The following letter was submitted for possible inclusion in The Australian of Saturday 27 June 3015 but it was not selected for publication.
Relevant experience for curriculum body?
Wednesday's edition reported that Professor Steven Schwartz, a former university vice-chancellor, has been appointed as the new chair of the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) ("PM's new adviser fears 'constipated curriculum'", Jun 24).
Education Minister Christopher Pyne was quoted as saying that Professor Schwartz is an "experienced pair of hands". There is no doubting Schwartz's extensive experience but it is a little strange that virtually none of his various professional roles as a psychologist, academic and university senior administrator had anything to do with primary or secondary schools and the curriculum to be taught in them. This might be the notion of content-free management at work but more likely is that, in Minister Pyne's view, Schwartz's best qualification is that, according to the professor himself, no one has ever accused him of being a "leftie".
Schwartz was reported as saying that teacher quality is a big issue for Australia. This might be true but it does seem to be the formal business of another federal government agency, the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL), rather than ACARA. Could it be that, at that stage, Schwartz was not entirely clear about which body he was to chair?
Tags: Curriculum matters |
May Masterclass 2021THE CHALLENGE OF TEACHING ANALYSIS: DO WE NEED TO CHANGE OUR PRACTICES? Teaching the process of analysing texts in order for students to produce a spoken or written response remains amongst the most exciting and difficult challenges we face as a community of English teachers. Most recently, the high-stakes nature of unseen examinations fo... |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
Register | ||||||||||||||||||
JCU SpectacularJoin Dr Claire Hansen for a two-hour session on teaching Macbeth. We'll dive into an exploration of the language of Macbeth and teaching strategies to engage students with Shakespeare's Scottish play. The workshop will also explore learning activities for Macbeth created by the Shakespeare Reloaded project. This session will... |
|||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||
Register | |||||||||||||||
Grammar DayA grammar workshop will be held at Elanora State High School on Saturday 29 May 2021 to assist attendees to develop their understandings of grammar in order to fully comprehend and to effectively teach the Australia Curriculum: English (AC:E). Also highly relevant to Years 11 & 12. This will be an updated re-run of the activity ... |
|||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||
Register | |||||||||||||||
Teacher event - external assessmentThe second series of pre-external examination events will be held for teachers on Saturday 31 July as a face-to-face event and online. Recorded materials will remain available to all participants online until the examination week in October. Date Claimer giving further information is available for download ... |
|||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||
Register | |||||||||||||||
Student event - external assessmentFlexible modes of delivery will allow you and your students to engage with the materials at a time that suits you. Once again this event will be fully online to cater for all members and their students. This year the materials will come to you live in the afternoon of Wednesday 8 September and again in the morning of Saturda... |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
Register | ||||||||||||||||||
This is the first time I have been to an ETAQ conference and it was really sensational to get so much at all of the sessions.
ETAQ conferences always have sessions that make me excited to be a teacher.
I know that ETAQ conferences in the past have never disappointed - valuable, relevant, practical, inspiring so I came again.
Read AllConnect to a great range of people who are passionate about English and have their finger on the pulse.