Global education: stories from Australia

Students today are living in a global world There is a need for schools to educate students about this world This world needs to be seen through a range of perspectives - social, cultural, environmental,political, economic and spiritual In order to educate about this 'world', 'new' curriculum policy needs to reflect this globalised world This proposal will give an insight into the curriculum designed to prepare students for the future worlds they are entering with specific reference to Victoria, Australia.

Jack of all trades, master of some ...or none? Training teachers in Integrated Arts

This article reports on the integration of music with other ‘Arts’ in teacher training at a South African university where a challenge tertiary educators face is how to successfully integrate music within the Arts and Culture learning area of the school education system. The article firstly provides a brief background to the South African educational context. Secondly, it outlines current practices in the in the implementation of the integrated arts curriculum in schools and teacher training. Thirdly, it discusses pertinent issues and challenges in relation to team teaching, integration and curriculum change in teacher training. Given the constraints and opportunities that universities currently experience, this article investigates and reports on the issue of whether students should be trained as Jack of all trades and master of some…or none or Master of one trade and Jack of some with regard to integrating the Arts.

Contemporary PE reform in China : teachers' talk

Among the many changes occurring across Chinese society in the early phase of Y2K is the construction and implementation of a new physical education (PE) curriculum. Not unlike recent changes in Australia, New Zealand and the UK, this process has seen a heightening of the profile of health. Presented within a wider framework for making the school curriculum more relevant, PE is more closely aligned with China's emerging health concerns around young people. Foremost here are burgeoning social anxieties about decreased levels of physical activity, dietary practices, risk-taking tendencies, and a general decline of social cohesion/connection across the profile of contemporary youth. This paper reports on a study undertaken to explore the experiences of Chinese PE teachers as they engage with the new curriculum.

The data reveals a number of structural, personal and cultural factors that work against teachers taking up the opportunities presented in the new curriculum. Prominent here are; low professional status, an expanding generation gap, lack of training and the grip of deeply rooted cultural values. Juxtaposed against the like experiences of PE teachers in Australia and the UK the paper concludes with practical recommendations for nurturing curriculum change in China.

Improving primary school health education through action research : a case study

Limited research has been conducted concerning the actual practice of health education in Victorian schools. This study investigates the health education curriculum at a large primary school in the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne. The investigation involves a critical analysis of current practices in health education in the upper school through the development of a ‘small’ action research group. Data were gathered through document collection, questionnaires, interviews, discussions, diary and reflective journal entries. The action research group, consisting of the teacher-researcher and upper school teachers, developed, implemented and reflected upon units of work piloted with upper school students. Alternative approaches to health education were explored. The aim was to accommodate critically informed discourse amongst colleagues to promote self-reflective enquiry and facilitate improvements to existing pedagogic practices. During the course of the investigation, factors limiting and facilitating action research and curriculum change in health education, became evident. These included personal, practical, curriculum and organisational constraints operating externally and internally on the school and classroom environments. Despite these constraints, it was demonstrated in this study, that action research can contribute to the improvement of pedagogic practices in health education. Small ‘authentic’ action research projects may provide alternative internal professional development structures for teachers and consequently improve learning opportunities for students.

Ongoing colonial legacy : contemporary education beliefs and practices in Papua New Guinea

In the late 1980ˇ¦s, a realisation that the western education system bequeathed to Papua New Guinea at the time of Independence had functioned to devalue and marginalise many of the traditional beliefs, knowledge and skills students brought with them to education, led to a period of significant education reform. The Reform was premised on the report of a Ministerial Review Committee called A Philosophy of Education. This report made recommendations about how education in Papua New Guinea could respond to the issues and challenges this nation faced as it sought to chart a course to serve the needs of its citizens on its own terms. The issues associated with managing and implementing institutionalised educational change premised on importing western values and practices are a central theme of this thesis. The impact of importing foreign curriculum and associated curriculum officers and consultants to assist with curriculum change and development in the former Language and Literacy unit of the Curriculum Development Division, is considered in three related sections of this report: „P a critical review of the imported educational system and related practices and related issues since Independence „P narrative report of the experience of two colleagues in western education „P evidential research based on curriculum Reform in the Language and Literacy Unit. How Papua New Guinea has sought to come to terms with the issues and challenges that arose in response to a practice of importing western curriculum both at the time of Independence and currently through the Reform, are explored throughout the thesis. The findings issues reveal much about the capacity of individuals and institutions to respond to a post-colonial world particularly associated with an ongoing colonial legacy in the principle researcherˇ¦s work context. The thesis argues that the challenges Papua New Guinea curriculum officers face today, as they manage and implement changes associated with another imported curriculum are caught up in existing power relations. These power relations function to stifle creative thinking at a time when it is most needed. Further, these power relations are not well understood by the curriculum officers and remained hidden and unquestioned throughout the research project. The thesis also argues that in the researcherˇ¦s work context, techniques of surveillance were brought to bear and functioned to curtail critical thinking about how the reformed curriculum could be sensitive and respectful of those beliefs and traditions that had sustained life in Papua New Guinea for thousands of years. Consequently, many outmoded beliefs and practices associated with an uncritical and ongoing acceptance of the superiority of western imports have been retained, thereby effectively denying the collective voices of Paua New Guineans in the current curriculum Reform.

Creative partnerships? Cultural policy and inclusive arts practice in one primary school

This article traces the 'cultural turn' in UK educational policy through an analysis of the Creative Partnerships policy (New Labour's 'flagship programme in the cultural education field') and a consideration of an arts project funded under this initiative in one primary school. It argues that current educational policy foregrounds the economic importance of cultural activity and its contribution to the social inclusion agenda. However, 'creativity' is seen as being located outside mainstream school structures, in projects rather than in the National Curriculum, and in artists rather than in teachers. The emphasis is on enjoyment and inclusion rather than cultural or social critique, or significant curriculum change. The transformative potential of involvement in the arts is marginalised in favour of a relatively weak form of social inclusion.

Transition of understandings in science and SOSE : a case study

The newly developed Curriculum Standards Framework lacked supporting school documentation to implement an effective program in Science and SOSE. The task was to create it, together with the knowledge and understandings that were required to apply it. The thesis demonstrates the difficulties faced in actively pursuing curriculum change in a primary school.

Preparing interprofessional clinical learning sites : what the literature tells us

Purpose: Infusing an interprofessional perspective into healthcare education in the university setting instils a collaborative approach in the provision of patient-centred care concepts for students. The purpose of this paper is to describe how one Australian health science faculty is modernising their healthcare education curriculum to develop this approach.

Method: As part of the development process, a systematic literature review was undertaken to determine the elements required for the development of interprofessional clinical learning (IPCL) sites, including but not limited to, necessary organisational and professional considerations to effect interprofessional education (IPE).

Results: The results of this review identified four key factors for IPE development: 1) shared culture, 2) support and leadership, 3) strategic facilitation and planning, and 4) effective feedback, evaluation and dissemination of curriculum intent.

Discussion: These elements are discussed in association with curriculum change in this faculty to promote interprofessional collaboration and teaching.

Conclusion: As a result of the review, the modernisation of our IPE curriculum is being underpinned by shared understandings between faculty and clinical site health providers about IPE. Our joint goal is for appropriate preparation and sustainability of IPCL sites.

A framework for primary teachers’ perceptions of mathematical reasoning

Mathematical reasoning has been emphasised as one of the key proficiencies for mathematics in the Australian curriculum since 2011 and in the Canadian curriculum since 2007. This study explores primary teachers’ perceptions of mathematical reasoning at a time of further curriculum change. Twenty-four primary teachers from Canada and Australia were interviewed after engagement in the first stage of the Mathematical Reasoning Professional Learning Program incorporating demonstration lessons focused on reasoning conducted in their schools. Phenomenographic analysis of interview transcripts exploring variation in the perceptions of mathematical reasoning held by these teachers revealed seven categories of description based on four dimensions of variation. The categories delineate the different perceptions of mathematical reasoning expressed by the participants of this study. The resulting outcome space establishes a framework that facilitates tracking of growth in primary teachers’ awareness of aspects of mathematical reasoning.

As implicações do programa 'São Paulo faz escola' no trabalho docente de professores iniciantes: um estudo de caso

Pós-graduação em Educação - IBRC

Mudança curricular e a construção do conhecimento pedagógico do conteúdo na educação física

To understand how teachers deal with curriculum change proposals, and how their professional knowledge are involved in this process, is critical in order to understand the impact of these changes in pedagogical practice. From L. S. Shulman’s typology of teacher knowledge, we aimed to describe and interpret how a Physical Education teacher deals with the pedagogical content knowledge when developing a theme from Curriculum Proposal of Physical Education from the State of São Paulo (PPC-EF). A case study was conducted with the use of semi-structured interviews and classroom observation. The teacher made adjustments at the approach and activities suggested by the PPC-PE, mobilizing several teacher knowledge, and her autonomy was not removed. On the other hand, difficulties in relating “theory” and “practice” indicate the need for construction of pedagogical content knowledge to better direct the learning of students to the critical appropriation of movement culture.

Context, Complexity and Contestation: Birmingham’s Agreed Syllabuses for Religious Education since the 1970s

The present article offers an historical perspective on the 1975, 1995 and 2007 Birmingham Agreed Syllabuses for Religious Education. It draws upon historical evidence uncovered as part of ‘The hidden history of curriculum change in reli- gious education in English schools, 1969–1979’ project, and curriculum history theories, especially David Labaree’s observations about the distance between the ‘rhetorical’ and ‘received’ curricula. We argue that, contrary to the existing his- toriography, curriculum change in religious education (RE) has been evolution- ary not revolutionary. Multiple reasons are posited to explain this, not least among which is the capacity and agency of teachers. Furthermore, we argue that ongoing debates about the nature and purpose of RE, as exemplified in the Birmingham context, reflect the multiple expectations that religious educators and other stakeholders had, and continue to have, of the curriculum subject. These debates contribute to the inertia evident in the implementation of RE cur- riculum reforms. A consciousness of the history of RE enables curriculum con- testations to be contextualised and understood, and, thereby, provides important insights which can be applied to ongoing and future debates and developments.

O desenvolvimento profissional docente em discussão

This collection is the result of theoretical considerations made in the education field with emphasis on the teacher’s professional development. The diversity of authors, which came from distinctive higher education institutions located in Brazil and some arising from international context, reveals a multiplicity of relations between the themes that blend the centrality of “Rede de Aprendizado em Foco”. The studies and researches are organized around three themes: teacher’s learning in initial training and professional integration; teacher learning’s evaluations process and policies; and teacher’s professional development. The professionality’s formation in a period of deep and complex transformations in the social and educational scenarios is projected as a big challenge, especially when it is understood that a person is not born as a teacher, but it is constituted as such by processes that occur over a long period. The contact with the professional practice stands as an essential element in the context of teacher training, which in the course of professional learning experience different stages of training. The one that should be highlighted would be the learning moments that involve teaching’s practices. Thus, the main point of this work was based on the reflection of the teacher’s formative processes from the initial training to the professional development going through the teaching practice, which is considered as the beginning of the relationship between theoretical and practical knowledge in the context of educational reality and reporting formative experiences that have contributed to this training.

Shifting practices and frames: literacy, learning and computer games

Digital culture and the online world have profound implications for contemporary notions of literacy, learning and curriculum. The increasing integration of digital culture and technologies into young people’s lives reflects the energy and excitement offered by online worlds. Online forms of text and communication are shaping students’ experience of the world, including expectations and experiences about learning and literacy. While print literacies remain important, for schools to prepare students to participate in critical and agential ways in the contemporary and future world, they need also to teach them to be fully literate in digital and multimodal literacies, and at ease and in control in the online world. Computer games, and other forms of digital games, teach and exemplify multimodal forms of literacy. Schools can capitalize on their potential and work with them productively. Doing so however, entails recognizing the messy complexity of schooling, and the practicalities of classroom lives. This chapter reports on a three year project in five schools concerned with literacy and computer games, and discusses the important role of teachers as on-the- ground leaders in pioneering new conceptions of literacy, and of curriculum change, and the importance of school structures and support to enable such change to happen.

Project managers and technical change : curriculum development in strategic technology management

Traditional business approaches do not take account of the rapid technological developments underpinning today's world. Further understanding the role of technology and its efficient management to build and maintain a competitive edge in business can allow project managers to more successfully manage organisations, and to adapt to and capitalise on, today’s rapidly changing environment. Strategic Technology Management links engineering, science and management principles to identify, choose, and implement the most effective means of attaining compatibility between internal skills and resources of an organisation and its competitive, economic and social environment. This paper reviews the rationale and the development of a new Strategic Technology Management subject in QUT’s Master of Project Management program. It discusses recent developments in the area of technology management from an international perspective, provides details of the curriculum developed and discusses the experience of completing two years of teaching the new program.