Abstracts

MicroWorlds and learning in teacher education

A cohort of student teachers at Melbourne University were assigned a computer-based multimedia task as part of their compulsory ICT studies. The multimedia task contrasted to traditional literature-based assessments, and enabled students to develop both ICT skills and an understanding of the unique benefits ICT offers to teaching and learning. Due to its success, the assignment has since been adopted in subsequent years. Students developed a project in the programming package MicroWorlds, using at least four of the multimedia components of colour, image, animation, text, sound and/or creative material developed by a person, camera or computer. The task was open-ended and constructivist, with direct instruction limited but in-class support maximised. The article outlines general observations and interviews with several students who had felt particularly satisfied or dissatisfied throughout the assignment, and achieved significantly higher or lower grades than earlier literature-based assignments. Students demonstrated significant engagement in the project, committing ‘time disproportionate to available marks’, which suggests the design/implementation of the project assisted intrinsic motivation. Each project was unique. Results were more complex and creative than anticipated. Over five times as many first class honours were awarded for the multimedia task than for previous written assignments. As projects developed, the role of text generally lessened in favour of visual, animation and sound elements. Non-English speaking students experienced increased success, having tended to do poorly in previous literature tasks. Students employed various strategies, with varying degrees of success. A student who had received excellent marks in literature-based assignments was frustrated and felt she had ‘nothing to base my methods on’ and so could not plan her approach. Two students, also without programming experience, wrote and drew content on paper first, and one also spent time experimenting with MicroWorlds. Some students wrote step-by-step programming code for each page, while others were able to identify and then duplicate patterns to increase efficiency. Students responded positively to the constructivist environment, reporting that ‘it’s more rewarding if you can figure things out for yourself’, and enjoyed being able to make the project as complex or simple as they liked. Students reported that they could learn and remember skills more effectively by experimenting, rather than through direct instruction. One-to-one assistance to overcome specific problems was useful, while one student said that additional classes for those who needed help would have been beneficial.

Reframing the role of the teacher-librarian: the case for collaboration and flexibility

Barnier Public School in Sydney has a new leadership and has undergone a root and branch review of its structures, programs and culture, with major implications for the role of its library. The school’s new approach emphasises the need for higher levels of collaboration and teamwork, flexibility in teaching and organisational arrangements in support of individual student learning, and cultivation of higher order thinking among students. Before these recent reforms the library was used mainly for literature appreciation classes and book borrowing by students. For teachers, the library and teacher-librarian were used to provide relief from face-to-face classroom teaching. The library resources were significantly underutilised, particularly the school’s technology resources. The school has introduced closer collaboration between individual teachers and the teacher-librarian, linking classroom programs to the development of information literacy. Under the school’s new, flexible timetable, the library is no longer used to give teachers relief from face-to-face teaching. Instead, teachers and the teacher-librarian plan whole, intensive units of work for a class, and students use library time to conduct research or otherwise use resources. Library staff are now involved in key planning meetings with the school’s executive and other staff, designed to establish a consistency across the K–6 levels. All staff collaboratively set teaching units, materials and assessments, and address any challenges or opportunities that have arisen in teaching. Increased involvement of the library in the learning process has facilitated the integration of ICT. Students initiate, plan and evaluate their own work using the library’s bank of networked computers. The most advanced students follow an individualised program, as part of the school’s gifted and talented program.

Reforming Year 9: propositions for school policy and practice

Recent research suggests that student dissatisfaction with schooling peaks in Year 9. A general reorientation of schooling in the middle years is needed to address this ‘mid-school crisis’. Schools should review organisational structures to enable strong bonds to form between teachers and middle years students. Dedicated Year 9 teaching teams could be established to collaboratively plan and deliver Year 9 curriculum programs. Year 9 classes may be shared between this team, but each student should be assigned a single teacher to be their main mentor and point of reference within the school. Timetabling arrangements should enable teachers to present Year 9 curriculum in a more integrated manner, as well as to maximise opportunities to meet the needs of specific subgroups of students. Classroom activities should incorporate stimulating, authentic tasks, with sufficient time for students to master them, and direct instruction about thinking and learning. Students should be actively involved in determining the direction of their learning. The middle years curriculum and learning day could be organised around a few broad focus areas, with in-depth explorations of specific themes scheduled periodically throughout the school week or year. Student achievements and contributions to the school community should be celebrated. A distinct physical environment could be provided for Year 9 within the school, decorated by the students, or outside school grounds, such as a term overseas or at a camp. Opportunities to engage with adults from their communities are important for adolescent students, such as joint initiatives with community agencies, community mentors or social research. Providing adult-like roles of leadership and responsibility, such as school ambassador or lunchtime sport coordinator, helps adolescents to develop independence in a guided environment. Lastly, special events may be scheduled to keep adolescents interested in schooling. Community experts, inspirational personalities (such as sports people or musicians), or special learning challenges (such as learning another language) are possible examples. Many schools already implement some or all of these suggestions, but few have comprehensive strategies in place to ensure that their Year 9 students’ schooling experience is valuable, memorable and appropriate to their needs.

Powerful partnership: special education teachers as seconded faculty

In response to the current teacher shortage, the University of New England (UNE) has developed an innovative program that uses seconded teachers to team teach core special education units to undergraduate student teachers. Short-term secondments involve the recruitment of specialist professionals from outside the workplace, and is a process that is often used to address staffing shortages at tertiary institutions. The process can also be used as a way of providing professional development for seconded staff. The special education team at UNE recruited experienced practitioners from Department positions and local schools to overcome staffing shortfalls caused by increasing student numbers. The secondments were also seen as a way to build closer ties with school professionals and facilitate the access of seconded staff to postgraduate study. An in-depth survey completed by three secondees and general observations are presented. The seconded staff expressed a common set of themes around the concept of self-renewal. These were encapsulated in the acronym RISE UP – Reframing, Internal reflection, Searching for new opportunities, Enthusiasm, and Updating professional knowledge – the five identified elements of self-renewal at the mid-career stage. The faculty benefited from the secondees’ recent experiences of classroom realities and constraints, and collaboratively developed new and existing special education units. Secondment enabled the faculty to cover undergraduate teaching requirements and model collaborative practice to education students. Student teachers also benefited from the knowledge of seconded staff about changing criteria and procedures relevant to special education, and how to adapt classroom practice accordingly.

Literacy across the curriculum

Underway until 2008, the Secondary Schools Literacy Project aims to improve New Zealand secondary students’ literacy skills across all curriculum areas. Many assume that students with good literacy skills at primary school will be successful in secondary school, but fail to recognise that the transition places new literacy demands on students. At secondary school, literacy development tends to be seen as the responsibility of the English teacher. However, each secondary subject introduces specific literacy challenges, particularly with the increased focus on problem-solving and processing skills through the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA). Due to the pervasiveness of literacy challenges across subject areas, the schools often find it difficult to know where to intervene. To overcome this difficulty, the project takes a cross-curricular approach. Under the project, 11 literacy facilitators located across the country offer tailored professional development for teachers at participating schools. The project is nationally coordinated and provides professional practice guidelines for literacy facilitators to ensure consistency across the country. The facilitators first assess the situation at each school by reviewing student achievement data, and then undertake interviews, observations and surveys to identify teachers’ professional development needs. The facilitators and teachers focus on how they can improve literacy outcomes for struggling students as well as boost the outcomes of high-achieving students. Teaching strategies focus on the next challenges students are likely to face in each subject rather than remediating ‘lost ground’. Forty-five schools are so far taking part in the Ministry of Education-funded project. Other schools interested in taking part for 2007 are invited to contact local support services offices.

Non-native English language teachers' perspective on culture in English as a Foreign Language classrooms

As English becomes an international lingua franca increasingly detached from its cultural roots, questions arise about how much culture should be incorporated into English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teaching. Twelve Turkish EFL teachers were interviewed about how much they incorporated the culture of English-speaking countries into their classes. Most teachers saw culture and language as interrelated, but had differing views about the extent to which the target language culture should be taught in a foreign language classroom. Some felt that teaching the culture of English-speaking countries was necessary to develop a fuller understanding of the language. Others felt that a teacher of an international language should develop their student’s understanding of international culture, including cultural elements of both English-speaking and non-English-speaking countries. Those who deliberately omitted culture from their lessons tended to do so because they felt it was inconsistent with the needs their students. Most Turkish EFL students learn English primarily to improve their prospects in their own country, and have no intention of ever living in a foreign culture. Some teachers also omitted English culture to protect their students’ own cultural integrity. All the teachers interviewed were non-native English-speakers. They felt their familiarity with both English-speaking and Turkish cultures was one of their strongest attributes as EFL teachers, and that EFL learners should not be exposed to native English-speaking teachers until they attain a certain level of proficiency. As there are not enough native-English-speaking EFL teachers to meet international demand, many EFL teachers come from non-English-speaking backgrounds. With the current emphasis on self-directed learning in language education, it may be that even a poor speaker of English may be a successful English teacher, provided they can lead their students to acquire better skills of their own. The study suggests that both non-native English-speakers and native English-speakers may be equally able to provide quality EFL instruction, given appropriate training.

Leading from the middle or locked in the middle? Exploring the world of the middle-level non-State school leader

Since the mid-1990s, educational literature has tended to argue that middle-level staff in schools should play a greater leadership role. A 2004 survey in Queensland and New South Wales has explored the attitudes held by middle-level leaders in non-government schools toward their roles. It follows a similar survey of government school staff in 2002. Results were obtained from responses to an anonymous questionnaire sent to deputy principals, heads of department and other school leaders not at principal level. Respondents expressed overall satisfaction in their role, with a third very satisfied. However, some frustration was expressed that their role was too confined to operational management, restricting their involvement in leadership or curriculum development, where respondents felt their skills were not fully utilised. They felt that they were held back from playing out such roles by the high level of work requirements of their current roles, and the expectations set in this regard by principals. The operational nature of the work does not prepare them well to take on future roles as principals.

The problem with English: the exploration and development of student teachers' English subject knowledge in primary classrooms

A study in England has collected data from 42 pre-service primary teachers, covering their experiences and opinions with regard to teaching English. The study used classroom observations, a focus group discussion and individual interviews. From the data the researcher categorised the participating student teachers into three groups. ‘Task managers’ saw their role as ensuring that students complete formal tasks required of them and are on task during lesson time. ‘Curriculum deliverers’ consider the purpose of the tasks they set students and the nature of their learning within the terms set out in curriculum documents. ‘Concept and skill builders’ look more broadly at developing in students the concepts and skills required to become proficient in a given subject. Concept and skill builders recognise the importance of developing a child-oriented rather than a plan-oriented approach to allow them the flexibility to respond to children. They stress the need for an integrated approach to all components of the subject matter, explaining the interrelationship of these elements to the school students. They remain focused on the core of literacy teaching, which is the development of their students' ability to communicate meaning, rather than focusing on the completion of superficial and formal student activities and curriculum requirements. Concept and skill builders are also distinguished by their ability to relate the concepts and skills prescribed in the curriculum in an open-ended way to contexts beyond formal education. Student teachers need to be given time and space away from the sometimes overwhelming practicalities of the classroom so that they can learn to relate course subject matter to the wider world and, at the same time, to the core pursuit of meaning and communication skills. Time and effort are required for ‘developing values and beliefs about the subject that will help give validity to the importance of these connections’. The article relates these findings to the National Literacy Strategy (NLS) that was introduced in England and Wales at the time of the study.

STELLA: star turn for learning

During his classroom teaching, the author noticed that Mark, an at-risk student who had low engagement with literacy tasks, demonstrated far more developed literacy skills with regard to sports writing, the subject area of most interest to him. The insight led the author to examine whether the literacy level of other students could be improved by drawing on their non-school interests and activities. The author explored this possibility through the use of the STELLA professional learning framework. Standard 1.1 requires that teachers know their students’ individual characteristics. Drawing on this standard the teacher gathered information about Mark, from observation, ‘interest inventories’ and discussion with his former teacher. Standard 1.2 calls on teachers to be informed about current issues in language, literacy and literature. It encouraged the author to draw on current teaching approaches that design curriculum activities around students’ existing interests. Standard 1.3 calls on teachers to understand how their individual students learn, and design learning tasks accordingly. On this basis the teacher used newspaper sports reports about football matches with students who were interested in this sport. The articles served to introduce the students to the sports reporting genre, and the teacher then led them to identify the distinctive characteristics of that genre. This work led into students’ own production of text, enriched by a deeper understanding of the nature of writing.

Putting education back into educational leadership

The study of educational leadership is shifting focus. It is moving from the study of generic skills in leadership and management based on business models, towards the study of leadership attributes that are clearly linked to improved student learning. The nature of these attributes can be established by ‘backward mapping’. This approach starts by looking at what sorts of teaching best assist student learning. It then examines the conditions that encourage or hold back such teaching, and considers how school leaders can influence those conditions. A principal needs to be able to evaluate a teacher’s performance and develop suitable PD for them. To do so the principle needs adequate knowledge of subject content and current approaches to pedagogy. With this knowledge they can finely assess teachers’ own understandings of disciplinary content, and design PD that develops teachers’ knowledge of subject content. PD developed by principals should be used to improve teachers' understanding of how to stimulate students and encourage self-directed learning. In-depth subject knowledge involves ‘rules of evidence, modes of inquiry and key concepts’ specific to the field. Having in-depth knowledge in at least one subject area assists principals to judge teacher performance in other subjects, since they then ‘know the qualities to look for and develop in their staff’. To evaluate teacher performance a principal also requires knowledge of standards for student learning outcomes at a given level, in order to assess teachers’ claims about student results. Principals’ current workload holds them back from learning more about subject content, pedagogy and approaches to PD. Solving this workload problem requires greater awareness of it at the government level; a better infrastructure to meet government demands; a ‘ruthless elimination of change projects that have no demonstrated impact on valued student outcomes’; and a realignment of existing practices, such as teacher appraisal, to meet the goal of improved student learning. The tradition of ‘light oversight of classroom practices’ by principals is another barrier to their leadership of reform. There are a range of steps to overcome this barrier. Principals should start the reform process in a curriculum area they know well. They should collect and share knowledge from widely trusted sources about how to improve learning. They should acknowledge outside influences on students’ learning, but focus on factors the school can influence. PD should be designed collaboratively with teachers. The value of PD should be measured by student work rather than teacher satisfaction.

Assessing the positive influence of music activities in community development programs

The article sets out a framework for analysing the effect of music education programs on community development and cultural capital. Music education research too often relies on text-based data. Including a wider variety of media in data collection, such as videos and audio recordings, will represent the musical experience to the researcher in ‘more compelling ways’. The research framework proposed in the article has been applied to three case studies of Australian music education programs. All three took place in Brisbane communities with high Indigenous and Polynesian populations. A Queensland University of Technology researcher analysed the projects using multimedia data. The common features of these three successful projects were attention to the distinctiveness of the school’s specific community and context; attention to the different modes of engagement that emerge during the creative musical process; and examination of whether the project had increased personal, social or cultural meaning for its participants.

The first case study, the Aim High project at Zillmere Primary School, was part of the school’s exemplary music education program. The project used the song ‘From Little Things Big Things Grow’ as a basis for students to write their own personal ‘songlines’. The children’s interpretation of the song was played extensively on radio stations, and the accompanying video depicted powerful imagery of community pride, supporting the hypothesis that music can build healthier communities. The next case study was ‘Bringing New Styles’ at Glenala State High School. With assistance from ‘music coaches’ from local Indigenous and Islander communities, as well as instruments donated by the Australian Music Association, students composed and performed their own music, culminating in a performance at the Stylin’ Up community youth festival. In this project, questionnaires were used to gauge student engagement, but met with limited success, perhaps due to unfamiliarity with the survey instrument among the communities being researched. The third case study, ‘Amp’d Up’, involved many of the Glenala coaches and students in a two-week school holiday popular music program.

Single-sex classes in co-educational schools

Primary schools in Australia are predominantly coeducational. The reasons for this are unclear, beyond insubstantial arguments based on cost or ‘naturalism’. One coeducational government primary school in Tasmania has operated single-sex Year 3–4 classes for two years. School staff observed a marked change in attitude in both the boys’ and girls’ single-sex classes. Girls tended to display increased confidence, and greater willingness to try new activities. The boys’ class exhibited significant increases in engagement with their schoolwork, and a greater sense of responsibility for their own behaviour. The two teachers involved used the single-sex environment to focus on overcoming weaknesses in the gendered learning styles of their respective classes. The girls’ teacher noted that her students’ work habits centred on reflection and group interaction, and adjusted her teaching accordingly. The boys’ teacher recognised a need to focus on appropriate social skills before building academic learning. He therefore chose to emphasise ‘mateship’ and working together, resulting in improvements to the boys’ maturity, motivation and participation in the school community. The collaborative learning environment that emerged in both classes supported the idea of a ‘learning community’ espoused in the ethos of the school. Over half of 32 parents surveyed felt the single-sex classes were more appropriate for their children, and only five preferred mixed-gender classes. Neither class showed significant improvement in academic results, suggesting that the social benefits of single-sex classrooms may take time to translate into academic improvement. The quality of teaching will also affect the effectiveness of a single-sex learning environment.