D Moltow

Mind Your Language

Recent research indicates that the teaching of languages other than English (LOTE) in schools is again becoming an increasingly valued feature of education curricula throughout Australia (Lo Bianco, 2009), and recognises the importance of introducing languages at an early age to ensure that students are able to “effectively participate in a globalised world” (Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, cited in Group of Eight [Go8], 2007, p. 3).

The Role of Animals in the Values Development of Children

In response to Government and community calls to maintain, emphasise, or reintroduce values in schooling, there is a growing literature concerning values education in Australian schools. Despite descriptions of clear aims and expectations within the documents that guide curriculum development, the existing literature exposes a gap, both in studies that identify effective pedagogies for the development of values, and in the availability of instruments to measure values development in children.

Engaged Young Writers

Since 2008, it has been compulsory for all Australian students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 to complete a number of standardised tests known as the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN). Completed yearly, the NAPLAN tests are designed to assess students’ reading, writing, language (spelling, grammar, and punctuation), and numeracy skills (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA], 2010).

Pedagogical symmetry and the cultivation of humanity: Nussbaum, Seneca and symmetry in the teacher–pupil relationship

Martha Nussbaum argues that the aims of higher education ought to include the development in pupils of the capacity to contribute to the cultivation of humanity as intelligent, global citizens. For Nussbaum, ‘training’ in this capacity is distinctly ‘philosophical’ and she proposes that, to achieve this, teacher–pupil relationships ought to be ‘strongly symmetrical’ along the lines of the teaching model evinced in Seneca’s Epistles. In this paper, I examine Nussbaum’s proposal in relation to an intentional account of teaching and consider how it fits within the Stoic framework before examining how her argument for symmetry aligns with that evidenced in Seneca. I show that Nussbaum’s argument for pedagogical symmetry is sustained neither by evidence from Seneca nor by the account of teaching implied in her own proposal for education.