Curriculum, assessment teaching and learning for all

This chapter explores how the culture of classrooms and schools can acknowledge diversity and meet all learning needs. Classroom and school culture can and should enhance the belonging and learning of all students. Understanding of learning, curriculum, pedagogy and assessment influences the ways teachers consider their expectations of student achievement and participation in school. We revisit the theory of social constructionism to emphasise the development of shared and valued curriculum, which meets all learner needs. Decisions about what to teach, how to teach and assess, and what supports student needs are important considerations discussed in this chapter. Key messages drawn from the Australian and New Zealand curriculum reinforce the need to ensure education responds to the diversity of students in classrooms. A range of models of pedagogy that have influenced education in Australia and New Zealand are presented, with a particular focus on meeting the needs of students who have disabilities. In addition, the issues related to student and teacher identity, the importance of respectful partnerships that acknowledge family knowledge, and respectful collaboration are discussed. Belonging to a community of learners is made possible through teachers forming authentic relationships with students and their families. In turn, these relationships support teachers to understand how the students in their classrooms learn, and to know their students’ strengths and interests.

Mentoring

Research relating to mentoring has burgeoned in the last two decades and as might be expected there is immense variation in the nature and rigour of this research. For some, mentoring seems to be a panacea for many societal problems as the studies have focussed on juvenile crime, teenage pregnancy, academic performance, drug usage, school dropout rates, teacher attributes, parental relationship, heightened self-confidence, general “at risk” children and issues of gender, ethnicity, socio economic status and equity. Rather than a panacea, it would be more accurate to suggest that in specific circumstances mentoring has the potential to be associated with beneficial outcomes.

Development of school connectedness as a component of an injury prevention program for early adolescents

The current program of research addresses the need for multi-level programs to target the major increase in injury rates that occurs throughout adolescence. Specifically, it involves the investigation of school connectedness as a protective factor for adolescent injury, and the development of school connectedness as a component of an injury prevention program. To date, school-based risk taking and injury prevention has frequently been limited to addressing adolescents' knowledge and attitudes to risk behaviours, and has largely overlooked the importance of the wider school social context as a protective factor in adolescent development. Additionally, school connectedness has been primarily studied in terms of its impact on student achievement, wellbeing and risk taking behaviour, and research has not yet addressed possible links with injury. Further, school connectedness intervention programs have targeted risk taking behaviours without evaluating their potential impact on injury outcomes. This is the first reported research to develop strategies to increase school connectedness as part of a school-based injury prevention program. The research program was conceptualised as three distinct stages. The development of these research stages was informed by a comprehensive review of the literature on adolescent risk taking, injury and school-based prevention, as well as on school connectedness and its importance in adolescence. A review of the school connectedness literature indicated that students' connectedness is largely influenced by relationships within the school context including with teachers and other school staff, and is therefore a potentially modifiable factor that may be targeted in school-based programs. Overall, the literature shows school connectedness to be a key protective factor in adolescent development. This review established a foundation from which the current program of research was designed. The first stage of the research involved an empirical investigation of the relationship between adolescent risk taking-related injuries and school connectedness. Stage one incorporated two studies. The first involved the development of a measure of adolescent injury, the Extended Adolescent Injury Checklist (E-AIC), for use in the current research as well as in future school-based studies and program evaluation. The results of this study also highlighted the extent of the problem of risk-related injury in adolescence. The second study in Stage one examined the relationship between students' reports of school connectedness, risk taking behaviour and risk taking-related injuries on the E-AIC. The results of this study showed significant relationships between increased school connectedness and reduced reported engagement in transport and violence risk taking, and fewer associated injuries. This study therefore suggested the potential for school-based injury prevention programs to incorporate strategies targeting increased adolescent connectedness to school. The second stage of this research involved the compilation of an evidence base to inform the design of a school connectedness intervention. Stage two also incorporated two studies. The first study in Stage two involved a systematic review of programs that have targeted school connectedness for reduced risk taking and injury. The results of this study revealed that interventions targeting school connectedness can be effective in reducing adolescent risk taking behaviour, and also provided an evidence base for the design of the current school connectedness intervention. The second study in Stage two examined teachers' understanding and perceptions of school connectedness. This qualitative study indicated that teachers consider students' connectedness to be an important factor that relates to their risk taking behaviour; and also provided directions and content for the intervention design stage. The third stage of this research built upon the findings of each of the previous studies, and involved the design, implementation and evaluation of a school connectedness intervention as a component of an adolescent injury prevention program, Skills for Preventing Injury in Youth (SPIY). This connectedness intervention was designed as a professional development workshop for teachers of 13 to 14 year old adolescents, and was developed as a complementary component to the curriculum-based SPIY program. The SPIY connectedness component was implemented and evaluated using process and six-month impact evaluation methodologies. The results of this study revealed that teachers saw value in the program and made use of the strategies presented, and that program school students' self-reported violence risk behaviour was reduced at six-month follow-up. Despite these promising findings, the results of this study did not demonstrate a significant impact of the program on change in students' connectedness to school, relative to comparison schools. The positive impact on self-reported violence risk behaviour was however replicated in additional analyses comparing students participating in the connectedness version of SPIY with students participating in an earlier curriculumonly version of the program. This finding indicated that the connectedness component has additional benefits relating to reduction in violence risks, over and above a curriculum-only version of the program. This research was the first reported to address the relationship between school connectedness and adolescent injury outcomes, and to develop school connectedness as a component of an adolescent injury prevention program. Overall, the results of this program of research have demonstrated the importance of incorporating strategies targeting the wider school social context, including school connectedness, in adolescent injury prevention programs. This research has important implications for future research and practice in adolescent injury prevention.

“Which child left behind” : historical issues regarding equity in science assessment

Assessment of learning plays a dominant role in formal education in the forms of determining features of curriculum that are emphasized, pedagogic methods that teachers use with their students, and parents’ and employers’ understanding of how well students have performed. A common perception is that fair assessment applies the same mode of assessment and content focus for all students—the approach of assessments in international comparative studies of science achievement. This article examines research evidence demonstrating that the act of assessment is not neutral—different forms of assessment advantage or disadvantage groups of students on the basis of family backgrounds, gender, race, or disability. Assessment that implicitly or explicitly captures the social capital of the child serves to consolidate, not address, educational equity. The article provides an overview of ways that science curriculum focus and assessment can introduce bias in the identification of student achievement. It examines the effect of changes to curriculum and assessment approaches in science, and relationships between assessment of science and the cultural context of the student. Recommendations are provided for science–assessment research to address bias for different groups of students.

Making quality teachers : the role of an explicit values-based pedagogy

There is little conjecture that quality teaching is essential to student achievement and well-being. Whilst much has been written about the importance of quality teaching, including the link to pre-service teacher education, to date there has been little investigation into specific pedagogical practices that can enhance quality teaching dimensions within a pre-service teacher education programme. This paper reports on a small-scale qualitative research study, undertaken in an Australian university, which linked the fields of quality teaching, pre-service teacher education and values education. The study followed the journey of five pre-service teacher education students as they undertook their second field experience unit where the focus was centred on the values-based pedagogy of Philosophy in the Classroom. The research findings, collected via interviews, demonstrated that an explicit values-based pedagogy can have a positive impact on the development of quality teaching dimensions. This new knowledge has potential for further research into examining the ways quality teaching dimensions are gained and practised by pre-service teacher education students and these findings and recommendations are discussed in this paper.

Literacy assessment that counts : mediating, interpreting and contesting translocal policy in a primary school

In Australia, as in many western education systems over the last two decades, discourses of accountability and performativity have reshaped education policy that has in turn reorganised the work of school leaders and teachers. One of the effects of this reorganisation is increased attention to the production, analysis and display of student achievement data. In this paper we examine in detail a sequence of the production and reading of literacy assessment data in a small Catholic school. Our analysis uses institutional ethnography’s concept of the ‘active text’, the text as occurring in a specific place and time even as it is articulated to social relations beyond its immediate context. Through this process we learn from those involved how their everyday work brings into being formalised, textually authorised processes in a local site that ensure the school meets accountability requirements while enabling teachers to resist standardisation of literacy teaching and assessment.

Investigating a model of mentoring for effective teaching

This paper investigates a five-factor model of mentoring for effective teaching. A survey was administered to 218 student teachers after student teaching to provide insights into their mentoring experience. Results indicated the five factors, namely, personal attributes, system requirements, pedagogical knowledge, modeling, and feedback, had Cronbach alpha scores of .93, .81, .95, .91, and .91, respectively with mean scale scores ranging from 4.20 to 4.60 (p< .001). Items associated with each factor were analyzed; the lowest percentage response was reviewing lesson plans (71%) and the highest percentage was modeling effective teaching practices (96%). Triangulated data from the survey results suggested that the practices implemented by the mentor teachers were perceived to have supported the student teachers’ development during student teaching. Implications of this study suggest that actively engaging mentor teachers who apply the principles outlined by the five factor areas will serve to ensure highly effective support for the development of student teachers.

What’s the point of moderation? A discussion of the purposes achieved through contemporary moderation practices

An increasingly regulated higher education sector is renewing its attention to those activities referred to as ‘moderation’ in its efforts to ensure that judgements of student achievement are based on appropriate standards. Moderation practices conducted throughout the assessment process can result in purposes identified as equity, justification, accountability and community building. This paper draws on the limited studies of moderation and wider relevant research on judgement, standards and professional learning to test commonly used moderation practices against these identified purposes. The paper concludes with recommendations for maximising the potential of moderation practices to establish and maintain achievement standards.

What's the fuss about NAPLAN?

In September each year in Australia, schools and the families of students receive their NAPLAN results. Since 2008, students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 have sat tests in literacy and numeracy. Since 2010, schools’ NAPLAN results have been listed on the My School website. The tests are designed to improve student achievement by “improving the transparency and accountability of schools and school systems at all levels” (Rudd & Gillard, 2008, p. 19). The policy logic, it seems, is that test-based accountability encourages improvements in teachers and schools.

Assessing university students' prior knowledge

The aim of this dissertation was to explore how different types of prior knowledge influence student achievement and how different assessment methods influence the observed effect of prior knowledge. The project started by creating a model of prior knowledge which was tested in various science disciplines. Study I explored the contribution of different components of prior knowledge on student achievement in two different mathematics courses. The results showed that the procedural knowledge components which require higher-order cognitive skills predicted the final grades best and were also highly related to previous study success. The same pattern regarding the influence of prior knowledge was also seen in Study III which was a longitudinal study of the accumulation of prior knowledge in the context of pharmacy. The study analysed how prior knowledge from previous courses was related to student achievement in the target course. The results implied that students who possessed higher-level prior knowledge, that is, procedural knowledge, from previous courses also obtained higher grades in the more advanced target course. Study IV explored the impact of different types of prior knowledge on students’ readiness to drop out from the course, on the pace of completing the course and on the final grade. The study was conducted in the context of chemistry. The results revealed again that students who performed well in the procedural prior-knowledge tasks were also likely to complete the course in pre-scheduled time and get higher final grades. On the other hand, students whose performance was weak in the procedural prior-knowledge tasks were more likely to drop out or take a longer time to complete the course. Study II explored the issue of prior knowledge from another perspective. Study II aimed to analyse the interrelations between academic self-beliefs, prior knowledge and student achievement in the context of mathematics. The results revealed that prior knowledge was more predictive of student achievement than were other variables included in the study. Self-beliefs were also strongly related to student achievement, but the predictive power of prior knowledge overruled the influence of self-beliefs when they were included in the same model. There was also a strong correlation between academic self-beliefs and prior-knowledge performance. The results of all the four studies were consistent with each other indicating that the model of prior knowledge may be used as a potential tool for prior knowledge assessment. It is useful to make a distinction between different types of prior knowledge in assessment since the type of prior knowledge students possess appears to make a difference. The results implied that there indeed is variation between students’ prior knowledge and academic self-beliefs which influences student achievement. This should be taken into account in instruction.

Should I stay or should I go?: Rural and remote students in first year university stem courses

Research on the achievement of rural and remote students in science and mathematics is located within a context of falling levels of participation in physical science and mathematics courses in Australian schools, and underrepresentation of rural students in higher education. International studies such as the Programme of International Student Assessment (PISA), have reported lower levels of mathematical and scientific literacy in Australian students from rural and remote schools (Thomson et al, 2011). The SiMERR national survey of science, mathematics and ICT education in rural and regional Australia (Lyons et al, 2006) identified factors affecting student achievement in rural and remote schools. Many of the issues faced by rural and remote students in their schools are likely to have implications on their university enrolments in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) courses. For example, rural and remote students are less likely to attend university in general than their city counterparts and higher university attrition rates have been reported for remote students nationally. This paper examines the responses of a sample of rural/remote Australian first year STEM students at Australian universities to two questions. These related to their intentions to complete the course; and whether -and if so, why- they had ever considered withdrawing from their course. Results indicated that rural students who were still in their course by the end of first year were no more or less likely to consider withdrawing than were their peers from more populous centres. However, almost 20% of the rural cohort had considered withdrawing at some stage in their course, and their explanations provide insights into the reasoning of those who may not persist with their courses at university. These results, in the context of the greater attrition rate of remote students from university, point to the need to identify factors that positively impact on rural and remote students’ interest and achievement in science and mathematics. It also highlights a need for future research into the particular issues remote students may face in deciding whether or not to do science at the two key transition points of senior school and university/TAFE studies, and whether or not to persist in their tertiary studies. This paper is positioned at the intersection of two problems in Australian education. The first is a context of falling levels of participation in physical science and mathematics courses in Australian universities. The second is persistent inequitable access to, and retention in, tertiary education for students from rural and remote areas. Despite considerable research attention to both of these areas over recent years these problems have thus far proved to be intractable. This paper therefore aims to briefly review the relevant Australian literature pertaining to these issues; that is, declining STEM enrolments, and the underrepresentation and retention of rural/remote students in higher education. Given the related problems in these two overlapping domains, we then explore the views of first year rural students enrolled in courses, in relation to their intentions of withdrawing (or not) and the associated reasons for their views.

Lowestoft College - Riding the waves of change: How mobile learning has guided learners through rough seas

Over the past six years Lowestoft College has embraced the revolution in mobile learning by welcoming Web 2.0, social media, cloud computing and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD). This open attitude to new technologies has led to a marked improvement in student achievement rates, has increased staff and student satisfaction and has resulted in a variety of cost savings for senior management during the current economic downturn.

问题之间共性关系的意识水平对平面几何解题迁移的影响

Transfer of learning is one of the major concepts in educational psychology. As cognitive psychology develops, many researchers have found that transfer plays an important part in problem solving, and the awareness of the similarity of related problems is important in transfer. So they become more interested in researching the problem of transfer. But in the literature of transfer research, it has been found that many researchers do not hold identical conclusions about the influence of awareness of related problems during problem solving transfer. This dissertation is written on the basic of much of sub-research work, such as looking up literature concerning transfer of problem solving research, comparing the results of research work done recently and experimental researches. The author of this dissertation takes middle school students as subjects, geometry as materials, and adopts factorial design in his experiments. The influence of awareness of related problems on problem solving transfer is examined from three dimensions which are the degree of difficulty of transfer problems, the level of awareness of related problems and the characteristics of subjects themselves. Five conclusions have been made after the experimental research: (1) During the process of geometry problem solving, the level of awareness of related problems is one of the major factors that influence the effect of problem solving transfer. (2) Either more difficult or more easy of the transfer problems will hinder the influence of awareness of related problems during problem solving transfer, and the degree of difficulty of the transfer problems have interactions with the level of awareness of related problems in affecting transfer. (3) During geometry problems solving transfer, the level of awareness of related problems has interactions with the degree of student achievement. Compared with the students who have lower achievement, the influence of the level of the awareness is bigger in the students who have higher achievement. (4) There is positive correlation between geometry achievement and reasoning ability of the middle school students. The student who has higher reasoning ability has higher geometry achievement, while the level of awareness is raised, the transfer achievement of both can be raised significantly. (5) There is positive correlation between geometry achievement and cognitive style of the middle school students. The student who has independent field tendency of cognitive style has higher geometry achievement, while the level of awareness is raised, the transfer achievement of both can be raised significantly. At the end of the dissertation, the researcher offers two proposals concerning Geometry teaching on the basis of the research findings.

Education and Poverty: Confronting the Evidence

Current U.S. policy initiatives to improve the U.S. education system, including No Child Left Behind, test-based evaluation of teachers, and the promotion of competition are misguided because they either deny or set to the side a basic body of evidence documenting that students from disadvantaged households on average perform less well in school than those from more advantaged families. Because these policy initiatives do not directly address the educational challenges experienced by disadvantaged students, they have contributed little-and are not likely to contribute much in the future-to raising overall student achievement or to reducing achievement and educational attainment gaps between advantaged and disadvantaged students. Moreover, such policies have the potential to do serious harm. Addressing the educational challenges faced by children from disadvantaged families will require a broader and bolder approach to education policy than the recent efforts to reform schools. © 2012 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.

Elementary Principals' Perceptions of a Leadership Development Training Program

Research indicates that school leaders are crucial to improving instruction and raising student achievement (Council of Chief State School Officers, 2008). As such, educational reforms such as the No Child Left Behind Act (2001) and Race to the Top (2009) have sparked an accountability movement where principals are being held accountable for students' academic achievement and educational outcomes. The shift towards greater accountability has placed new attention on the ways principals are trained. Researchers have noted that organized professional development programs have not adequately prepared school principals to meet the priority demands of the 21st century (Hale & Moorman, 2003; Murphy, 1994). Murphy (1994) stated, "Traditional preparation programs - usually pre-service programs based in colleges or universities, that awarded certification and advanced degrees - rarely concentrated on the leadership challenges that principals actually face in real schools" (p. 4). As a result, many school districts are seeking ways to develop leadership development training programs that will prepare principals for their job responsibilities as a school leader. In spite of the additional training principals receive, researchers suggests that there is an obvious gap between the readiness of administrators to be instructional leaders and the demands for accountability that school administrators face (Hale & Moorman, 2003). This quantitative study examined elementary school principals' perceptions of their leadership development training program. Guided by four research questions, the study examined principals' perceptions of their overall training and how well their training prepared them to deal with school and classroom practices that contribute to student achievement; to work with teachers and others to design and implement a system for continuous student achievement; and to provide necessary support to carry out sound school, curriculum, and instructional practices. Data for this study was collected by way of survey responses from a total of 46 elementary school principals. The results from the study revealed that more than half (58.7%) of participants perceived their training as excellent. While principals' perceived that their training adequately prepared them to work collaboratively in teams, set clear visions and goals, and to use data to improve students achievement, many respondents reported a lack of training in being informed and focused on student achievement. Principals also suggested that they were not effectively trained in finding effective ways to obtain support from central office or community members.