Contributor Papers
Can Teachers’ PCK in Subject English Really be Measured?
Professor Ian Hay
University of Tasmania [TAS]
Professor Ian Hay
University of Tasmania [TAS]
There is a growing awareness that it is teachers’ level of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) that is a critical influence on students’ learning. To date most of the initiatives associated with understanding PCK have come from researchers investigating teachers’ PCK in the subject areas of mathematics, science and technology, with limited PCK research on subject English. Subject English refers to what is taught in schools under the banner of the English curriculum. In the Australian context, subject English has three interconnected strands that focus on Language: Literature and Literacy. This paper will report on why teachers’ PCK in subject English is a complex construct to define and will report on the development of a multidimensional measure of teachers’ PCK in subject English.
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Is Problem-based Learning an Effective Intervention for Tertiary Mathematics Education?
David A. Martin
University of Southern Queensland [QLD]
David A. Martin
University of Southern Queensland [QLD]
Literature suggests the greatest source of variance which can impact student achievement is an ‘effective teacher’ (Hattie, 2003) and, effective teaching begins with effective teacher preparation (Miller, 2003). Accordingly, university teacher preparation programs should focus their efforts on ensuring that graduates have strong pedagogical content knowledge. This paper poses whether problem-based learning (PBL) can be an effective teaching approach to use with pre-service teachers (PSTs) in a mathematics education course to effectively develop their mathematics pedagogical content knowledge (MPCK).
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Paper sent to theme group delegates by email.
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Language as a Pedagogical Tool
Dr. Frederick Wright
Holmesglen TAFE [VIC]
Dr. Frederick Wright
Holmesglen TAFE [VIC]
One difficulty faced by teachers is that within a classroom there is a range of students’ zones of proximal development (ZPD). Blank’s (2002) Levels of Dialogue provides a cognitively structured approach to questioning that provides teachers with a tool to target the level of a student’s subject knowledge to support knowledge development. Developed for use in early childhood years, this approach has been successfully applied to vocational education and has potential for teachers at all levels of education. Learning to use levels of questioning within a subject knowledge base helps to develop teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge.
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What is the Role of Epistemological and Ontological Beliefs in Adopting ‘Knowledges’ for Teaching?
Di Nailon
University of Tasmania [TAS]
Di Nailon
University of Tasmania [TAS]
This paper will generate conversations around the nature and role of epistemological and ontological beliefs in teachers’ pedagogical decision-making. Perry’s early empirical and theoretical work on the nature and role of epistemological beliefs in student learning in higher education has captured the attention teacher education researchers. How these beliefs impact on teachers’ (and pre-service teachers’) pedagogical decision-making across various domains is examined, along with how we can support teachers to develop the sophisticated beliefs necessary for informed and critical ‘knowledges’ on which to base their pedagogical decisions.
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“I don’t want to get too caught up in the exam, but in reality I have to be faithful to anticipating what sort of questions come up”
Nicole Maher
University of Tasmania [TAS]
Nicole Maher
University of Tasmania [TAS]
This paper poses some big picture questions about the notion of teaching senior secondary mathematics safely. Pre-tertiary mathematics courses typically culminate in a high stakes external examination based on core content areas such as function study, calculus, and probability and statistics. Therefore, teaching safely involves thoroughly preparing students for the examination, including teaching the full gamut of mathematical techniques prescribed by the syllabus with accuracy and clarity, with particular focus on “exam-type” problems. Is there however, more to teaching safely than teaching safely for the exam? Implicit in this question is another: Does senior secondary mathematics curricula undersell the discipline of mathematics? If so, does teaching safely mean that the teacher is strong, accomplished and creative enough to address the dilemma between curriculum pressures and teaching the discipline of mathematics? These questions are presented for exploration within the context of interview data and teaching episodes involving the voices of students and a teacher.
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“It’s part of my life: Engaging University and community to enhance mathematics education”:
The USQ experience
The USQ experience
A/Prof. Linda Galligan
University of Southern Queensland [QLD] |
Geoff Woolcott
Southern Cross University [NSW] |
This paper outlines the USQ’s involvement in the OLT project “It’s part of my life”. We plan improve teacher knowledge by linking pre-service teachers with the university’s applied mathematicians and specialist educators to develop pre-service teachers’ understanding of mathematics modelling through the context of everyday life in the Toowoomba region. Pre-service teachers will teach into our already successful Maths Enrichment Program for year 9 and 10 students. Here students from the community come to USQ and engage in interactive sessions run by local mathematicians. Proposed topics include: Are more dentists needed in Toowoomba?; Modelling Dust on the Darling Downs; UV radiation modelling for surfers at Fraser Coast; and, Detention basins for flood mitigation.
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The Teacher Knowledge/Classroom Practice Nexus: Professional Learning in the Classroom
Dr. Kathryn Holmes
The University of Newcastle [NSW]
Dr. Kathryn Holmes
The University of Newcastle [NSW]
Teaching quality is increasingly recognised as the key determinant of school effectiveness while poor quality teaching, particularly in mathematics, is often understood as resulting from deficiencies in teacher knowledge. This paper focuses on dominant frameworks that have been touchstones for teacher knowledge in mathematics education during at least the past two decades. For example, there have been consistent references to Shulman’s Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) and derivations such as Ball’s Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching (MKT). These frameworks provide a structured lens for distinguishing among various types of knowledge thought to be important for teaching. We consider shortcomings associated with focussing predominantly on such conceptions of the knowledge needed for teaching, especially given that the impact of such knowledge will always be mediated by teacher choices in relation to classroom instruction. We suggest that at least equal attention must be given to teachers’ knowledge of teaching (that is, teachers’ broad pedagogical knowledge) in the quest for improving teaching quality. In order to facilitate the translation of PCK or MKT into effective teacher action in the classroom, we suggest that teachers also need access to a comprehensive pedagogical framework to guide reflection, analysis, and improvement. We report on early findings from projects involving such a framework, known as Quality Teaching, to illustrate the potential of this broader conceptualisation of what teachers need to know if they are to succeed in the classroom.
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Casual Teaching: A significant Gap in Professional Learning
Kathryn A. Jenkins
University of New England [NSW]
Kathryn A. Jenkins
University of New England [NSW]
Numerous novice teachers begin their teaching careers as casual teachers (CTs), thus are increasingly ‘at risk’ of leaving the profession. Subsequently, there is a dire need for appropriate teacher education for pre-service teachers and professional learning of practising teachers and principals to facilitate ways for CTs to survive and thrive within their schools. A new B Ed unit and research carried out with CTs have highlighted some ways to facilitate significant understandings and skills required by pre-service teachers to become successful CTs and permanent teaching colleagues to support their more itinerant colleagues.
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Course Design Considerations for Enhancing Pedagogical Content Knowledge in
Primary Pre-Service Mathematics Teachers
Margaret Marshman
University of the Sunshine Coast [QLD]
Primary Pre-Service Mathematics Teachers
Margaret Marshman
University of the Sunshine Coast [QLD]
Having good pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) is an important characteristic of effective teachers. However, PCK appears to be harder to develop in primary pre-service mathematics teachers than other forms of knowledge. This paper will explore how using some of the PCK survey questions from the ‘Building the Culture of Evidence-based Practice in Teacher Preparation for Mathematics Teaching’ group can be used as stimulus for discussion and reflection to cultivate a better understanding of the use of manipulatives in teaching mathematics.
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Using an Inquiry Approach to Support Teacher Knowledge Development
Tracey Muir
University of Tasmania [TAS]
Tracey Muir
University of Tasmania [TAS]
The recent AAMT position paper on Professional Learning (AAMT, 2013) advocated that professional learning for mathematics teachers should be relevant, collaborative, evidence-based, sustained and evaluated. The design and delivery of two professional learning (PL) programs focused on these principles for deepening middle school teachers’ content and pedagogical content knowledge in place value, fractions and decimals. This paper documents the approach taken by the professional learning providers, reports on feedback received from the teachers who participated in the PL, and raises questions in relation to provision of ongoing support. In fitting with the discussion-based format of the conference, conversation prompts are positioned throughout the paper.
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Red Dwarf - "The Big Picture Story”: Delivering relevant learning within
a disappearing horizon of content knowledge"
Lin Farrington
Big Picture Education Australia [TAS]
a disappearing horizon of content knowledge"
Lin Farrington
Big Picture Education Australia [TAS]
Red Dwarf is a comedy about a man stranded on a space ship, alone except for his computer. Like Dave Lister; students are both physically and mentally drifting in the space of a compulsory education from which they are disengaging in increasingly large numbers believing it to be irrelevant to their lives or goals because the content horizon that will equip them to reach their dreams has seemingly disappeared.
The Big Picture pedagogy relies on a collaborative approach that treats students as researchers rather than consumers and connects the students to a deeper understanding of not only traditional content but the expanding horizon of personal qualities that focus not on existing ‘holographic’ content but the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to lead them, like Lister, to their intended destination (or at the very least to enjoy the ride). |
Categorising the Mathematical Content Knowledge Pre-service Teachers
Develop During Teacher Education
Dr Sharyn Livy
Monash University [VIC]
Develop During Teacher Education
Dr Sharyn Livy
Monash University [VIC]
The mathematical content knowledge (MCK) a teacher brings
to the classroom is important as it underpins the decisions they make when
teaching. Targeted opportunities to learn different categories of MCK during program
experiences may assist pre-service teachers to deepen their understanding of
MCK for primary mathematics teaching. This paper reports on findings from a
four-year longitudinal study of the development of primary pre-service teachers
MCK during program experiences. The results identified the development of foundation knowledge as fundamental and should be established at the beginning
of their program if pre-service teachers are to extend their MCK and horizon content knowledge.
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Connecting Mathematics Within and Beyond the Horizon Through Inquiry-based Pedagogies
Katie Makar
The University of Queensland [QLD]
Katie Makar
The University of Queensland [QLD]
Inquiry-based pedagogies have been promoted in the field for some time as a way to develop sustainable mathematical practices that students can adapt and apply in a world with uncertain and changing horizons. Inquiry is not an easy pedagogy to adopt as research has made clear. I am interested in how we can better support teachers to develop inquiry-based pedagogies over time and within their own classrooms. Outcomes from a seven year longitudinal study which aimed to do just that will be contributed to the discussion, particularly in the connectedness of mathematics within, across, beyond its many horizons.
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Big Ideas at the Horizon
Professor Dianne Siemon
RMIT University [VIC]
Professor Dianne Siemon
RMIT University [VIC]
Taking horizon content knowledge for teaching (HCK) as knowledge that informs/changes future practice, HCK clearly draws on advances in knowledge in related disciplines. However, research and reflections on teaching practice generate HCK for teaching that is unique to teaching. Knowledge of the big ideas in Number are an example of this type of HCK – it serves to inform teaching to learner’s mathematical futures (Ball & Bass, 2009) but it is at the periphery of teachers current content and pedagogical content knowledge. The implications of this for teacher education and practice will be explored in the paper.
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Educating for Industry, Employment and Life
Monica Wiggins
Avidity Training and Development |
Simon Wiggins
Avidity Training and Development |
Framed in the Tasmanian context, this paper opens up discussion of the desired purposes of education in contrast to the needs of industry. It outlines the educational outcomes of students entering vocational education, and the contrasting requirements of local industry when the students graduate. The discrepancy between the purposes of education, the needs of industry, and actual student outcomes is a serious concern which could be addressed by considering what might lie beyond the horizon in terms of preparing students for productive futures. Full and effective participation in the community requires that all contrasting requirements are met as well as possible.
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Coming soon...
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Teacher Knowledge and Geospatial Technologies
Bianca Bowman
University of Tasmania [TAS]
Bianca Bowman
University of Tasmania [TAS]
The use of geospatial technologies, particularly GPS
enabled devices and simple Geographic Information Systems, has the potential to
increase student engagement and achievement in Geography. Despite this, it is
currently unclear whether teachers possess the knowledge required to
effectively use the technology in their classroom practice. This paper outlines
some of the key issues surrounding teachers’ knowledge for teaching with
geospatial technologies and offers some questions to guide further conversations
on what teachers need to know for teaching with geospatial technologies and how
they can be supported in developing that knowledge.
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Taking the plunge: Implementing a student iPad program
Suzanne Penson
St Paul's High School [NSW]
Suzanne Penson
St Paul's High School [NSW]
This paper will outline one school’s journey in introducing a “Bring Your Own iPad Programme” in the junior secondary context. Essential elements of the rollout included research, communication, infrastructure and professional development required to improve teaching and learning. The Digital Education Revolution enabled our senior students to use technology as a learning tool. An equity issue became clear that junior students were disadvantaged. Teachers needed to adapt their teaching and learning practices to capitalise on the collaborative, creative and communication tools that were now available in the classroom. For some teachers it meant a shift from teacher-centred instruction to student-centred learning.
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Mobile Pedagogical Framework: a socio-cultural model for mobile learning
Professor Sandy Schuck
University of Technology [NSW]
Professor Sandy Schuck
University of Technology [NSW]
New educational technologies are constantly being developed. With their emergence arise questions of their impact on pedagogical practice and knowledge. My presentation discusses the Mobile Pedagogical Framework developed with colleagues, which presents a socio-cultural model for mobile learning. I suggest that the use of a framework such as this one identifies the key affordances that mobile technologies bring to learning and assists teachers to use mobile technologies with their students. The Framework has three major dimensions: authenticity, collaboration and personalisation. Each of these will be examined for what they can tell us about knowledge and pedagogy in maths education.
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Educational Software Design for Mobile Technologies: Research and Development of a Literacy App
Michelle Somerton
University of Tasmania [TAS]
Michelle Somerton
University of Tasmania [TAS]
Research into mobile technologies and the design and development of ‘appropriate’ educational software is still in an emergent phase. Attempting to understand across the multitude of products available ‘what works and why’ can be problematic for many educators. This paper will discuss the design and development of software used in an intervention study concerning reading comprehension and mobile educational technologies in the field of developmental disorders. Relevant elements of design and functionality will be discussed based on an overview of recent literature and research regarding the use of iPads and tablet computing in educational settings.
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Teaching Online as an Act of Looking Inward Before Outward
Stephen Linquist
Australian Maritime College, University of Tasmania [TAS]
Stephen Linquist
Australian Maritime College, University of Tasmania [TAS]
Discourse regarding the use of online
technology in teaching is arguably saturated by utterances of change and
productivity. Consequently, teaching with online technologies can become
an outcomes oriented exercise where pedagogy is largely disconnected from
curriculum design. In order to incite greater synergy between curriculum
and pedagogy, I propose two questions for teachers to consider in respect to
their own work:
· What multiple or contestable meanings exist for teaching using online technologies? · What are the rationales informing your use of online technologies? I will be exploring these questions largely through reflection on my work as an educational developer in tertiary settings over the past eight years. |
Literacy for Powerful Learning
Deirdre Clary
University of New England [NSW]
Deirdre Clary
University of New England [NSW]
In the Australian Curriculum, literacy is considered an essential skill for preparing young people to become confident and ‘powerful learners’ who use literacy successfully in their lives. In secondary schools, much of the explicit teaching of literacy occurs in English classrooms; however, literacy needs to be reinforced, made explicit and extended as students engage in wide-ranging learning activities with subject-specific literacy demands in other learning areas. Therefore, pre-service and in-service teachers need a clear understanding of the literacy demands and possibilities of their learning area, and be able to plan how to teach specific language and literacy knowledge and skills fundamental to students’ understanding of learning area content. Focusing on the literacy demands of each learning area ensures that students’ literacy development is reinforced so that it supports subject-based learning area content. |
Oral examinations – are they worthwhile or not?
Dr Helen Keates
University of Queensland [QLD]
Dr Helen Keates
University of Queensland [QLD]
Most educators accept that assessment drives learning. Thus we have the responsibility of making our assessment tasks authentic and representative of the skills we hope to engender in our students. In the five year Veterinary Science program, The University of Queensland School of Veterinary Science runs oral examinations at the end of both third and fifth years as a way of assessing a student’s ability to integrate information, reason and clearly articulate their thoughts. Most students see these examinations as daunting experiences. They feel much more exposed than in a written examination and are anxious that they will not be able to ‘think on their feet’. Are oral examinations worth the investment of time and effort of staff and the student anxiety? Are we really getting the answers we hope for? Is this really a powerful tool to drive learning?
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Communicating Classroom Innovation as Research
Peter Nielsen
Department for Education and Child Development (DECD) [SA]
Peter Nielsen
Department for Education and Child Development (DECD) [SA]
This paper discusses research activity, but its focus is the overall pattern or form of that activity, rather than results. There is an emphasis on communication patterns, and a particular focus on the research-based communication that guides the research task. An example of a teacher analysing their educational task using formal research, and what emerges from this, gives rise to the suggestion that formal research communications are a network operating between and with two other networks. One of these is the self-communicating and self-defining activity of the teacher. The other is a network offering a validating generalisation of the task.
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Educating for Self-Determining Learners: Why? What? What will it take?
Stephen Walley
Big Picture Education Australia [TAS]
Stephen Walley
Big Picture Education Australia [TAS]
Increasingly, we need self-determined learners, who are genuinely empowered with shared responsibility, intrinsically motivated, and engaged in deep learning that really sticks. What will it take to move beyond the observable examples of those few individuals that have risen to meet this challenge? What will it take to enable the reconceptualization of the role of teacher and learner? What will it take to redesign and transform learning and schools to prepare students for successful participation in the world of their time? This paper/session will explore the challenges and opportunities awaiting the brave.
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Leading Educational Change
Cathy Sires
St Bernadette's Parish School [SA]
Cathy Sires
St Bernadette's Parish School [SA]
In an ever changing world in education, school leaders need to unlock creativity to enhance student learning and this requires creative leadership to construct environments and opportunities for others to be creative. This paper will examine a very different approach to leadership that has been established to support Principal wellbeing, enhance community engagement and mobilise powerful teaching and learning in our school context. Supported by our sector a unique Co-Principal model began and it has captured the thinking and imaginations of many school leaders about how creative leadership has modelled creative thinking, has improved student outcomes and motivated teachers to think differently about why and how they teach.
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