UniSA Open Journal System (Univ. of South Australia)
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Body image and the pre-pubescent child
No full textHistorically the development of body image concepts and associated
‘perceived body image dissatisfaction’ (PBID) has been considered a
construction that occurs at puberty. In this paper we present an overview of
issues pertinent to PBID and an analysis of eight interviews. These
interviews were conducted with girls aged between five and seven years and
support a growing body of evidence that suggests body image and PBID
occur much earlier in the developmental stages of girls than puberty. The
qualitative paradigm used in this research identifies similarities with recent
research on body image and young girls. Using inductive analysis of these
interviews and other research, we present a hypothesis that may help to
explain why significant body image concepts appear to occur during this
developmental period
What makes the Boy from Oz good?: Hugh Jackman and the pedagogy of excellence
No full textWith this paper we present the findings of a qualitative study providing
baseline information on staff attitudes towards learning in a performing arts
setting. The pedagogy for learning in performing arts courses has arisen, in
part, from master-apprenticeship relationships between students and expert
practitioners. This study is an exploration of how these traditional patterns of
learning translate to a university environment and of the pedagogical
expectations and processes of actors, singers and dancers. The location of this
study is the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts at Edith Cowan
University, Perth, Western Australia (WAAPA@ECU). It is an elite training
school for students wishing to pursue careers on the screen and stage as
actors, dancers, musicians or producers/directors. The study was prompted by
a recognition that WAAPA@ECU produces nationally and internationally
recognised ‘excellent outcomes’. It is, therefore, informed by an interest in
the pedagogy of excellence in a performing arts setting
Getting help from the outside: developing a support network for beginning teachers
No full textThis paper is a discussion of a study conducted collaboratively by teacher educators
at an Australian university and personnel from an Australian authority that employs
state teachers. The study was an investigation of how beginning teachers could be
supported by a network comprising teacher educators, beginning teachers and
experienced teachers who were located at different schools from the beginning
teachers. Ways of enhancing mentoring skills for the group of experienced teachers
were also examined. In this paper, the nature of the support network and the
experiences of the beginning teachers in the network are discussed
Assessment, League Tables and School Effectiveness: Consider the Issues and ‘Let’s Get Real’!
No full textCurrent policy activity related to ‘outcomes-based’ educational performance
indicators and its link with growing demands for accountability, standards
monitoring, target-setting, benchmarking and school effectiveness is
widespread – in Australia and internationally. Within this context, the
present paper highlights the limitations of using performance indicators based
on test or examination scores as accountability measures at the school- and
system-level, or indeed, as measures of student learning outcomes. The
issues raised are presented for consideration, stressing the need for caution in
generating and publishing potentially invalid and misleading information,
especially in the typically published form of ‘league tables’ consisting of
schools’ raw, ‘ability-adjusted’, or ‘value-added’ average achievement
scores, with the risk of generating both individual and institutional harm. As
a means of at least minimising such problems, the paper outlines a code of
ethics for the publication of educational performance indicators along the
lines proposed by Goldstein and Myers (1996), and Myers and Goldstein
(1996)
Towards constructivist classrooms: the role of the reflective teacher
No full textThis paper draws on our experiences of working in a South Australian school
reform project entitled ‘Learning to Learn’. The paper focuses on the role of
reflection in enabling students and teachers to participate in new ways in the
teaching-learning process. The teachers involved in this project actively
involved themselves in – and were supported in – a learning process that
required them to rethink and reframe their ideas around learning and student
participation, so that they could begin to reform their classrooms, based on a
constructivist epistemology. The paper provides some insights into how a
number of these teachers actively involved their students in a reflective
learning process that ‘let them into the secrets’ of learning. Four strategies
have been identified: developing reflective attitudes in their students,
explicitly teaching metacognitive skills and processes, making space for
reflection in their classrooms, and using and encouraging a responsive
interaction style. We propose that the role of the reflective teacher in
transforming classrooms is to engage in reflective processes for their own
learning and to engage their students in reflective processes
Parent classroom involvement and the development of social capital: a reading program in East Vancouver
No full textParents have the potential to play an important role in the development of social capital in their children’s classrooms. Both theoretical and empirical evidence suggest that parents’ classroom participation is directly linked to higher academic achievement and pro-social behaviour in the children. This study examines the influence that the in-class parent reading component of the Partners in Education (PIE) program had on parents and children. By evaluating teacher observations of parents who participated in the PIE program and their children over the 2005/2006 school year, the results of this study support the continued funding of this program (and of similar programs). Teachers reiterated fundamental parent, student and parent-student changes. For many students, the reading program enriched the social capital in their classroom as parents moved from being out-group to in-group classroom members, thereby positively influencing their level of support and also their confidence which, in turn, enabled students to improve their academic achievement and or sociability
Professional well-being and learning: a study of teacher-peer workplace relationships
No full textThis is a companion article to an earlier one in JEE (Butt and Retallick 2002) which focused on administrator-teacher workplace relationships in relation to professional well-being and learning. Whilst retaining the inquiry theme of professional well-being and learning, here we shift the focus of the data analysis to the workplace relationships of teachers and their peers. This focus is significant in the context of increasing interest in collaboration amongst teachers as a key source of their professional learning, along with widespread moves to rethink the nature of schools as learning communities where workplace relationships based on collegiality and trust, rather than hierarchy, are paramount (eg Mitchell & Sackney 2000; Retallick et al 1999; Sackney 2003).
The major purpose of this article, then, is to portray the essential structures and processes (see Polkinghorne 1983) of teachers’ experiences of work-life relationships with their fellow teachers. Themes discerned from the interpretation of autobiographical data taken from teachers’ professional life stories with regard to positive and negative relationships were used to identify what collegial initiatives and actions are perceived by teachers to lead to professional well-being and productive learning in the workplace. In this article, we have investigated the most predominant meta-theme which appeared in the data in relation to teachers’ sense of satisfaction and dissatisfaction with their work lives – that of intercollegial relationships
Collaborative decision-making and school-based management: challenges, rhetoric and reality
No full textSchool-based management has increasingly become the agreed-upon
model around the world for the operation of schools, particularly those in
large public education systems. A critical element of the model is devolving
enhanced levels of decision-making from the centre (eg the head office) to the
schools. While the rhetoric surrounding such actions is usually acclaimed as a
positive step for teachers, parents and the wider community to be involved in
decisions that affect their children, the challenges particularly for school
leaders to achieve these ends is often overlooked. Further, the reality – that is,
the nature, extent and impact – of collaborative decision-making appears to
be variable in practice
The assessment of literacy: working the zone between ‘system’ and ‘site’ validity
No full textIn this paper we address questions regarding the assessment of literacy, exploring the
idea that practical judgements made in specific communities of practice are the
phenomena at the intersection of validity for (1) local sites and (2) administrative
systems. We propose a template for considering the challenges facing systems,
administrators and teachers as they work to validly assess the important aspects of
literacy learning by students in schools. We identify and discuss some concerns and
assumptions that are common across the two validity sites, and some that are distinctive
A pilot study utilising cross-age peer tutoring as a method of intervention for anxious adolescents
No full textAnxiety disorders are the most common psychopathology experienced by young people, with up to 18% of adolescents developing an anxiety disorder. The consequences of these disorders, if left untreated, include impaired peer relationships, school absenteeism and self-concept problems. In addition, anxiety disorders may play a causal role in the development of depression in young people, precede eating disorders and predispose adolescents to substance abuse disorders. While the school is often chosen as a place to provide early intervention for this debilitating disorder, the fact that excessive anxiety is often not recognised in school and that young people are reluctant to seek help, makes identifying these adolescents difficult. Even when these young people are identified, there are problems in providing sensitive programs which are not stigmatising to them within a school setting. One method which may engage this adolescent population could be cross-age peer tutoring. This paper reports on a small pilot study using the “Worrybusters†program and a cross-age peer tutoring method to engage the anxious adolescents. These anxious secondary school students planned activities for teacher-referred anxious primary school students for a term in the high school setting and then delivered those activities to the younger students weekly in the next term in the primary school. Although the secondary school students decreased their scores on anxiety self-report measures there were no significant differences for primary school students’ self-reports. However, the primary school parent reports indicated a significant decrease in their child’s anxiety