Education Commons^™

Equipping Students For Life After School, Geoff Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

Identifying and developing the knowledge, skills and attributes required for life and work is an ongoing challenge in school education.

Teaching Reading In The Early Years, Prue Anderson

Prue Anderson

Teaching children to read in the early years involves a variety of comprehension strategies for the development of literate practices, as Prue Anderson explains.

A Developing Story: The Literacy Demands Of The Curriculum, Marion Meiers

Marion Meiers

The need for explicit teaching of the literacy demands of the curriculum has been and remains a significant area of interest for all teachers. An example of how this interest has evolved can be seen in Nea Stewart-Dore's careerlong interest in literacy learning. This was a key aspect of her major contribution to professional knowledge and understanding of literacy learning. Nea's story provides a useful retrospective insight into the shaping of the strong current focus of the literacy of the disciplines.

Pisa 2009 Plus Results : Performance Of 15-Year-Olds In Reading, Mathematics And Science For 10 Additional Participants, Maurice Walker

Maurice Walker

The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is an international comparative survey of 15-year-olds’ knowledge and skills in reading, mathematical and scientific literacy. PISA seeks to measure how well young adults have acquired the knowledge and skills that are required to function as successful members of society. As part of the PISA 2009 survey, students completed an assessment on reading literacy, mathematical literacy and scientific literacy, as well as an extensive background questionnaire. School principals also completed a survey describing the context of education at their school, including the level of resources in the school and qualifications of staff. …

The Cure For Early Grades Assessment Difficulties? Take A Tablet, Maurice Walker

Maurice Walker

Maurice Walker reports on an innovative approach to assessment using tablets to monitor educational development in the early years of schooling.

Meeting The Challenge Of Disciplinary Literacies, Marion Meiers

Marion Meiers

Assessing Maths Literacy: Learning From The Pisa Experience, Ross Turner

Ross Turner

A new book that draws on ACER’s work on one of the world’s largest international surveys is providing educators with important insights about how assessment can be used to improve learning outcomes.

The 'Literacy' Idea, Ross Turner

Ross Turner

A central reason why researchers and practitioners refer to domain literacy is to draw attention to the kinds of things students learn in the domain. In a traditional learning domain the focus might be on the acquisition of discrete facts, skills and procedures that have little obvious connection or utility. In a learning domain with a literacy orientation, the focus is on applying the domain’s facts, skills and procedures to support creativity and inventiveness, to solve novel problems and to deal with the kinds of challenges that life presents outside the classroom. In the case of mathematics, for example, a …

Dancing Literacy: Expanding Children’S And Teachers’ Literacy Repertoires Through Embodied Knowing, Allison Leonard, Anna Hall, Danielle Herro

Alison E Leonard

This paper explores dance as literacy. Specifically, it examines qualitative case study research findings and student examples from a dance artist-in-residence that explored curricular content using dance as its primary mode of inquiry and expression. Throughout the residency, students constructed meaning through their dance experiences in dynamic and autonomous ways, exhibiting complex literacy practices of inquiry and communication. Focusing on the kindergarten student participants’ experiences, the authors highlight three themes in their dance literacy practices: (a) artistic autonomy, (b) embodied knowledge, and (c) multimodality. As embodied knowledge, dance innately allowed for integrative literacy possibilities in the dance residency. The dance …

Bullying In Australian Schools, Kylie Hillman

Kylie Hillman

Recent international surveys of students’ mathematics, science and reading achievement also reveal much about their engagement with schooling, their experience of bullying and their sense of safety at school, as Kylie Hillman explains.

School Improvement On Australia’S Horizon, Geoff Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

While Australia has seen a steady decline in 15-year-olds’ reading literacy achievement over the past decade, Geoff Masters identifies promising signs at the primary level that this trend may soon be reversed.

National Assessment Program : Ict Literacy 2008 : Year 6 And Year 10 : Technical Report, Chris Freeman, John Ainley, Julian Fraillon, Eveline Gebhardt, Kate O'Malley, Wolfram Schulz

Dr Wolfram Schulz

This report describes the technical aspects of the National ICT Literacy Sample Assessment and summarises the main activities involved in the data collection, the data collection instruments and the analysis and reporting of the data. Chapter 2 summarises the development of the assessment domain and describes the process of item development and construction of the instruments. Chapter 3 reviews the sample design and describes the sampling process. Chapter 3 also describes the weighting procedures that were implemented to derive population estimates. Chapter 4 summarises the field administration and data management procedures, including quality control and the cleaning and coding of …

Growth In Literacy And Numeracy In The Early Years, Marion Meiers, Kate Reid

Marion Meiers

Children’s literacy and numeracy skills in the year prior to school and the first year at school reveal wide variation. Marion Meiers and Kate Reid explain.

A Multi-Institutional Project To Develop Discipline-Specific Data Literacy Instruction For Graduate Students, Sarah Wright, Michael Fosmire, Jon Jeffryes, Marianne Stowell Bracke, Brian Westra

Michael Fosmire

What data stewardship skills are needed by future scientists to fulfill their professional responsibilities and take advantage of opportunities in e-science? How can academic librarians contribute their expertise in information organization, dissemination and preservation to better serve modern science? With support from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), four research libraries have formed a partnership to address these questions. The aims of the partnership are to identify the data stewardship skills, including data management and curation, needed by graduate students at the research discipline level, to identify trends that extend across the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) …

National Assessment Program : Ict Literacy 2008 : Year 6 And Year 10 : Technical Report, Chris Freeman, John Ainley, Julian Fraillon, Eveline Gebhardt, Kate O'Malley, Wolfram Schulz

Julian Fraillon

This report describes the technical aspects of the National ICT Literacy Sample Assessment and summarises the main activities involved in the data collection, the data collection instruments and the analysis and reporting of the data. Chapter 2 summarises the development of the assessment domain and describes the process of item development and construction of the instruments. Chapter 3 reviews the sample design and describes the sampling process. Chapter 3 also describes the weighting procedures that were implemented to derive population estimates. Chapter 4 summarises the field administration and data management procedures, including quality control and the cleaning and coding of …

Questioning The Standards Of Literacy And Numeracy, David Tout, Juliette Mendelovits

David (Dave) Tout

David Tout and Juliette Mendelovits examine why we receive such differing reports on the literacy and numeracy skills of young Australians.

Questioning The Standards Of Literacy And Numeracy, David Tout, Juliette Mendelovits

Juliette Mendelovits

David Tout and Juliette Mendelovits examine why we receive such differing reports on the literacy and numeracy skills of young Australians.

What Information From Pisa Is Useful For Teachers? How Can Pisa Help Our Students To Become More Proficient?, Juliette Mendelovits, Dara Searle, Tom Lumley

Juliette Mendelovits

A frequent objection to large-scale testing programs, both national and international, is that they are used as an instrument of control, rather than as a means of providing information to effect change. Moreover, concerns about large-scale testing often take the form of objection to the specific characteristics of the assessments as being prescriptive and proscriptive, leading to a narrowing of the curriculum and the spectre of 'teaching to the test' to the exclusion of more important educational content. Taking PISA reading literacy as its focus, this paper proposes, on the contrary, that a coherent assessment system is valuable in so …

National Assessment Program : Ict Literacy 2008 : Year 6 And Year 10 : Technical Report, Chris Freeman, John Ainley, Julian Fraillon, Eveline Gebhardt, Kate O'Malley, Wolfram Schulz

Dr John Ainley

This report describes the technical aspects of the National ICT Literacy Sample Assessment and summarises the main activities involved in the data collection, the data collection instruments and the analysis and reporting of the data. Chapter 2 summarises the development of the assessment domain and describes the process of item development and construction of the instruments. Chapter 3 reviews the sample design and describes the sampling process. Chapter 3 also describes the weighting procedures that were implemented to derive population estimates. Chapter 4 summarises the field administration and data management procedures, including quality control and the cleaning and coding of …

Print And Digital Reading In Pisa 2009 : Comparison And Contrast, Juliette Mendelovits, Dara Ramalingam, Tom Lumley

Dr Tom Lumley

PISA was administered for the fourth time in 2009. Since in each administration, one of reading, maths or science is chosen as the major domain, the 2009 survey marked the first time that a domain (in this case, reading) was revisited as the major focus of the assessment. This allowed a full review of the framework for reading literacy and the inclusion of new elements to reflect the way that reading has changed since 2000 (OECD, 2009). One such change is the increasing prevalence of digital texts. The assessment of digital reading in the PISA 2009 cycle, undertaken by 19 …

National Assessment Program : Ict Literacy Technical Report, Eveline Gebhardt, Julian Fraillon, Wolfram Schulz, Kate O'Malley, Chris Freeman, Martin Murphy, John Lindsey

Martin Murphy

This report is concerned with procedures, processes and technical aspects of the National Assessment Program - ICT Literacy 2011 Literacy (NAP - ICTL 2011) and should be read in conjunction with the Public Report from Literacy NAP - ICTL 2011 which focuses on results and interpretation of results from that assessment. The first cycle of the NAP - ICTL was held in 2005 and provided the baseline against which future performance would be compared. The second cycle of the program was conducted in 2008 and was the first cycle where trends in performance were able to be examined.

Talking With Texts: How Cellphones Empower Deaf Children In Uganda, Sacha Develle

Dr Sacha DeVelle

No abstract provided.

"Authentic" Learning Experiences: What Does This Mean And Where Is The Literacy Learning?, Jessica Mantei, Lisa Kervin

Jessica Mantei

Teachers are challenged to adopt practices that facilitate the development of “necessary” skills and strategies for learners. For many, however, what is required in policy and curricula is increasingly obscured and even confusing as teachers are bombarded with jargon prescribing seemingly similar (yet apparently different) approaches such as “rich tasks”, “big questions” and “fertile questions” that are to be “relevant”, “authentic” and “engaging” for the learner. Barton and Hamilton (2000) argue that literacy learning should take the learner beyond the transmission of technical skills in the classroom to an understanding of its role within a community’s cultural practices. These literacy …

'Books Are Fun, Books Are Great', Annie Moses

Annie M. Moses

Television has been shown to influence young children's development of attitudes and skills. Evidence also suggests that children's television programs contain both positive and negative messages about various topics, including literacy. Yet little has been done to examine whether and how television messages about literacy affect young children's attitudes about literacy. Guided by three theoretical frameworks (Emergent Literacy perspective, Active Viewing model, and Social Cognitive Theory), this investigation involved two experiments in which 4- and 5-year-olds (N1 = 63; N2 = 52) in the US viewed clips that contained positive or negative messages about literacy. The General Literacy Attitudes Measure …

Enhancing Education, Sheldon Rothman, Sarah Buckley, David Slattery, John Ainley

Dr Sarah Buckley

The Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER) was announced on 21 July 2007 and has been implemented over the last four years. This federal government initiative aims to protect children, to make communities safe and to build a better future for people living in Indigenous communities and town camps in the Northern Territory. The strategies have changed since its initial implementation but its focus and many of the key themes and measures remain the same. This evaluation examines the NTER from a whole-of-government perspective, reviewing the impact on community safety, wellbeing and service provision; service coordination and engagement; promoting law and …

An Ant's Eye View : Some Pluses And Minuses, Dave Tout

David (Dave) Tout

This article provides a history of adult numeracy teaching, looking back at the rise and development if adult numeracy provision, mainly in Victoria, from the perspective of an ANT (adult numeracy teacher), beginning in the late 1970s. The author then describes what lies on the horizon, what lessons adult educators can learn, and what opportunities might lie ahead for adult numeracy in the next decade or so. The article contains an exposition on the benefits of explicitly recognising and supporting numeracy within the language, literacy and numeracy equation. The author argues that, given the Australian data from ALLS, there is …

Practical Challenges And Possibilities For The Integration Of Academic Literacy In A First Year Subject, Clifford Jackson, Pauline Taylor, Adam Raoul

Associate Professor Pauline Taylor-Guy

A Systematic Approach To Literacy Support For First Year Preservice Teachers: Implications For Practice, Pauline Taylor

Associate Professor Pauline Taylor-Guy

Indigenous Literacy Policy Implementation In Queensland Schools : An Evaluation, Pauline Taylor

Associate Professor Pauline Taylor-Guy

What Television Can (And Can't) Do To Promote Early Literacy Development, Annie Moses, Mcmullen Benson

Annie M. Moses

The article focuses on a study which examined the impact of television programs on children's early literacy development in the U.S. The study revealed that entertainment television causes children to be less engaged in reading as well as in other educational activities. However, it found that watching educational programming can enhance literacy skills and behaviors early on and can promote academic motivation and interest. Moreover, it indicated that watching a moderate amount of educational programming will develop children's positive literacy habits and skills.