Preparing pre-service teachers for rural teaching: a new approach

In Australia, recruitment of high quality teachers is seen as critical for the future of rural education provision. A national inquiry into rural and remote education conducted in 2000 by HREOC supported this claim stating that there is a crisis for rural schools attracting new teachers and blamed teacher education for not doing enough to equip beginning teachers with the skills and knowledge needed for teaching in rural and remote Australia. Although state governments provide financial incentives for potential graduates to embark on a rural practicum placement, this incentive does not appear sufficient. There is an urgent need in teacher education to consider  alternative ways to generate interest in a rural teaching career. This paper describes a pre-service initiative between the metropolitan Burwood campus of Deakin University and a Victorian rural school community. The initiative was designed to enable a cohort of 45 city-based student teachers studying a particular unit to better understand rural issues, pedagogy and ultimately to foster interest in country teaching.

Girls and computing-still a way to go

Years after the introduction of computing in Australian schools, computer classrooms are still heavily dominated by male students studying subjects which have little appeal to female students, explains the author. This article looks at why girls are less likely to choose computing as a subject to study or to consider computing for a future career.

Encouraging the reflection process in undergraduate teachers using guided reflection

This article reports on the findings of a study conducted with a group of early childhood education undergraduate students from the second year of the Bachelor of Early Childhood Education course offered at the University of Melbourne. The study trialled a number of guided reflection techniques that acted to stimulate and provide a structure for reflection. These techniques were further supplemented by focus group discussions based on reflective principles, in the hope of fully engaging the students in the reflective process over the course of a year. All techniques were designed to assist the student teachers in becoming aware of the current philosophy they hold in relation to teaching and learning, and also in understanding how this has been shaped by past experiences, beliefs and knowledge. The effectiveness of the guided reflection techniques was evaluated by the participants at the end of the project. The surveys showed that three of the techniques were particularly successful. Student perceptions as to the success of the process are reported in the article.

Increasing national capability for quality higher education the case of the Sultanate of Oman

This paper explores a number of quality enhancement initiatives being implemented in a developing country, the Sultanate of Oman, to increase the national capability for quality higher education. Oman is a young country with a youthful and rapidly growing population. A brief description of the relatively short history of Oman’s national systems for secondary and postsecondary education is provided. This highlights the challenges for quality education resulting from a strategy of importing postsecondary education from a variety of countries, and delivering the programs through a largely privatized sector.

The paper then describes the outcomes of an initial needs analysis that led to the development of a National Quality Plan. Some of the strategies in this plan for improving and increasing capability are considered, most particularly the establishment of a practitioner‐oriented Oman Quality Network, and the design and implementation of a National Quality Training Program. These two strategies attempt to address common obstacles to capability, namely a paradigm that entrenches compliance and helplessness, and only early awareness of effective quality enhancement and quality assurance principles and methods.

Evaluation results are presented that comment on progress thus far, and suggest critical success factors. These include building legitimacy and trust to overcome barriers to sharing information in a competitive privatized environment. They also include the establishment of peer to peer mechanisms that build confidence and create sustainability over time, as imported or external expertise gives way to local capability and expertise.