Professional Educator Volume 2 Number 1 March 2003

Call it a review, a taskforce, staffroom debate, the focus for practitioners, policy-makers and researchers in the education sector sits squarely on the notion of quality. One of the significant things about that focus is the extent of consensus – about the notion of quality and the ways to achieve and maintain it. Consensus has also been a hallmark of the progress in developing professional standards. Beyond the astonishing fact that many across the education sector – educators, professional associations, researchers, employers, unions, politicians – appear to have agreed on the need for standards and more or less agreed on the specifics, what’s most promising is that the drive to determine what we do and what we need as educators has been as much a matter of practice as a matter of policy. It’s been about the preparedness of educators to analyse, talk and collaborate, and of governments to consult, listen and act. In the conversations behind the development of professional standards has been a wealth of practical and research knowledge about the thing that good educators have always thought about – the effects of pedagogy on the learning of students. Consider literacy and numeracy: many programs are driven by that same combination of practical and research knowledge informed by research partnerships between schools, departments and systems, and education faculties. Some of this kind of collaborative activity is reported in the articles in this issue, but there’s much more that’s also going on, and it’s not all rosy. A looming hot spot is teacher supply, in schools, TAFEs and universities. Australia has an aging teaching population and a looming shortage compounded by recruitment and retention difficulties, especially in the areas of maths, science and technology and in remote regions, and we’re not alone. Most OECD countries face the same problems. The supply issue is now described by some as a crisis. How will we respond? We look in this issue at what’s happening on the supply front in schools. Next issue we’ll look at the TAFE sector. This issue also explores the role of educators in reporting on child abuse. Next issue we’ll be looking further at progress on professional standards, plus more on education, educators and educational research across the nation’s schools, TAFEs and universities.

For further information on articles, please check the links.

The Profession

Teacher standards, quality and professionalism
by the National Reference Group of Educators

Why should teachers embrace professional standards? What purposes are they designed to serve? Who will benefit most from their introduction? Such questions are often in the minds of practising teachers, given that over time they have witnessed a plethora of initiatives designed to improve the quality of teaching, with many of these emphasising the importance of professional standards.
What teachers know, do and value has a significant influence on the nature, extent and rate of student learning. The powerful phrase – ‘teachers make the difference’ – captures the key role that professional educators play in shaping the lives and futures of their students. Recognition of the critical relationship between teacher and learner highlights the need to better define, communicate and build on what constitutes good teaching...

Links: www.curriculum.edu.au/mceetya/taskfrce/taskfrce.htm
www.austcolled.com.au/projects/teacherstandqualprof.html
www.nef.edu.au/home.html

Teaching and Learning

Turning it around
by Carol Christensen

Bundamba State Secondary College is located in a low socio-economic area outside Brisbane where there are high levels of unemployment, poverty and family disruption. Historically, the school experienced many of the problems typical of areas with high levels of social and economic stress. It had high rates of academic failure, generally low levels of achievement and widespread student disaffection.
A few years ago the school teetered on the brink of collapse, with student numbers so low its closure was discussed. Frequent media reports of student transgressions had a serious impact on the school’s reputation so that where possible parents found alternative arrangements for their children’s education. In 1997, a new principal was appointed who systematically set about transforming the school. He set about prioritising the major issues facing the school, then addressed each of these. Towards the end of the year, a teacher came to him and asked permission for a Year Twelve student to have his final exam papers read to him. The student was not able to read independently. It was later revealed that this was not an isolated case. A number of students were unable to read at a level adequate to participate in a modern, technological society...

New Teachers

Supply + demand
by New South Wales Department of Education and Training and the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering

There are two key messages, First, the national interest can only be served if Commonwealth and state governments collaborate to address teacher shortages. Secondly, the supply of quality teachers is foundational to an effective system of school education. To this end, New South Wales has commenced development of a framework of professional teaching standards and a related teacher accreditation system.
The recruitment and retention of teachers of science, technology and mathematics cannot be addressed effectively in isolation from issues of recruitment and retention across the professional spectrum. Significant trends impacting on the supply of teachers, related to the aging of the profession and its feminisation, are evident in Australia and across OECD countries. Better understanding of these and other supply trends is an important first step in developing effective teacher supply policies...

Links: www.det.nsw.edu.au/employment/teachnsw/index.htm
www.dest.gov.au/schools/teachingreview/sublist.htm

Innovation

Opening up educational possibilities through ICT
by Peter Carey

Many schools are making a transition from conducting discrete computer studies classes to developing students’ Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) competencies, using computers as a tool to use for learning and teaching in a range of learning areas. (Carey, 1997a) This transition is enabling schools to reallocate their learning technology resources to facilitate routine access to ICTs in each learning area, but to do this teachers need to understand what sorts of teaching approach, curriculum plan, software, hardware and peripherals have been found to have maximum effect on improving student understanding in each learning area. As a result, there has been a gradual recognition that technology alone leads neither to automatic use nor to more effective learning and teaching. The critical element is how technology is incorporated into instruction. The educational value of computers does not lie in the computer per se nor the software used, but rather, in the processes of learning and teaching employed, in other words, in the ‘provision of metacognitive experience, teacher instruction, and co-operative learning among learners.’ (Beamish and Au, 1995, 105)...

References:
Apple Computer. (1995) Changing the conversation about teaching, learning, and technology: A report on 10 years of ACOT research.
Beamish, P. and Au, W. (1995) Learning with Computers and Instructional Strategies, in R. Oliver and M. Wild (eds.). Learning without Limits: Proceedings from the Australian Computers in Education Conference, Vol. 2 : 105, Perth, ECAWA.
Bell, P., Davis, E. A., and Linn, M. C. (1995) The knowledge integration environment: Theory and design. In J. L. Schnase and E. L. Cunnius (Eds.), Proceedings of CSCL'95: The first international conference on computer support for collaborative learning (pp. 14-21). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Campione, J. C., Brown, A. L., and Jay, M. (1992) Computers in a community of learners. In E. D. Corte, M. C. Linn, H. Mandl, and L. Verschaffel (Eds.), Computer-based learning environments and problem solving (pp. 163-188). Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
Carey, P. (1997a).Wired for Learning, Integrating Computers and Communications in Education, Youth Studies Australia, Vol. 16, No. 2, pp. 42 - 49, June.
Carey, P. (1997b) What Does Information Technology Mean for Us? Possibilities and Problems Presented in Cyberspace. In 'The Computer Age', Issues of the Nineties, Spinney Press, Vol. 80.
Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt (1992) Some thoughts about constructivism and instructional design. In Duffy and Jonassen (Eds.), Constructivism and the technology of instruction, a conversation. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Cuban, L. (1986) Teachers and machines: The classroom use of technology since 1920. New York: Teachers College Press.
Dwyer, D. Ringstaff, C., and Sandholtz, J.H. (1991) Changes in teachers' beliefs and practices in technology-rich classrooms. Educational Leadership, 48(8), 45-52.
Edelson, D.C., O'Neill, D. K., Gomez, L. M., and D'Amico, L. (1995) A design for effective support of inquiry and collaboration. In J. L. Schnase and E. L. Cunnius (Eds.), Proceedings of CSCL'95 : The first international conference on computer support for collaborative learning (pp. 107-111). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Fullan, M. (1982) The meaning of educational change. New York: Teachers College Press.
ICT Integration Schools Rubric (2002) CathEdNet Curriculum Working Party, Catholic Education Office of Western Australia.
Kinnaman, D.E. (1990) The next decade: What the future holds. Technology and Learning, 15 (3), September.
Koschmann, T., Newman, D., Woodruff, E., Pea, R., and Rowley, P. (1993) Technology and pedagogy for collaborative problem solving as a context for learning: Report on a CSCW'92 workshop. ACM SIGCHI Bulletin, 25(4), pp. 57-60.
Marzano, R.J. (1992) A different kind of classroom: Teaching with dimensions of learning. Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Means, B. (1994) Introduction: Using technology to advance educational goals. In B. Means (Ed.), Technology and educational reform: The reality behind the promise (pp. 1-22), San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
Miller, L., and Olson, J. (1994) Putting the computer in its place: A study of teaching with technology. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 26, 1, p. 21-141.
Niederhauser, D. S., and Stoddart, T. (1994) Teacher's perspectives on computer-assisted instruction: Transmission versus construction of knowledge. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans, LA. (ERIC No. ED 374 116).
Owston, R. D. (1997) The World Wide Web: A technology to enhance teaching and learning? Educational Researcher, 26(2), 27-33.
Ryser, G. R., Beeler, J. E., and McKenzie, C. M. (1995) Effects of a computer supported intentional learning environment (CSILE) on students' self-concept, self-regulatory behavior, and critical thinking ability. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 13(4), 375-385.
Sawyer, G. (1996) The How and Why of Multimedia in the Classroom, EQ Australia, Autumn, p. 32.
Scardamalia, M., and Bereiter, C. (1993) An architecture for collaborative knowledge building. In E. D. Corte, M. C. Linn, H. Mandl, and L. Verschaffel (Eds.), Computer-based learning environments and problem solving (pp. 41-66). Berlin: Spinger-Verlag.
Scardamalia, M. C., Bereiter, C., Brett, P. J., Burtis, C., Calhoun, N., and Smith, L. (1992) Educational applications of a networked communal database. Interactive Learning Environments, 2 (1), 45-71.
Vickers, M., and Smalley, J. (1995) Integrating computers into classroom teaching: Cross-national perspectives. In N. Perkins, J. L. Schwartz, M. M. West, and M. S. Wiske (Eds.). Software goes to school: Teaching for understanding with new technologies (pp. 271-282). New York: Oxford University Press.

Innovation

'Making the difference' in numeracy
by Susan Busatto

The NSW Department of Education and Training, the Catholic Education Commission NSW, and the Association of Independent Schools of NSW are jointly involved in a three-year, Commonwealth funded, Numeracy Research in NSW Primary Schools Project. The project, funded under the Commonwealth Numeracy Research and Development Initiative, began in January 2001 and is due for completion in December 2004.
This cross-sectoral research project sets out to answer two simple questions:

• what are the educational practices which are ‘making a difference’ in enabling primary school students to achieve ‘outstanding’ numeracy learning outcomes?
• to what extent and in what ways can such educational practices be successfully applied to other school contexts?...

Interview

Earthy academia
by Lynne Hunt

‘This is the twenty-second out of twenty-two units that I need to do. Everything has been black and white so far. I didn’t need your forty shades of grey.’ That was one student’s response to a course by Lynne Hunt, an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Communications, Health and Science at Edith Cowan University and joint winner of last year’s Prime Minister’s Award for University Teacher of the Year. ‘Didn’t you like the unit?’ Hunt asked. ‘Oh, it was awesome,’ she replied. What Hunt had thought was going to be a complaint was actually a compliment – and one appropriate to a Social Science lecturer committed to the development of critical thinking. ‘Nonetheless, she made me realise that my teaching life had changed: I teach foundation social science units with “hard science” students in the applied area of health. This requires that I reflect on the essence of my discipline in order to teach its core elements. I do this by directing students’ attention to the generic skills that lie at the heart of the Social Sciences: social and political awareness; social research; critical thinking; and written and oral communication.’ The aim: authentic learning...

National Perspective

The national perspective
by Steve Holden

Want a clearer picture of the education sector? Just consult one of the many government enquiries or reviews now on. Education has to be one of the most inquired-about sectors. Try education and boys, education and disabilities, professional standards, teaching and teacher education, vocational education and training, higher education, anything else?
The Commonwealth House of Representatives Education Committee finally released its enquiry into the education of boys – and girls as well, as it turns out – but still called Boys: Getting it right...

Resource Reviews

Digital Hemlock by Tara Brabazon
reviewed by Richard Johnson

This book was my holiday reading with a purpose’ and it was a great choice. What’s more, it presented me with references to keep me busy for at least the rest of the year.
Let me come clean: I have partaken of the hemlock Brabazon describes! I am an academic in teacher education and the context and experiences that Brabazon discusses are very familiar. Her voice speaks loud and clear to me and I found myself nodding in agreement with most of it. I’ve read other material that questions the use of technology in education, but Brabazon’s message is different: it’s positive. Hers is not just a critique of technology with a ‘back to basics’ message, it’s a critique of current pedagogy...

Young and Black and Deadly by Chris Sara
reviewed by Andrew Gonczi

There is no single prescription for leading a successful educational institution but it’s clear that it is better to do some things than others. I was recently involved in a research project looking at school suspensions across New South Wales and was struck by the differences in the communities within which the schools operate and the impact this has on the implementation of policies. I reported that the differences were something to be applauded because they showed that the school was flexible– responding to the needs of their students in a unique way while remaining within the framework of a statewide policy. Although many of the schools that were doing well were doing different things, they had one thing in common – clear thinking leaders who were able to communicate their vision to staff and local communities, who had an understanding of the local context, were focused on pedagogy and, probably most importantly, had high expectations of their students, and staff...

Issues in Education

Protecting children from abuse
by Chris Goddard, Janise Mitchell and Joe Tucci

Teachers are often in the front line in identifying suspected cases of child abuse. Their prolonged contact with children places them in an ideal position to recognise differences in children’s presentation or behaviour. Children trust their teachers and may talk to them about something that is worrying. Indeed, research suggests that children seek a neutral, trusted figure if they decide to disclose their abuse. As a result, teachers are often the first person to whom a child will talk...

Links: www.kidscount.com.au

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