Celebrating 44 Years as a Christian School Teacher: Unchanged Mission in a Changing World

This chapter is a narrative of my experiences over 44 years of teaching in Christian schools. Through literature and my experiences, I trace changes over this time in pedagogy, philosophy, and the accountability of teachers. The changes I discuss include students’ life priorities and career choices, sustainability, social awareness, multiculturalism, discrimination, gender-related issues, teacher accountability, technology, teaching conditions, behaviour management, individualised instruction, problem-solving, parent input, community expectations, globalisation, legal issues, and child protection. I trace these changes from an academic as well as a personal perspective, with my overriding theme being that the aim has always been to introduce each student to Jesus in the process of educating the whole person

Problems Arising from Streaming Mathematics Students in Australian Christian Secondary Schools: To Stream or Not to Stream?

This article focuses on selected sections of a wider research study that investigated the perceptions of students in upper, lower, and mixed-ability stream mathematics classes, regarding their classroom learning environment. The study collected data from a representative sample of Year 9 and Year 10 students, employing recognised, reliable survey instruments. The most significant finding of the study, resulting from the analysis of quantitative data, was that lower stream students not only had more negative perceptions of their classroom learning environment, but wanted less change. This negative perception is seen to be worse in Year 10 than in Year 9, particularly in terms of teacher support, task orientation and equity

Acquisition of Cultural Awareness in Pre-Service Teachers

It is the desire of teacher educators in Australia that their mandated unit of study on multiculturalism and indigenous studies produces a cultural awareness in future teachers of the issues faced by multicultural and indigenous students. This paper reports a study where one cohort of 119 pre-service teachers was surveyed in the first and last lectures of the unit on what they believed would be the factors affecting their teaching in multicultural and indigenous classrooms. A significant perception change (p=0.05) of the students was measured between the first lecture and the last lecture. Students moved from a perception that physical, religious and language factors would be the main issues to their belief that prejudice, stereotyping, sensitivity and ethnocentrism would be the factor they would need to work with

Child Protection in Independent Schools

Given the relationship between a person’s emotional development, their faith development and the experiences during the early years of their lives, it is vital for the Christian school to do all it can to ensure that students are kept safe from all forms of abuse. This paper analyses research on the psychological effects of child abuse and gives practical ideas for teachers and schools on how to protect their students, themselves, and their colleagues from allegations of reportable conduct. It considers the value of a person to God and the responsibility that sits with school staff to protect children

Letting Jesus Reveal Himself: The Use of CHAT Methodology in the Christian Learning Environment

“Viewing Jesus as the master teacher, this chapter investigates the pedagogies used by Him in teaching individual New Testament characters. The article aimed to focus on the interactions Jesus had with two of these characters and analysed them in light of each’s specific culture and history. This method of analysis, which is known as cultural historical activity theory (CHAT), is unpacked not only as a means of understanding the mode of Jesus’ ministry, but as a research methodology and a teaching method designed to meet the needs of students in the Christian classroom

Beginning of SDA Education in North America

The present may often be understood or explained by what has happened in the past. This chapter looks back at the establishment of Adventist schools in the early Seventh-day Adventist church with a view to understanding the unique character of Adventist Schools

Teachers Who Reveal Jesus: How do Pre-Service Teachers Perceive their Strengths as Future Educators?

This chapter investigates the issue of how pre-service teachers see their strengths and weaknesses as they prepare to graduate and join the ministry of teaching. The debate between professional teacher education programs covering mandated standards as opposed to providing a deep academic, philosophical, and spiritual grounding in the teaching career is examined. A small survey was completed by a cohort of pre-service teachers in their final year of study. The results indicate that these future educators seem to be more confident with their ability to relate to students than with their ability to meet all of the mandated standards and perform all of the fine skills required in the teaching profession. The chapter concludes by suggesting that students’ perceived abilities in relating to students should be nurtured by their Christian school workplaces to make these relationships count in the faith development of their students

Mentoring for Impact

School based mentoring (SBM) is an increasingly popular component of pastoral care programs in Australian secondary schools. Concurrent with growing consensus over the benefits of SBM, there is increasing recognition that the benefits of SBM can be maximised through careful programming, appropriate benchmarking and effective evaluation. Although children spend approximately 40% of their waking hours in school, and SBM is increasingly common, there is surprisingly little data available on the effectiveness of SBM. This paper reports on research into a mentoring program that links undergraduate theology students to teenage students in a secondary school. While the mentoring program was of value to both mentors and mentees, interviews with participants point to the value of aligning the program with guidelines for best practice found in the Australian National Youth Mentoring Benchmarks, 2007