In this issue:

• New research to investigate if millions are hitting the target
• US expert endorses teacher observation
• Schools advised to plan ‘sexting’ response
• ACER Update

Professor Geoffrey Blainey AC launched a national first investigation of the links between philanthropy and education in Melbourne on 23 March 2011.

The three-year Leading Learning in Education and Philanthropy (LLEAP) project will explore whether the full potential of funding and partnerships available to Australian schools is being achieved.

Project Leader, Dr Michelle Anderson of the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) said, while there is a long history of philanthropy in Australian education, some mystery surrounds how schools access and use philanthropic grants.

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Since the release of Australia’s National Professional Standards Framework for Teachers on 9 February 2011, attention has turned to how the standards will be used for the assessment and certification of teachers at the four career stages of graduate, proficient, highly accomplished and lead teacher. 

According to an international expert on teacher evaluation, classroom observation will almost certainly be a part of any set of methods developed in Australia.

Speaking at an ACER Institute seminar, prominent US education consultant Charlotte Danielson said there are benefits to be derived from classroom observation, both for teachers and school systems.

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Schools would do well to have a policy in place that addresses sexting, for the protection of staff and students, writes ACER Research Fellow Paul Weldon.

We all know that teens can be impulsive and act without thought for consequences, which is why sexual experimentation among teens is hardly new, or news, in itself. What is new, though, is teen sexual experimentation online. The capacity for instant communications, and the ease with which text, pictures and video can now be created, widely disseminated and retained, continues to evolve at an astonishing pace.

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ACER Institute to host Dr. Howard Gardner seminar

In May 2011 ACER Institute will host seminars presented by Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education Dr. Howard Gardner, best known in educational circles for his theory of multiple intelligences.

The two-hour seminars are being held for one day only in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Singapore during May 2011.

During the morning seminar, titled ‘Five Minds for the Future’, Gardner will discuss the importance of developing five kinds of minds; the disciplined mind, the synthesizing mind, the creating mind, the respectful mind, and the ethical mind, both in school and in other educational environments.

During the afternoon seminar, titled ‘Teaching for Understanding’, Gardner will describe an education that preserves the strengths of traditional humane education while preparing younger generations for the challenges off the future.

For more information on each of these seminars or to register your attendance please visit www.acerinstitute.edu.au

 

New book provides key to Powerful Learning

ACER Press has launched a new book that details how educational reform was successfully implemented in 195 Victorian schools, resulting in massive improvement in student performance.

Co-written by pre-eminent educationalists Professor David Hopkins, Wayne Craig and John Munro, Powerful Learning: A Strategy for systemic educational improvement is a case study of the reform program carried out in Victoria’s Northern Metropolitan Region between 2008 and 2010. It discusses teaching strategies, organisational structure and policy and how they can be changed to support improvement plans in schools. The book outlines how teachers from the region were selected for training focusing on literacy, numeracy, assessment and student management, which they could then use to coach their colleagues.

The book was launched on 24 March 2011 at the Darebin Arts and Entertainment Centre by Prime Minister Julia Gillard's deputy chief of staff, Tom Bentley. The book is available for purchase from the ACER online shop

 

ACER Award for Student Journalism 2011

ACER is offering an award for excellence in an article relating to education for the second time in 2011. Currently enrolled journalism and professional writing students across Australia are invited to enter.  Applications are now open and may be submitted up until October 28 this year. In 2011 small cash prizes totalling $600 are on offer. In addition the winning and short listed entries will be considered for publication in one of the magazines published by ACER Press – Teacher and Inside Teaching.