Don’t frighten the children?

A piece from today’s Irish Times in defence of the “exhilarating, bloodcurdling journey of childhood”:

Sometimes it’s not the kids we’re worried about. Stories such as Where the Wild Things Are tap into the real fears shared by children and adults: disproportionate punishment, dislocation, feeling unloved, and, worse than being ignored, saddled with the responsibilities of leadership without any proper training. It’s similar to what happens upon reaching adulthood: after commencing the wild rumpus, it’s hard to know what to do.

Judith Butler on the University of California’s financial crisis

Well-known social theorist Judith Butler writes in the Guardian’s Comment is free column on the financial woes being experienced by the University of California. She writes in particular of the consequences for choice and affordability and raises some direct questions about university governance.

Chalk and cheese

Macquarie University Vice Chancellor Stephen Schwartz weighs in on the education debate in the latest Australian Literary Review, where he discusses the Teach for Australia initiative, the role of education in individual transformation, and new proposals for teacher pay. Books under review include:

Radical Hope: Education and Equality in Australia—Quarterly Essay 35
By Noel Pearson
Black Inc.

Schools of Thought: A Collection of Articles on Education
By Jennifer Buckingham
The Centre for Independent Studies.

Education, Science and Public Policy: Ideas for an Education Revolution
Edited by Simon Marginson and Richard James
MUP Academic Monographs.

I will order copies of these and have them placed at Swanston Library.

New National Education Certificate proposed

A recent article in the Sunday Herald Sun draws on a paper created by the newly formed Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority, which reveals the transition to new national subjects and standards.

ACARA chairman Prof Barry McGaw said details of the year 11 and 12 national curriculum in the four core areas were being drafted and were due to come on stream in 2012.

He said a fully fledged “Australian School Certificate” could come after that.

“We have looked at the best curricula around the world. We believe we will be able to deliver a world-class system,” he said.

ACARA has been created as an education super-body.

It is a statutory authority of the Federal Parliament with powers to oversee curricula, assessment and the recently announced reporting on schools.

Under the plan, initially the year 11 and 12 national curriculum will apply to English, Maths, Science and History, but plans are in progress to extend it to other subjects.

It is possible to configure Google news to feed items on the national curriculum. We also have newspaper databases such as Factiva and ANZ Newsstand  or even TVNews (for video content) that will allow you to keep up to date on the news reports.

At First, Funny Videos. Now, a Reference Tool

From the New York Times:

FACED with writing a school report on an Australian animal, Tyler Kennedy began where many students begin these days: by searching the Internet. But Tyler didn’t use Google or Yahoo. He searched for information about the platypus on YouTube.
…[snip]…
The explosion of all types of video content on YouTube and other sites is quickly transforming online video from a medium strictly for entertainment and news into one that is also a reference tool. As a result, video search, on YouTube and across other sites, is rapidly morphing into a new entry point into the Web, one that could rival mainstream search for many types of queries.

Noah Berger for The New York Times 
Tyler Kennedy, 9, at home in California, uses YouTube to research reports for school and to hunt tips to advance in his video games

Review of Higher Education

Here’s the latest reporting on the Bradley paper from Google News. Don’t forget you can also search news sources, including those not available freely over the internet, via our Factiva database.

The paper can be found online and I will have it catalogued and a link made available from the catalogue entry.

Education in the news

From the Age Education section: the Duckworth-Lewis method applied to cricket in Winning method but is it cricket? ;an article on need for training and support to stem the attrition rate among new teachers in Keeping our teachers; Neil Hooley argues for inquiry learning, teaching and assessment in Students deserve genuine educational reform; reports on the decline in first preferences for teaching courses in Students turn their back on teaching and Pay blamed for drop in teacher enrolments.

From The Australian Higher Ed: Australian TAFE deal with China in Tafe expands ties with China’s Schools; moves to a national curriculum in Rudd advances curriculum overhaul; call for national approach to funding in Research council calls for transparent funding; report on Teachers victims of ‘cyberbullying’; the pay issue in Teachers warm to merit pay.

From SMH Education: new staffing agreement means Principals win the right to choose teachers; concern about a reported downgrading of the TAFE teacher qualification in University bypassed in teacher downgrade; ACER report on how public schools are taking on an increasing share of the costs of educating disadvantaged students in Funds formula benefits private schools.

Melbourne: city of literature and literacy

The Age reports on Melbourne’s attempt to follow Edinburgh in becoming a UNESCO City of Literature. The article goes onto to stress the importance of literacy in all this and the need to foster a reading culture.

“Learning to read, to decode, does not create literate people. Reading does,” wrote Agnes Nieuwenhuizen in her essay, How we lost the plot, published last August in The Age. Ms Nieuwenhuizen, the former manager of the Centre for Youth Literature at the State Library of Victoria, was lamenting the prescriptive teaching methods, with their focus on the three ‘T’s — texts, titles and testing — and their lack of fostering interest in reading. Her most acute conclusion was this: “It seems to be established in perpetuity … that enjoyment has no part to play in the curriculum.”

UPDATE: Agnes Nieuwenhuizen in the Saturday Age, How to help our young enjoy reading.

Education in the news

From The Australian Higher Education: focus on English language competence on international students in Sector gridlocked on English language problem and Universities get tough on ESL; feeling of inadequacy among young academics in Rise of the inadequates; WA plans to admit students who haven’t sat the tertiary entrance examination to teacher training in Teacher training without the TEE.

From SMH Education: Australia’s slipping literacy levels in Australia slides down global reading list; a different approach to civics education in Politics proves child’s play as pupils get to govern.

Cancellation of the RQF implementation

As reported in the Australian Higher Ed section. From the ministerial press release:

“I want to implement a less cumbersome and less costly process that still provides the Australian Government and taxpayers with an efficient and transparent process. A process that ensures valuable research dollars are allocated to the university sector using internationally verifiable measures,” Senator Carr said.