Education Commons^™

Relationship – The Fourth “R” In Our Schools, Lee Wilkinson

Lee A Wilkinson, PhD

No abstract provided.

Evaluation Of The Ardoch Western Lincs Project, Michele Lonsdale, Jenny Wilkinson, Elizabeth Kleinhenz

Jenny Wilkinson (retired)

In Australia and other Western countries, there is growing recognition among governments, business and community groups that schools cannot deal with the complex demands of the twenty-first century on their own. There is an emerging body of evidence to show that school-community partnerships can make a positive difference to the outcomes of students in disadvantaged areas. There are still gaps in the evidence base however. More evidence of successful collaboration is needed and the impact these partnerships have on student outcomes. The WLinCS project is one such example of a highly effective school-community partnership. The western suburbs of Melbourne are …

Evaluation Of The Ardoch Western Lincs Project, Michele Lonsdale, Jenny Wilkinson, Elizabeth Kleinhenz

Dr Elizabeth Kleinhenz (retired)

In Australia and other Western countries, there is growing recognition among governments, business and community groups that schools cannot deal with the complex demands of the twenty-first century on their own. There is an emerging body of evidence to show that school-community partnerships can make a positive difference to the outcomes of students in disadvantaged areas. There are still gaps in the evidence base however. More evidence of successful collaboration is needed and the impact these partnerships have on student outcomes. The WLinCS project is one such example of a highly effective school-community partnership. The western suburbs of Melbourne are …

Contemporary Literacy Practices Of Early Learners (Preps), D Cohen, Anne-Marie Chase

Dr Anne-Marie Chase

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

Dr Julie Kos

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 …

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 …

What Is The Value Of Educational Technologies In Schools?: Initial Findings From The International Research Project ‘Measuring The Value Of Educational Technologies In Schools’, Kathryn Moyle

Professor Kathryn Moyle

Understanding the costs as well as the value of educational technologies in schools is important for school leaders to be able to strategically lead school development processes. This paper outlines some of the findings from the first case studies emerging from the international project, Measuring the value of educational technologies in schools, involving a school in each of USA, UK and Australia. The Measuring the value of educational technologies in schools research project is examining the relationships that exist in schools between educational technologies or ‘tangible information technology (IT) assets’, and ‘intangible assets’ such as the capabilities of teachers 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, …

The Impact Of Increasing Competition For University On Disadvantaged Government School Students, Daniel Edwards

Dr Daniel Edwards

The influence of socioeconomic status on academic outcomes has been well documented in literature exploring post school pathways. Such accounts of educational disadvantage exist in relation to Melbourne, Australia as they do in other cities across the developed world. However, over the past decade in Melbourne there has been an increased stratification of educational outcomes that cannot necessarily be explained by any parallel increase in social inequality. This differentiation of outcomes has been the result of growing competition for university places – stemming from growth in the school aged population and rising retention rates, but accompanied by no equivalent increase …

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 …

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 …