Professional Educator Volume 6 Number 2 May 2007

Editorial

When the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs met to discuss performancebased pay in Darwin last month it must’ve seemed like Groundhog day – you know, the 1993 Bill Murray comedy about a TV weatherman stuck in a time loop in wintry Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, where he repeats the same Groundhog Day assignment again and again – until he finally escapes through a gradual process of reform.

MCEETYA is fiercely protective when it comes to publicity, so it’s unlikely you’ll ever read a transcript of the Darwin meeting to discuss performance-based pay – again – but chances are it went something like this. Bishop: ‘We need performancebased pay if we’re to attract and retain the best teachers.’

Della-Bosca: ‘Sure, but how do we assess the performance
of individual teachers?’

Lomax-Smith: ‘Didn’t we talk about this yesterday?’ Welford: ‘No, that was Brisbane; we’re in Darwin.’ Henderson: ‘So why is it snowing?’

Letters to the Editor

A NatIonal currIculum – Isn’t  thIs a no-braIner?

Graham Lange, Principal, Pulteney Grammar School, Adelaide
I cannot for the life of me understand why discussion of the possibility of a national approach to curriculum so quickly and consistently raises the hackles of expert educators. Responses rarely find any positives in the suggestion, but almost always point to the doom and gloom that will settle upon us as a result of the loss of innovation and local content.

New approach to teaching rounds Is a wIn-wIn model

David Zyngier, Lecturer, Faculty of Education, Monash University
When students undertaking the Graduate Diploma in Primary Education at Monash University’s Peninsula campus began their teaching rounds this year they were part of a pilot that aims to benefit students and, just as importantly, local primary schools. Instead of placing 110 students in up to 70 different schools, we’ve decided to trial a new approach. The new model includes sending the students, two to a classroom, to a smaller number of schools, close to the campus for two consecutive days.

OpInIon

Eliminate the negative

When it comes to education, everyone seems to be an expert, but that, says bruce addison, still doesn’t explain why our daily newspapers fail to accentuate the positive.

Grade wool, not our kids

What’s the idea with quintile letter grades? Can you grade students as though they’re commodities? Grading wool is fine, says Sean Burke, but try grading a student as 17.5 ultrafine merino and see where it gets you.

Feature

SolvIng the research Puzzle

Carolyn Page reports on research into quality teaching and school leadership that identifies some of the key education policy issues

New teachers

Know and do: Help for beginners

What should beginning teachers know and be able to do? Ross Turner has some answers

Innovation

ScIence and InquIry

Want to implement an inquiry-based approach in Science? Try these tips from Doug Jones, Wayne Melville and Anthony Bartley

Teaching and learnIng 

OetzI: the Ice man

Helen Billett, Heather Boundy, Mark Chapple, Steve Fraser and Gary Simpson explain how to extend teaching and learning across the curriculum

Research

• Mark Corbett considers the International Baccalaureate, outcomesbased education and a critical curriculum
• Katrina Alford and Richard James report on their research into vocational education opportunities for young Indigenous people

NatIonal PerspectIve and In brIef

New ministers, new departmental heads, even new headquarters: it’s been a whirl on the education merry-go-round, where everything revolves around a stable and unchanging axis – agreeing to disagree. Steve Holden reports.

Issues

School Playgrounds: the unhealtHy state of play

Changes in our nation’s school playgrounds are reducing opportunities for active play and that’s unhealthy for our children, says John Evans

RevIew

Better schools, better teachers, better results by Vic Zbar, graham Marshall and Paul Power published by ACER Press reviewed by Fran Cosgrove

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...

Forget your pride of lions

Danny Katz comes clean and shows us his collective noun collection