External Studies at the University of New England

A significant change in my life began in 1955 with my enrolment at the University of New England (UNE) in its new External Studies scheme, one which provided a Bachelor of Arts degree by correspondence. In 1954 I had received my first appointment as the teacher-in-charge of the remote small school at Ellerston, located at the head of the Hunter River; later that year, I read about the revolutionary plan to offer university studies by correspondence at UNE. I applied for enrolment and was pleasantly surprised to find myself accepted and identified as number A177. Along with many other isolated adults, we were truly grateful for the opportunity to undertake university studies while working

The Teacher Apprenticeship Program in Bhutan: An Evaluation

The Teacher Apprenticeship Program was introduced in 2000 to meet a severe shortage of teachers in Bhutan and to relieve pressure on the teacher education institutes as they extended the period of pre-service training. This study focused on the effectiveness of the program and employed semi-structured interviews and questionnaires in order to capture the experiences and problems of the apprentice teachers. The study found that teacher apprentices reported remarkable experiences that contributed to a sound foundation for becoming competent and dedicated teachers. Several changes were recommended to recruitment criteria, school placements, the induction program, apprenticeship guidelines and mentoring. The research also discovered that the stakeholders needed to have a common vision about the program in order to establish a more collaborative atmosphere

Giving Continuing Professional Education More Impact: Adding Bhutan-Related Classroom Practices in Australia and Action Research in Bhutan to the Bhutanese Multigrade Attachment Program (BMAP) - Participants' Perspectives

Multigrade teaching was introduced to Bhutan to address the Education for All (EFA) goals. Multigrade schools are those rural schools in which a teacher must teach more than one grade in a class and sometimes all grades from K to 6. The Bhutanese Multigrade Attachment Project (BMAP), involving a phase in Australia and another in Bhutan, was commenced in 1993. Two major changes occurred during the 16 years of implementation following an essentially "one shot" model of continuing professional development (CPD) of the early years. A range of data from these two changes were analysed indicating that the BMAP had had an impact upon the majority of participants. The features of BMAP are identified