Discussions on conceptual knowledge and the use of blogs

In both Australia and Norway and through a number of Technology projects conducted since 2007, the authors – together and with other collaborators - have attempted to create positive learning environments supported by Web 2.0 communication tools. Through protected public sites and the oz-Teachernet [http://www.otn.edu.au], we have consistently chosen to use blogs to support the social construction of knowledge, that is, to allow students the opportunity to discuss, share and collaborate on their classroom activities and engagement with Technology artefacts and processes. Through comparisons with findings from a small-scale project in Norway and a large-scale project in Australia, this paper will argue for the potential of discussion through blogs but recommend that the purposeful use of scientific language in student communication will not occur without teacher intervention and scaffolding.

Deep End Teacher Guide : Green

Dr Mills is also the invited author of the Deep End Series Teacher Guides by ERA publications. This 3-volume series for teachers is used in more than 200 schools in Australia, the USA, Canada, New Zealand, Sweden, Norway, and South America.

Deep End Teacher Guide : Orange

Dr Mills is the invited author of the Deep End Series Teacher Guides by ERA publications. This 3-volume series for teachers is used in more than 200 schools in Australia, the USA, Canada, New Zealand, Sweden, Norway, and South America.

Deep End Purple Teacher Guide

Dr Mills is also the invited author of the Deep End Series Teacher Guides by ERA publications. This 3-volume series for teachers is used in more than 200 schools in Australia, the USA, Canada, New Zealand, Sweden, Norway, and South America.

Let's take a closer look at teacher professionalism

Professional standards have been adopted by many Western countries, including Australia, as a mechanism for improving teacher quality and enhancing 'professionalism’. But what does the term 'professionalism' actually mean? This article briefly outlines different definitions of professionalism that have been advanced through many decades, and concludes with a 'new’ type of professionalism coined by the authors -'compliance professionalism’. They see this type of professionalism as a means for teachers to maintain a degree of professional autonomy, whilst at the same time allowing them to deal with ever increasing accountability regimes. The authors ask the question: What can principals do to make their teachers aware of 'professionalism’ in education?

A case for addressing the literacy demands of student assessment

The development and implementation of the Australian Curriculum together with national testing of students and the publication of school results place new demands on teachers. In this article we address the importance of teachers becoming attuned to the silent assessors in assessment generally and in the National Literacy and Numeracy Program (NAPLAN) more specifically. Using the concept of literacies, we develop a method to conduct a literacy audit of assessment tasks that teachers can use to help both themselves and their students. Providing assistance to students as a consequence of such an audit is imperative to improve the outcomes for students and to address issues of equity.

Moderation and consistency of teacher judgement : teachers’ views

Major curriculum and assessment reforms in Australia have generated research interest in issues related to standards, teacher judgement and moderation. This article is based on one related inquiry of a large-scale Australian Research Council Linkage project conducted in Queensland. This qualitative study analysed interview data to identify teachers’ views on standards and moderation as a means to achieving consistency of teacher judgement. A complementary aspect of the research involved a blind review that was conducted to determine the degree of teacher consistency without the experience of moderation. Empirical evidence was gained that most teachers, of the total interviewed, articulated a positive attitude towards the use of standards in moderation and perceived that this process produces consistency in teachers’ judgements. Context was identified as an important influential factor in teachers’ judgements and it was concluded that teachers’ assessment beliefs, attitudes and practices impact on their perceptions of the value of moderation practice and the extent to which consistency can be achieved.

Challenging teachers’ assumptions in an era of curriculum and assessment change

Significant responsibility has been given to schools and sectors to interpret and plan for assessment within the Australian Curriculum. As schools take this opportunity to review and renew their school curriculum, it is important for teachers and school leaders to take the time to work out whether there are any assessment myths lurking in the conversations or assumptions that need to be challenged. Outdated myths or cultural narratives of learning can limit our thinking and student learning, without us being aware of it.

Ezine and iRadio as knowledge creation metaphors for scaffolding learning in physical and virtual learning spaces

eZine and iRadio represent metaphors for multimedia communication on the Internet. Participating students experience a simulated Internet publishing environment in both their classroom and virtual learning environment. This chapter presents an autoethnographic account highlighting the voices of the learning designer and the teacher and provides evidence of the planning and implementation of two tertiary music elective courses over three iterations of each course. A blended learning environment was incorporated within each elective music course and a collaborative approach to development between lecturers, tutors, learning and technological designers using an iterative research design. The research suggests that learning design which provides real world examples and resources integrating authentic task design into their unit can provide meaningful and engaging experiences for students. The dialogue between learning designers and teachers and iterative review of the learning process and student outcomes, we believe, has engaged students meaningfully to achieve transferable learning outcomes.

Here’s a story : using student podcasts to raise awareness of language

Thirty-five years ago, a landmark article entitled 'What The "Good Language Learner" Can Teach Us' suggested that if more was known about what 'successful learners' did, then those strategies could be taught to poorer learners to enhance learning (Rubin, 1975, p. 42). Since publication of Rubin's article, language instruction has begun to encompass technological applications (Chinnery, 2006) through mobile-assisted language learning (MALL or m-learning) like podcasts. Podcasting extends the classroom, offers convenience for diverse learners, and provides authentic listening opportunities. Although the effects of podcasting in higher education have yet to be investigated (Educause, 2007), this article describes how action research lead to the creation of a student learning strategy webpage featuring peer podcasts and successful language learning strategies in higher education.

Teachers' personal epistemologies and teacher education : emergent themes and future research

This chapter summarizes the responses to four questions in each of the chapters in this volume. The questions addressed the use of a conceptual framework that guides the chapter, issues of domain-generality, how personal epistemology relates to teaching, and how personal epistemologies change. We concluded that all of the chapters discussed the distinction between constructivist and transmission teaching practices, while suggesting that there are many inconsistencies in understanding the relationship between the nature of beliefs and teachers’ practices regardless of the relative sophistication of teachers’ personal epistemologies. We also summarized a multi-component instructional model for calibrating teaching practices based on suggestions in each of the chapters, and made four suggestions for future research, including the need for an integrated theory that accounts for the development and manifestations of personal pistemology in the classroom, the generalizability of fi ndings across different measurements, a set of guidelines to promote teacher epistemological change, and an explicit instructional model that explains the development and calibration of beliefs and practices. The goal of this volume was to examine the relationship between teachers’ personal epistemologies and teacher education. Sixteen different chapters addressed one or more aspects of this issue. Although each of the chapters addressed different aspects of teachers’ personal epistemologies, a number of common themes are apparent across the chapters. We believe it is useful to articulate these themes in greater detail to provide a better retrospective understanding of this volume, as well as a better prospective framework for future research and changes to teacher training programs. We divide this chapter into two main sections. The fi rst section addresses four key questions about the nature of teachers’ personal epistemologies that were discussed in the introductory chapter as part of a larger set of questions. These questions focus on how to conceptualize these beliefs as explicit models; whether beliefs are domain-specifi c or domain-general; how beliefs are related to teaching; and how beliefs change over time. We provide a summary of each chapter in terms of these four questions. The second section proposes four general suggestions for future research based on the studies reported within this volume.

Raising the stakes : the challenges for teacher assessment

These are changing times for teachers and their students in Australia with the introduction of a national curriculum and standards driven reform. While countries in Europe such as England, and in Asia such as Singapore, are changing policy to make more use of assessment to support and improve learning it appears that we in Australia are moving towards creating policy that will raise the assessment stakes for the alleged purposes of transparency, accountability and fairness. What can be learnt from countries that have had years of high stakes testing? How can Australia avoid the mistakes of past curriculum and assessment reform efforts? And how can Australian teachers build their capacity to maximise their use of the learning power of assessment? These are key questions that will be addressed in this presentation with reference to innovative research from global networks that have maintained the assessment focus on learning.