Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons^™

Teacher Education For Values Education : Is There A Way Forward Under Current Constraints?, Graham Haydon

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

How can teacher education best prepare teachers to contribute to values education in schools? If this was ever a question that could be asked and answered in the abstract, or with reference to some postulated ideal situation, it is not so now. I am raising and suggesting an answer to the question in the context of recent developments in education in Britain; but since those recent developments are by no means unique to Britain, the discussion may well be of broader relevance too. The context, then, in which I am raising the question is one of increasing political control, at …

Teacher Training In Transition, A Commentary On Postgraduate Science Teacher Training In England, Arthur Jennings

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The radical reforms of recent years have affected all parts of the educational system in England. This paper discusses science teacher education and focuses on changes in teacher training programmes designed to equip teachers for the national curriculum and for work in the climate of greater accountability that now exists. Though the pressure for these changes is domestic it is suggested that the issues are of general significance.

Introduction, Bruce Haynes

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The Minister for Employment, Education and Training, the Hon. Kim Beazley (1993, p. 11) announced the provision of $20 million over the following three years to support the development of key competencies and the "development of a prototype training and development package for teachers/trainers." This announcement highlights the significance currently accorded to competency based standards for teaching and teacher education. The identification of teacher competencies and the specification of competency based standards for entry (and promotion?) in the profession has the potential to restructure the workplace in schools by specifying what is done and who controls it. Together with the …

Competency-Based Standards In Teaching : Two Problems - One Solution, William Lauden

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Movement towards competency standards in teaching promises to bring together two parallel programs of reform: school improvement and skills formation. The first of these, school improvement has a history as long as the history of schooling. In recent decades, proposals for school improvement have led to changes in curriculum content, materials and structure; assessment; architecture; and governance of schools.

Selected Professions Observed : Competency-Based Standards And Their Implications For The Teachmg Profession, Leo Bartlett

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The emphasis on competency-based standards approaches to reform in teaching is the single most significant trend current in Australian education and in the professions generally today. Pressure for reform has come from industry, and government, and to a significantly lesser extent from the professions and parents. While there have been some reservations expressed about CBS among some sections of the Commonwealth bureaucracy in recent months, the idea of competency-based standards remains the overarching schema for micro-economic reform. The dominant press for reform can be attributed to federal (and state) interests and the policy-makers who for largely economic or rationalist reasons. …

Critical Thinking In Teacher Education: A Process-Oriented Research Agenda, Paul Hager, Michael Kaye

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

In recent years, critical thinking has become a central focus of education, especially in North America. Within this focus, there has been a major debate regarding the generalisability of specificity of critical thinking. The main issue in this connection appears to have been whether critical thinking needs to be closely linked with traditional disciplines. If critical thinking is really as vital as its proponents maintain, then it will also be important in applied fields such as teacher education. It is our intention in this paper to explore the implications, for teacher education, of taking critical thinking seriously.

Contextualizing The Competency-Based Schooling, Victor V. Soucek

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

To a classroom teacher the current debate about work-related competencies might appear far removed from his/her classroom and have no significance for teacher education. Yet the proposed policy changes are likely to affect the work and the professional status of teachers in a very direct way. As Whitty and Willmott (1991: 312) point out, one of the fundamental problems of competency-based teaching/training (CBT) approach consists in the difficulty to define just how narrow or broad the competencies might be. A too narrow definition based on observable work-related skills might indicate a radical departure from the traditional role teachers played in …

In Defence Of Australian Academic Unionism, Grahame Mcculloch

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This paper does not aspire to be an objective account of academic unionism. It is written from my perspective as a committed union activist, and comes at a time when there is a real prospect of a substantial erosion of the role and authority of Australia's academic unions. I refer, of course, to the well publicised plans to developed a model of academic industrial relations in which working conditions would be radically deregulated, and in which unions would be given only a limited role. Unionism is seen as responsible for the debasement of collegial life in our universities, and the …

Never Mind The Edu, What About The Cate? The Background To Current Developments In English Teacher Education, Tony Becher

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

If anyone were misguided enough to offer a prize for the sector of English education most subject to government intervention, the institutions concerned with initial teacher training would win it hands down. The intervention (a less polite word would be interference) has, over time, taken three main forms: alterations to the structure and organisation of provision; attempts to match student numbers to subsequent demand; and control over curricular content. This paper is an attempt to take a relatively longterm view of relevant developments, setting the present situation in its historical context. It will thus necessarily adopt a broad-brush rather than …

Seven Contemporary Ideological Perspectives On Teacher Education In Britain Today, Dave Hill

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This paper examines and critiques seven contemporary ideological perspectives on teacher education in Britain, it examines the Radical Right, the 'Soft Centre', the 'Hard Centre', and the 'Left in the Centre'. In doing so it refers to three interrelated levels of discourse: the popular Press, the academic Press and the work of ideologues, and the Party political. The paper critiques not only the Radical Right but also Centrist positions such as the erstwhile Left, the 'Left in the Centre', criticising their virtual evacuation of the cultural and ideological field of teacher education.

The Perceived Effects Of A Performance Management Programme On The Professional Knowledge Attitudes And Behaviour Of Temporary Teachers At A Metropolitan High School, Shiralee Jayne Donaldson

Theses : Honours

During 1988 the Temporary Teacher Performance Management Programme was introduced in Western Australian State high schools by the Ministry of Education. The purpose of the programme was to provide all temporary teachers with access to a full performance management process, Including an Induction and appraisal suitable to their background and the amount of time they have spent at the school. This case study involved eight temporary teachers from a metropolitan high school. It examined their perceptions of the nature, function, determining factors and need for modification of the Temporary Teacher Performance Management Programme. The major question underlying the research was …

Preferred Models Of Early Childhood Teacher Education, Collette Tayler

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Early childhood teacher education in Australia continues to be a topic of contention. The erosion of specialized early childhood courses during the early 1980's was indicated by Briggs (1984) in the face of then new shared structures with primary teacher education. Restructuring of courses at that time was brought about by amalgamations of many higher education institutions which provided courses for teachers. At that time, the tertiary education sector began what has become the most significant post-war re-arrangement of higher education Australia has witnessed. Course developments in 1984 were illustrative of the kinds of amalgamations which were taking place and …

Who Is Teaching Our Children To Spell? The Literacy Crisis In Teacher Education., Owen F. Watts

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Anyone engaged in marking student essays at tertiary level today cannot fail but to be aware of the increasing inability of students to express themselves in grammatically correct and cogent argument. The problem is even more serious when is prevalent among those students who are studying to become teachers. Lists of "school-boy howlers" derived from the students' essays are no longer funny, rather they are symptomatic of a crisis in literacy that is facing the educational systems of the nation. Testing of students within the Faculty of Education at Curtin University has shown that passes in Year 12 English examinations …

Taking "Affective Education" Seriously : Some Thoughts On The Training Of Primary School Teachers For Thir Role In Providing Conscious Pastoral Care And Personal And Social Education, Peter Lang

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

In this paper it is argued that many countries see education as partly concerned with the "Affective" dimension. It is then suggested that the way this is interpreted and responded to varies considerably and usually involves some ambivalence. Having identified different kinds of responses what can be described as the generalist approach is focused on, where all teachers are seen as sharing the responsibility for the pupils' pastoral care and personal and social education. This is then considered in relation to the situation in primary schools and the training of primary teachers. Having suggested why specific training needs have tended …

Should Teaching Come Before Education?, Anne Winning

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The present system of teacher education for primary school teachers in Queensland has an interesting emphasis if the names of the degree programmes reflect an underlying policy or suggest a value stance. The system of teacher preparation suggests that one first concentrates on learning to "teach" and then follows a time when one considers how to "educate." Is this a case of unfortunate nomenclature?

Experiences In Gifted Education : Implications For Teaching Strategies For A Clever Country., Lesley Newhouse-Maiden, Malcolm Washbourne

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

In preparation for a workshop at Monash University, where a group of Australian educators were to be involved in writing a book based on their collective wisdom and interest in the fostering of excellence in young people and children in the 1990's, the present writers engaged in a reflective exercise in ascertaining how best to educate our most talented science students. However, in the eventual chapter written by Newhouse et al. (in Goodall and Culhane 1991:70), the theme was related to the concept of empowering a whole school community, 'globally' a far cry from the notion of empowering talented students …

Professional Development And Training Needs Of School Principals In Tonga, Vili Vete

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The main aims of this study were to investigate and identify the perceived professional development needs of the school principals in Tonga in relation to the current situation. The inquiry was designed to provide a description of the understanding and perceptions which the principals and educators held concerning: I. The familiarity of principals and educators with the professional development issues and provisions made for the professional development of school principals . 2. The perceived professional development and training needs of school principals. 3. The extent to which the current provisions offered for professional development of school principals meet the needs …

Pastoral Care In Schools : Some Implications For Teacher Training, Ron Best

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

In Britain, teachers' concern for children as more than "empty buckets to be filled with knowledge" is widely recognised as a professional obligation. It is also legally enshrined in the concept of the teacher in loco parentis. There is nothing particularly new about this. Arnold of Rugby placed academic achievement third behind the promotion of Christian values and "gentlemanly conduct" in the priorities he set for his staff, and in public boarding-schools the roles of house master and matron were considered important means by which pupils' personal, physical and (supposedly) moral well-being were protected. What is relatively new is the …

Curriculum Decision Making For National Interest In The Tertiary Sector: An Evaluation Of A Curriculum Project, Stephen Duggan, Lyndall Boyle

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This paper is concerned with a study of comparative curriculum practice within the tertiary sector. Within Australia, curriculum practice, innovation, planning and evaluation has occurred mainly within the primary and secondary school system. However, since the mid-1980s, educational strategies for national interest have seen the evolution of informed curriculum research and development within the tertiary sector, as universities and colleges endeavour to meet nationally determined educational goals and objectives. This study relates the research process involved when tertiary educators (and researchers) are faced with the task of reconciling local, regional and national objectives. In particular, it considers the dynamics of …

Improving The Scientific Thinking Of Preservice Secondary Science Teachers, Mark Hackling, Patrick Garnett, Frank Dymond

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Previous studies indicate that many preservice science teachers lack facility with those formal reasoning patterns that are critical for learning science. The purpose of this project was to develop, implement and evaluate a curriculum package directed at improving preservice secondary science teachers' scientific thinking. A matched treatment-control, quasi-experimental design revealed significant gains achieved through use of the curriculum materials.

Training Technicians Or Educating Teachers : An Internship Program For Teacher Educators In Papua New Guinea, Denis Mclaughlin

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

In 1987,the Bachelor ofEducation (Tertiary) became operational at the University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG). This offers a three year program to prepare experienced Community School teachers for positions as lecturers in Community Teachers Colleges. The second year of the program is a supervised internship in oneof these teachers colleges, a year which is intended to be one means among others of stimulating quality education in Papua New Guinea. This paper aims to present a theoretical rationale for the internship year, to explain how its design is intended to work towards the achievement of the goal of qualitative improvement in …

School-Based Teacher Education, Heather J. Thanos

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Pre-service teacher education can and should integrate learning about teaching through continuous school-based experience. It is in the dynamic environments of schools and classrooms that prospective teachers learn through observation, experience and reflection to make critical judgements, in real and changing circumstances, about what it means to teach. Moreover, it is through continuous school-based teachIng experience, in a variety of school contexts, that prospective teachers construct their own critical consciousness of the social purposes of schooling and not just the technical skills of teaching. An upheaval in teacher education in Australia is currently foreshadowed by the Australian Education Council (AEC) …

Does The Generality Of Philosophy Of Education Ensure Its Triviality?, Paul Hagar

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

I will start by drawing attention to two assumptions about Philosophy of Education. These two assumptions underpin the belief that Philosophy of Education is a subject worthy of study by beginning teachers. The assumptions are: (a) Philosophy of Education discovers and develops substantial and informative general principles and theories about education (hereafter the content assumption. (b) These general principles and theories are applied by teachers in order to help solve some of their professional problems (hereafter the application assumption). In this paper I mainly will be canvassing reasons for doubting both of these assumptions. Then I will briefly consider some …

An Idea To Save Educational Theory, M. A. B. Degenhardt

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The future looks gloomy for educational theory. The place of theory in the education of teachers and in deliberations on educational policy, is being speedily reduced. The number of persons employed to teach educational theory is declining and many of those who remain are having to teach adulterated or dubiously 'relevant' theory regarding which they can feel no real enthusiasm or honest commitment. It is possible that some areas of educational theory which have developed impressively over the last two or three decades will almost vanish. Already one can discern the unhappy consequences for practice. Thus a valuable contribution to …

Forms Of Knowledge, Teacher Education And The Manipulation Of Beliefs, Peter G. Woolcock

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

In this paper I will argue that Hirst's idea of forms of knowledge has a vital contribution to make to the education of teachers. In his 1965 paper, 'School Education and the Nature of Knowledge' (Hirst, 1974), Hirst argued that there are seven distinct forms of knowledge, each with its own unique concepts, distinctive logical structure, testability against experience and unique methods of testing. These seven forms of knowledge were mathematics, the physical sciences, the human sciences, history, religion, literature and the fine arts, and philosophy and moral knowledge. My paper, however, is not an attempt to reinstate forms of …

Chaos Theory And Competency Based Teacher Education, Clive Chappell

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Central paradigms of modern science are being questioned by an emerging group of scientists called chaos theorists. They argue that the reductionist approach to analysing real systems in order to predict future behaviour of the system cannot succeed. They go further arguing that unpredictable dynamic systems when observed holistically reveal patterns which have the capacity to bring order to chaos. This paper suggests that the reductionist approach to investigation and the ideology of determinism has been absorbed by many other disciplines including education and that investigators in these disciplines need to re-assess their activities in the light of the work …

Has Restructuring Left High School Teachers Professionally Stranded?, Rod Chadbourne, Rod Quin

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

In February 1987 the 'Better Schools Report' was released in Western Australia. It provided the blueprint for a radical restructuring of the state education system based on the principles of administrative decentralization devolution of authority, and corporate management, The proposed changes were designed to make schools more self-determining, They were also intended to make the delivery of education more responsive, flexible, and accountable. To those ends, the Ministry of Education's central office was streamlined, the nine regional offices were replaced by twenty nine district offices, principals were given responsibility for recommending the permanency of all new teachers, and a process …

Political Education In Australia : 'Well-Being' For Youth, Harry C. J. Phillips

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Interest in political socialisation and education, and the agencies through which it occurs, can be traced back to the beginnings of political theory. Much of Plato's Republic was devoted to the proper training patterns of various 'classes' in his ideal state. He reasoned that if political socialisation or civic training was defective a political system would inevitably degenerate through timocracy, oligarchy, and democracy to tyranny (Phillips and Rielly, 1982, 24). Aristotle, as Plato's outstanding student, took it for granted that the legislator should make the political education of the young a major goal. To ensure the stability of the Constitution, …

In Search Of Political Literacy : Teaching Philosophy Of Education In A Freirean Mode, Noel Preston

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The paper describes and analyses one attempt to teach philosophy of education at pre-service level. The course is based on Freirean insights and methodology. It argues that this provides a framework for a philosophy of education which aims at education for political literacy.

Learning My Way : Papers From The National Conference On Adult Aboriginal Learning, Barbara Harvey (Ed.)

Research outputs pre 2011

The National Conference 'Learning My Way' has made a significant contribution to the promotion of issues concerning Aboriginal adult learning styles. Staff at the Department of Aboriginal and lntercultural Studies at the Western Australian College of Advanced Education co-ordinated the input. They were responsible for taking ideas beyond the embryonic stage and shaping these into a conference format.

Aboriginal participation was very strong at the conference. It was gratifying to find that Aboriginal people made up seventy percent of the five hundred in attendance. Also it is important to point out, that of the eight five papers presented, seventy three …