Jean Walker

Your analysis of visionaries/functionaries in education is absolutely accurate. I'd never thought about the guilt aspect. Do they REALLY feel guilty or are they people who don't suffer from pangs of conscience or awareness of hypocracy?

I am sitting here mentally putting appropriate labels on our DoE principals and bureaucrats. At the moment I think the functionaries grossly outnumber the visionaries. I think one of my favourite quotes applies here: It's better to be cynical than gullible.

Young women are apparently also smoking more than young males. Has anyone done any research on WHY? Has it to do with post-feminism ie it's the only area left for girls to demonstrate their "equality"? Is it the desire for self-destruction similar to the suicide rates? Is it that modern life offers no religious panacea or moral certainties? It's got to be due to something!

It's interesting that this devlovement of responsibility in education, and the passing on of more autonomy to Heads, seems to be a world wide trend. It has just been "done" to us here. We have been completely restructured into "clusters" of schools with Boards of Principals and a "Coordinating Principal" for each cluster. We were also promised "more money through the school gate" because of a reduction in bureaucracy, but it's not turning out that way.

What we now have is a system which devolves authority to schools to be more individual, responsive, autonomous etc, but is in fact more accountable for outcomes with less money than ever before.

Have I made a significant difference to anyone in 35+ years of teaching? I really don't know. I've had a few ex-students tell other teachers that I was a "good" English teacher. I've had one student at a reunion tell me that I was the "best" English teacher she'd had. The teacher who now has the Yr 9 class I had last year tells me that they "speak with enthusiasm" about the way I inspired them to enjoy literature, but it's not that much for teaching probably 7000 students over those years.

We so rarely know that we've made a difference because very few students ever tell us so, even if we did. In my current job as President of our union, I know very much more clearly if I'm making a difference. eg the Minister isn't speaking to me at the moment so I must have done something right!! The media very quickly tells me if I've achieved anything worthwhile or not, as do the members.

It's interesting, because it's so different from teaching where you soldier on, regardless of praise or compliments, just because you believe that you MIGHT one day make a difference and that would make it all worthwhile.

When I was teaching in Kent, the Head was called Mrs Dagger (true) - she was a small blonde powerdressing bombshell who overused the PA system - she used to bring classes to tears of laughter when her voice would suddenly break into the class with her uppercrust accent: if Mr Jones is about I'd like him to give me a buzz please! She apparently never realised the double entendre.

Sorry, Graham - wrong spelling of name - it's Friday night here!!

Just happened to look at this thread and saw your Edspeak jargon list, Graeme. Don't know if it's hit the UK yet, but the latest here are: enhanced (ie everything has to be enhanced even if it's already "excellent"), capacity building (ie you have to find some way of doing it even if you haven't got the resources), "around" as in you now talk "around" everything instead of about them (how did we manage to communicate when all we had was "about"???) Scoping (ie figuring out what's needed)

There must be others??

Can anyone give me a link to the Report on Secondary Education from Scotland which I think was due to be published this week?

Secondly, can anyone put me in touch with someone who has a good knowledge of the Scottish education system, please?

Thanks, Maggie. You're a gem!!

Can anyone tell me which countries and which academice are watching us??? (See below) Some high schools now have NO compulsory subjects at all. others are retaining subjects and just "embedding" the outcomes into them. We have a complete mish-mash of what is happening in govt schools but that is apparently the way the whole world is going?

World eyes reforms

By MICHELLE PAINE

The Mercury 22Oct04

THE world is watching Tasmania's education reforms, says Education Minister Paula Wriedt.

Dramatic changes to the state's educational system will start from next year.

But teachers fear they are not ready for the transition, which will use vastly different assessment criteria from kindergarten to Year 10.

"This does require a big shift, it's quite groundbreaking," Ms Wriedt said yesterday. "I know some people are not comfortable with the change but equally there are many who are really excited about it.

"Academics from around the world are watching us. Students don't have to learn everything in the classroom as they always have."

Ms Wriedt said the basic curriculum had barely changed for decades yet the world was a different place.

A survey of teachers in May by the Australian Education Union showed more than 90 per cent did not have a good knowledge of the new assessment.

From next year teachers will prepare report cards on how students do in whole new areas. Once phase-in is complete, report cards will not list traditional subjects like maths or english, with a grade for each.

Instead teachers will collaborate on each student and mark their ability to communicate, think and deal with issues of social responsibility.

Ms Wriedt said there was a huge cultural shift in the education system but many were embracing it.

She also said the Tasmanian Certificate of Education was not being abolished.

Ms Wriedt said she realised the assessment part of the change concerned teachers most, but there was still another six months before they had to report in the new way.

A teacher who contacted The Mercury yesterday said many of her colleagues were sceptical and angry about the new system.

She said it was over-theorised, jargonised and difficult for teachers, let alone parents, to understand.

The secondary teacher said she would have to collaborate with every other teacher on her nearly 300 students.

She said her subject which now had about 10 criteria students were measured against under the TCE would soon be measured in only one area, and the changes would leave new graduate teachers floundering.

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TEACHERS ANGRY OVER CURRICULUM SHAKE-UP

by Michelle Paine

The Mercury, 22 October 2004

SOME teachers are eyeing early retirement or a career switch as curriculum changes bite.

The Australian Education Union said Tasmania's curriculum and assessment overhaul had left teachers and parents behind. Several teachers said they would quit and knew others who were considering quitting out of anger and fear. AEU Tasmanian president Jean Walker said she knew of teachers working out if they could afford to retire early, depending on their years of service or if their partners had a decent income. Also yesterday: * Education Minister Paula Wriedt said retirement rates were steady and there were plenty of new graduates. * A professor of education said employers wanted major change but big resources were needed.

-- Parents and Friends groups backed changes.

Mrs Walker said teachers had been telling the department about deep concerns.

Tasmania's schools have been phasing in the new curriculum for several years.

From next year new reporting will be phased in, with children marked on areas including communication and well-being.

"People are definitely telling us if this doesn't work out, they will move on," Mrs Walker said.

"The whole curriculum changes should have been opened up more from the beginning. Parents needed more education about this. There's doubt even whether schools have the capacity to carry out the new assessment."

Tasmanian State School Parents and Friends said it supported the philosophy of curriculum changes.

President Richard Pickup said change had been under way for several years.

"We've supported it on what we do know. Why didn't the teachers come forward before?" Mr Pickup said.

"There's still development going on. We don't know all the details and I can't speak for the teachers but we believe the change is for the better."

Education Minister Paula Wriedt said the new Essential Learnings framework had been in train for more than four years.

Ms Wriedt said there was no evidence of increased retirement or resignation, with 185 last year and 192 the previous year.

"The overwhelming response from teachers is in support of the Essential Learnings package and we are working with them to facilitate its introduction," Ms Wriedt said.

She said more teachers were being trained than ever and there was a "ready pool of young teachers" should there be an unexpectedly high retirement rate.

"I make no apology for changing the system for the better," she said.

One secondary senior teacher said the system was already creating mediocrity.

"Teacher morale has really suffered. Bureaucrats talk about them learning about world and personal futures (new assessment criteria) but they're playing with kids' futures," she said.

"It's not just assessment. The more subject areas become blurred, the more standards drop. It's turning out mediocrity."

She said children were "full of opinions" but had nothing to base them on.

Australian Council for Educational Research chief executive officer Geoff Masters said cross-curricular assessment was growing in popularity - teaching children to communicate and think rather than just remember facts.

Professor Masters said major change required a lot of time, training and therefore money.

Parents should also be clear about what they wanted their children to know.

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Back to the debate about what should be taught - that is exactly the battle we are fighting here. With our new curruculum (btw I'm on front page of paper again today) the battle is between tose who believe that it is now impossible to teach everything and impossible to designate exactly what is, or will be, important, so you mandate only outcomes such as "communicating" and "numeracy" etc, and leave the teacher/school to decide how to reach those outcomes, and those who belive it IS possible to determine what is common and relevant and important for students to know. It's the "cultural literacy" versus "learning to learn" debate.

And because this is now being left up to individual schools here, we now have a huge varirty in what govt schools teach - from retaining the traditional subjects and embedding the "essential learning goals" into them (ie fudging it) to high schools which have completely given up all discrete subjects and do only cross-curricular units, often taught by teachers with no specialism in aspects of the unit.

I belive this is wrongheaded and will result in didaster for both kids and teachers, but our DoE is adamant that this is the way to go for the future.

Any responses welcome!

Yes, as predicted, I hit the front page of our local paper this morning.

THE MERCURY October 21 2004

SCHOOL SHOCK

by Michelle Paine

TEACHERS are unprepared for a radical overhaul of Tasmania's educational system.

New assessments for students from kindergarten to Year 10 will be enforced from next year.

Traditional subject divisions have been replaced with topics of thinking, communicating and social responsibility.

But in a survey of 1334 teachers across the state by the Australian Education Union, 92 per cent said they did not have good knowledge of the marking system.

More than half of primary teachers and three-quarters of secondary ones surveyed said they had little or no knowledge of the new system.

The Essential Learnings Framework must start in all schools next year, partly because the Tasmanian Certificate of Education has been abolished.

Opposition education spokesman Peter Gutwein released the survey yesterday.

"If teachers are struggling with this new, obviously bureaucrat-driven reporting system, how does Ms (Education Minister Paula) Wriedt expect parents to make head or tail of their child's report cards?" Mr Gutwein said.

AEU Tasmania branch president Jean Walker said the union had been saying schools were ill-prepared for the changes.

"We believe there's a significant number of teachers who won't be ready to do this validly," she said.

"One of the big obstacles is that they've removed the TCE."

From next year, government schools must assess four key areas - inquiry, numeracy, literacy and well-being. More will follow in 2006.

They fall into five "essentials" - thinking, communicating (eg, literacy and numeracy), personal futures (ethics and well-being), social responsibility and world futures.

The new learning replaces conventional division of subjects into mathematics, English or science - and nothing is compulsory.

Instead, "cross-curricular units" will be studied by drawing on various disciplines.

For example, learning about water could draw on maths, science and geography.

"Some have dropped the traditional subjects altogether, instead they have cross-curricular units," Mrs Walker said.

"Some have small amounts of basic subjects and others are retaining separate subjects, they're all different. The biggest change is in assessment."

She said the new program had been taken up more keenly by schools that had a lot of students "not engaged".

"Some schools are ready because they've been online (with Essential Learnings) for four years, but some have only been on since last year. The union doesn't have problems with the new curriculum, it's the timeframe."

Mrs Walker said union members would be voting on the changes.

Mr Gutwein said teachers and principals were also having to come to grips with the major restructure from six districts to three branches.

We have a similar system up to Yr 10 here in Tasmania. No exams until Yr11/12. Teachers assess through a varirty of tasks according to "calibrated standards". However, our Yr 11/12 pre-tertiary subjects carry points and Unis require varying numbers of points for entry into each faculty - eg teaching training requires fewer points than engineering!!! Yet, Australia comes well within the top bracket of PISA and TIMS results.

I think I've mentioned before that we have just moved to an entirely new, revolutionary curriculum and completely revolutionised assessment and reporting formats for all grades from K-10. The proverbial sh*t hit the proverbial fan today, when the shadow Minister for Education was fed (or had leaked to him) the highly complex nature of all this and the unintelligible language of the reporting and the results of a recent survey done by my union which showed that 90% of teachers surveyed said they didn't understand how to do it. I have been telling the Minister this for the last 9 months and have been ignored, but very different when the opposition challenges you in parliament!! Our local papers will be full of it tomorrow and I will no doubt be the temporary centre of attention of local media, all begging for some contoversy. Why don't they listen to the common sense of experienced teachers? Rhetorical question only!!

We ceratinly have the same motivation for getting pregnant here in Australia - I have taught girls in isolated, rural. poor areas whose first priority on leaving school (or before) was to get pregnant in order to get accommodation away from their parents'home, get an income and a role and something to love and something to fill up their time, because they knew they weren't going to get employment.

I actually believe we do quite a good job of sex/relationship education here in Tasmanian schools, but none of it will make up for lack of employment and economic hopelessness. Very few upper middle class teenage girls get (or at least stay) pregnant, yet here they all get the same education.

Was UK law changed recently to allow for reasonable restraint of pupils? If so, where can I find info? Our legal officer in my union is interested.

Thanks to all those wonderful people who answer my never ending questions!!

I have read the Ofsted report into SEN (thanks to David), and wonder if anyone can tell me the % of students in PRUs? The stats in the report do not separate them out. Also, if anyone happened to have same figures for EBDs that would be useful too.

Thanks, David, that is it. I've downloaded it.

I haven't spoken to them much about it, but I gather that she is fairly strict with her own children, has the same expectations for him, and brooks no nonsense in a kind-hearted way which for some reason, he accepts. I think his parents were giving in to him as they were exhausted by his behaviour, and he was emotionally blackmailing them because he knew he could, whereas in the new situation, it doesn't work. He probably needed the rigour but wasn't getting it for obvious reasons. We're all only human after all!

It's hard to do things about what kids eat at home, except through education. Our outomes based curriculum here allows us to address this sort of thing because we don't have an imposed national curriculum. One of the expected "outcomes" is expressed as "Personal Well-being" so all schools run units of work which incorporate learning about food/diet/health etc.

Our state DoE encourages school canteens, which are all run by P&F groups, to have only healthy food and, although there are still some which could improve, most are getting better at it. The opposition party tried to bring in one hour of compulsory PE/Sport a week, but actually when a survey was done, it showed that all schools did that or more already. (Maybe Australians are a bit more sportcentric). However, obesity is still a problem, and probably for the reasons mentioned above - too much sitting at a PC, too little exercise as in walking to school, running round all weekend, and bad food habits at home.

What you can do about all those, I don't know.

It's a tricky one. Here in Tasmania all high schools have teachers who have some specialist training in "Health", usually the PE or Science teachers and they teach compulsory units on sex education in Yr 7-10 which seem to work quite well, although I accept it might be too late. Thay also always bring in outside experts from Family Planning etc. This is probably more acceptable here as we do not have any compulsory state exams until Yr 12/13 and our curriculum is not nationally set.

As for manners - I guess you DO have to teach the things that parents fail to do, sometimes just to make life more acceptable for everyone in the class, in the same way you teach behaviour management/control to those whose parents have failed to do that also. I believe parents ARE doing less in this area than they used to, and that's not a good thing for society generally, but do you, as a teacher, just put up with it, try to educate parents, or try to educate both?

It's a hard one to call!

Can someone please let me know if the Report on Inclusion by the Office of Educational Standards has been released yet, and where I can find it when it has?

Dear David

I clicked on your website and was interested to see that you teach at Harton College in South Shields. That was my partner's high school and he went to the big reunion there a couple of years ago. He is extremely nostalgic about South Shields and we go back every couple of years from Australia. I'm afraid I can't share his nostaligia, having been born in Huddersfiled.

As for set books - what about in English at high school and Uni? I am so glad I was introduced to DH Lawrence's Sons and Lovers and Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse and I adored Tristram Shandy and Pamela in the "early novels" unit, but could never take to Henry James or Melville or Scott Fitgerald, but I suppose I'm grateful that I was made to read them, which is more than what happens nowadays.

Not sure which topic this should be in, but what about some teacher jokes? In good taste, of course!!!

Came across thos on on another UK site recently:

How many teachers does it take to change a light-bulb? Well hang on a minute! You can't go changing a light-bulb just like that. You need a plan - long, medium and short-term - or your method of changing the bulb will be in question. And of course, you need to be very clear what you are trying to achieve by changing it - that will need writing down and handing out to anybody who happens to be watching you change the light-bulb. Furthermore, some account will need to be made for the fact that the light bulb may not be very bright - you can't just discard it. You will also need to spend time assessing your procedure after the event, with a clear emphasis on taking the bulb-changing process to the next stage. Oh and there is the question of changing other bulbs on a voluntary basis after hours...

Her's another of the Australian Les Murray's that might appeal to the boys (or the boys in the men!+

The Harleys

Blats booted to blatant

dubbing the avenue dire

with rubbings of Sveinn Forkbeard

leading a black squall of Harleys

with Moe Snow-Whitebeard and

Possum Brushbeard and their ladies

and, sphincter-lipped, gunning,

massed in leather muscle on a run,

on a roll, Santas from Hell

like a whole shoal leaning

wide wristed, their tautness stable

in fluency, fast streetscape dwindling,

all riding astride, on the outside

of sleek grunt vehicles, woman-clung,

forty years on from Marlon.

from

Conscious and Verbal, 1999