Professional Educator Volume 3 Number 1 March 2004

Public attention has been drawn to the issue of values in education following the Prime Minister’s recent comments that public schools are ‘values neutral’ and public school teachers are ‘too politically correct’. An incorrect generalisation the public may draw from the PM’s comments could be that ‘values’ had not been thought about until Mr Howard raised it. Nothing could be further from the truth. As a look at the précis of the ACE 2002 Year Book in this issue of Professional Educator reveals, educators have been discussing values in education at a theoretical and practical level for many years. This has been a serious and continuing debate, one that notes all the difficulties and subtleties inherent in such a topic, yet which has had, and continues to have, consequences for schools everywhere. This issue also advances the debate, with Terence Lovat and Neville Schofield exploring the ‘supreme anomaly’ that suggests ‘it is actually teachers’ commitment to values and values education that is impelling the very behaviour that the PM condemns’.

The Adelaide Declaration on National Goals for Schooling in the Twenty-First Century, agreed to by the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs in 1999, acknowledged that schooling provided ‘a foundation for young Australians’ intellectual, physical, social, moral, spiritual and aesthetic development’. Developing such strong value systems in young people has always been part and parcel of being a good teacher and is high on the agenda of every effective school. In a timely interview Professor Allan Luke says it’s worth recalling what Basil Bernstein said three decades ago:education cannot compensate for society and you can’t blame education systems for everything in cultures and societies, nor hold them solely responsible for changing these cultures and societies. However, as Luke reminds us, schools can play a positive role in change, and he cites the gender equity movement, strongly led by the Australian Government, as an example.

In one of his first major statements as the Australian College of Educators National President, Professor Geoff Masters addressed the related matter of how parents choose schools for their children, and concluded: ‘Not all parents have the same expectations of schools and parents often have different priorities for their children. But research suggests that parents have a shared interest in seeing their children attend schools that are safe and supportive and in which their children are happy and learning. They also look to schools to promote values such as respect for others, honesty, tolerance, fairness and the pursuit of excellence’. (‘What makes a Good School?’ Education Review, February 2004)

The Australian College of Educators believes that if the Australian government wishes to strengthen the development of values in all young people, then it should increase its support for teachers in all sectors, as research shows that it is teachers who most influence educational outcomes. The College suggests that two strategies – the facilitation and dissemination of good professional practice in school leadership and teaching and learning, and the recognition and reward of highly accomplished teachers in this field – would best support the development of values in education. The values referred to by Masters are Australian values and should be nurtured by all schools – whether one teacher schools in the bush, schools with large numbers of Indigenous students or schools in predominantly white Anglo-Australian areas – and certainly irrespective of whether they are government or non-government schools.

The Profession

Sustaining the profession

Steve Holden

‘Quality teachers make a difference. They are the single, most important determinant of student achievement.’ The statement on the first page of the Commonwealth’s Review of Teaching and Teacher Education – released late last year as Australia’s Teachers: Australia’s Future – announced the good news: teachers matter. And the bad news? A predicted national shortage of between 20,000 and 30,000 teachers within the next ten years. Between the good news and the bad lies a tension, and a key question: what is it that sustains teachers in the profession? A report by Jan Lokan for the ACE Foundation found some answers, as Steve Holden reports...

Mentoring for quality

Steve Holden

Mentor programs are now helping beginning teachers ease into the swim of teaching, but some are still
getting thrown in at the deep end. Sure, all educators recognise induction and mentoring programs
are two sides to the one coin, with benefits for novice and expert alike, but many in the profession,
bypassed by any induction and mentoring program, wouldn’t even bother arguing the toss. Mentoring, it seems, is still a matter of hit and miss. For Don Perna, a Year Adviser at St Joseph’s High School, Albion Park, New South Wales, and winner of an individual award in the Commonwealth’s 2003 National Awards for Quality Schooling, mentoring has been a hit. ‘The program itself urges the mentor to reach a higher standard in all facets of the teaching profession – and we all know how complex the role is,’ Perna says. ‘It gently ushers you to new heights of communication, and allows you to become a better listener.’ Mentoring, he says, has also increased his capacity for self-reflection and evaluation as a teacher. And the benefit for inductees? Increased support, instantly. ‘Inductees are not alone in their journey,’ Perna says. ‘Importantly, they are not being supervised, a crucial factor in this program. They have someone to listen when all they want is to speak about their situation to someone who understands, and they situations arising, so they’re more prepared for the difficult times.’ ...

The values debate

Values-free public education: the supreme anomaly
Terence Lovat & Neville Schofield

The Prime Minister’s recent criticism of public education as being ‘values-free’ and ‘politically correct’ has stirred much debate about the nature of values and values education and about their relationship with public schools. If we are to believe the ancients that we are what we believe and value, then it is scarcely conceivable that values neutrality could be achieved by any teacher or school even if that was the explicit intention. Furthermore, one would have to say that a system built around the supreme values of universal education, a guarantee of free access and the right of each citizen to its service is hardly one with a values-free intention...

Year Book summary on values
David Myton

The Prime Minister, Mr John Howard, sparked an energetic and noisy debate earlier this year when he declared that state schools were increasingly ‘values neutral’ and their teachers ‘too politically correct’. No doubt Mr Howard was engaging in some shrewd political gamesmanship aimed at promoting private schools and encouraging their growing numbers of supporters, with a seasoned prime-ministerial eye focused on the federal election to be held later this year.

However, Mr Howard may not have calculated on the depth and breadth of response to his assertions by educators, parents, academics, journalists and other politicians across Australia. Perhaps unwittingly, he rekindled a debate on ‘values’ in education that is by no means new and which - ironically enough - demonstrated that state schools, their teachers and students, are as values rich as anywhere the PM would care to mention...

Interview

Education from Australia to Asia: A conversation with Allan Luke
David Myton

Professor Allan Luke, Dean of the Centre for Research in Pedagogy and Practice at the
National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, says
he has been engaged in the ‘professional and educational adventure of a lifetime’ since
winning the Australian College of Educators medal in 2003. He talks to David Myton
about his current work and reflects on trends in education generally...

VET strategy

VET national strategy
Tom Karmel

The Commonwealth, State and Territory ministers with responsibilities for vocational education and training signed off the new national strategy at their meeting in November 2003. This was the
culmination of a lengthy development of the strategy by the Australian National Training Authority. The consultations leading to the strategy were incredibly widespread and
comprehensive. Interviews were held with industry, community and vocational education and training leaders. Focus groups involved employers, individuals and providers. Communities
were consulted in 25 cities and towns. One hundred and twenty submissions were received from training providers, employers, individuals, unions, non-government organisations,
researchers, training brokers and government departments.

The strategy provides a vision, four objectives, a purpose of VET and 12 strategies, as well as considerable contextual information on the importance of vocational education and
training, what has been achieved and what needs to be done...

Research

Teachers matter
Steve Holden

Educational research has for some time been zeroing in on teacher quality, finding that teachers have one of the most significant influences on the learning of students. While that's a conclusion practising teachers might not find surprising the research is still generating some heat, if not a little light, as Steve Holden reports...

A snapshot of brain-based teaching
Peter Cole

Brain-based research suggests that all complex learning involves three interactive elements that apply to all students and in all knowledge domains where genuine understanding and natural knowledge are desired. These elements are an optimal state of mind (relaxed alertness), consisting of low threat and high challenge
the orchestrated immersion of the learner in multiple, complex, authentic experience the regular, active process-ing of experiences as the basis for the making of meaning.

Caine and Caine (1997) argue that we ‘desperately need to change our collective thinking and to take advantage of the research into learning, including the neurosciences’. Theorists have begun to reconceive the notion of intelligence, particularly the notion that intelligence is fixed.

We now have more complex theories of intelligence (eg. multiple intelligences, emotional intelligence and reflective intelligence) and understand that some types of intelligence can be taught and learnt.

Brain-based research has influenced the way that curriculum and teaching is conceived...

Resource Review

The Reading Specialist - Leadership for Classroom, School, and Community by Rita M. Bean
Reviewed by Margaret Johnston

For most people, including the average classroom teacher, the reading specialist’s job is mostly a nebulous concept and in some cases, mysterious. These reading people slip in and out of classes with their basket of resources or withdraw students to the calm of their reading room, while classroom teachers are locked into their timetables with rooms full of students with disparate talents.

The Reading Specialist – Leadership for the Classroom, School and Community by Dr Rita M. Bean is a source of enlightenment for those of us who have been thus far uninformed. Rest assured -no, the reading specialists are not on light duties and yes, they are earning their professional salaries. However the book has not been written for the wider public or even for the wider teaching community. The preface explains that it is written for the reading specialist and trainee reading specialist, and for those it is an invaluable resource...

Inclusion Illustrated Schools - A Resource for Trainers by Anthony Shaddock and Patrick Shaddock
Reviewed by Karen Mercer

Inclusive practice in Australian schools is an area that frequently sees disparity between policy and practice. While authors Shaddock and Shaddock acknowledge “students with disabilities should be given the opportunity for inclusion”, they also stress inclusion encompasses more than simply establishing a setting for the inclusion to take place.

Inclusion Illustrated Schools — A Resource for Trainers has been designed to draw attention to current research and provide both an overview of issues facing successful inclusive practices and some suggestions and guidelines for making inclusion work...

Motivating Primary-Grade Students by Michael Pressley, Sara E. Dolezal, Lisa M. Raphael, Lindsey Modan, Alysia D. Roehrig and Kristen Bogner
Reviewed by Alison Laird

Motivating students is a facet of teaching that requires consideration as it is crucial to the effectiveness of a classroom. Pressley et al state that “evidence that many students are not academically motivated is apparent in many schools”, shown through their thorough research and observation of current teaching practices. Motivating Primary Grade Students presents case studies of teachers who are effective and also ineffective at motivating students.

The book presents research conducted in 25 classes of grades one through three in the Midwestern United States between 1999 and 2002. The first two chapters detail a framework for understanding the motivational mechanisms used in education, including teacher attitude and pedagogy that increases and undermines
student motivation. These chapters also detail the specific criteria regarding classroom environment, atmosphere, instruction, content and management by which the research case studies were assessed...

Transorming Education: Engaging complexity and diversity - Edited by Steve Dinham
Reviewed by Colin Marsh

Although this volume was produced as a celebration of 75 years of teacher education in Armidale, encompassing the Teachers’ College, Armidale College of Advanced Education and the University of New England, it is much more than this. The contributing authors provide a vitality and enthusiasm which is most
appealing and they do address the issues of transforming education.

As might be expected, the contributions vary in level of argument, some being mainly informative and just a little exhortative, while others develop clearly worked themes. Those papers which stand out because of the authors’ clarity and enthusiasm include Roberto Carneiro’s discussion of “learning journeys”, Sandra Acker’s “insiders” research on the “pleasures and dangers” of academic life and Paul Brock’s highly personal and moving account of looking forward and looking back, interspersed with some interesting anecdotes about key personalities along the way. It is an appropriate celebration of the 75 years of teacher education and a most enjoyable read.

Multicultural and Multilingual Literacy and Language: Contexts and Practices by Fenice B. Boyd, Cynthia H. Brock with Mary S. Rosendal (Eds)
Reviewed by Laite Ratusau

The teaching practices of teachers in English as a Second Language (ESL) classrooms has always been on the backburner of most school curriculums. There is wide acknowledgment amongst ESL teachers that schools and their staff need to recognise the importance of their classes. Scarce resources and other teacher
naiveté fuel this frustration. Editors Boyd, Brock and Rozendal have developed a book that not only gives ESL teachers a helping hand but also delves into the ongoing practices and resources for these teachers.

The text is developed through many avenues – personal experiences, research and other texts. Different authors have submitted their own experiences through the many chapters, which in turn are affirmed through their research. The editors tie all this together by structuring the book in a constructive and practical way for the reader.

The Future is Upon Us: Challenges from keynote presenters to the 2003 ACE National Conference - Ed F. Crowther
Reviewed by Colin Marsh

This set of papers in Occasional Paper Series No. 5 is particularly noteworthy. Frank Crowther’s introduction is in itself a masterly overview of the three papers presented by Barry Jones, Kerry Kennedy and Stephanie Young. Barry Jones’ paper “Aristotle or Plato? Reconsidering Equity, Challenge and Values in Education”
is a wide ranging, enjoyable, slightly idiosyncratic reflection about issues in education. It is remarkable both for its scope and Jones’ ability to encapsulate the critical elements of major issues. For me, his comments about cultural agendas is particularly telling-that TV, radio, film, DVD’s computer games etc have so much impact on young people that the total impact of the school has been reduced to no more than 10 - 15 per cent of total impact. His comments about the ever-increasing divisions over public and private education are especially significant.

As might be expected, Kerry Kennedy’s paper, “Teacher Professionalism in Times of Uncertainty: Charting the Civic Responsibilities of Teachers” is thoughtful and persuasive. He links together very cleverly his concerns about teacher responsibilities as democratic citizens with teacher professionalism. The term he coins ‘civic professionalism’ captures the major task for teachers and his arguments about this are cogently presented.

The third paper, by Stephanie Young, entitled “Passive Consumers or Co-Creators? Listening to Learners” is very different to the other two. The focus is upon lifelong learning and elements of this are developed very powerfully. Yet this writer could not help feeling that the paper is largely a PR essay on the purported attractions of Glasgow as an ideopolis. The paper does capture the dynamism of the city of Glasgow and perhaps is a lesson to those seeking solutions for other cities and regions.

The three keynote papers are indeed very interesting and provide valuable insights about national education issues in Australia.

Healthy Minds, Healthy Bodies, Healthy Nation: Connecting Education and Health - Australian College of Educators
Reviewed by Brenda Cherednichenko

...I commend this collection to all educators. As a teacher educator, this book will be essential reading for my pre-service teacher colleagues. The collection is highly accessible, informative and important collection which challenges practitioners, governments and researchers alike to discover ways of delivering greater equity in the funding to the school system for a healthy society. Additionally, it extends the responsibilities for nurturing health promoting education to be the responsibility of educators in all spheres: early childhood, schools, community, universities, government and private institutions...