From classroom reality to virtual classroom: the role of teacher-created scripts in the development of classroom simulation technology

This paper describes a specific kind of teacher narrative (the teacher created script) to support the design of a classroom simulation to be used in pre-service teacher education. We intend to share our experiences in exploring and developing the kind of narrative text which can be developed from a large reservoir of ethnographically generated data collected from the teachers and classrooms we have closely observed and documented over the last two decades. In particular, we explore the role which these narratives play within the development of the kind of classroom simulation we have produced. Reflection has long been acknowledged as a useful process for teachers to engage with. Also, the notion of formalising such reflections through writing has been acknowledged as a way to share, refine and articulate teaching practice. As stated by Barth (2001:66) “…with written words come the innermost secrets of schools”. This prototype simulation allows the user to adopt the role of a Kindergarten teacher using a daily literacy teaching episode we refer to as “days of the week” and encourages the user to reflect upon the decisions they make about the organisation and implementation of this recurring teaching experience. The range of options that occur in this simulation stem from the teacher-created script we developed drawing from our own teaching experiences and classroom-based research to shape this virtual classroom

The seven messages of highly effective reading teachers

In 1982, the late, great NZ reading researcher Marie Clay identified a group of children having difficulty learning to read as tangled tots (with) reading knots . She was referring to children who, despite having no condition that potentially affected their ability to learn, didn\u27t seem to benefit from reading instruction. She hypothesised that such children had tangled the teaching in a web of distorted learning which blocked school progress

What do I do with the rest of the class? The nature of teaching learning activities

Cambourne discusses using teaching-learning activities that revolve around the use of small groups. He relates how teachers can keep the rest of their class productively engaged in learning as the teacher works with individuals or small groups

Re-organising and integrating the knowledge bases of initial teacher education : the knowledge building community program

In a Report submitted to the NSW government in 2000, Gregor Ramsay made a claim that should challenge pre-service teacher educators in all Western democracies: “…it is possible to reorganise the knowledge bases of undergraduate teacher education subjects so that they are more integrated with school and classroom culture, and therefore more relevant, more meaningful, better appreciated by student teachers, with less duplication across subject areas” (Ramsay, 2000, p57) While such rhetoric sounds appealing, it begs the question of how pre-service teacher educators might realise such rhetoric in practice, given the entrenched transmission of information + practicum model of program delivery inherent in most western universities. In this chapter we will describe how one team of university -based pre-service teacher educators reorganised the knowledge bases of the primary teacher education course by forgoing compulsory lectures, tutorials and exams to create a knowledge building community which had a strong identity, which was professionally empowered enough to take control of its own learning. We shall describe the “nuts and bolts” of the reorganization process

The knowledge building community program: a partnership for progress

In 1999 the Faculty of Education at the University of Wollongong trialled an alternative model of teacher education known as the Knowledge Building Community (KBC) Project. This alternative model of teacher education was a joint venture of the Faculty of Education the NSW Department of Education and the NSW Teachers’ Federation. As the KBC Project evolved a triadic partnership between preservice teachers, school-based mentor teachers and university facilitators developed. This partnership became known as the “community triad” This paper will examine the history of the formation of the joint venture from the planning to the implementation phases and the role each of the community triad stakeholders plays in this alternative model for teacher education

Understanding writing and its relationship to reading

Brian Cambourne shares key messages that focus on the nature of an effective writing and its relationship with reading, language, and learning

Replacing traditional lectures, tutorials and exams with a Knowledge Building Community (KBC): a constructivist, problem-based approach to pre-service primary teacher education

This paper reports on a journey that begun in 1997 when a small group in the Faculty of Education at the University of Wollongong agreed to trial an alternative model of teacher education known as the Knowledge Building Community (KBC) Project. This alternative model of teacher education was based upon three learning principles, community learning, school-based learning and problem-based learning. Since the first students began in 1999 the original model has undergone several revisions and is now best described as a ?negotiated-evaluation-of-a-non-negotiable-curriculum-based-on-a-constructivist-model-of-learning-and-knowledge-building?. The aim of the KBC Program has been to deal with the perennial problem of contextualising students\u27 professional learning, by linking abstract theory as closely as possible to the contexts and settings to which it applies, that is, the primary school classroom

Looking back to look forward: understanding the present by revisiting the past: an Australian perspective

Cambourne and Turbill trace the growth, change and finally marginalisation of progressive approaches to literacy education by examining whole language philosophy in Australia from the 1960s to the present. Using a critical lens, Cambourne and Turbill describe how whole language has been positioned throughout the last nearly 50 years in terms of curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment. Cambourne and Turbill offer a personal history of whole language in Australia and draw connections of the educational changes occurring in their country to other western democracies. Their insights are valuable in order to examine other grass roots programs and to better understand how politics impact educational movements

The more things change ...

Most literacy educators I know would cite the ever expanding array of new digital technologies as the most significant change in literacy education in the last 20 years