Teachers' Christian Fellowship of New South Wales | Evangelical church

Teachers' Christian Fellowship of New South Wales

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24.01.2022 TEACHERS REPORTED AS NOT BEING EQUIPPED TO TEACH WRITING SKILLS A survey commissioned by the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) found that two-thirds of teachers said that they were minimally or not prepared at all, to be able to teach grammar, punctuation, spelling, paragraphing and sentence structure to their students. This information was gained from four thousand primary and secondary teachers from all sectors, surveyed by the Australian Catholic University as part ...of a study into how writing is taught in NSW schools. Unsurprisingly then, forty-nine per cent of these teachers said that they were unprepared for the task of teaching writing in their classrooms. Even 40 per cent of English teachers indicated that they were not prepared or minimally prepared for teaching writing. Professor Wyatt-Smith, Professor of Educational Assessment and Literacy at the Australian Catholic University, said that classroom time should be set aside for students to practise writing and teachers to model it, as well as for a sustained focus on the teaching of grammar and linguistic features right through schooling. This of course, isn’t going to happen without improved initial teacher training at universities and system sponsored in-service training for existing teachers. For State school teachers, looking seriously at the NSW English Syllabus will provide a definite guide to what should be covered in each learning Stage when teaching writing. It then has to be put into effect. Here, a bit of collaborative school planning to share the load and provide buy-in, should provide a way for schools to improve what they do. Teachers need to then be willing to formally and informally discuss with each other what they are doing in addressing various teaching points. Supervisors also need to regularly review and discuss with teachers the implementation of these programs to improve student learning outcomes. As a help for teachers in the mysterious area of Grammar, the TEACHERS’ CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP has available for free, sequenced activities covering the listed Teaching Points from the NSW English Syllabus for Early Stage 1, Stage 1 and Stage 2. They outline the grammar objectives, present a possible lesson sequence and provide some resources such as definitions and examples of specific grammar components. All very useful if you too struggle with teaching grammar in your classroom. Email the TCF office for copies at [email protected] or go to our website at www.tcfofnsw.org.au .

12.01.2022 WHAT SHAPES YOUR WORLD VIEW? What is your reality? 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10 says: [9] for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, [10] and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead---Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath. The Thessalonians turned from idols to Jesus. They were all in. There was no syncretism in their obedience to the one true God! In our ti...mes we too have to replace the false gods of rationalism, materialism and the man centred universe where empirical evidence is the measure of everything. There is a God who created the world. There is a God who is bigger than man’s understanding. He made us and the universe. He is the ultimate reality we need to explain to our charges, giving them hope and peace beyond the disappointments of this world. See more

09.01.2022 Data collection and analysis by teachers in the classroom was highlighted last week as an issue by Tom Alegounarias, a former leader of the NSW Institute of Teachers, at the NSW Teachers Federation hearings into the changing nature of teaching. Mr Alegounarias said that there was a resistance by the vast majority of teachers to the use of data as evidence in the classroom. The collection of data by teachers of Infants and Primary age students has especially affected the tea...ching of early reading and mathematics in state schools permitting the tracking of student learning along prescribed learning continuums and determining the next thing to be taught to students. But, as teachers have found, this new requirement has raised a few issues. Collecting, recording and analysing data on 20 or more students presents time challengers to already extended teachers in the classroom and out, often met in their own time rather than school hours. The whole process is time consuming. Teachers often wonder if it is the best use of their time, especially in the classroom. Management issues also arise in the classroom with teachers trying to record observed information, especially early in a new year or with younger children such as in kindy, while keeping the remainder of a class meaningfully occupied and working independently of the teacher. Teachers may also doubt the validity of some underlying givens such as the maths continuums because they have just been told that is it and all students will flow along it. The allowance for special needs of students and individual differences have to be squashed into these set learning frameworks. What is done with the system required reporting of collected data may also be a worry to some. Will the information just be used by politicians to justify their achievements or really used to benefit students and improve educational outcomes? Teachers are not against learning how their students are going but the benefits, challenges and thinking behind the data approach have to be explained to teachers, followed by real training in their use and continued system support in their implementation.

06.01.2022 L3 READING IS OUT, as far as the Department is concerned! The Learning, Literacy and Language program involved classroom teachers working with small groups of two or three students in kindergarten while the remaining children worked, independently, on literacy activities. (That is the point where I lost interest - you were setting yourself up for failure.) There were also short whole-class lessons in phonics provided. A review by the Department’s Centre for Educational Stat...istics and Evaluation found that the L3 program was not consistent with best practice with it not drawing on the full range of research into early reading instruction. The center identified that the most effective way of teaching reading, especially for children with reading difficulties, was a systematic approach to phonics. The review also found that when using the L3 method students did not work independently and struggled with limited supervision for a significant period of time. It seems that school principals and teachers were so committed to trying to improve the teaching of reading in their schools that they would latch on to any approved approach without challenging its glaring flaws. There was a perception that L3 was rigorous and endorsed by the department. On that basis, large sums of money have been spent by schools to train staff in the L3 approach. As a result of the departmental review the Center has recommended that schools be given a standard approach to reading, grounded in evidence-based phonics. Any future program should [also] be designed so that phonemic awareness, phonics, handwriting, grammar, writing and spelling are taught explicitly, it said. (Hmm, I thought the existing curriculum said that already?) Certainly, the promotion of a standardised approach to teaching reading that has the evidence to show it works, at least better than L3 and without its disruptions, would be wonderful. As usual, teacher expertise in adapting it to individual student needs would be required, not a lock-step program that the student must fit. Also, adequate time must be allowed to cover handwriting, grammar, writing and spelling - skills and knowledge that must be learnt and practised. Right, so let’s have some clear and timely direction from the Department to steer the reading ship.

04.01.2022 Avoiding studying Maths for the HSC. Well, week 1 of this year’s HSC is over, with reports of the English papers being fair with no surprises a worthy thing in the upsets of COVID virus. However, there is controversy over the number of students opting out of taking any HSC maths course 6 per cent of students in 2000 and about a quarter over the last decade. Today 30,757 students are expected to sit the standard maths exams (non-calculus course), while only 16,966 will sit... the Advanced Maths exam and 3,418 the extra Extension 2 exam. A further 9,060 students will face the Extension 1 exam on Friday a lower number than 10 years ago. It seems that, except for the University of Sydney (which only increased its maths prerequisites last year), NSW universities have fewer maths prerequisites than other states. A report co-authored by Alan Finkel, Australia’s Chief Scientist, found that maths is not required for 94 per cent of economics courses, 92 per cent of health and medical science courses, 96 percent of science and computer courses, or 91 per cent of engineering courses. If we undervalue the teaching of mathematics so much in our education system, we are setting up students to struggle and even fail at university, depriving our nation of the engineers, scientists, statisticians, technicians our country needs. What do you think?