ArticlesE-journals for school libraries Over the last decade there has been an information revolution using digital methods of publishing and online access. This has led to certain printbased journals being available online and the frequent appearance of new e-journals. Schools can benefit greatly from this publishing phenomenon, particularly with the utilisation of high-speed Internet access. Busy library staff are faced with the task of selecting e-journals appropriate to the needs of teachers and students.
KLA Subject HeadingsComputer-based trainingElearning Electronic publishing Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Information services Periodicals School libraries Connecting young people to their future The South Australian Department of Education and Children's Services (DECS) has made the transition for young people into positive post-school options a major priority. The Futures Connect strategy endeavours to assist young people to take more confident steps towards success in further education, work and personal development. Futures Connect promises to connect schools to other services; young people to relevant curriculum and learning; each young person to future options; and schools and young people with community and industry groups that strengthen their transition from school.
KLA Subject HeadingsTransitions in schoolingPromoting sustainable water management through education The Australian Water Association has established a national network of water and education professionals, amid a range of activities and plans to promote the sustainable management of water.
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Measuring your school's ecological footprint The Powerhouse Museum has an interactive educational web site for measuring a school's impact on the environment.
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Environmental Education - a fractured fairytale Through Environmental Education we have to teach and learn more sustainable behaviours now, and use them daily so that they can become 'normal'. The 'happily ever after' is a future that we create every day. We need to keep improving on the small, incremental changes in behaviour that we make.
KLA Subject HeadingsEducation policyEducational planning Environment Environmental Education Send reinforcements. We're going to teach values Several state school systems in Australia are edging towards the formulation of value frameworks. There are challenges in any attempt to construct a framework of agreed values, in the light of the variety of world views and value stances now abroad in pluralistic communities like ours. The way ahead is 'committed impartiality', through which teachers encourage values discussions, speak openly about their own values, but return to the need for impartiality when assessing students' cognitive understanding and empathy for the range of values embraced in the community.
KLA Subject HeadingsCitizenshipCivics education Values education (character education) Towards the Interculturally Proactive School Whatever the ethnic profile of a school, there is an official requirement in Australia that the curriculum should be multicultural, to prepare students for living in a multicultural society and a globalising world. The Australian Federal government has identified specific dimensions of multicultural policy, and education is expected to help students develop all of these. An 'interculturally proactive' school is one in which most teachers are constantly active in designing and implementing programs and strategies to promote intercultural understanding and inter-relationships.
KLA Subject HeadingsAboriginal peoplesEducation aims and objectives Education and state Education philosophy Education policy Multicultural education Senior Secondary Curriculum Pathways in Remote NT Schools In 2002 the NT Department of Employment, Education and Training (DEET) established the Secondary Provision In Remote Schools (SPIRS) initiative to support the delivery of secondary curriculum in remote communities. The object of this initiative is to improve educational outcomes for secondary Indigenous students in the NT by increasing access to, and the quality of, appropriate provision of secondary education in remote locations.
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Permission to speak Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority
KLA Subject HeadingsAboriginal peoplesAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Language and languages A new communication order: the challenge for literacy educationWe live in a constantly changing world that continues to be shaped and mediated by the new information and communication technologies. It is no longer tenable to dismiss ICTs simply as new tools, using them to do what earlier technologies did, only faster and more efficiently. When the technologies are recognised as a crucial part of the cultural and communication landscape - indeed, as part of a new communication order - we render a more realistic conception of their significance, and of our own and our students' place in an information and knowledge-based society.
Key Learning AreasEnglishTechnology Subject HeadingsCommunicationComputer-based training Computers in society Education aims and objectives Education philosophy Elearning English language teaching Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Information literacy Internet Literacy Teaching and learning Issues in early career teacher retention and attrition Rising rates of attrition amongst early career teachers are of increasing concern to educationalists throughout the Western world. Present Australian data on teacher resignation rates is aggregated and does not tell us who is leaving, at what stage of their career they have resigned, where they are going to, if they intend returning to teaching, or why they have resigned. A large-scale, longitudinal study is underway at the University of Sydney to identify the forces and conditions that lead to teacher attrition or retention.
KLA Subject HeadingsEducation researchEducational planning Teacher training Teachers' employment Leadership aspirations in schools Principals play a critical part in creating and sustaining high performing schools. The quality and numbers of potential leaders available to fill leadership positions in schools is therefore an urgent issue. This article reports on research which examined the factors affecting the leadership aspirations of Victorian government school teachers, and is based on work conducted by Dr Lacey for the Victorian Department of Education and Training in 2000.
KLA Subject HeadingsLeadershipSchool principals Teachers' employment School leadership: theory and practice'Transformational leadership', currently the dominant leadership model in schools, focuses on the principal as a charismatic figure who is able to provide vision and lead by example. In the 'distributive leadership' model, while principals retain ultimate accountability, they delegate power and responsibilities to other staff. This model is widely seen as more adaptive, reflective and values-based, but principals will need to transform school culture for staff to accept distributive leadership.
KLA Subject HeadingsLeadershipSchool principals Pedagogic leadership The focus of education is moving from the way teachers teach and establish relationship-based classroom learning cultures, towards compliance with external curriculum dictates. Teachers and schools can reverse these managerialist and clinical tendencies and re-establish the importance of relationships between teachers and learners. The key concept in this process is pedagogic leadership, which is based on dialogue with learners, in contrast to the instruction-based or curriculum-based models of educational leadership that hold sway in schools today.
KLA Subject HeadingsLeadershipTeaching and learning Trends in the provision of career guidance The need for access to high quality career guidance, information and counselling services throughout life is now recognised as being of critical importance. In Australia we are beginning to recognise the need to prepare people for more complex and frequent transitions throughout their lives. It is now essential to strengthen systems to assist individuals to develop the skills and knowledge to manage their career and learning choices more effectively.
KLA Subject HeadingsCurriculum planningEconomic trends Education policy Educational planning Vocational guidance Wooranna Park Primary School Teaching at the junior levels of Wooranna Park PS takes inspiration from the example of Italy's Reggio Emilia, in which young students' own interests and activities shape teaching practice and the curriculum. Through the fine arts, ICT, and traditional activities around literacy and numeracy, the Wooranna Park students undertake projects individually and in teams. An exceptionally rich learning environment is created.
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Environmental Education at Port Vincent PS, South Australia Port Vincent Primary School draws on students' initiatives around environmental issues to provide an exciting centre of learning for students and the community, and an example of environmental stewardship and sustainability.
KLA Subject HeadingsEducation policyEducational planning Environment Environmental Education South Australia Sustainable development Towards the UN Decade for ESD The author reviews events leading up to the forthcoming United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, identifying some of the issues and challenges that lie ahead for Australian educators.
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Leading schools towards sustainability The Leadership in learning to care for the environment strategy, which deals with the environmental challenges facing society, has been used in a range of Victorian primary schools over the past eleven years to deal with environmental issues facing society. This article discusses the programs' successful implementation in schools.
KLA Subject HeadingsCurriculum planningEducation policy Educational planning Environment Environmental Education Leadership Science Science teaching Victoria Pathways to early literacy: what can we learn from families? Family experiences are potentially rich sources for children as literacy learners, and these experiences need to be built on at school. This article discusses the results of a project in 2003 to track and support pathways for literacy and numeracy for a group of sixty five children in the year prior to school entry.
Key Learning AreasEnglishSubject HeadingsEnglish language teachingFamily Literacy Parent and child Arts-rich education in Australian schools The Australia Council for the Arts is currently supporting six Australian research projects which are examining the impact of arts participation on student learning and development. In this article, the Australia Council's Education Advisor puts forward the value of the arts for a child's personal, emotional, social and civic development.
Key Learning AreasThe ArtsSubject HeadingsArts in educationCurriculum planning Emotions The Sustainable Schools Program in Victoria Dept. of Education and Training, Victoria
KLA Subject HeadingsCurriculum planningEducation policy Educational planning Environment Environmental Education Schools Sustainable development Victoria Literacy issues in Indigenous contextsThe anthropological understanding of traditional peoples exaggerates cultural difference, leading to pessimism and confusion in educators. Indigenous students need knowledge, skills and cultural awareness relevant to the wider world, as well as recognition of their own culture. Effective literacy teachers make a crucial difference to Indigenous students' performance, so good teaching practice should be documented, widely circulated and preserved over time. KLA Subject HeadingsAboriginal peoplesAboriginal students Discrimination Education policy Educational sociology English language teaching Equality Language and languages Literacy Steps to coordinate and strengthen school maths and ICT Our professional working lives, our methods of work, and the world around us have all been, and are still being, radically challenged by Information and Communication Technology. Often our strategies for the use of ICT in teaching are hurried and improvised. We should stop and consider our present situation in terms of school teaching in general, and mathematics teaching in particular. We must also beware of the now misleading, although previously reliable, comfortable old assumptions, about students, subject-matter, learning and teaching.
Key Learning AreasMathematicsSubject HeadingsComputer-based trainingComputers in society Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Internet Mathematics teaching Numeracy School equipment Websites Assessing and validating physical performance - the use of video Video evidence is used in Queensland Physical Education classes to support student learning and assessment. It is a crucial tool for validating teacher decisions. It has promoted the value of assessing physical performance in 'real' contexts. It has positive implications as a pedagogical tool for student reflection and motivation. The use of video has made possible the moderation of student physical performances. In turn, student physical performances are valued and form a substantial part of assessment data used for certification.
Key Learning AreasHealth and Physical EducationSubject HeadingsAssessmentPhysical education Video recordings in education Doing Literacy OnlineThe 'new' literacy associated with the use of ICT interacts with older models in complex ways, producing hybrid rather than wholly new practices. The contributors to Doing Literacy Online, a new book edited by Ilana Snyder and Catherine Beavis, consider the complex connections between technology and literacy in Australian culture and its education system. Curriculum Leadership publishes an introductory extract from the book.
KLA Subject HeadingsComputer-based trainingComputers in society Elearning English language teaching Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Information literacy Internet Literacy Teaching and learning Why should principals support school libraries? Principals should support school libraries because it is in both their students' and their own best interests to do so. Quality library media programs can enhance student achievement, and informed, committed librarians can help principals enhance their own administrative practice.
KLA Subject HeadingsInformation literacySchool libraries School principals The role of local networks for young people In Victoria, a system of local learning and employment networks is developing social capital and empowering young people at the grassroots level. The Maribyrnong and Moonee Valley Local Learning and Employment Network, in Melbourne's inner north western suburbs, is bringing together local education providers, industry, government, community organisations and individuals, to enhance the education, employment and training opportunities of 15 to 19 year-olds.
KLA Subject HeadingsVET (Vocational Education and Training)Leadership aspirations of Australian teachers Over the last decade there has been escalating concern in the education community about the decline in the number of teachers aspiring to principal class positions. In 2002, Kathy Lacey completed a major study for the Victorian Department of Education and Training. Dr Lacey is now working with Professor Peter Gronn at Monash University on two projects that promise to extend her findings.
KLA Subject HeadingsLeadershipProfessional development School principals School governance and succession planning School boards are very much aware that good schools need good leaders. The challenge they face is to create a climate which encourages leadership aspirations from within the organisation, and offers the necessary support for their development. At the same time, attracting quality applicants from outside the school will help to ensure a strong field of candidates for the principal's position.
KLA Subject HeadingsEducational planningLeadership School culture School principals Schools VIT completes its first year A recent community poll placed teachers fourth on the list of professions rated as having high or very high standards of ethics and honesty, above judges, dentists, engineers, police and university lecturers. The challenge for the teaching profession is to ensure the community respects teachers' professional expertise and specialised knowledge in the same way it respects their ethical standards. The Victorian Institute of Teaching may be expected to play a central role in this regard.
KLA Subject HeadingsEducation and stateEducation policy Mentors Professional development School principals Standards Teacher evaluation Teacher training Teachers' employment Teaching and learning Teaching profession Victoria The information needs of the school education communityContinuous improvement is being asked of the education community in Australia and New Zealand, as governments seek, at low cost, to provide for the swiftly rising needs for knowledge in the modern workforce. School education professionals need timely access to relevant, authoritative and easily assimilable information to help them meet these demands. KLA Subject HeadingsCommunicationEducation research Information services Leadership Professional development Websites Dancers not Dinosaurs: English teachers in the Electronic Age English teachers have often felt they should suppress their healthy scepticism about the benefits of technology, for fear of appearing old fashioned or incompetent. It's currently de rigeur to defer to students as experts and define teachers as mere facilitators. It's time to explode the mystique, and ground critical and creative practice in the skills teachers already have.
Key Learning AreasEnglishSubject HeadingsComputer-based trainingElearning English language teaching Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Human Rights Education The Universal Declaration of Human Rights calls on every individual in every society to promote respect for human rights and freedoms at individual, national and international levels. With the UN Decade of Human Rights Education now drawing to a close, it is timely to review government commitment to human rights education in schools.
KLA Subject HeadingsEducation and stateEducation policy Educational planning Equality Ethics Human rights Social justice Using television to educate, stimulate and disseminate The potential of television as an educational tool has been widely recognised in terms of early childhood education. Television offers the same potential in primary and secondary education, particularly within the classroom.
KLA Subject HeadingsDistance educationEarly childhood education Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Television in education Video recordings in education Spirituality: a foundation for educational development in schools Much discussion has recently taken place on proposals to increase the consistency between Australian education systems, building upon areas of commonality in States and Territories. One such area, which should be considered further by the Ministers, and which is currently incorporated in the National Goals for Schooling, is that 'schooling provides a foundation for young Australians' intellectual, physical, social, moral, spiritual and aesthetic development' (MYCEETYA, 1999). This paper focuses on the spiritual aim of education promoted by Australian schools.
KLA Subject HeadingsCitizenshipReligious education Holistic Education: An Analysis of Its Ideas and Nature - A Review Holistic education situates formal education within the need to learn more generally about life, including spirituality and fundamental human values, from a religious and/or psychological perspective. Scott H. Forbes's book provides a solid philosophical foundation to holistic education. It is likely to be of immense interest to educational leaders and administrators, as well as concerned parents.
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Sustainable Consumption: a vital ESD theme The importance of sustainable consumption should be highlighted as a major theme of education for sustainable development in Australia.
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National education strategy Dare to Lead is a national cross-sectoral project which emphasises the role of school leaders in effecting change, and supports the profession as it provides leadership for the nation in Reconciliation.
KLA Subject HeadingsAboriginal peoplesAboriginal students The role of the 'teacher': Coming of age? A broad consensus has emerged that teacher quality is the key to improving student learning outcomes and preparing young people for the challenges of the twenty-first century knowledge economy and society. Since the hallmarks of this new era are change and instability, teaching and teacher education need to be calibrated accordingly.
KLA Subject HeadingsTeacher trainingTeachers' employment Teaching profession Science stories and the end of education At its creative base, science is about explaining the big picture. If that is missing in school programs, kids will turn off science and look elsewhere for explanatory schemes about the world - whether New Age nostrums, religious fundamentalisms, or consumerist ideas about existence. We will all be worse off.
Key Learning AreasScienceSubject HeadingsScience teachingBeyond green: education for sustainability Earlier this year, education for sustainability was discussed at a seminar in South Australia representing a wide range of stakeholders in education. The meeting will fuel development of a draft model for sustainable schools and sites in South Australia, within the context of other state and national initiatives. This report describes some of the key points made, and notes measures underway to implement sustainable education.
KLA Subject HeadingsCurriculum planningEnvironment School and community South Australia Ministers support national consistency Australia's Commonwealth, State and Territory education ministers last week agreed to move towards greater curriculum consistency across the States and Territories. Beyond the direct impact on mobile families, the lack of consistency has been seen as a barrier to using curriculum to 'transmit our shared culture, promote our common values and work together for our preferred futures'. The agreement reached by Ministers will mean that States and Territories maintain their own curriculums and the capacity to cater for students and schools in a diversity of contexts while integrating the common elements during periods of curriculum review.
Key Learning AreasEnglishMathematics Science Studies of Society and Environment Subject HeadingsCivics educationCurriculum planning Education policy Educational planning English language teaching Numeracy Embracing 'new professionalism' 'New professionalism' represents a bold, vibrant and comprehensive approach to the individual and collective development of professional educators. It signals a renewed commitment to improving outcomes for all students and their communities in response to current and emerging challenges. It also reflects a changing culture that embodies creative thinking and distributed leadership as a means of shaping the destiny of the profession and the future of education.
KLA Subject HeadingsStandardsTeacher evaluation Teacher training Teaching profession Blueprint for career development in Australia The Australian Blueprint for Career Development is a new initiative to prepare and test a national framework for the development of career services for children, youth and adults. Broad in scope, it is designed to provide for national coordination as well as local flexibility.
KLA Subject HeadingsCanadaTransitions in schooling Vocational guidance Foresight, futures and changing contexts For educational leaders as a community, a conscious engagement with notions of futures and foresight is essential. Across a range of tasks - both to do with the structures and workings of our organisations as well as the way we approach curriculum content - this approach needs to be taken seriously and embedded at a systemic level.
KLA Subject HeadingsEducational planningLeadership School principals r.u.MAD? - Social Justice through Community Connectedness The r.u.MAD? Program shows students that they can overcome barriers and achieve remarkable results for themselves, their community and for others. It encourages them to move beyond the 'feelgood' stage of giving, and recognise the privilege of having something to give. It also exemplifies the concept of 'Connectedness' that enables students to have more control of their lives, learn about individual and collective rights and acquire a more participatory social vision.
KLA Subject HeadingsQueenslandSchool and community Social welfare Socially disadvantaged Victoria Games, boys, Gameboys Computer games may have a part to play in improving boys' education by promoting critical and strategic thinking, problem solving and sequencing, mathematical skills and creativity.
Key Learning AreasEnglishTechnology Subject HeadingsBoys' educationComputer-based training Literacy Bridging the Gap: A critique Bridging the Gap focuses on the individualistic success of the disadvantaged. It is silent on how we develop a society that is not only economically productive but is also socially just - a society that not only provides work and sustenance for its members but also seeks to redress and eliminate oppression and domination - the cause of disadvantage.
KLA Subject HeadingsCurriculum planningEquality Socially disadvantaged The National Inquiry into the Teaching of Literacy The Australian Government has initiated a National Inquiry into the Teaching of Literacy. Curriculum Leadership publishes an edited statement on the Inquiry by Dr Brendan Nelson, Australian Government Minister for Education, Science and Training. The Inquiry will conduct an independent examination of reading research, teacher training and classroom practices for the teaching of reading. There will also be an examination of the way reading skills are tested.
KLA Subject HeadingsEducation policyEducational evaluation English language teaching Literacy Human rights, cultural rights, and Indigenous education For Indigenous people, 'Human Rights' on the ground are too narrowly identified with the values, language and knowledge of Indigenous cultures, rather than with history, heritage, consciousness and individual rights. In schools, Indigenous students fail for the same reason as the many other students who fail - they are not connected to learning appropriately, their skills and knowledge are not developed, they do not see themselves in a future that requires those skills and knowledge, and they cannot force themselves daily into an environment that demoralises and diminishes them.
KLA Subject HeadingsAboriginal peoplesAboriginal students Discrimination Education policy English as an additional language English language teaching Equality Human rights Racism School culture Social justice The Assessment for Learning Project 'Assessment for learning', or formative assessment, describes the use of assessment in the classroom to improve the quality of student learning. Based on evidence that improving formative assessment raises standards, Curriculum Corporation's Assessment for Learning website offers a range of assessments tasks, resources, rubrics and worksamples for each learning area to support teachers in their classrooms.
KLA Subject HeadingsAssessmentGreat Britain Professional development On Track On Track is a bold and exciting initiative through which the Victorian Government records and publishes destination data for school leavers. The data, published on a school by school as well as a regional and state wide basis, is raising the level of understanding and discussion of students' post-secondary experiences.
KLA Subject HeadingsEducation policyEducational evaluation Schools Statistics Surveys Tertiary education Transitions in schooling VET (Vocational Education and Training) Victoria The Teaching and Learning for a Sustainable Future program UNESCO's major contribution to the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development, Teaching and Learning for a Sustainable Future, is now being revised and updated.
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Leadership from a system perspective Curriculum Leadership publishes an edited and abridged version of Dr Forrest's presentation to the Curriculum Corporation 2004 conference. He argues that if leadership is derived from, and makes use of the strengths in our particular context and culture and is exercised with confidence by the many, within an agreed framework of shared values and purposes that have been established by powerful exchanges and arguments, then we will be much better placed to lift the outcomes of our students.
KLA Subject HeadingsAdministrationLeadership Officials and employees School and community School culture State schools Tasmania Teaching profession Beyond Google: The UQL Cyberschool The UQL Cyberschool provides access to authoritative online electronic resources to secondary schools in Queensland. It negotiates access to databases available for schools, maintains a gateway to key websites, and offers training to teachers and students. The resources and services of the UQL Cyberschool provide an essential and readily accessible learning gateway to support students, teachers and the curriculum. No other program in the world performs this service.
KLA Subject HeadingsElearningElectronic publishing Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Information literacy Information services Internet Queensland School libraries Schools Websites The Case for Change The recently published ACER Report The Case for Change: A review of contemporary research on Indigenous education outcomes is a powerful reflection of key issues at play in this field. The review analyses and critiques existing policy and research in the area of Indigenous education. The authors argue that Indigenous education policy in Australia continues to be insufficiently based on research findings, contributing to a slow improvement in outcomes for Indigenous students. Indigenous research continues to be isolated from broader education discourses and the particular needs of Indigenous students should be seen in the context of those universal educational needs of all students. In the view of the authors, much of the research overemphasises the uniqueness of the Indigenous experience of education and underemphasises the many factors that impact on the learning of all students.
KLA Subject HeadingsAboriginal peoplesAboriginal students Education research Language and languages Building a Learning Community at Manunda Terrace Primary Manunda Terrace Primary, NT
KLA Subject HeadingsAboriginal studentsLiteracy Northern Territory Numeracy Primary education Scaffolding Literacy - enhancing success for Aboriginal students Association of Independent Schools WA
KLA Subject HeadingsAboriginal studentsEnglish language teaching Language and languages Literacy Professional development Teaching and learning Western Australia (WA) Looking outside the school Look outside the school is the message from Kuranda District State School, winner of a 2003 National Literacy and Numeracy Week award for outstanding achievement in improving literacy outcomes for their students. The school has established partnerships with outside agencies to assist it in developing programs to improve literacy achievement. For interagency strategies to work, all participants must own the strategy, share the same vision and feel equal partners in the work of improving learning outcomes for students.
KLA Subject HeadingsAboriginal peoplesAboriginal students English as an additional language English language teaching Languages other than English (LOTE) Leadership Literacy Nutrition Queensland School and community School attendance The Rainbow Program for children in refugee familiesChildren coping with past trauma and the stresses of resettlement need strong support following their arrival in a safe country. While teaching professionals cannot erase the impact of trauma and disruption, they can play an important role in fostering the conditions to promote children's successful adaptation and resilience. The Rainbow Program is a school-based approach to providing support to refugee children and their families, and is particularly useful in raising awareness of the special needs of refugee students.
KLA Subject HeadingsChild abuseMental Health Migration Multicultural education School and community Social adjustment National consistency in curriculum outcomes During the course of the last ten years, State and Territory curriculum structures, the place of learning areas, and the nature of learning outcomes have become defined in increasingly dissimilar ways. The National Consistency in Curriculum Outcomes project launched by Australia's Ministers of Education is designed to achieve greater consistency whilst keeping flexibility at the State/Territory level.
KLA Subject HeadingsCurriculum planningEducation aims and objectives Education policy Educational planning English language teaching Federal-state relations Standards Student adjustment Continuous Professional Learning: a shared responsibility Continuous Professional Learning (CPL) is essential for anyone involved in teaching as professional practice. Some educators may regard themselves more as employees than professionals, and see CPL primarily as a responsibility of employing and related authorities. We need to break this culture and replace it with one that has professional educators driving CPL - individually and collectively - with the support of as many stakeholders as possible.
KLA Subject HeadingsEducation aims and objectivesEducation and state Education policy Educational planning Lifelong Learning Professional development Teacher training Teaching and learning Teaching profession The Aboriginal Career Aspirations program The Aboriginal Career Aspirations Program (ACAP) is one of a range of programs designed to improve participation rates and education outcomes for Indigenous students in Australian schools. The project applies Aboriginal perspectives to career education, including transitions, pathways planning, work and enterprise education. Through the notion of 'aspirations', ACAP endeavours to encourage and develop Aboriginal students' work, study and life aspirations by fostering positive self image, identity and knowledge.
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Quality professional development for primary science teachers In recent years considerable attention has been paid to the teaching of science and technology in schools, with widespread calls for more professional development opportunities for teachers. The Primary Science Innovations conferences in Queensland are providing quality professional development on syllabus strands, and on issues such as assessment and reporting and Inquiry Learning. They also point to the wider assistance available to primary science teachers.
Key Learning AreasScienceTechnology Subject HeadingsAssessmentEducational planning Primary education Professional development Queensland Science teaching Technology teaching The Values Education study 2003 The 2003 Values Education Study has revealed a broad range of varied and excellent practices and approaches to values education in Australian schools. The Study clearly demonstrates how school communities in all jurisdictions are trying to utilise values-based education to enrich students' holistic development, and to respond constructively and positively to a range of contemporary schooling challenges.
KLA Subject HeadingsCase studiesCitizenship Civics education Conflict management Curriculum planning Democracy Education aims and objectives Education philosophy Education policy Educational evaluation Educational planning Educational sociology Ethics Nationalism Religion School and community School culture Values education (character education) Community or market: covenant or contract? As the world is reconstituted by neo-liberal economic policy, many groups now report crumbling relationships and a hunger for community. While schools are bound by legal and contractual obligations and the discipline of the market, they also need a covenant of shared values with the community they serve.
KLA Subject HeadingsEducation and stateEducation finance Education philosophy Leadership School and community Kids' Science State aims to encourage tomorrow's scientists Teaching science in Western Australia has just got easier, thanks to a new initiative called the Kids' Science State. It is designed to reinvigorate science education by giving teachers more confidence and skills, through a range of supportive programs covering professional development, careers information, outreach activities and online resources for teachers and students. A major focus is on primary schools, where the seeds of interest in science can be sown at a young age.
Key Learning AreasScienceSubject HeadingsProfessional developmentScience teaching Western Australia (WA) Students prefer dialogue and multi-media interaction The rapid onset and uptake of new technologies is changing students' experiences, and the way we build relationships with them. Today's youth integrate the use of text messaging, phoning, chatting online or watching TV, and, in the age of interactivity, the focus is on creating meaningful dialogues. Media that promote instant access to information, and which support frequent and quality dialogue, will underpin future developments.
KLA Subject HeadingsComputer-based trainingComputers in society Distance education Elearning Information and Communications Technology (ICT) The Qualities of Peacemakers Efforts to restrict children's exposure to wartime images in the media are unlikely to be completely successful. Research also suggests that protection of children from all knowledge of war is misguided. Parents and teachers need to talk with children about war.
The Qualities of Peacemakers project, funded by UNESCO, suggests a constructive and empowering way for teachers to share ideas about war and peace with children. The program begins with the child's own world and then links peace in the home, school and neighbourhood with the international arena. KLA Subject HeadingsConflict managementPeace Dare to Lead The Dare to Lead Coalition invites schools across Australia to join its drive to bring outcomes for Indigenous students up to those of the general student population. The Coalition will promote research, professional development and other resources, encouraging schools to reflect on current curriculum and teaching practice regarding Indigenous students.
KLA Subject HeadingsAboriginal peoplesAboriginal students Leadership Torres Strait Islanders Do we need a national school system? Many of the functional areas in school management rightly belong in state agencies or schools. Where speed of delivery, flexibility and responsiveness to local needs are criteria, services should be located close to the users of those services. But in the big emblematic areas of curriculum, assessment and certification, it is difficult to find any argument for the maintenance of eight separate parallel institutional frameworks.
KLA Subject HeadingsAdministrationAssessment Computer-based training Curriculum planning Education and state Education management Education policy Educational evaluation Educational planning Elearning Federal-state relations Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Officials and employees Standards Teachers' employment Teaching profession The reading debate and the National Inquiry While teachers and teacher educators acknowledge that they always have more to learn, they fear that those who do not understand their complex world could drive an inquiry that further alienates their perspective. The priority of the National Inquiry, therefore, will be that it is strongly representative of practitioner experience. If this is assured, practitioners will welcome its potential to be a means of actually impelling wider understanding of their complex work.
KLA Subject HeadingsEducation policyEducational evaluation English language teaching Literacy Sustainable Schools Victoria Sustainable Schools Victoria encourages schools to develop a whole-school approach to improving environmental, educational, social and economic outcomes. It has a strong focus on student learning and involvement in strategy, planning and implementation.
KLA Subject HeadingsCurriculum planningEducation policy Educational planning Environment Environmental Education Sustainable development Victoria Leadership: what's wrong? We have a crisis of leadership in schools in Australia. There are extraordinary individual leaders, but many principals feel powerless. Our rhetoric reinforces that feeling, and organisational and institutional arrangements conspire to weaken and undermine principals. I want to rebuild the idea of a strong, courageous, talented individual who takes on responsibility for a school and a school community, who acts ethically and responsibly, who exercises the kind of power that is appropriate to the position.
KLA Subject HeadingsCommunicationEducation aims and objectives Educational evaluation Leadership School culture Schools The NSW Sustainable Schools Program In New South Wales the Sustainable Schools Program (SSP) is working with the school systems and their communities, teachers and students to support positive environmental change. A key issue is the integration of good educational practice into Environment Education initiatives. This paper gives a brief overview of the SSP and of related curriculum issues.
KLA Subject HeadingsCurriculum planningEducation policy Environment Environmental Education New South Wales (NSW) Sustainable development Environmental Education for a sustainable future: formal schooling The Australian Government is currently working to improve the coordination of Environmental Education in schools. Its Sustainable Schools initiative integrates existing, fragmented approaches to sustainability education into a holistic program with measurable environmental, financial and curriculum outcomes. The Department of the Environment and Heritage and the Department of Education Science and Training are currently working with State and Territory education departments on a National Environmental Education Statement for Schools, to set out the key aims and principles for schools in the area of Environmental Education.
KLA Subject HeadingsEducation policyEducational planning Environment Environmental Education School and community School culture Schools Sustainable development Adelaide River Primary School, Northern Territory Adelaide River Primary School
KLA Subject HeadingsCase studiesCitizenship Environment Environmental Education Northern Territory Paperwise in Tasmania Molesworth Environment Centre
KLA Subject HeadingsEnvironmentEnvironmental Education Professional development School culture Sustainable development Tasmania The Youth Environment Council of South Australia Department for Heritage and Environment, SA
KLA Subject HeadingsAdolescentsEnvironment Environmental Education South Australia Environmental Education in Western Australia Department of Education and Training, WA
KLA Subject HeadingsCase studiesCitizenship Civics education Curriculum planning Education policy Environment Environmental Education School and community School culture Schools Western Australia (WA) Indigenous language education in South Australia Department of Education and Children's Services
KLA Subject HeadingsAboriginal peoplesAboriginal students Curriculum planning Language and languages South Australia Guiding Tracks: Literacy and the Indigenous Learner Catholic Education Commission of Victoria
KLA Subject HeadingsAboriginal studentsCatholic schools English language teaching Literacy Victoria The Gungarri Language Program at Mitchell State School Education Queensland
KLA Subject HeadingsAboriginal peoplesAboriginal students Case studies Curriculum planning Educational planning Language and languages Languages other than English (LOTE) School and community School culture MindMatters: protecting mental health in school communities MindMatters is a program that supports Australian secondary schools in promoting and protecting the mental health of young people. By taking a whole-school approach to social and emotional wellbeing, the program aims to develop school environments in which students feel safe, valued, engaged and purposeful.
KLA Subject HeadingsBullyingEmotions Health Mental Health Professional development School and community Secondary education Websites Clearing the way for more male primary teachers Legislation has been introduced into the Australian Parliament to amend the Sex Discrimination Act, in order to address the issue of attracting more men into teaching positions in primary schools. This article is an edited version of text taken from doorstop statements made by Dr Brendan Nelson, Australian Government Minister for Education, and from a joint statement by Dr Nelson and Attorney-General Philip Ruddock.
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Gender or quality? The author draws upon comments by Professor Frank Crowther, to argue that ensuring the quality of teachers is more important than achieving gender balance in the provision of primary school teachers. 'A student's intellectual, social and personal development is influenced more by the quality of teaching than by factors such as gender, age, ethnicity or religion of the teacher,' according to Professor Crowther.
KLA Subject HeadingsBoys' educationFemale teachers Male teachers Primary education Teacher training Teacher-student relationships Teachers' employment Teaching and learning Teaching profession Constructive Steps to Solve the Mathematics Teacher Shortage Many factors contribute to the declining number of skilled mathematics teachers, such as the rise of better paid jobs in computer-based work and the massive expansion of subject choices in the later years of secondary schooling. Schools can do more to promote the profession. Mathematics teachers themselves need to inspire potential teachers in today's classrooms by conveying their own passion for the discipline.
Key Learning AreasMathematicsSubject HeadingsComputers in societyCurriculum planning Education philosophy Education policy Mathematics teaching Teachers' employment Teaching profession Highly Effective Questioning Students rarely fail written test questions due to unfamiliarity with the type of question posed. More likely, they fail because they have not developed the underlying critical thinking skills to be able to answer those questions successfully. By providing a structured approach to using questions, the Highly Effective Questioning technique develops the cognitive and critical thinking skills of students. The technique uses intensive, tactical, minute by minute oral questioning of students over the course of a lesson, rather than just as a minor note at the end.
KLA Subject HeadingsClassroom managementTeacher-student relationships Teaching and learning Thought and thinking Teaching, a profession whose time has come What should be the role of our schools and other educational institutions in contributing to whatever form of Smart Nation we determine to be most appropriate to pursue? Is the teaching profession up to the task that we decide to set for our educational institutions in the pursuit of a dynamic Smart Nation future?
Professor Crowther is editor of Teachers as Leaders in a Knowledge Society, the 2003 Year Book of the Australian College of Educators. To highlight this major new publication Curriculum Leadership includes an excerpt from Professor Crowther's Introduction. KLA Subject HeadingsEducational planningLeadership Teaching profession Learning languages in Australia - too much like hard work? Throughout the rest of the world the study of foreign languages remains a dynamic and vital part of the core curriculum, right up to the last year of high school. Why do we insist on being different?
Key Learning AreasLanguagesSubject HeadingsLanguages other than English (LOTE)History, wars and history wars Over the past ten years or so Australia has witnessed a series of lively, complicated and sometimes bitter public debates about aspects of our national history. It is difficult to imagine issues more weighty and disturbing than genocide or the ruination of a people and culture. But these issues must be confronted if young people are to truly belong to a reconciled community. The current public debate also points to something much more mundane but significant for educators - the need to recognise that human knowledge and understanding is constantly growing and shifting, and that no pedagogy or set of curriculum content is a permanent embodiment of truth.
KLA Subject HeadingsAboriginal peoplesHistory Racism Building global citizenship Global education is a distinctive approach to engaging students in learning about the world. It offers assistance to students and teachers alike as they grapple with the need to understand an increasingly complex and dynamic world, while also maintaining the carefully articulated scope and sequence built into the formal curriculum.
Key Learning AreasStudies of Society and EnvironmentSubject HeadingsCitizenshipCivics education Globalisation International education Making History Terry Hastings claims that 'history in Australia has never been healthier', as he point us towards the many recent issues that have re-introduced history into the national conversation. At the same time, schools have been reflecting on the various approaches to the discipline, and with the help of the results of the National Inquiry into School History, they now have the concept of 'historical literacy' to aid that process.
Key Learning AreasStudies of Society and EnvironmentSubject HeadingsHistoryTeachers matter: making time and space Teachers need more opportunities to explore and debate learning and teaching styles, and to engage in real conversations about how they find their inspiration and the energy to work with young people. Teachers need this to be part of their working life, if they are to stay connected to their professional mission and engaged with the educational and social environment of their school.
KLA Subject HeadingsLeadershipProfessional development Schools Teacher-student relationships Teachers' employment Teaching and learning Teaching profession Values education: the emerging agenda While the overwhelming majority of schools have generally been committed to values education in practice, it has not always been clearly articulated as an element of the school's mission. Late last year the Commonwealth Government launched a significant project in the emerging priority area of values education and, while it is too early to say that the shape of values education in Australian schools has been defined, the Commonwealth Values Education Study has begun to clarify the task ahead.
KLA Subject HeadingsValues educationSocial competence: moving beyond the mantras Social competence is an important element of the personal and educational development of children in the early years, and it is vital that we move beyond popular slogans in addressing the issues related to it.
KLA Subject HeadingsSocial adjustmentLanguages: Where next? Should we persevere with the concept of Languages other than English as a key learning area that demands every student's participation over most of the compulsory years of schooling?
Key Learning AreasLanguagesSubject HeadingsCurriculum planningLanguages other than English (LOTE) Curriculum heretics Ideology and prejudice should have no place in selecting teaching interventions. Our role as curriculum leaders is to ensure that Australian education focuses on evidence, and on what works, not on whatever fad or belief is currently driving educational theory.
KLA Subject HeadingsEducationEducation aims and objectives Education research Educational evaluation Leadership Education development in Timor-Leste The violence that gripped East Timor in 1999 virtually destroyed an already weak education system. Since the restoration of civil order, the school system has been slowly reconstructed. With international assistance a number of projects are under way to rebuild school infrastructure, provide teaching and learning materials and technical assistance, and assist in policy development. In anticipation of an uncertain labour market, the international donor community is also backing a project to help generate employment and stimulate local economies.
KLA Subject HeadingsCurriculum planningEducation and state Education finance Educational planning Indonesia International education International relations Language and languages Portugal Online content for Australian and New Zealand schools: an update The Learning Federation is undertaking online curriculum content development designed for Australian and New Zealand schools, across six priority curriculum areas. Content takes the form of online learning objects, which are capable of being used in multiple ways and contexts. The distribution of the content will be carried out by individual education jurisdictions. There are no previous models to work with in this task. Although interest in such approaches is growing in Europe, Asia and the United States, there has generally been a concentration on industry training and higher education needs. As overseas interest grows, however, more collaborative work will be possible.
KLA Subject HeadingsInformation and Communications Technology (ICT)Establishing beacons of success for boys Stuart Trist introduces a statement by the Honourable Dr Brendan Nelson MP, Minister for Education, Science and Training, on the Commonwealth Government's Boys' Education Lighthouse Schools Programme.
KLA Subject HeadingsBoys' educationBreaking the Leadership Rules The 11th annual Curriculum Corporation conference, Breaking the Leadership Rules, progresses the conversation begun at last year's conference on how effective educational leadership can foster environments that support teachers' continuous improvement, and improve outcomes for students.
KLA Subject HeadingsEducational evaluationEducational planning Leadership Professional development School principals Schools Standards Teacher evaluation Teacher training Teaching and learning Teaching profession Literacy and numeracy at a special school in the Northern Territory Henbury School is a special school in the Northern Territory, catering to secondary aged students with intellectual disabilities. The school is currently looking at a whole-school literacy and numeracy plan within the newly implemented Northern Territory Curriculum Framework (NTCF). As part of this process, the school is reassessing the type and range of skills taught.
KLA Subject HeadingsCurriculum planningDisabled Literacy Northern Territory Numeracy Secondary education Special education |