'Toxic teacher' warning as debate rages on lifting uni entry marks October 3, 2012 Catherine Armitage, Rachel Browne
The nation's elite universities warn that Australia is at risk of training a generation of ''toxic teachers'' who will pass their own deficiencies at school on to their students.
The executive director of the Group of Eight research-focused universities, Michael Gallagher, said Australia was ''at risk of producing a cohort of ''toxic teachers''.
''The next generation of teachers is being drawn from this pool'' of people ''who have themselves not been very successful at school,'' he said.
Finnish education guru Pasi Sahlberg: treat primary school teachers like doctors
The Finnish education system is one of the best performing and most equitable in the OECD.
With Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s promise to make Australia one of the best five performing countries for education in the world, what can we learn from the Scandinavians?
One answer might be more simple than we think: elevate teachers to the same social and professional status we hold doctors and other people with whom we trust with vital aspects of our health and well-being.
I’ve just come across an AITSL initiative called ‘Teacher Feature’. Their website describes this webpage as below:
Teacher Feature is a web-based platform that allows teachers to upload video snapshots of themselves talking about the things related to their practice that are most important to them. From challenges to ‘A-ha!’ moments, the topics tackled on Teacher Feature currently include: reasons for becoming a teacher, most rewarding moments, how ICT has changed the nature of teaching and the most valuable PD undertaken.
The videos contain people involved with education, showcasing a wide range of voices and providing an opportunity to interact and share, all while adding to the conversation about education in Australia. http://www.teacherfeature.aitsl.edu.au/
Education revolution hits hi-tech low point EXCLUSIVE by Katherine Danks The Daily Telegraph September 27, 2012 12:00AM
THOUSANDS of broken laptops are being stockpiled at schools across the state as the federal government's $2.4 billion Digital Education Revolution threatens to collapse.
Families are being hit with bills of up to $400 for repairs, which can take up to four weeks to complete. Photographs obtained by The Daily Telegraph show piles of damaged laptops on a technology support officer's workbench at one Sydney school. The majority are the notorious "red laptops" owned by Year 12 students. A NSW Department of Education and Communities spokesman said students were issued with temporary replacements if laptops...
Last night on Four Corners was a program called 'Growing Up Poor'. Although it is not technically about education, the show raises some disheartening stories about children who grow up in poor families, particularly Claymore (south-west Sydney), and the problematic nature of children caught in a cycle of disadvantage.
This is the blurb from the show:
Growing up poor in modern Australia: this week Four Corners asks children what it's like being poor in the midst of plenty. We hear from the adult world all the time about what poverty is and how to fix it, but rarely from the children who experience it. Nobody likes to admit they're poor but children from five families allowed Four Corners into their lives to show us the world from their point of view.
The chance of a lifetime to save Indigenous languages Claire Bowern Associate Professor at Yale University 18 September 2012, 11.11am AEST
It is not often that the opportunity comes along to make a real difference, but a new report into Indigenous languages in Australia has the potential to do just that.
Remote school students fall below par Tanya Chilcott, Lara Lauth September 19, 2012 STUDENTS in some remote Queensland indigenous communities have NAPLAN scores less than half the national average.
Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek said that his Government would look to address results posted by the flagship campus of the Cape York Aboriginal Australian Academy.
The Aurukun campus, part of a multimillion-dollar trial, failed to lift any students above the National Minimum Standard in four NAPLANcategories.
Analysis of the school-by-school 2012 NAPLAN results show eight schools in indigenous communities failed to lift students at or above the NMS in at least one test category.
I’ve been a little behind in getting news articles up on the web page due to end of term ‘busy-ness’. I’ll admit that I haven’t listened to the program below, but a quick glance at the transcript indicates that some interesting points were raised. The story was broadcast on ABC’s Lateline on 11th September.
The blurb was as follows: Europe Correspondent Philip Williams discusses the latest OECD report on education in its member states, in particular what it says about education in Australia.
EMMA ALBERICI, PRESENTER: While New South Wales has cut back on spending for schools, the OECD has given Australia a strong rating in its latest education report.
It says Australia ranks high on social mobility, with many children of poorly educated parents going on to get tertiary degrees.
Feel free to add your comments or any additional articles you come across on the OECD Report.
PARENTS care less about the behaviour of their children in state schools than in the private sector, an education group warns. The Courier-Mailhas revealed the Federal Government is expected to tackle the problem as part of its Gonski response, with schools forced to engage with parents of badly behaved and underperforming students.
Call to overhaul teacher training BY JUSTINE FERRARI August 29, 2012
THE suite of recommendations arising from the Gonski review of school funding will fail to lift standards unless they are complemented by a transformation in teacher training, the head of one of the nation's leading education institutions has warned.
University of Melbourne dean of education Field Rickards called for the end of the existing system that "recycles" teaching practices from one generation to the next.
He said the recommendations of the Gonski review were a necessary and important step, but not the sole solution to educational disadvantage in the nation.
Professor Rickards said research showed that the biggest factor in lifting student achievement was the quality of the teacher, and better teachers required a paradigm shift in the way education faculties prepared them for the classroom.
