Integrating engineering model eliciting activities in elementary school curricula

This paper argues for a future-oriented, inclusion of Engineering Model Eliciting Activities (EngMEAs) in elementary mathematics curricula. In EngMEAs students work with meaningful engineering problems that capitalise on and extend their existing mathematics and science learning, to develop, revise and document powerful models, while working in groups. The models developed by six groups of 12-year students in solving the Natural Gas activity are presented. Results showed that student models adequately solved the problem, although student models did not take into account all the data provided. Student solutions varied to the extent students employed the engineering context in their models and to their understanding of the mathematical concepts involved in the problem. Finally, recommendations for implementing EngMEAs and for further research are discussed.

School nurses and partnerships for health education : team teaching in the secondary school curricula

The purpose of this research is to examine School Based Youth Health Nurses experience of partnerships for health education and team teaching. The School Based Youth Health Nurse Program is a contemporary model of school nursing in Queensland, Australia. The role of the School Based Youth Health Nurse consists of individual health consultations and health promotion. This research analyses a subset of qualitative data collected for a larger project about the experience of school based youth health nursing. The Health Promoting Schools model is used as a deductive framework. The findings reveal five subthemes across the three areas of the Health Promoting Schools approach. There are two subthemes within the curriculum, teaching and learning area; We were on the same page so to speak and I can go and do my reports or whatever. There are two sub-themes within the partnerships and services area; I had a beautiful science teacher who was just delightful and really just wanted to do things in partnerships and It’s all airy fairy arty farty stuff that’s not important. There is one theme in the school organisation, ethos and environment area; I just don’t know how well the top of these organisations communicate with the bottom of those organisations. Successful partnerships for health education and team teaching between school nurses and teachers are based on personal relationships based on rapport which lead to trust and reciprocity. Partnerships are limited by teachers understanding of the role of the school nurse and engagement with school nurses in the classroom. Administrative support from the top down is fundamental.

Phase I: developing generalized driving while intoxicated (DWI) school curricula. Interim report.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Washington, D.C.

Phase 1 : developing generalized driving while intoxicated (DWI) school curricula /

Mode of access: Internet.

Developing Financial Expertise Through Mathematics and IT School Curricula

Report published in the Proceedings of the National Conference on "Education and Research in the Information Society", Plovdiv, May, 2014

'These are my photos of when I was little' : Locating Media Arts in the Primary School Curriculum

‘Media Arts’ has been included as a fifth area of the Arts for the Australian Curriculum which will become mandatory learning for all Australian children from pre-school to Year Six (Y6) from 2014. The current curriculum design is underpinned by an approach familiar to media educators who combine creative practice and critical response to develop students’ media literacies. Media Arts within the Australian Curriculum will place Australia at the forefront of international efforts to promote media education as an entitlement for all children. Even with this mandated endorsement, however, there remains ongoing debate about where to locate media education in school curricula. Historically, media education in Australia has been approached through diverse curriculum activities at the secondary school level. These include subject English’s critical literacy objectives; vocationally oriented media and technology education or ICTs education; and Arts courses using new media technologies for creativity. In this chapter we consider the possibilities and challenges for Media Arts, specifically for primary school student learning. We draw on empirical evidence from a research project that has trialled a Media Arts curriculum with students attending a primary school in a low socio-economic status and culturally diverse community on the outskirts of Brisbane, Queensland.

School industry partnerships : An innovative strategy for vocational education

One of the challenges confronting contemporary education internationally is to ensure that students are provided with opportunities to make informed choices about future careers and to acquire the capacity to transition into these careers. Schools need to manage their curricula, teacher capacity, timetables, and diversity of student populations by offering pathways that are seen as engaging and meaningful to life beyond schooling. Traditionally, education in the senior years has privileged those students who intend to progress to advanced studies at university or in other professional careers. In more recent times, in response the need for more sophisticated technical knowledge in the trades and a growing skills shortages in these fields, schools have paid more attention to vocational education. It has been argued that the vocational aspect of the school curriculum is less well understood and poorly implemented in comparison with the traditional academic curricula. One attempt to address this issue is through the establishment of school-industry partnerships. This paper explores the process of knowledge transfer between industry and schools in these partnerships. The paper theorises how knowledge that is valued and foundational in workplace employment can inform school curricula and pedagogical practices. The paper draws on theories of organisational knowledge, workplace learning and experiential learning to explore strategies that enhance school-to-employment transition outcomes.

“Well, hang on, they’re actually much better than that!” : disrupting dominant discourses of deficit about English language learners in senior high school English

This paper explores how four English teachers position their English language learners for critical literacy within senior high school curriculum in Queensland, Australia. Such learners are often positioned, even by their teachers, within a broader “deficit discourse” that claims they are inherently lacking the requisite knowledge and skills to engage with intransigent school curricula. As such, English language learners’ identity formation is often constrained by deficit views that can ultimately see limited kinds of literacy teaching offered to them. Using Fairclough’s (2003) critical discourse analysis method, analysis of 16 interviews with the teachers was conducted as part of a larger, critical instrumental case study in two state high schools during 2010. Five competing discourses were identified: deficit as lack; deficit as need; learner “difference” as a resource; conceptual capacity for critical literacy; and linguistic, cultural and conceptual difficulty with critical literacy. While a deficit view is present, counter-hegemonic discourses also exist in their talk. The combination of discourses challenges monolithic deficit views of English language learners, and opens up generative discursive territory to position English language learners in ways other than “problematic”. This has important implications for how teachers view and teach English language learners and their capacity for critical literacy work in senior high school classrooms.

Internationalizing school curriculum in Australasia: As niche, by test, or at heart?

Global citizenship has emerged as a pressing curricular priority which all educational systems are currently grappling with. The challenge is to negotiate how this orientation might sit alongside the more traditional mission of mass school curriculum in building collective ballast for a national identity through a common morality and shared narratives, or may conflict with efforts to protect and promote indigenous and minority identities. As a case study of how these agendas interact, this chapter will consider curricular responses to global imperatives in the variegated conditions across the Australasian region (defined as Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea). The chapter will outline recent developments in the social, economic and political contexts surrounding curricular reforms in these settings, and demonstrate how these developments have changed the conditions of possibility and strength of purpose behind efforts to internationalise school curricula. Three types of systemic responses are then described: firstly, an appetite for globally branded curricula such as the International Baccalaureate, Montessori, and Cambridge University Certificates to distinguish some in a stratified market; secondly, convergence in curriculum to improve national performance on international standardised tests; and thirdly, the infusion of cosmopolitan sensibilities, regional identities and intercultural competencies as a core curricular goal for all. The chapter considers the various pragmatic interpretations of ‘internationalisation’ in these responses, and argues that the third response seems both the most difficult to enact, and the most vulnerable to political interference.

Primary school teacher perceived self-efficacy to teach fundamental motor skills

Fundamental Movement Skills (FMS) are a part of the school curricula, yet many Australian primary-age children are not mastering FMS. One reason may be a lack of perceived self-efficacy of primary teachers to teach FMS. This study investigated the level of perceived self-efficacy of primary school teachers to teach FMS in Victoria, Australia. A cross-sectional survey, based on the Victorian Institute of Teaching Standards of Professional Practice, was used to sample sixty-five pre-service and forty-six in-service teachers. Most primary school teachers were self-efficacious in teaching FMS (67.59 per cent); almost one-third (32.41 per cent) were not. Male teachers had higher perceived self-efficacy than female teachers, and a positive relationship was found between perceived self-efficacy to teach FMS and interest in, and participation in, physical activity (r = 0.52 and r = 0.31 respectively). Implications for practice include providing FMS teaching resources and professional training. Further research should explore the effect of perceived self-efficacy on teaching performance.

Comprehension as social and intellectual practice : rebuilding curriculum in low socioeconomic and cultural minority schools

This article reframes the concept of comprehension as a social and intellectual practice. It reviews current approaches to reading instruction for linguistically and culturally diverse and low socioeconomic students, noting an emphasis on comprehension as autonomous skills. The Four Resources model (Freebody & Luke, 1990) is used to make the case for the integration of comprehension instruction with an emphasis on student cultural and community knowledge, and substantive intellectual and sociocultural content in elementary school curricula. Illustrations are drawn from research underway on the teaching of literacy in primary schools in low SES communities.

Comprehension and content : planning literacy curriculum in low socioeconomic and culturally diverse schools

This article reframes comprehension as a social and intellectual practice. It reviews literature on current approaches to reading instruction for linguistically and culturally diverse and low socioeconomic students, noting the current policy emphasis on the teaching of comprehension as autonomous skills and ‘strategies’. The Four Resources model (Freebody & Luke, 1990) is used to situate comprehension instruction with an emphasis on student cultural and community knowledge, and substantive intellectual and sociocultural content in elementary and middle school curricula. Illustrations are drawn from research underway on the teaching of literacy in low socioeconomic schools.

Accountability through high-stakes testing and curriculum change

The motivation for secondary school principals in Queensland, Australia, to investigate curriculum change coincided with the commencement in 2005 of the state government’s publication of school exit test results as a measure of accountability. Aligning the schools’ curriculum with the requirements of high-stakes testing is considered by many academics and teachers as negative outcome of accountability for reasons such as ‘teaching to the test’ and narrowing the curriculum. However, this article outlines empirical evidence that principals are instigating curriculum change to improve published high-stakes test results. Three principals in this study offered several reasons as to why they wished to implement changes to school curricula. One reason articulated by all three was the pressures of accountability, particularly through the publication of high-stakes test data which has now become commonplace in education systems of many Western Nations.