educator_spring_2014_0ccf597a7fa366

Educator

Getting results

Educator Australian

See

Cover

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Gonski is working but equity for all depends on delivering the full funding package.

26

There is hope that the forthcoming election in Fiji will restore the rights of Fijian teachers and other workers.

30 Online plagiarism checkers have become a detection tool for teachers and a learning tool for students.

04 FYI

Education issues making news locally and internationally.

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Increase funding where it counts

David Gonski “sincerely hopes” the Abbott government will reconsider its decision to walk away from the schools funding system.

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You’ve got to be kidding

Australian women have a legal right to return from maternity leave to the job they left, but 50 per cent face discrimination.

25

Unite for quality education

The demand that quality education for all remains at the top of the global agenda is a step closer.

28

Code commanders

Dollars make a difference Resources for students with disabilities have always been “grossly inadequate”, says a principal with 40 years’ experience.

14

Gonski: a student’s view

Lachlan Hoyle used his experiences as a Year 10 student at Parkes High School in a submission to the Senate Committee on School Funding.

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Extra funds equals improved results

The proof that extra funding can make a difference to students is clear at these three schools.

18

Self-fulfilling prophecies

A Harvard professor defies Australian schools’ class warfare.

20

Speaking from experience

When the national curriculum makes the teaching of computer programming compulsory, many schools will have a head start.

35

The fiery years

The successful Control of Entry campaign signalled the demise of unqualified teachers in Victorian secondary schools.

Regulars

07 From the President

33 My best app

36 Books

38 Recess

Teacher Grace Tongatua talks the language of successful bilingual education, but getting policymakers to listen is another matter. www.aeufederal.org.au

Our cover: Jeremiah Portuguez from Rooty Hill High School

story page 8

photography: Michael Amendolia

Education issues making news locally and globally

fyi

1 million stop work

In Britain, teachers have been celebrating the removal of education secretary Michael Gove after polling found him to be unpopular with teachers and one of the least liked politicians in the country.

The move came on the heels of a massive strike by teachers and five other unions protesting over pay and conditions.

An estimated one million people stopped work and attended rallies throughout England and Wales.

Teachers joined the industrial action to protest the lack of action in a dispute over pay, pensions and conditions of service despite months of talks, says Christine Blower, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers.

“Teacher morale is at a low ebb,” she says.

Two in five teachers are leaving the profession in their first five years and it’s a “direct result” of government policies, says Blower.

“A teacher shortage is looming.”

Meanwhile Blower says the loss of support for Gove was justified because his vision for education was “simply wrong”.

“His pursuit of the unnecessary and often unwanted free schools and academies programme, the use of unqualified teachers… and endless ill-thought out reforms to examinations and the curriculum have been his hallmark in office,” Blower says. l

Still the lucky country?

Income inequality in Australia has been on the rise since the mid 1990s, despite all sections of Australian society experiencing some increase in income during the same period, according to a report by Oxfam Australia.

The report, Still the lucky country?, says the 85 richest people in the world own the same as half of the world’s population of 3.5 billion people.

In Australia, the richest 1 per cent owns more than the poorest 60 per cent, the Oxfam report says.

Poverty and extreme hardship affect more than one million Australians, and more than one billion people worldwide are desperately poor, according to the organisers of this year’s Anti-Poverty Week.

The week, from 12 to 18 October, aims to improve public understanding of the causes and consequences of poverty and hardship and to encourage research, discussion and action to address the problems.

How sc H oo ls can get involved

The organisers’ suggestions for schools to be involved in the week include:

Organise an activity to be held during the week

Raise the subject of poverty in the classroom, teaching children about its causes and consequences and ways it can be prevented or resolved

Launch a program to ensure that students who are experiencing hardship are able to fully participate in all aspects of school life.

A list of suggested activities, information and educational resources and booklets about social inclusion at school and how to help low-income families can be found at http://tinyurl.com/l5yr3xh l

Fighting generations of disadvantage

“An impoverished girl living in a rural village in a low income country has today almost no chance of going to school,” AEU federal secretary and Education International president Susan Hopgood told 3,000 educators at a conference in Washington DC earlier this year.

“Her granddaughter has only a small chance of completing primary school. In fact, if nothing changes, her great-granddaughter will be the first female in her family to complete lower secondary school.”

Underlining the global campaign by Educational International to keep education at the top of development priorities, Hopgood told delegates that quality education for all depends on teacher training, continuous professional development and decent working conditions and salaries.

She said “appropriate investment” in educators must also be matched by the tools and environments needed to facilitate teaching and learning.

Read more about the Unite for Quality Education campaign at www.unite4education.org

“My journey began with a great teacher,” said actor Helen Mirren accepting an award from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Alice Welding “revealed to me the power of literature”, she said.

“So I’m thanking Mrs Welding and all the great teachers who’ve inspired the many creative people sitting here.”

Helen Mirren

call for a new agenda

The video of a moving and fiery speech by a leader of a civil rights organisation to a teachers’ conference in the United States in July has gone viral online.

Rev Dr William Barber, head of the NAACP in North Carolina, and the man behind the Moral Mondays movement that is spreading throughout the country, told delegates it was time for a new ‘moral agenda’ to fight against attacks on public education and other rights.

“Every time those in our nation attack teachers and undermine public education it rips not only the nation’s economy but it rips at the very integrity of who we are as a nation,” he said.

But he told teachers not to be just concerned about education “because the people fighting you are not just concerned about education”.

“…you have political extremists, called by whatever name they want to call themselves – Tea Party, ultra-conservative… feeding the public with an immoral agenda. It’s really not that deep, but it’s quite dangerous.

“They say… that the best way to have a better America is to deny public education, attack

teachers… and take public school money and give it to private schools.”

Barber said supporters of the ultra-conservatives also wanted to deny health care, labour rights, LGBT rights, and women’s rights.

“They deny immigrants’ rights and hold vicious rallies against immigrant children.

“Somebody must stand up and speak up and say: this is an immoral agenda... It’s contrary to the demands that we lift up workers and hold teachers in high regard and heal the sick and care for the broken hearted.

“Any time extremists set a course of attack against these values and these promises we are in a moral crisis.

“So you and I must be smart enough to hook up. And this is how you hook up – with an agenda,” Barber said. l

Every time those in our nation attack teachers and undermine public education it rips not only the nation’s economy but it rips at the very integrity of who we are as a nation.

Class sizes and workloads too high

It’s probably not a surprise to learn that Australian teachers are working longer hours and in bigger classes than the average in the developed world.

The Gonski Review recognised that we have serious issues with equity in schools, and it’s natural that under-resourced schools will mean bigger workloads for teachers and worse outcomes for students.

The OECD 2013 Teaching and Learning in Schools (TALIS) report, released recently, found Australian teachers are working an average of 42.7 hours per week, compared with the OECD average of 38.3.

Of that, 7.4 hours was spent doing administration or management tasks, compared with the 4.5-hour OECD average.

The average class size in Australian schools was 24.7 students, above the OECD average of 24, and far bigger than some high-performing school systems.

Other inequities were apparent in the report’s findings. We have greater difficulty getting experienced teachers to regional areas than other countries and more teachers in schools with a high proportion of children from low-income families.

These findings should raise concerns about why our system has bigger resource gaps than other countries.

The best way to improve our school system is to properly resource the disadvantaged schools that educate the students with the greatest need. l Ben Ruse

Read more at our blog http://tinyurl.com/mtkkyex

The TALIS report can be found at http://tinyurl.com/mbv2kry

fyi

teaching by the book?

Teachers and academics have expressed reservations about a $22 million federal government grant to extend a controversial teaching method for Cape York schools.

Education minister Christopher Pyne announced the funds for Aboriginal leader Noel Pearson’s Good to Great schools on Cape York, which have been trialling a direct instruction model of teaching, claiming it improves literacy and numeracy.

Consisting of packaged programs, the model provides teachers and schools with tightly-scripted lesson plans.

Critics highlight a number of issues beginning with the materials themselves, which are produced in the United States.

Respected academic Allan Luke, emeritus professor at the Queensland University of Technology, argues a “steady diet of pre-packaged ‘generic’ reading materials generated by US-based curriculum developers” is not sufficient for an Australian primary school curriculum.

“Teachers receive rigorous training and a guidebook in

an attempt to place quality controls on the delivery of the curriculum. The instructional is followed by regular assessment tasks and tests aligned with the behavioural goals, the results of which feed back to modify pace, grouping and skill emphases,” wrote Luke in Australian Educator last year (Summer, 2013).

There was little doubt direct instruction generated some performance gains in early literacy and numeracy but “this would also be the case with a number of other approaches”, wrote Luke, who was trained in direct instruction as a young teacher in Canada in the 1970s.

Long-term gains questioned

More significantly, he said, the question was whether these basic skills were enough to provide sustained gains in achievement.

“The educational challenge isn’t just about early intervention and better Year 3 decoding scores. The

longstanding problem facing schools is, what is termed, the “fourth and fifth grade slump”, where students who have achieved basic literacy, later suffer marked problems with reading comprehension”.

Leading educator and Aboriginal man, Chris Sarra is also opposed to direct instruction. He’s written that the model perpetuates low expectations for Indigenous children, saying it would never be introduced into a high-expectation learning environment such as an expensive private school.

Pedagogy for the poor

“It can only go as far as the script allows. This is a pedagogy for the poor that might deliver results that enable us to take up roles as domestics, farmhands or relatively unskilled workers, but can never seriously deliver an education that enables our children to be excellent,” he said.

Claims about the success of direct instruction in Cape York schools are not backed by evidence, raising serious questions about the $22 million gifted by the federal government, says AEU federal president Angelo Gavrielatos.

Christopher Pyne believes [direct instruction] should be rolled out across Australia.”

“There are other schools on Cape York that do not use direct instruction and are achieving similar or better results,” he says.

Even the right wing think tank the Institute of Public Affairs agreed, arguing it was not the federal government’s role to dictate how teachers teach in classrooms.

In an opinion piece in The Australian newspaper, IPA research fellow Vicki Stanley wrote that the grant was “a return to exactly the approach that is holding back improvement for all Australian students”.

“There is overwhelming evidence, here and overseas, that shows funding allocated in this way does not lead to long-term improvements in student achievement beyond the schools that directly participate,” Stanley wrote.

The interference of politicians in the classroom is unacceptable, says Gavrielatos.

“Politicians don’t tell doctors how to diagnose and treat patients yet they feel they can tell teachers how to teach,” he says.

Most importantly, says Gavrielatos, schools need the resources to implement the programs that will give every child that greater opportunity to succeed.

“There is no single approach. Teachers must have at their disposal a whole repertoire of approaches aimed at driving success for every child,” Gavrielatos says. l

The federal government has let slip that ideology is behind its big backward step on needs-based school funding.

An emergency of the emotions

Speaking at a recent function organised by Christian Schools Australia, Christopher Pyne confirmed what many have long suspected: he is an education minister who feels no responsibility for government schools.

“Having talked to the Prime Minister about this matter many times, it is his view that we have a particular responsibility for non-government schooling that we don’t have for government schooling,” he let slip to his friendly audience.

“The emotional commitment within the federal government is to continue to have a direct relationship with the non-government schools sector.”

This comes on top of the May budget, which confirmed our worst fears that the Abbott government wouldn’t continue with the Gonski needs-based funding reforms beyond 2017. The budget stripped out two-thirds of the extra funding agreed to with the states.

Pyne made it clear that the decision to end needs-based Gonski funding after 2017 wasn’t due to a “budget emergency”, but rather an ideological commitment in denial of the federal government’s role in funding public schools, despite the fact that they educate two-thirds of Australian students.

Bearing the impact

Moving away from needs-based funding after 2017 and indexing school funding to the Consumer Price Index – a figure below

The real injustice is that so many children are in underfunded schools being denied the opportunity to reach their full potential.

the annual increase in the real costs of educating students – represents a real cut to all schools.

Recent research, prepared for the AEU by funding expert Dr Jim McMorrow, shows that public schools will disproportionately bear the impact of the Abbott government’s decision. They stand to lose $2.67 billion in 2018-19 and 2019-20. That’s more than double the $1.21 billion loss to private schools.

The fact is, the proportion of Commonwealth funding that goes to public schools will stay at just 38 per cent through to 2019-20, despite them educating 65 per cent of students.

Significant numbers of public schools will fail to meet minimum resource standards. As a result, they will lose staff, speech therapists and trained counsellors, crucial literacy and numeracy programs, and other programs that support students and improve learning outcomes. The students who will lose out the most are those with disabilities, those from low-income families and

regional/remote areas, those with limited English proficiency, and Indigenous students, most of whom are educated in public schools.

As wrong as they are, the government’s actions come as no great surprise. It is timely to recall Tony Abbott’s 2012 observation that, if there is any injustice in schools funding, it is that independent schools are short-changed in comparison to public schools. “So there is no question of injustice to public schools here,” he said. “If anything, the injustice is the other way.”

We obviously have a different definition of ‘injustice’. It is not unjust that wealthy schools, with access to income through fees and other sources, receive less than cash-strapped public schools that do the heavy lifting of educating the majority of students from disadvantaged backgrounds and those with disability.

The success of every child depends on the quality of their education, and the real injustice is that so many children are in underfunded schools being denied the opportunity to reach their potential. As David Gonski eloquently put it: “I cannot easily forget the differences I saw in the schools I visited. To say that many of the schools I visited in the state system need further assistance and tender loving care is to me an understatement.” l

Angelo Gavrielatos AEU FEDERAL PRESIDENT

Gonski is working but equity depends on delivering the full funding package.

Getting results

The Gonski school funding model is up and running in nsW and it’s making a difference already.

For s t c lair High s chool, in sy dney’s outer west, the “substantial amount” of extra funding has been of “enormous benefit”, says principal c hris Presland. At nearby root y Hill High s chool, principal c hristine c a wsey says the Gonski funds have already lifted Year 7 reading levels and provided technology platforms and extra professional development for teachers.

Meanwhile at s hellharbour on the nsW south coas t, Barrack Hill Public s chool has used the funds to hire extra staff to work with its high number of students with learning difficulties, says principal s arah r udling.

t he experience in nsW underlines a point made by Gonski panel member and former head of the nsW education department d r Ken Boston at a recent education forum in c anber ra, that the federal government has the power to turn around Australia’s poor national education performance relatively quickly by adopting the Gonski model.

t he problem is that the federal government has committed to only part of the model. i t’s committed to delivering the first four years, but has cut the final two years of the six-year model – the period when most of the funding will be delivered.

t hat is a $1.2 billion cut in nsW alone where a signed six-year

Gonski agreement is in place between the c ommonwealth and the nsW go vernment,” says AE u federal president Angelo Gavrielatos.

“As the nsW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli has said, the cuts are a breach of faith with the state’s students.”

t he full six years of funding is needed to make sure that all schools have the resources needed to give every child a high-quality education, says Gavrielatos.

“ t he fact is, this funding is making a difference already and the full six years of funding will have a life-changing impact on kids across Australia.”

Backed by research

t he government’s decision t o curtail the Gonski model was based on a finding by the government’s national commission of audit that there was “no clear, consistent correlation ... between increased funding and school outcomes”.

But the commission’s view was patently incorrect, says trevor c obbold, an economist for the Australian Productivity c ommission for more than 30 years and convener of the s a ve o ur s chools public education advocacy group.

“Many studies in the us and Europe have found increased school funding for disadvantaged students leads to better school results,” he wrote in The Age “ t he debate about whether money matters in education has been adjudicated. t he evidence

Keeping our future talent buried

Australia’s pre-Gonski system of funding is the c ause of the decline in Australia’s international education performance over the past 15 years, Gonski panel member Dr Ken Boston told an education forum in Canberra earlier this year.

“The gap in reading performance between the top 20 per cent of Year 9 students, who are mainly in affluent schools, and the bottom 20 per cent who are mainly in disadvantaged schools, is currently equivalent to five years of schooling.

“It is an appalling situation. One in five of our 15-year-olds is reading at no better than mid-primary level.

“This is not the result of insufficient autonomy for government schools and their principals.

“It is not the result of poor teacher quality. It is not the result of a cultural-left curriculum. It is not the result of failing to make Thomas Hardy compulsory in Year 8.

“It is the direct result of sector-based, needs-blind school funding failing to provide education as a public good for every boy and girl in the country.

“If we fail to reduce that and similar gaps between standards in affluent schools and those serving areas of aggregated social disadvantage, we will continue to have knowledge and skill never created; human capital never realised.

“It is as if a rich vein of some precious metal, which if extracted would generate far more wealth for the country than the cost of its extraction, was nevertheless left undisturbed in the ground.

“We do not fail to capitalise on our reserves of coal, iron ore, gold, silver or bauxite: why do we refrain from adequate investment in maximising that part of the intellectual capital of the next generation that latently resides in the disadvantaged and hence underachieving children of today?”

clearly shows that Gonski got it right – increasing funding for the most disadvantaged students is the way to promote higher and more equitable educational outcomes,” c obbold wrote.

International recognition

Australia has the chance to tackle educational inequity and be a world leader by introducing the Gonski model, said d r Pasi s ahlberg, a former directorgeneral of education in Finland and now a visiting professor at Harvard u niversity in an article in the Sydney Morning Herald

But s ahlberg said the federal government’s decision not to fund the two most financially significant years of Gonski was ‘’very surprising’’ and a major setback for education.

He said the Gonski model was being cited internationally as one of the best and most equitable funding models in the world, and without it public education in Australia would suffer significantly, according to the Sydney Morning Herald

senate inquir y support

t he full six years of the Gonski model has been backed by a senate inquiry into schools funding, which delivered its recommendations in July this year.

According to the inquiry’s report: “ u nless governments and schools can make long-term decisions and target those groups of students most in need, the gap between the disadvantaged and the advantaged in the Australian school system will increase”.

t he report said the Gonski re view and the needs-based funding it recommended was a “fundamental benchmark in the history of school funding in Australia” that demonstrated the link between education outcomes and investment in the school sector.

t he inquiry also called for a lift to funding for students with disability, and greater transparency in how schools’ funding is spent.

However, the failure to commit to the full six years of the funding model will lead to the loss of thousands of teachers in disadvantaged schools, new research shows.

t he research, prepared for the AE u by funding expert d r Jim McMorrow, shows that

The fact is, this funding is making a difference already and the full six years of funding will have a life-changing impact on kids across Australia.

$2.67 billion will be lost from public school funding in 2018/19 and 2019/20.

“Abandoning the Gonski agreements will mean the loss of staff and of crucial programs to support students. We are talking about losing literacy and numeracy programs, speech therapists and other programs that improve student outcomes,” Gavrielatos says.

“ t he losers from this decision will be students with disability, students from low-income families, regional students, students from non-English speaking homes and i ndigenous students.” l

Tracey Evans is Australian Educator’s commissioning editor.

Student Jeremiah Portuguez at Rooty Hill High School, Sydney

d avid Gonski “sincerely hopes” the Abbott government will reconsider its decision to walk away from the schools funding system in two years’ time.

Increase funding where it counts

“Icannot easily forget the differences i saw in the schools i visited.

to say that many of the schools in the state systems need further assistance both in money and tender loving care is to me an understatement,” businessman david Gonski said in a speech earlier this year.

delivering the Jean Blackburn oration at Melbourne university, Gonski urged the federal government to rethink its plan to abandon his review’s recommendations, which included a new needs-based funding formula to be phased in over six years, with the bulk of the money being spent in the final two years.

But, in this year’s federal budget, the government indicated it would only increase funding in the final two years by the rate of cPi, effectively cutting the level in real terms.

Gonski noted that the budget seemed to follow a suggestion by the government’s commission of audit.

this is unfortunate,” he said. “increasing money where it counts is vital.”

While the commission had “specifically noted its support for government investment in schooling, i am disappointed with the general commentary they have provided in this area,” Gonski said. lost in the discussion for more money were the central tenets of our review.”

these included, said Gonski: a funding system based on need; a transparent method for determining funding, based on aspirational

educational outcomes rather than last year’s costs; formulas locked-in for a period of time to allow long-term planning; loadings for five groups of disadvantage – low socioeconomic, disabled, indigenous, those who don’t have English as their first language, and those who live in remote areas.

While “money was the headline”, Gonski said he was pleased that some of his review’s basic recommendations are “seeing the light of day”.

“one of the most satisfying hours i have spent in the last 12 months was attending… a meeting with the department of education in new south Wales.”

senior departmental officers were able to demonstrate that the essence of the needs-based approach is being implemented in the state, he said.

“i am aware that other states of Australia have also started to move in full or part towards that end.

“Governments need to embrace the importance of school education to individuals and to the productivity of our society.

there needs to be a commitment to a properly funded needs-based aspirational system and a failure to do so will be to our detriment.”

Gonski said he was proud of his involvement in the review and pleased to have had the opportunity to advocate the improvement of equity in education funding.

“But it is even more than that, it is to cultivate support for the benefits of school education and how we should revere it and those, i might say, who work within that sector.” l

RESOURCES @

Read the full speech by David Gonski at http://tinyurl. com/p7qn5yj

Source: The Australian College of Educators

David Gonski Businessman and philanthropist

About Jean Blackburn

Jean Blackburn has been variously described as the nation’s philosopher queen of education; a ferocious intellect; a notable scholar; a courageous thinker; and a compassionate and inspiring advocate.

An economist by background, Blackburn was appointed as the deputy chair of the Interim Committee of the Australian Schools Commission in 1972, headed by Peter Karmel, and in the 1980s she headed the Victorian Government’s Review of Post Compulsory Schooling.

While Jean Blackburn was a late starter to the world of education policy, and the volume of her writing is not extensive, her impact was profound. She informed our understanding of what it means to shape a schooling system built on coherent and tested notions of academic rigour and social justice. Her brilliant outpourings, her deep intellect and her strong sense of morality inspired and sustained others who came after her.

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r esources for students with disabilities have always been “grossly inadequate”, says a principal with 40 years’ experience in primary schools. He has called on the federal government to implement the Gonski disability loading.

BY TRACEY EVANS

Dollars make a difference

“We can’t wait any longer,” says Geoffrey Warren, a Victorian primary school principal. “Many kids are missing out on much-needed support and resources because of current funding constraints.”

Addressing a forum on disability education in canberra, he implored the federal government to act quickly.

t he funding criteria is inflexible and unfair to students, their families and schools, says Warren. Most students are inadequately funded and many are not funded at all.

“Plonking an untrained or semitrained and often inexperienced aide as the sole or main support is paying scant regard to the real needs of these children.”

Warren says public schools, already dealing with inadequate general funding, find it difficult to manage the competing demands when students with disabilities are drastically underfunded.

“ i t can lead to a diminution of the quality of teaching and learning for other students as well,” he says.

t he moral dilemma it brings to the classroom should not be underestimated.

“You know the needs of your students, you know the resourcing available, you know it’s inadequate, you’re placed in the invidious position of having to make judgements about how much of your time, your effort, your care, your planning, and individual attention should be apportioned to the wide range of needs in any and every class.”

Warren says improved funding provides overwhelming benefits both for an individual student with a disability in a mainstream school as well as the broader community.

“ i ’ve seen it happen. i t enriches communities. Flexibility and innovation can and do make it work,” Warren says.

Families were promised change

theresa duncombe, whose son Ben is a Year 10 student in nsW and has a moderate intellectual disability, says families have been promised change and they expect it.

“our journey has at times been extremely stressful. the relationship we have with Ben’s current school is like most relationships; it takes work and really good communication,” says duncombe. “We have had, along the way, the most inspiring and remarkable staff and we acknowledge their dedication.”

Ben dreams of employment and independence, says d uncombe.

“He wants to be able to support himself and be independent financially and in many other ways. this, to me, is actually cost-effective.

s he c alled on the federal government to commit to delivering the Gonski funding model in full, including years five and six, “which we know is when 60-70 per cent of the loadings for students with disabilities will be available”.

“ t his is the right thing to do to ensure these students reach their full potential and are contributing to the communities in which they live,” d uncombe says.

An estimated 100,000 students with disabilities are not receiving any extra funding to allow them to properly participate in mainstream schools.

More than $2 billion extra each year is needed to educate students with disabilities and the federal government must work with states and territories to find the funds, says AE u federal president Angelo Gavrielatos.

Theresa Duncombe and her son, Ben.

Many kids are missing out on much-needed support and resources because of current funding constraints.

The priorities

You can’t escape it, says primary school principal Geoffrey Warren, resources are the “enabler” for students with disabilities.

“We all know throwing money at any given sector alone is never the answer. But without it we’re entrenched in sub-standard practices,” he says. “It’s not rocket science.”

Warren outlined his priorities for improving the prospects of students with disabilities:

• Pre-service training begins the process; it should be mandated.

• Professional development, starting with school leadership and teaching staff.

• Specific professional development. For example, autism is still being identified, understood and supported.

• Simultaneous awareness raising for bureaucrats about disability and what inclusiveness actually means.

• Equity funding and monitoring to ensure it reaches the students for whom it is targeted.

Resources are the “enabler” for students with disabilities.

Geoffrey

Warren

Victorian primary school principal

“We’re waiting for the Abbott government to outline how it will increase from 2015 the ‘disability loading’ provided to schools.”

d elivering the c oalition’s education election policy last August, then education spokesperson c hristopher Pyne promised a new loading in 12 months’ time, saying: “we believe students with disabilities deserve better support”. “We have long argued that the current funding arrangements for students with disability and learning difficulty are unfair and inequitable,” Pyne said in a media release.

Pyne was “absolutely right”, says Gavrielatos, “and we’re waiting for him to deliver on his promise”.

But it gets worse, says Gavrielatos. in 2010 we secured an additional $100 million funding per year for students with disabilities and that will run out at the end of this year. so by the beginning of the 2015 school year, there’ll be even less money for students.”

High demand for support

t here’s a “high level” of unmet need and poor educ ational outcomes for students with disabilities, according to d r Ken Boston, former head of the nsW education department and one of the Gonski panel members.

“ d ata we were given showed that only 30 per cent of people with disability aged 15 to 64 had completed Year 12, and only 15 per cent had completed a degree, Boston told the c anber ra forum.

He says there’s strong anecdotal evidence that many children with disabilities leave school without

achieving as much as they could, if they had adequate support.

“ the Gonski model envisages that students with disabilities should be part of an emerging meritocracy; that they should achieve according to their ability, not disability, and according to their application and hard work; and that the support necessary to minimise the impact of the disability on educational achievement should be provided by the public purse, in the same way as we seek to minimise the impact of aggregated social disadvantage,” Boston says.

Failings are entrenched

Parents are exasperated and confused about the future of support, says children with disability Australia executive director stephanie Gotlib.

“A typical school experience for a student with a disability involves limited choice of school, discrimination, bullying, limited or no funding for support and resources, inadequately trained staff and having to contend with a culture of low expectations,” she says. “ these failings have become entrenched in the education system and the urgency of delivering system-wide solutions is now acute.”

this year, a senate select committee inquiry into school funding agreed that the situation is urgent. it recommended that decisions be made quickly to provide certainty about the arrangements for 2015. it also recommended that the federal government honour its election commitment for increased funding for students with a disability. l

Tracey Evans is commissioning editor of Australian Educator.

Dr Ken Boston Former head of the NSW education department and Gonski panel member

l achlan Ho yle used his experiences as a Year 10 student at Parkes High s chool in a submission to the s enate c ommittee on s chool Funding.

BY Cyndi Tebbel

Gonski : a student’s perspective

Members of the recent senate select committee on school funding previously unaware of Henry Parkes’ influence on education in Australia would be left in no doubt after reading lachlan Hoyle’s submission.

He reminded them that the namesake of his town and his school introduced “free and compulsory education for every child in this nation” and warned that “the way things are going now, he might as well have not bothered”.

Gonski, says Hoyle, “will keep Parkes’ vision alive”.

He admits that school funding isn’t a hot topic of conversation

amongst his cohort at Parkes High. But Hoyle’s mum is also his Year 10 advisor, so his interest in the schools’ funding debate is personal as well as political.

He worries that the Abbott government will force Australian children who can afford it into the private sector, leaving the majority with declining resources in the public sector.

“ there was a perception in our community that the local c atholic college is a better school because it’s private.”

As Hoyle points out, funding from the c atholic church and the federal government means schools like this have “unfair access to resources”.

“i’m not saying private schools

It’s not fair for the majority of kids to be stuck in schools with no resources, no funding and not enough teachers. ‘‘

Lachlan Hoyle, Parkes High School

are bad, but it’s not fair for the majority of kids to be stuck in schools with no resources, no funding and not enough teachers.”

It makes sense

Parkes High once had a bad reputation in town, says Hoyle, but is now “in a better position than some”. so far, Gonski funding has helped it make “significant headway” in changing the town’s perception, along with other efforts by the school.

six more years of funding would allow it to build on that new reputation as a great learning environment. “But it’s not just about us,” Hoyle adds.

“Gonski will level the playing field between disadvantaged state schools and the rest of our education system. needs-based funding makes sense. Apart from our special Education unit, there are a number of students in our school with autism and other disabilities, who access mainstream classes. if Gonski doesn’t come through, kids like these will miss out on the funding for the resources they need to cope in mainstream classes. life is already unfair enough for kids with disabilities, without adding an unfair allocation of resources.”

Hoyle sees Gonski as the way to ensure our education system reflects the ideals championed by Henry Parkes.

Without it, he says, “the majority of students will be left in schools that are run down and have little to no access to the financial support they require to educate Australia’s children”. l

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t he proof that extra funding and the resources it provides can make a difference to students is clear at these three schools.

BY C hris P resland

Extra funds equals improved results

Chris Presland Principal

St Clair High School, NSW

We’ve got around 900 students – that fluctuates a little bit. i t’s a fairly low s E s area. About 53 per cent of our students fall into the lowest income quartile in Australia but we also have a significant number of students that come from the top income quartile.

o ne of the great disadvantages for us in a pre-Gonski model was that we didn’t meet the threshold for any additional funding because everything just averaged out. And while we were deemed low s E s , we weren’t deemed low enough.

Why Gonski funding is so important

t he Gonski model allows us the oppor tunity to meet the needs educationally of every one of those students. We have been beneficiaries of a substantial amount of money through the nsW model of Gonski. t hat’s been an enormous benefit for our school.

o ur teachers do a fantastic job in terms of the diagnosis of students and

their needs, particularly in relation to literacy and numeracy. But those teachers are standing in front of 30 students at a time and they know that they simply don’t have the capacity to provide one-on-one specialist support for the students who need it.

As a result, we’ve focussed on identifying which kids need support that we haven’t previously been able to reach and to employ people, particularly teachers’ aides and extra learning support teachers, to work one-on-one with those students.

The

difference

the

Gonski

funding is making

We’ve already noticed an incredible difference. We were also beneficiaries of the i mproving l it eracy and n umeracy n ational Partnership Project and it’s an interesting way of looking at the difference that money can make.

As a part of that project, we preand post-tested Year 8 students right through the latter part of last year and

into this year. And the improvements in the literacy and numeracy scores of those students have been incredible. n ow, as any good principal, any school leader and any good teacher knows, the improvement in scores is not the be-all and end-all. But it’s one way of making us confident that what we’re doing is helping students with those core learning skills. And any student who improves in those skills is better able to engage and learn the really important things in school.

Why we need the full six years of funding

t he reality is that the money enables us t o commit the staff that we need to long-term employment. Permanent employment is what we would really like to do.

so if there’s no certainty around the funding and if it stops in four years, while it’ll make a difference for us in the short-term, it’s certainly not going to be anywhere near as powerful as it could be.

We’ve focussed on identifying which kids need support that we haven’t previously been able to reach and to employ people... to work one-on-one with those students.

Chris Presland

Chris Presland

sarah rudling Principal

Barrack Heights Public School, NSW

o ur school is located in s hellharbour in the i llawarra region. i have approximately 260 students at my school. twenty-five per cent of those come from an Aboriginal background and approximately 80-90 per cent of my student population come from a low socioeconomic household.

Why Gonski Funding is so important

Gonski funding is important to our school because it allows us to hire the additional staff that we require to meet the needs of the students, whether they have a disability or an individual learning need, and as we try to close the gap with the Aboriginal students.

The difference the Gonski funding is making

t he funding at Barrack Heights Public s chool has provided us with an opportunity to really target the learning needs of students.

We have hired extra staff to work with students, particularly boys, who find it difficult to learn in a mainstream environment. We have created some alternate learning classes for these students and we have a number of professional, highly-skilled teachers that come in to work with these boys.

Why we need the full six years of funding

Without this funding our students would really suffer. We have a large number of children who have identified individual learning needs and the funding provides opportunities for them to access specific learning.

Christine Cawsey Principal

Rooty Hill High School, NSW

n eeds-based funding matters most t o schools like root y Hill High. About 50 per cent of our students come from families who live in the lowest s E s in Australia. t hose families, and the rest of the families at our school, deserve the opportunity for their kids to have the best chance that they can. n eeds-based funding has a greater impact in schools like ours than it does in many others.

The difference the Gonski funding is making

t he needs-based funding allows us t o provide technology platforms, additional professional learning for our teachers, specialist support for students who haven’t made grade or stage levels and, more critically, in the senior school, opportunities for vocational education traineeships and links with tAFE and the t ertiary sector.

c ombined with some additional

funding that we received for reading, we’ve been able to lift the reading levels of our students in Year 7 by one year already. s ome of them, by three or four years in reading.

Everyone knows that if you can read at secondary school level you have an opportunity to go on and do whatever you want to do.

Why we need the full six years of funding

o ne of the reasons it’s critical that we not only sus tain the funding but ensure that full needs-based funding is the way we fund our schools into the future, is because we have to understand what an educated 19-year-old needs to be able to do in the 21st c entury.

t hese are the young people who are going to be the skilled workforce, and if we’re going to deliver the moral contract that we have with parents and the community to give each student the best opportunity that they can get, then it’s essential that we value needs-based funding and we make sure it’s in place in perpetuity. l

Sarah Rudling

Christine Cawsey

Harvard professor defies Australian schools’ class warfare.

agenda BY Catherine marshall

Self-fulfilling prophecies

David s inclair’s final piece of advice t o students at his alma mater could well have been directed at tony Abbott and Joe Hockey.

Hockey’s maiden budget had threatened in one fell swoop all the foundations of a vibrant democracy: welfare, healthcare, public education –and the implicit promise by publically elected leaders that they would undertake their duty in good faith.

“ t he last thing i want you to know is that there’s nothing more important in life than to be honest,” s inclair told students gathered before him in a nondescript school hall in sy dney’s suburbia.

“ n ever lie, always tell the truth and people will grow to trust you and follow your lead.”

i t was a striking comment that percolated in an atmosphere of public fury.

d azed and betrayed, the electorate was slowly digesting the list of election promises that Abbott had already broken just eight months into his term. t here was the cutting of funding to education, health, the disability pension, foreign aid, the AB c and s B s ; the changing of the retirement age and the G st; the t owing back of asylum seeker boats to i ndonesia; the failure to reduce debt and return the budget to surplus; and – most paradoxically of all – the botched assurance that governmental accountability and transparency would be restored.

For keen observers of s inclair’s address at s t i ves High s chool, there was also the poignant irony that such words of integrity were emerging from the mouth of a man educated in the very public system the Abbott

Government and its new budget measures seemed intent on undermining.

One of life’s highlights

s tanding at the lectern in a school hall built in 1964 and barely altered or updated since, s inclair told his audience that to be there speaking to them had been one of the highlights of his life so far.

t he magnitude of this tribute was not lost on the students: after all, s inclair is a professor of genetics at Harvard u niversity and one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world for 2014.

He has spent his adult life researching ways in which humans might live longer, healthier lives, and had returned to sy dney to receive the 2014 Australian s ociety for Medical rese arch medal.

Amid a whirl of media interviews and meetings, s inclair was asked if there was anything else he would like to do while in his hometown.

He didn’t hesitate: i ’d like to visit m y old high school, he said.

Perhaps s inclair understood implicitly that the students – schooled in a deeply underresourced, under-respected system, and shepherded by an education minister who acknowledges his government has a “particular responsibility for non-government schooling that we don’t have for [state] government schooling” – needed all the inspiration and encouragement they could get.

After all, he had grown up just down the road, attended the state primary school next door, walked into the high school science lab each day and learned such invaluable knowledge, wisdom and guidance from his teachers that one day his scientific findings would reverberate around the world.

Perhaps, in asking to visit his old school, s inclair had wanted to reassure its students that the class warfare manufactured by the

current government was just a smokescreen aimed at winning conservative votes. t hat, in truth, public schools are not the repositories of children too impoverished or unintelligent for the alternative; that they are, in fact, the living manifestation of democracy, egalitarianism, multiculturalism and ecumenism, because they educate a rich diversity of all-comers; that the gross output of public schools benefits society at a far greater and more equitable rate than does that of its private counterpart.

Perhaps s inclair realised, as he stood up on that stage with hundreds of pairs of attentive eyes fixed on him, and later, when he answered students’ questions – which were, he said, “better than [those] i get from some of my scientists” –that it might be far harder for these children to prosper, that their potential might not be as successfully cultivated as his had been almost 30 years earlier.

independents hooked on handout s

s ince then – indeed, since 1970, when non-go vernment school funding was introduced as a concession to the struggling c atholic sec tor – successive governments have redirected increasing sums of precious education funding so that the once financially autonomous independent system has now become wholly dependent.

Australia’s once robust, inclusive public system has been infused with a culture of deprivation, neglect and fear, so that too often parents are condemned to make the same choice as their peers: to flee the apparently sinking ship, and in doing so make the ship’s fate a self-fulfilling prophecy.

t he final, sad chapter of this country’s educational story will be written when the newest raft of budgetary changes –the deregulation of university fees – completes the transfer of high-quality education from the

people into the hands of the rich.

But if s inclair’s intention was political, his message was oblique. i t contained the sort of advice that, if followed, could turn any student – no matter their postcode or the colour of their school blazer – into just the sort of independent thinker that electioneering, panic-mongering, sheep-herding politicians fear the most.

“ t here are certain personality traits that can really help you in life, and one of them that i found very useful was not paying attention to the dogma,” he said. d on’t listen to what everyone tells you you have to do. Follow your own path. Be rebellious. take risks in life.”

l

This

www.eurekastreet.com.au

Catherine Marshall is a journalist and travel writer. She is the president of the P&C at St Ives High School.

David Sinclair speaking of career highlights at St Ives High School, Sydney

Primary teacher Grace tongatua talk s the language of successful bilingual education, but getting policymakers to listen is another matter.

BY Helen vines

Speaking from experience

Elcho i sland is a place where school time, cultural events such as funerals and ceremonies, and day-today activities like hunting and shell collecting, must coalesce. Grace tongatua c alls it home and describes it as “a completely different world”.

Elcho is the southernmost point of the Wessel i slands, just off the coast of the n orthern ter ritory’s East Arnhem region.

tongatua has worked in the nt since 2006, when she graduated from James c ook u niversity as a primary teacher. Her first appointment was in an Englishspeaking school in Borroloola.

After reading up on bilingual education, she moved to Milingimbi, where she was ‘adopted’ into the d jambarrpuy ŋ u people. s he sa ys it gave her a “point of reference” in the Aboriginal community.

s he has since taken time off teaching to study law. c urrently on maternity leave, she plans to return to her posting at s hepherdson c ollege, in the Elcho i sland settlement of Galiwin’ku.

t he college, which was originally a missionary school, has about 800 students drawn from a community of around, 2,500 people. t he attendance rate in tongatua’s early primary class is 70-80 per cent, which is relatively high. tongatua is con versant in d jambarrpuy ŋ u, a local ‘first language’, and is one of the few non- i ndigenous teachers who have permission from the community to teach Yol ŋ u Matha literacy. “ i t’s not just about teaching reading and writing in the language,” she says. “ i t’s about presenting the content and supporting the conceptual understanding.”

t he bilingual school has a “scaffolded approach” to learning English and

literacy in general. t he support of i ndigenous locals, who work in a teamteaching arrangement, is critical to the success of its program.

“ t hey are very skilled at working with non- i ndigenous teachers. t hey are able to contextualise knowledge and assist in presenting it in the first language.”

Treated differently

t he i ndigenous assistant teachers make a big contribution t o the children’s educational experience, but they were

recently subjected to budget cuts. Many full-time contracts were reduced to 80 per cent at the end of last year.

t heir conditions of employment and entitlements are treated differently because they are considered ‘locals’, says tongatua.

“ i t’s difficult seeing people who are basically the backbone of our school being treated this way.”

t here have also been “huge cuts” to training programs, which in the past have enabled assistant teachers to expand their qualifications, and in some cases provided a pathway to teacher training.

tongatua t eaches a version of the step model, with a strong focus on introducing new concepts in d jambarrpuy ŋ u. i t’s one of a group of i ndigenous Yol ŋ u languages, and the community agreed that it be the language of instruction primarily because the missionaries used it.

u nder the step model (see panel), all preschool instruction is in d jambarrpuy ŋ u, with the percentage decreasing as the children progress through the school system.

transition to Year 3 is purely oral s tandard Australian English, with English reading, writing, etc, introduced in Year 4, although there is still some time spent instructing in d jambarrpuy ŋ u after Year 3.”

Frequent changes

Politicians often drop into s hepherdson c ollege for a photograph, but rarely pay attention to the experience of the teachers in situ. c hanges to funding and systems of learning are frequent.

tongatua sa ys the direct instruction model n oel Pearson is advocating is a highly scripted s tandard American

Grace Tongatua with her husband Metui who is about to complete a double degree – Bachelor of Applied Science and a Bachelor of Teaching and Learning – at Charles Darwin University.

English, which comes without critical evaluation to support its introduction. i t also undermines the bilingual approach, which has garnered significant support in Aboriginal communities.

Prominent i ndigenous educator d r c hris s ar ra has criticised Pearson’s $7.72 million c ape York trial of the direct instruction model, and tongatua agrees. Bilingual education brings a sense of purpose and belonging in a school, she says, along with “a level of respect and authentication by the school system that i ndigenous language – and, by extension, culture – is a valuable thing to know”.

s he prefers working in communities with a bilingual mode of teaching because there is a feeling that school is an integrated part of the community and not an outside institution. t his leads to a high level of acceptance of what the school is teaching and reduces barriers, she says.

Her experiences at other predominantly i ndigenous schools, which include an English-only school, have reinforced her commitment to bilingual education.

Remoteness costs

Elcho i sland’s remoteness means funding is affected, not just by the whimsy and policies of political forces and the nt d epartment of Education, but also by the cost and logistics of transport. Everything is more expensive.

tongatua sa ys the full six-year implementation of the Gonski model would be “amazing”. to indic ate why, she cites a recent experience where she had to make a special request for basic writing materials, and students were asked to look through their books for spare pages to write on.

Working alongside d jambarrpuy ŋ u women at s hepherdson c ollege, tongatua was recently involved in developing a first-language children’s dictionary. However, the absence of textbooks remains a significant issue. t he high turnover of non- i ndigenous teachers brings particular challenges as well, she says, adding that these teachers are often award-winning individuals of a very high standard. l

Staying in step

The step model is a highly successful mode of bilingual instruction, which the nT government attempted to axe in the late 1990s. respite came amid a huge public outcry, including indigenous protest united under the slogan ‘Don’t cut off our tongues’.

However, in 2007-08 Mal Brough and noel pearson, among others, succeeded in introducing a policy of the first four hours in the five-hour day being taught only in English. This defied an overwhelming body of evidence that supported the notion that children who begin their early schooling years speaking in their mother tongue have significantly better outcomes.

“Under the step model,” says grace Tongatua, “a child starts school [preschool] receiving 100 per cent of their instruction in their first language. The percentage decreases as they progress through the school system. in Year 2, 75 per cent is taught in the step model and 25 per cent in English.

“This approach is underpinned by evidence regarding the number of years required to gain mastery of a new language [in this case, English] to such an extent that one is able to develop conceptual knowledge in that language, which is around four to five years.

“The step model allows a child’s conceptual understandings to develop in line with their age-related cognitive developments.”

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Australian women have a legal right to return from maternity leave to the job they left, but 50 per cent face discrimination because workplace laws are not adequately promoted or enforced.

BY Cyndi T ebbel

You’ve got to be kidding

Three months before the end of her maternity leave, s ue*, a Queensland primary teacher, contacted her school to arrange to return to work six days a fortnight, her legal right, once her leave ended. But she was told only four days were available.

“ i contacted the union and they said that’s not on. Even if you have left the position, it should still be there for you, even if you want to drop your hours,” says s ue.

While the union was negotiating, s ue did her best to “block it out and get on with it”, taking the four days on offer, combined with two days as a relief teacher at another school. t his year she was transferred to another school. s he got the hours she wanted, but they were split between two grade levels.

Eventually the stress proved too much and s ue dropped back to teaching two days a week.

“ i had to put my health first,” she says.

s ue’s story and many others like it are part of the AE u ’s submission to the Human r ight s c ommission (H rc ) review of the prevalence, nature and consequences of discrimination in relation to pregnancy at work and return to work after parental leave. t hey represent a massive disconnect between the rhetoric and the reality for working women.

The point of no return

As politicians and business leaders rail about the need to boost productivity, and debate

Employers are flouting workplace laws when it comes to maternity leave and return to work entitlements. The practice is widespread yet only onethird of people affected take any action.

The AEU has filed a submission with the Human Rights Commission, which includes case studies and recommendations for change.

rages on the merits of the Prime Minister’s paid parental leave scheme as a way to increase workforce participation, new data from the H rc reveals that one in two women are unlawfully discriminated against when they are pregnant and/or seek to return to work after childbirth.

i n another example, when l auren* – a primary teacher in country Victoria – became pregnant, she applied to access her legal entitlement to five days of prenatal leave to attend specialist and hospital appointments. t he principal told her to instead arrange the appointments at times that wouldn’t interfere with her teaching.

Frida*, a principal at a Brisbane primary school, made a request to her regional supervisor to return to work

part-time following maternity leave. t he supervisor deemed it inappropriate for a principal to work part-time and suggested she return as head of curriculum or deputy principal, which were effectively demotions.

d espite breaches of the federal s ex d iscrimination Act and Fair Work Act, the H rc says most women affected don’t make a formal complaint. As many as one in three simply resign or look for another job.

te achers are no exception, and AE u research reveals widespread failure by schools and education departments to inform teachers of their lawful rights.

Challenging the status quo

AE u federal women’s officer c atherine d avis says her colleagues around the country are spending an increasing

‘‘ Most people feel that whatever the boss says goes, and if the boss is negative about a request they won’t fare well if they challenge it.

BRIEFLY

amount of time responding to calls from distressed members who are often in tears as they detail attempts to negotiate their positions after having a child.

“Most people feel that whatever the boss says goes, and if the boss is negative about a request they won’t fare well if they challenge it… that if they do, their employment will be in jeopardy,” says d avis.

“ t hat makes misinformation flourish and go unchallenged.”

s he sa ys the biggest barrier

facing AE u members who experience pregnancy discrimination or discrimination on their return to work is the inability of schools and their immediate employers, either principals or the department, to conceive of more flexible hours and work practices.

t he problem also applies to male AE u members in their role and rights as parents.

“However, the broad research around flexible work indicates that, with a bit of hard work and

RESOURCES

Prevalence

Data: National Review on Discrimination Related To Pregnancy, Parental Leave and Return to Work, 2014 http://tiny.cc/ yv8fix

AEU submission to the HRC http://tiny.cc/ ay8fix

The AEU Victoria Flexible Work Options Kit is an example of entitlements and processes for members should they need to negotiate their return to work or an alteration to hours.

http://www. aeuvic.asn.au/ fwo_kit.pdf

creative thinking, requests of this nature are usually able to be accommodated,” says d avis.

“But when that decision comes down to the principal, it’s pot luck. s ome understand the needs of their employees. o thers don’t have the skills or the will to accommodate the requests parents make.”

r ight s matter

t he good news is that, when member s know their rights, they are more likely to question discriminatory treatment. And when the union gets involved the school is usually able to find a solution.

“ i t might not be perfect for both parties, but we’re usually able to work through formal and informal processes to make sure both parties are satisfied with the outcome,” says d avis.

i t’s illegal to treat women or men unfavourably because of their status as a parent, or a pregnancy or potential pregnancy, she says, “but employers are getting away with it. u nless we support our colleagues who are facing discrimination because of their parenting responsibility, we allow this to flourish.”

Examples like these are what’s sad about the AE u ’s submission, and it isn’t good enough in Australia, she says.

“ n obody benefits from losing high-quality professionals.” l

Cyndi Tebbel is a freelance writer.

* Names have been changed.

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Unite for quality education

t he demand that quality education for all remains at the top of the global agenda is a step closer.

Education i nternational (E i ), the international body representing 30 million teachers, has ensured that the goal of quality education for all remains on the u nited n ations list of sustainable development goals.

i t’s taken 18 months of negotiations, says E i , which welcomes the stand-alone goal on “inclusive and equitable quality education for all” and, in particular, the accompanying target on completion of free, equitable, and quality primary and secondary education.

i t is a clear signal that the world community recognises the importance of education and is willing to go beyond current commitments to primary education, E i said.

t he goal also includes specific targets on quality pre-primary as well as vocational and tertiary education, and on youth and adult literacy.”

t he sustainable development goals replace the Millennium d evelopment Goals that lapse this year. E i ’s u nite for Quality Education campaign, designed to support the development goals, will culminate in a series of events around the world this month and next.

s ince last year’s campaign launch, tens of thousands of

stories have been collected about what quality education means in terms of teachers, tools and learning environments from educators themselves, says Fred van leeuwen, E i ’s general secretary.

“We have also mobilised our 30 million members around the world on an unprecedented scale to demand better education for a better world at the local, national and global level by organising rallies, workshops, training and advocacy events of all types. And, being teachers, we are assessing the state of Education for All and developing a report card of progress from teachers themselves.

“We’ve even made a documentary about a day in the life of a teacher on five continents,” he says.

l at er this month van leeuwen and E i federal president s usan Hopgood (also AE u federal secretary) will travel around the globe collecting Quality Education for All report cards and stories to create a giant yearbook.

Hopgood and van leeuwen, along with a delegation of classroom teachers from every continent, will present the yearbook to un secretary general Ban Ki-moon in n ew York. l

WORLD TEACHERS’ DAY

Celebrate teaching and learning with your 30 million colleagues around the world by emailing, texting or tweeting Ban Ki-moon to tell him you support:

• Quality education for all

• A post-2015 development goal for education

• The global campaign to get all girls into school

Email: wtd@ei-ie.org; text to 0011 32 473 535 735; or tweet with the hashtag #united4ed RESOURCES

Global photo comp

What does quality education look like?

E ducation International (EI) is launching its first worldwide photo competition as part of the Unite for Quality Education campaign. Its aim is to capture the variety of teaching and learning conditions that can be found in different countries and regions.

EI wants to highlight the importance of quality education all over the world through pictures taken by educators.

The pictures should either reflect the importance of teachers, of learning environments or of teaching tools – the three pillars of quality education as defined by EI.

EI will select the photographs that best depict the elements described above and will organise an exhibition in its headquarters in Brussels on World Teachers’ Day on 5 October. Some of the pictures will also be part of a photo book that will be handed to UN general secretary Ban Ki-moon.

The photo competition will finish with a raffle in which three lucky participants will win an iPad mini.

Enter in 3 easy steps at: http://tinyurl.com/mvq3lgj

A return to democracy in Fiji and the restoration of trade union rights are both under threat, with grave doubts that the coming election will be fair.

BY H ELE n VI n E s

Back to the future

Fijians go to the polls in s eptember for the first time since the military coup in 2006. While the military government claims this will be a return to democracy there are still many doubts as to the likelihood of a fully fair and democratic election process.

t he eight years of military rule has seen an extraordinary attack on labour rights, with a particular focus on the public sector, including teachers and other education workers.

trade union leaders have been imprisoned, unions have lost many rights and workers have lost many of their working conditions and workplace protections.

“We do feel threatened,” says Govind s ingh, general secretary of the c ouncil of Pacific Education. “ i t is not in the nature of trade unionists to sit quietly on issues of social justice. But putting decrees in place to curtail the rights of trade union leaders, who get their mandates from their members to do work for the union and raise matters of social justice, is intimidating.” i nternational concern has been expressed through a number of reviews by the i nternational l abour o rganisation, whose high-level mission to Fiji was required to leave the country before completing its investigations. s imilarly, a delegation led by Ac tu president Ged Kearney was refused entry into the country in 2011.

Teachers’ rights are under threat in Fiji as the election approaches.

Union rights restricted

Addressing the international labour conference at the united nations in Geneva in June, Fiji trade union spokesperson urai Manufolau highlighted the impact of the Essential national industries (Employment) decree (Eni) that removed most rights and privileges of workers in the public sector.

He told the conference that the E ni outlawed professional trade unionists, eliminated existing agreements, severely restricted the right for bargaining on basic conditions of employment, strengthened sanctions against legal strikes and removed rights to judicial recourse in disputes over rights.

While Fiji’s Employment relations Advisory Board moved to delete the provisions that were contrary to international labour conventions, the government refused to act. o f par ticular concern to teachers was the termination of the president of the Fiji te achers Association te vita Koroi in 2009, whose employment as a school principal was terminated due to his union activities. Koroi was charged with three offences relating to a speech he made at a democracy forum. d espite the i nternational l abour o rganization ( ilo ) finding that this was in breach of Fiji’s obligations under international Freedom of Association c onventions, Koroi was not reinstated.

ACTU campaign

Based on Australians’ love of holidays in Fiji, the Actu has launched a campaign ‘ d estination Fiji: a vacation from workers’ rights’, highlighting the contrast between Fiji’s image as an island paradise and the stark reality of the attacks on human and labour rights, free media and the rule of law.

We want trade union rights to be restored… so that we are recognised.

Govind Singh General

secretary of

the Council of Pacific Education.

t he campaign calls on Australians to send a postcard to the Australian and Fijian governments calling for the respect for human and labour rights and a return to democracy.

A call for a formal ilo c ommission of i nquiry has been on the table since 2013 and in March this year the ilo Governing Body resolved that if the Fijian government did not agree to the ilo high-level mission returning

Solomon Islands rebuilding

Rebuilding is underway in the Solomon Islands on more than 80 schools destroyed or severely damaged in the devastating floods earlier this year. Water and debris swamped school buildings, destroying books and furniture.

Twenty two people were killed and thousands of people lost their homes as the flash floods swept through, causing catastrophic damage to infrastructure.

Many schools are still not able to be fully up and running, says Council of Pacific Education general secretary Govind Singh.

“It is a struggle, because it is not only the schools that have gone. Obviously many teachers lost everything in the floods and it will take them time to get back into the classroom.”

The situation remains dire, he says, adding that the AEU’s international trust fund is providing funding and assistance along with UNICEF, the United Nations and many other aid agencies.

(pictured) This Solomon Islands school reopened on 19 May. At that point, only 75 out of 397 students were back in the classrooms. To help the schools deal with this issue, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), via funding from United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), with the cooperation of the government launched a fourweek emergency feeding program.

Source: unicEF

to Fiji before n ovember that a c ommission of i nquiry should then be appointed.

t he forthcoming elections could be a critical turning point in Fiji’s history. t he world will be looking to see the legitimacy of the election process, hoping for genuine democracy. But the real test will come after the election when we see what action is taken to restore human and labour rights, return freedom to the media and respect for the rule of law.

“We are looking forward to the return of democracy and all that makes up democracy,” says s ingh. “We want trade union rights to be restored so that unions can go back to the table, so that we are recognised.” l

Helen Vines is a freelance writer.

When the national curriculum makes the teaching of computer programming compulsory, many schools will already have a head start.

BY Cynthia Karena

Code commanders

Being educated in computer programming languages is the new form of literacy the world over. le arning to ‘code’ enables students to have a smarter relationship with the digital world.

i n a more general sense, it teaches students to break down ideas into manageable parts, and develops problem-solving skills and logical thinking.

i n the u nited Kingdom, computer coding will be compulsory in all primary and secondary schools from s eptember this year. l as t year, the u nited s tates had a nationwide Hour of c ode campaign, with a website that continues to provide online coding lessons for students. t he website notes that every student

in c hina is learning computer programming.

i n Australia, the new national curriculum (currently subject to a federal government review) includes computer programming. t he plan is to make it compulsory from Years 3 to 8 under the digital technologies component, with advanced programming as an elective subject in Years 9 and 10.

Most students won’t grow up to become professional computer scientists or programmers but programming teaches skills such as thinking creatively, reasoning systematically, problem-solving and working collaboratively, which they can use no matter what they do in their work lives, says travis c larke, information and technology coordinator at

Lessons in basic computer programming are to become compulsory for Years 3 to 8.

As well as increasing digital literacy, it will help develop other skills and methods of thinking.

Some teachers will require additional training.

Grant High s chool, in Mt Gambier, s outh Australia.

c larke says Australian students are not ‘digital natives’ – a term used to describe people born after the introduction of digital technologies who are very comfortable with using them.

“[But] they are digital users,” he says. “We need to teach kids to code so that, more than just ‘read’ new technologies, they can also create them.”

Visual language

At Grant High s chool, programming is taught mainly in Years 9, 10 and 11 using a programming tool called s cratch. i t was created at the Massachusetts i nstitute of technology, in the u nited s tates, specifically for students aged eight to 16. i ts visual programming language uses coloured bricks, rather than written code, to teach the basic concepts of programming, such as if-then decision statements, variables, loops and debugging programs.

s tudents are taught about variables in maths, but when they use them in programming, they become excited,” says c larke, who uses projects on the s cratch website in class.

“Programming is good for teaching these high-order thinking skills and it challenges students who want to be extended.”

s cratch proves that tackling the hard stuff, such as computer science, can be fun

BRIEFLY

Resources scratch.mit.edu/educators l code.org (Hour of Code) l gosphero.com l bee-bot.us l daisythedinosaur.com l movetheturtle.com l tynker.com l

Programming is good for teaching... high-order thinking skills and it challenges students who want to be extended.

Travis Clarke Information and technology coordinator, Grant High School, Mt Gambier

and worth doing, he says. i ts content includes animat ed stories, science projects, virtual construction kits, recreations of classic video games, political opinion polls, trigonometry tutorials and interactive artwork.

Grade 6 and 7 students from feeder primary schools visited for a s cratch programming day, then went back to teach the rest of their classes. l ink-ups to professionals talking about their careers have also been organised.

“We insist on a gender balance, so the schools have to send girls as well,” notes c larke.

robotic balls

At Miles Franklin Primary s chool in c anber ra, coding isn’t part of the mainstream curriculum but Year 6

teacher Hugh Miley responded to students’ enthusiasm by starting a programming club.

t he school uses s phero robotic balls to teach basic programming constructs such as looping and if-then decision commands. s tudents write a series of commands through a phone or tablet to program a ball – for example, “Go forward at 100 per cent speed for three seconds and then turn around.”

s phero balls have degrees of turning and speed, and students can create a whole raft of questions around that, says Miley.

“ t hey get an instant visual response and watch to see if their calculations work, which creates excitement.”

Programming can be linked to other areas in a crowded curriculum. “ t he most obvious is maths, where students can explore speed, distance, geometry and spatial awareness,” he says.

“You could also link it to literacy in terms of procedural texts, and enquiry – for example, asking a question and getting a response.”

Younger children at Miles Franklin use Bee-bot mini robots, which are less sophisticated than s phero balls. t hey need no external device for programming and have arrow keys instead.

“ s tudents enter a series of directional commands for Bee-bots to follow,” says Miley.

“We explore questions such as ‘How many centimetres is that?’ and ‘What area has been covered?’”

instant feedback

Mountain creek High school, on Queensland’s sunshine coast, uses the tools scratch, Kodo, Python and Game Maker. students also program apps and robots. Engineers from Google recently

ran sessions for Year 8 classes on robotics and programming.

Most of the programming tools don’t require writing an entire program and then testing it, says Year 8-12 it teacher Graeme Breen.

“Every line of code can be tested as it’s created, so the students get instant feedback.”

While a whole generation of programmers isn’t needed, it’s good for students to have some understanding of how computers work, says Breen.

“ t he intention of introducing coding is to change our students from being users of technology to becoming creators of technology.”

Having programming as a compulsory subject from the early primary years will encourage a lot more girls to choose it as a career path, or to at least study it to Year 12, he says.

“ t he breaking down of stereotypes around who can and should program will hopefully result.”

o ne concern is that introducing programming into schools on a national basis will require extra training for teachers unfamiliar with the concept.

“At secondary school level, programming is typically taught by it t eachers who have usually had some exposure to computer science as part of their degree,” says Breen.

i n most cases, primary school teachers won’t have had exposure to programming, so they will need sufficient upskilling.”

t he American Hour of c ode website provides online training videos for teachers. l Cynthia Karena is a freelance writer.

o nline plagiarism checkers have become a det ection tool for teachers and a learning tool for students.

BY Cynthia karena

Copy that

TThe internet may encourage plagiarism, but it also makes it easier to detect.

Plagiarism detection software helps teachers discover copy theft, and gives students a new tool for checking their work.

Schools need to develop plagiarism policies from prep to Year 12, with ‘buy-in’ from students.

he internet makes it easy for students to become plagiarists. t he cut-and-paste culture of the digital world encourages them to use other people’s work and to not even think of it as stealing ideas or words.

But the internet can also be used to catch plagiarists.

te achers at Blackwood High s chool, in Adelaide, use tur nitin, one of several online commercial plagiarism detection tools. t he 810-student school pays about $1,700 annually for the service.

Previously, teachers would spend hours typing phrases into Google, but using the tool is much faster, says teacher and e-trainer Wayne le armonth.

“Everything goes through it,” he says. “ s tudent work is checked against virtually every web page and book, as well as a vast database of student papers.”

t he idea is that students self-check their work before submitting it to the teacher, and this is acceptable, he says. i t enables the students to determine if quoting and referencing has been done correctly.

Learning tool

“ i t gives them an opportunity to improve their work, as well as serving as a learning tool.

Resources turnitin.com (aldis.com.au) plagiarism.org plagium.com canexus.com/eve

“We view the internet as part of a student’s research project. i t’s a source, and we teach them to evaluate sources and how to synthesise online work into their own work rather than just copy it.”

BRIEFLY

i t’s difficult for students to “game the s ystem”, says le armonth. “Even if a student changes words, the tool will catch them. o ne Year 9 girl swore black and blue she didn’t copy a story. s he changed characters, settings, genders and dates, but it was picked up.

“ s tudents realise they can’t just change words. i t’s easier for them to quote and source it.”

Other languages

Eighty-five per cent of universities and more than 400 secondary schools in Australia are using the tool, says rob yne lo velock, managing director of Aldis, the product’s Australian reseller.

i t works in more than 25 languages.

“For example, a c hinese student could copy and translate part of a c hinese textbook,” says le armonth. “ u sing tur nitin, i can see the original c hinese text [the software has matched] and help the student to correct their work.” tur nitin was one of the first plagiarism tools to be used in Australia and it has become credibly regarded

in the higher education sphere, says d r Wendy s utherland-s mith, a senior lecturer at d eakin u niversity and author of the book Plagiarism, the Internet and Student Learning: Improving Academic Integrity

s he sa ys it is always a human decision as to whether there is plagiarism or not, because plagiarism software only shows a text match.

“For example, if a student has attributed the text, then it’s not plagiarism,” says s utherland-s mith.

“ t he teacher must look at the matching text and decide whether it’s unattributed copying or whether the student has forgotten to use quotation marks or just been sloppy in acknowledgement of other work.”

teaching to attribute

s chools need to educate students in the use of quot es and attribution, and not only for text, but also for pictures, diagrams and other kinds of visual texts available through the internet, she says.

“ t here’s a high degree of cutting and pasting among students,

particularly with images. t hey need to understand that images as well as written text is often subject to copyright and must be attributed.”

s utherland-s mith suggests being specific when setting assignment questions. “o therwise students may use the internet to cut and paste for very general questions, if they’re not sure what they have to do in terms of information gathering.”

Policy needed

s chools need to develop a plagiarism policy and set processes in place regarding ethical ways students behave, from prep to Year 12, she says.

“ t he process needs to involve students in developing the policy and discussing ways transgressions may be best dealt with. i t must be a collaborative task so students have some ‘buy-in’ to the process and are encouraged to take responsibility for adhering to the policies they have helped design.” l

Cynthia Karena is a freelance writer.

by Clar E r aff E rty

Digital learning leader and Year 7 history and geography teacher, Ringwood Secondary College, Victoria

My best app

QED: Cosmo’s Casebook

Android, iOS, free

A game set in ancient Rome brings history to life for a Year 7 history class.

“The app has rich stories about ancient Rome with vibrant graphics,” says Clare Rafferty.

“It’s a fantastic learning tool. The story engages the students and encourages them to problem solve, collect evidence, think critically, and have shared conversations.”

As students play legal eagle Cosmo and collect facts about ancient Rome to solve cases, they learn about daily life and what it means to be a citizen and non-citizen of ancient Rome.

“Students talk about history while they’re playing,” says Rafferty.

“They question sources, such as witnesses, and cite Roman law. They can also test their hypotheses during an investigation.”

And, it’s been popular with students. “Half of them played the app on the weekend before we started in class.”

Popplet

iOS, $6.49, Popplet lite is free

Popplet sorts student ideas visually and Rafferty uses it for mind-mapping exercises.

“It’s great for brainstorming ideas in class,” she says.

“Students like it because it helps them organise their ideas. They can add text, images and links.

“It works to their strengths –for example, if students are visual learners, they can use more images.”

Showbie

iOS, free

Showbie helps Rafferty to collect, review and annotate student work on her tablet.

Students upload their work and Rafferty can easily review it and give feedback.

“It can even be audio feedback, which is much quicker than typing,” she says.

clare’s tips “Allow students to choose apps in class to design, create and collaborate, then all students have a buy-in to the lesson. Brainstorm a few apps as a class to help students who can’t decide. It is important to give students the opportunity to use a variety of apps. The teacher doesn’t need to be able to understand all the apps – students in the class will excitedly help problem solve issues for others.”

s hare your secrets Which apps do you find useful in the classroom? Let us know at educator@ hardiegrant. com.au

WORTH A LOOK

Solar Walk 3D Solar System model

Android, $3.10; iOS, $3.79

Stunning graphics of the solar system illustrating planets and satellites will keep students enthralled. They can navigate through space, zoom in and out of the galaxy, rotate planets, and select and scroll through detailed images of planets.

WWF Together

iOS, free

WWF Together has beautiful informative videos about endangered animals including snow leopards, zebras, orangutans, giant pandas and more. There are wonderful photos and interestingly presented information on each species, including threats facing their existence.

The Brief Android, iOS, free

The ABC curates the main stories of the week, including a short written article, video clips, music and radio grabs. Students have an opportunity to give the ABC feedback on each edition as it experiments with content on this app.

My Standards App

My Standards is an easy-to-use, free app developed for the benefit of Australian teachers.

Importantly, My Standards makes the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers accessible anywhere, anytime.

• Collect and annotate your own artefacts and map to the Standards

• Take control of your professional growth by regularly collecting evidence and reflecting on your practice

• Create video, photo or audio artefacts of your professional practice as it happens

• Export your artefacts to cloud storage and access from any computer, mobile or tablet

• Connect the Standards to your practice to inform your professional discussions and career development.

My Standards provides an easy and simple way to capture and annotate examples of your

Connect with us

Teacher Toolkit

Artefacts

t he successful c ontrol of Entry campaign signalled the demise of unqualified teachers in Victorian secondary schools.

B Y Helen V I nes

The fiery years

The Victorian s econdary te achers’ Association (V stA) c ontrol of Entry campaign was one of several important professional actions that took place in the late 1960s and early 1970s in Victoria.

i n April 1968, a V stA sur vey found that only 39 per cent of teachers in Victorian secondary schools held degrees. At the association’s AGM that year, it passed a resolution that it would control entry to teaching from a set date, which turned out to be April 1, 1969.

Education Minister lindsay t hompson notified the V stA that its plans “could constitute a criminal conspiracy to effect a public mischief”. t he V stA , with the support of its members and the determination of a strong leadership cohort, moved forward anyway.

t he absence of uniform professional standards, along with teaching tribunal reform, inspection, pay and conditions of employment, formed the backbone of V stA indus trial action during this fiery period. t he Bolte government in Victoria vilified, ridiculed and legislated to keep control of all aspects of the teaching profession within its jurisdiction.

i t failed. t he V stA bec ame increasingly organised. As one memorable newspaper headline put it, it was “no place for a tame teacher”.

By April 1974, the c ontrol of Entry campaign ensured that only fouryear university-qualified teachers were entering the profession.

As the issue began to heat up,

the government ‘took on’ the V stA , recalls n eil o’Keefe, who became the association’s first membership liaison officer in January 1971 and went on the become its assistantsecretary for eight years. i n effect, it let it be known that it was the government that would pick teachers for schools, not the V stA t he media largely supported the government. The Age claimed the n ovember 1969 teachers’ strike was a “debacle” and, in captioning its photos, called t hompson “a winner” and V stA secretary Brian c onway “a loser”, and described a “cute little flaxen-haired girl with an infectious grin” (who happened to be an unqualified art teacher) as “popular”.

Issuing certificates

t he V stA , with its own registration board, became expert in assessing qualifications from all parts of the world and issued its own registration certificates, says o’Keefe. Members were asked to implement an industrial campaign where they agreed they would only teach alongside teachers who had the certificate. i t was a time in which many highly motivated young people had entered the profession, coming from all sorts of backgrounds, employed to educate the generation that blossomed out of the post s econd World War mantra of “populate or perish”. s chools were jam-packed with students to the point where even the V stA saw a class of 40 Year 9s as an improvement.

t he most protracted union action in the history of the V stA

RESOURCES

was in 1971 in support of control of entry. i t lasted 11 weeks. About half of the teachers at Maribyrnong High s chool stopped work in protest at the employment of three unqualified teachers. t he V stA paid the strikers their full salaries, and although they were ultimately unsuccessful in dislodging the unqualified teachers, it signalled the determination of members to persist in their right to uniform professional recognition.

u ltimately, it was the determination and persistence of many thousands of teachers who defied threats of dismissal, and at one point the legislated loss of long service leave entitlements (10 years gone for every day on strike), which led to a successful resolution of the issue of control of entry. i n 1975, due to its strength, the V stA was nominated for entry to the Australian c ouncil of trade u nions. And the rest, as they say, is history. l

Helen Vines is a freelance writer.

The VSTA, with its own registration board, became expert in assessing qualifications from all parts of the world.

Democratic Curriculum: Essays on schooling and society, by Bill Hannan (George Allen & Unwin, 1985)

t he integration between mind and body is fundamental t o learning, and physical education can claim this space within our schools, argues author s teven s tolz.

BY HELEN VINES

A great leap forward

Few people can lay claim to the creation of a ‘new tradition’ within education, but one-time secondary teacher and current university lecturer dr steven stolz, from the Faculty of Education at la trobe university, has done just that. He calls it “embodied learning”. in essence, it is the integration between mind and body that, he argues, is best achieved through subjects such as physical education, but also dance and drama.

the initial spark for his idea was that PE and sport were not considered core subjects within the development of the national curriculum.

Lacking definition

As stolz and other academics sought to articulate a sophisticated justification for the inclusion of these subjects, it became apparent that there was no fundamental agreement about what PE and sport actually were and how they differed.

PE is variously described as: “sport education”, “health education, prevention and promotion”, “character development”, “leisure”, and a “mechanism for performance”.

circulated to members of the AEU nationally.

seeking to tease out the competing traditions between sport and PE was an academic exercise in semantics and nuance. instead, stolz created a new tradition, which he calls “embodied learning”.

“ traditional forms of education have normally privileged the development of cognition. i want to draw people back to the idea that, if we are serious about education, we should be serious about developing the whole person. i have yet to find anyone who disagrees with me,” he says.

stolz argues that, before we can use knowledge about our bodies, we must learn about embodiment. out of all the subjects in the curriculum PE is the most obvious place for this to occur.

Abstract to reality

it offers a space within the curriculum in which students can move from an abstract awareness of their bodies to a concrete visualisation and understanding of what it means to be embodied, says stolz. in other words, “what it means to have a body”.

stolz looks to sport as a way of showing how little we understand about what separates a champion from an also-ran. “We don’t

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I want to draw people back to the idea that, if we are serious about education, we should be serious about developing the whole person.

‘‘

Dr Steven Stolz

La Trobe University’s Faculty of Education

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know, for example, how ricky Ponting can respond so quickly to a fast bowler like Brett lee at 150 kilometres per hour. Physiologically, we can’t account for his ability, but a new research paradigm, known as embodied cognition, is drawing on a hybrid of philosophy, phenomenology, cognitive science, neuro-science and psychology.” stolz taught a range of subjects, including PE, before he gained his Phd and moved into academia.

Cutting-edge research

He says his background provided a unique opportunity to “synthesise a lot of ideas” and integrate theory and practice though his new tradition of embodied learning. this is cutting-edge research, and his new book, The Philosophy of Physical Education, presents his findings and analysis to date. one thing is clear, he argues, PE should certainly not be focused primarily on those students with enhanced sporting abilities who already have opportunities to demonstrate and refine their skills. stolz points out that for many students, especially girls, PE is a negative experience with little relevance.

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He sees the body as a “schema of perception” or “an instrument for us to make sense of the world”. stolz says that “when we start to unpack our world of sensation, we find many things we do not know”. What does it really mean to feel joy or fun? What is the significance of moments of emotion? How do we understand and listen to intuition? For stolz, yoga is one way students can learn about embodiment, which he says should be integral in all educational settings. l

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GAMES SPORT PLAY

RESOURCES

About Steven Stolz

Further reading Embodied Learning’ by Dr Steven Stolz is published in the Educational Philosophy and Theory journal. http://tinyurl. com/kgltwwk

Make cheques payable to the Australian Education Union and post to:

Dr Steven Stolz is a lecturer in education from La Trobe University in Melbourne. He is the past recipient of the Philosophy of Education Society of Australasia doctoral scholarship in 2011, and the Faculty of Education emerging researcher award in 2013. His current research interests focus on educational philosophy and theory.

Helen Vines is a freelance writer.

Source: The Philosophy of Physical Education (routledge)

The interrelationship among play, games and sport.

Three teachers share stories of life and learning.

Why do you teach?

What’s your funniest or most rewarding teaching moment? Share your best tips for engaging young minds. We’d love to hear from you. Email us at educator@hardiegrant.com.au with 150–200 words on your best teaching moments.

Teacher to teacher

Teacher, early years team leader, Chevallum State Primary School, Chevallum, QLD

I’m very concerned that the demands of the Australian Curriculum are interfering with great practice in the early years. Principals are feeling pressured that kids be “educated” and, because the curriculum is so dense, teachers are fighting to keep quality, play-based learning in the classroom.

With the Australian Curriculum comes the introduction of specific subject areas like history, science and geography, so in many prep classrooms children aged four and five are now sitting at desks doing sheet work for half-hour blocks throughout the day to ‘fit in’ all the instruction. This means less time to bring out the blocks, play dress-ups or do other types of hands-on learning.

It’s very frustrating because we had it so right three or four years ago. Play was valued in early years. Now that’s all out the window because of a knee-jerk reaction to the overcrowded curriculum. It’s like we’ve gone back 50 years in educational practice and I worry about the long-term effects on children.

I don’t believe educators and government decision makers are purposely making bad choices – it’s more a lack of knowledge around early years research and, because of that, many have lost the idea of what great education is about.

It’s also affecting teachers. Many teachers are working too hard in a system they no longer believe in so they can meet curriculum demands and still build quality relationships with the kids. l

Head teacher of technology, Callaghan College Wallsend Campus, Cameron Park, NSW

When I came here in 2010, the school had very little technology. It was like walking into the desert and giving people glasses of water. Since then we’ve spent around $600,000 on technology, and staff have been so willing to embrace change.

There are interactive whiteboards in almost every room and we’re one of the first schools in the state to have the BYOD [bring your own device] program. We’ve been piloting that for more than two terms and around 450 students out of 1150 now BYOD every day. All staff members have iPads. We were one of the first schools to do that.

Everyone’s connected via the department’s wireless network and an internal server gives full remote access for all students and staff. We use Share Point – a corporate intranet that big companies like IBM and GM Holden use – so if people add something to our calendar it automatically uploads to our dynamic website or wherever it needs to go.

We’re on Facebook and Twitter, and there’s an Active Schools app and a Quick View system with thousands of digital educational videos for teachers and students. Parents also have a portal they can use to download their children’s reports in PDF format, so we don’t need to print them unless requested. You name it, we’ve got it! A lot of that is due to our principal, Paul Tracey. He shows the benefits of having good pedagogy, giving people the resources they need and making it work. In the five years since he’s been here, enrolment has gone from 950 to 1150. l

Classroom teacher, Taroona Primary School, Taroona, Ta S

Teachers are under a lot more pressure than when I started teaching 23 years ago. People don’t seem to understand the amount of time, energy and creativity that goes into what we do.

Technology has made that easier in some respects, but because we’ve all got tablets and laptops we’re sitting in bed with them until all hours. So it’s about finding balance. I still haven’t reached that myself, but it’s a goal I have.

For the children, it’s about making sure the whole person is involved. I use a lot of drama, poetry, music and dance in the classroom because children aren’t just ‘little heads’. When lessons involve the head, heart and hands it’s a more holistic and authentic way to learn.

For example, we were learning about farming so I made up a song on my guitar about worms. I could see that the kids really ‘got’ the idea of the part worms play. I also made up tunes and clapping rhythms for the times tables. Students I taught 20 years ago tell me they still remember their times tables because of that. It takes a lot more energy, but the kids really respond to it.

Before I came to Tasmania, I was a deputy principal in New Zealand and I really enjoyed enriching other teachers. I’d like to do more of that in the future, but I’m not sure I could give up being in the classroom. l

Bobby Pedersen

David Summerville

Michelle Scheu

W e a S k ...

Interviews by Cyndi Tebbel.

Michelle s cheu

D avi D s u MM erville

Bo BB y pe D ersen