Education in Wonderland

New projects

2009-01-20T11:04:00.006+11:00

I have been working on my personal online resume or e-portfolio for about a year now. The site and I am spending some time these holidays adding more sections to it. These include an Online Resources page which allows me to put up useful links that I have used or will try to use in the classroom. I have also added some more material to the Sample Lesson and unit plans section, including my Intercultural Communication unit for Society and Culture which has been accepted to the Society & Culture Association's publication "Culturescope" (due for publication in the second half of 2009).
I have included these two sections for a few reasons.

Online Resources
I wanted to have better access to the useful resources that I find online. Relying on emailing links, bookmarks etc is just painful so I wanted to centralise these resources and really hone in on those which are the most useful, reliable, relevant, engaging and practical. It is a process now of combing through my considerable list of sites to find the gold.

Sample Lesson and Unit Plans
Part of the process of accreditation in NSW (Australia) for teaching is that you show some examples of your lessons. So as part of that process I have been adding lessons that reveal evidence of information technology integration, scaffolding techniques, reflective exercises and importantly for my accreditation, attention to the Quality Teaching Framework which is used to guide pedagogical practice in NSW.

Moving on

2008-11-08T11:41:00.003+11:00

Well I have finally handed in my last two assignments and feel pretty happy about it. I just have to wait until I get the results and then I can really relax. In the meantime I am thinking of all the new projects I can work on. I have made a note of them so that I can refer back to them and chart my progress. I want to focus on enjoying the process as well as the end result.

Visual Diary - I began this as a reflection exercise collecting together various bits and pieces gathered from excursions, concerts etc. This would help me remember what I have done and express it in a creative way.

Travel Diaries - I wrote a diary of the trip that my partner and I went on in 2006 which covered Europe, Cuba and South America. I would like to transcribe the diary so that I have an electronic version in case something happens to the original. It won't have the little drawings in but at least the content will be there.

Article writing - I want to start doing some more writing and one form of this is for the Society and Culture Association - Culturescope. My mentor at work who is a Society and Culture teacher has urged me to write something as a lesson submission based on my unit of work for university. I am planning to work on that and submit it along with one of his pieces soon.

Self-education - apart from wanting to enrol in another CCE course (Centre for Continuing Education) I would like to be able to spend more time concentrating on gaining a better understanding of the NSW Syllabus and Curriculum resources so that next year I feel more confident in my teaching practice. This will mean focussing on Australian History in particular and Geography in general. Even though I am not sure what I will be doing past April next year (when the maternity leave period ends for my colleague) I will want to be prepared for Term 1 and beyond.

Now to get started....

Intercultural Communication (Japan and Australia) Society & Culture

2008-10-14T17:13:00.011+11:00

Subject matter

I have been given an assignment to plan a unit (involving 20 lesson) for a particular subject. I have chosen Society & Culture because I really love the subject and I am also fortunate enough to have a wonderful mentor who is a Society & Culture teacher. This unit focuses on Intercultural communication. You are required to look the communication process in general and then focus on an inter-cultural comparision. I have chosen to look at Japan for this section of the study.

Prior experience and Practical application
My practicum experience involved 4 weeks of teaching one unit from Society & Culture and so I hope to use some of this hands on experience, his expert advice and the many resource I have found online and in other forms to assist in this process. The good news is that hopefully I can implement some of these lessons in the classroom - will just have to sweet talk my mentor.

Reflection
I am finding the process of planning lessons invigorating, if daunting. I have to be aware however that in my excitement about finding materials and putting lessons together I must not lose sight of the other important part of the equation. This is the teaching strategies I must employ when thinking about implementing these in reality. I have found that in my recent experience developing lessons for History (years 7 - 10) I have paid plenty of attention to the lesson planning but not the delivery. I really want to focus on the bigger picture of what I really want the students to get out of the lesson, not just the bells and whistles of the materials used in the lesson. Thinking about this before each lesson and making it explicit to the students will help guide them, and me, in the lesson as it unfolds...hopefully!

Resources

I have compiled a few interesting sites that have relevant materials to this unit for future reference (and for others who might read this site). Particularly interesting to me was the articles by Deborah Tannen who writes a great deal about communication, and in particular, the role of gender in the communication process. Whilst I cannot put the entire article online, the reference is provided below.

Tannen, D. (1995) The Power of Talk: Who Gets Heard and Why. Harvard Business Review, 73 (5). Accessed October 14th, 2008 from Business Source Premier

Extremely useful source when examining hierarchical structures with refer the gender roles. This example focuses on the corporate field but lesson learned can be transferred to other situations.

Australia - Culture, Customs and Etiquette

This site (and the accompanying Japan site) can be useful resources when comparing and contrasting the two societies for this unit. The students can use this site and critique the description given to the Australian society so that they might be more aware of the potential benefits and dangers of drawing generalities about such cultural descriptions.

Japan - Language, Culture, Customs and Etiquette

Although the site is directed toward the business aspect of inter-cultural communication it contains some relevant material about particular Japanese communication both verbal and non-verbal.
It covers the following areas of interest to the studies of Cross-cultural communication:
The Japanese and 'Face'
Harmony in Japanese Society
Japanese Non-Verbal Communication
Japanese Hierarchy
Meeting Etiquette
Gift Giving Etiquette
Dining Etiquette
Watch your Table Manners!

Japan Guide - Non-Verbal Communication

This site is useful for the lesson concerning non-verbal communication in Japan as it details some of the symbolic gestures used in Japan. It covers the following areas: silence, facial gestures, touching, showing respect to objects and general gestures.

Getting Through Customs

This site contains cultural quizzes complete with answers.

What’s in a gesture?
Judie Hayes.

This website contains a lesson about the nature of gestures and how they are used and interpreted in different culture. The lesson is created from an United States perspective which can be limiting but could be adapted and used as a model for similar comparisons between one culture and another, or modified to a particular country.

Differentiated Curriculum

2008-10-13T12:32:00.004+11:00

It has been a while. I am in the midst of school holidays and of my final two assignments for my uni course. I am designing 20 lesson plans as part of a unit in Society & Culture Intercultural Communication for the preliminary HSC course and also working on a two-parter which involves investigating Task Analysis, Direct Instruction and Differentiation.

To this end, I wanted to include some resources for these topics. I will add them to my resources list but just one I have found today.

Differentiation - link to journal articles

Last semester at university

2008-07-12T12:26:00.003+10:00

Well, a great deal has happened. Firstly I am teaching almost fulltime now in the HSIE Department at Emanuel School. I teach 2 year 7 classes, 1 year 8 class, 1 year 9 class and 2 year 10 classes. It was a hectic 6 weeks of term but not as hard as I suspect other first year teachers have - as I have worked at the school for 5 years and know my 'new' colleagues very well. I have noted that the amount of planning you have to do is done after the school day has finished, free periods being used to do paper work, organise lessons and so on. I have a paper diary planner which I carry everywhere and where I write my 2 line lesson plans! However, I also carry the textbooks, marker pens, normal pens, my compute and very importantly the black folder. This folder contains all of the current lessons I am teaching (and forthcoming lessons) - articles, worksheets, assessment tasks etc...and I keep this constantly up to date. That way if all else fails you have your backup. Peace of mind and handy when the technology fails.
Finished all of my marking the first saturday of the holidays. It is still troubling to mark I find - that is one useful thing they could teach you at university I think - maybe in curriculum method. You learn all about assessment, but not exactly how to mark. I set assessment tasks for all my classes so had a lot to mark but now have a little bit of an idea about the students I will be teaching until the end of the year. Now, it is the time for planning. I am setting out what I need to teach in History for all the years until the end of the year. Not the exact lessons - but just the topics I need to cover. The syllabus guides and the school programmes are obviously essential but it helps to plan it all out so that you are prepared mentally and have plenty of opportunities to develop interesting and innovative lessons.

As for university studies, I have Curriculum Method and Inclusive Learning this semester...and there is a lot of work to do for both of them. Even more incentive to keep on top of things. I have firstly to do a webquest and secondly design 20 45minute lessons....and that is just one unit. For the other it is more lots of little assignments. Once those two are done - so I am I. Fully qualified teacher then.

Onwards

E-Porfolios for student learning

2008-04-17T10:16:00.007+10:00

"A portfolio is a purposeful collection of student work that exhibits the students efforts, progress, and achievements in one or more areas. The collection must include student participation in selecting contents, the criteria for selection; the criteria for judging merit, and evidence of student self-reflection. An electronic portfolio includes the use of electronic technologies that allow the portfolio developer to collect and organize artifacts in many formats (audio, video, graphics, and text)."Create your own Electronic Portfolio

I began looking on the internet for information about creating an electronic teaching portfolio and found so many articles and resources relating to electronic student portfolios that I thought I would write another post about it and collect some of the more useful sites on this blog. I particularly like this image I saw on DigitalArchive4Life
This image represent our 'Digital Archive for Life' - how we might collect artifacts over time in various formats as the story of our lives.

"Eportfolios offer many benefits for learners as they seek to create and reflect on life experiences.

Personal knowledge management
History of development and growth
Planning/goal setting tool
Assist learners in making connections between learning experiences (his may include formal and informal learning).
Provide the metacognitive elements needed to assist learners in planning future learning needs based on previous successes and failures.
Personal control of learning history (as compared to organizations controlling learner history)." (taken from elearnspace)

For students it is useful:

increased learning effectiveness
model professionalism
enhance information technology skills
gain academic credit for learning beyond the classroom
reflections on artifacts as well as how they match goals and standards
help students make connections among their formal and informal learning experiences
prompt learners to articulate their learning goals from different perspectives
allow individuals to display learning in ways overlooked or undervalued by other assessment means" (taken from (ePortfolios Portal)

Resources (Student and Teacher Portfolios)
Dr Helen Barrett - E-porfolios online
Professional Portfolios (HSC Online NSW)
E-Portfolio (EDNA online)
elearnspace
ePortfolios Portal
Designing E-Learning (Australian Flexible Learning Framework)

Electronic portfolios

2008-04-17T10:02:00.006+10:00

I am on school holidays at the moment and am using the time to get to all those things that I have wanting to do but have been too busy to do so. I have to complete my Critical Professional Commentary (based on my practicum experience) but this will be a pleasurable experience because I have such fond memories of my school. Secondly I have to do some work on my next essay due for Literacies for Learning (the first one was posted last friday thank goodness). I am also looking at developing my Electronic Teaching portfolio and to this end have found some guides on the internet (see below). This is like a summary of what you have learned, your teaching philosophy, work experiences and such like. In terms of education, I also want to focus on going through the History and Geography textbooks so I can be prepared to teach my year 7, 8, 9 and now 10 hopefully classes next term from the 19th May (when my colleague goes on maternity leave). So, a busy holiday but it is great to have time to do these things and really just not have to worry about being somewhere or doing something...just taking my time and enjoying the projects. Plus, if I do a lot now, I know I will be less stressed when I actually have to start teaching and writing school reports!

Guides to Electronic Teaching Portfolios
Adelaide University Guide - Developing your teaching portfolio

My Teaching Portfolio ( A Work in Progress)

Management speak....

2008-04-06T14:25:00.004+10:00

I must say I really don't like the way management speak has infiltrated Education so much. This article in the Age Newspaper regarding the Australia 2020 Summit interviews "Nicholas Gruen, chief executive of Lateral Economics and chairman of Peach Discount Mortgage Broking" who says, "We need to empower the consumers of those services to know something about their quality so that … the value-add that schools are making is monitored and made public," - 'consumers' means I supposed parents and their children, the school students or 'learners' as they might be called elsewhere....and 'value-add' is a nice way of saying extra stuff that they have at their school - computers, pools, overseas exchange programmes etc....I suspect, but am not sure. See the full article here:
Education Hot Topic of Summit

Other news is that I only have two more days of practicum left. I have really enjoyed my time at South Sydney High School and will miss all of them there when I go. They have a really great department and that helps a great deal when you are teaching - support of others. I think it will really affect the way that I deal with students from now on, taking a much more individualised approach - attending to students outside of class so that there is a personal relationship on which to build a student-teacher relationship as well. You get so much more out of teaching when you invest this time with the children - I have seen it work. I just hope I can follow in my prac supervisor's footsteps.
Final news is that I finished my 1st essay for Literacies for Learning. I have found it hard to concentrate on this whilst doing prac which is so much better because you plan and then actually teach...rather than just write about it....but I feel pleased with my efforts in this assignment which were focussed on re-evaluating a lesson with reference to literacy support. I used one of the old lessons from my first curriculum method subject 2 years ago and it was good to revisit it.

Right, onto my photos - went to Woronora General Cemetery in Sutherland today with my partner and took some great shots there. Am sort of obsessed with the little objects that people put on cemeteries and have taken lots of pictures of all sorts of oddments. You can see this and other information about cemeteries I have visited on my new blog site: Cemetery Curiosities

first one in while

2008-03-25T17:00:00.001+11:00

Practicum is going very well. It is quite a challenging school but that is perfect because i want to work on my classroom management skills more. It is great to that I have a very supportive, enthusiastic and very student orientated prac supervisor who is teaching me lots, giving me great advice and encouraging me to take risks. The other great thing about it is watching other teachers and getting some tips. Finally, I like the fact that I have to come up with lesson plans - even though they take forever - it forces you to get out there and be creative - to find something that you and the students will be interested in.

Two more weeks to go and then back to my school for a few days. Then it is the school holidays. Hopefully I will be able to update this site with some of my useful sources from the practicum and generally catch up on my life - and prepare for the next challenge - teaching in Term 2.

update on practicum

2008-03-10T07:11:00.002+11:00

Randwick Girls High School did not work out but thankfully South Sydney High School has and I start there today. I really have not much of an idea as to what I will be teaching, but Legal Studies and Geography (Year 11) were mentioned! This weekend, I just collapsed at home. I had been so stressed by organising the practicum and tying up things at work that it all caught up with me. Stayed in bed and slept. Feel much better today and am really looking forward to seeing this school. It reminds me a lot of my own state school - which was one of the biggest in WA (Willetton Senior High School). It has a lot of the same facilities and I think it quite big. It will be good to get out and try something new.

Found this rather scary story this morning whilst eating breakfast. White flight leaves system segregated by class SMH

Also - solidarity with the striking Victorian teachers - let's hope the government listens to them. End lip service and pay up Mr Premier.

A

Good news!

2008-03-01T11:57:00.003+11:00

After a bit of a rollercoaster week I have been officially notified that I will be taking over from my colleague in the HSIE department, covering her maternity leave from Term 2 this year. This means I will get to teach 19 periods of Geography and History each week and spend the remainder of the time in the library doing work assigned to me by my boss there. It is very exciting and daunting at the same time. I just hope I can live up to the expectations of the Head of Department who worked so hard to get me into HSIE. This means that I have had to rearrange my practicum rather urgently and have applied (with the help of this colleague) to go to Randwick Girls High School hopefully teaching in the Social Sciences Deparment. Hopefully I will begin in the week starting on the 10th March.
Have begun reading articles for our first assignment for this unit which involves looking at a lesson one has prepared and taught and then re-evaluating it and re-planning it with the ideas of literacy in mind. I have added one online link to information about visual literacy. It is called Considering Visual Literacy when Designing Instruction by Michael D Sankey

Back to it.

Practicum problems

2008-02-16T12:31:00.002+11:00

I am trying to organize my second and final practicum for Term 2 2008. I had wanted to go to Belmore Boys High School but it is proving difficult to contact people there after numerous phone calls and emails. I have therefore submitted another application this time for Mosman High School, Kingsgrove High School and Marrickville High School. I hope I hear from the practicum office soon about this problem.
On this issue I have been re-reading some of my assessments from the last practicum and taking on board some of the issue mentioned by practicum supervisors. One in particular was on classroom management practices. I intend to review the material about this from the course last year so I have some techniques under my belt. I am continually watching teachers for tips, trick and tactics in this matter!

On other matters, have done my first posting to the forums for Literacies for Learning using some of the information I have been exploring for the Harvard Online Education Course - Teaching for Learning. I will post my answers here so I can look back on them at the end of course to see if I still agree or not!

We were asked:
1. What do you see as being meant by being literate?
2. How do you think literacy is developed?
3. What is the role of literacy in learning?

What is Literacy?
Since beginning the Harvard Online Teaching and Learning Course (available at
I have been thinking a lot about the term 'understanding' and why it should be of central importance for teaching. Literacy is part of this concept of understanding as to be literate means being able to interpret, explore, analyze, communicate, represent, reciprocate, question, repeat and instruct. A literate person could be said to be one who may do all of these things with given information.

How is literacy developed?
Literacy can be developed by exposure to different forms of communication, e.g. speech, written words & images. Such exposure would involve direct instruction, modelling, practice through repetition, and personal exploration of meaning.

Role of Literacy
The role of literacy in learning is central because it is the basis of understanding. Understanding might refer to the way in which knowledge is received and understood and then applied to different situations. It can develop through application of concepts to real life situations, by learning from others via demonstrations or explanations, through experimentation and from repeated application of concepts or techniques in different situations at different times. In order to work through this series of steps, one must be able to decipher codes and communicate information. This is where literacy comes in.

More soon

Back for 2008

2008-02-09T13:10:00.000+11:00

Well I have rather a lot on my plate this semester. I am completing another unit for my Graduate Diploma of Education (Charles Sturt University) called Literacies for Learning. I am also doing my second practicum, hopefully at Belmore Boys School, from the 28th April to the 19th May (Term 2). Lastly I am working on the Harvard Online Education Course - Teaching for Understanding

I began today sorting all the paperwork from the Harvard course, it is really well done. All the syllabus material including calendars, timetables, glossaries, unit guides etc are available online so I have saved all these for reference later. I am working with two colleagues at my school, both in the HSIE/Social Sciences area and I began our work together by posting our first message to the forum that we are to use to communicate with our coach and others doing the course. The textbooks is constructed in such a way that you can ready it in any order. The chapter headings are:

Understanding Understanding
The Teaching for Understanding Framework
Generative Topics
Understanding Goals
Performances of Understanding
Ongoing Assessment
Tips and Tools for Planning and Teaching
Teaching for Understanding and other teaching practices

I think it will be a worthwhile course. It is covered over 12 weeks with two week cycles and 6 units of study with 4 pieces of assessment in each one. You are required to read the question, discuss with your group, post your answers, discuss with the coach and other students and provide feedback to others.

Today I read Chapters 2 - 5 and am getting an understanding of some of the key terminology such as through lines - major themes - and overarching goals - unit goals. I thought it would be useful to post some of my ideas to the 1st chapter that, like all the chapters, has a list of Reflection questions at the end of it.

How do you know that you understand something?
I can successfully use the knowledge to apply to different situations at different times.
I can explain/relate my understanding to other people

What helps you develop that understanding?
Practice
Application to real life situations
Discussion with others
Experimentation
Learning from demonstration/explanation by others

All for now, have to read some more - then see about the first assignment that we have to complete by Tuesday.

Oh...and also get ready for the Iron Maiden BBQ we are having at our house today...in the rain!

Australia Teenagers Don't like reading.....

2007-12-05T07:08:00.000+11:00

Heard this story on Radio National this morning. The OECD reports of 15 year olds every 3 years on literacy, mathematics and science results and found that Australian students were scoring less on literacy tests because there were fewer who were able to perform at advanced levels. Girls were not performing as well in Mathematics after gains in this area in the past few years. See these articles for more on this:

Australia slides down the global reading scale (The Australian)

Australian students in world ranking (ABC)

Have also included a press release from the ACER in the online section of the blog.

Finally finished...only 1 year to go

2007-11-22T16:38:00.000+11:00

It is all over. After an intermidable time, it is finally done. I can perfectly handle essays, well, sort of, but exams are another matter entirely. I felt like I had just walked back into 1989 and was able to sit my TEE exams for Year 12...not a pleasant memory. Anyway, there was a lot of different people there from all sorts of different universities doing everything from Chemistry to International Marketing. The exam questions were fair and I had studied all of the areas covered so that was a relief. I only feel slightly sorry for the examiner who has to read the writing that went from very neat to very illegible over the course of the 20 odd pages I managed to get down. Celebrated with champagne and reading something other than course notes. Now have to wait for the results of that and my last essay.
Will continue to peruse material that is interesting, useful and provocative over the holidays. Food for the brain.
All for now....

Near the finish line

2007-11-11T13:16:00.001+11:00

Today is Sunday and here I am again at the computer. I had to drag myself away from reading this great book by Bruce Beresford (Director) called Josh Harnett definitely wants to do this...true stories from a life in the screen trade, and put myself back into study mode. Good news is that my partner helped me by going through the last assignment for Constructions of Adolescence unit with a fine tooth comb and I did the final rewrites today and sent it off. Phew. Now I can fully concentrate on notemaking and revision. My strategy is to write notes from the readings - and have been publishing these - but also I found some great notes about sociology from this site - I wish we had been given something like this in the first place rather than just articles because it helps to have an overview of issues such as functionalism, marxism, hidden curriculum. ethnicity, class and gender from a sociological point of view before launching into specific studies. I found that it really helped to guide my understanding of the readings. I think that the book, Sociology of Education: Possibilities and Practices is good as it does have such an overview and then several very well written articles on those issues, gender, ethnicity which were helpful. I haven't read the whole book but intent to when I don't have to! It is tough revising for this exam, apart from the absence of practice, but also because it makes me feel that I am just preparing to know something to reproduce it for a 2 hour exam and to make sure I remember names, theories, concepts and issues, but that it might all fall out of my head later. I like preparing for essays because there is that lovely time of discovery and reading when everything is new...but now i just feel under pressure to remember remember remember - and there is so much that could be targeted for the exam...bit odd that we don't have access to past papers and only one is reproduced in the study guide (my study buddy feels that this is a sure sign that these might be the questions reproduced)
Anyway, happy that my partner is driving me to the exam - might just crash the car on the way because of anxiety. Don't feel exactly stressed right now, but it is only a week away - am sure I will work up to a frenzy by then. I can completely identify with all the students who just sat their HSC in NSW...my heart goes out to them.

Exam preparation

2007-11-03T11:15:00.000+11:00

I have begun exam preparation in earnest. It is has been years since I have sat an exam and to tell the truth I find it hard to believe that the topic "Cultural Politics in Education" has an exam at all...surely the better way to explore such a subject and learn about it (which is the point I presume) is not to learn facts for and exam but to write essays exploring the topic in depth...but...that is not the case. So I am carefully reading over the notes I have made for the readings and creating tables of theories and concepts (and reading the readings I missed because I was concentrating too much on the issue of class for my major essay - which I did very poorly in). Anyway, luckily it is a rainy day so I don't feel so bad for having to stay inside and study. My partner is reading through my essay due on the 12th about creating a profile for a Year 7/8 and year 11/12 student based on Piagetian theories about cognitive development so as to develop a profile with reference to my KLA (Human Society and It's Environment). Sounds simple huh! Well....he is picking it apart with a fine tooth comb...after my last disastrous results I need a critical eye going over my work - have lost quite a bit of confidence after that performance. I could clearly see when I got my essay back that i had really sat on the fence, not argued a point, not mentioned theory enough and generally wrote a very poor essay....but I am determined to better in the exam and to do better in this last essay....then enjoy a nice long break ; )

Equality???

2007-10-29T07:03:00.000+11:00

Some articles of note from online newspapers about the issue of access to education and the various factors that can ultimately affect where one goes to school and what type of education one receives.

Schools in Standover Claim - The Age

ALP to help put 21st-century tools in reach - The Australian

The school that John Built

2007-10-20T11:03:00.000+10:00

Reading a lot about cognitive development at the moment and one of the theorists, Vykotsky speaks a great deal about the importance of society and culture as impactors on this development.

"The development of the mind is the interweaving of biological development of the human body and the appropriation of the cultural/ideal/material heritage which exists in the present to coordinate people with each other and the physical world" (Cole and Wertch, 1996)

Vykotsky's Three Principles

Social interaction plays a critical role in CD in relation to what is learned, when and how it occurs. (Lutz & Huitt, 2004)
Potential for CD is limited to a certain time span - limited to a certain range at any given age. (Kearsley, 2001)
Only way to understand how humans come to 'know' is to study learning in an environment where the process rather than the product is studied. ((Lutz & Huitt, 2004)

Reading all this made me think about the interview I saw on the 7.30 Report about John Marsden (australian author) and the school (Candlebark) he set up in 2006. Just looking at his website and listening/reading to his interviews is inspirational and relates well to this idea of the environment being extremely important to cognitive development. A productive, supportive, inspirational environment with high expectations seems the most ideal - with an emphasis on not just the end result but the learning journey as well.
See some articles about him and his school here:

The School that John Built (Australian Story)

The school that John Built (The Age, February 6, 2006)

In search of the Perfect School (The Age, February 21, 2005)

7.30 Report 7th March2005

Interview on Enough Rope 2004

Podcasting....do it yourself

2007-10-18T10:38:00.000+10:00

Today I am attending a podcasting in the classroom lesson as part of my professional development. I am just writing a quick entry to add that the resources for Podcasting are on this blog page now.

On with the learning....

Onwards and upwards

2007-10-15T18:05:00.001+10:00

I actually found some articles for my next assignment which is the following:

Topic: Development profile - The cognitive adolescent.

From your reading of the literature, discuss the likely cognitive capabilities of students in Year 7 or 8 and compare this to the cognitive skills we could expect to see in Year 11 or 12 students. What are the implications of this for teaching in your KLA?

I am planning to incorporate some information about brain development and neuroscience into the discussion as we know more and more each day about how the brain develops and changes and there are certainly implications for teaching in this. Some useful articles I found include:

Advances in Brain Research: Implications for Educators (March 5, 2005) by Sue A. Sticker - Paper presented at the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts & Letters (ERIC database)
Mini Literature Review based on Brain Research and Its effects on Educational Practice (June 26, 2007) by Arnita Rena Hall (ERIC database)
Piaget: Implications for Teaching (2001) by Patricia Webb (EBSCOHost - Academic Search Premier)
Skills, Concepts and attitudes - The Development of Adolescent Children's Historical Thinking (2001) by M.B. Booth (EBSCOHost - Academic Search Premier)
Adolescent's ability to engage in critical thinking (1988) by Daniel Keating (ERIC database)
Middle School Students' Information-Seeking Skills and Metacognitive Awareness (1999) by Sonya Symons and P.Lee Reynolds (ERIC database)
Coping with change in the middle years: How Research can inform teaching pedgagogy (2004) Educating: Weaving Research into Practice Vol.3 (Informit Database)
Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development by Huitt, W & Hummel, J. (2003) Educational Psychology Interactive Valdosta State University, USA.
Brain -compatible learning: fad or foundation? Neuroscience points to better strategies for educators but sorting out claims on brain-based programs is essential (2006) by Patricia Wolfe in School Adminstrator (Factiva Database

and...more in depth by the same authors

Citation: Lutz, S., & Huitt, W. (2004). Connecting cognitive development and constructivism: Implications from theory for instruction and assessment. Constructivism in the Human Sciences,9(1), 67-90.

So let's start reading....

Almost the end of the hols...

2007-10-12T13:40:00.001+10:00

It is Friday now and back to work on Monday. I think it has been a very productive period. I have finished my essay, written up some articles for wikipedia, organised my music collection, done my tax return (almost) , updated my visual diary and read two novels. It is great to be productive and enjoy it!

In the news today - Kevin Rudd's education plans as it stands now means no changes to existing funding for schools.
Unions vent anger at Rudd's School Plan (The Australian)
ALP to keep private school funding (The Australian)

and also there is a big furore around the proposals for the 'new & improved' Australian History syllabus put forward by John Howard and others (including Conservative historian Geoffrey Blaine). I am not saying Australian History is not important, but it is already taught from Grade 3 to Year 10....also he has a problem with the thematic approach and wants a narrative - doesn't he trust teachers at all ???

Howard attacked over History Plan (The Australian)
Teachers united in Mockery (The Sydney Morning Herald)
PM's lesson: Cash for History (The Sydney Morning Herald)

I like to keep informed about what is happening in the media with regard to education. See my Education Links for access to these sites.

Essay dead Long live the Essay

2007-10-08T07:57:00.001+10:00

I finished my essay on Saturday and sent it off with a mixture of anxiety, relief and a sense of achievement...it takes up so much thinking time it is just a relief when it is done and you can move on to the next project. I have written up a list of things I would like to complete this week and a couple of things include Education related activities:

1. Read Sociology in Perspective

2. Start Readings for Assignment 2 in Constructions of Adolescence

3. Read material from the course I am attending at the University of Sydney - Centre for Continuing Education Session - Introduction to Philosophy by Kerry Saunders (note we have also completed Introduction to Critical Thinking and Shakespeare and Philosophy through CCE)

4. Write up Philosophy (Intro and Shakespeare) on computer for storage and clarification

5. Finish article for Wikipedia about the Mortuary Station (Rookwood, Sydney)

Writing an essay - the process in essence

2007-10-02T14:50:00.000+10:00

I thought this would be a useful - if slightly cynical reminder to myself of how it goes...and to warn others ; )

1. Get assignment question
2. Break down the question - mild panic at word limit
3. Go online enthusiastically and track down books on google book search (add them to your library of things YOU MUST READ) and online databases - saving items that YOU MUST READ and printing them.
4. Begin reading...
5. Continue reading - use many highlighters (different colours preferred) whilst convincing yourself that highlighting whilst laying on the couch is GOOD WORK and PRODUCTIVE.
7. Start conversing with your friends/partner in the language of whichever theorist you have just read - when they start to get that glazed look in their eyes...desist.
8. Watch videos - convincing yourself that they are in some way related to you studies (Summer Heights High is VERY RELEVANT to my discussion of the concept of social class and the hidden curriculum in education.
9. Scour the internet for useful websites that YOU MUST READ....(eventually)
9b. Remember to WRITE ALL REFERENCES DOWN as you are collecting them....so you don't panic at the end with writing the reference list.
10. Begin writing - but remember to write the question IN YOUR OWN WORDS so you understand it...
11. Panic mildly at the number of days in the calender left to do this...yes, I know you have two weeks but it must be done NOW if you are to relieve yourself of this anxiety...
12. Read articles again focussing on the highlighted areas and make initially entries into your FIRST DRAFT (titled as such)...also begin a document titled: "GOOD QUOTES FOR ESSAY" - *warning* this may never be used but makes you feel productive anyway.
13. Finish first draft - read over and realise you have a loooong way to go.
14. Write introduction - this will usually take 4 to 5 hours and require many many rewrites.
15. Cut and paste the jigsaw that is your essay into place.
16. Insert headings to organise your jigsaw puzzle
17. Insert linking sentences between the headings
18. Write conclusion
19. Re-read
20. Realise that it makes no sense and start a brand new draft.
21. Copy and paste from your original draft using a new strategy (opposite approach to the one you employed before)
22. Re-read and edit
23. Under NO circumstances give it to another to read unless you are:
a. completely calm
OR
b. medicated
OR
c. slightly tipsy
Not being in one of these states will cause you to viciously attack the kind person who attempts to give you some CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM of your work....you will only see it as an attack on your and ALL THE WORK I HAVE DONE.
24. Read for final time - triple check spelling and references are done correctly (according to Harvard, APA etc....and that you have actually used them in your essay...more is not better if you haven't actually used them)
23. Login - attach - send...sigh....
24. Go and watch A FUNNY MOVIE.

The End

Getting started

2007-09-28T12:37:00.000+10:00

I have started writing up my summaries for the interviews and am doing it through a mixture of writing from my written notes and then listening to the recorded interviews and writing direct quotes that can be used. It is a rather long process and took me about 5 hours yesterday (with some diversions to find yet more articles!) but am now integrating these quotes and comments into the first draft of my essay.
I have been reading some really interesting articles and found one particularly interesting debate about the issue of class in Australia from the Radio National Big Ideas programme titled Australia Forums: Class in Contemporary Australia
It discusses the issue of class in general but does talk about class in regard to education. I liked one quote in particular - very telling I think about the nature of power in Australia...and indeed elsewhere...

"And there’s a lovely moment in one of those, where one of the very rich guys, who are the most influential group in Australia, explains why people like him don’t give very much attention to questions of education. Because however good an education you get, the best it’s going to do for you in terms of economic advantage is get you into a high-paid profession. But even doctors and lawyers are only going to get paid while they are themselves working. But to make any real money, any serious money, and this is what the capitalists themselves are telling us, you have to get other people working for you. And it’s when you get other people working for you that you get accumulation of serious wealth." Bob Connell

Well, must get on...lunch and then more reading and writing. Thank goodness we do not have the excavator noise next door today. I had to retreat to work to get some quiet - on the first day of my holidays!

AWOL

2007-09-23T17:47:00.000+10:00

I have been very neglectful of my studies in terms of reading and my blog in terms of recording and am feeling a bit guilty. However, I have one excuse. We finish the term on Wednesday and after that I have 2 weeks and 2 days off school and so plan to finish my articles for my assignment, write up summaries for the assignment and then actually write the assignment! It is good to have a long stretch of time in which to read, think, draft, panic, and then do a final draft to send in. I am still a little confused by some of the instructions we have been given regarding interview consent forms but am sure that I will be able to work them out in the end. I interviewed 4 of my friends, but will only need to use the information of 3 of them. Not sure which one I will omit as yet, it will only come about through further reading and thinking.

This afternoon I sat and read through 6 essays from my textbook for Cultural Politics in Education titled: Sociology of Education: Possibilities and Practices edited by Jennifer Allen - first by re-reading the article about Class titled: Which class do you teach? Education and the Reproduction of Class Inequality" by John Germov as this will be very useful for my essay. assignment. It is going to be a challenging assignment but it will be interesting and I have enjoyed the sociological nature of this course.

Back to it....

ps. I really love google books My Library. You can find online full texts or samples/previews of books and keep them in your own virtual bookshelf. My list is available here.

Independent, Catholic or Government schools

2007-09-08T15:44:00.000+10:00

Notes on “Choice between Government, Catholic and Independent schools: Culture and community rather than class” by Jonathan Kelley and M.D.R. Evans

The Australian Social Monitor, Vol. 7(2), 2004

Factors affects attendance at independent or catholic or government schools???

Father’s occupation
Income
Parent’s education
Trade union membership
Religious affiliation
Political affiliation
Gender
Family structure
Population where family lives

Farm families more likely to send their children to independent schools as schooling was only available to Year 8 in country areas during the 1950’s so they turned to independent boarding schools p.52

“Parents education is the only class related variable in our model that has a significant effect on the probability of sending one’s children to Catholic school, but even it is not large. P. 37

Class differences are larger when analyzing independent schools but these are a matter of parental education and occupation rather than parental income. P. 38

****

Is this different now? Interesting to look at more studies in this area to see if they achieve the same/similar results as this...that income does not hugely influence a parent's decision to send their children to catholic or more significantly, an independent school. Parental education is more of an influencing factor - is this still the case?

Readings for Cultural Politics in Education Assignment 1

2007-09-07T11:37:00.000+10:00

As I said in my previous post I have to interview 3 people about their educational background. Nobody has gotten back to me yet but I hope that my volunteers will get back to me soonish. One is easy to persuade as I live with him!
My aim today on this Friday of the long weekend is to read and summarise some important points in the articles for use in the assignment as I did for the previous on.
I want to focus on Class and the Hidden Curriculum.

Article 1 - The Hidden Curriculum: An overview. A sociology of educating (4th ed., pp.65-76. Continuum.

Interesting points from the article:

Hidden Curriculum: Reid (1986)

“a concept that refers to all of those socialising practices that are not included in the official curriculum but that contribute toward the reproduction of our culture.

Hidden Curriculum (Adapted from Postman & Wiengartner, 1971)

Passive acceptance vs active criticism
Knowledge creation is beyond the power of students (not their concern)
Recall is the most important skill – recall of unrelated facts
Authority is valued – independent judgement is not
Individual and peer ideas are not important
Emotions are unimportant
Single, unambiguous correct answers
Each subject is separate from the other
Hierachy of subjects – minor and major subjects p.65

Drama teachers always complaining that this is the case in school - what other subjects are affected?
Look at the HSC syllabus - core subjects - Maths, English, Science

Hidden curriculum: Further (Meighan & Siraj-Blatchford, 2003)

Competition rather than cooperation
Helping yourself better than helping others
Reading, writing and maths more important than talking, thinking and creating
Adults more important than children
Men more important than women
Whites more important than other ethnic groups
Western world more advanced than other parts of the world p.66

Hidden Curriculum can mean: (Portelli, 1993)

Unofficial expectations of implicit but expected messages
Unintended learning outcomes of messages
Implicit messages arising from the structure of schooling
Created by the students p.66

Change in education often opposed by those who have been through the system

(reproduction of values?)

E.g. not accepting play as an acceptable form of learning (e.g. Scandanavian countries use this extensively)
Mass schooling begun in an ‘information impoverished society” – this has changed now so should schools look and act differently? P.68

See Edpod - Interview with David Salter at http://www.abc.net.au/rn/edpod/stories/2007/2000292.htm about Schools for the 21st century

Language - (de Bono, 1971)

The English language has a marked tendency toward dichotomies good/bad, black/white, strong/weak etc and a consequence is an oversimplification of complex ideas p.71

See shows such as Difference of Opinion as a confirmation of this!

Hidden Curriculum - Jackson (1968)
3 R’s – Rules, Regulations and Routines.
Students must also learn to cope with the delay, denial and interruptions in most classrooms. P. 71.

Instilling in children/adolescents behavior expected of then in the workplace?

Britain

– dominant ideology of meritocracy

“Place in the class structure is assumed to be, at least in part, a result of his or her own qualities and endeavours (or lack of them)” Connell (and others)

Is Australia similar in this respect??

Bowles and Gintis (1976) – Correspondence Theory

Attitudes passed on by schools correspond directly to those of the social relations of work in a capitalist economy and therefore constitute a preparation for life in a class-divided society. P. 72

Is this why philosophy departments are shrinking and business studies is the most popular course in the HSC?

New Sociology of Education

Writers such as Bordieu, Passeron (1977), Wexler (1976) Bernstein (1977) - empahsised the relative autonomy of the school to the social structure (as opposed to the ideas of Bowles & Gintis) and focussed attention of the ‘hidden curriculum’ and ‘invisible pedagogies’ which operate to the advantage of the power groups in society.

New Sociology of Education

Further notes on this can be found on My Work link.

Assignment 1 Finished!

2007-09-05T18:52:00.000+10:00

Wrote the final draft, checked it, checked it again and checked it again..and sent it. 5 days early but I wanted it out there so I could concentrate on my next assignment for Cultural Politics of Education. This involves interviewing 3 people and finding out about their highschool experiences. I just sent this message off to 5 friends who I identified as being possible candidates;

I have this assignment for university - detailed below:

1. Select one of the substantive issues addressed within the course. Appropriate issues are social class, gender, indigeneity, ethnicity or rurality.

2. Interview a minimum of three adults (must be over 18 years of age for ethical reasons) about how this issue impacted upon their own schooling.

In other words, you are asking your interviewees to reflect upon their own schooling and to explain to you how the specific issue of interest influenced the nature of the schooling which they (or their peers) experienced. For example, you could ask them about how the physical lay-out of the class, the curriculum taught, the nature of the teaching employed, or the relationships between teachers and students, the way different groups of students were treated in the playground, or any other practices which occur within schools, were all influenced by students' class or gender or ethnicity etc

I would like to focus on the issue of social class in reference to this.

What I would like to know is if I could have an hour of your time to ask some questions, have a loose discussion about this issue of social class and your own highschool experience. Perhaps you felt that class was very evident and was an issue at your school, maybe not. Maybe because of your class background or perceived class background you felt that you were pushed in certain directions in school or maybe not. Were you aware of inequalities - directed from the teacher to the students or within the student body? Were these explicit or implicit? How was your parent's attitude toward education? Were they aware of social class in determining how you were to be educated - private school, public school, work ethic etc?

These are just some ideas to get your minds going.

I only need three interviews but would like to talk to more people so that when I do work with the literature I have a lot of scope for choosing which best works for the essay at the time. If you would be interested in doing this I will obviously need to set up a time - this can be over coffee (or wine ; ) but I will be bringing my tape recorder ; ) I need for you to sign a document after I have written a summary of the interview to say that it is a true representation of our discussion but apart from talking to me, it would be great if I can perhaps see (if it is possible and it certainly might not be) to see a school report, a teacher comment, maybe a website link for your school, or some other artefact that could be included in the project if you feel comfortable with that. I of course respect your right to say NO WAY to that.

Anyway, let me know and we can set up a time very soon if you would like to participate.

****

We'll see what they say. I have already begun collecting material for this and have watched some good documentaries. More on this later as I plan to be reading furiously for background this long weekend thanks to APEC.

Adieu

No concentration....

2007-08-23T18:07:00.000+10:00

I began this reading as part of a more in depth study of continuity and discontinuity theories about the developmental construction of family (See Santrock, p. 275-276). I am not sure how much I will be able to go into this in my essay but it is important to use this set of theories I think in an examination of the case study, as it looks at the whole idea of separation or individuation, an important step in the construction of an adolescent identity.

Notes on: Adolescents’ theories about the development of their relationships with parents. By Pipp, Shaver, Jennings, Lamborn, Fischer.

The separation process begins to occur in infancy and early childhood and then continues in adolescence, but the process is different.
The separation/individuation process takes place in a larger network of relationships. Peer relationships and romantice ties take over in terms of significance during this period. (Erikson,1968)
Late adolescence is a time where a physical separation may occur which contributes to an increased feeling of independence. (Sullivan & Sullivan, 1980)
Adolescents retrospectively portray their relationships with parents in respect of the following: age, parent and the self’s or parent’s perspective on the relationship.
Function of age – decreasing sense of parent’s responsibility, similarity, dominance, independence and size of self with age for the child’s side of the relationship.

That is all I can do for now. I have a HUGE pile of articles sitting in front of me begging me to read them but my mind cannot focus. It is a huge drawback of study that you feel guilt almost all the time...not doing enough. I think I will just wait until the weekend and then find a long stretch of time where I can sit and read and think comprehensively about all the bits and pieces and how they all fit together. At least I read over my assignment and it makes sense...but it is going to be too long and I have to edit, edit and edit some more.

Over and out...

Nature vs Nurture

2007-08-20T18:29:00.000+10:00

In the last post I spoke about a writer how posited that peers had more influence over child and adolescent development than parents. I finally tracked down the information about here and the source of my hearing of her theories.
She was interviewed on Life Matters (Radio National Podcast) in May 2007. The blurb reads:

"How important is our upbringing in terms of how we turn out, what kind of people we are?
Contrary to what most people think, Judith Rich Harris says the most crucial aspects of a child's environment are actually outside the home.And she says parents need to lighten up, and stop treating their children like projects. Day to day happiness is more important than moulding and shaping by parents when genes and the external environment are more significant influences".
She has a rather clumsy looking website at: The Nuture Assumption
This provides links to more of her research work.

I think certainly from discussions with students at the school where I work, that peer relationships are crucial during adolescents, and work both positively and negatively in identity formation and social behaviour. I am opening up a can of worms by writing the title: Nature vs Nuture...but it is interesting to see which end of the scale you fall on. I am inclined to think that it is not a question of either/or or even to which end of the scale you lean toward, but more an understanding that different aspects of an individual are more or less affected by nature and nuture and it continually changes and develops over time. The individual is not a stagnant creature, but rather one that (hopefully) grows and learns...but there might just be a core set of beliefs/themes/undertandings/modes that assist us to approach different situations without having to reinvent the wheel so to speak whenever we are confronted with the new.

I want to explore more of this through the continuity/discontinuity arguments after I have read some examples of those with differing views on related topics.

There was a good discussion about this topic on All in the Mind recently titled "Nature vs Nuture? What makes us Human?

You can read more about via the link and subscribe to the podcast to hear more.

The Discontinuity View vs The Continuity View

2007-08-19T14:20:00.000+10:00

Recommended Reading:

Sroufe
Egeland & Carlson
Gjerde, Block & Block
Bowlby

and on the other side....
Piaget
Sullivan
Furman & Wehner
Collins, Henninghausen & Sroufe

Assignment started !!!

2007-08-19T13:31:00.000+10:00

I have been spending a lot of time finding, printing and reading articles for the upcoming assignments I have to do for university. I found that I was getting sidetracked a great deal when I found something interesting but am endeavoring to keep on track, at least until Assignment 1 is done and dusted. I sat down yesterday with my books, articles and trusty computer (that J had to fix for me - thanks J!) and began writing...and it flowed, and flowed, and flowed. I did 1500 words and it actually seems to make sense.
My question is to compare a case study given to us in the readings (see details below) and do the following:
Compare Jose's case to (1) the literature on child and adolescent development with regard to the areas of personality and social development (including issues such as gender, culture, peer relationships, families etc) and (2) to your own experiences.

I am concentrating on the family and ethnicity and have been doing a great deal of reading about ethnic identity development which is really interesting - so much to consider. It seems like a relatively new area of research and adds another dimension to considerations about identity formation; how, when, what etc...

I found some good articles about the influence of family on adolescents but have to read them next week. It is interesting - I heard a podcast concerning this subject and one theorist puts forward the idea that parents have little to no influence over the way their children will grow up - she puts more stock in the influence of peers than parents. Will have to find the link later. Not sure what I think yet but am upon reading Adolescence - Chapter 9 - Families - I think I am siding with The Continuity View (pages 276) - more about this in the next post....

Back to it...

Source Reading: Garrod, A.C., Smulyan, L., Powers, S.I., & Kilkenny, R. (2005). Case 3: The hatred within. In Garrod, A.C, Smulyan, L., Powers, S.I., & Kilkenny, R (Eds), Adolescent Portraits: Identity, relationships and challenges, Boston, Pearson.

Update on Readings

2007-08-15T19:27:00.001+10:00

Tonight I spent the entire evening reading and reviewing. The task was to have a first read, notetaking and highlighting session, going through a bundle of articles about adolescent identity - based on class and ethnicity. This will tie into my first two assignments. I have included notes on two of the readings tonight and plan to add two more tomorrow night.

Some interesting points from 2 of the readings to follow up:

The Development of Stereotypes about the rich and poor: Age, Race, and Family Income differences in beliefs by Woods, Kurtz-Costes and Rowley, Journal of Youth and Adolescence, Vol.34, No.5, October 2005.

Research about gender has shown that there is a potential role for stereotypes in identity development (e.g. Bornholt et al, 1994 & Tiedemannn, 2000) p.438
Cognitive development view suggest that stereotypes affect 'information processing by determining how information is encoded and interpreted', this can affect beliefs held by individuals about themselves and others (Bigler & Liben, 1992, Hamilton et al, 1994) p.438
The relationships between 'social class stereotypes and identity development' can be complicated because social class is not as physically obvious (often) as gender or ethnicity. p.438
Children's sense of self is a product of interactions with others and comparisons of themselves with others (Pajares and Schunk, 2002) So, poor youths, in particular ethnic minority youth and hampered by negative academic stereotypes about the poor. p.443

The Development of Ethnic Identity during adolescece by French, Seidman, LaRue & Lawrence in Developmental Psychology Vol 42, (1), January 2006

"The identity crisis of adolescence is resolved by reconciling the identities imposed upon oneself by one's family and society with one's need to assert control and seek out an identity that brings one satisfaction, feelings of industry, and competence.'
Social psychologists focus on identity in terms of the feelings of group belonging and the effects of the identification with social groups (Tajfel & Turner, 1979)
Social psychologists look at the 'negotiation of one's social identity in the broader context of the value society has places on one's group membership". If a person is confronted with negative attitudes or contexts that 'devalue' the social group, an individual will then need to negotiate the meaning of his or her identity

Three Strategies (Tajfel & Turner 1986) if in a devalued group:

individual mobility - choose toe leave the group and change membership. If it is not easily changeable (e.g. gender, race, ethnicity) the individual can choose to psychologically leave the group by dis identifying with it.
social creativity - the group as a whole redefines the meaning of their group membership by comparing themselves on a dimension that they are superior OR by changing values assigned to their group from negative to positive
social competition - group as a whole challenges the current system to change the hierarchy of group membership in the society.

On the basis of Marcia (1980) conceptualisation of Eriksons’ theory of identity development, Phinney (1989) proposed a Model of Ethnic identity development

Unexamined ethnic Identity - Individuals have unexamined positive OR negative views on their ethnic group

Ethnic identity research (or exploration) - Individuals have started to look into what it means to be a member of the group

Achieved Ethnic identity - Individuals have explored their ethnic group membership and are clear about the meaning of this ethnicity to their own lives.

This paper sets out to examine identity not in terms of development stages but rather in terms of continuous growth. This seems to make sense in that there are many factors that would affect the rate of change and the age at which it occurs. This would also take into account any regression in development. There are subtle changes that are not captured by the stages models but they are useful for developing a basic framework. Other factors that need to be considered that I am very interested in would be social class.

Further notes are available through the link at My Work.

Comments on "Class: by Pria Pria Viswalingam

2007-08-13T18:16:00.000+10:00

This was first aired in 2002 and I found a copy at my school library on video. It was interesting to watch it now and see how much hasn't changed....

See here for the link about the series Class
4 Part Documentary Series aired on SBS in 2002

I made some notes:

Ep. 1 - The Establishment

Originally the power brokers/holders - upper class/elite in Australia were the squattocracy - those who owned land. They have now almost entirely lost this power and it have been superseded by those in the corporate world. Formerly this elite - where rigid hierarchies existed, were the models - offered a standard for society. The farmers who came to Australia may not have been rich but they were given land and were able to make sizable incomes from agricultural pursuits. Now, the way of the land is that you need to get bigger, get out or diversify (into tourism for example) to exist. The power of old money has shifted to new money. And the funny thing is, is the new money is going back to the country....sea change etc.

Status is now related to success - money can make success easier - Sir Laurence Street (Ep.1)

Hawke - it is counterproductive to try for equality, but rather you should strive for equality of opportunity (Ep.1)

Sol Encel (Sociologist/UNSW) - no tradition of philanthropy in Australia (unlike America) the giving back the the community that is expected of those in the elite.

Episode 2 - Arts & Kulcha

New money apes old money - through symbols, behaviour, possessions (antiques), cultural pursuits (e.g. ballet/opera)

Interesting interview with catering staff who said that people generally fell into the following categories:
Rich/Elite - used to service/expectation of service - treated staff well
Nouveau Riche - rude and dismissive of staff
Working/Middle class - embarrassed by being served

Being in a class is like being a member of a club - a common language is understood between the members - it operates to include and exclude. There is a value in products because there is a secret language regarding them (e.g. Hermes handbags, Ferrari cars etc)

Rowena Danziger (Ascham School) - Behaviour indicates class. Sense of 'false egalitarianism' - in Australia - 'manners don't matter, presentation doesn't matter, dress doesn't matter' - by modeling this or extolling this we are actually being condescending.

Traditional Aboriginal culture - power and authority were clearly defined but not by economic means. No rich and poor - high and low status, but now class is more defined by the dollar. High status leaders distributed/shared with lower status individuals/groups - but now the lines are blurry because individuals can purchase their own goods.
Indigenous people are effectively outside the class system and have suffered because of it - underclass?

David Williamson - "ethics of individualism is the prime culprit' for the state of society - increasing anxiety and decreasing happiness.

Ep. 3 - Corporate

The key to social mobility is through education but the inequality is growing larger.

Private schools in Australia's past had a sense of value - in the sense that some people sent their children to private schools even for just one year so that it could be on their record (p.s My grandparents wanted to send me to a private school for my final two years of school - I refused, after attending state schools all my school life). It was seen as an investment. Now qualifications/grades/exams are more a determinant of success.

Private schools - students inherit their class positions.

Private schools - Traditon / Values / Duty / Facilities
Very strong emphasis from those involved in private schools talking about developing the 'whole person' - personal and social values.

Increasing importance of cultural activities
Increasing importance of academic achievement
Decreasing importance of sport - macho image
Increasing importance of extra-curricular activities (ps. this can still be divisive in that not all students attending these fee paying schools can afford to attend all the EC activities esp when they involved overseas travel etc)

Development and maintenance of cliques - this can then move straight to the workplace or similar codes can determine such cliques according to background/class/education etc, Old boys clubs, etiquette and manners, codes and symbols.

Dr Janet McCalman
If you fail at school you are not valued. It used to be that if you did fail, at least you had your physical prowess...but this is no longer valued. There is no place for young men in this case.
Marriage - people not getting married - Working Class Young Men & High Achieving Middle Class Women.

It is certainly interesting that Australia prides itself on the 'fair go' and egalitarian ideals, but it seems more an more obvious that we are following the US model where individuals are punished or exalted for their success on the basis of very individualized behaviours. The cult of individualism means that if you are successful, you worked hard to get where you are and deserve it, but if you have not achieved all you should have achieved, you are to blame - this idea comes into play in this documentary but also in Status Anxiety (Alain de Botton). I don't believed in the 'victim mentality' - you have to take responsibility for yourself, but it is ridiculous to believe that some people don't have a better start (middle and end) than others. The aim should be to raise the bar higher not put the bar in the middle and divided society into two halves - the haves and have nots.
There is an embedded class system in Australia and in terms of education, the division is getting wider. When you consider, as a friend of mine said, that in Canada, the overwhelming majority of students attend public school (and they are well funded) and education is considered a high priority, you wonder what we are doing...to be further investigated.

Education - Sydney Morning Herald Roundup

2007-08-08T17:59:00.000+10:00

Articles from: Sydney Morning Herald Education News

Education still the key to a good job: ABS (August 7, 2007)

Those students who fail to complete year 12 have 1 in 12 unemployment rate
Students who finished at Year 12 have a 5.9% unemployment rate
Students who a Bachelor Degree or above have an unemployment rate of 2.4%

Debate erupts over NSW school curricula - August 2, 2007

NSW Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell: "He also said the lack of emphasis on manners in public schools was among the reasons enrolments had dropped.""(Premier) Morris Iemma has to ensure that manners, civility (and) respect aren't add-ons in our public schools but continue to be an integral part of public education, to try and reverse the downward trend in enrolments," he said.
NSW Education Minister John Della Bosca said Mr O'Farrell was "out of touch" and compared his schools approach to that of Prime Minister John Howard.
"As part of the Personal Development Health and Physical Education lessons, students learn social skills and manners," a spokesman for Mr Della Bosca said.

School gap blamed for nation's stupidity - Anna Patty (Education Editor - July 10, 2007)

Widening gap between the best and the worst performing students (Chris Bonner - Principal & NSW Secondary Principal's Council Head - see book, "The Stupid Country: How Australia is dismantling Public Education"
Attacks on the curriculum are ideologically driven and they move attention from the increasing inequity between high-fee private schools and low-fee independent and public schools.
"Social inequity and class differences are becoming entrenched in the growing divided between private and public schools" - Bonner & Caro (2007)
Top students in Australia compare well with those in other developed countries but the poorest students are below those in similar countries
Federal government plans to increase funding to private schools by 30% to $7.5 billion and to public schools only 10& to 3.4 billion

Comments:
How is this possibly fair? Michael Duffy writes in his article (see Article) that "Public high schools in NSW have 62.5 per cent of all pupils" - so they educate more than half of the students and they are getting less than half of the increase in funding...how is that right??? Surely more funding needs to go to those schools where there is a problem of retention, disadvantaged schools, schools catering to children with higher-level needs and so on....not less.

Notes on and Reaction to Paul Willis (Sociologist)

2007-08-06T17:24:00.000+10:00

Paul Willis - Education, Cultural Production and Social Reproduction
Article by Liz Gordon (British Journal of Sociology of Education Vol. 5, No.2 1984

Learned a new word today: Intersubjective.
I love the way that these new words pop up and when you type them into a dictionary there are no entries....except on Wikipedia. This is where I got mine from via The Free Dictionary
Basically meaning shared or common meanings. See link for further information.

I learned about some interesting sociological theories focusing on the nature of the reproduction of class through the education system.

In Learning to Labor (Willis) the boys see external restrictions on their freedom but fail to recognize their own internal ‘codes of behaviour’ which are also rules. P. 108

Bordieu (1977) – ‘schools legitmate the dominant culture by presenting as ‘natural’ a form of pedagogy which belongs only to the dominant groups in society’ p. 107

Gramsci (1977) Hegemony is the spontaneous consent given by the great mases of the population to the general direction imposed on social life by the dominant group. p.109

Hall, in Apple, (1982) Superstructures (like schools) perform as necessary because on its own the economic system (e.g. capitalism) cannot ensure all the conditions necessary for its own expanded reproduction. p. 109

See further notes in My Work section.

Schooling in Capitalist America Revisited

2007-08-04T11:04:00.001+10:00

After reading some of the ideas expressed in this book I did an internet search for the title and found that the authors went back to this subject in 2001 and wrote an article titled: "Schooling in Capitalist America Revisited" by Bowles & Gintis

Correspondence principle (from original book)
'by structuring social interactions and individual rewards to replicate the environment of the workplace.' p. 1

'schools socialize students to accept beliefs, values, and forms of behavior on the basis of authority rather than the students’ own critical judgement of their interests.' p.17

BUT... (Revised Book)

"Socialization theory, however, has been broadly criticized for two reasons.

First, it treats the process of adopting and rejecting new behaviors as a black box. It does notexplain how individuals learn what.
Second, many variants of socialization theory appear to place the individual in an entirely passive role, a mere receptacle of the content of socialization rather than an active participant in the process.

For this reason socialization theory appears incompatible with widely accepted notions of human agency that stress our rationality, intelligence, and capacity to make choices informed by knowledge of the consequences of such choices for achieving goals." p. 18

"...schools influence which cultural models children are exposed to.
and
Second schools immerse children in a structure of rewards and sanctions." p.18

“A simple model of this process is the following.

Children initially acquire cultural traits by vertical transmission from their parents (assume the parents have identical traits)
They are subsequently paired with a cultural model (a teacher, that is) who may have the same or a different array of cultural traits.

Confining attention to a single trait, suppose the teacher has the same trait as the parents. Then the youth is assumed to retain the trait.

But if the parents and the teacher have different traits, the youth considers which one to adopt, surveying the experiences of those he knows (his classmates) for guidance in making the switch.” p.19

So in this model the agent has is a more active participant when there is conflict between the parent and teacher traits. In this case he/she will seek out different role models/experiences upon which to base their own traits.

Questions

What is the middle ground?
How has this changed and what affects those changes in any?
Is this a structuralist approach? (article by Gordon on Paul Willis says it is)
In this case, what other models are there from which children and adolescents collect such information to inform their own character traits?
Does this mean traits in terms of evolutionary biology or in other terms:

1. A distinguishing feature, as of a person's character. See Synonyms at quality.

2. A genetically determined characteristic or condition: a recessive trait. (from The Free Dictionary

The authors of this paper have their own websites (which are linked to from the main blog page at Articles and Education Links) .

Moral Sentiments and Material Interests: The Foundations of Cooperation in Economic Life (Economic Learning and Social Evolution) is the latest book from Bowles & Gintis' which looks at cooperation and looks at the uses and limits of cooperation in human behavior. It challenges the role that all people are selfish. (taken from Amazon.com) This book is available online (see Online Books).

Cultural Politics of Education

2007-08-04T10:25:00.000+10:00

As part of this subject we have to keep a Personal Learning Journal for the purpose of:

looking back at our own learning
review notes and record later interpretations or reflections

This is the aim of my blog - to record notes from articles, propose questions, challenge ideas and to collate website and articles.

Notes from: Education.com.au? by Holmes, Hughes & Julian in Australian Sociology - A Changing Society (2003)

Hidden Curriculum - social learning - learning social conventions and about one's role in the social hierachy. p.223.

Functionalism - 'society as an organic entity made from interacting parts that seeks balance and coherence. Social change to these parts occurs in these parts in order to achieve balance. The ultimate aim is social cohesion'. p.223

Meritocracy - social structures such as class, race, sex and ethnicity are not seen as disadvantaging people. Individuals are equally able to achieve in a meritocracy (a system where particular attributes are highly valued e.g. intelligence). p.224

Education (according to functionalism)- functions as a sorting house whose role is to develop a country's human resources for economic purposes (as well as social ones) p. 224

Education (according to functionalism) - functions to develop a shared culture or set of common values in children - social expectations outside the family micro world. Adolescence are exposed to a much more complex range of social expectations - i.e the level of education needed to achieve certain outcomes, how their shared culture looks at their particular class, ethnic group or gender and how gender is developed. p. 224

Schooling in Captalist American buy Bowles & Gintis (1976) & Reproduction Theory
Children learn about the social hierachy in schools, the structure of power and authority. Schools are places where the status quo is reproduced, persuading children to fulfill the social expectations set for them so they do not aspire to economic positions above their social position. p. 225. (see Schooling in Capitalist America revisited post for more information on this)

Further notes available from My Work link on main page.

State Schools vs Private Schools

2007-08-04T10:04:00.000+10:00

State Schools slowly waking from nightmare by Michael Duffy (SMH)

I read this article this morning whilst eating marmalade on toast, slowly but painfully recovering from a cold. I had heard about the book, The Stupid Country: How Australia is Dismantling Public Education" (Bonner & Caro, 2007) , to which Duffy refers on EdPod (education roundup on Radio National) and was surprised to hear that people are not leaving the public schools in droves to go to Private schools. Some of the issues mentioned:

Three points I thought interesting:

1. Movement from Private to Public based on the pursuit of socioeconomic, behavioural, racial and intellectual sorting.
e.g. movement to catholic schools not based on religion but based on class & in rural areas the occurrence of black and white schools, sorting by race.

2. State schools have a higher incidence of discipline problems - they tolerate more than private schools. The book asserts that the government has spent money so that now principals have increased powers to suspend students and there have been special schools set up to help deal with unruly students. Also there has been more movement on dealing with less competent teachers.

3. From EdPod - the numbers in private schools is stagnating in some areas and state school enrolments are steady or increasing. This is dependent upon the state, area, and city of course (e.g. Western Australia has seen a big increase in Private school enrollments. "Rise in Private Schooling no surprise"

It is a very interesting point that state schools have to be much more transparent in communicating information about the schools than private schools (even though private schools receive between 42 and 82 % of annual costs from the government (Dufy, 2007).

AiW

Transitions

2007-07-31T19:04:00.001+10:00

I remember feeling very nervous about entering highschool after the safety of primary school. I remember having a talk from some highschool students about what life was like there and listening to them with mixture of anxiety and excitement. It seemed that everything would change and I would be the only one not able to cope with it. During adolescence it is so important to belong, I think one of the most important things was knowing that my friends would be going to the same school, but it was scary to think of all the new people I would encounter and whether they would like me and vice versa. I think the other part that was interesting was thinking about how I would organise myself with all the different subjects and finding my way around a huge new campus. The same feelings of anxiety and excitement were there when I left highschool to go to university but there was also a huge sense of the freedom from highschool and all the social pressures that were a part of life there (as well as academic ones). It will be interesting to compare and contrast the two different developmental stages and see which of my intellectual, social and psychological assets were in place and which were quick / slow to developed during those times.

Reflection upon Adolescence

2007-07-31T18:30:00.001+10:00

Adolescence by John W. Santrock (2005)

As part of our assignment we have to look at our own experience of adolescence as compared to a case study given to us in our readings. It will be an interesting exercise as the person is a different gender, race and nationality to me. We are to look at developmental factors that can be explored with respect to this comparison.

At the end of the sections of our textbook it asks us to Review and Reflect. The section on the Nature of Development asks us to think about our out transitions from adolescence to adulthood and it will be these personal reflections that help us with our task.

Adolescence - getting my first part-time job which continued until the end of school from Year 10 - involved personal responsibility, social skills organizational skills, motivation, beginnings of self-sufficiency and decision making skilsl.
Emerging Adulthood - Moving out of home - significant event signifying movement from adolescence to adulthood as was in charge of my own life - having to be take responsibility, to be self-sufficient financially, well organized (attending university), dealing with new relationships (live in partner), owning and driving a car, drinking, clubbing etc (changing social connections).

What also appears to be importance when tackling such a cross cultural comparison would be to analyze the different personal and social assets that both myself and the subject of the comparison have.

Intellectual Assets
Positive links between life skills, school academic success, organization skills, decision making skills and positive outcomes. Links to good mental health, completion of school, higher education, positive moral values, good parent-child relationships, avoidance of problem behaviours.

Psychological Assets
Positive mental health, optimism, self-regulatory skills, motivation, and confidence in competence are related to indicators of well being in adolescence and emerging adulthood. (other factors might include moral development, values, spirituality, relationship with community.

Social Assets
Connectedness, integration and feelings of belongingness. Indicators include success in secondary school, mastery of wide range of skills, adult educational and occupational attainment, self-regulation skills, health, optimism. Social assets also given good indicators to manner of transitions to adult roles such as partners, workers, community members etc.
(p.25)

I think that these assets are forever changing and developing. If you look at the factors explored you might be able to see that you have attained many assets in one area but feel that you have strength in another. Having good financial skills that make you more self-sufficient. However you may be very disorganized so have trouble organizing your university studies. Growing confidence in some areas of your life might not be balanced by confidence in others. It is a continual process of growth, and therefore should require a element of reflection upon how you are growing and developing. Taking stock of where you are and where you want be and which in which areas you have changed and where you want to change more.

Adolecence - Santrock

2007-07-31T18:22:00.000+10:00

Reference: Adolescence by John W.Santrock

I have just been reading about the Nature of Development and making notes about the same. Something new I just read was about Continuity and Discontinuity as regards to development. As I understand it, it means:

Continuity – cumulative change – what seems like abrupt discontinous events are a result of learning (growth and practice) e.g. a child’s first word (practice of sounds) or puberty (biological changes occurring)

Discontinuity – distinct changes/abrubt – passing through a series of stages in which change is Qualitatively rather than Quantitatively different. E.g. child moves from not being able to think abstractly to being able to do so. This is a qualitative discontinuous change in development. From not understanding to understanding. Moving from one state of cognition to another.

Motivation Boosters and Motivation Guzzlers

2007-07-29T13:18:00.000+10:00

Comments on: Enhancing the educational outcomes of boys by Andrew Martin (Youth Studies, 22(4))

This article focuses on an ACT investigation into the education of boys. The problems involved and the potential solutions are discussed with reference to the findings derived from interviews with students and teachers.

My Thoughts

I have started looking at my readings and although I really should be reading them in order, I focussed on this one first because the subject matter appeals. I have read it and wanted to make a few comments on it. Now, back to Adolescence by John. W.Santrock....

Interesting that it notes in this article that there should be less emphasis on outcomes. The basis of the NSW curriculum is that it is organised around outcomes for teachers and students. Perhaps a better way of expressing this would be to say that there should be more emphasis on individual improvement rather than checking off outcomes - it should be meaningful and meaningful for the student.
Having done a practicum and taught Year 8 boys, I would think that small group work would be effective but it would be productive for the student's to be grouped by the teacher so to lessen distraction between students.
From personal observation only, the difference between girls and boys seems to widen at Year 7 & 8, draw closer in Years 9 & 10 and perhaps widen again in the senior years in terms of learning and the learning relationships. There seems to be more cooperation between girls and boys in this middle section of highschool and before and after the learning styles seem to differ. This is based on observation only and would be interesting to research into whether this might be the case.
I wonder how far you can go with student's involvement in lesson content, teaching methods and assessment. Certainly students should be able to have more freedom for inquiry and more able to choose their topics and they could have more input with regard to how these might be assessed, but as for their input regarding pedagogy I wonder how this might work.

Relevant Reading:

Improving the Educational Outcome of Boys - Final report to ACT Department of Education , Youth and Family Services, Canberra

http://www.decs.act.gov.au/publicat/pdf/Ed_Outcomes_Boys.pdf

Mission

2007-07-29T10:53:00.000+10:00

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. ~Aristotle

I am studying a Graduate Diploma in Secondary Education at Charles Sturt University. As part of our studies we have to collate material in the form of a portfolio that tracks our studies and our reflections upon those studies. This might include articles, teacher resources, websites, lessons, videos, podcasts, reviews, assignment notes and various other 'artefacts' that we collect along the way. Up until now, I have been collecting this material in hard copy format, bookmarking on the internet and saving documents onto my computer. I thought a more creative way to collate all this information might be to start a blog that has all this material and which can also then be shared with others who might add material or comment on mine.

I see this as a work in progress and it will be great to look back at it once I have finished my degree at the end of 2008 to see how my opinions have changed and how this will affect the way I view teaching in theory and in practice.

All for now,
AiW