Wayne Sawyer

Effective Teaching in the Context of a Grade 12 High-Stakes External Examination in New South Wales, Australia.

This study identified effective teachers of high-achieving Grade 12 students in New South Wales, Australia. Nineteen teachers, across a variety of curriculum areas, were observed teaching and then interviewed. A further six teachers were interviewed only. Despite the high-stakes end-of-schooling examination, generating interest in and understanding of the subject was their paramount concern. A key common factor was an emphasis on having students apply knowledge, rather than being ‘spoon-fed’ information. Although many aspects of the lessons were channelled through the teachers, frequent opportunities existed for independent learning. Classrooms were relaxed environments, but highly focused. Teachers attributed their success to four major factors: their relationships with students, their classroom practices, the students themselves and faculty cooperation. No evidence was found that the high-stakes examination inhibited best-practice teaching.

Robust Hope and Teacher Education Policy

The research question for this paper is: How can we mobilise robust hope in the analysis of teacher education policy? Specifically, this paper asks how a robust hope framework might speak to the Top of the Class, a report into teacher education by the Australian House of Representatives Standing Committee on Education and Vocational Training.

Democracy and robust hope Queensland's education and training reforms for the future

The Queensland governments senior phase education and training reforms were part of a larger change that also encompassed the early years of learning and the middle schooling years. This commissioned report, written by two education academics, provides a history of the reform process from 2003 to the end of 2005.

Starting points: paradigms in mother tongue education

[authors]. Mother-tongue education curriculum is in a constant state of debate. Indeed, the field may be accurately characterised as polyparadigmatic. We use three specific sets of analyses to discuss the curriculum variety of the field: ten Brinke’s classification of dimensions, Matthijssen’s rationality theory and Englund’s concept of competing meta-discourses. We then conceptualise the field in terms of paradigm competition, specifically discussing academic, developmental, communicative and utilitarian paradigms. We finish with a case study of the historiography of curriculum paradigms in English. Dutch. Samenvatting [translation Tanja Janssen] Het moedertaalonderwijs staat voortdurend ter discussie. Het terrein kan waarschijnlijk nog het beste gekarakteriseerd worden als ‘poly-paradigmatisch’. In onze bespreking van variatie binnen het moedertaalcurriculum gebruiken we drie specifieke bronnen: de indeling in dimensies van Ten Brinke, de rationaliteiten theorie van Matthijssen en de met elkaar wedijverende meta-gesprekken van Englund. Vervolgens beschrijven wij het terrein als een strijd tussen paradigma’s, waarbij we met name ingaan op academische, ontwikkelingsgerichte, communicatieve en utilitaire paradigma’s. We besluiten met een gevalsstudie van geschiedschrijving van paradigma’s binnen het curriculum Engels. French. Resume [transation Laurence Pasa] Les programmes d’enseignement des langues maternelles constituent un sujet de debat permanent. En effet, le theme peut se definir comme polyparadigmatique. Trois perspectives d’analyses specifiques sont 6 SAWYER & VAN DE VEN utilisees pour interroger la variete des programmes d’enseignement : les dix dimensions de la classification de Brinke, la theorie de la rationalite de Matthijssen et le concept des metadiscours concurrents d’Englund. Nous problematisons ensuite cet objet d’etude en termes de concurrence de paradigmes, discutant specifiquement les paradigmes academiques, developpementaux, communicatifs et utilitaires. Nous terminons avec une etude de cas historiographique des paradigmes sous-jacents aux programmes d’enseignement de l’anglais. Polish. Streszczenie [translation Elzbieta Awramiuk] Program nauczania jezyka ojczystego stanowi nieustanny przedmiot dyskusji. Obszar ten najcelniej charakteryzuje określenie ‘poliparadygmatyczny’. Aby zaprezentowac zroznicowanie programow nauczania na tym polu, omawiamy trzy specyficzne teorie: klasyfikacje wymiarow ten Brinke’a, teorie racjonalności Matthijssena i koncepcje rywalizacji metadyskursow Englunda. Nastepnie definiujemy ten obszar jako paradygmat rywalizacji, w szczegolności dyskutując paradygmaty: akademicki, rozwojowy, komunikacyjny i utylitarny. Na zakonczenie prezentujemy studium przypadku historiografii paradygmatow programow nauczania w Anglii. Portuguese. Resumo [Translation Poulo Feytor Pinto] O curriculo de lingua materna esta em permanente debate. Com efeito, esta area pode ser claramente caracterizada como poliparadigmatica. Nos utilizamos tres conjuntos de analises para abordar a variedade curricular desta area: a classificacao de dimensoes, de ten Brinke, a teoria da racionalidade, de Matthijssen, e o conceito de metadiscursos em competicao, de Englund. Conceptualizamos depois a area em termos de competicao entre paradigmas, abordando especificamente os paradigmas academico, desenvolvimentista, comunicativo e utilitarista. Concluimos com um estudo de caso sobre a historiografia dos paradigmas curriculares em Ingles.

A genealogy of the ‘future’: antipodean trajectories and travels of the ‘21st century learner’

In this paper, from the particular positioning of educational researchers working in Australia, we unpack the figure of the ‘21st century learner’ from both broad and specific perspectives. The paper begins with a policy genealogy that traces this figure through networks of documents, events and bodies that transcend borders and hemispheres. We suggest that although there appear to be multiple origins for current Australian policies on educational innovation, they are intricately entangled and interdependent. We identify the steady ‘economisation’ of the learner, and a concomitant corporatisation of educational innovation. The second section of the paper presents a discursive analysis of an extract from a recent book that frames up educational innovation through technology in order to further trace the operations of these regimes of thought. Our analysis here indicates the kind of critical work that needs to be done to interrogate and deconstruct aspects of current education policy.

English Teaching in New South Wales since 1971: Versions of Growth?

This article presents the case of the state of New South Wales (NSW) since the 1970s, as a particular account of English in Australia. I set out to address the question, ‘How has English, in particular English in Years 7–10, been defined from the early 1970s to the present day in NSW?’. I argue here that there was a particular version of the subject installed in 1971 and developed in NSW, and moreover that this was a quite specific realisation of ‘English as personal growth’. While the discussion will touch very briefly on classroom practice, it will focus mainly on constructions of the subject in syllabus documents.

Structuring the New English in Australia: James Moffett and English Teaching in New South Wales

James Moffetts influence in Australia is shown here manifested in a particular Syllabus for Years 7–10 from the 1970s. Moffett is discussed in terms of the totalising nature of the theory presented in Teaching the Universe of Discourse and it is argued that not only the details of Moffetts theory, but also its totalising nature were both reflected in that Syllabus. This approach to curriculum is briefly contrasted with the current draft National Curriculum for English (K–10) in Australia, which presents a model of the subject effectively disintegrated into separate strands of language, literature and literacy. Finally, the authors own experience with Moffetts Active Voice in schools is discussed as an example of operationalising theories of language development and rhetoric within a longitudinal curriculum.

Mobility and highly effective teachers : re-visiting beliefs about 'over-stayers'

Abstract There is a long held belief in the teaching profession—a belief approximating the status of folklore—that when a teacher stays in a school for an extended amount of time, the enthusiasm for the job wanes and becomes less effective, turning into the ‘living dead’, awaiting retirement. In this folklore, then, teacher mobility is positioned as desirable—with positive outcomes for the profession and for students. Two recent studies and faculties in NSW government schools, however, suggest to us a need to problematise the notion of teacher mobility as an automatically desirable aspect of the profession. We think these studies suggest a greater degree of complexity around the issue of teacher mobility than simply viewing the ‘over stayer’ as a cynical quasi‐retiree or ‘shell back’. In fact, these studies of teachers who achieve outstanding outcomes in the NSW Higher School Certificate (HSC) and of faculties and programs achieving outstanding outcomes in years 7–10, suggest that length of time in a school may be directly correlated with outstanding outcomes (by underpinning a range of other factors probably more directly causative of those outcomes).

Literacy issues in Australia

Abstract Premature release of nationwide testing results among 14 year-olds has been used by the conservative govenment in Australia to blame schools for a decline in literacy standards and to repeat the tactics of Thatcher in using such results to justify diversion of funding to private schools. Moreover, the tests themselves, based on a multiple-choice format, reflect a very basic view of what counts as ‘literacy’, which is reinforced by the essential nature of the marking process.

Peter Medway: of his time?

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discuss the important work of Peter Medway in seeking to define English as a school subject in the period from the 1980s to the early years of this century. Design/methodology/approach The author reviews the work of Peter Medway. Findings The paper addresses the issue of how his work reflected – or not – the curriculum thinking of his time and the complexity of ideas he brought to this endeavour. Originality/value This paper is an original look at the work of Peter Medway in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.