Developing the vision: preparing teachers to deliver a digital world-class education system

In 2008 Australians were promised a \u27Digital Education Revolution\u27 by the government to dramatically change classroom education and build a \u27world-class education system\u27. Eight billion dollars have been spent providing computer equipment for upper secondary classrooms, yet there is little evidence that a revolution has occurred in Australian schools. Transformation of an education system takes more than a simplistic hardware solution. Revolutions need leaders and leaders need vision. In this paper, I argue that we must first develop educational leaders by inspiring future teachers with a vision and by designing our teacher-education courses as technology-rich learning-spaces. A multi-layered scenario is developed as the inspiration for a vision of a future-orientated teacher-education system that prepares teachers to deliver a \u27worldclass digital education\u27 for every Australian child. Although written for the Australian context this paper has broad relevance internationally for teacher education

Preparing tomorrow\u27s teachers today

This portfolio documents the learning journey of a preservice teacher educator in Western Australia. The problem investigated is how should we best to prepare preservice teachers for teaching in future contexts. This document has several sections, firstly the literature review discusses topics that have relevance for teacher educators preparing teachers of the future to work in a knowledge-based economy. Then four phases of research both quantitative and qualitative are presented interlinked by a personal narrative. The narrative describes how the studies and research impacted on the teaching practices of the researcher. The powerful findings of the research with teachers in phase 1 and preservice teachers in phase 2 precipitated the reconceptualisation of a number of courses for preservice teachers co-ordinated by the author. This lead to the transformation of the instructional model used and the incorporation of a range of flexible delivery modes to support student learning styles and needs and foster student engagement and retention. The portfolio also contains descriptions and results of a number of small research projects, five peer reviewed and published papers. Reference is made to a number of peer reviewed academic conference papers presented by the researcher linked to the theme of the portfolio. The portfolio culminates with two peer reviewed publications which describe the current state of preservice teacher education in Western Australia as well as presenting a future vision of how we could prepare our preservice teachers to work in a future digital world. The overriding conclusion reached in this portfolio is that preservice teacher educators need to experiment with flexible modes of delivery to meet the learning needs and styles of our students. In this way we will be modelling flexible modes of teaching to our students to prepare them to teach in future contexts

Pathways To Success: Evaluating The Use Of Enabling Pedagogies In A University Transition Course

All universities in the Western world strive to attract and retain students, particularly those students who would not normally engage in tertiary studies. One way to widen access to university courses is to provide an enabling or alternative entry pathway course. The research reported in this paper was undertaken at an Australian university that has a social equity agenda to support students from diverse backgrounds to successfully engage in tertiary study. An evaluation was conducted of a particular pathway course at this university, with a view to contributing to knowledge on teaching and learning strategies in enabling courses. The research outcomes include a model of an enabling pedagogy designed to build a supportive learning community to help students’ transition into further studies

The Efficacy of Simulation as a Pedagogy in Facilitating Pre-Service Teachers’ Learning About Emotional Self-Regulation and its Relevance to the Teaching Profession

This study was undertaken in response to the imperative of teacher education courses incorporating National Professional Standards for Teachers, in particular Standard 7, which deals with the professional engagement of teachers (AITSL, 2011). It aimed to evaluate the efficacy of simulation and active recall as a learner-centred pedagogy in facilitating pre-service teachers’ learning about their capacity to self-regulate emotionally and its relevance to the profession. A simulated ‘critical incident’ was used in a lecture to guide students (n=106) to analyse and understand their emotional responses to an altercation between the lecturer and a colleague. The evaluation involved both quantitative and qualitative data collection. The study generated six useful insights associated with the efficacy of simulation pedagogy and revealed convincingly that this pedagogy can engage students actively in learning about the importance of emotional self-regulation in relation to their professional role as a teacher

Redefining education: sustaining 1 to 1 computing strategies in Western Australian schools

In 1993 the first WA private school adopted a 1 to 1 computing strategy and then ten years later the first government school did so. With the advent of the Digital Education Revolution initiative many schools in WA commenced 1 to 1 strategies and it has almost become an expectation in secondary schools. Our snapshots studies involved two new government schools and along established elite private school that had a similar vision for learning with digital technologies. The two government schools had 1 to 1 strategies, but had found that their chosen tablet PC was not robust enough, and had concluded that the current policy was not sustainable. They were debating the merits of BYOD or BYOT strategies in the light of constraints and the nature of their clientele. The private school, unlike most of its peers, had not had a 1 to 1 strategy but was planning to do so using iPads. However, it appeared that they already had an informal BYOT strategy. In this paper we discuss the differing situations these schools have found themselves in, the vision they have for learning with digital technologies, and the issues they are debating that will allow them to implement and sustain this visio

Cohesion, coherence and connectedness: The 3C model for enabling-course design to support student transition to university

Recent Australian government policy has focused on attracting students from under-represented and diverse groups to tertiary education with university enabling courses one pathway for these students. The trend towards broader participation has altered traditional perceptions of a typical university student and raised delivery challenges. The ability to engage these students as learners and improve their academic outcomes and confidence towards successful course completion, is increasingly important to universities because of attrition costs to governments, students and higher education institutions, and is increasingly reflected in academic literature. While strategic student support options have been examined in detail, less focus has been applied to the enabling programs themselves; with little published about what actually happens at the course implementation level, to encourage conditions that support student progression. This paper reports on the re-development of an enabling course at an Australian university committed to breaking down barriers that restrict entry to education. Cohesion, coherence and connectedness emerged as central principles guiding leadership style, course design and development, staff-student communication and collaborative teaching and learning approaches. Student voices describe the lived experience of course development and delivery influenced by these principles. University retention and progression statistics and student unit teaching evaluation data were used to evaluate the impact on student satisfaction and transition. The outcome of the research highlights that building a collaborative course culture based on a 3C model of cohesion, coherence and connectedness when, used interdependently, improves students’ confidence, skills and knowledge to successfully transition to undergraduate tertiary study

Media 2: Image reconstruction for structured-illumination microscopy with low signal level

Originally published in Optics Express on 07 April 2014 (oe-22-7-8687