Professional Educator Volume 6 Number 1 March 2007

Published: 1 Mar 07

Editorial

With a federal election later this year, you can expect education to be wheeled out for media attention more than once. Education, after all, offers an opportunity for polarisation. Look in the crystal ball and what do we see? The economy? Both sides in politics will claim the ‘prudent’ high ground. Water management?

Both sides will find plenty of fix-it money – with maybe a little federal-state fingerpointing for variation. Climate change?

While there’s scope for difference, climate change is always going to be a tricky hook on which to hang an election. Education? Curriculum reform and standards, teacher supply and quality, and school funding: they’re the sort of thing that give politicians endless opportunities to show how different they are. All the policy fingerpointing, however, is likely to reduce the education profession to a mythical battleground between didactic disciplinarians in suits and union-zombie new-age types in beanbags. Does that reflect the reality in your staff room?

Letters to the Editor

Mentoring

Dr Frederick Osman, Mathematics educator, Trinity Grammar School, Sydney, and Highly Accomplished Educators representative, Australian College of Educators
The Australian College of Educators hosted an exciting initiative to welcome earlycareer educators by putting them together with experienced educators from across Australia at the first ACE Mentoring Forum for Early Career and Experienced Educators at the Mount Schoenstatt Conference and Retreat Centre in Mulgoa, an hour west of Sydney, last August.

Support BegInnIng Teachers

Bob Lipscombe, Senior Vice President, New South Wales Teachers’ Federation
The annual national survey by the Australian Education Union (AEU) of 1,300 beginning teachers – that is, teachers with three years or less experience – indicates that thirty-three per cent of New South Wales beginning teachers don’t believe they’ll be teaching in ten years time.

Opinion

Is Tafe ‘nyc’ when it comes to cbT?

The meaning of ‘competence’ in competencybased training has been reduced to ‘performance’ because that’s easy to understand and assess, says Kevin Vallence

Professional Teachers

How Young People are Faring 2006, a report from the dusseldorp skills Forum, indicates that many young people continue to fare relatively poorly in the labour market, but the news isn’t all bad, writes Mark Wooden.

Feature

Teaching and Learning

Ted Myers went to the Kimberley to experience first-hand the challenges of educating Indigenous people in remote communites

Innnovation

Integrating ICT is not just about hardware, software or even onlinecommunities of practice. It’s about face-to-face professional development opportunities, especially for principals, says Neil McCallum

NatIonal PerspectIve

A shortage of qualified Maths and science teachers is not the only problem, reports Steve Holden.
Australia also faces a possible shortage of primary teachers and of school leaders.

In Brief

Computer use improves academic performance
Resource or propaganda?
Cheat checKer checked by copyright
Books for Tanzania

Issues

School-based teacher education: is it the way forward? Andrew Harvey has some doubts

Review

The management contradictionary by Benjamin Marks, Rodney Marks and Robert Spillane published by Michelle Anderson Publishing reviewed by Brian Brennan

The Diary

Want to know about professional development opportunities, conferences and just plain useful stuff? the Diary tells you what’s on.

As I see it

As I see IT... Tampering with a universal law Danny Katz explains why having your teacher in your house is wrong