Education Commons^™

Plan To Recruit Our Best And Brightest, Geoff Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

Australia faces a number of challenges over the next decade in planning the future teacher workforce, according to Geoff Masters.

Living Among Guatemalan Mayans Is Fascinating Experience, Irene Scharf

Irene Scharf

I have just lived a dream. Five years ago I learned of a school where students of all ages could study Spanish intensively while living among the Guatemalan Mayans. Peace Accords had been signed in 1996, the government was encouraging tourism, and it was, finally, safe to visit.

Why a dream? Because, 25 years ago, when I traveled through Central and South America, I promised my family I would avoid Guatemala because of the perceived was dangers. During that trip, as I met my Europeans and other who had visited, remained safe, and found it a fascinating country, I vowed …

It’S Not Just The Language: Culture As An Essential Element In Pre-Service Teacher Education, Linda Evans, Annmarie Gunn

Linda S. Evans

We’re not even two weeks into this course, and already I feel that the readings are speaking directly to me: to my prejudice, my (unadmitted) racism, my unresolved feelings about foreigners in my country, and all of the sentiments I hold dear about what it means to be American, and what those who are not native to this country “should” be doing to fit in. I am one of those people who have thought, if not actually said, that once they are in the United States, they need to speak English. So, now, I am ashamed that I have been …

Trust The Teaching Profession With The Responsibilities Of A Profession., Lawrence C. Ingvarson

Dr Lawrence Ingvarson (Consultant)

Teacher Education And Development Study In Mathematics (Teds-M) : Policy, Practice, And Readiness To Teach Primary And Secondary Mathematics : Conceptual Framework., Maria Tatto, John Schwille, Sharon Senk, Lawrence Ingvarson, Ray Peck, Glenn Rowley

Ray Peck

TEDS-M is a collaborative effort of worldwide institutions to study the mathematics preparation of future primary and secondary teachers. This study investigates whether what future teachers learn in teacher education leads to more effective knowledge of mathematics and mathematics for teaching. The lead centre is the International Study Center at Michigan State University, which along with the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), the Australian Council of Educational Research, and national research centres (NRCs) in 17 countries, is analysing the costs of becoming a teacher prepared to teach mathematics, the policies governing mathematics teacher education (including recruitment, …

Boys' Education Lighthouse Schools : Stage Two Final Report 2006, Peter Cuttance, Wes Imms, Sally Godhino, Elizabeth Hartnell-Young, Jean Thompson, Keryn Mcguinness, Gregory Neal

Dr Elizabeth Hartnell-Young

In 2004, schools involved in BELS Stage Two focused on trialling effective approaches to addressing boys' education, and establishing appropriate evaluation tools and methodologies to monitor the impact of these interventions. In 2005, BELS clusters implemented interventions across their clusters and measured their impact on their target group of boys. The Final Report provides a detailed analysis and discussion of the key findings and experiences of the 350 project schools in stage two of the Boys' Education Lighthouse Schools Programme. The BELS program followed almost a decade of public enquiries into issues associated with boys' learning in Australian schools

Evaluation Of An Online Community: Australia's National Quality Schooling Framework, Elizabeth Hartnell-Young, Keryn Mcguinness, Peter Cuttance

Dr Elizabeth Hartnell-Young

This chapter considers the development and implementation of Australia’s National Quality Schooling Framework (NQSF), created particularly for teachers and others involved in improving school education. This large-scale, highly structured, and outcome- focused community space, funded by the Australian government, was developed as a means of building and testing knowledge. Using Wenger’s infrastructure for communities of practice, the chapter evaluates the NQSF in light of its capacity for engagement, imagination, and alignment. Although these three are often intertwined, we conclude that firstly, users value the space for engagement and that this needs to be supported by a national telecommunications infrastructure. Secondly, …

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.

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 …

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 …

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.