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A weak State in a mediocre performing country : Comments
By John Ridd, published 14/4/2010Queensland Studies Authority must not be allowed to ruin the National curriculum.
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Posted by vanna, Wednesday, 14 April 2010 8:12:05 PM
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You claim that Queensland and Australia are behind the rest of the world in maths and science education based on TIMMS and PISA. True. However it's not as black and white and simplistic as you make out. (Shades of grey should be understandable to those of even the meanest of intellects.). To cite Professor Masters' report into literacy, numeracy and science in Queensland:
"In summary, although direct comparisons can be made of students’performances across the Australian states and territories, caution must be exercised in interpreting differences between jurisdictions. In particular, it would be a mistake to draw an inference about the relative quality of education being provided in different jurisdictions on the basis of simple comparisons of state and territory means (whether grade-based or age-based). This is because of differences in structural arrangements in different states and territories, including differences in starting ages and transition points from primary to secondary school, and differences in student demographics, including the proportion of students from Indigenous, rural/remote and low socioeconomic backgrounds." You cite reports such as TIMMS and PISA. This might sound to some, as if you're scholarly and thorough in your research, and your arguments are based on fact. Yet you just mention the Masters' report in an off handed fashion once? What is one left to think? Either you have read the Masters' report, but choose to deliberately ignore what it says because you wish to place blame, without any evidence, on the curriculum, which makes you a dogmatic ideologue who we can safely ignore. Or, you didn't know how to find it to read it and just read reports in newspapers, in which case you are a poor scholar, and as such we can also safely ignore you. For future reference, try this: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=review+of+science+education+in+queensland Posted by Well Dur, Friday, 16 April 2010 10:17:48 PM
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Allow me to cite relevant bits of Masters for you.
Review: - 2008 NAPLAN and 2007 TIMSS results - existing analyses of this and provide further analysis if required - other research material that provides comment on Queensland’s school performance - results from Year 2 net 2007 against NAPLAN 2008, best practice from international research and practice Findings - Make findings based on the above in relation to curriculum, assessment and teacher quality in Queensland primary schools. - Identify best practice examples in schools where performance is above expectation and identify reasons for this performance. - Identify any other themes common to school practice in the lowest performing schools. - Identify any themes common to student performance in the highest and lowest achievement bands. Scope - All primary schools. - All sectors of education, state and non-state. - The literacy , numeracy and science curriculum in Queensland’s schools This manages to look at science education in Queensland, including the curriculum that you so hate. Unlike you, however, Professor Masters doesn't seem to fault the curriculum. This is probably because he does not harbour a strange ideologically driven hatred of the Queensland department of education. Moreover, in his commentary, he forwards some constructive recommendations (none of which refer to the curriculum which is generally recognised to be aligned throughout the country). Recommendations: 1 - literacy, numeracy and science testing of graduating primary teachers as a condition of teacher registration. 2 - introduce a new structure and program of advanced professional learning in literacy, numeracy and science for primary school teachers. 3 - additional funding for advanced training and employment ‘specialist’ literacy, numeracy and science teachers to work in schools in most need of support. 4 - standard science tests introduced at Years 4, 6, 8 and 10 for school's to identify students who are not meeting year-level expectations and for monitoring student progress over time. 5 - expert review of international best practice in school leadership development. Note none of the recommendations include scrapping or even changing the curriculum. Posted by Well Dur, Friday, 16 April 2010 10:27:06 PM
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<pwn>
You see, it's easy to criticise. It takes only the most mediocre of cognitive capacity to do so (which is why many do so - irony noted). However, to offer constructive criticism and practical alternatives is another mater entirely. You make naive and risible comments, such as: "...unless QSA were concurrently justly dismissed for gross incompetence". Is this "QSA" you speak of a single person? Is it a monolithic structure that has been made up of the same people since its inception? Or is it an organisation like any other that is made up of people who transfer in and out? If the turnover in Kevin Rudd's office is any guide, I'd say so, and that a variety of people have been employed there over the years and many would have moved on to new positions. Therefore what good would your suggestions do? Any organisation is made up of people, and people come and go. This opinion piece is nothing than a polemic attempting to disguise itself as well researched commentary. For you to not even mention any of the recommendations of the Masters report shows you are uninterested in getting to the truth of the matter. It is clear you are merely interested in pursuing your own rather odd agenda. </pwnd> Posted by Well Dur, Friday, 16 April 2010 10:41:36 PM
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Well Dur,
It is interesting that although QLD teacher are “highly skilled” and worthy of their recent pay rise (costing the QLD taxpayer $1 Billion over three years), they still can’t teach basic maths and science to grade 4 students. DETA claims the following. “Education Queensland delivers high quality education to more than 70 percent of all Queensland school students at prep, primary and secondary levels.” Unfortunately, QLD students now seem to be below Russian students according to international tests, while in Russia it is estimated that 50% of the population lives below the Russian poverty line, which means that 50% of the students in Russia would also be living below the poverty line. As well Russia has very high rates of divorce, alcoholism and various other social problems, it has a traditional inability to adequately govern itself, it has major infrastructure problems, and it also has rather severe problems with pollution and environmental degradation. But still it manages to produce students that can out-perform QLD students. I would think something else is required to re-invigorate QLD education other than teacher re-training. Perhaps deregulation of the teachers union should be the first step, and its replacement with teacher performance pay. Posted by vanna, Sunday, 18 April 2010 6:24:18 PM
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Well Dur is clearly a partisan player in the fiasco that is Ed Qld.
Our schools are poorly managed, designed, run, funded, oversighted (not at all), and the science maths resource text books are rubbish....with English teaching not far behind, as an overall statement. Clearly, there are good and solid maths, science and English teachers in many schools, doing what they can to make things work, in spite of the Mary Street party atmosphere, and the poor management of school principals right across the state. The Maths Teachers Assoc agreed with me a few years ago, and told me they too had many concerns about the quality of the text books used in Maths B and C (I didn't ask about the others). I even spoke to the publishers, who also agreed they were unable to produce a quality book but had to publish a 'full suite' of books and this was the best they could do. Astounding, but true. Deplorable.... but no one in schools cares two hoots, or raises any objections. The QSA fob parents off, saying books are nothing to do with them, as do EQ. The ACCC were not really interested either. The Commonwealth Ed Minister (not Gillard) brushed it off as a State issue. Posted by The Blue Cross, Monday, 19 April 2010 1:40:08 PM
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The book does not mention the periodic table, nor does it mention velocity, acceleration or force.
Why is it so?
The situation would have been laughable if it wasn’t so serious.