The ‘cascade model’ sees teachers who attend sessions then transmitting new skills to colleagues. At the other end of the spectrum are two models that create the potential for teachers to contribute to, critique and shape educational reform. The ‘action research’ model involves teachers in research and the evaluation of their own performance. It stresses the need for relevance to teaching practice. By presenting research as a teacher activity rather than a product received by teachers, this model may be seen to challenge the power of universities. The ‘transformative model’ draws on a range of other approaches but sees a need to highlight issues of power, tension and conflict between agendas to promote real debate and transformative practice. In between these extremes are the ‘coaching/mentoring’ and ‘standards-based’ models that may be used either to implement or influence centrally driven reforms. KLA Subject HeadingsTeaching and learningTeaching profession Educational evaluation Education research Education philosophy Education policy Professional development Developing and sustaining professional dialogue about teaching and learning in schools
Volume 10
Number 3, 2005;
Pages 297–311
In Britain, the North East School Based Research Consortium (NESBRC), consisting of six secondary schools, was funded for three years to support and encourage teachers' involvement in collaborative research into strategies to promote student learning and teacher learning. After the project, the original NESBRC coordinator and one teacher conducted a follow-up study to see whether the participating teachers continued to undertake the suggested research activities beyond the life of the project. At each school the principal and the former NESBRC school-level coordinator were interviewed. The investigation found that the research on student learning launched through the NESBRC continued to enthuse teacher participants, and had broadened to include more teachers and a wider range of activities. However, the study also found several limitations in the teachers’ continued research activity. Participants had not continued to study and discuss strategies for their own learning as teachers, perhaps due to a reluctance to explore this issue. The teachers were found to be reluctant to generalise discussion beyond highly specific contexts. The teachers also appeared reluctant to document findings publicly. To improve teaching and learning it is important to accumulate, generalise and publicly document findings from projects such as the NESBRC. KLA Subject HeadingsCo-operationGreat Britain Secondary education Professional development Education research Tensions between national, school and teacher development needs: a survey of teachers' views about continuing professional development within a group of rural primary schools
Volume 31
Number 2, 2005;
Pages 353–372
A case study in Britain has examined continuing professional development (CPD) in a rural primary school cluster. It investigated teachers’ opinions as to how well their professional development needs were met, and the factors seen as controlling their CPD. The study identified tensions between the development needs of individual teachers and what the schools needed to demonstrate as organisations. These tensions were mediated through the school development plans and performance targets. The teachers described a desire for more individual CPD and to have ‘their individual voice heard and needs valued’. However they appeared willing to subordinate these wishes to school requirements. Participants had not developed individual professional development plans in a systematic way, and opportunities to do so appeared to be limited. The accountability requirements imposed in Britain by the current managerial education context appear to encourage to teachers to take on the role of ‘compliant employee’. They may therefore be less likely to foster their wider professional learning or challenge system-imposed initiatives. KLA Subject HeadingsCase studiesEducational evaluation Education policy Professional development Primary education Great Britain Involving teachers in data-driven decision making: using computer data to support teacher inquiry and reflection
Volume 10
Number 3, 2005;
Pages 295–308
To meet the requirements of education reform initiatives, educators need mechanisms to turn data into actionable information. While education authorities usually store large amounts of data on students, it has not been used widely to improve educational practice, and in schools such data is usually inaccessible to teachers. Case studies indicate that schools involved in data use evolve towards a more professional culture and show higher levels collaboration between departments. Recent technology allows fast and efficient storage and delivery of such data. Data warehousing and presentation systems can be used to explore differences between different groups of students, examine developments over time, evaluate programs and identify problems. They offer access to a wide range of historical information about students. They integrate data that is often currently disconnected, eg academic results and student discipline data. The Data Use service of the USA’s Center for Social Organization of Schools offers free online reviews of commercially available data warehouse systems. These usually allow information to be presented through pre-formatted reports or through specific queries. Good systems are web-based, and can organise data as required for reports to education authorities. Data systems should involve all teachers, who should be supported in its use through professional development, leadership for a supportive data climate, and opportunities for collaboration. Professional development should include informal interaction between teachers and encourage self-activity, but also offer regular group discussion and provide an in-house data expert. The use of data for teacher inquiry is likely to require a culture change that must evolve within the school context, with different individuals taking varied leadership roles. The leadership must also attend to existing implicit power relationships, which may otherwise undermine collaboration. KLA Subject HeadingsTeaching and learningProfessional development Schools School principals School culture Educational planning Educational evaluation Elearning Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Information services The pedagogy of literacy: providing pre-service and practising primary teachers with professional learning in the area of literacyAustralian Association for Research in Education
This paper proposes a model of literacy pedagogy that rests on three elements: understanding how primary students acquire literacy skills, developing strategies to help children decode and encode meanings, and teaching a range of literacies in a contextualised manner. The author draws on her experiences as Departmental consultant and teaching educator to describe Victoria’s Early Years Literacy Program (EYLP) and previous projects from which it was built. The EYLP encourages a balance between different approaches to literacy teaching. It aims to give teachers a strong understanding of a range of literacy teaching methods so that they can choose the best teaching method for each student and use a student’s individual strengths in one area, eg syntax and semantics, to build their skills in other areas, eg grapho-phonics. Rather than taking sides in the phonics–whole language debate, the EYLP teaches phonics in the context of reading for meaning. The EYLP creates professional learning teams in primary schools in which teachers share responsibility for meeting targets. The teams regularly assess students’ writing and reading to identify individual learning needs. Literacy coordinators are used to deliver professional development, model teaching approaches and act as mentors. Through the EYLP, schools teach literacy in two-hour blocks daily. Whole-school support takes forms such as convenient timetabling and ensuring no loudspeaker interruptions to classes. The author also describes her work as teacher educator at Deakin University Warrnambool campus, where practising teachers and consultants have been employed to deliver lectures and tutorials to pre-service teachers. This approach has provided a consistent approach between the university and schools. Literacy has been taught using the balanced approach to literacy recommended by the EYLP, while reflecting on other approaches. Key Learning AreasEnglishSubject HeadingsTeaching and learningTeacher training Educational planning Curriculum planning Victoria Literacy |