Numeracy across the curriculum: recognising and responding to the demands and numeracy opportunities inherent in secondary teaching

The 1998 Report of the National Standards and Guidelines for Initial Teacher Education Project, 'Preparing a Profession' illustrates the emphasis being placed in Australia on the development of numeracy skills amongst not only primary but also secondary school pupils. This report demands that graduates of all initial teacher training courses should not only be numerate themselves, but should also understand the contribution of numeracy to education and daily life, and be able to identify and respond to pupils' numeracy learning needs. This report and its implementation in Victoria through the 'Guidelines for the Evaluation of Teacher Education Courses' led to the introduction in 1999 of a compulsory unit 'Numeracy across the curriculum' for all Deakin University students in the final year of their secondary teacher training course. This paper discusses the nature of the current emphasis on numeracy. It also describes the rationale, development and delivery of the first year of the 'Numeracy across the curriculum' unit, provides a brief evaluation from the perspective of staff and students, and discusses what impact such teacher education programs might have on secondary schools' approaches to numeracy.

Problems experienced by students on field placement: using research findings to inform curriculum design and content

Recent recognition of workplace learning from within the University sector has resulted in more emphasis being placed on including field experiences in course curriculum across a range of disciplines. This article begins with a short review of the literature relating to the current context in which work-based learning occurs. Next, selected findings from a survey of 39 Victorian social work students on their experiences of placement learning are reported. The survey focused on problems encountered by students on placement. A number of the problems students faced suggested the need for additional opportunities both before and during the placements to engage with material on safety in the field, and ways to deal with workplace stress and conflict. In response to these issues the article summarises some pedagogical strategies that may be used to enhance student learning in these areas both leading up to and during their field placements. In addition to matters relating to safety and stress, financial pressures were evident for students endeavouring to complete field placements. The recent moves from universities to embrace industry based learning, clearly has implications for funding support made available to students undertaking this type of education.

P(ICT)ures of English : teachers, learners and technology

The increasing challenges presented by information and communication technologies (ICTs) and the need for English curriculum to prepare young adults for the digital world are raised in this work. Viewed from the standpoint of current theoretical debates on the subject among educators, it draws on a wide range of classroom and real-world experiences to explore how technology affects the instruction of English. Teachers' knowledge of these technologies and their practices in assimilating them into English curriculums are celebrated and exciting scenarios for the future are presented.

Student evaluations and the impact on curriculum, teaching and assessment

This presentation discusses some of the major pressures on universities to frame curriculum around employability skills and professional requirements. Recent evaluation of Australian university courses by graduates suggests that many institutions remain perplexed as to how to do this. The presentation suggests that the student evaluations do not necessarily indicate poor curriculum development but possibly a lack of making skill development more overt through teaching and assessment. The main objective of this presentation is to outline and describe a project on how curriculum needs to and can respond to professional needs and what this may entail for the way in which traditional professional courses are taught and assessed. The presentation seeks to involve participants in identifying and discussing options for the teaching and assessment of skills and possible options for how these skills can be progressively developed throughout a course of study.

Kerry Freedman's Teaching visual culture : curriculum, aesthetics and the social life of Art

Teaching Visual Culture: Curriculum, Aesthetics and the Social Life of Art, Kerry Freedman (2003) New York: Teachers College Press & Reston: National Art Education Association, xiv + 187 pp., ISBN 0-8077-4372-0 (hbk £29.95)

This critical review has two principal goals. First of all, it will briefly summarize how Kerry Freedman’s ambitious eight-chapter monograph initially sets in train a number of key themes, all of which are aimed at enlarging if not transforming visual arts practice. Secondly, it will critically disclose a small set of pivotal assumptions which call any uncritical support for visual culture as the panacea for arts education into question. More particularly, we shall conclude, the logical underpinnings of Teaching Visual Culture are open to serious doubt in at least two respects.