AbstractsHard yacker
Number 46, Winter 2005;
Pages 16–18
A teacher's primary professional instrument is the voice. In recent times, however, it has become apparent that there has been an increase in the number of teachers suffering the effects of voice strain which can, in some cases, result in individuals losing their voices completely. Those most prone to voice strain seem to be educators in the primary and early childhood years, as students in those developmental phases are more likely to need repeated verbal prompts and instruction.Some of the factors contributing to voice strain include the design, set-up and furnishing of classrooms, as they often do not reduce ambient noise levels, thus forcing teachers to speak above the range of the surrounding noise. The medical experts interviewed by the author of the article recommend that teachers seek medical advice from ear, nose and throat specialists at the first sign of the symptoms of voice strain. Symptoms may include a dryness of the throat, chronic throat-clearing or a lump-like sensation in the throat. Those who find their voices improving after periodic breaks from teaching should also seek medical advice. KLA Subject HeadingsTeaching professionTeaching and learning Health Critical pressure
Number 46, Winter 2005;
Pages 12–13
The authors, all pre-service teacher educators, were invited to consider whether graduate teachers were sufficiently equipped with critical thinking skills and dispositions on entering the teaching profession. Their contributions were derived from different perspectives, but all believed that it was essential for graduate teachers to bring a critical standpoint to their classroom teaching and to the profession. For Fitzclarence, strengthening democracy relies on a questioning electorate, and on an education system and culture which refrains from an over-emphasis on technical ability at the expense of fostering critical analysis. In the same vein, Jill Blackmore observes that teacher education courses ensure that teachers are aware of the sociology of their teaching contexts, so that they are able to be inclusive in their teaching practices and have the ability to teach the ‘whole student’. All of this preparation, Terry Lovat observes, has made recent teacher graduates more prepared and academically able than their counterparts who entered the profession a decade ago, but it has also precipitated difficulties in the adjustment and accommodation of beginning teachers to established school cultures and environments. KLA Subject HeadingsTeacher trainingTeaching and learning Teaching profession Building drama worlds – four steps to creating literacy rich and dramatic play environments
Volume 11
Number 2;
Pages 14–15
Dunn assists early childhood educators to create dramatic play in their classrooms. She notes that with considered and purposeful construction, dramatic play can be used to foster a whole range of literacies, including oral, written, visual, kinaesthetic and aesthetic literacies. Teachers can make dramatic play purposeful by firstly ensuring that the context of the play they are attempting to create fosters precisely the literacy they want to emphasise. When doing so they should be mindful that some scenarios lend themselves more readily to some literacies than others, and, more importantly, can actively prevent some literacies from being introduced. Other interventions that teachers can use to make dramatic play meaningful include using the ‘teacher-in-role strategy’ to model the scenario and role-play for students, carefully selecting the materials with which to construct the environment of the play, engaging students in the creation of the play, and ensuring that there is a dramatic element or plot in the play to prevent the play from losing its focus. KLA Subject HeadingsDramaEarly childhood education What if …? Art as language in early childhood
Volume 11
Number 2;
Pages 12–13
McCardle considers the importance of art as a form of cultural expression, and ponders why it is not taught in a more deliberate fashion in early childhood settings. Students in early childhood environments are often provided with the materials with which to be artistically creative, but often lack the guidance which would be expected in a structured learning experience of the kind afforded to teaching literacy, for instance. Mcardle suggests that if art in the early years were given the same status as language, then children would develop mastery in this means of expression which, in turn, would build their self-esteem. Mastering artistic techniques, however, should not be left to chance, and teachers in the early years should note that teaching students artistic techniques will not limit their artistic abilities, but rather foster and develop them, and help to ‘make their learning visible’. KLA Subject HeadingsArts in educationEarly childhood education Growing into leadership
Volume 62
Number 8, May 2005;
Pages 50–54
The authors conducted a literature review and consulted exemplary leaders to highlight the challenges that new school principals face, and provide some advice on how new school leaders should address those challenges. They have isolated several areas and characteristics of school leadership, among which are remembering that students are at the centre of any decision that principals make, that school leadership needs to operate from an ethical basis and that it involves instructional leadership as well as managerial tasks, that principals can affect school culture by building and maintaining trusting relationships with staff, and that they need to be active in building relationships with their communities and organisations outside the school. Various facets of school leadership and their possible effects on schools are described. KLA Subject HeadingsLeadershipSchool principals School leadership Responding to novice teachers’ concerns
Volume 62
Number 8, May 2005;
Pages 30–34
Beginning teacher attrition rates are frustrating for many jurisdictions. Very often schools and education systems lose teachers who are new to the profession because of the conditions of their employment, the attraction of other professions, or because teaching cannot provide the same range of rewards as other fields of work. The authors report on a study which tracked the experiences of beginning teachers over a period of three years to discover the factors which contribute to beginning teachers abandoning the profession. They found that, while many schools and sectors may not be able to improve beginning teachers’ remuneration levels, they could undertake many practical initiatives which would improve working conditions. Some of these measures include ensuring that beginning teachers workloads do not overwhelm them; that mentoring programs, where they exist, are meaningful, carefully structured and supportive; that induction processes are ongoing and take into account the changing demands on teachers over the school year; that beginning teachers have a network of colleagues on whom they can rely for professional support; and that their evaluation is supportive of their ongoing professional growth. KLA Subject HeadingsTeaching professionTeaching and learning Teacher evaluation Teacher training Common space, common time, common work
Volume 62
Number 8, May 2005;
Pages 16–19
Schools can often be isolating places for beginning teachers. School structures – timetables, single-teacher classes, and academic disciplines – are not conducive to fostering collegiality between teachers or different cohorts of teachers, and this makes establishing professional learning communities particularly problematic. Shank describes the initiatives of a school in the United States where school structures have been altered to allow for greater collegiality and collaboration between staff. The initiatives include the creation of a ‘common space’, where teachers are located in partitioned cubicles and are always at hand to share their experiences; the allocation of ‘common time’ to teachers who share the same year levels so that they can collaborate on curriculum and pedagogy; and the facilitation of ‘common work’, by having teachers work and plan around common assessment standards and an integrated curriculum. These structural modifications to the traditional school environment have ensured that beginning teachers have access to the support that they require, as well as ensuring the continuous professional development of all staff. KLA Subject HeadingsProfessional developmentTeaching and learning Teaching profession School and community Bridging the generation gap
Volume 62
Number 8, May 2005;
Pages 8–14
The education sector in the United States (and in other parts of the developed world) is currently confronting the issue of a generation gap between its current cohort of educators, a difficulty which has its origins in the recruitment ‘boom’ of the 1960s and 1970s and the subsequent lull in the 1980s. The upshot is that there are now two distinctly different generations of teachers in schools – the baby boomers who make up a substantial proportion of the teaching force, and those from generations ‘X’ and ‘Y’. The divide between the generations is characterised by differing perspectives of the profession, a teaching career and the workplace, and these differences often imperil school-wide reform initiatives. In this article the authors consider the nature of the generational divide in the teaching profession in the United States, its manifestations, and the measures schools can adopt to ameliorate its consequences for school-wide cohesion. KLA Subject HeadingsGenerationsGeneration X Teaching profession United States of America (USA) Caught in a crossfire11 July 2005;
Pages 6–7
Schools face difficulties in dealing with issues created by divorce or separation of a student’s parents. Schools can be the scene of public arguments between these parents. Non-custodial parents, usually fathers, may visit schools for access to their children. A parent may pressure the school to increase their access to, or information about, their child, or to reduce access or information given to the other parent. Situations vary widely. Some custodial mothers seek protection from abusive partners, while many non-custodial fathers describe grief at the loss of contact with their children. Many schools lack clear policies on these issues. Schools should seek advice from their education department’s legal unit or operating guidelines. Schools should also obtain accurate records of custodial court orders, and keep them up to date. School staff should be respectful and non-judgemental towards the parents and students involved. KLA Subject HeadingsParent and childLaw Family Education policy Conflict management Nelson's national exam, would it work?
Volume 15
Number 23, 15 July 2005;
Page 1, 8
In Australia options are currently being considered for a nationally consistent curriculum and Year 12 certificate. Australian Government Education Minister Brendan Nelson has canvassed the International Baccalaureate (IB) as a possible model for a national certificate. The IB is accepted as an entry qualification by universities around the world. It encourages foreign language and cross-discipline learning, as well as empathy for other cultures and community commitment. The IB is independent of state or national education authorities. However, Greg Valentine from the International Baccalaureate organisation in Australasia has offered to work with the Australian Government to develop a rigorous and transportable national benchmark qualification. Ted Brierley, president of the Australian Secondary Principals' Association, has suggested that a nationally consistent certificate and curriculum could be achieved through a system that equalises curriculum and standards operating in different States and Territories. The system would use a method similar to those currently operating to convert HSC, VCE and IB scores into UAI, TER, OP or ENTER ratings. KLA Subject HeadingsMulticultural educationFederal-state relations Educational planning Educational certificates Education policy Curriculum planning Assessment Education research 'irrelevant'11 July 2005;
Page 5
Australia’s system for assigning funds to educational research should be overhauled, according to Professor Peter Cuttance, Director of the Centre for Applied Educational Research at the University of Melbourne. He has called for a more evidence-based approach to research, and greater attention to improving teaching and student learning. He has also called for a national network of researchers, policy makers, teachers, principals and parents, which would decide research priorities, store research results and disseminate them to schools and education authorities. Schools should be active participants in the network, rather than simply the subject of research. He argues that most educational research has no impact on schools or system policy. He has also claimed that the Australian Research Council's system for assigning funding to projects is ‘grossly unreliable’, and that there is ‘zero accountability for those making the assessments’. The criticisms have been rejected by Professor Peter Hoj, chief executive of the Australian Research Council. However, Ted Brierley, Australian Secondary Principals' Association president, has supported Professor Cuttance's criticisms, suggesting that research published on departmental websites ‘has been well filtered by ministerial bureaucrats’ to remove unfavourable or potentially embarrassing material, and that research reports rarely reach schools. Mr Brierley has recommended that a national research network be created by the National Institute for Quality Teaching and School Leadership. KLA Subject HeadingsSchoolsEducational planning Educational evaluation Education research Education policy Tots take on foreign words6 July 2005
The younger a child is when they start to learn a second or even third language, the better for brain development, according to recent studies in the USA. The 1980s and 1990s saw a sharp rise in curriculum and enrichment language classes offered in US elementary schools, with a similar take-up now seen in preschool years. Learning a second language is believed to increase cognitive development by using the brain synapses that exist for a short time during the younger years, and would otherwise disappear with age. Bilingual children are also shown to be more creative and better at complex problem solving. Take-up of language classes has been particularly strong where parents or grandparents have migrated to the USA, and want to pass their native culture and language onto their children, perhaps also ensuring they can communicate with elders who don’t speak English. One example of a language program is the Albany-Berkeley Chinese After-School and Preschool, where about 70 per cent of students are of Chinese descent and mixed race. Children may take longer to develop speech patterns if learning multiple languages from a young age experts say, but parents can assist their development by conversing with them in various languages. Key Learning AreasLanguagesSubject HeadingsPrimary educationEarly childhood education Languages other than English (LOTE) It's a long road from Darfur15 June 2005;
Page 9
The Western suburbs of Sydney currently hold approximately 6,000 Sudanese refugees. The children of these families have usually had little or no education, suffer psychological problems and may have lost family members. The children attend local schools, where teachers are generally not trained to deal with victims of war. Sydney's Catholic Education Office (CEO) is placing Sudanese adults in classes to assist students and to translate lessons on a voluntary or paid part-time basis. Partnering with Australian Catholic University (ACU) National, the CEO has also developed the Sudanese Pathways Project, which aims to ‘change the culture in local schools’. The project currently provides financial support for 21 selected Sudanese adults – many of whom are assisting in classrooms – in teacher training at ACU National. See also related article on James Mayol, one of the Sudanese students involved in the Sudanese Pathways Project. KLA Subject HeadingsAfricaTeacher training Refugees New South Wales (NSW) Catholic schools Well noted: music review sparks passionate response15 June 2005;
Page 2
The current National Review of School Music Education will report on the current quality and status of music in schools, examples of best practice in Australia and overseas, and recommend priorities for school music education. It is due for completion at the end of August this year, and so far it has received ‘an overwhelming number of submissions’. Starting music study at a young age is said to improve concentration and relational and motor skills in children. Research indicates that students who are continually involved with performance arts programs achieve higher academic standards, particularly those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. However, the Music Council of Australia (MCA) notes that up to 77% of students in state schools don’t have access to music education. Proposals for improving music education include the provision of specialist music teachers and increasing music education in teacher training programs to ensure all teachers are able and confident to teach the subject. Brighton Secondary School in South Australia offers an example of an outstanding music education program, attracting top musical talent and catering for all levels from general interest through to elite musicianship. See also earlier report in Curriculum Leadership on the National Review of School Music Education. Key Learning AreasThe ArtsSubject HeadingsReviewsTeaching and learning Music The role of research in producing evidence to inform strategic and policy developmentThree research studies commissioned by the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria (CECV) support the case for increasing Victorian Government funding for Catholic schools. The research identifies unmet needs of Catholic schools. The reports find that the accessibility of Catholic schooling for low income families is low and declining; that the primary sector share of enrolments is declining; that fees have increased faster than average weekly earnings; and that the value of the Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA) has also fallen. The research also identifies the contribution of Catholic schools to the Victorian economy and community. Enrolments are spread more evenly across socioeconomic deciles than in government or independent schools; Catholic schools spend less on average but draw on their communities’ social capital to produce above-average academic results. KLA Subject HeadingsVictoriaSurveys School and community Educational evaluation Education research Education policy Education finance Catholic schools |