School of Education
Faculty of Arts and Education
'National Testing And School League Tables.
Do They Really Help?'
Tuesday, 28 October 2008 at 4.30pm
Deakin University, Lecture Theatre 12
Building X, Room x2.05
221 Burwood Highway
Melbourne Campus at Burwood
The Rudd Government is advocating the adoption of a regime for "measuring
school performance" by publicly releasing school results, including
data from the new national testing regime.
Do increased public accountability measures based on tests really lead to improved
educational outcomes for our children?
Peter Mortimore is a former Pro Vice-Chancellor of the University of London,
a former Director of the London based Institute of Education and an independent
educational consultant. He is the author of several books and numerous articles
on educational matters and has taken part in a number of international research
projects for the OECD.
You are invited to a public forum looking at children's literacy and how
we can improve it:
"Yes I can't read and write, but it's not my fault!"
Guest speakers: author Andy Griffiths ('The Day My Bum Went Psycho', 'Pencil of Doom' and more); Deakin University's Associate Professor Catherine Beavis and Dr Christopher Walsh.
St Michael's Church,
120 Collins St, Melbourne
on Tuesday 14th
October.
The event was recorded for
broadcast on ABC
Radio National's Life Matters program.
Deakin's Arts Education Centre in Second LifeThe Arts Education Centre on Deakin Island in Second Life was developed by members of the Arts Education Teaching and Learning group from the School of Education. The project reflects the University’s Strategic Teaching and Learning Plan through the development of an engaging and intellectually challenging e-learning environment, accessible to all students regardless of enrolment mode, or geographical location.
Students design their own avatars to participate in teaching and learning activities, inworld, in the disciplines of Music, Drama, Dance and Visual Art. Students collaboratively design and build objects, such as musical instruments, participate in simulated arts learning and role playing, and mount exhibitions of their art works. They experience the sense of presence or ‘being there’ that comes across when interacting in that environment. These activities complement “real world” teaching and learning in selected Arts Education discipline units, from the Bachelor of Education (Primary) and Bachelor of Teaching (Primary and Secondary) courses offered by the School of Education.
Take a look at Deakin's Arts Education Centre in Second Life
A national research project has identified why, despite 20 years of research
and numerous waves of intervention, the number of girls taking IT at secondary
school is still significantly lower than that of boys.
Despite enjoying and using computers for email and instant messaging, many
girls shun IT at school because they find it uninteresting, unrelated to
the IT skills they develop outside of school, and irrelevant to their career
aspirations.
The Gender and IT research project, funded under the Australian
Research Council (ARC) Linkage Project scheme, was conducted through the
collaboration of researchers at the University of Western Sydney, Deakin
University and Charles Sturt University. Researchers looked at what students
in New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria thought of secondary school
IT subjects and the reasons they chose to study or not study IT in the senior
years of secondary school.
The findings of the project have been published in a book titled: 'Gender
and I.T: Ongoing challenges for computing and Information Technology education
in Australian secondary schools'
Media release - At
last! The answer - why girls shun IT at secondary school (PDF)
The Faculty of Arts and Education has appointed Professor Diane Mayer as the new Head of School of Education. She will take up this appointment on 12 May 2008. Associate Professor Susie Groves continues in the role of Interim Head of School of Education until Professor Mayer takes up her appointment.
Professor Mayer is currently the Associate Dean for Professional Programs in the Graduate School of Education at the University of California at Berkeley in the USA. Prior to her appointment at Berkeley in 2004, she was Director of Teacher Education at the University of Queensland from 1998 to 2003, and held academic positions at the University of Southern Queensland for ten years from 1988 to 1998.
Diane Mayer's research and scholarship focuses on the policy and practice of teacher education. Her work examines issues associated with the professionalism of teaching and what that means for the policy and practice of teacher education within the context of economic and cultural globalisation. Diane Mayer’s recent publications include: ‘Teachers, national regulation and cosmopolitanism’ in Critical Readings in Teacher Education: Provoking Absences edited by A. Phelan and J. Sumsion and published by Sense Publishers (with A. Luke and C. Luke, in press); ‘Research funding in the US: Implications for teacher education research’ in Teacher Education Quarterly (2006); ‘The changing face of the teaching profession: New generations and new ways of working and learning’ in the Asia Pacific Journal of Teacher Education (2006); and, ‘Reviving the Policy Bargain Discussion: The Status of Professional Accountability and the Contribution of Teacher Performance Assessment’ in The Clearing House (2005).
Diane Mayer is co-editor of the journal, Teaching Education, and she has worked extensively with the profession and statutory bodies such as the Board of Teacher Registration in Queensland and the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing. Her teaching and supervision areas include the socio-cultural and political context of teacher education, teachers' work and professional learning.
Deakin University's Faculty of Arts and Education, in conjunction with Murdoch University and the Australian Association for Teachers of English, conducted the Australian Government Summer School for Teachers of English at the Waterfront Campus. Members of the English Teaching Team included Associate Professor Catherine Beavis, Dr Chris Walsh, Ms Julie Mitchell, Professor Clare Bradford, Dr Liz Parsons, and Mr Cal Durrant (Murdoch University).
Two hundred primary and secondary teachers of English participated in the two week Summer School in January 2008. The summer school was organised around key questions facing contemporary English curriculum, and included modules on Leading Change, Literature and the canon in the 21st Century, Multiliteracies Multimodality and Design, Children's and Young Adult Literature, and Commonality and Assessment. The extension program includes a web-based forum for the discussion of projects developed by the teachers following up the summer school back in their schools and classrooms, support for participating teachers to present at State and National conferences, and the option of connecting into Masters programs.
The Geelong Teachers College commencing class of 1958 is to hold a reunion on 24 February 2008 to recognise 50 years since the intake of the class.
The Burwood Teachers College will also be holding a reunion for staff and students enrolled or working in 1958, on 28 September 2008.
more details on Education Alumni Events
