Professional Educator Volume 4 Number 4 October 2005

Editorial

Plain English reports; A to E ratings; a common starting age; a consistent curriculum; national testing standards; publicly available school performance information; more autonomous school principals; the explicit teaching of Australian values in schools, which includes the flying of the Australian flag; the National Safe Schools Framework in all schools; PE in every school. That's the Commonwealth's education agenda and it's triggered plenty of debate, not least about A to E reporting. Whatever your view on the rights or wrongs of the details, however, it's worth asking where this centralising push is taking us. Take the explicit teaching of Australian values in schools...

Letters to the Editor

PRODUCTIVE PROFESSIONAL CONVERSATION

Joseph Kelly, Principal, Cranbourne South Primary School, Melbourne.

RESTORATIVE JUSTICE IN SCHOOLS

Gary Burrows, Principal, De La Salle College, Caringbah, Sydney.

OPINION

Crisis? What crisis?

Read the nation's newspapers or listen to some of our politicians and you'd be forgiven for thinking our schools are in a state of crisis. Is that really the case? In a word, no, says
Ian Keese.

THE PROFESSION - Snakes and ladders

Steve Holden went to NIQTSL's 'Sharing our experience' conference to
check on progress towards a national system of accomplished standards.

Research

• School-based research - Vaughan Smith
• Boys own adventure story - Chloe Gallagher and Julie Kiggins

Innovation - Learning about drugs: a virtual reality

Donna Gibbs and Robyn Philip look at software that really does change the way teachers teach and
learners learn.

Issues - Intellectual Property

What is this intellectual property, how do you make it, and who does it belong to if you make it for
someone else and they're paying?
Susan Thompson has some answers for educators.

NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE

Teacher supply, the quality of teacher training, teaching accreditation and advanced standards: it looks like education is getting serious - until you tune in to the nation's airwaves. Steve Holden reports.

INTERVIEW - A little perspective

When Steve Holden spoke with Brian Caldwell he found, and not by accident, that a little perspective goes
a long way.

Review

AS I SEE IT... Jutta, the music teacher

Music, dancing, singing in the early years - it's all as easy as ains, zwei, drei, but not for Danny Katz.

NEXT ISSUE

Look out for the March 2006 issue of Professional Educator, with articles on parental involvement in the learning process by Tim Jenkinson, approaches to improvement in teaching strategies in nursing by Sue Brown, eating disorders and the role of educators by Brian Hemmings, Sarah Park and Simone Masonwell, and much more.