set 1984: no. 2

Of those students entering with University Entrance as their highest school-leaving qualification, 47% are in the 17- 18 age bracket. This is a similar percentage to those holding an 'A' Bursary and considerably higher than those with a 'B' Bursary or HSC. Full-time students entering with UE achieve as well as those entering with a 'B' Bursary and significantly better than those with HSC. The analysis produced no evidence to support the position that the majority of students proceeding from… Read more

It is a commonplace that a child's success at school is influenced by home experiences. The attitude of parents towards school and schooling affects a child's progress. There is a developing interest in the part parents can and do play in the learning of their own children. Even amongst those who regard teaching as the preserve of the trained professional, few would question the value of sympathetic, well informed parent teacher relationships.
What then do the teachers colleges do to… Read more

PAT: Study Skills measures some of the most important skills we teach; skills that give children the capacity to learn on their own. However, as study skills are imbedded in every subject in the curriculum they can be difficult to plan for and even more difficult to keep track of. This article describes a number of specific ways in which the results from PAT: Study Skills may be used in schools.

In The Confusing World of High School Reading (Part 1): What the Teacher Doesn't See I reported the results of a recent study which showed that teaching a class of high school pupils can be deceptive. Sometimes the surface structure of the classroom indicates effective teaching, while in the minds of the pupils there is a maze of confusion that the teacher does not see. I also argued that to see these confusions, teachers need to become researchers in their own classrooms. It would… Read more

Drugs are a problem. Drug education is a problem. Drug users are a problem. But now, thanks to the Londonbased Institute for the Study of Drug Dependence (lSDD), the in-service training and education of the front line professionals who have to cope with the results of alcohol and drug abuse is going to be less of a problem. What ISDD have done is to produce a set-style package of leaflets, briefing sheets, discussion notes, and reading guides - the Drugs Demystified Training Pack, designed… Read more

It was 40°C when I entered the large suburban primary school to observe three early childhood students on teaching practice. The principal directed me along a seemingly endless corridor to the junior primary section but the classrooms were deserted. "They're out in the yard," a passing teacher advised and she was right. A couple of hundred six and seven year olds were standing in the sun while a teacher called out names from a sheet
of paper. The children grouped and regrouped… Read more

Issues of grouping and streaming are still hotly debated by teachers and administrators. Many are moved to turn to the research workers, and ask the simple question - Should we stream our children into ability groups? Like most questions concerned with school organization, there is no simple answer. It depends on our objectives, our classroom conditions, the qualities of the teachers available and the teaching methods they favour. Attitudes to streaming are influenced greatly by whether we… Read more

Streaming (or ability grouping or tracking, as the Americans would have it) has been tried, thrown out, revived, recommended, debunked and debated periodically in recent decades. Writing for New Zealand teachers in the mid-70s, Elley provided a balanced and comprehensive coverage of research for and against this common organizational practice. His review of the research is reprinted with minor revisions as item 8 in this set, No.2, 1984. He pointed up some of the deficiencies in the research… Read more