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Full-Text Articles in Education

Successful Professional Learning, Marion Meiers, Sarah Buckley Dec 2009

Successful Professional Learning, Marion Meiers, Sarah Buckley

Dr Sarah Buckley

This edition is focused on research into teacher learning and professional development. Teacher learning includes not only activities such as conferences and workshops, but also includes participation in many formal and informal learning activities. Recent research has focused, amongst other things, on characteristics of successful professional learning, and on the connections between teachers' professional learning and improvements in student learning. This research has the potential to assist teachers and schools in selecting and planning for professional learning, so that it will maximise the benefits for participants. The first section of this digest presents some research findings on effective professional learning. …


Evaluation Of The Master Of Teaching At Mgse, Catherine Scott, Elizabeth Kleinhenz, Paul Weldon, Kate Reid, Stephen Dinham Dec 2009

Evaluation Of The Master Of Teaching At Mgse, Catherine Scott, Elizabeth Kleinhenz, Paul Weldon, Kate Reid, Stephen Dinham

Dr Elizabeth Kleinhenz

No abstract provided.


Mathematical Thinking Of Young Children Through The Eyes Of Preschool Practitioners, Robert Hunting, Catherine Pearn Jun 2009

Mathematical Thinking Of Young Children Through The Eyes Of Preschool Practitioners, Robert Hunting, Catherine Pearn

Catherine Pearn

This paper reports on interview responses to three questions seeking preschool practitioners' perceptions of mathematical thinking in very young children. Generally, the interviewees were found to have a good sense of mathematical concepts relevant to babies and toddlers, and they cited evidence of young children's mathematical development. It is concluded that this practical knowledge provides a strong foundation for further professional development. [Author abstract]


Staff In Australia’S Schools 2007, Phillip Mckenzie, Julie Kos, Maurice Walker, Jennifer Hong, Susanne Owen May 2009

Staff In Australia’S Schools 2007, Phillip Mckenzie, Julie Kos, Maurice Walker, Jennifer Hong, Susanne Owen

Dr Phillip McKenzie

The SIAS project, undertaken by the Australian Council for Educational Research in collaboration with the Australia College of Educators, gathered information from over 13,000 secondary and primary school teachers and leaders across the country. It aimed to address key gaps in the data available to characterise the teaching profession to support workforce planning. The project's findings and recommendations are presented in two components: the Staff in Australia's Schools data survey; and a report on Teacher Workforce Data and Planning Processes in Australia. The reports produced through the SIAS project provide a wide range of comprehensive data and advice on a …


Understanding Cpd Of Adults Through An Insider's Narrative, Imran Anjum Chaudary Sep 2008

Understanding Cpd Of Adults Through An Insider's Narrative, Imran Anjum Chaudary

Dr Imran Anjum

No abstract provided.


Working Out What Works, Kerry-Anne Hoad, John Munro, Catherine Pearn, Nola Purdie, Louise Ellis, Ken Rowe Dec 2006

Working Out What Works, Kerry-Anne Hoad, John Munro, Catherine Pearn, Nola Purdie, Louise Ellis, Ken Rowe

Catherine Pearn

The WOWW professional development program provides resources and training to support teachers to develop expertise in designing and implementing literacy and numeracy intervention strategies for students with or without learning difficulties. [Title page]


Towards A Moving School, John Fleming, Elizabeth Kleinhenz Dec 2006

Towards A Moving School, John Fleming, Elizabeth Kleinhenz

Dr Elizabeth Kleinhenz

Explores how schools become 'moving' schools, with teachers who have high levels of professional accountability, taking personal and collective responsibility for improving students' learning and their own teaching methods.


Leadership And Learning With Ict : Voices From The Profession, Kathryn Moyle Jul 2006

Leadership And Learning With Ict : Voices From The Profession, Kathryn Moyle

Professor Kathryn Moyle (consultant)

Leadership matters’ and ‘start with the pedagogies, not the technologies’, say Australian educators. Voices from the profession provides an overview of what a cross-section of over 400 of Australia’s educational leaders saw in 2005 as factors that contribute to how leadership supports learning with information and communication technologies (ICT) in Australian schools. It presents some of the issues raised and solutions proposed by the educational leaders who participated in this research. This paper draws on the words of the participants throughout, to illustrate findings and to give the report authenticity. This research shows that integrating ICT into teaching and learning …


Learning About Teaching : Using Video, Hilary Hollingsworth Apr 2006

Learning About Teaching : Using Video, Hilary Hollingsworth

Dr Hilary Hollingsworth

This article describes some Australian research and professional development projects that use classroom video data, and explains some of the positive outcomes, as well as some of the challenges, of these projects. A variety of methodologies have been used to collect, store, retrieve, code, navigate and analyse classroom video data. These include CD-Rom, DVD and web streaming to dedicated software platforms. Video is used to preserve classroom activity so that it can be 'slowed down' to enable detailed examinations of teaching and learning from multiple perspectives, reveal alternatives through comparative analysis, and stimulate discussions about choices related to teaching learning. …


Teachers’ Roles And Professional Learning In Communities Of Practice Supported By Technology In Schools, Elizabeth Hartnell-Young Dec 2005

Teachers’ Roles And Professional Learning In Communities Of Practice Supported By Technology In Schools, Elizabeth Hartnell-Young

Dr Elizabeth Hartnell-Young

This article explores four roles of teachers in classrooms using computers, from the perspective of communities of practice (Wenger, 1998). It reports on an indepth study undertaken in 12 schools, and shows that teachers appropriated technology in a range of ways to help them create classroom communities that build knowledge. Some also acted as brokers to cross classroom and school boundaries, engaging in professional learning through curriculum projects with other teachers and their students as new communities of practice formed. However, while such projects were initiated and driven by individuals and groups of teachers, their success required support through school …


Lesson Study : A Professional Learning Model That Actually Makes A Difference, Hilary Hollingsworth, Delwyn Oliver Dec 2004

Lesson Study : A Professional Learning Model That Actually Makes A Difference, Hilary Hollingsworth, Delwyn Oliver

Dr Hilary Hollingsworth

Over the past year, a group of mathematics teachers from one Victorian school engaged in a process of professional learning called Lesson Study. In bi-weekly meetings that focused on the development of a single exemplary lesson, they questioned, pondered, discussed, debated, explored, and examined mathematics, and the teaching and learning of mathematics. This paper describes the process and the outcomes of what these teachers consider to be the most powerful professional learning they have experienced.


Mathematics Recovery : Frameworks To Assist Students' Construction Of Arithmetical Knowledge, Catherine Pearn Dec 2004

Mathematics Recovery : Frameworks To Assist Students' Construction Of Arithmetical Knowledge, Catherine Pearn

Catherine Pearn

Mathematics Recovery was the outcome of a three-year research and development project at Southern Cross University, conducted in 1992-5. The project received major funding from the Australian Research Council and major contributions in the form of teacher time, from regional government and Catholic school systems. Over the 3-year period, the project involved working in 18 schools with 20 teachers and approximately 200 participating first-grade students. MR can be regarded as consisting of two distinct but interrelated components. One component concerns an elaborated body of theory and practice for working with students, that is, teaching early number knowledge. The second component …


From Research To Practice : Using The Timss Video Study Findings To Enhance Australian Mathematics Teaching, Hilary Hollingsworth Dec 2003

From Research To Practice : Using The Timss Video Study Findings To Enhance Australian Mathematics Teaching, Hilary Hollingsworth

Dr Hilary Hollingsworth

The findings of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 1999 Video Study have been reported at both international and national levels, however its impact on Australian mathematics teaching has yet to be realised. How can the results of the video study inform teachers' efforts toward excellence in mathematics teaching in Australia? This paper highlights some of the findings and recommendations in the national report, 'Teaching Mathematics in Australia: Results from the TIMSS 1999 Video Study', and anticipates ways that the products of the study might be used for improving teaching and teacher development. The broad purpose of the …


Engaging With Excellence In Mathematics Teaching : Creating Excellence In The Learning Environment, Ray Peck, Hilary Hollingsworth, W Morony Dec 2003

Engaging With Excellence In Mathematics Teaching : Creating Excellence In The Learning Environment, Ray Peck, Hilary Hollingsworth, W Morony

Dr Hilary Hollingsworth

No abstract provided.


Innovation In Practice : From Consumption To Creation, Elizabeth Hartnell-Young Jul 2003

Innovation In Practice : From Consumption To Creation, Elizabeth Hartnell-Young

Dr Elizabeth Hartnell-Young

This paper focuses on three aspects of innovation: its purpose of supporting lifelong learning during and after schooling, the ways that information and communications technology (ICT) supports learning and knowledge creation, and digital portfolios as an example of learning and innovation. Digital portfolios, containers of multimedia forms of evidence of activities, achievements and reflections, are just one way in which technology can support lifelong learning and the creation and sharing of knowledge.


Towards Knowledge Building : Reflecting On Teachers' Roles And Professional Learning In Communities Of Practice, Elizabeth Hartnell-Young Dec 2002

Towards Knowledge Building : Reflecting On Teachers' Roles And Professional Learning In Communities Of Practice, Elizabeth Hartnell-Young

Dr Elizabeth Hartnell-Young

This study was undertaken in conjunction with the Successful Integration of Learning Technologies (SILT) Project in Victorian state schools, and its purpose was to identify the forms of teachers' professional practice that enhance knowledge building, in order to inform teacher development policy and pre-service education. Knowledge building is based on a constructivist approach to learning and teaching, and this, in conjunction with the spread of learning technologies, is said to have greatly changed the role of the teacher in the classroom: from the expert dispensing knowledge to the facilitator of student learning. Using an ethnographic approach based particularly on observation …


Elaborating A Model Of Teacher Professional Growth, David Clarke, Hilary Hollingsworth Dec 2001

Elaborating A Model Of Teacher Professional Growth, David Clarke, Hilary Hollingsworth

Dr Hilary Hollingsworth

This paper details a model of teacher professional growth and relates the model to the research data on which the model is empirically founded. A key feature of the model is its inclusion of four analytic domains in close correspondence to those employed by Guskey (Educational Researcher 15(5), 1986) and others, but the model proposed in this paper identifies the specific mechanisms by which change in one domain is associated with change in another. The interconnected, non-linear structure of the model enabled the identification of particular “change sequences” and “growth networks”, giving recognition to the idiosyncratic and individual nature of …


Looking For Evidence In The Teaching Of Mathematics, Ray Peck, A Bishop, S Bennett Nov 2000

Looking For Evidence In The Teaching Of Mathematics, Ray Peck, A Bishop, S Bennett

Ray Peck

The joint Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers AAMT/Monash University project 'Excellence in the teaching of mathematics: professional standards project' has been working with teacher focus groups in four states to try and build a picture of what mathematics teachers believe represents excellent teaching. This paper discusses the second aim of this project: to develop an assessment scheme and protocols for certifying this excellence. Topics discussed are developing ways to assess excellence, looking at an American model of assessment - the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS), and other models for standards of excellence in teaching.


Empowering Classroom Teachers For The 21st Century: Meeting The Challenge Of Advancing Children's Mathematical Development, Catherine Pearn Dec 1998

Empowering Classroom Teachers For The 21st Century: Meeting The Challenge Of Advancing Children's Mathematical Development, Catherine Pearn

Catherine Pearn

In this paper, the specific concerns for literacy and numeracy as we enter a new era are addressed through a discussion of an innovative mathematics early intervention program, which the author and classroom teachers have developed and applied. 'Mathematics Intervention' is an innovative program developed by three classroom teachers to identify, then assist, children in year 1 'at risk' of not coping with the current mathematics curriculum. The program incorporates assessment tools and learning activities based on recent research about children's early numerical learning. It develops the basic concepts of number upon which children build their understanding of mathematics. All …


Change Trajectories In Teacher Professional Growth, Hilary Hollingsworth Jun 1996

Change Trajectories In Teacher Professional Growth, Hilary Hollingsworth

Dr Hilary Hollingsworth

This paper reports some aspects of the professional growth of two Victorian mathematics teachers involved in the study and introduces the use of 'change trajectories' as a suitable mechanism for describing the growth process. The researcher made use of the Interconnected Model of Teacher Professional Growth for examining the process of change.


School Focused Professional Development And The Interaction Of Teachers, Elizabeth Hartnell-Young Dec 1995

School Focused Professional Development And The Interaction Of Teachers, Elizabeth Hartnell-Young

Dr Elizabeth Hartnell-Young

This study is concerned with school focused professional development in Fairhills High School. Data from teachers in the school has been analysed in order to provide a basis for planning a professional development program in the light of government initiatives. In particular, the study analyses the communication patterns within the school in an attempt to ascertain the extent of collaboration which occurs between teachers, and the factors which influence professional interaction. Recommendations for professional development at Fairhills High School are based on discussion of the data. In addition, the study suggests implications for all schools. The results reported in this …


Using The Questionnaire On Teacher Interaction In The Professional Development Of Teachers., John Cresswell, D Fisher, B Fraser Dec 1994

Using The Questionnaire On Teacher Interaction In The Professional Development Of Teachers., John Cresswell, D Fisher, B Fraser

Dr John Cresswell

For some time in Australia, the Schools Council of the National Board of Employment, Education and Training has been concerned with issues concerning the quality of teaching as evidenced through its reports on Teacher Quality: An Issues Paper (1989) and Australia's Teachers: An Agenda for the Next Decade (1990). These reports and others highlight the need for teachers to examine continually what they do in their classrooms. Most recently, teacher quality and the need for continued professional development of teachers has been the subject of ministerial statement. This report notes how the impact of, and responsibility for, effective implementation of …


Investigations In Metacognitive Learning Processes With Computers: Learner Based Inquiries, Diane Maschette, Evelyn Bransgrove, S Morris, Richard Johnson, Prue Anderson Dec 1991

Investigations In Metacognitive Learning Processes With Computers: Learner Based Inquiries, Diane Maschette, Evelyn Bransgrove, S Morris, Richard Johnson, Prue Anderson

Prue Anderson

Current research concerning learning highlights the importance of metacognitive skills in promoting successful learning for both adults and children (Baird, 1989; Flavell, 1981; Rowe, 1988). Several researchers have identified particular strategies for use in developing metacognitive skills in the classroom (Baird & Mitchell, 1986; Swan & White, 1990). Claims have been made for the computer as a useful tool in this process (for example, in developing problem solving skills) however there is relatively little research evidence to support such claims. This study addresses this shortfall, building on the considerable research in metacognition.


Developing An Understanding Of Teaching Mathematics: Working With People, Ray Peck Nov 1987

Developing An Understanding Of Teaching Mathematics: Working With People, Ray Peck

Ray Peck

No abstract provided.