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Chaos in Australian Education

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I heard an 'educator' this morning twittering on about creativity, imagination and student engagement not being measured by the NAPLAN tests. No doubt these are important, but hard to teach. Should we just go back to the three R's and teach the fundamentals so that kids at least heve the basic knowledge and will learn the other things by experience ?


Stalling NAPLAN results spark calls to raise expectations on teachers, students


http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-...ark-calls-to-crack-the-whip-in-school/8113518
 
SirRumpole said:
I heard an 'educator' this morning twittering on about creativity, imagination and student engagement not being measured by the NAPLAN tests. No doubt these are important, but hard to teach. Should we just go back to the three R's and teach the fundamentals so that kids at least heve the basic knowledge and will learn the other things by experience ?


Stalling NAPLAN results spark calls to raise expectations on teachers, students


http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-...ark-calls-to-crack-the-whip-in-school/8113518
Click to expand...

From experience teaching my own kids, it takes a lot of time and effort to teach them in a creative and engaging way. Much easier to just teach them route learning and facts as they are. That leaves more time for YouTube and other multi-media teaching aid at school. :D

That and if you teach kids that they should question and think things through - i.e. being engaged, creative and rational; i.e. question everything... That will backfire on the parents, and also on state authority.

Depends on the kind of parent one wants to be.. you might want your authority questioned. But for gov't and politicians.. why would they ever want their authority and status as the wise and noble law giver be challenged with questions and thinking plebs?

Hence, just teach the future cog in that machine to be a cog. Let the thinking and planning to others who knows best. Cheaper that way.

So take the times table....

I could have taught our daughter the entire times table in a couple of weeks if I just let her sing and memorise it. Kids got good memories and can just absorb that 2 x 1 = 2, 2x 2 is 4 etc. etc.

But to teach them to "prove" that 2 times 2 is 4.. .that take a lot more effort. You start with grouping; breaking things down, adding new groups; problem solving.

They get more engaged and can solve much bigger multiples than just up to 12. They also learn that any big and seemingly impossible problem can be solved if they break it down to its smaller parts.

These lessons are invaluable later in life. And can be taught and became ingrained from proper teaching of just that times table.

But at the gov't level... "where do you get the money for that" when you got wars to fight, tax cuts to give, generous pensions to pay yourself.
 
But to teach them to "prove" that 2 times 2 is 4.. .that take a lot more effort. You start with grouping; breaking things down, adding new groups; problem solving.
Click to expand...

1. Pick up calculator

2. Turn it on

3. Enter 2 X 2 =

4. Problem solved.

:D
 
SirRumpole said:
1. Pick up calculator

2. Turn it on

3. Enter 2 X 2 =

4. Problem solved.

:D
Click to expand...


I do that too.
Another instance of do as I say, not as I do :D

My dad actually does division on paper, still, today, with his smart phone nearby.

Dam, I got to teach the kids long. manual division soon. Where do you start with that kind of voodoo.
 
NSW Education: School syllabus shake-up promotes the classics, Shakespeare and Austen back for the HSC

Ineffective school courses riddled with lightweight texts have been dumped and Shakespeare is back under the biggest overhaul of the HSC syllabus in two decades.

The classical works of the Bard, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens and Joseph Conrad will become mandatory for Year 11 and Year 12 students to study in new back-to-basics syllabuses to be unveiled to schools today.

Writing skills, grammar, punctuation, vocabulary and proper sentence structure will also be given much greater priority under the shake-up as a compulsory part of the new English syllabus.

William Shakespeare ... The Bard is back in the HSC Syllabus.
Whole study areas criticised by students, parents and teachers as “woolly concepts” have been dumped, including the requirement to interpret English texts through a theme such as “Journeys”, “Discovery” or “Belonging”.

In maths, a knowledge of financial literacy, statistics and the application of technology such as knowing how a Google algorithm works will be mandatory.

The science syllabus will include study of desalination, stem cell research, gravitational waves and the prediction of seismic events.

Australia’s longest-serving prime minister Sir Robert Menzies receives three references in the revised History Extension syllabus, while Labor hero Gough Whitlam gets just one.

Both world wars along with the role of the Anzacs in Australian politics and culture are included in the new history syllabuses.

“We are emphasising depth above breadth,” the president of NSW Education Standards Authority Tom Alegounarias said yesterday.

Charles Dickens is returning to the HSC syllabus

Jane Austen will be mandatory for years 11 and 12
“Previously, there was too much choice (of subject material) that lent itself to rote learning.

“In science there will be more science and less social theory, so that the course ‘Search for Better Health’ will become ‘Non-infectious Diseases and Disorders’, and ‘Moving About’ will become ‘Kinematics and Dynamics’.

“This has come at a time when we want more experts in science … so if you are studying physics then you will have to study the more difficult maths.”

Education chiefs said they had listened to sustained criticism from employers and businesses that many school leavers applying for jobs lacked basic skills in literacy and numeracy.

All subjects will now have a “work and enterprise” component, making them more relevant to the workplace for students.

Civics and citizenship will be embedded across the curriculum to a much greater extent to teach students basic life skills in the community.

The changes are aimed at shoring up the international reputation of the HSC and making it more rigorous and accessible to students.

Mr Alegounarias said the state’s teachers would need to do more professional development to get up to speed on the changes to the course content.

“The key is that these syllabuses haven’t changed for a couple of decades,” he said.

“There will still be choices available, but what we want is mastery (by students over the subjects they study).

“They will provide HSC students with a richer learning experience and enable them to develop a greater mastery of knowledge and skills.

“In English, for example, Shakespeare or the equivalent other aspects of great literature will be mandatory.”

The CEO of the Education Standards Authority David de Carvalho stressed the changes were designed to better prepare school leavers for the real world: “The syllabuses are designed to equip NSW students with the skills they will require after they leave school, for further study, for work and life.”

Catholic Education Commission NSW executive director Brian Croke said the new syllabuses would encourage students to study traditional core courses rather than avoid them in favour of what were seen as “easier” subjects.

Dr Croke said new mathematics pathways in Years 9 and 10 would prepare more students for success in the study of calculus and statistics in Year 11 and 12 courses.

“These new syllabuses will allow students to study courses that are most appropriate to their ability,” Dr Croke said. “This will help ensure continued high participation rates particularly in physics, chemistry and maths at a time when more students are completing Year 12 than ever before.”

More than 7000 teachers, students, professional associations, industry representatives and academics have contributed to the new syllabuses, which will be taught to Year 11 students from 2018 and to Year 12 students from 2019.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/ne...c/news-story/57ed0055ea09f3ea6a5348e904292902
 
Tink said:
Australia’s longest-serving prime minister Sir Robert Menzies receives three references in the revised History Extension syllabus, while Labor hero Gough Whitlam gets just one.
Click to expand...


In inverse proportion to their achievements. (Mathematics).
 
In a way, Yes, Sir R.... Most Australian primary schools lack the resources [read dollars] to set up a dedicated Science facility.
There are multiple pressures on schools to "deliver", not only in literacy and numeracy, but in programs of general student services which attend to a whole range of requirements and needs relating to non-academic well-being. In recent times this has increasingly meant mental health and working with families, agencies and specialists in this area of need.
The job is particularly difficult, as you will understand, in circumstances where there is very little parent or carer support.
A consequence of the whole scenario is the challenge of retaining teachers in the profession.
 
Tisme said:
Is there any purchase in churning out mathematicians and scientists if there isn't any viable industries outside of govt and teaching to employ them?
Click to expand...

It seems like a chicken and egg situation. If there is not a critical mass of qualified people here, then businesses that require them will go elsewhere.

Someone once said "if you build it, they will come". Maybe that applies to qualified people as well.
 
Muschu said:
In a way, Yes, Sir R.... Most Australian primary schools lack the resources [read dollars] to set up a dedicated Science facility.
There are multiple pressures on schools to "deliver", not only in literacy and numeracy, but in programs of general student services which attend to a whole range of requirements and needs relating to non-academic well-being. In recent times this has increasingly meant mental health and working with families, agencies and specialists in this area of need.
The job is particularly difficult, as you will understand, in circumstances where there is very little parent or carer support.
A consequence of the whole scenario is the challenge of retaining teachers in the profession.
Click to expand...


I know there is this malaise that is projected on the calibre of student and teacher performance, but I just don't see it.

One of my own teaches E Commerce, Robotics, Mathematics and Programming and that's from year 8 to year 12. The only complaints I am privy to is the power play politics and sexist games that are played by randy school principals and the endless meetings and reviews that sap time and energy from teachers.

Teachers do not have the degrees of freedom to be good or bad that the public think they have. They are more set criteria delivery givers getting orders from a head office bureaucracy via principals, deputy principals, head of departments, etc
 
SirRumpole said:
It seems like a chicken and egg situation. If there is not a critical mass of qualified people here, then businesses that require them will go elsewhere.

Someone once said "if you build it, they will come". Maybe that applies to qualified people as well.
Click to expand...

Well I'm sure we can turn out Astrophysicists too; I sat next to a young QLD lad who was one and travelling from LA to Brisbane a couple of years back, but schooling them to go offshore (in this case New York) and eventually never to return is hardly a good use of resource.

Economically it is probably cheaper just to continue importing the second rate engineers and administrators from the middle east, the east and the sub continent. It's not like we do much anything that requires high level skill sets here except maybe the top tier trades.

We are basically an economy that runs on what comes out of a hole or pipe in the ground and wrap loads of paper shuffling and rules making around the process. We are a stagnant nation flagellating ourselves with risk aversion and political correctness to overcome the tedium and boredom of doing nothing much really..... the halcyon days of giving clothes lines, stump jump ploughs and victor mowers to the world have long gone.

We could all take a leaf from our neighbours when it comes to educating their people and gazumping us in education ratings:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...30L-for-fake-degrees/articleshow/52788630.cms
 
Tisme said:
We are a stagnant nation flagellating ourselves with risk aversion and political correctness to overcome the tedium and boredom of doing nothing much really..... the halcyon days of giving clothes lines, stump jump ploughs and victor mowers to the world have long gone.
Click to expand...


Unfortunately true, and the numb brain anti science politicians like Tony Abbott set the cause back by decades.

What we need is a pro science government who is prepared to invest in actual science projects like a Space Agency, something "sexy" that will attract people here while providing a decent ROI.

NASA is a government organisation after all, and they don't build everything they use they just contract the work out to private industry.

With a bit of foresight (like the people who set up CSIRO) we can get the place moving again.


I can see great opportunities in the education system for retired scientists, engineers, mathematicians etc or those whose jobs are being made redundant.


They have the practical experience in the occupations that the fresh out of teacher's college graduates don't. Why not use this spare capacity ?
 
SirRumpole said:
What we need is a pro science government who is prepared to invest in actual science projects like a Space Agency, something "sexy" that will attract people here while providing a decent ROI.

.
Click to expand...

Now you are starting to channel the ghost of Joh Bjelke and he made Abbott look wet behind the ears.

Liberal Party has never been one for getting its hands dirty by getting into secondary and services industry build. If you look back over 20th century it was mainly the Labor Party who were the industrial and big urban project enablers, although various LNP state premiers did do some grand primary industries schemes like the ORD River dam in WA and many in QLD.

It's those Labor initiated state owned enterprises and utilities that Paul Keating and John Howard sold to cement their credentials as economic managers.
 
Tisme said:
It's those Labor initiated state owned enterprises and utilities that Paul Keating and John Howard sold to cement their credentials as economic managers.
Click to expand...

So, bring back a Labor government then . :D

I doubt if the ghost of Chifley still exists in the Halls of Labor though, the one's that rattle the chains are the economic manager types that you mentioned who are pale shadows of the can-do Labor forebears.

Jay Wetherill seems to have the right idea. I wonder if he could be drafted Federally.
 
SirRumpole said:
So, bring back a Labor government then . :D

I doubt if the ghost of Chifley still exists in the Halls of Labor though, the one's that rattle the chains are the economic manager types that you mentioned who are pale shadows of the can-do Labor forebears.

Jay Wetherill seems to have the right idea. I wonder if he could be drafted Federally.
Click to expand...

I'm not familiar with SA politics, except that South Australians, like West Australians love to hate their premiers, but if an outsider tries to criticise or poach them there is a palpable level indignation from the locals.
 

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