Education Commons^™

Parental Involvement In Secondary Schools [Book Chapter], Caron A. Westland

Caron Westland

No abstract provided.

Evolving Roles: Relationships And Policy [Book Chapter], Heidi Barker, Caron Westland

Caron Westland

No abstract provided.

Decision-Making Processes And Educational Leadership In Australia, Christine Cunningham

Dr. Christine Cunningham

Decision making is a key concept within educational leadership theory. Power is wielded in schools every time a final decision is made because decision making is a privilege of power. This article critiques decision making from an emancipatory orientation and views it as an important topic of study carried out in continual view of our students which role models to them how a community should decide together. The research case study underpinning this article examined leadership practices in some Western Australian schools using a hybrid decision-making continuum. Experienced school leaders and teachers engaged in studying a Masters in Educational Leadership …

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

Maurice Walker

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 …

Australian Teachers And The Learning Environment: An Analysis Of Teacher Response To Talis 2013: Final Report, Chris Freeman, Kate O'Malley, Frances Eveleigh

Chris Freeman

The OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) is the first international survey programme to focus on the learning environment and the working conditions of teachers in schools. The overarching aim of TALIS is to provide robust, policy relevant indicators and analysis on teachers and the learning environment for an international audience. It aims to provide an opportunity to examine best practice in education systems around the world, to allow countries to identify other education systems facing similar challenges to their own and to learn from other policy approaches. TALIS provides internationally comparable information in the areas of teacher demographic …

Every Face Has A Place: Disability, Mental Health And Kidsmatter, Katherine Dix

Dr Katherine Dix

Disability And Children’S Mental Health Through The Kidsmatter Lens, Katherine Dix, Paul Cahalan

Dr Katherine Dix

Technologies, Democracy And Digital Citizenship: Examining Australian Policy Intersections And The Implications For School Leadership, Kathryn Moyle

Professor Kathryn Moyle

There are intersections that can occur between the respective peak Australian school education policy agendas. These policies include the use of technologies in classrooms to improve teaching and learning as promoted through the Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians and the Australian Curriculum; and the implementation of professional standards as outlined in the Australian Professional Standard for Principals and the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers. These policies create expectations of school leaders to bring about change in classrooms and across their schools, often described as bringing about ‘quality teaching’ and ‘school improvement’. These policies indicate that Australian children …

Interpreting Data: Where’S The Evidence?, Katherine Dix

Dr Katherine Dix

An Exploratory Analysis Of The Talis And Pisa Link Data: An Investigation Of The Possible Relationships, Frances Eveleigh, Chris Freeman

Chris Freeman

This paper proposes to report a preliminary investigation of the field trial data of PISA combined with the TALIS data from the same pool of schools. It proposes exploratory analyses of the data through correlation, ANOVA and MANOVA, and multi-level modelling techniques to identify plausible relationships and explained variation that may be uncovered within the data. This investigation will inform the types of analyses that may be performed on the main study data that are being collected in mid to late 2012.

Beyond Competition--Innovation For A Sustainable Future, Stephanie Marshall

Stephanie Pace Marshall, Ph.D.

Dr. Marshall outlines her belief that the current context and conditions of schooling are far too constrained, prescribed and risk-averse for our children’s imagination, and as a result, actually mitigate against innovative thinking and creative and collaborative problem-solving. Authentic learning is a live encounter. She feels that we cannot mandate, punish or test our children into greatness and provides recommendations for educational transformation--not reform--to design the educational experiences needed by today's children.

School Connections : Using Ict To Engage Students In Learning, Hamish Coates, Tim Friedman

Dr Tim Friedman

In 2006, one school team from each of the ten NSW Department of Education regions were nominated to participate in the Microsoft Partners in Learning (PiL) Connected Learning Schools Project. With reference to their unique context, each school developed and implemented a project that involved teachers using Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in their teaching and learning to engage middle-year students in their education, and to connect more authentically with students’ learning experiences outside of school. The NSW Partners in Learning project was a research and development project. The aim was to investigate how children in the middle years (Years …

Filtering Children’S Access To The Internet At School, Kathryn Moyle

Professor Kathryn Moyle

Countries differ in their policy responses to the question: “Should children’s access to the Internet be filtered?” Countries such as the UK, U.S. and Australia do filter online content with software on servers, and countries such as Denmark, Sweden and The Netherlands, do not. The differences between these respective countries’ school policies are philosophical and political. This paper discusses intersections between the aims and purposes of schools, the political economy and the use of electronic filters on the Internet, for educational purposes. The paper concludes with a reflection of the implications of these issues for school leaders.

A Teacher's Guide To Communicating With Parents: Practical Strategies For Developing Successful Relationships, Tina Dyches, Nari Carter, Mary Prater

Tina T. Dyches

A supplementary guidebook for courses in Collaboration, School/Family Relationships, or School/Family Partnerships. This guidebook provides evidence-based information, examples, and resources to K-12 educators about effective strategies for communicating with parents. It is divided into five sections: Developing Caring Relationships in Schools, Communicating with Families for Student Success, Communicating with Families throughout the School Year, Communicating with Families in Meetings, and Addressing Difficult Topics with Families. Each section begins with a discussion of the topic as it relates to general education students, students with disabilities, culturally/linguistically diverse students, and students with unique gifts and talents. Graphics and examples illustrate each topic, …

A Best Practice Guide To Assessment And Intervention For Autism And Asperger Syndrome In Schools, Lee Wilkinson

Lee A Wilkinson, PhD

Filling a critical void in the autism literature, this authoritative yet accessible book provides expert guidance to psychologists, advocates, consultants, support professionals, and parents. Grounded in the latest research, special features include an index to 50 evidence-based best practice recommendations and real world case examples to illustrate best practice in the field. This book is certain to become a widely used resource in the field of special education.

Diane Adreon, Associate Director of the University of Miami-Nova Southeastern University Center for Autism and Related Disabilities (CARD) comments that “Dr. Lee Wilkinson has produced a well-written, user-friendly, comprehensive guide to the …

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 …

Total Cost Of Ownership & Total Value Of Ownership, Kathryn Moyle

Professor Kathryn Moyle

School leaders are regularly required to make decisions concerning the effective integration of ICT into their schools’ teaching and learning programs. School leaders however, face challenges about the processes to use to inform their decision-making. These challenges include knowing which data to draw upon; how to collect the data and how to analyze it so that meaningful decisions can emerge. As such, this chapter examines some recent activities aimed at using data to inform leadership and management strategies in schools as they pertain to teaching and learning with educational technologies, and focuses in particular on total cost of ownership and …

Perceptions Of Parental Involvement In Schooling, Student Milieu And Student Achievement In Mathematics, Nicole Wernert

Nicole Wernert

This study builds on recent research that has found that teacher perceptions of parental involvement in schooling are an important influence on student outcomes, in addition to the effects of parent reports of their involvement. Using data from TIMSS 2003, this study explores the relationship between principal perceptions of parental involvement and student milieu and the impact of both on student achievement in mathematics. Moderated multiple regression analyses were used to explore these relationships. A significant relationship was found for mean school mathematics achievement regressed on principals’ perceptions of parental support and involvement at both Grades 4 and 8. However, …

Selecting Open Source Software For Use In Schools, Kathryn Moyle

Professor Kathryn Moyle

Schools are places where the choices made about computing technologies not only reflect their technical requirements but also reflect the philosophical priorities directing those choices. Schools can deploy a startling range of software (i.e., operating systems, databases, office productivity software, and applications software) for specifc teaching and learning purposes. Applications software deployed in schools must be suitable for use by students who are young and often have limited reading and fine motor skills. Back-end software must be robust enough to handle hundreds and sometimes thousands of users concurrently. One issue that faces schools interested in deploying open source software is …

Building Sustainable Networks For Young Women And Icts Throughout Australia, Kathryn Moyle

Professor Kathryn Moyle

No abstract provided.

Addressing The Education Of Boys: A Community Of Practice Approach, Elizabeth Hartnell-Young, Greg Neal

Dr Elizabeth Hartnell-Young

The Boys’ Education Lighthouse Project (BELS) has enabled clusters of schools throughout Australia to identify, intervene, research, and report on initiatives to improve boys’ learning outcomes. In this paper we apply a community of practice model to analyse the BELS Project and consider knowledge building through student and teacher learning as the practice of the community in question. Clusters have focused on initiating new literacy programs, modifying teaching practice, introducing male role models or using ICT to improve learning outcomes. The four clusters considered in this paper show differing levels of development as communities of practice on a national scale, …

Teachers As Designers In Computer-Supported Communities Of Practice, Elizabeth Hartnell-Young

Dr Elizabeth Hartnell-Young

School classes can be conceptualized as bounded communities of practice made up of teachers and students working together to build knowledge. Teachers make design decisions about physical and virtual spaces supported by information and communications technologies, and about curriculum. Design influences how students go about their work, and their learning outcomes, but its processes are rarely observed. This paper, based on observations and conversations in schools, explores how teachers engage in designing learning environments. It argues that while most teachers display leadership in design decisions for their classes, they should build on this experience to influence policy and become more …

Eportfolios In Australian Schools: Supporting Learners' Self-Esteem, Multiliteracies And Reflection On Learning, Elizabeth Hartnell-Young

Dr Elizabeth Hartnell-Young

Electronic or ePortfolios are containers for selections of digital items – whether audio, visual, text, or a combination of these – generally used to show individual learning. Large-scale systems are being developed in Europe and the United States, based on specially-designed proprietary or open-source software. In contrast, most Australian ePortfolio projects in schools are small-scale, locally-developed attempts to take advantage of digital formats to develop a range of literacies, express learners’ identities and present achievements to various audiences. This paper describes recent school-based examples reported by teachers and students and concludes that teachers believe that important outcomes lie in increasing …

Are There National Patterns Of Teaching? Evidence From The Timss 1999 Video Study, Karen Givvin, James Hiebert, Jennifer Jacobs, Hilary Hollingsworth, Ronald Gallimore

Dr Hilary Hollingsworth

Why do teachers today teach as they do, and why has teaching evolved in the way that it has evolved? In order to improve teaching, it is important to understand why teaching looks the way that it now does and how its general form can be explained. One way to address this question is at the classroom level. In this article we build on ethnographic research by using the 1999 Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) video archives. Here we consider two possible explanations for the general patterns that have developed in school teaching. One explanation is that there …

Are Learning Technologies Making A Difference? A Longitudinal Perspective Of Attitudes, Katherine Dix

Dr Katherine Dix

Teachers' New Roles In School-Based Communities Of Practice, Elizabeth Hartnell-Young

Dr Elizabeth Hartnell-Young

School classrooms can be conceptualised as bounded communities of practice made up of teachers and students working together to learn and build knowledge. The widespread use of information and communication technologies enables these communities to create knowledge, cross boundaries and build up intellectual capital. This paper, based on a qualitative study of thirty-two teachers in Victorian state schools, offers a model of four teachers’ roles that reflects the current situation, and suggests ways in which these roles might be developed to enhance knowledge building. It argues that safe, knowledgeable communities within boundaries, together with active boundary-crossing, can provide the conditions …