Cultivating teachers’ beliefs, knowledge and skills for leading change in schools

Australian policy initiatives and state curriculum reform efforts affirm a commitment to address student disengagement through the development of inclusive school environments, curriculum, and pedagogy. This paper, drawing on critical social theory, describes three Australian projects that support the cultivation of teachers’ beliefs, knowledge and skills for critical reflection and leading change in schools. The first project reports on the valued ethics that emerged in pre-service teacher reflections about a Service-learning Program at a university in Queensland. The second project reports on a school-based collaborative inquiry approach to professional development with a focus on literacy practices. The final project reports on an initiative in another university in Victoria, to operationalise pedagogical change and curriculum renewal in Victoria, through the Principles of Learning and Teaching (PoLT). These case studies illustrate how critical reflection and development of beliefs, knowledge and skills can be acquired to better meet the needs of schools.

Teachers reporting child sexual abuse : towards evidence-based reform of law, policy and practice

This report presents the results of the largest study ever conducted into the law, policy and practice of primary school teachers’ reporting of child sexual abuse in New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia. The study included the largest Australian survey of teachers about reporting sexual abuse, in both government and non-government schools (n=470). Our research has produced evidence-based findings to enhance law, policy and practice about teachers’ reporting of child sexual abuse. The major benefits of our findings and recommendations are to: • Show how the legislation in each State can be improved; • Show how the policies in government and non-government school sectors can be improved; and • Show how teacher training can be improved. These improvements can enhance the already valuable contribution that teachers are making to identify cases of child sexual abuse. Based on the findings of our research, this report proposes solutions to issues in seven key areas of law, policy and practice. These solutions are relevant for State Parliaments, government and non-government educational authorities, and child protection departments. The solutions in each State are practicable, low-cost, and align with current government policy approaches. Implementing these solutions will: • protect more children from sexual abuse; • save cost to governments and society; • develop a professional teacher workforce better equipped for their child protection role; and • protect government and school authorities from legal liability.

Teachers’ attitudes toward reporting child sexual abuse : problems with existing research leading to new scale development

This paper details a systematic literature review identifying problems in extant research relating to teachers’ attitudes towards reporting child sexual abuse, and offers a model for new attitude scale development and testing. Scale development comprised a five-phase process grounded in contemporary attitude theories including: a) developing the initial item pool; b) conducting a panel review; c) refining the scale via an expert focus group; d) building content validity through cognitive interviews; e) assessing internal consistency via field testing. The resulting 21-item scale displayed construct validity in preliminary testing. The scale may prove useful as a research tool, given the theoretical supposition that attitudes may be changed with time, context, experience, and education. Further investigation with a larger sample is warranted.

Traveller’s Tales : ELT teachers in a globalising world

This chapter summarizes a quasi-ethnographic case study of the lives and work of nine native-speaking English language teachers who have lived and worked outside their countries of origin for extended periods. The study aimed to document the complexity of ELT as ‘work’ in new global economic and cultural conditions, and to explore how this complexity is realised in the everyday experiences of ELT teachers.

Using microteaching to enhance teacher efficacy in pre-service teachers

This study examined pre-service teachers’ efficacy in relation to the utilisation of microteaching as an assessment tool for postgraduate education students in Australia. Three hundred and fifteen pre-service teachers completed the teacher efficacy survey and additional qualitative questions at Time 1 and 208 completed the survey and questions at Time 2. A principal components analysis conducted on the Time 1 survey data revealed teacher efficacy to be comprised of two components: ‘teacher efficacy in classroom management’ and ‘personal teacher efficacy’. Repeated measures ANOVAs conducted on the 208 participants who completed the survey at Time 1 and 2 revealed that efficacy on both components increased significantly over time, and that internet students had higher efficacy levels than internal students. The qualitative data revealed that pre-service teachers enter teaching in order to positively impact on children, yet are concerned about behaviour management in the classroom. In addition, this data highlighted the positive impact that microteaching had on their developing teacher identity.

MATLAB toolboxes : robotics and vision for students and teachers

In this column, Dr. Peter Corke of CSIRO, Australia, gives us a description of MATLAB Toolboxes he has developed. He has been passionately developing tools to enable students and teachers to better understand the theoretical concepts behind classical robotics and computer vision through easy and intuitive simulation and visualization. The results of this labor of love have been packaged as MATLAB Toolboxes: the Robotics Toolbox and the Vision Toolbox. –Daniela Rus, RAS Education Cochair

Teachers’ understanding of school connectedness : implications for the development and implementation of school based injury prevention strategies

Aim: Worldwide, injury is the leading cause of death and disability for young people. Injuries among young people are commonly associated with risk taking behaviour, including violence and transport risks, which often occur in the context of alcohol use. The school environment has been identified as having a significant role in shaping adolescent behaviour. In particular, school connectedness, the degree to which adolescents feel that they belong and are accepted at school, has been shown to be an important protective factor. Strategies for increasing school connectedness may therefore be effective in reducing risk taking and associated injury. Prior to developing connectedness strategies, it is important to understand the perspectives of those in the school regarding the construct and how it is realised in the school context. The aim of this research was to understand teachers’ perspectives of school connectedness, the strategies they employ to connect with students, and their perceptions of school connectedness as a strategy for risk taking and injury prevention. Method: In depth interviews of approximately 45 minutes duration were conducted with 13 Health and PE teachers and support staff from 2 high schools in Southeast Queensland, Australia. Additionally, 6 focus group workshop discussions were held with 35 Education department employees (5-6 per group), including teachers from 15 Southeast Queensland high schools. Results: Participants were found to place strong importance on the development of connectedness among students, including those at risk for problem behaviour. Strategies used to promote connectedness included building trust, taking an interest in each student and being available to talk to, and finding something positive for students to succeed at. Teachers identified strategies as being related to decreased risk taking behavior. Teacher training on school connectedness was perceived as an important and useful inclusion in a school based injury prevention program. Conclusions: The established link between increased school connectedness and decreased problem behaviour has implications for school based strategies designed to decrease adolescent risk taking behaviour and associated injury. Targeting school connectedness as a point of intervention, in conjunction with individual attitude and behaviour change programs, may be an effective injury prevention strategy.

Personal epistemology in pre-service teachers : belief changes throughout a teacher education course

Classrooms of the 21st century are complex systems. They support diverse learners from varied contexts and function in a “messy” bricolage of policy contexts. This complexity is also evident in the nature of teaching and learning deployed in these classrooms. There is also, in current contexts, a general expectation that teachers will support students to construct, rather than simply receive knowledge. This process of constructing knowledge requires a focus on critical thinking in complex social and real world contexts (see also Elen & Clarebout, 2001; Yang, Chang & Hsu 2008). Critical thinking, which involves the identification and evaluation of multiple perspectives when making decisions, is a process of knowing – a tool of wisdom (Kuhn & Udell, 2001). Schommer-Aikens, Bird and Bakken (2010) refer to classrooms that encourage critical thinking as “epistemologically based” in which “the teacher encourages his/her students to look for connections among concepts within the text, with their prior knowledge, and with concepts found in the world beyond themselves” (p. 48).

Teachers’ conceptions of essential knowledge for integrated social education : a middle years of schooling perspective from Australia

Integrated social education in Australia is a divisive educational issue. The last decade has been marked by a controversial integrated social studies curriculum called Studies of Society and Environment (SOSE) where history, geography and environmental studies were integrated with civics and citizenship. The introduction of a compulsory K-10 Australian Curriculum from 2011, however, marks the return to history and geography and the abandonment of SOSE. Curriculum reform aside, what do teachers think is essential knowledge for middle years social education? The paper reports on a phenomenographical exploration of thirty-one middle school teachers’ conceptions of essential knowledge for SOSE. Framed by Shulman’s (1986, 1987) theoretical framework of the knowledge base for teaching, the research identified seven qualitatively different ways of understanding essential knowledge for integrated social education. The study indicates a practice-based theorization of integrated social education that justifies attention to disciplinary process and teacher identity in middle school social education.

Fiji pre-service primary teachers' understanding of physical science : a cultural perspective

Science and technology are promoted as major contributors to national development. Consequently, improved science education has been placed high on the agenda of tasks to be tackled in many developing countries, although progress has often been limited. In fact there have been claims that the enormous investment in teaching science in developing countries has basically failed, with many reports of how efforts to teach science in developing countries often result in rote learning of strange concepts, mere copying of factual information, and a general lack of understanding on the part of local students. These generalisations can be applied to science education in Fiji. Muralidhar (1989) has described a situation in which upper primary and middle school students in Fiji were given little opportunity to engage in practical work; an extremely didactic form of teacher exposition was the predominant method of instruction during science lessons. He concluded that amongst other things, teachers' limited understanding, particularly of aspects of physical science, resulted in their rigid adherence to the text book or the omission of certain activities or topics. Although many of the problems associated with science education in developing countries have been documented, few attempts have been made to understand how non-Western students might better learn science. This study addresses the issue of Fiji pre-service primary teachers' understanding of a key aspect of physical science, namely, matter and how it changes, and their responses to learning experiences based on a constructivist epistemology. Initial interviews were used to probe pre-service primary teachers' understanding of this domain of science. The data were analysed to identify students' alternative and scientific conceptions. These conceptions were then used to construct Concept Profile Inventories (CPI) which allowed for qualitative comparison of the concepts of the two ethnic groups who took part in the study. This phase of the study also provided some insight into the interaction of scientific information and traditional beliefs in non-Western societies. A quantitative comparison of the groups' conceptions was conducted using a Science Concept Survey instrument developed from the CPis. These data provided considerable insight into the aspects of matter where the pre-service teachers' understanding was particularly weak. On the basis of these preliminary findings, a six-week teaching program aimed at improving the students' understanding of matter was implemented in an experimental design with a group of students. The intervention involved elements of pedagogy such as the use of analogies and concept maps which were novel to most of those who took part. At the conclusion of the teaching programme, the learning outcomes of the experimental group were compared with those of a control group taught in a more traditional manner. These outcomes were assessed quantitatively by means of pre- and post-tests and a delayed post-test, and qualitatively using an interview protocol. The students' views on the various teaching strategies used with the experimental group were also sought. The findings indicate that in the domain of matter little variation exists in the alternative conceptions held by Fijian and Indian students suggesting that cultural influences may be minimal in their construction. Furthermore, the teaching strategies implemented with the experimental group of students, although largely derived from Western research, showed considerable promise in the context of Fiji, where they appeared to be effective in improving the understanding of students from different cultural backgrounds. These outcomes may be of significance to those involved in teacher education and curriculum development in other developing countries.