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Breaking
News: Week of 10 November 2008
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Saturday – Sunday, 15 – 16 November
- The Age
- Warnings over sexual abuse at school
by Farrah Tomazin
"Schools frequently dismiss sexual assault between students as part of the "rough and tumble" of high-school life, a report shows.
"And while one in seven teenage girls has been the victim of sexual offences, most are reluctant to report them because they know the perpetrator or they fear they won't be believed.
"The report, by the Australian Institute of Family Studies, urges schools to take tougher measures to ensure disclosure of sexual abuse..."
Full story in The Age at link [same article in The Sydney Morning Herald]
- Op Ed
Government uploads hypocrisy with internet censorship
Before this year's Beijing Olympic Games, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd chastised the Chinese authorities for blocking full access to the internet for the assembled world media... But now the Rudd government is working towards implementing an unworkable filtering process in Australia that suggests a misguided understanding of the internet and worrying tendency to censor an inherently anarchic system.
- Inquiry request into Steiner funds 'diversion'
Victoria's financial watchdog has been asked to investigate public schools that offer the Steiner curriculum, amid claims that hundreds of thousands of dollars have been misappropriated at one inner-city school to boost the specialised learning program.
- ABC News
- Teachers reject boosted SA pay offer
"A pay offer to public school teachers in South Australia has been boosted, to try to avert looming strikes.
"The SA Government has lifted its offer to 13.6 per cent more by October next year, but the Australian Education Union (AEU) wants 18 per cent more over a three-year period.
"The previous pay offer had been 12.5 per cent over three years.
"The Government says the timing of pay rises under its proposal would mean the new offer is effectively 14.2 cent over the life of any agreement."Industrial Relations Minister Paul Caica says a first increment of 5.6 per cent would be paid on acceptance of the offer and back-dated to last month.
Strike ballot
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"He says a further rise would be paid next year and a compounding effect of another 3.5 per cent in October 2010 would make the total rise 14.21 per cent.
"Mr Caica says the offer is for most teachers, but non-teaching staff and a few other teachers would get a total of 11 per cent over three years.
"The AEU has been calling publicly for most teachers to achieve a $75,000 salary and this offer meets that call," he said.
"It is a very fair and reasonable offer."
"A ballot of teachers this week is voting on whether to proceed with a full-day strike in schools on November 21 and rolling half-day stoppages after that.
"Teachers are also pushing for withdrawal of a schools funding model.
"The AEU executive has rejected the latest pay offer as an insult.
"It wants all education workers to receive a better offer from the Government.
"Union official Correna Haythorpe says the offer is inadequate.
"We believe that it's significantly less than CPI for the vast majority of members and is a smoke and mirrors attempt from the Government to deflect from the issues of the funding model," she said."
From ABC News at link
- The Sydney Morning Herald
- Uphill battle to bring back campus life
Technology and the need for students to work part-time has sapped the spirit, writes Harriet Alexander.
- Uni politics in fight for life
The changes on campuses from voluntary student unionism, changing demographics and new technology have also changed student politics.
- The West Australian
Education ultimatum hits a snag (page 12)
by Andrew Tillett
“The Rudd Government's push to impose a national curriculum on private schools even before it completed hit a new hurdle yesterday when Senator Steve Fielding warned against holding a "gun to their head" in return for Federal Cash.
“The Family First senator said he had been swamped by calls from schools worried about being forced to sign up to the curriculum when the details were unknown.
“The Government is under pressure to get its $28 billion funding Bill for independent schools through the Senate by December 31 so they do not run short of money early next year.
“But Education Minister Julia Gillard is making the funds subject to the schools agreeing to a national curriculum in English, maths, science and history, and revealing all sources of funding, including from benefactors.
“Coalition MPs say making schools reveal their funding could create a "hit list" of wealthy schools.
“Religious schools fear the curriculum, which is still being written, will restrict the ability to teach faith-based beliefs, while Steiner and Montessori schools are concerned their teaching styles will be hampered.
“A Senate inquiry is due to report on November 28, leaving the Government just four sitting days to get the Bill passed. The Opposition says it will move amendments to split the curriculum and funding demands.
“Senator Fielding said he was still undecided about how he would vote.
"The Rudd Government is saying 'trust us, we will give you the detail'
but most Australians would like to see the details first because education is such a cornerstone," he said.
"The last thing schools want to feel is a gun to their head dictating what they can teach kids."
“His comments came as Ms Gillard tried to reassure schools. "(The
curriculum) will not mean that every school will be required to teach the same subjects, line by line, in the same way," she said.
“Some schools used a specialised curriculum such as the International Baccalaureate and Steiner and Montessori schools had philosophies which involved a particular approach so she would ask the National Curriculum Board t advise on the best way to recognise these established alternative frameworks.”
From The West Australian
- ABC News
- More strikes a certainty: union
The [SA] teachers union says more strikes are certain after the Government's latest pay offer again fell short of their demands.
- Teachers to vote on latest pay offer
The NT Education Union says a new pay deal may be brokered with the Northern Territory Government by the end of the year.
- Bullying 'pushing homosexual students to suicide'
Suicide attempts among lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) school students in Queensland are at disturbingly high levels, a report shows.
- Financial crisis fuels Uni enrolments
Curtin University of Technology in Perth says the global financial crisis has fuelled a jump in enrolments for next year.
- The Age
- Gillard reassures schools
by Dan Harrison
"Education Minister Julia Gillard has reassured independent schools that the national curriculum will accommodate alternatives such as Steiner and Montessori programs.
"But she asked the curriculum board to review other models. Under legislation before Parliament, independent schools must implement the national curriculum, which defines standards from kindergarten to year 12, to get Government money.
"Ms Gillard said while the curriculum would be compulsory, "it will not mean that every school will be required to teach the same subjects, line by line, in the same way".
"But Opposition education spokesman Christopher Pyne said the minister would not confirm the future of schools offering unique courses.
"While the Coalition supports the availability of a national curriculum it should not be so prescriptive that it doesn't allow for diversity," he said."
From The Age at link
- Opposition rises to internet filter
A spokesman for Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said the Government would soon invite the internet industry to participate in a live trial of a content filtering plan.
- The Independent
- Zero tolerance pays off for head who suspends two pupils a day
by Michael Savage
"A headteacher who suspended pupils 478 times in a single year has defended her zero-tolerance approach to discipline after results at the school dramatically improved.
"The number of suspensions handed out to students at Tendring Technology College, in Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, works out at more than two pupils being sent home each day – or one in every nine children.
"More than 220 of the school's 1,880 pupils were sent home during the last school year, many of them being sent home several times. But GCSE pass rates at the school have improved by 65 per cent since the principal, Caroline Hayes, introduced the tough disciplinary regime. "We put the interests of the majority of the class, who are behaving well, first. I make no apologies for that," she said. "We believe that pupils have to realise you are serious when asking them to behave. They need clear boundaries." She said that the improved results showed that her pupils liked the discipline used at the college.
"The school's performance in gaining A* to C GCSE grades improved from 48 per cent of pupils in 2004, when Mrs Hayes took over, to 74 per cent this year.
"A student can be sent home for disrupting a class twice in one day. Swearing at a teacher earns a five-day suspension. But if pupils at the school are feeling a bit on edge about the hard line of their teachers, they only have themselves to blame – the principal implemented the zero-tolerance approach after discussions with the students.
"Overwhelmingly, the students we surveyed said that the most frustrating part of school was being disrupted in class by other children," she said. "Children respond to the discipline we have here. In the end, I think they rather like the discipline and knowing where they stand." [emphasis added] ...
Full story in The Independent at link
- The Australian
- Op Ed
ABC of better childcare
Instead of central planning, why not let public schools enter the market.
The best way to inject greater responsiveness into the public school system is to allow all parents to have a real choice of school. This means making the taxpayer funding that is now captive to the public schools genuinely contestable through a voucher redeemable at any school that meets quality standards. But public schools should also be free to compete on a level playing field, including by allowing them to compete for public childcare funding. There is no reason why commonwealth subsidies for childcare services should not be redeemable in state and territory schools.
- The West Australian
PE paper ‘did not allow best students to shine’ (page 16)
by Bethany Hiatt
“Teachers and students have attacked WA’s first ever TEE paper in physical education studies for failing to examine big chunks of the course amid fears it was designed to cater for lower ability students under the discredited outcomes based education approach.
“They raised concerns yesterday that more than 1700 students who are the first in WA to complete the new course were disadvantaged because they were not given enough opportunity to demonstrate their understanding of the subject.
“The criticism comes after the Curriculum Council guaranteed that problems which dogged exams in new subjects last year – media production and analysis and engineering studies – would not reappear.
“Como Secondary College physical education head Steve Quartermaine, one of the curriculum writers who helped prepare the new course, said yesterday only a narrow part of the Year 12 syllabus was assessed.
“He believed the exam writers were constrained by the fact the paper was meant to cater for stage two students and those doing the course at the more demanding stage three. But it failed to extend the stage three students.
“Next year the two levels will be examined separately. “The amount of content examined from stage three was very limited and I think the concern is that the better kids didn’t get a chance to show what they know,” Mr Quartermaine said.
“There are some major sections of the course which really weren’t examined.”
“Sections that were left out or glossed over included mental skills training, biomechanics and improving physiological capacities.
“The paper included a lot of questions on behavioural aspects of the subject such as leadership and group cohesion, which Mr Quartermaine said was a minor part of the course.
“But he was pleased that students had the chance to sit an exam in the subject for the first time in WA. Mr Quartermaine, who is a finalist in the State Government’s teacher of the year awards, said the exam was fair to students, even though it was more skewed than teachers had expected.
“One Perth student said: “How can we be assessed on our depth and level of knowledge and understanding if the content is not even included in the exam?” A State school principal said Year 12 students had told him they were concerned that the paper did not reflect the course syllabus.
“Last year, engineering students complained their exam contained questions not in the syllabus. Media teachers said their exam was poorly constructed.
“Curriculum Council chief executive David Wood said the exam procedures had been refined since last year. “I am confident that all areas of the syllabus have been fairly covered,” he said. The council had received just two phone complaints.”
From The West Australian
- Letters to the Editor (pages 22-23)
- Basics were missing
"I agree with the view expressed in your report ('Exam made books irrelevant', 7/11) that students could have done (indeed, passed) the English TEE examination without having read a book. However neither of the experts quoted in the report mentioned the fact that there were no questions in the paper about the English language it self. I refer to such matters as sentence structure and analysis, parts of speech, punctuation and other basic principals.
"Perhaps I should not be too surprised. One of the contestants on a TV game show this week was a schoolteacher. The host asked him how he had performed in some sort of activity in which he had been involved. His answer was: “Not real good.”
Stuart Johnson, Osborne Park
- Can someone explain?
"Let's hope our new Minister for Education supports our English teachers in their protests about the ridiculous TEE English exam paper our students had the unfortunate task of sitting last week (Exam made books irrelevant, 7/11).
"My daughter is passionate about her English studies and studiously spent countless hours avidly reading the compulsory text set. Her comments were: “I might as well have spent the last year reading New Idea.”
"Will someone please explain? What is the point of setting texts to study when, come exam time, there are no relevant questions to gauge the fact you have even read them, let alone studied them?
"Anyone could have sat that exam without ever having been in an English classroom. If you have the ability to waffle on for three hours answering sill ambiguous questions you probably would have done very well."
Lyn Junghans, Shoalwater
- The Age
- New curriculum's teacher challenge
by Farrah Tomazin
"The man appointed by the Federal Government to create Australia's first national curriculum has warned that schools will require more teachers and better training if it is to be successful.
"National Curriculum Board chairman Barry McGaw said it was one thing to develop a new curriculum in English, maths, science and history, but quite another to ensure there were enough teachers, and properly trained, to teach the revamped subjects when they are introduced from 2011.
"Under the draft changes, English will be stripped back to basics so that students learn more about grammar, punctuation and spelling. Maths could become compulsory up to year 12, history would be taught from prep to year 10 — with students focusing more on world events rather than just Australian history — and in science, teachers would place greater emphasis on contemporary topics such as climate change, stem cell research and hybrid-car technology.
"But speaking in the lead-up to a curriculum conference in Melbourne yesterday, Professor McGaw told The Age that consideration would have to be given to recruiting more teachers, particularly in areas such as history, maths and science, which are already experiencing shortages of properly qualified staff. And providing existing teachers with professional development would also be necessary to ensure they can teach the new curriculum.
"There will be some quite interesting differences proposed in the curriculum, so there's an important professional development activity that needs to go on. It will be partly about professional development, and it will be partly about recruitment," said Professor McGaw, the director of the Melbourne Education Research Institute at Melbourne University. [emphasis added]
"His comments came as educators and politicians debated the merits of the new curriculum at a two-day conference in Melbourne.
"Victorian Education Minister Bronwyn Pike, who spoke at the conference, said educators and governments must work together to ensure the planned changes would lead to better results for students. "Curriculum alone will not be enough without quality infrastructure and a quality workforce operating in conjunction," she said.
"Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard said the Government was working with the states on a national partnership to boost teacher quality and give them greater support.
"This included recruitment, initial training of new teachers and further training for existing staff, she said."
From The Age at link
- ABC News
- AG slams TAFE funding structure
"The WA Auditor General has criticised the funding model for Western Australia's TAFE colleges
"Colin Murphy says the model does not factor in how many students actually finish courses.
"He says TAFE Colleges have no knowledge of how many students complete their Institutional Based Training courses, which include aged and child care, hospitality, computing and food processing.
"Past estimates show it was only 16 per cent.
"He says changes are needed to the funding model for TAFE colleges, which cost taxpayers $500 million in 2007.
"We've noted that there's a lack of reporting or available information on achievement and retention," he said.
"Mr Murphy says the current TAFE funding regime does not include any incentives for ensuring student retention.
"Most of the information you'll see really relates to how many enrolments there are whereas how many people actually achieve module and course completion is very important, he said."
From ABC News at link
- NSW teachers to walk off job
New South Wales public school teachers will stop work for two hours next Wednesday as part of their wages dispute with the State Government. The Government has offered teachers an annual increase of 2.5 per cent, but the union wants 5 per cent.
- Indigenous communities gear up to tackle school truancy
Schools at six Northern Territory communities are preparing for a trial designed to tackle the poor school attendance rates of Indigenous children.
- Schools need urgent upgrades: report
A new Auditor General's report tabled in State Parliament says most of Victoria's school buildings need to be urgently upgraded.
- The Australian
- Funds on the way but unis want more for teaching costs
by Andrew Trounson
"The Government expects to table in parliament this week amendments to the Commonwealth Grant Scheme guidelines that will provide a net funding boost to the sector of $34million this year.
"The new guidelines reduce penalties for over and under-enrolments, providing gains into the future.
"Under-enrolled universities will retain 50per cent of the funding they would otherwise have lost, up to a maximum of $2.5million each, while over-enrolled universities will get top-up funding and won't be penalised for over-enrolments of more than 5 per cent of target load.
"But the measures haven't allayed sector fears that universities still face being squeezed next year by rising costs, wage increases, falling investment income and uncertain international student demand..."
Full story in The Australian at link
- University of Melbourne vice-chancellor Glyn Davis is California dreaming
University of Melbourne vice-chancellor Glyn Davis has called for the creation of a community college network modelled on the California university system, in a radical move that would restore the binary divide between teaching and research institutions.
- Amenities return, wrapped in red tape
"Never choose a simple scheme when there is a complex alternative" seems to be the motto of Australian higher education policymakers. The paperwork-intensive plan to restore funding to student amenities announced last week by Youth Minister Kate Ellis suggests that the red-tape machine of the Nelson and Bishop years has survived a change in government.
- School teacher 'sat test for student lover'
A married science teacher accused of having an affair with a 15-year-old student sat a maths test for him, saying she would do "anything to make you smile"... Police say Ms Rafei threatened the student after he told her he was uncomfortable and wanted to end the relationship, which included "stuffing up" his grades. "I'm not harassing you," she allegedly said. "I'll show you what harassment means; I could f..k up your life."
Similar articles in all major newspapers
- The Sydney Morning Herald
- Op Ed: Heckler
Science needs nerds and vice versa
by Dr Peter Green
"National Science Week rolled through town a while back with the usual attempts to persuade us a career in science is not just for nerds. The intentions are good: to attract the socially adept, good-looking members of the population who are put off by science's nerdy reputation. But enough is enough with this anti-nerd crusade. Let the interesting people become fashion models, reality television stars and celebrity chefs. Because science needs nerds and nerds need science.
"Science labs are dangerous places. They're full of bottles of explosive chemicals, deadly viruses and particle accelerators with subatomic specks whizzing around in them that potentially could destroy the universe. You don't want the mind of the person working next to you in that sort of environment occupied with the rock climb they did on the weekend or which super-model they want to date next. Ideally, a good scientist is someone who actually wants to be inside a science lab all day, with its lack of sunlight, danger of radiation contamination and comforting wallpaper of Gary Larsen cartoons.
"Great scientific advances were motivated by the essential nerdiness of the scientist. Who else but a downtrodden loner with a grudge against the sporty guys at school would come up with the idea of splitting the atom? And consider the aeroplane. Invented by guys named Orville and Wilbur. The cool guys, with names like Stefan and Jamie, are making out with girls; the future scientists are creeping up on stick insects with their bug catcher and putting aside space on their computers for SETI.
"And without science, where would nerds go for a job? Some occupation where you need to interact? Science is a sanctuary for nerds. The only excuse a scientist should have for arriving at work with a jaunty step and looking as if he hasn't slept all night is because he's been up all night reaching a new level on World of Warcraft.
"The coolest scientists that National Science Week found in Australia are Karl Kruszelnicki and Adam Spencer. That's Doctor Karl, the guy in the blindingly bright and colourful shirts, and Adam Spencer, a broadcaster who is known for loving The Simpsons, maths and chess. So the future of the nerdy scientist is in good hands. Let's keep it that way."
From The Sydney Morning Herald at link
- Letter to the Editor
- Students doing it tough
"Your education page makes sobering reading for anyone concerned about universities ("Uphill battle to bring back campus life", November 10). It confirms my experience of teaching at Macquarie University, where many students come to class exhausted from working 15 to 30 hours a week. How can they be effective learners? Of course, those students from wealthy backgrounds who don't have to work are more able to take advantage of what universities are supposed to offer, which is not just a meal ticket. Is this what we want for our brightest young people?"
Dr Brendan Doyle. Mosman
- BBC News
- Forged document students expelled
Dozens of foreign students have been told to leave Newcastle University after the certificates they used to gain entry were found to be forged.
Similar stories in most UK media
- ABC News
- Computers in schools plan unaffordable: Constable
"Western Australia's Minister for Education, Liz Constable, says her state can not afford to implement the Federal Government's computers in schools plan.
"Several state governments have complained they are being forced to pay for technical and administrative support for the computers.
"The Federal Government has promised to review funding for the program at the next Council of Australian Governments meeting.
"Ms Constable says the current plan would cost her state tens of millions of dollars.
"It's a cost we don't have in the budget because it was an election commitment of the Federal Government," she said.
"Some of the calculations would suggest if there was one computer to every three students we could comfortably bear some of the cost, but if it's a computer for every student we can't."
From ABC News at link
- The West Australian
Community service rule ‘may stop graduation’ (page 5)
by Bethany Hiatt
“WA’s main principals group has warned that some students might not qualify for university entry if they fail to complete compulsory community service at high school next year.
“The WA Secondary School Executives Association says a new requirement for all students to complete 20 hours community service to graduate from high school could disadvantage some students.
“The requirement, introduced last year by the Carpenter government, will affect Year 12s for the first time next year.
“Students will have to prove they have done 20 hours of service to get their WA Certificate of Education, which they need to qualify for university entry in WA.
“Principals association president Rob Nairn said many principals objected to the fact the service was compulsory and there were concerns that some students may not complete their 20 hours.
“Under the guidelines, that would mean they wouldn’t graduate,” he said. “It does have implications for university entry. Technically it can stop you from university entrance.
“Mr Nairn said community service was a worthwhile initiative but students who were not able to complete the requirement should not be disadvantaged.
“The punishment doesn’t seem to fit the crime,” he said.
“Principals would rather see a model in which the number of hours of service a student completed was recorded on their certificate.
“That would mean that students who did 100 hours of service would get credit for what they had done but students who did none would not be disadvantaged.
“Mr Nairn said he had discussed principals’ concerns with the Curriculum Council, which is responsible for managing the community service requirement, and planned to raise the issue with Education Minister Liz Constable.
“The Curriculum Council said it was doing a review of the community service program after schools raised concerns that it had increased their administrative load. The review should be completed this month.
“Dr Constable said she supported the community service program because she believed it could benefit students.
“She said no one had raised concerns with her.
“Association of Independent Schools of WA executive director Valerie Gould said some schools believed that community service should be something that students wanted to do, not something they were forced to do as a compulsory component of graduation.
“But for some students who wouldn’t normally have done community service, having to do it as a part of graduation has actually exposed them to some of the benefits of getting involved in that aspect of the community,” she said.”
From The West Australian
- The Age
- Warning unis will slip further
by Farrah Tomazin
"Sweeping changes are needed if Australian universities are to avoid slipping further behind their overseas counterparts, one of the Federal Government's top higher education advisers has warned.
"A month before concluding her long-awaited review into the nation's universities, Professor Denise Bradley has painted a bleak picture of the challenges the Government faces.
"While Australia was a "moderately well-qualified society", the proportion of graduates with bachelor degrees had fallen sharply over the past decade, she said. Funding and investment in research had slipped, staff-to-student ratios had widened to a rate of 1:20, and many students were not feeling academically challenged.
"Australia is essentially standing still while all other countries — not just in the OECD, but also in the region — are moving very, very rapidly," Professor Bradley told a Committee for Economic Development forum yesterday.
"Australia's relative position on most indicators for teaching and research is under threat. We're not in a full-blown crisis yet, but other countries have moved in front of us … We reformed the sector and did a lot of very good things 20 years ago, but now we need another major change."
"Professor Bradley was appointed by the Federal Government this year to undertake a massive review of the nation's 40 universities. Her recommendations are expected to pave the way for dramatic changes, with funding, teaching and student income support under scrutiny..."
Full story in The Age at link
- Letter to the Editor
- Never-ending story
"Professor Barry McGraw is right: the finest curriculum documents in the world are just words on paper or, increasingly, in cyberspace unless there are "enough teachers, and properly trained, to teach the revamped subjects" (The Age, 12/11).
"The historically indubitable fact is that teacher preparation in Australia has never been taken seriously from the days of "keeping a page ahead of the class" to the current handing over of this task to cloistered theoreticians. Teachers have never been professionally obliged to have a thorough grounding in both depth and breadth in their teaching subjects, the sort of learning that would be gained in a double-undergraduate degree. Lately, numerous media reports have questioned the seriousness of university efforts in preparing them for their classrooms.
"It's not something new that the professor has just discovered in an "oh my God" moment; it is, and, sadly looks to keep being, a never-ending story."
Leonard Colquhoun, Invermay, Tasmania
- School funding test falls short by $200m
[Victorian] Government funding to maintain schools has fallen short by more than $200 million over the past eight years, with hundreds of classrooms so rundown they cannot provide a modern curriculum.
An Auditor-General's report tabled in Parliament yesterday found many schools are being forced to chip in to fix crumbling buildings and grounds, and most schools are more than 40 years old and well past their prime.
- Violin superstar weighs in on music academy
The pressure is growing on federal Arts Minister Peter Garrett to reverse his decision to stop funding the Australian National Academy of Music at the end of the year.
- Lifelong effect of a night of random schoolies violence
As Jon Hucker lay in a coma in The Alfred hospital two years ago with serious brain injuries, his grip on life was so tenuous that homicide squad detectives appealed for information about his bashing outside a Lorne hotel.
Yesterday, Mr Hucker pleaded with teenagers gearing up for schoolies celebrations next week to remember that one punch is enough to kill or maim someone.
- Op Ed
The business of caring
The collapse of ABC Learning is an opportunity for the Rudd Government to rethink the fundamentals of Australian early education and care.
- The Australian
- Police not alerted to school toilet lurker [late 12 November update]
AAP
"A 19-year-old man accused of "horrific" sexual assaults on two Perth primary school children had been escorted from the school by a teacher shortly before the attacks, police and education authorities say.
"West Australian deputy director-general of education Margery Evans today said the department would investigate events leading up to the alleged assaults on an 11-year-old boy and his seven-year-old sister on Monday.
"She said it was obvious "in hindsight" that police should have been informed immediately after a former student was found in the school's toilets.
"But on the evidence at this time, there should be no blame game involving the school or its staff in this horrendous incident," Ms Evans said..."
Full story in The Australian at link
Similar story in The West Australian and The Sunday Times online / PerthNow
Updated story in The Sunday Times online / PerthNow
- The Guardian
- What we can learn about learning from videogames
The educational value of games has been hotly debated. Most of us accept that the likes of Sim City and Civilization are quietly didactic experiences, while "brain-training" titles explicitly sell themselves as learning toys. But could it be that all games are about education? On a basic level, good game designers are more like good teachers than good movie directors.
- [Schools Secretary Ed] Balls to tackle 'coasting' schools
Ministers will announce new measures today to tackle hundreds of "coasting schools" in England, whose pupils have the ability to do better.
The schools secretary, Ed Balls, is expected to urge schools classed as satisfactory by inspectors to do more to stretch pupils and help them improve.
Similar stories from all UK media
- The New York Times
- A School Chief Takes On Tenure, Stirring a Fight
Washington — Michelle Rhee, the hard-charging chancellor of the Washington public schools, thinks teacher tenure may be great for adults, those who go into teaching to get summer vacations and great health insurance, for instance. But it hurts children, she says, by making incompetent instructors harder to fire.
So Ms. Rhee has proposed spectacular raises of as much as $40,000, financed by private foundations, for teachers willing to give up tenure.
- BBC News
- German pupils urge school reform
Thousands of school pupils have staged demonstrations in cities across Germany, demanding smaller class sizes, more teachers and less exam pressure.
- The Australian
- School let sexual attacker get away
by Paige Taylor
"A man accused of sexually assaulting two children as they walked home from school on Monday had been found unconscious in the school toilets about half an hour before the attack, but a teacher who had dialled triple-0 declined police help and said: "He's leaving. It's all right. It's not an emergency. I'm sorry."
"Police yesterday released a recording of the call, which revealed that the man was known to teachers.
"He was a former student, and they walked him home.
"Western Australia's Education Minister Liz Constable ordered a review of school emergency procedures as angry parents said they should have been told of the attacks on Monday evening, before sending their children to school on Tuesday morning or allowing them to walk home that afternoon.
"The man accused of sexually assaulting the siblings was charged on Tuesday night.
"If I had been a parent of these children or a grandparent (at the school) I would have wanted to know," Dr Constable said yesterday. [emphasis added]
"The children were hospitalised after the attacks, which allegedly occurred about 3.30pm when a 19-year-old man lured them into a bush by promising to show them a cat.
"Dr Constable said she had ordered the Education Department to carry out an urgent review of the school's actions during the incident, and a broader review of the protocol for when strangers are found on school grounds.
"She said the broader review would examine areas including communication between schools and parents following the discovery of strangers at schools and communication between schools, the department and the minister." [emphasis added]
From The Australian at link
Similar story in The West Australian
- NSW says federal plan for curriculum has class
The NSW Government has dropped its vehement opposition to the national curriculum and will seek a more active role in its development. In a letter to the federal Government, NSW Education Minister Verity Firth says draft curriculums released for English, history and the sciences represent "substantial progress in designing the highest quality national curriculum".The NSW Government also calls for a common framework fortraining and accrediting teachers, saying it is imperative a co-ordinated national approach be adopted.
Contracts outlining conditions for artists working with kids
Visual artists who want to work with children and who apply for government funding for their projects will have to sign a contract agreeing to a raft of conditions, according to the Australia Council's draft protocols for working with children.
- Our universities get high score in international wage test
Crying poor has become a habit among academics but, according to a new global study, the Australian academic workforce is the fourth-highest-paid in the world. Saudi academics enjoy the highest average academic salaries, followed by those in Canada and the US.
- ABC News
- Liability for cyberbullying outside playground gates
by Jason Newman
Bullying has long been part of school life.
"The continued verbal and physical intimidation of a less powerful or popular student by another student or a group has, in days gone by, been seen as inevitable presence in education.
"Since the late 80s and early 90s, schools have realised their responsibility for controlling, in a systematic way, the bullying that goes on at school. Rare is the school today that does not have a bullying policy in one form or another. Even with concentrated effort, bullying is difficult for schools to control..."
"Cyberbullying is the latest incarnation of the age-old problem, and it is in a form that may be even harder for schools to tackle than "ordinary" bullying has ever been. It is the same continued intimidation of a target, but via the ever increasing range of communication technologies. This form of bullying has grown with the technology it uses, and the even greater apparent secrecy it affords.
"Schools can be held liable for cyberbullying in the future if the laws of negligence are not constrained by the school gate.
"The extent of the school's duty of care to the student is not necessarily limited within the school's walls or once the final bell for the day has rung and the pupil has walked out of the school gate.
"There were a number of court findings recently where schools were liable for student injury outside the school premises. [emphasis added]
"Most of the anecdotal evidence is that cyberbullying occurs outside schools. With the increasing use of internet-enabled camera phones, it is only a matter of time before there is no distinction between "real world" bullying and cyberbullying at school..."
"It is well established that a school owes a duty to its students to take care of them when on school property. Courts have, in limited circumstances, extended that duty of care outside the school gates, and usually the duty is extended when the school either has notice of harm to a student, or ought to have noticed, and is able do something to avoid or reduce that harm.
"When a student is repeatedly intimidated at school and the school knows about it, then the school must take steps to try to protect the target and counsel the offender or offenders.
"Schools must educate students that online intimidation is not just harmful, but can sometimes be classed as criminal. With the increasing tendency of courts to find schools responsible for events even beyond their walls, it won't be long before a school is found responsible for cyberbullying."
Jason Newman is a partner at TressCox Lawyers.
Full story at ABC News at link
- The Age
- Funding doubt after school's computer levy
A Melbourne high school is charging parents an annual levy of up to $300 for the use of a laptop computer, reviving criticisms the Rudd Government's computers in schools program is not funded adequately to cover the costs of maintaining the computers.
- 'Ambiguities' in [Victorian] physics exam upset students
It's hard enough sitting a VCE exam when you don't know how to answer the questions. It's even harder when the questions don't have correct answers. That was the problem almost 7000 students faced when they took the physics exam on Wednesday, in the latest of the end-of-year school assessments.
- The Sydney Morning Herald
- Letters to the Editor
- Here we go again
"Federal Labor's plan to open up vocational education and training funds to private operators and make TAFEs compete for money is the same stupid idea that got child care into such a mess."
Graeme Finn, St Peters
- Being published does not turn fiction into fact
"The peer-review system for publication in science journals is inherently flawed and in desperate need of an overhaul. Emeritus Professor Brian Milton's comments (Letters, November 13) in support of the system reveal a naivety that appears common among senior academics raised at a time when academic performance, pay and position were not so closely tied to publishing papers.
"The pressure to churn out papers has put exceptional demand on the peer-review system and resulted in many low-quality papers slipping through - often by watering down or exaggerating conclusions to pander to the whims of editors or high-profile reviewers.
"The chances of publication are boosted by adding the names of well-credentialled supervisors or senior academics who typically contribute nothing or very little. This would be considered fraudulent in most other fields of publication.
"In my experience, blinding reviewers to the names of authors and vice versa is practised by only a few journals. Reviewers are not paid for their time and there is little recognition of their work. Their opinions are often disregarded by editors keen to fill journals and meet publication deadlines.
"The failures of the system were highlighted by the paper by the epidemiologist John Ioannidis, presumably peer-reviewed, cited by Michael Duffy ("Truly inconvenient truths about climate change being ignored", November 8-9). It suggests most published findings are proved false within five years of publication. If the system is as good as Emeritus Professor Milton suggests, how can this rubbish, produced by "pure-minded" academics supported by "independent" government funds, get a tick?
"The best tests of science remain the long-term reproducibility of results and strength of theories against falsification. The current theory of dangerous climate change driven by anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions has not yet passed those tests. Getting published these days is no guarantee of quality."
Marc Hendrickx, Berowra Heights
Saturday – Sunday, 15 – 16 November
- The West Australian
New blow for upper school overhaul (page 7)
by Tiffany Laurie
“Moves for a new upper school curriculum in WA have hit a new hurdle with the man overseeing the changes to the Year 11 and 12 geography course resigning in disgust just months before it is due to be implemented.
“In a damning indictment of the new curriculum, which is due to be rolled out next year, geography reference group chairman Norman Snell this week quit his roles on the reference group and assessment review and moderation panel, claiming the course was incoherent and lacked structure.
“Mr Snell, who has written six geography text books for Year 11 and 12, said the course's content was repetitive, open to interpretation and teachers could not tell if areas of the content were required teaching or merely examples of what could be taught.
“He said students would bear the brunt of the course's shortcomings when they sat exams next year because the course's lack of structure meant teachers and examiners could have different interpretations of what was required.
“The course still is not ready to be implemented and I am not happy to be associated with what it is at the moment,” Mr Snell said.
“I don't think we can stop it from going ahead because many teachers have invested many hours into trying to make it work... but teachers need to be confident and have clarity in the course and it needs a greater deal or clarity.”
“The Curriculum Council set up the reference groups last year to oversea changes to the then-outcomes based education geography in line with recommendations by so-called teacher juries.
“But Mr Snell said the process was flawed because the reference groups were made up of volunteers who had no obligation to attend meetings regularly and there was no system to ensure recommendations were implemented in a consistent and coherent manner. He also claimed the reference group had been pressured by the Curriculum Council to sign off on the course last year despite continuing concerns about structure and content.
“Curriculum Council chief executive David Wood dismissed the claim, saying the reference group and about three-quarters of geography teachers indicated last year the course was ready to be implemented.
“He said that at a professional development day attended by 129 teachers on October 13 this year, more than 87 per cent said the workshops and the support materials were useful or extremely useful.
“Mr Wood said that from next year text book writers, such as Mr Snell, would not be able to be examiners because of the potential conflicts of interest in setting exam questions.
“Neither Education Minister Liz Constable nor shadow minister Michelle Roberts were aware of any concerns about the geography course but Mrs Roberts said it was vital they were addressed promptly to ensure students were not disadvantaged during exams next year.”
From The West Australian
- Op Ed
English tongue licks text message language (page 20)
by Zoltan Kovacs, Opinion Editor
“Here’s a question from last week’s TEE English paper: “Aussies ll lets rejoice, 4 w’r yung n fre. W goldN soil n wealth 4 toil, r home S girt by sea.” The English language: diverse, creative, adaptable, or in a state of decline? In your response, you must refer to at least one text that you have studied during the year.
“Dear Examiners:
“One of the wonders of the English language is its majestic resilience to all manner of changes and offences. It has proved over many hundreds of years to be diverse and adaptable and many people have been splendidly creative in their use of it, though it is hard to see how the language itself can be creative, as you suggest. (Alas, you also use the American spelling “fulfill”, which some people are likely to see as a sign of decline.)
“It is the language of Shakespeare and Dickens, of the Indian cricket commentator and the New York rapper. It has spread around the globe and turns up in many places in a range of pidgin forms and dialects. In its many forms there is a core that makes it unmistakably English and understandable, at least at rudimentary levels, to the vast constituency of its users.
“It has some of the characteristics of a living being. In The Adventure of English, Melvyn Bragg traces its growth over about 1500 years from an obscure Germanic dialect to its present dominance. It emerges from the book that one of its remarkable characteristics has been a capacity to absorb elements of other languages, such as Latin and French, as it has grown. It is a linguistic alchemist’s mix of words and ideas from a wide range of cultures.
“None of this means that it is invulnerable, of course: look at what happened to Latin, which was once the world’s international language of civilisation.
“However, it is certainly not under threat of decline from text message language. The sample in your question is offensive to the eye but its meaning is readily evident.
There are far worse offences against the language, among them being the fallacy that children can absorb its conventions without being taught about them. “The point is to send condensed messages designed for instant understanding by the intended recipients. In the case of youngsters, text message language can also be a code that excludes and irritates their elders.
“It would be a mistake to look on this as a sign of decline in the language. Effective texting presupposes at least some basic proficiency in language and there is a fair degree of ingenuity in some of it.
“In some ways, text message language is a specialised idiom of brevity. It is not as radical as it may seem. Its devices of contraction to initial letters or other types of abbreviation have a longstanding history and wide acceptance. We all know what IOU and BYO or eg and ie stand for and some organisations are best known by initials (for example, RSL and RAC), as indeed in the TEE. Abbreviations such as exam, bus and lunch etc have been in use for a long time.
“There are far worse offences against the language, among them being the fallacy that children can absorb its conventions without being taught about them. It is now evident that there are many people across the generations who struggle with language because of the mad idea that spread through education systems years ago that the language use of students should not be corrected because this would discourage them from “expressing themselves”.
“Sometimes the people behind such perverse thinking seem also to have been those who express themselves in the obscure jargon of much academic and bureaucratic writing on education. If there is one serious offence against English, it is that of using it in a manner that prevents it from doing its main job of conveying information effectively. The murky verbiage of outcomes-based education provided some dismaying examples of this. If English is to go into decline, it will be because people misuse it to obscure than to reveal meaning. [emphasis added]
“(This has taken a hour to write in keeping with the suggestion in the exam paper, with some extra time taken for editing. This was by no means easy, and students had another two hours of work to do on other questions.)"
From The West Australian
- The Weekend Australian
- 'White trash' let Aborigines down
by Justine Ferrari, Education writer
"Aboriginal Australia is being let down by "white trash" workers in education, health, police and public services who hide in remote communities knowing they would never last in mainstream centres.
"Leading indigenous educator Chris Sarra has launched a scathing attack on the standard of services provided in remote Aboriginal communities, and the failure of intervention strategies to examine the quality of services delivered.
"Dr Sarra said Aboriginal people were blamed and held to account for the dysfunction in their communities but that the standard of services and the people providing them were not subject to the same scrutiny.
"We hear, 'Aboriginal parents don't value education', but educators don't ask, 'What have we got here that's worth valuing?'," he said.
"If we're going to talk about partnerships, we have to talk about both sides of the partnership, not just one.
"If I'm an incompetent principal of an Aboriginal school, lacking in courage to challenge parents about why their children are not attending school, it doesn't matter. Aborigines get the blame.
"If I'm an incompetent teacher filling the school day with photocopied worksheets, videos and Nintendo, it doesn't matter. Aborigines will get the blame. [emphasis added]
"In its crudest form, remote communities are the place to tuck our white trash away."
"Dr Sarra is the head of the Indigenous Education Leadership Institute at the Queensland Institute of Technology.
"As principal of Cherbourgh State School in southeast Queensland in the late 1990s, he developed the Stronger Smarter philosophy espousing a positive sense of being Aboriginal and expecting indigenous students to achieve at a comparable level to other students.
"In 18 months, unexplained absenteeism fell 94per cent and real attendance grew from 63per cent to 93per cent in six years.
"Dr Sarra says his success was due to challenging students to be strong, smart and act like "Aborigines" instead of delinquents..."
Full story in The Weekend Australian at link
See the following Feature by Dr Sarra
- Feature
Smart approach to learning
by Dr Chris Sarra (executive director of the Queensland-based Indigenous Education Leadership Institute)
"In this this political climate demanding evidence-based policy, I find strange the calls to extend into other Aboriginal communities the unfounded and whimsical policies and processes such as those underpinning the Northern Territory intervention and the new Families Responsibilities Commission in Queensland.
"Even the architects of such expensive processes acknowledge the dramatic failure of government to provide adequate education, health and justice services to remote Aboriginal communities. (Parents who fail to send their children to school, neglect their children or damage their homes may have their welfare payments managed by the commission.) ...
"Those providers, such as teachers and principals, are paid taxpayers' money to be in a very important relationship with Aboriginal children and parents and, as such, must be challenged to reflect on their attitudes, expectations and professional behaviours, and consider how these contribute to chronic non-attendance at school..."
- In the saddle, giving rein to boyhood dreams
... The Rudd Government, along with the Indigenous Land Corporation, is to unveil an indigenous training and employment package for rural and remote Australia that will dramatically increase places and stop the decline in the number of Aboriginal stockmen.
The scheme will provide 530 certificate-level training places and employment for up to 400 indigenous graduates in the pastoral, tourism and resource sectors and in ILC businesses. These include cattle and sheep production, horticulture, transport and administration...
- The Sunday Age
- Letters to the Editor
- Simple solution
"RE: Gender separation in schools. I am a teacher and was interested to read about the apparently successful experiments with separate gender classes in some of our top schools (The Sunday Age, 9/11). What interested me was some critics' assertions that "the quality of teaching and learning provisions" had far greater impact on children's learning. In plain English, this mostly means a very good teacher and a small class size. At Haileybury, they are promising no more than 15 in a class, which is a far less radical option and should be implemented across the public sector." [emphasis added]
Adam Gooderham, Brunswick East
- Not a question of sex
"It is disquieting to read that some schools in Australia may now be basing their teaching on "neurofallacies" about boy and girl "wiring". As a cognitive neuroscientist, I would be happy to explain to any interested teacher why neuroscience suggests neither that boys process emotion more "subcortically" in the amygdala nor indicates a need to teach maths differently to girls. Teaching based on gender stereotypes dressed-up in neuroscientific finery runs the risk of creating a self-fulfilling prophecy."Dr Cordelia Fine, Elwood
- ABC News
- Class language limit 'death of our culture': Aboriginal school head
The head of a remote Aboriginal school in the Northern Territory says the Government's plan to limit the hours classes can be taught in traditional languages will not help students achieve better results and could lead to the death of their culture.
- The Age [Saturday]
- Quest for knowledge results in life's harshest lessons
International education is a $13.7 billion industry in Australia. The lures presented to overseas students do not always match the reality.
- The New York Times
- Teachers Win Bonuses at High-Need Schools
by Javier C. Hernandez
"Teachers at 33 high-need secondary schools across New York City will receive bonuses of several thousand dollars each, totaling $6.5 million, as a reward for student gains on school report cards released this week, Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein announced Friday.
"In addition, the city will reward principals and assistant principals at 86 schools with checks of up to $25,000, bringing the total in bonuses given to educators this fall to $28 million. “I am enormously proud to be able to recognize educators who are improving outcomes for students, especially those in our highest-need schools,” Mr. Klein said in a statement.
"The bonuses, financed primarily from private sources, are New York’s first pay-for-performance experiment for teachers, and have come under renewed criticism in light of impending cuts to the education budget.
"Under an agreement with the teachers’ union, the United Federation of Teachers, each school gets a lump sum that can be distributed to staff members at the discretion of a school committee. Most schools chose to spread the wealth evenly among teachers, and several have chosen to give less to school aides and other staff members. Some schools reward teachers who take on extracurricular activities and other responsibilities with a more sizable slice of the pie..."
Full story in The New York Times at link
- News Analysis
Letter Grades Look Simple, but Realities Are Complex
The A-through-F grading system for New York City schools is billed as a public information tool, helping people sort out which schools are teaching children and which schools are just moving them along. Instead of inscrutable education jargon and endless score charts, the letter grades act like billboards broadcasting achievements and failures.
But for parents shopping for the best schools, the letter grades can obscure some of the most salient information, because they are determined largely by how much progress students make year to year rather than how well their skills stand up against objective standards.
- The Sydney Morning Herald
- Letters to the Editor
- "The system of peer review in science has become corrupted, with rorts such as rampant cross-authoring (putting names of non-contributing colleagues on papers to build their CVs) and "coffee time" agreements to approve each other's works.
"Almost all grants, funding, pay, promotions and accolades are as a result of numbers of papers published. A far more useful statistic would be the number of citations, a measure of the work's usefulness.
"As stunning as it is that most published papers are found to be false within five years, two other statistics are even more blunt: 50 per cent of publications are never read by anyone, and 95 per cent of peer-reviewed science is never cited, other than by the authors themselves.
"In other words, most peer-reviewed published science is useless rubbish."
[Unlike published edu-theory, which is often accepted without scrutiny??? Web]
Jon Jenkins, Bogangar
- "Marc Hendrickx's letter (November 14) is an excellent example of the sort of unsubstantiated writing that would not be published in a peer-reviewed journal. Where is the evidence that "low quality papers" are slipping through the system or that reviewers' opinions "are often disregarded by editors"?
"As a journal editor, evaluations by my expert reviewers carry the most weight in influencing my judgment about publication. As a contributor to peer-reviewed journals, I wish that publication was as easy as Hendrickx suggests. My own journal has a rejection rate of about 40 per cent of submissions; many others are 60 per cent or higher.
"Hendrickx repeats the claim cited by Michael Duffy ("Truly inconvenient truths about climate change being ignored", November 8-9) that most findings are proved false within five years of publication. Far from being a failure of scientific or peer-review processes, this reflects (if true) how, over time, these processes facilitate the emergence of reliable scientific data and the theories that explain them."
Associate Professor John Prescott, School of psychology, University of Newcastle
- The Sunday Times
- Letter to the Editor
Welcome path to uni
“Unlike Maxine Green (“Non-TEE horror”, your voice, November 9), I applaud the decision to admit students who did not pass their TEE into university to get teaching degrees.
“When I was growing up, I always wanted to be a teacher. Unfortunately I did not get the required marks for entrance to uni.
“I would have loved the opportunity to gain entrance to uni this way.
“A good TEE does not mean you will be a great teacher, or even a good one. It is the person's ability to impart knowledge to students and have them absorb it that makes a great teacher.
“One reason we have “unemployable youths who lack motivation” is that some kids on not receiving the marks required, get disheartened and give up. This program will get some of these kids into uni and then into employment.
“And being the mum of two kids who will be heading off to school in a few years, it would not worry me in the slightest to have them teach my kids.”
Sue Thompson, Ocean Reef
- The Guardian
- Confusing creation with creationism
Intelligent design and young Earth creationism are both false, but that does not discount the notion of creation, writes Michael Poole
All Alston cartoons are © The West Australian Newspaper
All media quotations, photographs and cartoons © their respective publishers
This page last updated 16 November, 2008 9:57 PM
