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Breaking
News: Week of 15 September 2008
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Thursday 18 September Dr Elizabeth Constable is the new WA Education Minister
Saturday – Sunday, 20 – 21 September
- ABC News
- Labor moved on as Liberals move in
"The Premier in waiting Colin Barnett says Labor Ministers have three days to clear out their offices before new Liberal Ministers move in..."
"Troy Buswell is likely to be Treasurer, Christian Porter the Attorney General, Kim Hames will take on the Health portfolio and Peter Collier will be the Minister for Education..."
Full story on ABC News at link
- More than 1,000 votes 'lost' in Geraldton
The outgoing member for Geraldton believes a byelection will have to be held to decide the seat after the West Australian Electoral Commission revealed more than 1,000 votes have been lost from last weekend's poll.
More details in The Sunday Times online / PerthNow
- The West Australian
Teachers union president defends backing pay deal offered by Labor (page 17)
by Kim Macdonald
“Teachers union president Anne Gisborne has defended her position after members rejected the union’s advice to accept Labor’s pay deal.
“Ms Gisborne stood by the executive’s decision to endorse the Labor Government’s offer, claiming it could have further strengthened negotiations with the new government which has promised to add $120 million to Labor’s $775 million package.
“Ms Gisborne said members could have used Labor’s offer as a foundation to “vote up” their pay and conditions with the new government. The Liberal Party had promised that its package would go ahead even if the Labor deal was accepted.
“Ms Gisborne believed the Liberals’ more generous offer had affected members’ decision not to accept Labor’s deal.
“About two-thirds of the 14,000 teachers voting on the deal turned down Labor’s offer of 15 to 21 per cent more pay.
“Ms Gisborne said the union would seek a meeting with the new education minister as soon as possible, though the union was preparing for the pay negotiations to go into arbitration.
“She said she expected the new minister would stand by the party’s education commitments.
“Union activist Marko Vojkovic said the union’s decision to endorse Labor’s offer had showed “: an appalling lack of judgement” and was out of kilter with the membership.
“He said there were already numerous votes of no-confidence in Ms Gisborne, but he would not call for her resignation because it could disrupt negotiations. He said the union had more pressing priorities than changing the leadership.
“Mr Vojkovic, who heads the anti-outcomes-based education group PLATO, recently lost his bid for union president.”
From The West Australian
Inside Cover
Mark my words, please, pleads chalkie Andy
“Chalkies often get a raw deal, so it is with a sense of public duty that we publish this clarification on behalf of Warwick Senior High School teacher Andrew Bell.
“Bell copped a fair bit of stick from his work mates last week after a TV bulletin ran a file vision of him carrying a sign that bore the words “I support Mark McGowan”.
“McGowan is not particularly popular with many teachers for various actions in his reign as education minister.
“The footage came from a protest at Parliament House last year and Bell tells us the full words on his sign were “I support Mark McGowan as Opposition Leader” and were a prescient dig at the Labor Government’s performance.
“I don’t want people to think in any way that I am supporting Mark McGowan,” Bell said.
“He added that Liberal education spokesman Peter Collier and Nationals member Grant Woodhams liked the sign so much they asked him for it and he eventually gave it to the Nat.”
From The West Australian
- The Sydney Morning Herald
- Op Ed
A national curriculum, a bad choice
by Jenny Allum, principal of SCEGGS Darlinghurst
"The National Curriculum Board meets in Sydney today with representatives of the various stakeholders in education in NSW. What do we in NSW stand to gain by a national curriculum? What do we stand to lose?
"The board is an initiative of the Federal Government, which hopes to improve standards of education and consistency by developing a national curriculum, initially in English, mathematics, science and history. In typical federalist style, it has appointed a single "national subject chair" in each of the four subjects to oversee this writing. In NSW we are used to a broad range of educators appointed to board curriculum committees to oversee this task - academic experts from the subject discipline, teachers from different schools, representatives of principals' associations and professional teacher associations and so on. Which process do you think will result in the highest-quality curriculum? [emphasis added]
"The board meets just once in NSW, and it has one day to consult with all relevant groups within our educational sphere - independent, government and Catholic schools, professional associations, teachers, parents, students. A one-day talkfest for hundreds of people at Redfern Technology Park. In NSW the Board of Studies consults three or four times a year with each of those groups individually. Those groups help set the agenda for discussion; and the Board of Studies, in small groups, listens to concerns, suggestions and proposed actions for the future. Of course the Board of Studies does not take on every suggestion, but it listens to all. Which process do you think will result in the highest-quality curriculum?
"The National Curriculum Board will release "framing papers" in each of the first four subjects in mid-November for feedback by the end of February. Feedback in the busy last weeks of a school year and the busy first weeks of the next school year? The Board of Studies gives teachers the time to consider proposals and detailed syllabus documentation. Which process do you think will result in the highest-quality curriculum?
"The National Curriculum Board has a two-year time frame to develop curriculum in English, mathematics, science and history. The documents will be out in 2010. We have not even agreed between the states on a starting age for schooling, let alone where, or if, Shakespeare should be taught; whether matrices should be in the mathematics syllabus and if so at what level; how many hours should we devote to history in each year of schooling, and so on. In NSW we have an excellent curriculum and a rigorous assessment regime that has withstood the test of time. It is not perfect (in the same way that the national curriculum will not be), but it is consultative, owned and supported by our profession - people from all sectors and walks of life who care passionately about the education of our young people and a better society in the future. Which process do you think will result in the highest-quality curriculum?
"In NSW we believe that the broadest group of experts, collaborating together to develop curriculum and assessment, will get the best results for our students. And in every assessment, NSW has excellent standards of performance, achieved by our young people. However, a national curriculum is not necessarily an excellent curriculum, especially when it will be developed under such circumstances. Let's not throw our high-quality curriculum and assessment programs away lightly."
From The Sydney Morning Herald at link
- A hand-up to school offers a way out of poverty
One young student started a charity to help others learn, writes Jen Rosenberg.
- New worlds for thought
Big business is embracing philosophy graduates, writes Keeli Cambourne.
- The Australian
- Op Ed
Nationals know how west was won
by Peter Van Onselen
"... at a personal level, Grylls wanted his team to support a Labor government led by Alan Carpenter. He was outvoted by his Nationals colleagues, a reality check for the rising star of WA politics. The young leader was wooed by a significant slush fund for the bush offered by the Labor Party, the details of which were put in writing by Carpenter and are expected to be released for public viewing today alongside an offer Barnett put forward.
"Carpenter's offer included an amount of money almost twice the size of Barnett's, the distribution of which would have been put in the hands of Nationals MPs given portfolio responsibility for the regions, effectively creating a two-tiered government structure: one set of ministers for the regions and one for Perth..."
"Despite not going with the larger offer for the regions, Grylls is to be congratulated for the outcome he has achieved. He has put the Liberal Party on notice that the Nationals will not be taken for granted and he has secured a Royalties for Regions plan that will see hundreds of millions of extra dollars pumped into the bush each year.
"The quality of services and infrastructure in the WA regions will improve as a result and the Nationals will be able to take full credit for it..."
"One irony of the election is that while the Greens significantly increased their vote and representation, they have lost the balance of power in the upper house and with it any influence they had.
"In the meantime Barnett has to find a way to convince marginal seat voters in urban areas that they have not been dudded by his preparedness to shift resources to regional communities.
"Reminding them that Labor would have spent twice as much may well be his starting point."
Full story in The Australian at link
- Editorial
WA result puts other ALP states on notice
"The day before the West Australian election, The Australian recognised "strong signs that Labor's coast to coast hegemony is cracking as voters line up to punish hubris, laziness, incompetence and, in some cases, corruption." Our prediction that the political cycle was turning at state level was affirmed by the result, shortly after Northern Territory Labor almost suffered a shock defeat. Yesterday, former WA Labor premier Alan Carpenter resigned when the Nationals, after a lot of horse-trading, announced they would form government with the Liberal Party...
"Post-election, Labor's shameless bargaining with the Nationals shows how desperate it was to cling to power, even if it meant abandoning Labor principles and good public policy and offering the Nationals extraordinary benefits. The ugliness of Labor politics is now an issue in itself, which is especially bad news for NSW Labor..."
"In his $700 million "royalties for regions" policy, insisting that a quarter of the state's estimated $2.7 billion in mining royalties be spent in rural and regional areas, Mr Grylls has highlighted an important issue. That is, the concentration of resources and influence in the capital cities, to the detriment of those living in remote regions where the wealth is created. The condition of many regional facilities - hospitals, schools, transport and other infrastructure - is a disgrace. [emphasis added] The fly-in, fly-out culture of many regions is unsustainable over the life of the mining boom, which is set to continue for as many decades as China and India continue expanding..."
Full Editorial in The Australian at link
- Carpenter takes full blame for poll loss
[Alan Carpenter said] he was proud of Labor's record in office...
- New premier throws spanner into Rudd's works
The next meeting of the Council of Australian Governments - Kevin Rudd's so-called workhorse of the nation - is in 2 1/2 weeks and it happens to be in Perth.
Rudd has followed the practice of giving the premier of the state hosting COAG star billing, alongside himself, when it comes time to announce how much progress co-operative federalism has made at another one of its leaders' meetings.
- Letters to the Editor
- Evidence-based history
"Stuart Macintyre’s appointment to the new National Curriculum Board has been criticised by The Australian on two grounds. Kevin Donnelly ("My worst fears have been realised”, 10/9) associated Macintyre’s past membership of the Communist Party with a disdain for evidence-based narrative history. Then he was accused of a key role in the events at the University of Melbourne that followed Geoffrey Blainey’s speech to Warrnambool Rotary about Asian immigration ("Blainey affair role hounds professor”, 13-14/9). I welcome your support for evidence-based history but am dismayed by your failure to practice it in your gratuitous attacks on Macintyre. Surely the strongest evidence for his approach to history is to be found in the histories he has written. To take one example, Volume 4 of The Oxford History of Australia, which covers the period from Federation to the outbreak of the Pacific War, is just the sort of research-based historical narrative which The Australian purports to support. And, on Macintyre’s relationship with Blainey, surely it’s relevant that, in 2000, he was a key organiser of a conference at the State Library of Victoria to honour and discuss Blainey’s contribution to Australian history."
Judith Brett, Northcote, Vic
- "Ross Fitzgerald’s claims that references to Stuart Macintyre’s past as a member of the Communist Party constitute a campaign of vilification represent yet another example of the prevailing double standard as regards public figures’ earlier connections with extremist political philosophies.
"Anyone with even the slightest or incidental links in their past to fascism in general, or Nazism in particular, is quite rightly required to totally abjure them, and to express their abhorrence of the obscenities committed by these ideologies. On the other hand, previous supporters of Stalinism or Maoism, which committed mass atrocities as bad or worse than fascism’s, are protected from demands for unambiguous recantation of their former allegiance with a litany of sophisticated defences, which include accusations of victimisation and McCarthyism."
Bill James, Bayswater, Vic
- The Age
- Analysis
Labor fearful of wider rot
by Michelle Grattan
If the loss of WA was an isolated setback, it might not matter so much for Labor nationally. But it is part of a pattern. Labor has to be deeply worried at the wider rot, most notably in NSW.
- Children encouraged to become shady shady characters
After years of Australian children learning their three Ss as well as their three Rs, authorities have added another two Ss.
It is now important not only to slip on a shirt, slop on some sunscreen and slap on a hat, but also to seek shade and slide on some sunglasses to be protected fully from the sun.
- Op Ed
Without proper care, some children are left out in the cold
The payback is huge when at-risk youngsters have early childhood care.
- Letters to the Editor
Student fail rate a national disaster
"I would like to be able to agree with Education Minister Bronwyn Pike's assertion that the first national standards test is "a glowing report card for Victoria", but if I did, I'd be burying my head in the sand alongside hers. As for Julia Gillard's claim that 80% of the nation's students achieving above the minimum standard is a good result - now that is truly a matter of grave concern.
"If the results of these tests were to be extrapolated over the entire student population we would find that more than 300,000 Australian students are failing completely in our schools, and another 300,000 or so are barely literate or numerate by the time they leave school.
"That in itself is a national disaster, but take those concepts one step further, and it is obvious that the bulk of the student population is failing to learn and achieve according to its intellectual potential.
"Our education system is poorly served by current policies and philosophies and curriculums, for along with universally accepted misconceptions and false assumptions about teaching and learning, the concept of standards or benchmarks will never allow children to discover their true potential."
Tim Mirabella, Somerville
- Pay attention, PM
"Congratulations to all Victorian school teachers (The Age, 13/9). Considering that Australia has the second lowest school funding in the OECD scale of developed nations, we do very well. According to your report (The Age, 13/9) "The state's worst result was fourth place in year 3 writing, with 96.2% of students at or above the benchmark".
"I hope Kevin Rudd will take into account these fine results next time he preaches sackings and school closures. If he wants to pick up the small group of failing students, fund them. As a successful New York principal said: "When we find kids who can't read or count, we teach 'em."
Graeme Lee, Fitzroy
- SSTUWA
- Interim pay increase for TAFE application
by Mark Muir
Given the length of time since TAFE Lecturers last had a pay increase, and that arbitration hearings for an Enterprise Order will not commence until February 2009, the Union has lodged in the WAIRC, an application for an interim pay increase of 7%, backdating to 1st January 2008.
The matter will be heard in the Commission on the 24th September.
- AEU
- BBC News
- Scrap curriculum, argue Lib Dems
The Liberal Democrats have outlined plans to scrap England's national curriculum and "close the performance gap between rich and poor pupils".
- The New York Times
- Don’t Buy That Textbook, Download It Free
In protest of what he says are textbooks’ intolerably high prices — and the dumbing down of their content to appeal to the widest possible market — Professor McAfee has put his introductory economics textbook online free. He says he most likely could have earned a $100,000 advance on the book had he gone the traditional publishing route, and it would have had a list price approaching $200.
- The Australian
- Students want more English grammar in new curriculum
by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
"As an exchange student in Italy last year, Lily Dambelli found herself embarrassed by her lack of language skills -- not her Italian, but her English.
"I was sitting in an English class in Italy and they knew so much more about the grammar of the English language than I did," Lily said.
"Knowing another country knows the basics and grammatical structure of our own language more than we do is quite off-putting."
"The message from school students attending a consultation forum in Sydney yesterday on the national school curriculum was quite clear: reintroduce the teaching of grammar.
"Lily, 17, a Year 12 student at St Andrews Cathedral School, said that until her trip to Italy, she had not realised how little English grammar she knew.
"I know the subjunctive in Italian, but have no idea what it is in English," she said.
"We know how to use English, but it would be good to know a bit more about its background."
"As part of the development ofthe curriculum, the National Curriculum Board is holding a series of consultation forums with teachers, officials, parents and students.
"Reporting back on the student discussions, Lily and 15-year-old Philip Longley, from the Northern Beaches Christian College, said the other main theme was the crowded curriculum.
"Lily said the pressure from the quantity of content to learn resulted in students being forced to regurgitate quickly learned tracts of knowledge rather than developing a deep understanding.
"With English, there's so many different topics throughout the year, it's a rush to get them done," she said.
"In the last few weeks of the term, we're learning a whole new module to produce a 1000-word essay for the HSC.
"We want less quantity and more depth. It isn't about memory testing in exams. We want to learn content and ... have time to write to the best of our ability, rather than learning 12 quotes and 12 techniques."
"Philip, a Year 9 student, called for less repetition in school courses, particularly in areas of history such as the Gold Rush.
"In some instances, people were learning about the colonisation of Australia from Year 2 to Year 8 or even further," he said.
"Discussion yesterday also revolved around the place of content in the curriculum, with some suggestions from teachers and principals that it was less important than teaching students learning skills.
"NCB chairman Barry McGaw ruled out any moves to reduce the role of content in the national curriculum, saying it was crucial.
"Our remit is to address questions of what teachers should teach and what students should learn," Professor McGaw told the forum."
From The Australian at link
- Op Ed
Narrow view of history
by Greg Melleuish
"The discovery that Stuart Macintyre has been engaged to write the national Australian history curriculum for the Rudd Government has attracted an amount of comment. Some of this has focused on Macintyre's involvement in the notorious letter from members of the University of Melbourne history department condemning Geoffrey Blainey in 1984. Macintyre's one-time communist affiliation has also attracted unfavourable comment.
"What has not been discussed is the type of history that Macintyre is likely to recommend for Australian students. His mate, the so-called conservative historian John Hirst, has said, trust me, Macintyre is OK by me. This might prompt many to ask: how reliable is Hirst?
"There are three areas one should examine very closely when Macintyre's proposal eventually comes out. These are the role of religion in Australian history, liberalism and business, and understanding Australia's place in the world. [emphasis added]
"The most devastating critique of Macintyre's historical work was written a number of years ago by left-winger Bob Gould. Gould pointed out that Macintyre had no place for religion in his account of Australian history. In particular Macintyre attempted to write the Catholic contribution out of Australian history altogether. It is worth noting that Hirst is also not all that keen on religion and is a noted opponent of private schools.
"The role of religion in Australian history was debated forcefully at the 2006 history summit with former NSW premier Bob Carr, among others, not wishing to include religion in the study of Australian history.
"The second issue is an important one. Australia's present prosperity has resulted from both the implementation of liberal principles and the role of private enterprise, including farmers, in developing the country. Unlike Blainey, Macintyre has demonstrated no great enthusiasm for coming to terms with the role that Australian companies have played in Australia's rise to prosperity.
"When it comes to the liberalism, Macintyre has demonstrated in his writings that he is only really interested in that variety of liberalism that came out of Melbourne in the 19th century and favours state intervention. Like Judith Brett, he has no time for the other tradition of Australian liberalism based on free trade and individual initiative. Again, while Hirst calls himself a conservative, his conservatism has everything to do with nationalism and almost nothing to do with liberalism and individualism.
"There is nothing in Macintyre's corpus to suggest he has much of an appreciation of the wider international environment in which Australia has existed during its history since 1788. He has written almost exclusively on Australia, with an early book on the British Communist party. Blainey, in comparison, has written a world history. Hirst is also fixated only on Australia.
"But it is even worse than that. Gould pointed out that not only has Macintyre a British Australian view of the world, as one would expect from the product of a Melbourne public school, his view of Australia is centred on Melbourne and Adelaide. Hirst comes from Adelaide and his career has been spent in Melbourne.
"It was interesting that when I wrote a paper for the history summit one of the criticisms that was made of me was that I was a NSW historian.
"Given Macintyre's track record, there are good reasons to be worried about the type of curriculum in Australian history that he is likely to produce. We should be wary of the assurances of his mate Hirst.
"If Macintyre is true to form it will be a history that excludes religion and that has very little to say about the important role of both business and economic liberalism in the making of Australia. Moreover it will be a history that largely ignores the rest of the world and which has Melbourne as the key to understanding how Australia developed.
"If my predictions are correct then we must ask if such a history is really appropriate for students living in the 21st century at a time when we cannot understand the national without the international, when religion has not only refused to die but has made a comeback, and when liberalism and business are more important than ever.
"We do not want young Australians getting a history that is outdated." [emphasis added]Greg Melleuish is associate professor of history at the University of Wollongong.
From The Australian at link
- Blainey affair role hounds Professor Stuart Macintyre
by Luke Slattery
"Stuart Macintyre can run from one prestigious appointment to another, but he just can't hide from the Blainey affair.
"Macintyre, who is at a conference in Canada, will return to Melbourne University and a post on the new National Curriculum Board later this month, after a 12-month stint at Harvard University as chair of Australian studies.
"Awaiting him are damaging allegations that he played a role in destroying historian Geoffrey Blainey's academic career. The event, which some regard as the most squalid in Australian intellectual history, if not the opening shot in the history wars, is reprised in a forthcoming essay by Quadrant editor Keith Windschuttle.
"It relates how Macintyre and fellow academic staff at Melbourne University's history department turned on Blainey in 1984, after he had made public statements about the high volume of Asian immigration amid a bruising economic recession..."
Full story in The Australian at link
- Academics must justify jobs at Melbourne University
Academics behind on their research output at Melbourne University's arts faculty may have to front a panel to justify why they should keep their jobs under proposed plans for compulsory redundancies.
- Letters to the Editor
- Most Talked About
Education must find a balance for students’ sake
The English professors believe that English is nothing but literature, while the teachers associations support the critical literacy approach of Peter Freebody and Allan Luke, which has produced a generation of students who can get high marks in Year 12 English, but can’t punctuate a sentence or spell, and learn to fake it.
Four Letters at that link
- ABC News
- Teacher threatened with knife during school invasion
A second Gold Coast high school has been placed in lock-down in as many days, after a teacher and a student were assaulted by a gang of youths.
- The Age
- Teacher put 8000 explicit images on school computer
by Bridie Smith
"An assistant principal caught with more than 8000 pornographic images and movies on his school laptop has had his teaching registration cancelled, in one of three guilty findings handed down by the professional watchdog...
"The other two disciplinary findings posted on the institute's website last Friday involved allegations of male teachers engaging in inappropriate communication and physical contact with female students..."
Full story in The Age at link
- The Guardian
- Keeping an electronic eye on your child's schoolwork
There's huge potential for technology to help parents understand their children's progress at school, says Tanya Byron
If you're a parent, the chances are you're better informed about your mobile phone bills and bank statements than you are about your child's progress at school.
- The New York Times
- Gut Instinct’s Surprising Role in Math
by Natalie Angier
"You are shopping in a busy supermarket and you’re ready to pay up and go home. You perform a quick visual sweep of the checkout options and immediately start ramming your cart through traffic toward an appealingly unpeopled line halfway across the store. As you wait in line and start reading nutrition labels, you can’t help but calculate that the 529 calories contained in a single slice of your Key lime cheesecake amounts to one-fourth of your recommended daily caloric allowance and will take you 90 minutes on the elliptical to burn off and you’d better just stick the thing behind this stack of Soap Opera Digests and hope a clerk finds it before it melts.
"One shopping spree, two distinct number systems in play. Whenever we choose a shorter grocery line over a longer one, or a bustling restaurant over an unpopular one, we rally our approximate number system, an ancient and intuitive sense that we are born with and that we share with many other animals. Rats, pigeons, monkeys, babies — all can tell more from fewer, abundant from stingy. An approximate number sense is essential to brute survival: how else can a bird find the best patch of berries, or two baboons know better than to pick a fight with a gang of six?" ...
Full story in The New York Times at link
- The West Australian
- Op Ed
Lazarus-like Barnett faces tougher task in governing (page 21)
by Tony Rutherford
"... Mr Carpenter was unpopular at a personal level, but his defeat owes as much to the widespread dissatisfaction with his failure to deliver on two elections’ worth of Labor promises. The basic big, and big-ticket, issues remain, much as they were when Geoff Gallop won the 2005 election. The delay in making a real start, for instance, on the Fiona Stanley hospital, for instance, stands as merely the worst example of a wider failure to deliver on public health problems.
"There is a similar but fiscally smaller problem with schools, not least in tackling the huge backlog of renovation and refurbishment of older schools, some of which have not been significantly upgraded for decades. Law and order issues, fortunately, require little by way of similar capital expenditures, unless a major new prison proves necessary.
"Capital expenditures are not, of course, the only problem.
"Even if every school in the State were a marvel of shiny bright new building and technology, that would only address the real problems in education at the very margin. The crisis afflicting WA’s public school system (recently underlined by the release of the national student testing results) is an administrative one. The bureaucracy is too big and controls too much.
"On the other hand, there is virtually no autonomy at school level in any real sense. The pursuit of ultimately useless methodologies such as OBE has only reinforced the chasm between teachers and administrators.
"This naturally raises the wider and now very pressing question as to whether centralised bureaucratic control is the appropriate way of running our schools. Research, observation and the example of the private sector — particularly the low-cost end of that sector — suggest strongly that it is not.
"Substantial devolution has the advantage of being a lot less expensive than the maintenance of an army of bureaucrats. The Liberals need only extend the thinking apparent in their published policies to get on top of this issue.
"That kind of thinking goes further..."
Full story in The West Australian at link
- UWA looks at culling 70 courses down to six (page 13)
by Bethany Hiatt
“More than 70 undergraduate courses at the University of WA would be rolled into just six and students would have to do community service under a plan to radically overhaul course structures to be revealed today.
“After a two-year review, a UWA steering group has recommended that all undergraduate students should do a broad three-year degree in health, science, arts, design or commerce before going on to further study in specialised fields such as law, medicine or engineering...”
Full story in The West Australian
See complete article on the same subject from today’s Australian [already transcribed]
- Letter to the Editor (page 23)
Education is priority
“As justifiably frustrated State school teachers wave goodbye to yet another short-term education minister we shake our heads as we contemplate the state of our system. Those of us with experience have lost count of the ministers and directors general for whom we have worked.
“A state of flux is now the norm at the leadership end of our organisation. Poorly thought out “policy on the run” and heavy-handed “all stick and no carrot” attitudes have been the hallmarks of recent years under successive ministers.
“Who laments the departure of Mark McGowan as our minister? He seemed preoccupied with his own agenda of proving his political toughness. Having failed to achieve either his “hardball player badge” or “headkicker badge”, he leaves behind him an even bigger mess than did Ms Ravlich. Thanks for nothing.
“The incoming minister must grasp the fact that conditions in our State education system need serious attention. Money for education doesn’t just mean better wages for hard-working teachers. Huge improvements in infrastructure, resourcing of schools, government production or resources for teaching and learning and the treatment of personnel are required. The unwieldy curriculum is juggled, along with the hidden curriculum and extracurricular expectations, by teachers too busy to organise a reasonable complaint. It needs pruning back.
“The increasing departure from teaching by both young and senior educators is alarming and is due as much to a sense of being overloaded, manipulated, hamstrung and under-empowered as it is to any sense of being less than adequately paid.”
C. Hills, Floreat
- The Australian
- Teachers oppose increasing study of Australian literature
by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
"English teachers oppose moves to strengthen the study of Australian literature in schools, with their professional association arguing it confers a superiority over the literature of other cultures. [As if the association actually spoke for its members! Web]
"In a submission to a review of the NSW syllabus, the English Teachers Association of NSW says its members also object to giving privilege to print literature above other forms, including film, television and websites.
"A definition of literature with a restriction to the print medium is imprudent, reductive, short-sighted and, most importantly, undermines the integrity of current English syllabuses," the submission says.
"The ETA opposes the selective nomination of some types of text as this implies hierarchies in generic form and medium rather than in the quality of the texts themselves."
"The ETA's submission, sent to the board late last month, is in response to proposed changes to the English syllabus for all years of school requested by former state education minister John Della Bosca in May. Mr Della Bosca asked the board to explore ways to improve the presence of Australian literature in school English courses and ensure the study of more Australian books, poems and plays.
"The ETA says schools are committed to the "notion and practice of diversity and do not want to see a narrow or exclusive interpretation of 'Australian' and Australian concerns".
"Any definition of 'Australian' needs to see Australia in a global context, and to take account of indigenous and multicultural perspectives," the association says.
"In particular, it opposes the introduction of a mandatory module on Australian literature in the extension English course for Year 11. It argues that most students do not take extension English so the module is a limited response to moves to strengthen the study of Australian literature."The main criticism was that by narrowing the study to print literature, it reduced the syllabus's focus on comparing different types of texts, effectively "dumbing down" the curriculum. "It also signals an insularity and lack of confidence about the place of Australian achievement in world literature reminiscent of the 'cultural cringe' that we thought had been laid to rest," the ETA says.
"The ETA made its submission after consulting its members, comprising 1800 teachers and about 300 faculties in schools. About 43 responses were gathered. ETA executive officer Eva Gold said the response was small but the views expressed in the submission were representative of the entire membership.
"Ms Gold said Australian literature was already an integral part of English classes and there was no need to mandate it in the curriculum.
"Professor of Australian Literature at Sydney University Robert Dixon said students often encountered less Australian material than indicated in the syllabus."A spokeswoman for the Board of Studies said 14 consultation meetings had been held around the state, including with the ETA, and a number of submissions received. The responses are expected to be presented as a report to the board's next meeting in October."
From The Australian at link
- UWA readies razor, eyes new model
by Luke Slattery
"The University of Western Australia is set to undergo a radical curriculum restructure by cutting the number of undergraduate courses from more than 70 to six and moving towards a graduate school model.
"The UWA curriculum review taskforce's final report, which has been seen by the HES, recommends the renovation as a response to "demographic changes, globalisation, the advent of new knowledge and new technology", as well as reduced public funding and increased time pressure on research staff.
"The curriculum review favours a broad three-year liberal education leading to specialised masters programs in vocational fields such as law, medicine and engineering. It also proposes a high-end, four-year bachelor of philosophy enriched by university-supported overseas study, open to students from any discipline.
"There is a wide agreement that research skill development should be a hallmark of all UWA degrees," the report says.
"Research is no longer a specialised activity of the intellectual elite.
"In the 21st century, research skills are not only essential for many different kinds of employment, they are also basic survival skills."
"Combined bachelor degrees - such as the popular bachelor of law married to arts, commerce, or engineering - will be replaced by a sequential degree structure if the recommendations of the review committee are accepted by the UWA senate and academic board.
"Formal acceptance would trigger immediate negotiations with the federal Government for the transfer of commonwealth-supported undergraduate places to the graduate level.
"To address competitive pressures from universities still offering combined degrees, UWA will offer assured entry into courses such as law and medicine to the best credentialled school-leavers.
"Graduates, including those from outside UWA, will compete for entry into the new masters programs. For prospective lawyers this means between 5 1/2 and six years of study leading to a juris doctor, compared with five years for a combined degree.
"UWA deputy vice-chancellor (education) Don Markwell told the HES that the future framework offered greater simplicity and flexibility.
"In some cases, students may take longer than at present to complete their university studies," he said.
"But in others, such as engineering, the time is the same as a combined course.
"In general, we will be arguing that the proposed new structure provides a higher quality education, including a better preparation for professions."
"Although the overhaul puts UWA on a parallel course with the University of Melbourne, which under Glyn Davis has pioneered the move to a graduate school model, UWA is keen to stress its distinctive qualities.
"These include the BPhil and an emphasis on research skills.
"The UWA review team has studied curriculum redesign at institutions such as Monash University, Macquarie University, the University of Manchester, National University of Singapore and Harvard University.
"The report recommends five three-year bachelors programs - arts, commerce, design, health and science - with an optional fourth honours year.
"A sixth, the BPhil, is available only as a four-year research-intensive program.
"Said Professor Markwell: "Previous UWA graduates were we believe well equipped for their situation, but the world is changing fast.
"Our aim is to ensure that our graduates are educated, enquiring, eloquent and engaged.
"We aim to achieve this, in part, through our requirements on breadth, research skills, communications skills and community service. The emphasis on these will mean that our future students are well prepared for tomorrow's world."
"The report also recommends that every undergraduate course includes four "broadening units" - one-sixth of a degree course - taught outside the major field.
"At least one of these units will focus on globalisation and cultural diversity.
"All students will receive tuition in oral and communication skills, research skills development and engagement with the larger community through experience with a not-for-profit organisation."
From The Australian at link
- Op Ed
Separatist schooling a failure in the NT
by Helen and Mark Hughes
"When we drew attention to the failures of Northern Territory schooling in April this year, our report, Indigenous Education in the Northern Territory, was said to be poorly researched, relying on sensationalist and emotive anecdotes of one-off instances. NT Education Minister Marion Scrymgour described our analysis as a flimsy and selective diatribe about remote education in the territory. The release of this year's national literacy and numeracy test results unfortunately vindicated our analysis.
"The NT performed abysmally on every indicator. Queensland and Western Australia also had lower achievement levels, but they were not of the same crisis proportions as the territory. In these two states and the NT, the failure to deliver mainstream education to children in welfare dependent indigenous communities was the cause of poor performance.
"Not all of these communities are remote. Some are in urban locations such as Darwin. Some poorly performing Aboriginal schools in remote areas are a short drive away from non-indigenous schools that perform well.
"Schools knew for months that benchmark testing would take place in mid-May and that testing would be compulsory. More than 95 per cent of students were tested throughout most of Australia. In the NT only about 80 per cent of students participated in the tests.
"This suggests either very poor school attendance discipline, or that students who would fail were again discouraged from sitting the tests.
"In all literacy and numeracy tests, only 30 to 35 per cent of NT students met national minimum standards. When those who did not participate are added, half the students in the NT failed to meet national minimum standards. In the rest of Australia less than 15 per cent of students failed to meet the minimum standards..." [emphasis added]
Full story in The Australian at link
- Letters to the Editor
- In defence of my history
Letters from John Hirst and Geoff Robinson
- The Age
The "Monday Education Section" still is not available online.
- Melbourne Uni academics face axe
Up to 20 senior academics could be sacked from Melbourne University's embattled arts faculty by the end of the year, in a cut designed to save about $2.1 million.
- The Manchester Evening News [late pickups from 10 September]
- The sound of success
Teachers have praised the return of a traditional reading method as a success.
- Phonics explained
English is a notoriously difficult language to learn. There are many exceptions to the rules of spelling and grammar which can baffle beginners.
- Reading aid 'brilliant', says head
A primary head has credited phonics teaching with boosting pupils' reading skills.
- The Guardian
- Photo Essay
The school designed by teachers and pupils
- Dr Elizabeth Constable is the new Education Minister
The former 'Education and Training' portfolio has been split, with Peter Collier becoming Training Minister and [Nationals] Terry Redman becoming Minister assisting on country education.
For Info: Changes to the Post Compulsory Curriculum in Western Australia by Education and Health Standing Committee
- The MINORITY REPORT, by Dr Elizabeth Constable, Dr Kim Hames, and Mr Terry Waldron
- ABC News
- Barnett unveils Cabinet
"The Premier-elect, Colin Barnett, has announced his Cabinet, which will be sworn in on Tuesday.
"Three National MPs have been given portfolios.
"The Nationals leader Brendon Grylls will be the Minister for Regional Development.
"His deputy Terry Waldron will be the Minister for Sport and Recreation and Racing and Gaming.
"Terry Redman will be the Minister for Agriculture and Forestry.
"A surprise inclusion into the Cabinet is Upper House Liberal Donna Faragher, who is the Minister for Environment and Youth.
"Independent MP Liz Constable has been made the Education and Tourism Minister.
"Peter Collier, who was the party's education spokesman, will take on Energy and Training.
"Mr Barnett has split the Planning and Infrastructure portfolio.
"John Day will be the Minister for Planning, while Simon O'Brien will take on Transport.
"Bunbury MP John Castrilli has been made the Minister for Local Government and Heritage.
"Esperance-based MP Graham Jacobs has Water and Mental Health."
From ABC News at link
- WA leaders spell out terms of power-sharing deal
The Western Australian Premier-elect Colin Barnett and Nationals Leader Brendon Grylls have signed a formal agreement outlining the terms of their power-sharing arrangement.
- NSW teachers continue transfer fight
Teachers from about 30 schools across New South Wales will stop work for two hours today as part of ongoing industrial action against the new transfer system.
- WA Today
- Barnett announces new cabinet
The third Nationals ministerial position was given to Terry Redman who will be the Minister for Agriculture, Forestry and minister assisting on country education.
- The West Australian
- Colin Barnett announces his Cabinet [late update: online only]
- Barnett vows to end tender system for release of Year 12 results (page 7)
by Bethany Hiatt
“Premier-elect Colin Barnett has promised to end the Labor Government’s practice of releasing the names of the State’s top Year 12 achievers, including the Beazley medallists, to the media via a tender system.
“Mr Barnett said yesterday the details of the award winners, which are available in December, should be released to all media at the same time rather than exclusively to one outlet.
“The information should be made public and available to all media on an equal basis,” he said.
“Under the Labor Government, the Curriculum Council has in recent years conducted a tender in which The West Australian and the Sunday Times were told to outline how they would present an eight-page liftout reporting the winners and other results.
“The tender document said the criteria would include the presentation of the liftout, the newspaper’s coverage of the awards in the main body of the paper and “value added”.
“The West Australian has submitted a tender in recent years because the Council made it clear this was the only way the newspaper had any chance of giving its readers information about the awards – unless it published the details after its competitors.
“But the newspaper did not submit a tender this year because the editor, Paul Armstrong, refused to continue to take part in an auction of public information. “The awards are public information compiled by a publicly funded department and should not be auctioned, particularly with a view to getting the most favourable coverage for the government of the day,” he said.
“Curriculum Council chief executive David Wood said yesterday that when he became head of the council in 2006 the process for deciding which newspaper would publish the awards was decided on an ad hoc basis.
“I thought that was unfair so I put in place a formal process that gave both The West Australian and the Sunday Times the opportunity to submit a tender,” he said.
“Mr Wood refused to reveal whether the council had already signed an agreement with the Sunday Times.
“He said the question was “inappropriate” because The West Australian did not submit a tender proposal.”
From The West Australian
- Editorial
Here’s a test for Barnett on his integrity pledge (page 20)
“Liberal leader Colin Barnett had good reason for making the promise of honesty and integrity in government central to his pitch for office. That’s the sort of promise that any opposition seeking government would make as a matter of course, but in this case it carried a more than usually potent message to the electorate.
“It reinforced among voters the gathering mood for change based at least partly on the assessment that the Carpenter government was deficient in both honesty and integrity, that it was more interested in manipulating public perceptions than in genuine achievement.
“Mr Barnett was able to point to the former government’s loss of ministers as a result of Corruption and Crime Commission activities. His party also promised to save taxpayers $100 million over four years by cutting spending on Labor’s “spin machine”, reducing media and marketing units by up to a quarter in some offices and spending $5 million a year less on consultants.
“The Barnett Liberals correctly identified the former government as one run on spin. It was a government preoccupied with image over substance, with appearances over accomplishment. It had an almost obsessive focus on the activities of the news media and attempts to manipulate what they covered and how.
“Mr Barnett will arrive in office with a clear undertaking to the people to change all that. Time will tell whether he is as good as his word.
“However, here is an early test for him, an opportunity to prove the sincerity of his intentions: he should abolish the Curriculum Council’s reprehensible practice of putting out to tender to newspapers the publication of the names of the Beazley and other education award winners each year.
“This is information paid for and owned by the public and, as a matter of principle, should be released to the public freely, on a level playing field and without commercial conditions. It is also news, and media organisations should have unconditional access to it and the freedom to decide how to present it.
“However, the government wanted to interfere with editorial judgements on what should be published and how.
“The result was unacceptable official intrusion on editorial freedom.
“This may be an issue of relatively small consequence in the wide scale of public administration, but it is neatly symbolic of the former government’s addiction to spin and attempted media manipulation. It would be a gesture of good faith with the electorate and a sign of the arrival of a new era of honourable dealings, openness and integrity if Mr Barnett abolished this practice immediately on taking office.”
From The West Australian
- Professor axed for creation comments (page 38)
London
“A leading biologist who claimed that creationism should be included in school science lessons has lost his job at the Royal Society as a result.
“The Rev. Michael Reiss, an ordained Church of England minister who was director of education at the British scientific academy, sparked controversy last week when he suggested that pupils should learn about the idea that evolution was wrong and the Earth was only 10,000 years old.
“He said that just “banging on” about natural selection would not lead devout Christian or Muslim children to change their beliefs and creationism should be treated as a “world view” rather than a misconception.
“Two Nobel laureates condemned his “dangerous” and “outrageous” views and renowned zoologist and atheist Professor Richard Dawkins compared putting a clergyman in charge of education at the Royal Society to a Monty Python sketch.
“Phil Willis, MP, chairman of the Commons science committee, was “horrified” by Professor Reiss’ views.
"Professor Reiss insisted his comments, made at the British Association Festival of Science, had been misinterpreted and that he did not want creationism taught as a science, just discussed if pupils raised it.
“However, the Royal Society, the world’s oldest scientific body, said yesterday that his comments had “damaged its reputation” and that he would leave his post immediately.
“It said that the comments had been “open to interpretation” but had damaged the society’s reputation, though he had not intended to do so.
“Professor Reiss would return to his full-time position as professor of science education at the Institute of Education.
“The society’s attempts to draw a line under the row appeared to have backfired with several prominent scientists criticising its handling of Professor Reiss’ appointment and departure rather than his comments.
“Professor Robert Winston, a fertility pioneer, said: “I fear that in this action the Royal Society may have only diminished itself. This is not a good day for the reputation of science or scientists. This individual was arguing that we should engage with and address public misconceptions about science – something that the Royal Society should applaud.”
“Yesterday, the Vatican said it would not be following the lead of the Church of England by issuing a public apology to Charles Darwin.
“Earlier, the Rev. Malcolm Brown said that the Church needed to say sorry to the naturalist for its opposition to the theory of evolution.”
From The West Australian
- The Australian
- Teacher overhaul stresses standards for pay rises
by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
"Teachers would qualify for pay rises only after meeting performance standards under an overhaul of the profession's salary system recommended in a federal government report.
"The report, obtained by The Australian, recommends a comprehensive restructure of the way teachers are paid that would end the system of awarding pay rises based on length of service.
"It outlines a model of performance pay that restructures the pay scale into bands reached by performance thresholds, with a level for accomplished teachers at the top. At present, teachers are paid according to an incremental scale that rises with years of service and reaches the maximum wage in about eight years, after which they must enter administrative or leadership positions to gain any further salary increase.
"The report will be considered as part of deliberations by the Rudd Government, and state and territory governments, over ways to improve teacher quality and reward good teachers.
"The productivity working group of the Council of Australian Governments, chaired by federal Education Minister Julia Gillard, is developing a national partnership with the states on ways to improve teacher quality, including performance pay.
"The report -- Rewarding Quality Teaching, by Perth-based international management consultants Gerard Daniels -- was commissioned by the former federal minister Julie Bishop.
"In July 2006, Ms Bishop, now federal Deputy Opposition Leader, first floated the idea of paying teachers more based on their performance but the idea was universally rejected the following year by state Labor education ministers.
"The states have since agreed to work with the Rudd Government to investigate ways to reward quality teaching. A ministerial meeting in May agreed to research ways of rewarding teachers for performance and skills.
"The Business Council of Australia and the Australian Education Union have since released models for paying teachers based on their performance.
"Western Australia has a limited scheme paying bonuses to teachers reaching a high standard, and the NSW Institute of Teachers launched earlier this year its system of accrediting teachers against standards of accomplishment and leadership.
"But the NSW Government, which is embroiled in a pay dispute with the NSW Teachers Federation, is yet to allocate any extra pay to teachers accredited as accomplished, which the federal report argues is crucial.
"The report's recommendations are based on an examination of other merit-pay schemes for teachers worldwide and in analogous professions. It says the most effective systems exist within a national framework but aim to improve performance locally by linking pay to specific outcomes set at an individual, group or institutional level.
"The report says that, ideally, the performance-pay system should: use an evidence-based approach to demonstrate teacher performance; make the reward or recognition meaningful to teachers; and provide a clear career structure.
"It also recommends a performance-management system be developed to support the pay model, focusing on regular reflection and feedback about teaching practices assessed against standards. It cautions about linking standards to pay.
"The process of assessing teachers is most fraught," the report says.
"Some independent schools reject any external assessment of their employed teachers. However, most stakeholders expect that for critical performance-based assessment -- between performance bands or for accomplished teacher programs -- there will be a mix of internal and external assessment."
From The Australian at link
- Aussie literature 'not bush ballads'
by Justine Ferrari
"The English Teachers Association of NSW betrayed a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of Australian literature in its objection to strengthening the study of the national literature in the school syllabus.
"The Australian Society of Authors and the Association for the Study of Australian Literature yesterday said the ETA appeared to view Australian literature as comprising colonial works about the bush and swagmen, as in the ballads of Henry Lawson and Banjo Patterson.
"ASAL president Elizabeth McMahon, senior lecturer at the University of NSW, said she was perplexed by the suggestion that giving privilege to Australian literature in the English syllabus gave it an unfair superiority or created a hierarchy of works.
"Reading the ETA submission, a picture of Australian literature emerges as something homogenous, one story and monocultural," she said. "In fact it's the reverse -- the stories are as diverse as the culture."
'ASA executive director Jeremy Fisher said: "The ETA in the UK or the US wouldn't even be arguing this, in fact it wouldn't even come up.
"The literature they're teaching in their schools is almost entirely American or English, and Australian material would be nowhere because there's no place for it. The place for it is in our own culture."
"The NSW Board of Studies is reviewing the English syllabus for all years of school following a directive by former state education minister John Della Bosca to ensure the study of more Australian books, plays and poems.
"As reported in The Australian yesterday, the ETA argued in a submission to the board last month that such "selective nomination" of some types of text "implies hierarchies in generic form".
"The submission says concentrating on print literature was "imprudent, reductive, short-sighted" and argued against a narrow or exclusive interpretation of Australian.
"Professor of Australian Literature at Sydney University Robert Dixon said it was regrettable that English teachers, of all people, should oppose strengthening the teaching of Australian literature.
"Australian literature deserves to be taught not least because it is recognised internationally for its excellence."
"The ETA's submission was based on 43 responses from its membership of 1800 teachers and about 300 English faculties in schools.
"Dr Fisher, a former English teacher, said the ETA held a very limited definition of Australian literature. "Maybe they think Australian writers are only balladeers from the past," he said.
"Dr Fisher said the recent Prime Minister's literary awards revealed the scope of Australian literature, with the prize-winning fiction novel set in Berlin, and the non-fiction award going to a book about the clash of cultures."
From The Australian at link
- The Guardian
- Academy suspends 40 in first fortnight
Staff at new school launch crackdown on uniforms, smoking and classroom disruption
Forty students have been suspended at a city academy that opened only two weeks ago.
- Design threshold set for new secondary schools
New secondary school buildings will have to reach a minimum standard of design quality or they will not be given the go-ahead, schools minister Jim Knight will announce today.
The new policy follows research, revealed by the Guardian in July, which shows an estimated eight out of 10 schools proposed under the programme are "mediocre" or "not yet good enough" according to the government's own design watchdog...
- The Age
- Sex-offence teachers given sacking appeal rights
by Farrah Tomazin
"Teachers who have committed a sexual offence may be allowed to remain in the job under a softening of the State Government's "zero-tolerance" approach to past misconduct.
"In a move that has alarmed parents and angered Liberal MPs, the Government will give the right of appeal to teachers who have been banned from working in schools on the grounds of a sexual offence.
"Under current laws, any teacher who has engaged in sexual misconduct — regardless of the circumstances or when the offence took place — is immediately deregistered and does not have a right to appeal.
"But Education Minister Bronwyn Pike has agreed to give teachers the right to take the decision to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal..."
Full story in The Age at link
- The Sydney Morning Herald
- Pushy parents shown the rulebook
by Anna Patty, Education Editor
"Helicopter parents" who hover around private schools pestering teachers have become so annoying that they are being asked to sign behaviour contracts.
"Gene Batiste, from the US National Association of Independent Schools in Washington, DC, raised the issue, which has become a serious concern for his NSW counterparts.
"In Sydney for the opening of a leadership centre for the Association of Independent Schools of NSW, Mr Batiste said some parents had taken on adversarial roles with teachers and school administrators.
"Helicopter parents is the growing issue of parents hovering over schools," he said. "They are just around too much.
"It is putting on tremendous negative pressure, primarily on the classroom teacher and secondarily on administrators.
"Not only are teachers having to focus on lessons and teaching but they have this cloud of negativity when the parents come and demand so much of the teacher beyond what he or she is doing in the classroom."
"Not only were parents second-guessing the approach teachers took with the curriculum, some were making special appointments to see teachers to view their resumes and verify the teacher's qualifications.
"In the US some schools were asking parents to sign behaviour contracts..."
Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link
- The West Australian
Teachers’ pay is first priority (page 10)
by Jodie Thomson
“Incoming education minister Liz Constable says solving the teachers’ long-running pay dispute will be one of her first priorities.
“She said the Liberals had promised to give teachers an extra $120 million above what the Labor Government offered and to pull out of arbitration in the WA Industrial Relations Commission which had to be “sorted through”.
“We’ll have to sit down as sensible people over lots of cups of tea and I’m sure its not beyond the realms of everyone to want to get a solution and get on with the other exciting things in education,” she said.
“Dr Constable, who was on a 2005 Lower House committee on implementing outcomes-based education in Years 11 and 12, also planned to tackle the problem of managing abusive students and improving Aboriginal literacy.”
From The West Australian
Barnett delays Parliament for new laws on cannabis, sentencing [front page]
by Robert Taylor, State Political Editor
“….As revealed by The West Australian on Wednesday, party powerbroker Peter Collier was moved from his favoured education portfolio to accommodate Independent Liz Constable, though the portfolio will be split with Mr Collier taking on the training as well as minister for energy.
“Mr Barnett conceded Mr Collier was disappointed in losing education but the Upper House MP and former Scotch College teacher put a positive spin on it, claiming he was in danger of becoming “one dimensional”.
“Look, you’ve got to be careful you don’t become too one-dimensional’ and had we lost the election, I wouldn’t have kept on with education, I would have tried to expand my horizons, “ he said.
“So that’s not to say I wouldn’t have liked to be education minister, but down the track I might take that on.”
“Dr Constable, who will take her first ministerial post after nearly 20 years in Parliament, is one of only three women in the expanded 17-member cabinet. Labor had six women in a 15-member Cabinet…”
Full story in The West Australian
- ABC News
- Tick of approval for new Education Minister
"The State School Teachers' Union (SSTU) has welcomed the appointment of Liz Constable as the Minister for Education.
"The Premier elect, Colin Barnett, announced yesterday that Dr Constable would take up the role despite the work fellow MP Peter Collier did in opposition as education spokesman.
"Mr Collier has been given the energy and training portfolios.
"The President of the SSTU, Anne Gisborne, says Dr Constable is well qualified.
"We know that Liz has over time presented herself as being very supportive of education and public education," she said.
"She was involved in the establishment in the legislation for a registration board for teachers and professional standards.
"She is a very competent woman, who has shown a strong interest in education and public education in the past and we would certainly be expecting that she is up to the job." ...
Full story at ABC News at link
- Horse patrols helping catch truants
Gold Coast police say the introduction of mounted patrols on the southern end of the Gold Coast is helping reduce the levels of school truancy.
- Candidates told of special education problems
Candidates in next month's ACT election have been grilled on their special education policies in a meeting with parents and carers.
- The Sydney Morning Herald
- Parents unite to learn the lesson
by Anna Patty, Education Editor
"Australian parent groups will explore the boundaries of parental expectations of schools after concerns that some parents become too pushy with teachers.
"Two national parent organisations, representing families at public and private schools, have established a body to help families and schools work out their relationship.
"The Family-School & Community Partnerships Bureau website says it was set up this month to "help Australian schools, families and communities build sustainable, collaborative, productive relationships".
"The Herald yesterday reported that private schools in America were asking parents to sign behaviour contracts in response to "helicopter parents", who hovered around schools, harassing and second-guessing teachers.
"The Association of Independent Schools of NSW shares concerns that parents of children at independent schools have increasing expectations of teachers.
"The executive director of the Australian Parents Council, which represents families at private schools, Ian Dalton, said parents had every right to be engaged with their child's school. He said the new bureau had been established by his organisation in collaboration with the Australian Council of State School Organisations, representing families at public schools.
"We haven't had a dialogue around the boundaries - what the mutual responsibilities that parents and schools have," Mr Dalton said. "We should be able to articulate things better to people and not get to the point of making it a contractual arrangement."
"Mr Dalton said parental expectations had increased, and this may relate to parents having just one or two children. "That child becomes more central to their focus than if they have five or six. The investment in the outcomes of those children is much higher."
"He said it was important for parents to be engaged and informed about their children's teachers, and some teachers could be overly defensive when approached by a parent, which could lead to an unhealthy relationship.
"Michelle FitzGerald, of the NSW Parents Council, said most parents dealt responsibly and professionally with teachers in parent-teacher interviews.
"We would not encourage parents to become overly involved in the workings of a school unless invited to, and there are many cases where parents have been able to add value to a school using their specific skills," she said."
From The Sydney Morning Herald at link
- Yes, minister, you pay for public schools
by Anna Patty, Education Editor
[The Duh! Award, or a Ravlich clone?? Web]
"After just days in her job as the state's Education Minister, Verity Firth was shocked to discover that the State Government provided most of the funding for public schools.
"Ms Firth told the Herald she was concerned and more than a little surprised at the discovery.
"When you think about the actual percentage of education funding that comes from the states versus the amount that comes from the Commonwealth, the states overwhelmingly fund primary and secondary school education," she said.
"I think I was a bit ignorant about that. I think I'd always assumed it was a bit of a 50-50. It's not at all; it's about 80-20 … we need a better partnership on that." ...
Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link
- The Age
- Taskforce to study overseas students
The increasing intake of foreign students in Victoria has prompted the State Government to set up a taskforce to examine problems that plague the international education industry, Victoria's biggest service exporter.
- Melbourne Uni staff told of hit list
Melbourne University's troubled arts faculty appears to have made a hit list of academic staff to be targeted for the sack.
- The New York Times
- City to Give $14.2 Million in Bonuses to Teachers at Schools With Improved Report Cards
Teachers at 89 elementary and middle schools will receive bonuses of several thousand dollars each, based on the progress their schools made on report cards released this week, Chancellor Joel I. Klein announced on Thursday.
- BBC News
- Graduates 'short on skills' - CBI [late pickup from 18 Sept]
by James Westhead
"Business leaders have criticised the quality of university graduates, complaining they lack basic organisational skills.
"The Confederation of British Industry is launching a new higher education taskforce with university leaders.
"Its leaders have questioned whether universities are producing too many graduates..."
Full story at BBC News at link
- Sex education for six-year-olds [late pickup from 18 Sept]
A sex education booklet aimed at six-year-olds has been published by a UK sexual health charity.
- The Independent
- Why the Bacc is the way forward [late pickup from 18 Sept]
Admissions tutors and employers like it. But the IB must be right for the pupil too, finds Caroline Haydon
"Two important boosts for schools offering the International Baccalaureate to sixth-form students have come from university admissions tutors and one of the country's largest private sector employers.
"In a survey by ACS International Schools, university admissions' tutors said while A-levels should not be phased out, the IB was the "best preparation for university". In another fillip for students undertaking these studies, audit and consulting company Deloitte, which takes on more than 1,400 graduates and undergraduates in the UK each year, says the points system used by the IB makes it easier to differentiate between candidates.
"Sarah Shillingford, graduate recruitment partner at the company , says it sees growing benefits in the IB system as well as the new A* classification for A-levels, which students starting courses this year will be able to attain for the first time.
"With so many of the people applying for our graduate positions having attained top grades, it is difficult to differentiate between A-level candidates on academic results alone," she says. "The points system used does make it easier to differentiate." ...
Full story in The Independent at link
- The Guardian
- 'Mindless maths' turns students off
Lessons need to be more challenging and less exam-fixated, says leading maths academic
Similar stories in The Independent and BBC News
- The Australian
- Letters to the Editor
- Most Talked About: Australian Literature
Five Letters at that link
Saturday – Sunday, 20 – 21 September
- The Sunday Times
- Education a priority for Indigenous
by Paul Lampathakis, education reporter
"Liz Constable says helping Aboriginal children to read, write and do maths better will be a major priority when she is education minister.
"In her first wide-ranging interview after learning she would be sworn in on Tuesday as education, tourism and women's interests minister, the independent Churchlands member said education and health were keys to the future wellbeing of Aborigines.
"Employment opportunities for Aboriginal kids should follow if they're educated as well as we can possibly do that,'' she said.
"Dr Constable, 64, has previously taught and has a doctorate in cognitive development of gifted children and master degrees in education and clinical psychology.
"She said that more emphasis was needed on school pastoral care, with chaplains and psychologists to deal with behaviour management and mentoring.
"Schools couldn't do everything, but could provide some support to help children become better learners and more stable adults.
"Her biggest aim was to improve numeracy and literacy generally because well-educated children became better citizens with many opportunities.
"Asked about outgoing minister Mark McGowan's edict that primary teachers must spend half their face-to-face teaching time on reading, writing and maths, she said: "I don't think it's my job to say how many minutes a day children should be spending on things. That's micro-managing.
"That's for experts and schools to decide. But it is my job to say, `I want literacy and numeracy levels to be as high as they possibly can be; how are we going to do it, what resources do you need to do that?'
"I want to be very, very involved in the strategies and the policies and doing whatever I can to get the resources so teachers can do what they're good at.''
"She did not want to interfere with curriculum detail because that also should be the responsibility of experts. [emphasis added]
"I think we can all have an opinion,'' she said. "For example, we're not teaching enough Australian history, or we don't teach enough of the indigenous history in this country.
"But in a democracy, politicians should not be involved in saying what the detail will be of what is being taught.''From The Sunday Times at link
HECS rebate to attract nurses
by Anthony DeCeglie
"Nursing students would have their university fees slashed under a proposal by incoming state health minister Kim Hames.
"Outlining plans for his first 100 days in office, Dr Hames said he wanted to introduce a plan to help graduates pay their study debts.
"This would encourage more nursing students to work in the public health system, he said.
"A nursing degree can cost up to $14,000 in HECS fees.
"But Dr Hames said he was investigating a scheme where the state government would reward graduates for every year they spent in the public health sector by paying part of their study debts.
"Graduates who worked in regional areas would have their debts paid faster..."
Full story in The Sunday Times at link
Colin Barnett's 'cities-in-the-desert' vision
Colin Barnett has revealed a cities-in-the-desert vision for WA, saying he wants to create Dubai-like regional centres in the state's north.Faced with Perth's unrelenting urban sprawl, WA's 29th premier-elect says he wants to redistribute the state's population away from the city.
If he builds it, will they come [teachers, that is]? Web
- The Age [Saturday]
- Changes ahead for history
by Dan Harrison, Canberra
"The man charged with framing the new national history curriculum has flagged sweeping changes to how the discipline is taught in Australian schools.
"In his first interview since being engaged as a consultant to the National Curriculum Board, Professor Stuart Macintyre argued for a broader curriculum with more world history and history from the earliest times and called for a greater commitment from governments and education faculties to training history teachers.
"Professor Macintyre, a former communist and prolific labour historian who was one of the chief protagonists in the history wars over the impact of European colonisation on indigenous people, also hit back at conservative critics who portray him as a polemicist intent on indoctrinating the nation's schoolchildren with a left-wing version of history.
"I think that was a case of projection," Professor Macintyre said. "In the same way that Peter Reith used to say 'quite frankly' when he was about to tell a whopper, they say that there's a danger of a partisan approach when someone other than them is involved."
"Professor Macintyre, the Ernest Scott Professor of History at Melbourne University and a former visiting chair in Australian studies at Harvard, said his paper argued for a wide-ranging curriculum which was "not axe-grinding" and stretched from the earliest times, through ancient civilisations and the Middle Ages to the modern day.
"It argues that the history we need for Australia for the 21st century has to be broad, that as a result of Australia's history of immigration and present globalisation that it needs to put students in touch with world history, that we have a commitment to improving understanding as well as the educational outcomes for Aboriginals, and for better understanding of the Asian region," he said.
"He said his proposed curriculum would be an inclusive one which would accommodate diverse viewpoints.
"I think there will be a big change, but I wouldn't say the big change will be political," he said. "The great change that I hope will occur is that we'll have a national curriculum which takes history seriously and gives it the importance it should have." Professor Macintyre's paper suggests the broad purpose, parameters and structure for teaching history from kindergarten to year 12.
"An expert advisory group will give input to the paper at a meeting next week ahead of broader consultations in Melbourne next month. The board will post the paper on its website and invite further submissions before it is finalised early next year. The final paper will shape the briefs given to the writers who will produce the curriculum.
"Professor Macintyre described the quality of history teaching in Australia as "uneven" with great differences between states and territories and between the government, Catholic and independent school sectors. He said no state could be held up as a model, but praised Victoria and NSW for treating history as a dedicated discipline, as opposed to the practice in other states of teaching it as a component of a general integrated curriculum, usually called studies of society and the environment, often by staff with little or no history background.
"There are some schools in which if the phys ed teacher doesn't have enough to do, he or she makes up the load by teaching SOSE," he said.
"Professor Macintyre said government funding policies and universities' greater reliance on fee-paying students had led universities to direct funding to other courses. Meanwhile, education faculties had responded to government signals to focus on training teachers in other disciplines.
"There's been a serious rundown of training history teachers," he said."
From The Age at link; very similar story in The West Australian
- A teacher rebuilds the sum of his life from zero
by Farrah Tomazin
"Three-and-a-half years ago, Andrew Phillips woke up to discover his teaching career was over..."
"As he picked up the morning paper, his heart sank. The front-page headline screamed "Net closes on teacher" — a story about a country teacher who had been suspended for a past sex offence dating back more than a decade. Mr Phillips soon realised he was the teacher in question..."
"The Education Department didn't even notify me that all of this was going on. I got a phone call the night before saying there might be some media interest tomorrow, so you better read the newspapers, but there was no real indication of what they meant.
"I got the papers the next day, and there it was: the front page of the Herald Sun. Zero tolerance. And there's the end of your career." ...
"Now the Government has had a change of heart. In a softening of its zero-tolerance policy, Education Minister Bronywn Pike has agreed to give teachers banned from working in the classroom the chance to appeal in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal..."
Full story in The Age at link
- Letter to the Editor
Teachers lose again
"So the much vaunted new-look Melbourne University values its arts faculty so highly it is targeting staff with low research activity for redundancy. So much for valuing teaching! Does this mean good teaching plus low research output equals redundancy and atrocious teaching and high research output equals ongoing employment?"
Lionel Parrott, Croydon
- The Weekend Australian
- Editorial
Literature's value
Good teachers need to take on the postmodernists
"John Della Bosca deserves a vote of thanks for flushing out an insidious undercurrent in education. But for an initiative he launched in May as NSW education minister, the parents of that state would have remained unaware of the ideological claptrap that is being peddled by the organisation that represents English teachers. [emphasis added]
"Della Bosca's reasonable request was that the English syllabus include more Australian books, poems and plays. Who could possibly object to that? The English Teachers Association of NSW, that's who. In a response deeply infected by the intellectual cancer of postmodernism, the association declared its opposition to "the selective nomination of some types of text as this implies hierarchies in generic form and medium rather than in the quality of the texts themselves".
"Encouraging the study of Australian books, plays and poems is a serious threat to those who adhere to postmodernism. In their view, the works of Banjo Paterson and David Williamson are all mere "texts". They therefore should be given no special treatment above that accorded to other "texts" - such as an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants, a Hollywood movie or a website home page.
"And the treatment dished out by postmodernists has nothing in common with the academic method that is the foundation of Western civilisation. It is mere criticism - usually of the detestable capitalist patriarchy that gave rise to such "texts". To postmodernists, a "text" is merely a tool to encourage malleable minds to adopt the correct perspective that will allow them to uncover malevolent or manipulative hidden messages that are just waiting to be uncovered in every "text".
"It is, in a word, nonsense. But it is dangerous nonsense. The insidious, corrupting core of postmodernism is that it rejects the innate value of literature as an end in itself. The dramatic sweep of The Man from Snowy River and the acute agony of Don's Party are of enduring value and deserve to be studied, not demeaned by ranking them with cartoons.
"The literature of any nation is its heart and soul, the means by which succeeding generations can understand who they are and from where they come. Teachers are the vehicles for ensuring the transmission of that knowledge.
"Good English teachers, and there are plenty, remain in the profession not for the money but because they love what they do and understand the value of the written word. The English Teachers Association of NSW does its members a great disservice. There cannot be too much emphasis on the study of Australian literature in Australian schools. The task confronting those teachers who love their profession is to take on the postmodernists in their midst. Without reform, this outdated fad threatens to transform education into indoctrination."
From The Weekend Australian at link
- Editorial
Our literary talent
The future of the great Australian novel is in safe hands
- Letters to the Editor
- Naysayers on the value of AustLit are die hards
Three Letters at tht link
- The Sydney Morning Herald
- Op Ed
English teachers have lost the plot
by Miranda Devine
"Of all people, you would think those who run the professional organisation representing English teachers in NSW would be able to write a clear, precise sentence. You would also think they would want students to read books.
"Alas, no. The English Teachers Association's submission to an HSC syllabus review by the NSW Board of studies uses the sort of incomprehensible cant George Orwell warned against, to argue against the inclusion of more Australian literature in the syllabus.
"The ETA opposes the selective nomination of some types of text as this implies hierarchies in generic form and medium rather than in the quality of the texts themselves."
"The nine-page document takes some effort to decipher, with its mind-numbing jargon, bolted-together phrases, pompous tone and scare quotes, all cloaking the banality of its thinking.
"Essentially ETA opposes the board's plan to ensure students read more Australian books, plays and poems.
"It's not so much the Australian part the association people dislike. It's the books, plays and poems.
"In their world, as in the curriculum, "texts" can be books as we know them - words on a page that ideally have some literary merit - and can also be music videos, movies, reality TV shows, comic books ("graphic novels") or songs. To ETA, all texts are equal, and sceptical students are required to expend considerable effort trying to prove it.
"The author Sophie Masson recalls her elder son having in year 11 to compare Arthur Miller's play The Crucible - "which he loves and thoroughly responded to" - with an ad for a weight-lifting gym. "If it wasn't horrible, it would be hilarious, and in fact it's both [and stems from] I believe subconscious hate and envy of writers." ... [emphasis added]
"[Kevin] Donnelly, author of Dumbing Down, says Australian curriculums are suffused with a debased neo-Marxist and postmodernist theory that became fashionable among academics 30 years ago. This is the ideology that underpins the ETA submission. It is pure social activism, not aimed at helping children gain wisdom, but to "emancipate" them from blind belief in Western civilisation, especially what they might learn from "literature".
"The association is "most concerned at the use of the term 'literature' [and the] privileging of 'print medium' ", its submission states. "This stipulation harnesses Australian literary achievements to an important technology, but one that no longer enjoys the cultural predominance it once enjoyed." ...
Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link
- ABC News
- NT Govt uses WorkChoices to stop teacher strike
"The Australian Education Union says it is dismayed that the Northern Territory's Labor Government has used the courts to force the end of planned industrial action.
"Yesterday the NT Government won its case before the Industrial Relations Commission to stop teachers going on strike over an ongoing pay dispute next week.
"The Commission has ordered a suspension on protected strike action until November 20..."
Full story at ABC News at link
- The West Australian
Unis welcome UWA course cull (page 62)
by Bethany Hiatt
“WA universities welcomed plans by the University of WA to reduce its undergraduate courses from 70 to just six, but none were looking at doing the same.
“UWA released a report this week recommending that all undergraduate students should do a broad three-year degree before doing further post-graduate study for professional accreditation in a specialised field such as law, medicine or engineering.
“The review also said students would have to complete units outside their chosen discipline to ensure breadth of study. They also would be required to complete at least 20 hours of unpaid community service to graduate.
“Other universities welcomed UWA’s plans but claimed they had in place similar strategies.
“Murdoch University deputy vice-chancellor Jan Thomas said it had always offered flexible inter-disciplinary undergraduate degrees.
“These have always allowed students to change their mind without having to go back to scratch,” she said.
“Professor Thomas said Murdoch would review its industry-relevant programmes after 2012, when the outcomes of a Federal Government inquiry into higher education would be clear.
“Notre Dame vice-chancellor Celia Hammond said there were different ways of achieving UWA’s goal of liberalising and widening students’ learning.
“At Notre Dame we include a liberal core curriculum in all of our under-graduate degrees,” she said.
“Curtin University deputy vice-chancellor Robyn Quin said Curtin was encouraging students to study across several disciplines.”
From The West Australian
- Letter to the Editor (page 22)
- Top priorities
"The new State Government finds itself in the position of having to rethink its financial priorities. Apart from the money that must be spent in rural areas of the State there is money urgently required for the health system, the education system and the police force.
"These three areas have been neglected to such an extent that it is almost criminal, yet we have the Football Commission demanding that the government spends $1.1 billion on a stadium for the benefit of one or two sports.
"Get real, you blokes. You have a perfectly adequate stadium. Surely the health, education and safety of the majority of West Australians take priority over a couple of sport. [emphasis added]
"Sports facilities should be built only when all essential services are fully funded and in a damn sight better order than they are at present."
Peter Baker, Binningup
- The Sunday Age
- Graphic tales make novel teaching tools
Graphic novels tend to invite attention wherever they travel in education circles — but the reception they receive is not always glowing. [Teacher] Ms Cromie had waged quite a battle both with her students' parents ("My kid's 15 and you're showing him a picture book!") and the school board before she was able to take her 10-week graphic novel pilot program into the classroom.
- Creative arts students revolt at phasing out of their faculty
Melbourne University is facing a revolt by more than half of its creative arts students, who say a decision to phase out their faculty has left them with a depleted version of the degrees they enrolled in.
- The Guardian
- Third of new teachers not in classroom one year on [late pickup from 19 Sept]
Many choose turn their backs on teaching despite their training, new figures show
Teachers are getting younger but a third are turning their back on the classroom after qualifying, according to statistics released today by the General Teaching Council for England.
There were 34,678 newly qualified teachers in England in 2007 but, by the end of this March, 33% of them were not working as teachers, the GTCE report shows.
- Schools are failing gifted pupils [late pickup from 19 Sept]
Many able students are missing out because their teachers haven't identified them, say ministers
Thousands of the country's brightest pupils are missing out on tailored teaching because their schools are failing to take part in a programme catering for gifted children.
Ministers have written to every headteacher in England this week urging them to do more to spot pupils with particular talents in subjects ranging from science and maths to sports and music, after they discovered that a quarter of primary schools have failed to take part in the compulsory "gifted and talented" programme.
- Teachers demand a greater voice in design of schools
The £45bn schools building programme is failing because the people who really know what is needed - the staff and the pupils - are not being consulted until too late in the process, say teachers' groups
- The New York Timess Magazine
- The Camera-Friendly, Perfectly Pixelated, Easily Downloadable Celebrity Academic
Walter H. G. Lewin, Powers of 10, M.I.T. (Video)
Why lecture at all? Why not just make students buy your book? Take one look at Walter H. G. Lewin, a professor of physics at M.I.T., and you’ll never ask again. Lewin, a prizewinning teacher, has proved to be box-office gold since his courses went online in 2003, as part of M.I.T.’s pioneering OpenCourseWare project. And it’s no accident that he’s a virtuoso at teaching: he evidently refines those lectures — on subjects like rainbows, pendulums and rocketry — as if they were mathematical proofs. He cuts every extraneous word and streamlines the stagecraft until what’s left is a 50-minute pedagogical masterpiece.
- The Washington Post
- At Fairfax High, Another Approach As System Tries to Up Subject Appeal
ALGEBRA FOR ALL: The Push for Higher Math
Abstract math is not known for its stirring effect on U.S. teenagers. But algebra is viewed as increasingly essential for college or careers in a technology-based economy. Some advocates call it the new literacy.
Strengthening the math abilities of all students is a steep challenge. Educators must reinforce basic concepts early on, attract teachers talented enough to go beyond dictating formulas, and, not least, overcome an anti-math bias many students harbor that all the hours spent mixing letters and numbers yield more punishment than possibility.
How hard can it be?
- The Sunday Herald [UK]
- Sonic the Hedgehog helps Scotland lead the way in education through games
The addition of Sonic the Hedgehog and Super Mario Brothers to the ranks of Robert Burns and Robert Louis Stevenson is helping Scottish schoolchildren become enthused about learning and reaping ground-breaking educational results, according to researchers and teachers.
Experts say in games-based learning, using technology such as the Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS in the classroom, Scotland leads the world.
All Alston cartoons are © The West Australian Newspaper
All media quotations, photographs and cartoons © their respective publishers
This page last updated 21 September, 2008 10:19 PM
