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Education

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It's good to see our social engineering is having a positive outcome on our kids and reducing bullying and bad behaviour while increasing the respect students have for their teachers.
Another one of those issues we aren't allowed to talk about, for fear of being named and shamed, eventually all this loony tunes echo chamber has to implode.

REVEALED: Teacher attacked every 40 minutes in WA

Public school teachers and principals were assaulted or physically threatened once every 40 minutes during the 2022 school year.
thewest.com.au

Teachers face biggest assault risk

Teachers face a far higher risk of being assaulted at work than other professions but researchers believe the rate could be even higher.
thenewdaily.com.au

Violent footage shows brutal school attack in Melbourne’s west

New video shows the moment four teachers were attacked while protecting a student from five teenagers at Tarneit Senior College.
www.theage.com.au

Poor discipline in Australian schools among factors driving teachers away, OECD warns

Student disengagement is on the rise and the ‘disciplinary climate’ is among the least favourable in the OECD, education policy outlook warns
www.theguardian.com

‘In crisis for years’: The struggle to fix Australia’s worst classrooms

PISA analysis found Australia had among the worst classrooms in the world in 2018. Now education stakeholders say it shouldn’t be up to teachers to fix it.
www.smh.com.au
 

They will have to put armed guards outside classrooms soon.
 
Another indicator of our failing system IMO, our university ratings slide when overseas students reduce, seems everyone has a different take on it.

Top Australian universities slide down world rankings

A fall in international student numbers is being blamed for the nation’s top-performing universities dropping down a prestigious academic league table.
www.smh.com.au

Australia’s top universities have slipped down the world’s most prestigious academic league table, with every institution in the top 200 recording a lower rank than 12 months ago.
The slide down the Times Higher Education rankings comes after an overhaul of the methodology used to score universities, but analysts say Australia’s poor performance is because of a research funding shortfall as well as student to staff ratios, which are among the worst in the world.

The University of Sydney dropped six places to rank 60th in the world; behind the University of Melbourne, which dropped three places to 37th on the list; and Monash University, which dropped 10 places to 54th.
Australian National University dropped five places to 67th spot; the University of NSW dropped 13 places to 84th; and the University of Technology, Sydney dropped 15 places to rank 148th.

Times Higher Education chief global affairs officer Phil Baty said Australian universities had been outpaced by research investment of other institutions while a drop-off in international students from 30 to 26 per cent meant revenue and consequentially research funding had taken a hit.
 
Another thing that's getting ignored while the Voice is the priority.
 
SirRumpole said:
Another thing that's getting ignored while the Voice is the priority.
Click to expand...
Yes but quietly they are admitting education has just been a complete flck up, just throwing money at it and allowing the tail to wag the dog for years, has ended up with a couple of generations of kids that are lost.
Because the whole system IMO has been developed around teacher outcomes, rather than pupil outcome, at last the scam is being shown up at all levels and because it is Labor doing it there is no radical or media union backlash.
Just another example of why we need a dose of labor, to sort lingering issues out.
Fckn student led learning, yep that sounds great, teacher "do you want to learn this"? student "no, I would rather navel gaze", teacher "ok let me know if you need help".
Meanwhile we are told there is an achievement gap between Cities and country, well I will give them a heads up on that one, in the cities the kids can get private tutoring which if the schools were any good they wouldn't need, meanwhile in the country there is no chance of getting guaranteed tutoring obviously.
So why not just get back to the future and take teaching out of universities and re invent Govt operated teacher training facilities, which specialise in actually producing good teachers from people that are suitable, rather than pumping out teachers from a money driven sausage machine, that works on throughput rather than product.
The Government taking responsibility for something that actually helps Australia move forward, that would be novel, much easier for politicians to just become media stars with sound grabs and not much else of substance.

Education boss calls for doubling down on explicit teaching in schools

NSW Education Department secretary Murat Dizdar wants teachers to return to giving students step-by-step and clear instructions instead of student-led learning.
www.smh.com.au
From the article:
The plan comes as 45 high-profile reading experts send an open letter to Australian education ministers, calling on governments to reduce the number of pupils leaving primary school without proficient reading skills.

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The department’s four-year blueprint calls out the use of explicit instruction to help improve reading and maths results. The approach favours clear direction from teachers over student-led learning, and involves breaking down topics to small parts and regularly spot-checking to assess how students are going.

The latest NAPLAN data shows almost one-third of Australian students are failing to meet proficiency standards in reading, writing and maths, with a vast achievement gap between students in cities and regions.

“This means well over 1 million children in school today do not have the literacy skills to navigate the world with confidence, proficiency and dignity,” the letter says.
 
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Exactly.

We need teachers who are passionate about the subjects they teach and just need to know how to teach it rather than being a teacher per se then having to learn the subject.
 
Came across this comment that I thought worth sharing.

The background is that Elon Musk has been trashing Wikipedia. Basically saying it is a waste of space. This comment came under the story discussing Elons trash talk.


Tintenfische
10 hours ago

251
James Bell said something the other day. Musk misunderstood twitter. He thinks it's a tech business, it's not. It's an advertising business driven by emotion. The technology is secondary to its ability to get people talking, ok sometimes shouting and by doing so well advertising to people in the backs of those conversations. That is why moderation and verification was so important, it allowed people to engage with reputable sources and talk. It meant you could trust who you were speaking to was actually who you were speaking to albeit for a given level of trust. But Musk, he thinks it's a means influence, a mouth piece where all opinions are equal and that the product is your ability to chat whatever nonsense you like. He doesn't get what he owns.

There was a report released yesterday, 75% of disinformation on the Gaza war came from blue tick accounts. Before information from a blur tick could reasonably be trusted, especially from somewhere like the NYT with their insistence on two sources when possible before releasing a story. Now it is simply impossible to believe what you read. From abducted Israeli generals to Eli Lilly saying it would slash the price of insulin Musk has created a space where lies are routinely passed as truth and that's his business model. He doesn't care about facts or reality, he doesn't value free speech when you really think about it. All he cares about is denuding his critics of power and influence and making money at the same time and it's destroying twitter as a result.

This mindset, this messianic megalomania means he has convinced himself that all other opinions are worth as much as each other except his own and those who agree with him. Anything to the contrary isn't fake news, he's not that stupid, it's simply a topic which can be debated. Which is why he hates Wiki. You can't really argue with wiki without sources, you can't dispute what's written without information supporting your cause and that information is checked, assayed and subjected to verification before it's allowed to stand and this is done by citizens who take pride in being factually correct.

You see this is the difference between Wales and Musk. Both believe in citizen voices, both believe in free speech it's just that for Wales free speech comes with a responsibility to submit your work to scrutiny and be judged. For Musk free speech is a bad pun about sinks and poo emojis if you afk him questions.

One is born of the enlightenment and the other is a product of the playground.

Why is Elon Musk attacking Wikipedia? Because its very existence offends him | Zoe Williams

The X owner has no time for a democratic experiment dedicated to knowledge. He would rather yell puerile ‘jokes’ into the ether, writes Zoe Williams
www.theguardian.com
 
Wikipedia is worth 100 X's imho.
 

Too many eggheads producing silly reports about outcomes for teachers. Education is about teaching students the skills needed to survive in the modern world and giving society the services it needs.

It's about time we got back to rewarding the best and brightest students and teachers, not dumbing the whole system down to make everyone feel better.
 
Absolutely, someone is taking the pizz, when another review lays the majority of the blame at the whole teacher training process.
I certainly hope the Lawrence report doesn't get air, otherwise every parent will be sending their kids to private schools, because the lack of discipline and outcomes in public schools will leave them with no options.
It is a bit like having a restaurant that is losing clientele and the owner keeps making excuses for the crap food, eventually he has to ask the chef if he can cook. Removing Naplan, is the same as the restaurant owner just saying the customers just don't know what they are talking about, a very Fawly Towers approach.

Universities will have to improve their teaching degrees or face consequences. The reactions have been mixed

Universities will be given two years to overhaul their education degrees or risk losing their accreditation as part of a national bid to fix Australia's teacher shortage.
www.abc.net.au
An independent review using NAPLAN data found the percentage of students underperforming in reading dropped dramatically between 2019 and 2022 — from 42 per cent to 4 per cent — with similar turnarounds in writing and spelling.
"Sociology might be important but it shouldn't be the most important concept in a teaching degree," Mr Fox said.

"Unfortunately, too often university graduates are graduating able to write essays about all sort of things but not able to respond to the needs of students.

A major review of teaching courses led by Education Department Secretary and Sydney University vice-chancellor Mark Scott has recommended sweeping changes to the way future teachers are trained.

A key change will be making universities teach "core content" such as classroom management and how to effectively teach reading and writing.

Professor Scott, a former teacher, told the ABC many graduates were overwhelmed by the complexities of the classroom when they began teaching.

"We've done some significant research on the things that students feel they most need and the things that the evidence suggests are most important for students to be able to learn effectively so they can effectively teach on day one," Professor Scott said.

The four areas of 'core content' universities will have to teach:​

  • The brain and learning: content that provides teachers with an understanding of how the brain processes, stores and retrieves information
  • Effective pedagogical practices: literacy and numeracy teaching strategies, as well as teaching in a way that supports how students' brains work
  • Classroom management: ways to manage foster positive learning environments, such as establishing rules and routines and modelling desired behaviour
  • Responsive teaching: content that ensures teachers teach in ways that are culturally and contextually appropriate and responsive to student needs.
Australian universities will have until 2025 to incorporate this core content into their courses under the supervision of a new advisory board or risk their accreditation.

"Every initial teacher education program will be significantly reviewed in light of this report and no university is going to want to run afoul of important accreditation processes," Professor Scott said.

The nation's education ministers have given the report their "in principle" support.
 
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Yes, well I wonder if we will get maths teachers that get A's in being "culturally appropriate" and D's in Maths.
 

First data on school refusal trend suggests 'shocking' problem is much bigger than first thought

With her son missing weeks of school at a time, Georgina Ker followed the "tough love" prescription she was told would remedy her son's "behaviour problem". A new survey has found more than one-in-three parents have reported school refusal with their children in the past year.
www.abc.net.au

Yet another investigation showing kids aren't coping and don't want to go to school, have they ever thought that maybe the kids aren't being taught properly and can't cope because they can't actually do the basics.
Because they aren't taught the basics and school gets harder as you move up to more complex studies, if they don't get the basics the stress becomes greater and greater.
Why would a kid want to go to school when they can't understand and do the work.
 

Might be an educational problem like subjects too hard, could be a social issue like bullying . The causes would be individual and difficult to determine unless every kid who doesn't turn up was interviewed.
 
OMG, Australian educational rankings are falling and now this. We live in a strange world.
It was only a couple of years ago people were lamenting the fact kids were missing school due to covid, also they are having to supply remedial maths and english courses in universities and TAFE due to the fact many students don't understand the basics.

The school where children are being asked to learn from home one day a week

A plan to reduce face-to-face teaching has provoked fierce backlash from parents concerned about pressure on families and disruption for HSC students.
www.smh.com.au
Parents at a major regional Catholic college are fighting back against plans by the school to cut time in the classroom to four days a week, a move that will allow students to learn at home on Mondays with no formal teaching.

Chevalier College in the Southern Highlands is proposing students in years 10 to 12 learn remotely for one day each week, with the school’s principal saying the overhaul will “set students up for success in the modern world”.
The plan has provoked fierce backlash from parents who say the “outrageous” decision will put untenable pressure on families and cause major disruption for HSC students.
Principal Greg Miller told parents that students in year 10 and up will be “invited to learn from home on some Mondays” from next year if they complete “a flipped learning micro-credential” to make them eligible for remote learning. A similar plan for year 9 was dismissed.

There would be no formal lessons for senior students on that day, rather pupils would need to complete some set work to “consolidate learning” from the week before. Students in years 7 to 9 would be at school on Mondays, but some of the school day would involve doing pre-assigned work under supervision.
 
So what would you like to learn about radical women in New York in the 1910's ?

Just to broaden your education folks. (I had absolutely NFI either) But the picture and the story behind it are well worth remembering for your next party story.


Radicals and Rogues: These subversive 1910s women made New York cool – but were written out of history​

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(Image credit: Library of Congress, Washington, DC)

By Cath Pound17th November 2023

According to a new book, New York's transformation in the 20th Century into a vibrant, modern city is largely thanks to a cohort of radical women artists who were overlooked by history, writes Cath Pound.
N
New York is undoubtedly one of the most culturally vibrant cities in the world. But it wasn't always so. In Radicals and Rogues: The women who made New York modern, the writer and researcher Lottie Whalen reveals that its transformation in the early decades of the 20th Century was largely thanks to a bold, taboo-busting cohort of women who pushed boundaries both creatively and socially. As artists, writers, salon hosts and patrons they passionately embraced new forms of living, loving and creating.

Radicals and Rogues: These subversive 1910s women made New York cool – but were written out of history

New York's transformation in the 20th Century into a vibrant, modern city is largely thanks to a cohort of radical women artists who were overlooked by history, writes Cath Pound.
www.bbc.com
 
A fairly long interview (6 minutes), but well worth the time as it exposes just how deficient our schools' curriculum is compared to those overseas.

No wonder we need all those skilled migrants.

Is Australia's education curriculum falling behind and can we fix it? - ABC listen

Whether it's difficult headlines about international testing, NAPLAN figures, or teachers under pressure to maintain discipline in the classroom, it's a tough picture for education in this country.
www.abc.net.au
 

‘Australia’s long term slide’ in reading, maths and science, PISA results show

Australian teenagers have fallen almost two full academic years behind students who went to school in the early 2000s.
www.smh.com.au

Australian teenagers have fallen almost two full academic years behind students who went to school in the early 2000s, with nearly half of pupils failing to reach national standards in maths and reading in the latest round of international tests.
 
Everyone should have to listen to that, then they might realise why people send their kids to private schools, despite the extra cost.
The problem is everyone is scared to tell the truth about why public schools are failing, the backlash isn't worth the hassle, just move your kids.
 
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