Current trends in schooling in Australia

1. Adelaide declaration on National Goals for Schooling in the 21st Century. This generated the trend to Outcome Based Education (OBE).
2. Each state then generated its own framework for learning in schools.
In NSW this was managed by the board of Studies, which became a separate entity from the department of education.
3. In NSW this new direction was set down in the document QUALITY TEACHING.

(i) Pedagogy that promotes high levels of intellectual quality
(ii) Pedagogy that establishes a higher quality learning environment
(iii) Pedagogy that generates significance by connecting students with the intellectual demand of their work.
This approach is based on socio-cultural perspectives that recognize that children are active participants in their learning and this is associated with more positive outcomes contrast with teacher directed and highly structured models.

4. In QLD they have pushed “Productive Pedagogy” as their approach.
(i) Problem based learning
(ii) Higher order thinking
(iii) Deep understanding.

Adelaide Declaration on National Goals for Schooling in the 21st Century.
1. Schooling should develop fully the talents and capacities of all students. In particular, when students leave school they should:

1.1 have the capacity for, and skills in, analysis and problem solving and the ability to communicate ideas and information, to plan and organise activities and to collaborate with others
1.2 have qualities of self-confidence, optimism, high self-esteem, and a commitment to personal excellence as a basis for their potential life roles as family, community and workforce members
1.3 have the capacity to exercise judgement and responsibility in matters of morality, ethics and social justice, and the capacity to make sense of their world, to think about how things got to be the way they are, to make rational and informed decisions about their own lives and to accept responsibility for their own actions
1.4 be active and informed citizens with an understanding and appreciation of Australia’s system of government and civic life
1.5 have employment related skills and an understanding of the work environment, career options and pathways as a foundation for, and positive attitudes towards,
1.6 vocational education and training, further education, employment and life-long learning
1.7 be confident, creative and productive users of new technologies, particularly information and communication technologies, and understand the impact of those technologies on society
1.8 have an understanding of, and concern for, stewardship of the natural environment, and the knowledge and skills to contribute to ecologically sustainable development
1.9 have the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to establish and maintain a healthy lifestyle, and for the creative and satisfying use of leisure time.
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2. In terms of curriculum, students should have:

1. attained high standards of knowledge, skills and understanding through a comprehensive and balanced curriculum in the compulsory years of schooling encompassing the agreed eight key learning areas:
• the arts;
• English;
• health and physical education;
• languages other than English
• mathematics;
• science;
• studies of society and environment;
• technology;
• and the interrelationships between them.
2. attained the skills of numeracy and English literacy; such that, every student should be numerate, able to read, write, spell and communicate at an appropriate level
3. participated in programs of vocational learning during the compulsory years and have had access to vocational education and training programs as part of their senior secondary studies.
4. participated in programs and activities which foster and develop enterprise skills, including those skills which will allow them maximum flexibility and adaptability in the future
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3. Schooling should be socially just, so that:


1. students’ outcomes from schooling are free from the effects of negative forms of discrimination based on sex, language, culture and ethnicity, religion or disability; and of differences arising from students’ socio-economic background or geographic location
2. the learning outcomes of educationally disadvantaged students improve and, over time, match those of other students
3. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students have equitable access to, and opportunities in, schooling so that their learning outcomes improve and, over time, match those of other students
4. all students understand and acknowledge the value of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures to Australian society and possess the knowledge, skills and understanding to contribute to and benefit from, reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians
5. all students understand and acknowledge the value of cultural and linguistic diversity, and possess the knowledge, skills and understanding to contribute to and benefit from, such diversity in the Australian community and internationally
6. all students have access to the high quality education necessary to enable the completion of school education to Year 12 or its vocational equivalent and that provides clear and recognised pathways to employment and further education and training.

CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT

The Jigsaw Model

Jigsaw in 10 Easy Steps

The jigsaw classroom is very simple to use. If you're a teacher, just follow these steps:
1. Divide students into 5- or 6-person jigsaw groups. The groups should be diverse in terms of gender, ethnicity, race, and ability.

2. Appoint one student from each group as the leader. Initially, this person should be the most mature student in the group.

3. Divide the day's lesson into 5-6 segments. For example, if you want history students to learn about Eleanor Roosevelt, you might divide a short biography of her into stand-alone segments on: (1) Her childhood, (2) Her family life with Franklin and their children, (3) Her life after Franklin contracted polio, (4) Her work in the White House as First Lady, and (5) Her life and work after Franklin's death.

4. Assign each student to learn one segment, making sure students have direct access only to their own segment.

5. Give students time to read over their segment at least twice and become familiar with it. There is no need for them to memorize it.

6. Form temporary "expert groups" by having one student from each jigsaw group join other students assigned to the same segment. Give students in these expert groups time to discuss the main points of their segment and to rehearse the presentations they will make to their jigsaw group. 

7. Bring the students back into their jigsaw groups.

8. Ask each student to present her or his segment to the group. Encourage others in the group to ask questions for clarification.

9. Float from group to group, observing the process. If any group is having trouble (e.g., a member is dominating or disruptive), make an appropriate intervention. Eventually, it's best for the group leader to handle this task. Leaders can be trained by whispering an instruction on how to intervene, until the leader gets the hang of it.

10. At the end of the session, give a quiz on the material so that students quickly come to realize that these sessions are not just fun and games but really count.

David Ausubel
Ausubel was born in 1918 and grew up in Brooklyn, NY. He attended the University of Pennsylvania, taking the pre-medical course and majoring in Psychology.

Ausubel is most noted for his notion of the advance organiser. We can think of the advance organiser as simply a device or a mental learning aid to help us ‘get a grip’ on the new information. Put in more difficult language, according to Ausubel, the advance organiser is a means of preparing the learner’s cognitive structure for the learning experience about to take place. It is a device to activate the relevant schema or conceptual pattern so that new information would be more readily ‘subsumed’ into the learner’s existing cognitive structure or mental depiction!
Advance Organisers are simply devices used in the introduction of a topic which enable learners to orient themselves to the topic, so that they can locate where any particular bit of input fits in and how it links with what they already know. Ausubel's major principle — that the most important determinant of learning is what the learner already knows — calls for an image or example which directs the learner to relevant prior experience or learning and also points forward to new material.

Ausubel’s book explains his theory:

The Acquisition and Retention of Knowledge: A Cognitive View
Ausubel, D.P.

This is a college-level textbook that provides a comprehensive and credible theory of how humans can learn and retain substantial and growing bodies of potentially meaningful, organized subject-matter knowledge on an extended, long-term basis. It identifies explicitly the cognitive conditions under which such learning and retention occurs, and indicates how they are influenced by relevant cognitive structure, frequency, mental `set' and motivational variables, and, most importantly, by the probable underlying functional cognitive processes involved.

The other major contribution which Ausubel has made, is his emphasis on the active nature of reception or meaningful learning. The distinction between rote and meaningful learning is an important one, and too often we as educators fail to make reception learning as meaningful as possible. The need to require learners to be active by underlining, by completing missing words, by rewording sentences, or by giving additional examples, cannot be overemphasised in this context.

The processes of meaningful learning
Ausubel proposed four processes by which meaningful learning can occur:
Derivative subsumption. This describes the situation in which the new information you learn is an instance or example of a concept that you have already learned. So, let's suppose you have acquired a basic concept such as "tree". You know that a tree has a trunk, branches, green leaves, and may have some kind of fruit, and that, when fully grown is likely to be at least 12 feet tall. Now you learn about a kind of tree that you have never seen before, let's say a persimmon tree, that conforms to your previous understanding of tree. Your new knowledge of persimmon trees is attached to your concept of tree, without substantially altering that concept in any way. So, an Ausubelian would say that you had learned about persimmon trees through the process of derivative subsumption.
Correlative subsumption. Now, let's suppose you encounter a new kind of tree that has red leaves, rather than green. In order to accommodate this new information, you have to alter or extend your concept of tree to include the possibility of red leaves. You have learned about this new kind of tree through the process of correlative subsumption. In a sense, you might say that this is more "valuable" learning than that of derivative subsumption, since it enriches the higher-level concept.
Superordinate learning. Imagine that you were well acquainted with maples, oaks, apple trees, etc., but you did not know, until you were taught, that these were all examples of deciduous trees. In this case, you already knew a lot of examples of the concept, but you did not know the concept itself until it was taught to you. This is superordinate learning.
Combinatorial learning. The first three learning processes all involve new information that "attaches" to a hierarchy at a level that is either below or above previously acquired knowledge. Combinatorial learning is different; it describes a process by which the new idea is derived from another idea that is neither higher nor lower in the hierarchy, but at the same level (in a different, but related, "branch"). You could think of this as learning by analogy. For example, to teach someone about pollination in plants, you might relate it to previously acquired knowledge of how fish eggs are fertilized.

Productive pedagogy


A new approach to teaching is reassembling familiar classroom techniques into a workable model that focuses on high quality student learning and improved outcomes.

Every few years, a new way of thinking is thrust upon teachers as the Next Big Thing in learning and development. Think Bloom's Taxonomy, de Bono's Six Thinking Hats or Gardner's multiple intelligence approach. However, the latest approach to catch the attention of educators is not really new at all. There are no new theories to learn or strange concepts to grapple with.

Instead, Productive Pedagogy pays simultaneous attention to already existing aspects of classroom practice and focuses teachers back on the vital elements of student learning. Professor Jenny Gore, from the University of Newcastle, says, 'Productive Pedagogy draws teachers' attention to what really matters in helping kids to learn. In the past we've put too much emphasis on things like the learning environment, specific skills, the syllabus and all of the details that add up to teaching. But we have tended to lose sight of the big picture - a focus on challenging, intellectually demanding learning for all students.

'That's why Productive Pedagogy is different from other approaches. It's very comprehensive and doesn't focus on just one aspect of teaching. It requires attention to many essential aspects of classroom teaching.'

These aspects are divided into four 'dimensions':
Intellectual quality
Relevance (or connectedness)
Socially supportive classroom environment
Recognition of difference.
In essence, Productive Pedagogy takes existing techniques and learning concepts, and groups them into this simple model. Explained this simply, Productive Pedagogy almost seems too basic to have any real effect. However, it is the measurement and evaluation of these factors, combined with the increased awareness of teachers of the most effective techniques that contributes to the program's success.

Enhancing intellectual quality involves recognising that knowledge isn't a fixed body of information. It encourages students in higher-order thinking and has a problematic approach to knowledge which involves communicating ideas and arguments as opposed to a 'give' approach. 'It's about getting students to do learning work rather than busy work,' says Jenny, 'but most of all it's about engaging students in big ideas and complex understandings.'

Relevance (or connectedness) is simply helping students to make connections between different aspects of school learning as well as connections to their past experiences and the world beyond the classroom.

A socially supportive classroom environment is one where students are able to influence activities and how they are implemented. It also involves a high degree of self-regulation by students.

It's about making sure the classroom supports learning,' says Jenny. 'It's not just making it a warm, happy place to be, but an environment that has high expectations of students and which encourages them to take risks in learning.'

Recognition of difference encompasses inclusivity of non-dominant groups, and positively developing and recognising differences and group identities. 'Here, it's important to be conscious of ways teachers can support students who come from non-dominant groups, to be aware of how to best support their learning.'

The Productive Pedagogy program was initially developed by the Queensland School Reform Longitudinal Study, a team that was led by Dr James Ladwig and included Professor Jenny Gore from the University of Newcastle.

The four dimensions above cover the core framework of the Productive Pedagogy approach, but Jenny emphasises that it connects with many other frameworks. 'It is not some weird 'out there' new way of thinking. There is an incredible amount of overlap with other frameworks. But what Productive Pedagogy does - which the others don't - is bring the concern of equity back together with the concerns of quality.

'If you look at other approaches, some of the dimensions are there. But the 'recognition of difference' dimension is usually not present in other models. Nor is the intellectual quality dimension as refined.'

Although the initial research was done in Queensland, two NSW schools took part in a study with the University of Newcastle last year. Since then, various primary and secondary schools in the state have begun to introduce aspects of the program. Some principals and teachers are adopting the approach gradually, focusing on one aspect at a time, while other schools have embraced the whole concept resulting in more radical change.

Kootingal Public School and Callaghan College's Waratah Campus took part in the study last year. It was initially aimed at investigating the value of Productive Pedagogy as a model for the professional development of practising teachers. However, the results have been more far-reaching.

Teachers who participated in the study were observed up to five times by a member of the research team. An observation tool - much like a scoring sheet evaluating the various components of the four dimensions - helped to determine the strengths and weaknesses in each area.

Kootingal Principal Ben van Aanholt says: 'After our first series of observations, feedback indicated that we were very strong in the area of a socially supportive classroom environment, but that we could improve in some of the areas in the other three dimensions. After a series of professional development activities, further observations indicated that we we had substantially improved in those areas and that the level of pedagogy in our school in all four areas is particularly strong.

'Although we don't have quantitative results on students' outcomes yet, there has definitely been an increased awareness of what exactly contributes to Productive Pedagogy. Teachers are now more familiar with what they need to provide in terms of quality teaching and learning environments. With further professional development, we will be able to put more effective strategies into place.'

Principal of Callaghan College's Waratah Campus Robyn Cragg says participating in the study also increased their awareness of the four dimensions, particularly in the area of intellectual quality.

'We've now rewritten our assessment tasks so they are based on higher order thinking and deep knowledge and understanding,' she says. 'Being part of the study was very eye-opening. We realised that some of our teaching and assessment practices didn't line up. We were teaching one thing and assessing another. Now we've adjusted our approach quite radically.'

In fact, Waratah has embraced the four dimensions to such an extent they have restructured the school's strategic plan around them. 'Our BST and ELLA results have lifted and there has been an overall improvement in results,' says Robyn. 'Equally important is the improvement we've seen in our attendance levels and our suspension rate has been dramatically reduced.'

One of the practical projects Waratah implemented has been the introduction of portfolio assessments for every student. Each student accumulates progressive on-going work throughout the year - on paper and in digital form. Furthermore, each faculty produces a different schedule of assessment tasks and then use the Productive Pedagogy tools to see if the tasks are appropriate.

'We're emphasising being creative, cooperative, working academically and being aware of the community and life-long learning. Now, students place their portfolio work under one of those headings - it no longer comes under English, maths, history, or whatever. They need to recognise the relevance of their learning.

'At the end of the year, all students do 15-minute presentations of their work at a round table involving younger peers, parents and teachers, explaining what they have learnt. It's been very successful. Students have pursued teachers to find out if their work has been marked. In the past, students would get their assessment tasks back and it would go into the wardrobe or the bin and never be seen again. This approach means they reflect on their learning.'

Robyn emphasises that the program is one of a number of initiatives the school has adopted in its restructured strategic plan, but the Productive Pedagogy approach incorporates many concepts into a single user-friendly framework.

'Every single thing in Productive Pedagogy has been around for years, there's nothing new with this, but it synthesises everything and integrates them all.'

Principal of Auburn Girls High School Brian Ralph says they have adopted a less radical approach. The school is one of four in the Granville District which is involved in action research which can draw Productive Pedagogy, an initiative which only started over a year ago.

The four dimensions are further subdivided into 20 different elements. Rather than tackle all aspects of the program at once - and try to include all four dimensions into classroom practice at the one time - they have decided to focus on each of the dimensions separately, before bringing them together as an integrated teaching approach.

'Teachers meet in professional learning groups to explore each dimension and will introduce them one by one,' says Brian. 'We're encouraging teachers to experiment with their teaching in the classroom and have professional dialogue with their colleagues about this. It is our intention that it will change their way of thinking and develop their awareness. We are introducing our teachers to individual elements and groups of elements and then asking them to implement, reflect and report back in a collegial and non-threatening way.'

Whatever implementation approach is used, James Ladwig confirms the Queensland studies, as well as studies of Authentic Pedagogy in the US (which prefaced Productive Pedagogy in Australia), point to positive outcomes. James Ladwig says: 'The research shows convincingly there is a strong link between Productive Pedagogy and student outcomes, regardless of whether they are measured and if they are, whether this is through standardised tests or school assessment tasks.

'Productive Pedagogy reassembles our understanding of what good teaching is and changes the emphasis from issues we've concentrated on in the past - the processes and techniques of the classroom, which are important, but not ends in themselves. It captures the essence of what is really important - a focus on student learning that's of high intellectual quality.'

The four dimensions of Productive Pedagogy

Intellectual Quality

Higher order thinking
Deep knowledge
Deep understanding
Substantive conversation
Knowledge as problematic
Metalanguage
Relevance (Connectedness)

Connectedness to the world
Problem-based curriculum
Knowledge integration
Background knowledge
Social Support

Student control
Student support
Engagement
Self-regulation
Explicit criteria
Recognition of difference

Cultural knowledges
Inclusivity
Narrative
Group identity
Citizenship