Education in Australia

What do I Know?

What do I want to know

What have I Learnt?

Session Outline

• Curriculum• Pedagogy• Assessment• Learning Spaces• Interaction of teacher’s, student’s and content

Schools• Government sector

• Non-government sector – Independent schools (private

schools)

– Catholic schools

• Kindergarten• Primary (age 5 – 12)• Secondary (13 – 18)• Senior Secondary• P – 10 • P - 12

government66%

non-government34%

government

non-government

Goal 1: Australian schooling promotes equity and excellence

Goal 2: All young

Australians become successful learners, confident and creative individuals, and active and informed citizens

Education in Australia

• 11 years of compulsory schooling Prep – year 12• Literacy 99% (students over 15 can read and

write)

http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/Home

Intercultural Understanding

Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia

Foreign languages or LOTE (Languages Other Than English):

• Foreign languages are taught in both primary and secondary schools in Australia. • More than 14 per cent of all students in Year 12 (the final year of high school) study tertiary-accredited foreign languages.

Languages in Australian Schools (in order of student enrolments):

• Japanese• Italian• Indonesian• French• German• Chinese

Current Situation of Chinese Language Education in Australia:• Retention of classroom second language learners is high. 94 per cent of these learners drop out before Year 12, usually once the language is no longer mandated.

• Students who speak Chinese at home currently are NOT taught and assessed separately from students who learn the language in a classroom, which is a main factor leading to the drop out of the Classroom second language students of Chinese (L2) drop out.

• There needs to be concerted, sound and innovative development in

pedagogy for Chinese and in education of teachers of Chinese. Orton, J. (3rd ed.) 2010. The Current States of Chinese Language Education in Australian Schools.

Recommendations

•Remove obstacles to diligent classroom learners doing well in VCE• Improve pedagogy – use research-based innovative methods• Provide opportunity for students to spend more time on task outside classes via ICT and actual places to practice using Chinese• Campaign for greater community appreciation and understanding of language learning and bilingual proficiencyOrton, J. (3rd ed.) 2010. The Current States of Chinese Language Education in Australian Schools.

References

Getting Intense About Chinese - CTTC- AEF Forum 2010, Jane Orton, Chinese Teacher Training Centre, The University of Melbourne

The Current State of Chinese Language Education in Australian Schools (3rd Ed. 2010), Jane Orton, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, The University of Melbourne

Orton, J. 2011. Educating Chinese Language Teachers – Some Fundamentals. L. H. Tsung and K. Cruikshank, Teaching and Learning Chinese in Global Contexts, Ch. 10: 151-164. London, UK: Continuum.

Scrimgeour, A (2010) The yin-yang of Chinese language teaching in Australia; The challenges native speaker trainee teachers face in the Chinese classroom  in Languages in Australian education: Problems, prospects and future directions Cambridge Scholars Publishing Newcastle upon Tyne

Scrimgeour A (2010) The changing context of Chinese second language teaching in Australia. Education Quarterly Australia Summer issue Jan 2010 Orton, Jane. 2010. When Concepts Become Practice. A. J. Liddicoat, A.J. and A. Scarino (eds) Languages in Australian Education: Problems, Prospects and Future Directions, Chapter 14, pp. 203-212

Use of DataEvery year – students in Yrs 3 ,5, 7 and 9 are tested on reading, writing, language conventions (spelling and grammar) and

numeracy.

Assessment

Assessment for learning- enabling teachers to use information about student progress to inform their teaching

Assessment as learning - enabling students to reflect on and monitor their own progress to inform their future learning goals

Assessment of learning - assisting teachers to use evidence of student learning to assess student achievement against goals and standards.

What are the characteristics of a good school?

source: http://www.globaleducation.edna.edu.au

Learning Spaceshttp://www.gwsc.vic.edu.au/index.cfm?a=42

Making Observations• What does the school building look like?• How many students are in a class?• Are there classrooms for academic classes and practical classes?• What do the learning spaces look like?• How are learning spaces used by teachers and students?• What is on the walls of the classrooms?• What access to ICT do students and teachers have?• How is the furniture in the classroom arranged?• Is there a school library? What does it look like? How is it used?

Instructional core

“You don’t change performance without changing the instructional core,” states Professor Richard Elmore. “The relationship of the teacher and the student in the presence of content must be at the centre of efforts to improve performance”.

The Instructional Core

Classroom observations

Education SystemsVictoria http://www.education.vic.gov.au/New South Wales https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/home/ Tasmania http://www.education.tas.gov.au South Australia http://www.decs.sa.gov.au/ West Australia http://www.det.wa.edu.au/ Queensland http://education.qld.gov.au/ Northern Territory http://www.det.nt.gov.au/ Australian Capital Territory http://www.det.act.gov.au/