I thought this a very interesting and well written piece, and a pleasure to read.

I’m not sure what is meant by “disrupted classes”, but if there are classes being disrupted by one or more students, then this is very easy to solve. Prepare a video that shows how a student should behave in class. If a student is disrupting a class, then make them watch the video.

Guaranteed to improve that students behavior, as not too many people want to watch the same video over and over. Watching the video becomes a part of that student’s education, and also a deterrent to misbehaving in class.

I’ve seen similar used in industry, with nearly a 100% success rate, and it would certainly beat lecturing the student or expulsion

I did not find the article a pleasure to read – quite the opposite. It is too close to the bone in revealing the actual situation of society compared with where education needs to be.
Word limit permitted it to only reveal the surface exposure of stark bones of embedded dysfunction.
Perhaps the most challenging of these would not exist if every child was a wanted child. One fostered in well-resourced parental care, where parents share in the joys and challenges of education and learning with the developing child. In localities stretching between Kalumburu and North Shore, and beyond, there are many children facing up to education from considerable disadvantage.
I thank the author for casting light on the scope of the attention needed for improvement of Australian education.

HRS makes an excellent recommendation of videos showing ’how to behave in class’. This matches the recommendation in my article of TV documentaries showing brilliant classes – because how can you do something if you have never seen how to? The problems are so widespread that TV is needed.
If there are any videos like that already, for individual use, I and many teachers would like to know.
Video that students and teachers can watch on their own still has unfulfilled potential to show how to. That too is mentioned in the article, with regard to literacy.
With regard to individual behaviour, in Scotland twenty years ago I found the value of letting children referred for therapy for social learning problems watch themselves privately on video, so that they could realise what they were dong wrong and how to correct it. Unfortunately it was early days for videocam, and ours broke down soon after, so we could not take this successful approach further.
School exchanges also let children from unruly classrooms discover the pleasures of undisturbed ones.

Having said that, video is not always the complete solution, in places where even experienced teachers are under daily stress not with one or two disturbing students, but an entire school atmosphere that means that every day they have to start by getting some sort of order before they can even teach, and parents are a problem rather than a support. It is a major reason for teachers leaving the profession.
This is why I emphasised this problem as requiring major attention to reduce educational disadvantage.

Ozideas,
It would be best to have the students make their own video, They can write the script, direct it, and act in it. That way they get more ownership of the video. However I think that it has been proven often enough that someone watching visual media will not learn much unless they are writting out notes, or someone watching visual media will not learn as much as someone watching the media while taking notes at the same time.

So as the children are watching their own video, they should also be asked to make written notes, and the video can be paused so that they can write out notes. This is sometimes done when employess are watching safety videos.

I’m not sure that our society is more unruly than in the past, as most crime rates per head of population have not increased, and in some areas of crime, the crime rates have actually declined.

There could be more people, but not more crime per head of population.

HRS, Schoolchildren making their own videos on educational issues is an excellent idea, and I have been trying to promote this ever since schools have had equipment to animate, and even Media Departments. My main concern has been for a whole school to make its own Help Yourself to Read video, which could use the different skills of dozens of students, including failing learners. (one experimental version is at www.ozreadandspell.com.au.) I could post details of ideas about how this could be organized.
I have also been seeking an indigenous version, called, say, Dreamtime Dillybag, to be made by indigenous artists of every mode, and using aboriginal culture – and have even offered an indigenous institution $35,000 to help make one, but had no reply. Previous governments have not been interested, but they may now be. And of course, it could have tourist and export sales.

On learning from vide - With the literacy video, learners sing and say along with the songs and words, and repeat-watch what they are still not clear about.
For behavour videos, action-while-you-watch, rather like playschool, can be melodromatic and funny.

Pausing during videos for children to write is not a good idea if there are slow writers in the class.

(I was not talking about crime in the community, but about classrooms which are disturbed by too much unruly behaviour so that little teaching and learning is possible, and teachers are unnecessarily stressed. And parents who can, send their children to private schools where these unruly students are simply expelled or not admitted.)

Oxideas,
Your proposed use of videos is quite good. I would suggest investigating how various industries operate employee inductions, as many of those induction procedures could be used in schools. I have known schools where there are virtually no induction procedures being carried out.

I would also suggest greater mentoring and personal interest be taken of students who have a record of bad behaviour in school. Much of this bad behaviour could be because no one is taking any interest in that child.

I tend to think that the overall rates of unruly behavior in schools may not be that great, because if this was the case, then crime rates in general society would be increasing, but in most areas of crime, the crime rates are actually falling or remaining constant.

However in today's society, if a student is expelled before they have a proper education, then it would be more likely that they would become involved in some type of criminal activity, as they would have much less chance of getting a job.

Mor long-winded verby age fromma nutha edu cashunnailist.

Why so much fuss about what is incredibly esi 2 ficks?. Fri edu cashun was brought in in the 1860s as "human capital" became needed. So to state in 2008 that education is about creating human capital is merely reinventing a very old idea. And please, don't tell me we have to fiddle with spelling etc-kids used to learn to spell accurately many many years ago, without serious difficulty and despite differing socio-economic backgrounds, which is more than they do today.

The old teaching methods, though greatly derided by those who need to deride any prior education method so as to make their living as an educationalist, worked and worked well. Teach English grammar as a formal subject once again. Teach maths without calculators, teach a second language and music at an early age, and if kids get unruly bring in some old fashioned discipline. And for heavens sake cut the politically correct fuzzy-huggy rubbish that so far only guarantees falling standards in behaviour, literacy, numeracy, history and scientific knowledge. That WOULD be revolutionary

Thank u, Henry. I hope u can re-read my articl carefully. Hardly any of it is politically correct. There is no fuzzy hugging.

I agree that old teaching methods workd well for even a majority of students, and that structure and disiplin help lerning,and that it helps to hav formal grammar and maths without calculators.

However, failure rates hav always been extremely hi among disadvantaged children, then as now. In Victorian times, primary school children could spend a third of the curriculum lerning to spell – lerning litl else, and many were still poor readers.

My professional work has been concernd with children and adults failing to read. Too often there are gaps and confusions that need to be cleared up – hence my practical recommendations such as removing common barriers to literacy in classrooms.
A 16-word spelling test demonstrates that most adults cannot spell well – even the most educated. http://www.ozreadandspell.com.au/16sp.htm


Almost every other modern language has improved its writing sistem in the past 150 years - exept English. If they can, why do we continue to impose out-of date inconsistencies. Spelling is information tecnology, not a totem.

No need to change the whole sistem – just take the traps out.

Children need to rote-lern arithmetic tables. These are sensibl. But why hav to rote-lern spellings which are not sensibl? Children in other countries with mor consistent alfabetic spellings can lern to read in one year. Ours take three years to be able to read as well.

This is ritten in spelling with traps taken out for lerners. Look at each change – is it mor stupid than what we hav, left over from 250 years ago? English spelling is changing, but too slowly - e.g. programme to program, musick to music, and phantasy to fantasy.


BTW Teachers today are not allowd ‘old fashiond disiplin’ for unruly students today. They would be sued, and in some places, parents would bash them up. However, there is much that needs to be done, and could be done.

(BTW I did not mention ‘human capital’ exept as the blurb for Rudd’s revolution.)

Thanks Val,

You have convinced me in regard to spelling.

I could spell very well in primary school, but I am finding that as the years move forward, I forget how to spell words I once could. It would help me if we used a consistent system of spelling as you advocate. Possibly some scope for humour, irony and puns would be lost from the English language, but I still think we would all still be better off in the longer term.

Also, I hope you intend to continue to contribute to OLO and not feel discouraged if the number of responses to your articles is not always as much as the quality of your writing and your ideas warrant. I have been meaning to respond to quite a few of your articles, but can't always find the time.

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BTW, the URL http://www.ozreadandspell.com.au/16sp.htm appears to be wrong.

The correct URL for the sixteen-word spelling test that most people cannot do correctly is

http://home.vicnet.net.au/~ozideas/16sp.htm

I am sorry that I short-sightedly put in the wrong address