http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/services/Feed ${session.getAttribute("locale")} 5 http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:8844 This analysis is set in the context of Immanuel Wallerstein’s work on the structures of knowledge, in particular the place of the social sciences past and present, and the potential contribution of a more integrated approach (historical social science) to the broader political project of building a more democratic, equal and just world-system. Our analysis finds that knowledge in the social science subjects tended to be treated in only a mildly problematic way, with moderate outcomes in terms of its connection to students’ lives and cultural backgrounds, and its authentic application, despite substantial attention to such characteristics of curriculum content, evident in the evolution of the History curriculum. Further we find that outcomes on these measures are substantially stronger in primary rather than secondary classrooms. We conclude by arguing that social science teachers’ meaningful engagement with the Quality Teaching framework, as part of a significant, system-wide pedagogical reform initiative, is contingent on their re-thinking the nature of their subject knowledge and its treatment in their teaching. Further, we argue that seen through the lens of Wallerstein’s world-systems theorising, this strengthens the case for the type of pedagogical work reported here to support curricular reforms in the social sciences and contribute to students’ complex understandings of their world. 2013-03-01T04:30:04.875Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:8848 The conceptualisation of English teaching differs greatly between and within elementary and secondary contexts. Framed as the instruction of literacy, literature, language arts and more, the teaching of English is shaped by often conflicting opinions regarding what matters in the teaching of English and how English can best be taught. Drawing on Smagorinsky’s (2002) discussion of the principled practice of English, and on characteristics of good teaching that research has demonstrated to enhance student authentic achievement (Newmann, Marks, & Gamoran, 1998; Author, 2003), this paper presents the findings of a large crosssectional analysis of the nature and quality of the teaching of English in elementary and secondary schools as represented in assessment practice. Three strands of analysis inform this critique. First, the analysis identified statistically significant differences in the quality of assessment practice between elementary and secondary samples, with secondary teachers demonstrating significantly higher assessment practice than elementary teachers. Second, we conducted content analysis to examine the different ways in which English subject matter was conceptualised by elementary and secondary teachers in assessment practice. Finally, we conducted an analysis of variance between the quality of classroom and assessment practice and the ways in which English subject matter was conceptualised by participants, revealing a significant relationship between the sophistication, (or lack) of teachers’ conceptualisations of English subject matter and the quality of their assessment practices. We conclude the paper by examining the implications of these analyses for educators who grapple with the perennial question of what matters, in terms of subject matter and pedagogical practice, in the teaching of English. 2013-03-01T04:28:16.759Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:9068 In the analysis of assessment tasks, significantly higher scores were found on all three dimensions of QT in the Physical Education assessment tasks than in any of the other subjects. These relatively high quality tasks are illustrated in the paper with task and student work samples. Possible explanations for these results that are explored in the paper are (1) qualities and capacities of the teachers themselves who, in Australia, unlike some other countries, enter universities with some of the highest university entrance scores of any students (including engineering and medical students), and/or (2) that they are used to challenging work themselves as learners and thus have higher expectations than some teachers for the work students can produce; (3) the PE syllabuses which are organised around key concepts and deep understanding; (4) the subject matter itself, especially in easily achieving Significance in the relation of topics covered to students' lives and hence close alignment with the QT model (affirmed through content analysis of tasks) (5) the richer or more comprehensive nature of the tasks given in PE which tend to be project-based and designed to be completed over several lessons or weeks. On the other hand, scores for classroom practice were lower in PE on Intellectual Quality than in any other subject (significantly different only for some), they were the highest in Quality Learning Environment, and in the middle for Significance. Possible explanations for these ratings of classroom practice include - (1) the lower Intellectual Quality of practical lessons versus theory lessons (test this by separating the data where possible); (2) the organisational strengths of PE teachers and the more relaxed relationships of PE teachers with their students which have been documented in the literature that might account for the high scores in Quality Learning Environment; and (3) Significance scores that are affected by the differences between practical and theory lessons. These explanations are explored with reference to the qualitative accounts of lessons and with reference to the interview data gathered from teachers in the study. Comparisons with other analyses of PE curriculum are made. 2013-03-01T04:23:15.318Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:8532 In this chapter, drawing on events in New South Wales, we expose flaws in the underlying rationality of the standards agenda, point out some of its contradictions, and outline issues that need to be taken into account if the agenda is to have any educational benefit. The issues addressed range across structural, procedural and, most importantly, substantive matters. We argue that, on the one hand, the techniques of surveillance and compliance involved in the processes associated with these kinds of standards clearly employ the same techniques of power identified in Foucauldian analyses of governmentality. 2012-07-11T23:20:02.546Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:2335 Much has been invested in the capacity of professional learning to support teacher growth and improve schooling outcomes (Vandenberghe, 2002). In relation to the NSW Quality Teaching reform, the view is that teachers must engage in professional learning activities that deepen their understanding of Quality Teaching, if Quality Teaching is to improve pedagogy (and student outcomes). Drawing on survey and interview data from SIPA, we examine the range of professional learning experiences in which approximately 900 teachers have been engaged during the past two years, and examine the effectiveness of that professional learning as judged by the teachers. We also consider differences and similarities between schools and draw conclusions to guide ongoing efforts to conduct meaningful professional learning to improve pedagogy. We include quantitative analyses of the relationship between the amount, type, and level of satisfaction with QT professional learning and the quality of pedagogy found in SIPA schools. Qualitative data are also used to shed light on what it takes for professional development to have a positive impact on pedagogy. The research reported in this paper is designed to enhance our empirical understanding of the relationship between professional development and the improvement of pedagogical practice. 2012-04-03T06:40:06.314Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:2336 This paper explores the potential of Quality Teaching in supporting the professional learning and pedagogical success of early career teachers. Much of the literature and many policies focus on matters other than pedagogy in teacher induction. Given the low retention rates for early career teachers (Strong & St John, 2005; Ingersoll, 2001; Ramsey, 2000), we argue that attention to pedagogy is not only critical to supporting new teachers and ensuring their classroom success, but is also in the public interest. This paper discusses the induction and mentoring experiences and the pedagogical performance of a small group of teachers who undertook substantial studies in pedagogy in their teacher education program and entered NSW public schools in a context of heightened focus on pedagogy through the Quality Teaching initiative (Cohort 1). The paper also draws on data from the SIPA study to explore the experiences and performance of early career teachers who may not have had a strong grounding in Quality Teaching but who are in schools where a focus on pedagogy is expected (Cohort 2). The data from both studies highlight the need for a clear and substantial focus on pedagogy to better support the professional growth of early career teachers. 2012-04-03T05:50:06.637Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:2338 This paper reports on the distribution of pedagogy as received by student cohorts in the SIPA study, with a focus on two of the most persistent dimensions of educational disadvantage: socio-economic status (SES) and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) status. Drawing on data from classroom observations and the coding of tasks received by students, we analyse the distribution of pedagogy at the school and classroom levels. Our results show predictable, but mild, correlations between pedagogy, the percentage of ATSI students and the mean SES at the school level, the strength of these increasing at the classroom level. Further analysis finds a strong, positive correlation between prior achievement on standardised assessments and the quality of tasks received. Our analysis demonstrates that the quality of pedagogy received, particularly when it comes to tasks and teachers' assessment practice, varies considerably in line with SES and the percentage of ATSI students at the classroom level. Drawing on interview data from teachers, we argue that these findings accord with general (though not universal) expectations about students' capacity to learn, and highlight the potential of the Quality Teaching framework to assist teachers in changing their practice as a strategy for changed expectations and improved outcomes. 2012-03-07T23:09:13.617Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:9884 Many debates about schooling are often very predictable. Perhaps one of the most predictable debates comes up around the question of the outcomes of schooling: in public policy debates about school accountability, in private lounge room conversations among parents about what they want from schools for their children. Very quickly in these conversations someone will point out that schooling is meant to provide many more things than just “academic” outcomes. Politicians, like President Obama (and George W. Bush before him), will make the case that schooling needs to promote the kind of innovative thinking and spirit needed to advance the nation, economically and socially. Parents are likely to have some sense of the kind of values and character they hope their children might garner from schools (even if that is an antiauthoritarian, resistant disposition). No one really expects to settle these debates, and many debaters are likely to accept Linda McNeil’s view that significant results of learning are not measurable. But even with that common wisdom in mind, somewhere along the track education researchers may well be asked just what we know about schooling for outcomes beyond the traditional measured academic outcomes. 2012-02-01T01:10:05.077Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:2332 Much is made of teacher learning as a corrective to the ills of our education systems. Recruitment and accreditation schemes, codification of standards for accomplished practice, teacher education reform, and professional development initiatives are just some of the ways in which teacher learning is being addressed. Teacher learning is of particular importance when the concern is promoting a form of teaching that emphasises high standards of intellectual quality as explicated in models like 'Productive Pedagogy (PP).' In this paper, we report outcomes from a study designed to address the fundamental question of whether it is possible to change teaching to more closely match such standards. In the study reported here, PP was used to assist inservice teachers to improve their teaching. Drawing on data from coded observations of the participants' teaching before and after professional development activities, as well as interviews about their experience of learning and applying PP, some principles for enhancing both professional development programs and preservice teacher education will be elaborated. A comparison of the results gained in this study with those gained in related studies is used to elaborate arguments to refine the potential use of PP in teacher learning. 2011-11-10T04:30:03.374Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:1807 In this paper, we explore Productive Pedagogy (PP) as a framework for enhancing teacher education. Reporting results from a study involving student teachers’ application of the four principles of PP during an internship, we consider whether PP brings a firmer knowledge base to their work. Based on our analysis of the data, we argue for a more fundamental reorganisation of teacher education to fully integrate PP, if the framework is to have a significant and lasting impact on graduates’ teaching. Such a shift requires a reassessment of teacher education priorities to focus more on the substance and purposes of teaching. 2011-11-10T04:30:03.095Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:2782 In this paper we report results from a pilot study involving preservice teacher education students' application of the dimensions of 'Productive Pedagogy' (PP) in their teaching, during their internship. Using data from observations of the preservice students' teaching and from interviews about their experience of applying PP, following their participation in a single semester elective subject, some principles for the incorporation of PP into teacher education are suggested. The paper begins with an overview of the concept of Productive Pedagogy, current research into its use by practising teachers, and arguments for PP as a framework for preservice teacher education. Next, we provide an analysis of the data, and elaborate arguments to refine the potential use of PP as a framework for teacher education. While the elective subject model is seen to have had some positive impact on preservice students' teaching, it is argued that a more fundamental reorganisation of teacher education is required if preservice teachers are to incorporate PP into their personal approaches to teaching. Given a particular concern about the low levels of intellectual quality produced by these student teachers, we argue for a qualitative shift in teacher education away from a focus on teaching methods and strategies, and towards the substance and purposes of teaching. 2011-11-10T04:30:02.164Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:2539 As part of its involvement in the international study, 'Educational Governance and Social Inclusion and Social Exclusion' (EGSIE), EGSIE-Australia conducted a survey of Youth from March to May of 2000. This survey targeted students in the final two years of compulsory education. Data were collected in eight different school sites, from three States in Australia. Schools were selected to include students in rural and urban settings, from public and private schools, and to cover a wide range of socio-economic backgrounds. All the schools were co-educational. 2011-11-10T04:30:01.832Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:2334 This paper presents SIPA's initial, cross-sectional, analysis of the relationship between pedagogy and student outcomes, when measured in terms of the Quality Teaching model and in-class student performance respectively. Following the school effects tradition, the analysis is based on multi-level modelling in which students' prior achievement, socio-economic status, gender, race and NESB status are taken as background variables. Measures for pedagogy are based on classroom observations and task coding of the three dimensions of pedagogy defined in the Quality Teaching model, Intellectual Quality, Quality Learning Environment and Significance and the Authentic Pedagogy constructs on which the Quality Teaching model was based. The outcome variable in this modelling is Newmann and Associates' (1996) Authentic Achievement scale, applied to student work samples gathered from observed classes. This is the first quantitative analysis of the efficacy of the Quality Teaching model for predicting student outcomes and has implications for the viability of the model and its predecessors. In essence this is a replication and expansion of the work reported by Newmann, Marks and Gamoran (1996), Newmann, Lopez & Bryk (1998) and Newmann, Bryk, & Nagaoka (2001). As such, it offers the first rigorous test of the cross-national transportability of Authentic Pedagogy. 2011-11-10T04:20:04.756Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:2340 This paper draws on data from approximately 350 interviews and 1800 surveys from teachers across NSW to explore their understandings of and commitment to quality teaching (in both the generic sense and in terms of the NSW Quality Teaching model). Our analysis of the data focuses on links between measures of the quality of teachers' pedagogy and their commitment to and understanding of QT, some school characteristics, and teachers' fundamental beliefs about themselves, their work and their students. Looking first at teachers' commitment to the QT initiative we find while this is important, as is the case with any reform initiative, there is no clear correlation between their expressed support for QT and measures of their performance. Second, no consistent patterns are found between the highest and lowest performances and a school's SES, its proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, or teachers' years of experience. Rather we find that the better practice in line with QT, leading to improved student outcomes, is linked to teachers' deep understanding of QT, teachers' fundamental commitment to their students' learning and belief that their teaching makes a difference, as a basis for their efforts to teach well. 2011-11-10T04:20:03.470Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:2337 One of the central research questions addressed throughout the SIPA research project is an examination of the equity implications of the Quality Teaching model. By analysing each of the three dimensions of Quality Teaching and their combined contributions to students' learning outcomes, we examine the production of achievement differences between two key equity groups, namely, students from low socio-economic backgrounds and students of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent. These analyses respond directly to standing equity debates on the relative importance of pedagogical strategies focusing on the different dimensions included in the NSW model for students of traditionally underachieving social groups (Halsey et al., 1997; Karabel & Halsey, 1977; Rowan et al., 2002). This analysis is one of the first attempts to test pedagogical hypotheses of the Bernsteinian tradition, suggesting that differential effects of pedagogy should be expected for students from differing social backgrounds, using large-scale quantitative data. Guided by these analyses, we challenge popular misconceptions about what matters most for students who are traditionally disadvantaged by schooling and suggest how school reform efforts to close achievement gaps need to be mindful of the differing effects of different dimensions of pedagogy. 2011-11-10T04:10:04.275Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:2339 Key findings of the previous papers are examined in terms of implications for teacher education (preservice and inservice). Located in the context of the poor empirical base for teacher education and the contested normative terrain that characterises this field, eight major findings from the SIPA study are addressed with specific implications considered. For instance, demonstrating the relative lack of high quality pedagogy for indigenous students and those from low SES backgrounds highlights a need to ensure that teachers understand and know how to include more challenging and meaningful work for these students. In identifying the relative impact of significance, quality learning environment, and intellectual quality for different groups of students, new ways are identified to focus teachers' energies to support the high quality achievement of all students. By demonstrating the relationship between teaching quality and student achievement, teachers' needs in relation to pedagogy are highlighted. Next we return to an adjudication of the normative debate based on the strong empirical data that underpins the findings, arguing that all three key positions in the debate (which emphasise content knowledge, teaching skill or social justice) are necessary components of high quality teacher education. 2011-11-10T04:10:02.849Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:5855 In this paper we analyse teachers' understandings of their subject specialisation's content knowledge, and the relationship between these understandings, the subject discipline more broadly, and their pedagogical practice measured using the QT framework. We begin by reporting the measured quality of pedagogy received by student cohorts in History and Geography classes, as part of the HSIE (Human Society in Its Environment) Key Learning Area in NSW public schools, and the conceptions of subject knowledge within these outcomes. In this analysis we find that, compared to other subjects in this study, knowledge in the HSIE subjects tended to be treated in only a mildly problematic way, with moderate outcomes in terms of its connection to students lives and cultural backgrounds, and its authentic application. Comparing primary and secondary contexts, we find that HSIE knowledge is treated more problematically, with more direct significance for students, in primary classes. These findings go against initial expectations in which the dominant conventions of knowledge in the humanities and social sciences emphasise its socially constructed nature in particular historical, political and socio-economic contexts (Wallerstein, 2004; 1996). Analysing qualitative data from researchers' narratives of observed lessons, and interviews with teachers, we then elaborate teachers' understanding of their subject content knowledge, and how this relates to the historical development of the discipline and the measured treatment of knowledge in their pedagogical practice. In this analysis we argue that ongoing tensions in the subject discipline between nomothetic and idiographic approaches, coupled with detailed and prescriptive curricula and teachers' apparent disposition towards covering prescribed content, accounts for their treatment of their subject knowledge. Further, through some detailed analysis of cases at the extremes, we argue that teachers' meaningful engagement with the QT framework, as part of a significant, system-wide pedagogical reform initiative, is contingent on their re-thinking the nature of their subject knowledge and its treatment in their teaching. 2011-11-10T04:10:01.718Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:9073 While substantial energy has gone into understanding the mechanics of assessment in higher education, little attention has been paid to developing means by which university lecturers can monitor the quality of the assessment tasks they develop. This paper introduces a research project, funded by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council, which was designed to (a) enhance the quality of assessment in the social sciences in the tertiary sector and (b) refine and evaluate a model for analysing and improving the quality of assessment tasks in the social sciences, primarily in first year courses. The research has its foundation in the NSW Quality Teaching model, with the major focus on the link between task quality and student performance. Initial findings are reported in the paper. We discuss the validity of the Quality Teaching model for the tertiary setting. We report a strong positive correlation between task quality and student work as measured by our instruments. We share some of the tasks before and after refinement to illustrate the kinds of gains to be made when diagnosing and redesigning tasks with reference to the detailed specifications provided by the Quality Teaching model. 2011-11-10T04:00:09.833Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:2333 'Educational Governance, Social Inclusion and Social Exclusion in Australia' (EGSIE-Australia) is the Australian leg of a large international comparative study examining the relationship between relatively recent restructuring of systems of schooling and the classic sociological question of who gets what from schooling. The study draws conceptions of governance and subjectivity developed in relation to Foucault's understanding of governmentality and Bourdieu's analyses of habitus and the State as a bureaucratic field. Conducted in three main stages, EGSIE-Australia included text analyses of selected policy documents, interviews with a national sample of teachers, principals and systems actors, and a series of youth studies, including a large scale survey of Youth. Funded by the ARC, from 1998 to 2000, this study has been conducted in partnership with scholars from nine European countries, in which parallel analyses have been developed. The symposium presents six papers developed within the study, cutting across each of the three main stages of analysis. 2011-11-10T03:50:02.271Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:2344 Drawing on policy text analyses, interviews with teachers, principals and other educators, and a survey of youth, this paper develops the argument that contemporary forms of educational governance in Australia are narrowing and circumscribing acceptable forms of 'habitus'. Despite a rhetorical embrace of diversity, it is demonstrated that a particular set of dispositions and ways of being a 'teacher', 'student', or 'citizen' are currently deemed acceptable. The (always) normalising effects of schooling have significant consequences for who is included and who is excluded with respect to social institutions and future possibilities. Implications of this argument for educational policy, teacher education, and schooling are examined in relation to analyses of schooling as a world-cultural institution, policy debates on the effects of economic rationalism in education and contemporary forms of school restructuring and reform. 2011-10-03T21:43:05.373Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:8098 This essay builds from ongoing development and research work on a model of pedagogy, from New South Wales, Australia, known as the Quality Teaching model. Where international calls for the professional development and certification of teachers rely on mechanisms of credentialing, often with scant direct attention to the acts of teaching, the NSW Quality Teaching model was developed specifically to examine classroom practice and assessment with a shared, generic, analytical framework across subject areas in K-12 settings. The article presents a summary and some elaboration of the Quality Teaching model and then raises the question of just what implications for curriculum lie underneath the push for improving teaching. Using this model, for example, it is clear that many of our long standing curricular debates must be soundly re-cast if the ideals of Quality Teaching are to be taken seriously. Coming from a context where curriculum is designed and governed centrally, in very conventional terms, the curriculum implications of Quality Teaching raise a big challange for international understandings of just what is included in school curricula 2011-07-05T23:30:03.509Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:6290 This article presents a discussion of the technical development and statistical results of one of Australia’s most widely recognised models of pedagogy designed to research school improvement. This is the first public reporting of the statistical results of the productive pedagogy research. Although the modelling of classroom practice from which the productive pedagogy model was drawn clearly supports the hypothesis that pedagogy needs to be seen as multidimensional, not all of the theoretical dimensions outlined in the productive pedagogy model are empirically defensible. Of the four dimensions theoretically proposed, Intellectual Quality, Support Learning Environment, and Connectedness were sufficiently measured for sound empirical examination. Although the notion of there being a dimension of pedagogy related to Recognition of Difference may well have theoretical justification, the productive pedagogy research cannot offer empirical substantiation of hypotheses related to this construct. Consequently, this account of the development of productive pedagogy stands as one example of the risk of professional development interests that run too far ahead of research. 2010-05-20T04:00:03.066Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:6271 As a coda to this collection of important and insightful essays, I would like to offer just one more vision of how the world we inhabit has come to be the way it is. The point of this analysis will be to ask readers to consider just how it is that the dilemmas of injustice, inequality, and terror have come to be so clearly similar around the planet.For all the specificity the essays in this volume rightfully declare, from amidst the detailed interactions which create the racisms, the awful inhumanity that all too many experience, the global structures of power constructed by schooling itself are the foundations of our current struggles. 2010-05-19T05:20:01.114Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:1375 School leaders seeking to improve teaching in their school often apply models of pedagogy that are unclear, unstated or assumed. Vague concepts such as ‘student-centred learning’ or pedagogy based on ‘learning styles’, although very popular, are not supported by coherent theories or a solid evidence base. School leaders need to use a model that defines goals explicitly in order to develop meaningful measures of performance, guard against subjective judgements and expose gaps in the evidence needed for evaluation. While a useful model needs to allow for local conditions, some general qualities apply. The model needs a defensible definition of student learning outcomes. It should challenge the ‘we already do that’ response from teachers yet also make changes seem attainable to them, recognising factors such as morale and ‘change fatigue’. Unnecessary jargon should be avoided, but unfamiliar terms may be needed for unfamiliar but important concepts. The model needs to fit within existing information about the quality of pedagogy in a school. These qualities have been incorporated in the New South Wales Quality Teaching model (QT). The QT was formulated by the author and others, and draws on their work with the productive pedagogy approach developed in Queensland. The QT measures pedagogy through the dimensions of intellectual quality, or pedagogy focused on imparting deep understanding; of the quality learning environment, through which teachers set high expectations and foster positive relationships among students; and of intellectual significance, through which teachers make learning meaningful and important to students. Each dimension is broken down into a range of ‘items’ that describe specific aspects of the dimension. Each item has an accompanying rating scale. A school needs to audit existing practices against the model. The audit is both a ‘reality check’ and a review of the distribution of school resources. The quality of existing evidence needs to be closely examined. Evidence might be collected by classroom observation, but as this method can be confronting for teachers, school leaders may prefer to begin with a study of assessment tasks and lesson designs. An ethic of mutual respect and trust is essential. 2010-04-27T06:51:40.836Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:2341 While the Quality Teaching framework and recent syllabus reform efforts in NSW assert the importance of valuing non-dominant cultural knowledges and values in pedagogical practice, there has been little empirical examination of the ways in which non-dominant cultural perspectives are integrated in students' learning experiences and the implications for such perspectives on students' learning outcomes. The SIPA research study draws on data from classroom observations and assessment tasks to address three questions in relation to these issues. First, in what ways are non-dominant cultural knowledges legitimised in students' classroom and assessment experiences? Second, what factors influence students' engagement with non-dominant cultural knowledge? Third, to what extent are students' learning outcomes affected by the inclusion of non-dominant cultural knowledge in pedagogy? Recent debates focused on questions such as these have been informed primarily by theoretical assumptions rather than empirical findings. By examining these theoretical assumptions in light of the NSW curriculum context, this paper will outline the framework through which the SIPA research study may inform current understandings of the practices and practicalities of pedagogies that value non-dominant cultural perspectives. 2010-04-27T06:47:01.225Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:2331 In this paper we outline key theoretical concerns relating to the professional learning interests of the SIPA study. In particular, we draw on the release of the NSW model of pedagogy, Quality Teaching, as an opportunity to examine issues of power in professional learning and school reform agendas. In this context, we explore such issues as (1) the operation of the Quality Teaching framework as a regime of truth, (2) discourses surrounding schools' implementation of the Quality Teaching framework, and (3) the circulation of power as teachers engage with the Quality Teaching framework. Working hypotheses are posited and some preliminary data are analysed in relation to these questions. We also consider implications of this specific case (Quality Teaching and SIPA) for teacher professional learning in general. In so doing, we offer some preliminary ideas on how commonly accepted principles of professional development both produce and constrain teacher learning and impact on the accomplishment of reform goals including, in this case, the substantial goals for pedagogical improvement that underpin the Quality Teaching framework. 2010-04-27T06:46:54.621Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:2342 In the past decade there have been several well publicised school reform initiatives in Australia designed to improve the quality of what happens in classroom, as a means of improving student learning outcomes. While there remains heated public debate about the implications of these initiatives, there is wide consensus about the importance of pedagogy and the need to focus on classroom practices as the core business of teachers. Central to these developments has been an attempt to develop models of pedagogy for both research and professional development purposes. This paper provides an empirical overview and assessment of the development of the Productive Pedagogy model used in Queensland and the NSW Quality Teaching model, a summary of their immediate origins. Included in this paper will be an analysis of the limitations of prior Australian research using these models and an outline of how the current research (SIPA) will address some of these limits. 2010-04-27T06:46:49.419Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:2343 This paper draws on interviews with teachers that were conducted as part of the EGSIE-Australia project which sought to empirically investigate the relationships bewteen education governance and social inclusion and exclusion. The teacher sample was a national group of principals, head teachers, and teachers, who were identified by their ongoing commitment to, and practical work with, educational disadvantage and social inclusion and exclusion in schools and the wider community. The paper explores how these teachers made sense of categories such a 'marginalisation' and 'disadvantage', seeking to highlight the implications for practice for the ways in which teachers use such categories to understand the limits (and possibilities) of their own practice within current contexts and shifts in educational governance. It also reports on changes in the ways in which educational governance has impacted at the level of practice, as reported by these educational practitioners and demonstrates the frontiers of our discursive understandings of social inclusion and exclusion. 2010-04-27T06:46:40.766Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:2006 The quality of teachers and teaching are fundamental to schools and students' learning, state the authors. While that is generally accepted, new research is investigating the links between teacher professional development, pedagogy and student achievement. This article reports on research undertaken by researchers from the University of Newcastle and the New South Wales Department of Education and Training. The study is a four year longitudinal study. 2010-04-27T06:46:25.800Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:386 The quality of teachers and teaching are fundamental to schools and students' learning, state the authors. While that is generally accepted, new research is investigating the links between teacher professional development, pedagogy and student achievement. This article reports on research undertaken by researchers from the University of Newcastle and the New South Wales Department of Education and Training. The study is a four year longitudinal study. 2010-04-27T05:45:00.194Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:5374 Writing in 1962, in his then widely recognised analysis of anti-intellectualism in America, Richard Hofstadter wrote ((in so far as the teacher stands before his pupils as the surrogate of the intellectual life and its rewards, he unwittingly makes this life appear altogether unattractive (Hofstadter 1962, p. 313). This comment was simply a small note in a larger analysis of the ways in which public education contributes, and would continue to contribute, to a broad social hostility toward intellectual life and intellectuals that had become so apparent in the McCarthyism of the US 1950s. For Hofstadter and many of his contemporary social commentators it was clear that public education generally and teacher education more specifically was destined to produce intellectual mediocrity so long as there was insufficient political will to invest in these institutions at levels yet unseen, then and now. Given the historical context in which Hofstadter was writing. as the cMcCarthy years) waned on the seemingly cyclical horizon of the United States' national sensibility, it seems most appropriate to ask again what role public education generally and teacher education specifically might play in any future attempts to avoid the clearly unfortunate consequences of the central role of anti-intellectualism in US life. In Australia, the Institutes of Teachers are now positioned to make major claims on Universities in the content, structure and delivery of teacher education programs. In light of the absent presence of any serious acknowledgement of the need for intellectual approaches to teaching and teachers, one has to query whether we have moved far beyond the historical origins of teacher education, or done much to lessen Hofstadter's cutting observations and concerns. 2010-04-27T04:37:57.812Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:5305 In this broader view of institutionalism it is clear that there are many more mechanisms for global convergence than those identified by an economic view. While I think these theories are eminently compatible once you get beyond the prima facia, apparent, differences in foci; to do so requires understanding the social and cultural basis of that which we call material and economic (Bourdieu, 2005). To this end, applying economic theory, our modern version of moral philosophy, to understanding teacher education can only be worthy of our attention. To take this economic view and place it in the larger body of literature seeking to explain the question at hand would be to invite a more universal, intellectual conversation on the dilemmas and future dangers facing teacher education in our future. 2010-04-27T04:33:20.059Z ]]>