TTHE PROFESSIONALea JOURNAL OFc THE AUSTRALASIANh TEACHERi REGULATORYn AUTHORITIESg VOLUME 1 | NUMBER 1 | APRIL 2010 Top tips for beginning teachers? DON’T PANIC THE KEY TO LEARNING Small teacher-to-student ratios, individualised learning and a stable environment are helping disadvantaged students overcome the barriers they face. IT’S ABOUT ME MY BEST 10 THINGS I’VE IT’S ABOUT US TEACHER LEARNED INDIGENOUS ED JONATHON WELCH ALLAN WHITTOME PAGE 14 PAGE 24 PAGE 26 TTHE PROFESSIONALea JOURNAL OFc THE AUSTRALASIANh TEACHERi REGULATORYn AUTHORITIESg PUBLISHER Australian Council for Educational Research – ACER Press For Australasian Teacher Regulatory Authorities – ATRA EDITOR Dr Steve Holden 03 9277 5466 [email protected] NATIONAL ADVERTISING MANAGER Carolynn Brown 03 9277 5468 [email protected] PRODUCTION Ralph Schubele [email protected] REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS Wendy Harmer David Rish Inside Teaching is the professional journal of the Australasian Teacher Regulatory Authorities (ATRA). ATRA facilitates the cooperative and collaborative work of Australian and New Zealand teacher registration and accreditation authorities in meeting the needs of a highly-qualified, proficient and reputable teaching profession. Inside Teaching, published online by the Australian Council for Educational Research – ACER Press – for ATRA, is funded, through ATRA, by: The New South Wales Institute of Teachers The Queensland College of Teachers The Teacher Registration Board of the Northern Territory The Teachers Registration Board of South Australia The Teachers Registration Board of Tasmania The Victorian Institute of Teaching The Western Australian College of Teaching LINKS: www.atra.edu.au ACER is a member of the Publishers Australia association CONTENTS Vol 1, Number 1 April 2010 FEATURE The key to learning 08 INDIGENOUS EDUCATION It’s about me; it’s about us 14 PROFESSION How should we measure teacher quality? 16 CURRICULUM & ASSESSMENT Assessment: Informed teaching and learning 22 MY BEST TEACHER Jonathon Welch 24 10 THINGS I’VE LEARNED ABOUT TEACHING Allan Whittome 26 TEACHING TIPS Jane Dobson’s top tips for beginning teachers 28 20 QUESTIONS David Rish interviews John Marsden 32 RESEARCH Two steps forward, one step back: Indigenous students and academic achievement 36 REGULARS State of the nation 04 Behind the lines 05 Opinion 06 News 40 On my shelf 42 See me afterwards 44 Reviews 46 The quiz 48 Diary 49 All reasonable attempts have been made to trace copyright holders of material published. Material contained in Inside Teaching is protected under the Commonwealth Copyright Act 1968. No material may be reproduced wholly or in part without written consent from the copyright holders. The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the Publisher or Editor, nor do they represent the views or policies of ATRA or the teacher registration and accreditation authorities that are party to it. The Editor reserves the right to edit, abridge or otherwise alter articles for publication. All photographs have been published on the understanding that appropriate compliance with privacy legislation has been obtained. The attention of advertisers is drawn to the Trade Practices Act 1974 and the provisions of the Act that apply to advertising. It is not possible for Inside Teaching to ensure that advertisements published herein comply in all respects with the Act and the responsibility must therefore lie with the person, company or advertising agency submitting the advertisement for publication. Editorial State of the nation Welcome to the first The newly-established Australian In Western Australia, according to Institute for Teaching and School Education Minister Liz Constable, edition of Inside Teaching, Leadership has released for public a new era in public education has begun. Referring to the state’s 34 the professional journal of consultation a set of teaching standards that specify the proficiency, skills and new independent public schools, the the Australasian Teacher knowledge expected of graduate, Minister revealed that independent proficient, highly accomplished and public schools principals have more Regulatory Authorities lead teachers in terms of subject autonomy, particularly in terms of content, pedagogy and professional recruitment. The WA Education Minister (ATRA). In keeping with the development. It is expected the graduate called for expressions of interest from goal of ATRA to facilitate the and proficient levels will be tied to schools keen to join the next intake of teacher registration or accreditation, independent public schools, which close cooperative and collaborative while the highly accomplished and lead on 27 April. teacher levels will be voluntary. work of Australian and New In election mode in South Australia, Opposition Leader Isobel Redmond While the registration or accreditation and her shadow Education Minister Zealand teacher registration of teachers remains a state or territory David Pisoni announced a similar responsibility, Commonwealth, state and accreditation authorities, policy to develop a less-centralised and territory governments, through education system, and promised to Inside Teaching looks at the Council of Australian Governments phase in ‘expanded local governance for national partnership agreement on those school communities desiring it,’ the latest current research improving teacher quality, agreed in beginning with a trial in 30 schools in 2011. findings and addresses the January 2009 to create a system of national accreditation of pre-service Also in election mode in Tasmania, issues facing the profession, teacher education courses, national Labor leader David Bartlett went to the consistency in teacher registration and polls with his controversial Tasmania with content by educators for national consistency in the accreditation Tomorrow restructure of Years 11 and 12 which involves replacing secondary educators that has hands-on, or certification of accomplished and leading teachers. colleges with a two-stream system practical application, and of vocationally-oriented polytechnics Public consultation on the draft and university-oriented academies for offers new ideas and standards through state and territory youngsters aiming for university entry. authorities, or the Ministerial Council for Liberal leader Will Hodgman promised promotes reflection on Education, Early Childhood Development he would scrap the two-stream system, and Youth Affairs, closes on 21 May. returning to a business-as-usual model practice. Put simply, Inside of secondary colleges, while maintaining LINKS: www.atra.edu.au or vocational education and training courses Teaching is the real deal. www.mceecdya.edu.au in secondary colleges in line with the We’re confident that it will In Queensland, the Department of current Tasmania Tomorrow model. Education and Training’s $1.1 billion Hodgman also promised to make ‘public meet your needs – the needs dollar public-private partnership (PPP) education fee again’ – or should that of a highly-qualified, proficient with the Aspire School consortium is have been free again? The Greens 11th well underway. The Aspire Schools hour support for Labor means that the and reputable teaching consortium will design, build and Tasmania Tomorrow program is probably maintain six new primary schools and safe – if the Labor-Green government profession. To make sure of one new high school. The new PPP hangs together. that, we want to hear from schools include Bay View State School In Victoria, the Government School in Thornlands South and Peregian Springs Performance Summary was launched you and invite you to contact State School, which opened this year, quietly by the Victorian Registration and Bellbird Park, Collingwood Park, and Qualifications Authority last June, your state or territory ATRA East Coomera Downs and Bundilla State garnering much less attention than the member with your stories, Schools as well as a new high school at My School website of the Australian Murrumba Downs, due for completion in Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting ideas and feedback. 2011 or 2012. Authority launched in January. CARTOON STRIP Alex Hallatt 6 OPINION Measuring school performance National literacy and numeracy assessment and now the new My School website raise a key question: how is a school’s performance best measured? Geoff Masters offers an answer. The launch of the My School website Second, student performances reflect Second, it sets lower expectations of and the public reporting of National a range of influences unrelated to a some students than others. A school in Assessment Program – Literacy and school’s performance. Socioeconomic a low socioeconomic area can be judged Numeracy (NAPLAN) results have backgrounds are an obvious example. to be performing as well as expected, invited questions about how schools So are pre-existing learning difficulties, even if students’ levels of literacy and are ‘performing.’ There are two broad low attendance rates and high levels of numeracy are unacceptable by anybody’s methods you can use to measure a student mobility. Many influences on standard. Third, this approach assumes school’s performance – direct and student test scores are largely beyond that the difference between predicted indirect measures. Direct measures of the control of schools. and actual student results is due only to performance are based on observations Third, student performances can reflect the influence of the school. As British statistician Harvey Goldstein puts it, and judgements