AbstractsA grammatics 'good enough' for school English in the 21st century: four challenges in realising the potential
Volume 34
Number 1, February 2011;
Pages 9–23
A sound knowledge of grammar helps to equip teachers of English to cover the three strands of English in the Australian Curriculum relating to knowledge about language, literate usage and literature. Grammar as a system may be termed ‘grammatics’ to distinguish it from the grammar of incidental personal usage. Grammatics is also distinct from older understandings of grammar as the pedantic use of rules and the manipulation of syntax disconnected from the living ‘mother tongue’. The authors apply the resources of systemic functional linguistics to suggest how grammatics can help teachers of English deal with four major challenges. Firstly, grammatics can provide a coherent account of knowledge about contemporary English. Teachers need such knowledge to help students learn both the systematic rules of language and also how to use language for creative individual expression. One way that this can occur is through what Halliday calls the experiential, interpersonal and textual metafunctions of language, which can be applied to any text types. For example, when writing narrative students can use the experiential metafunction to portray a character via the character’s experiences, the interpersonal to engage the reader’s empathy, and the textual to cohere the narrative. Secondly, grammatics can improve the ‘literate repertoire’ that students apply to their compositions. Such grammatics is ‘rhetorical’ in that it equips students to compose for particular purposes at the level of the word, sentence or whole text. For example, students may choose direct or indirect speech to cite academic sources within their text, depending on their intentions, or they may select particular words to evoke emotion, atmosphere or viewpoint. Thirdly, grammatics can help students accumulate their knowledge progressively over the course of their schooling. Over these years students’ written language diverges ever further from its spoken form, becoming more ‘compressed, abstract and metaphorical’. It also moves further from everyday experience and ‘common sense’. At the same time students’ knowledge of writing techniques grows deeper and more subtle. Teachers at each year level can connect to and build on incoming students’ existing English competencies if they share a common grammatical metalanguage across the years of schooling. Fourthly, grammatics can be applied, with suitable adjustments, to multimodal forms of communication. For instance, students may be invited to render a narrative in the form of a graphic novel or film sequence. The knowledge gained from such exploration will feed back into their work with text. As one example, the study of the ‘point of view shot’ in filming, moving between a character and what the character sees, can enrich students’ understanding of the movement between internal and external focalisation used in written text. Key Learning AreasEnglishSubject HeadingsEnglish language teachingGrammar Literature Literacy Language and languages Good fences make good neighboursMarch 2011;
Pages 8–11
There is a strong and swiftly growing need for Asia literacy in Australia, but few students emerge from school or university in possession of such learning, and in some ways the situation is deteriorating. There are powerful reasons for Australians to engage more closely with the region. Economically, Australia’s largest trading partners are the ASEAN block, China and Japan, and Indonesia’s economy is also expanding rapidly. A business survey by the Australian Industry Group in 2009 found that a large number of businesses are or plan to be involved in Asia. The region also generates important political issues for Australia, such as the patrolling of national borders. In cultural terms it is important that Australians understand Islam, a major religion in Asia. Despite the pressing case for deeper understanding of the region, the coverage of Asia in Australian education is poor, and in some important respects it is declining. Australia ‘is rated worst in the OECD for second language learning’. Less than six per cent of Australia’s year 12 students study an Asian language, and the overwhelming majority of these students are from Asian backgrounds. Very few year 12 students study Asia in terms of its history, geography or the arts. Indonesian and Korean language studies have fallen sharply at Australian universities. Lack of education about Asia in turn allows mistrust based on misconceptions to grow. For example, surveys of Australians in 2007 and 2009 found that more than half the respondents held negative views of Indonesia. This popular mood has reduced the political incentive for members of parliament to champion links with Asia. However, government support for Asia education can play a role in turning this situation around. Asia literacy should be built into a range of curriculum areas, including those covering business, politics and literature. More resources on Asia should be supplied to education faculties, school leaders, teachers and curriculum developers. The Australian Government should signal long-term support for Asia literacy, to sustain commitment from teachers of Asian languages and Asian studies. KLA Subject HeadingsEducational planningAsia Language and languages Social life and customs Yells from the yardMarch 2011;
Pages 14–15
The mainstream media often carries stories of aggressive behaviour by school students. It is true that suspension rates have risen within most Australian jurisdictions. However, this trend may be due to a trend for education systems to ‘crack down’ on misbehaviour, accompanied by moves to give principals the power to suspend students. In the recent period suspension rates have risen in NSW, Western Australia, Queensland and South Australia, all of which have announced ‘tough stands’ on discipline. Queensland and NSW have given principals power to suspend students, and NSW has also allowed principals more access to records of previous violent incidents that involved their students. In Victoria, by contrast, the government had reduced principals’ discretion to suspend students, and suspension rates have fallen. In the ACT, however, the two trends are opposed, as principals have gained power to suspend students temporarily and the level of suspensions has fallen. South Australia and Queensland have supplemented a disciplinary approach to misbehaviour with measures to encourage positive learning experiences for students who experience difficulty in mainstream schools. Academic experts have argued an alternative approach to managing misbehaviour. Sue Roffey has called for whole-school policies to value and support students. Richard Smith has said that schools’ best approach to improving behaviour is through good quality curriculum and teaching and strong relationships between schools and parents. He also acknowledges, however, the impact of wider social influences beyond schools’ control. The article also refers to the issue of how to deal with misbehaviour of students online. KLA Subject HeadingsStudentsBehaviour management Behavioural problems Beyond discovery: a case study of teacher interaction, young children and computer tasks
Volume 40
Number 1, March 2010;
Pages 69–85
The introduction of ICT to young students needs careful scaffolding and appropriate forms of classroom organisation. These requirements are illustrated by a case study involving a mixed-age classroom for grades 1–3 in a Queensland primary school, and the teacher’s interaction with one of the grade 3 students, Chris. The immediate aim of the activity was to have students design a quilt pattern online, and in doing so develop higher order thinking skills. It was part of a wider plan to introduce ‘productive pedagogies’ to teaching and learning at the school, and achieve ‘cultural renewal’. The study involved classroom observations over 24 weeks and coding of the results, as well as interviews and informal discussions with the teacher. The present article focuses on one lesson. The teacher conducted a small group session throughout the lesson; students not part of this group were considered able to work autonomously on computers, with guidance from an instruction sheet and an explicit procedure for peer support. However, Chris approached the teacher repeatedly for direct support, resisting help from peers and disrupting the teacher’s small group work. He only grasped the correct procedure when the teacher provided direct assistance as the lesson neared its end. While he formally accomplished the lesson goal of using the software to create a design, he did not engage in higher order thinking. At an individual level Chris appeared to engage in attention-seeking behaviour, but the classroom organisation also contributed to the problems in this teacher–student interaction, by obstructing prompt assistance from the teacher. The event can also be understood in terms of wider patterns of teacher–student interaction. Such interactions often follow a triadic pattern of ‘dialogue, initiation, response, feedback’ (IRF), in which a teacher introduces a question, students respond and the teacher comments on the response. This approach has been criticised as disempowering for students, but this problem can be overcome by incorporating discussion with students and the ‘co-construction of knowledge’ into the procedure, using the formula ‘IDRF’. In this case study classroom, IDRF could have been applied by explicitly showing the students how to use discussion to resolve problems in the learning process. KLA Subject HeadingsClassroom activitiesTeaching and learning Thought and thinking Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Primary education An investigation of young children's perceptions of teasing within peer relationships
Volume 2
Number 2, March 2010;
Pages 237–260
Teasing covers a range of social behaviour. It relates to issues including social cognition, the understanding of intention, pretence, non-literal communication and emotional regulation. The complexity and subtlety of teasing behaviour make it difficult to research. In contrast to bullying, teasing can take playful ‘prosocial’ forms that help students to mature, although these prosocial elements have often been overlooked in research literature. The current study aligns with Keltner et al.’s (2001) definition of teasing, which encompasses three constructs. ‘Intentional provocations’ of non-verbal behaviour or verbal statements are intended to annoy, frustrate or incite a reaction from the target. ‘Playful off-record markers’ are contextual cues within a teasing scenario that help discriminate teasing from other forms of behaviour. ‘Relevance to the recipient’ refers to the relevance of the content of the tease as determined by the target. This definition also includes prosocial teasing. The study involved 22 children from kindergarten to year 2, of ages five to eight years, from two school locations in a middle socioeconomic-class neighbourhood in an eastern Canadian city. All children attended before- or after-school care, which provided a familiar setting to conduct the research. Small groups from two to seven children participated in two 30–45-minute sessions with researchers on two separate occasions. The children were invited to draw and narrate their experiences of teasing. The researchers used a methodology of ‘listening pedagogy’, devoting attention to the children through active listening. In the study same-sex teasing was frequently reported. In cross-sex teasing girls were often the instigators. Younger participants’ drawings showed a size difference between teaser and recipient, while older children drew characters of the same size. Teasing between boys’ was more often physical than was the case between girls. Most of the older girls’ drawings depicted character teasing. All the drawings depicted the instigators of teasing as happy. There were mixed results in terms of response strategies. The research did not identify consistent reasons why teasing occurs or the specific factors that make a child a target. KLA Subject Heading
The great outdoors
Volume 2011
Number 219, March 2011;
Pages 30–32
Outdoor education programs give students an opportunity to connect with nature. A separation from nature may be contributing to problems faced by young people, such as obesity, depression, attention difficulties, and a decline in social interaction. Students placed in a wilderness environment without distractions such as mobile phones can learn more about themselves and reflect on their relationships with others. Outdoor education develops a student’s understanding of natural history and systems, and encourages them to consider how humanity fits in with nature. Environmental issues are covered in a range of subjects, including geography, environmental science and outdoor education. A student who is immersed in the environment through outdoor programs gains a different perspective to that of the geography or science students who are observers of the environment. They will feel part of nature and therefore are more likely to have a desire to protect the environment. Participating in outdoor education programs can prepare young people for managing the risks they will face in life after school. They will learn to assess physical risks encountered in the bush. For example when crossing a swollen river, they will need to take into account their own capabilities as well as assessing the changing level of the hazard. Australians often enjoy venturing outdoors; however, most do not take the proper precautions. Outdoor education teaches bush awareness skills that can be taken into adulthood. Certain skills, such as navigation and survival skills, can be taught in a classroom. However, they do not become engrained in people without actual experience of the outdoors. These programs offer an opportunity for young non-Indigenous Australians to better understand the relationship the Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders have with the land. The students can develop their own sense of connection with nature, enabling them to understand why the natural environment plays such an important part in these cultures. Outdoor education also provides alternative learning options for Indigenous students, some of whom may feel alienated by western-style teaching. KLA Subject HeadingsOutdoor EducationLiterature on the safe and disruptive learning potential of mobile technologies
Volume 31
Number 2, August 2010;
Pages 139–157
The growing profile of mobile technology has prompted questions of how it can best be used in education. However, there is a lack of thorough research on educational applications for mobile technology and what constitutes good mobile learning. This article reviews 10 case studies published over the past five years that explore the viability of mobile learning to support distance education and the learning needs of marginalised groups. The studies were conducted both in developing countries, including South Africa and Pakistan, and in the under-served areas of developed nations such as Britain. They cover examples of ‘safe’ and ‘disruptive’ uses of mobile technologies. Safe mobile learning refers to the use of the mobile technology within the classroom environment. The relationship between learner and technology remains unaltered. ‘Disruptive’ mobile learning can occur at any time, in any place and in everyday contexts. Information can be accessed as needed. Disruptive learning empowers learners by changing their role from simply a recipient of teacher instruction to a learner who researches, collaborates with others and shares information. All of the 10 studies suggest that mobile learning may support the teaching and learning process. In each case learners were deeply engaged with content through mobile technologies. Several of the studies suggest that mobile technology may allow or improve access to education among learners normally excluded by location, social status or technology infrastructure. However, none of the studies used a methodology that could identify the distinctive contributions of pedagogical and instructional strategies, mobile technologies and the learning environment to increasing the level of engagement of learners. KLA Subject HeadingsEducational planningTeaching and learning Information and Communications Technology (ICT) English and Enlightenment
Volume 17
Number 1, March 2010;
Pages 3–12
The study of English contributes to the pursuit of truth and knowledge, which was championed by the eighteenth-century Enlightenment against ignorance, error and superstition. Some important elements of truth and knowledge may be found in fiction and poetry, even though they seem at first glance to be remote from the world of facts. Fiction imparts general information about history, geography and the nature of particular societies, all of which contributes to the knowledge base of ‘those we judge to be well educated’. Fiction conveys subjective experience, through privileged insight into characters’ Key Learning AreasEnglishSubject HeadingsFictionPoetry Social life and customs Literature English language teaching History Thought and thinking Philosophy There are no Conferences available in this issue. |