Wayne Sawyer is Emeritus Professor at Western Sydney University where he remains an active researcher. He began working with the MeE Framework with the Motivation and Engagement of Boys project in 2004 and continued this work in Engaging Middle Years Boys in Rural Educational Settings, Teachers for a Fair Go and Schooling for a Fair Go. As with other researchers on the program, he has published widely on this work, and presented findings through national and international presentations. In this introduction, Wayne outlines the scope and structure of the edition and goes to the significance of the individual projects for teachers and students and the overall program for NSW public education.
The Special Edition
This issue of the Journal of Professional Learning is a Special Edition focused on the work of the Fair Go (FG) research program at Western Sydney University. The Fair Go research program is focused on pedagogy and engagement in low-SES schools through working with teachers on incorporating collaborative action research into their own practice. Fundamental to all of the research projects in which the overall Fair Go program has been involved are the principles or contexts of:
• pedagogy and engagement
• low-SES school communities
• practitioner action research
• collaboration.
We believe that the profession is enriched when teachers see themselves as generating, as well as delivering, knowledge as researchers, and to this end, we see the taking on of a ‘researchly disposition’ (Lingard & Renshaw, 2010) by teachers as fundamental to the work of the program.
Fair Go reaches its 21st birthday in 2021 and this Special Edition is helping to mark that milestone. The history of the overall program through its various specific projects is told in the article by Katina Zammit.
Many schools in Western Sydney and rural NSW have worked with the Fair Go program. Apart from the NSW Teachers Federation, numerous professional and academic organisations in Australia and overseas have cited Fair Go as an exemplary student engagement initiative for low-SES schools, including: Learning Difficulties Australia, Education Services Australia, Australian Council of TESOL Associations, Primary English Teaching Association Australia, Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education, and University of Toronto’s Centre for Leadership & Diversity. Fair Go has informed government policy around improving schooling outcomes in varied ways, such as being used as an exemplar program by, for example, the Departments of Education in NSW and Victoria, and in the evaluation of the Bridges to Higher Education program.
In 2011 the NSW Department of Education (The Department) reported Fair Go as ‘informing the system, school leaders and other teachers about different ways to encourage and support teachers to improve their classroom practices and student engagement’, and subsequently used FG in professional development material for hundreds of teachers. The Department’s paper on ‘Research underpinning the reforms’ in reference to the Commonwealth/States National Partnership on ‘Low SES School Communities’ traced a series of Fair Go projects since 2002, referencing its model of engagement as
showing ‘clear signs that (the relevant) changes to classroom teaching practices encouraged greater and extended interest in learning’. Fair Go was again featured in a cross-sectoral paper on the research base for the Low-SES National Partnership’s 2014 impact evaluation. This testifies to the program’s impact on the thinking of education authorities at high levels in Australia.
The Fair Go program developed in its early years an engagement framework through which to research pedagogy and engagement, and to this was later added an arm devoted to motivation (thanks to a collaboration with Professor Andrew Martin, now of UNSW). The Motivation and Engagement (MeE) Framework is discussed in the article by Geoff Munns in this edition and is referred to by the authors of the other articles.
Authors of the articles in the Special Edition have each been involved with the program in some way over these 21 years, either as academics, as postgraduate students focusing on Fair Go work in the relevant schools, as Principals in Fair Go schools, or, particularly, as teachers in individual Fair Go research projects such as School is For Me, Teachers for a Fair Go, Fair Go from the Get Go and Schooling for a Fair Go. Introductions to each article point to the background of the author and particular projects out of which the article arose. Of course, a number of other teachers and Principals have also been involved in a number of the projects listed in Katina’s history. In all, teachers in almost 90 schools in Western Sydney and rural NSW have taken part in various projects within the Fair Go research program.
Fair Go has always had a connection with the NSW Teachers Federation. Current Federation Officers have been researchers on individual projects. In 2014, the Federation co-hosted the Equity! Now More Than Ever conference in which teachers in the Schooling for a Fair Go project reported on their work and the JPL has published a number of articles in previous editions coming out of Fair Go projects. Thus, we would like to acknowledge the union for its strong support of this Special Edition, as well as for more general support of Fair Go over the past 21 years.
References
Lingard, B., & Renshaw, P. (2010). Teaching as a research-informed and research-informing profession. In A. Campbell & S. Groundwater-Smith (Eds.), Connecting inquiry and professional learning in education: international perspectives and practical solutions (pp. 26-39). Routledge.
Cindy Valdez explores some of the strategies that help to support English as an Additional Language or Dialect (EAL/D) learners in your classrooms. Ensuring that EAL/D students feel included in the classroom helps to address their academic and emotional needs. . .
“The [Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Education] Declaration has two distinct but interconnected goals:
Goal 1: The Australian education system promotes excellence and equity
Goal 2: All young Australians become:
• confident and creative individuals
• successful lifelong learners
• active and informed members of the community.
Achieving these education goals is the responsibility of Australian Governments and the education community in partnership with young Australians, their families and carers and the broader community. “(Education Council, 2019)
In line with this policy, my vision for all students, regardless of their backgrounds, is that they be included in their classroom lessons, and they are able to access the Australian Curriculum, so that every student feels that they have a rightful place in their learning environments. A student, regardless of their race, socio-economic background, physical or intellectual ability should be able to be part of any classroom and receive the quality education that they deserve and are entitled to. It may be a challenge, but it is achievable. During planning and programming sessions, my role as the English as an Additional Language or Dialect (EAL/D) Specialist teacher/mentor has been to ask my colleagues to reflect upon the following questions. In this paper I pose the same questions with my responses.
“How do I ensure that each student feels that they belong and is included in my classroom?”
‘Belonging’ and ‘inclusivity’ could mean different things to different people. Some would say that it means that each child is ‘heard’ or ‘seen’, that their thoughts and views are valued. Others would say that each child feels that they ‘fit’ in, or that they ‘get along’ with everyone in the classroom. Whatever it is, there’s a general consensus that to feel ‘included’ means that your contributions are valued; you are allowed to have, and to express, your own opinions; you are treated with kindness and respect; and last, but not least, you are seen as a ‘worthy conversational partner’ by your peers.
For me, there is another ‘layer’ to being ‘included’ and ‘belonging’ in the classroom. That is, that each individual is seen as part of a ‘community of practice‘. In a recent article I read, “Scaffolding Practice: Supporting Emerging Bilinguals’ Academic Language
Use in Two Classroom Communities” (Pacheco, M., Shannon, D. & Pray, L. (2017). the authors described this practice as:
“…community-focused, language-as-practice perspective of academic language builds from the foundation that a classroom is a community of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991), or a group of individuals that engage one another with shared resources to work toward common goals. With this perspective, we frame academic language as practices, or the different ways that
students and teachers use language to participate in activities that are recognized and valued by other community members”
(Pacheco, M., Shannon, D. & Pray, L. p.65, 2017).
How do I design learning experiences that are ‘intellectually challenging’ (Dufficy, 2005) for my students?
As we need to engage our EAL/D learners in learning that involves higher order thinking, critical thinking, collaboration and problem solving, teachers need to: make decisions about the ‘BIG IDEA’ that we want all students to know about and understand; formulate ‘essential questions’ so that all students know ‘why’ we are learning what we are learning about; and design a ‘rich task’ to consolidate and demonstrate new learnings.
EAL/D learners will greatly benefit from participating in High Challenge/High Support programs. These programs aim for deep knowledge and deep learning, whilst providing EAL/D learners with high levels of targeted support via two aspects of scaffolding: ‘designed-in scaffolding’ (carefully planned sequence of learning experiences), and ‘contingentscaffolding’ (point of need teaching). (Hammond & Gibbons, 2005).
In a classroom where a ‘community of practice’ is evident, both teacher and student scaffold the academic language in order for everyone to be able to participate in meaningful and purposeful classroom talk. We often push our EAL/D learners towards being able to justify, describe and explain their thinking because as we know “academic language is not something that a student does or does not have, but a practice that a student does” (Pacheco, M et al, 2016, p. 65).
We must clarify our students’ thinking by asking questions to ‘extend’ the talk in an attempt to engage them in substantive conversations, “which could include attention to language atthe vocabulary, syntax, and discourse levels.” (Pacheco, M. et al, 2017 p. 65) In a “community of practice”,the students will also extend the talk of their peers because the teacher has modelled the language.
How do I scaffold EAL/D learners’ use of academic language and participation in class discussions?
EAL/D learners need to access all curriculum areas, access age-appropriate quality reading materials and access the academic language demands of every subject. This includes, for example, words with different shades of meaning, subject-specific vocabulary/language, scientific language and so forth.
How do you ensure that students are thinking, talking and writing like scientists, historians, geographers, authors, artists or mathematicians?
There are language and cultural implications for each subject that need to beconsidered. That is, EAL/D teachers need to consider the language demands specific for each subject by knowingthe language structures, grammatical features and vocabulary development which need to be targeted and explicitlytaught.
Using History as the example, Paul Dufficy explains that when teaching History “…an important goal is to assist young people to become historians – to appropriate the texts, the ways and the dispositions of history and historians…in the process of becoming historians, children and young people are, potentially, becoming critical, fair-minded, optimistic, curious, courageous, and angered by injustice” (Paul Dufficy, 2005 p. 41).
How do I ensure that everyone is included in EVERY lesson that I teach? How am I differentiating the curriculum so that all experience SUCCESS?
EAL/D learners need to be able to make connections to what they are learning about. Can they see their own culture and values in the unit of work? If not, how can we bring their ‘cultural capital’ into the curriculum? How do we ensure the learning is relevant to our EAL/D students? The goal is substantive engagement, not compliance and completion of busy work. Both the Learning Intention and Success Criteria need to be made visible to EAL/D learners so that they succeed in completing an open-ended rich task throughout the unit of work.
What do I want my students to THINK about?
Teachers need to know their subject area, and the ‘why’ of the unit of work. Prioritise learning outcomes and take the ‘slow teaching’ approach.It’s not about ticking all the boxes, rather it’s about taking the time to design ‘deep’ learning and careful consideration given to what meaningful learning needs to happen in during each lesson.
What BIG IDEAS do I want them to learn and understand?
Deconstruct the ‘big idea’, focus question, essential questions and the ‘why’ with your learners. The ‘big idea’ is what you want your students to think and learn about. It could be written up as a question. For example – to understand ‘characterisation’: “How do authors use emotive language and impactful noun groups to create characters that are believable?” This could then be deconstructed by unpacking the vocabulary words necessary to understand the question. To ensure that everyone is on the same page.
How do I design and sequence the learning?
· Backward map from the rich task so you know the end to plan ahead! Decide on the order in which you would like to tackle the unit. What do my students need to learn about first to achieve the learning outcome? Stage teams will find that this could look different in each class.
· Frontload the vocabulary by selecting, highlighting and bringing to students’ attention key words, that are pertinent to understanding the text they’re about to read, view or listen to.
· Visible thinking routines. Find ways to make your students’ thinking visible by engaging in various visible thinking routines such as ‘see, think, wonder’, ‘beginning, middle, end’ and ‘What makes you say that?’ to name a few. (Click here for the link to Harvard University’s Project Zero)
· Message abundancy. EAL/D learners need to hear, see and use target language multiple times and in many different ways (i.e. message abundancy). Design learning activities that require all students to talk to complete learning tasks by, for example, engaging in visible thinking routines and communicative activities to use the target language/vocabulary.
· Know thy students! Give your EAL/D learners timely feedback on both content and language learning. Let them know how they are going with acquiring the English language in their speaking, listening, reading/responding and writing. Both the ESL Scales & EAL/D Progression will assist in this process.Click here for more information
Make their learningvisible, for example, goal setting, wall charts, conferencing, and so forth. As well, plan for engaging ways for students to demonstrate their learning through, for example, the creation of an artwork.
· Create your own resources to link with the current unit of work. Create your own modelled texts as sometimes ‘rich’ and age-appropriate reading material is hard to find so as a team, collaboratively construct your own. Be mindful not to simplify the language too much as the inclusion of target and subject-specific vocabulary is a must! Learners of English will not learn the academic language unless they are exposed to it. Create other resources such as word/picture/meaning matching cards, cloze activities, ranking activities, margin questions (which may need to be read to your newly arrived students, and translated if possible).
Learning a new language is best acquired in an inclusive environment where each person feels safe to flourish in. An environment where a community of practice comprised of students and their teachers who all feel safe to take risks, understand that learning is messy, value connections, nurture respectful relationships, and understand that learning is best achieved when ‘we’re all in it together’.
Dufficy, P. (2005). Designing learning for diverse classrooms. Newtown: Primary Teaching Association Australia.
The Education Council (2019) The Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Education Declaration
Pacheco, M., Shannon D., & Pray, L. (2017). Scaffolding Practice: Supporting Emerging Bilinguals’ Academic Language Use in Two Classroom Communities. Language Arts, 95 (2), 63-76.
Readings and resources:
Hammond . J., (2012) “Hope and challenge in The Australian Curriculum: Implications for EAL students and their teachers” The Australian Journal of Language and Literacy
Cindy Valdez has been an EAL/D specialist for over 20 years. She has predominantly worked in south-west Sydney and is passionate about inclusion, developing others as leaders in the EAL/D space, and catering for the academic and wellbeing needs of EAL/D learners, including students from refugee backgrounds.
Cindy led various action learning projects during her role as a Refugee Support Leader in 2017-2019. She is currently an EAL/D Education Leader at the NSW Department of Education, and President of the Association for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (ATESOL) NSW.
Helen McMahon, Michelle Gleeson, Andrea Gavrielatos & Trystan Loades consider one of the most important topics for all teachers … classroom management. Helen, in the introduction, returns to a topic that she wrote about in the 2015 edition of the JPL. Michelle and Andrea then give us the primary school perspective and Trystan discusses the high school context . . .
Introduction
Teaching is complex, no more so than when it comes to the management of student behaviour. Effective teaching can only occur when the behaviour of students is successfully dealt with at a whole school and individual class level. High standards of behaviour are essential in creating a productive and positive learning environment, as well as a safe and respectful school.
A high standard of behaviour should be expected of all students and applied throughout the school each day by everyone. From the outset it is important to understand a fundamental principle: while the public education system accepts all students, we do not accept all behaviours.
The student profile of many of our schools is becoming ever more complex and, therefore, teachers require increasingly sophisticated sets of skills to deal with behaviour in their own classes. However, it is important to understand that the management of student behaviour is also a collective responsibility, across the whole school by all staff, and in serious cases with systemic Department of Education support.
As all schools are required to develop a behaviour management plan, it is essential that this is developed collaboratively, and closely adhered to by all staff, in order to develop consistent approaches to unacceptable conduct.
Individual teachers, particularly for those who are beginning their teaching career, will usually need additional advice, support, and professional learning opportunities to acquire the range of skills that allow them to gain confidence and become professionally autonomous. Any professional learning should cover areas such as:
why engaging teaching strategies can be the basis for minimising unacceptable behaviour
how to manage persistent disruptive and challenging behaviours
strategies that could be used to de-escalate conflict situations
the need to engage parents and caregivers early and in a positive manner
the support that will be available from colleagues and executive teachers.
The NSW Department of Education’s Student Behaviour Policy (2022) states, “All students and staff have the right to be treated fairly and with dignity in an environment free from intimidation, harassment, victimisation, discrimination and continued disruption.” To ensure that schools are safe, productive, and stable learning environments it is essential that this fundamental policy position is embedded in the school culture and reinforced daily.
Classroom management – school contexts
During the liveliness and excitement of a bustling school day, there are many things out of our control. One of the things that we, as teachers, can control is how we set up our day and our classroom to ensure that we set our students (and ourselves) up for success.
The way classroom management looks in each classroom is ultimately up to the teacher. And whether or not you are working in a school which sets clear systems, expectations and routines, there are practices for your classroom that can make the day flow in a more positive direction.
Before we launch into the what and the how, let’s start with the why. On top of knowing our content and how to structure a lesson, classroom management directly affects the conditions for student learning and effective teaching. When the learning space is organised … students’ academic skills and competencies, as well as their social and emotional development are supported and enhanced (Kratochwill, DeRoos, Blair, 2009). This aligns with the Professional Knowledge and Professional Practice domains of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (NESA 2018), specifically that teachers ‘Create and maintain supportive and safe learning environments’ and ‘Know students and how they learn’. The intersection of these two standards with regards to classroom management highlights that not only do our considerations about how we arrange the learning space matter, but this, combined with a deep understanding about our students’ individual characteristics and needs, can be affected and supported by that very learning environment. What are the things we need to factor in for our students before they’ve set foot through the door for our lesson or for the day? How can we suitably reflect on our lesson plan to anticipate how we might deal with behaviours that become too excitable? How can a teacher pre-empt and identify strategies to ensure all students are engaged safely and successfully in classroom activities?
Across both primary and secondary settings, there are universal elements to classroom management. that link back to the Standards. that can help us reflect on how we best set our students up for success in their learning. Let’s take a look at a day in the life of a primary school teacher and a learning period for a high school teacher, and, in doing so, share some strategies which you can add to your toolbox to support you…
A Day in the Life of Primary School – through the lens of classroom management
Starting the day
Classroom management begins well before the front gates open for students and families. This time is quite possibly the most important part of the day with regards to effective classroom management.
A good habit to develop each day when you arrive at your classroom is to map out the day plan in a visual timetable, either written or with visual aids, displayed at the front of the room. This practice is an example of how to utilise Universal Design for Learning as seen in the Universal Design for Learning planning tool (2021). This framework is most beneficial for students with additional needs, however it reduces the fear of the unknown and can be beneficial for all students. Taking a moment to walk through what’s happening, on any given day, can also help you to anticipate the flow of what’s planned and review what you’ll need for the lessons for the day. Using the morning routine to locate and organise resources needed for your lessons will assist in those teaching moments to maintain your students’ focus and minimise opportunities for behaviours to unravel. Being proactive in having what you will need at the ready, or mentally noting what you need to prepare during the session break and considering how and where resources are accessed during the learning is an important aspect of classroom management related to the routines you establish and maintain in your classroom.
Setting the tone of your learning environment
How you then organise your classroom with resources and routines inherently sets the tone of the learning environment. Giving attention and consideration to how the classroom helps to develop a culture of learning and structure is something which can often be forgotten. Setting up the learning space in a way which is conducive to teaching and learning is paramount.
It is helpful to ask questions such as ‘can students and teachers move around the room with ease?, ‘is there enough room to walk?’, ‘is the floor clear of resources?’, ‘are resources clearly labelled and packed in the appropriate place?’, ‘where will students sit for group discussions or brainstorming or modelled lessons?’, ‘what kind of noise levels are acceptable and at what times?’.
Ideas as simple as group structures and seating arrangements can promote positive behaviours and academic outcomes (Wannarka & Ruhl, 2008). There is evidence to support the idea that ‘if students are working on individual assignments, they should be seated in an arrangement that makes interacting with peers inconvenient…for example, in rows students are not directly facing each other’. Conversely, ‘when the desired behaviour is interactive… seating arrangements that facilitate interactions by proximity and position, such as clustered desks or semi-circles, should be utilised’ (Wannarka & Ruhl, 2008). Strategically planning these structures prior to the day beginning can have a positive influence on student engagement and behaviour.
Involving your students to establish a set of expectations supports a shared understanding of what is valued in the learning environment for everyone to be able to engage in learning. It can also assist students to regulate collaboratively the classroom behaviour. What is important to one group can be vastly different to another, so this process is a crucial component to classroom management and is most successful when students have agency in determining the conditions for learning as well as the positive rewards and negative consequences that go along with these. Along with collaboratively setting up, and explicit teaching of, class expectations, each teacher will have a different system of organisation with regards to student jobs, and overall set up. It is important to be strategic in deciding which student will be responsible for each job depending on their social, emotional and academic needs. Guiding questions such as the following are helpful to ask yourself when selecting students for each job: Do any students require regular breaks? Does a particular student require a peer to assist them in executing the job? Will the students be able to refocus upon completion of the job?
As with any element of classroom management, it is crucial to model and guide students in how to successfully perform each task before expecting them to complete it independently.
Relationships sit at the heart of effective classroom management and a simple yet effective way to connect with your students, and to set the tone of the day of learning, is to greet students personally as they enter the classroom. Positioning yourself at your door, monitoring both students as they unpack and those that are settling into the room allows you to:
start the day with a positive connection with your students,
remind students of classroom expectations through specific praise of preferred behaviours, in turn supporting the transition into the formal learning space, and
gauge the moods and mindsets your students have before the learning begins.
This, in turn, offers a “low-cost, high-yield” proactive strategy that complements the organisational elements to setting up the learning environment (Cook, et. al 2018). Coupled with your proactive measures of setting up your resources, being proactive with your students’ behaviour, and starting every day with a positive and personal acknowledgement of each student in your class, has been shown to promote higher levels of academic engagement. It also minimises, even prevents, the occurrence of problem behaviours that disrupt learning. Additionally, being perceptive to the emotional wellbeing of your students, not only as they start the day but throughout the day, and particularly following transitions, can assist you in managing behaviours through pre-corrections, further modelling or revision, or tuning in to students’ needs to support them to re-engage or regulate their behaviour.
Positive reinforcement extends the tone of the learning environment and can take varied forms without always being a tangible reward although, at times, the extrinsic motivator can help. Acknowledging and reinforcing the behaviours you expect supports students with direct feedback on what is valued, but is only effective when the reinforcement is genuine, clear, and explicit about the behaviour and given in a timely manner (i.e., straight after the target behaviour). If there are established positive reinforcement procedures in your school, it is critical that these are integrated into your own systems. Such integration, however, does not preclude the use of your own additional strategies, if required, which can be as simple as non-verbal cues and verbal praise, a positive phone call to parents, to tangible reward tokens or activity rewards. Knowing the individual preferences of your students will also inform the approach that you take for encouraging positive behaviour in your classroom. Most students will respond to the universal support and expectations for behaviours (be they the whole school or your class systems) but some students may require an individualised approach with targeted and specific behaviour goals that have positive consequences negotiated with the student and their parents or carers.
“Be the calmest person in the room”
And while giving attention to the routines and structures of our classroom allows us to exert some control in pre-empting behaviours, the only thing we can control is ourselves and to be the calmest person in the room. The key to effective routines and structures lies in modelling and explicit teaching but this begins with our own behaviours. Students are more likely to replicate calm energy if they have been shown this. The importance of being responsive over reactive, having and modelling empathy, and above all else being consistent, sits hand in hand with the positive, safe and supported learning environment that is conducive to the success of our students.
Transitions and breaks
When it comes to managing your expectations around behaviours at any point in the school day, it’s often safer to never assume your students will know how to behave. Establishing expectations not only with regards to the use of resources and interactions for group or independent work, but also around transitions requires explicit teaching through modelling. For example, if your students are expected to enter and exit the classroom quietly and in two straight lines or move from sitting on the floor to their desks, then preparing them from the outset with clear expectations and demonstrations is required, even for simple tasks such as these. Show your students what the transition looks like, sounds like and feels like so that they can experience that through practise, revising as often as needed.
While classroom management is often viewed as enacted within the four walls of the classroom, practices such as active supervision apply in the playground and have similar effect and impact in managing behaviour. The proverbial ‘eyes in the back of your head’ comes to mind. The effects of scanning, movement and proximity on supporting positive behaviour in any school setting will influence behaviour. It is important to remember that our job is to teach and that every moment is a teaching moment, whether we are in the classroom or elsewhere. Teach and praise what you want to see more of and celebrate the steps along the journey.
Managing the end of the day
The bookends of the day largely dictate the overall organisation of your classroom, and where much attention is given to setting up the day, the end of the day is equally important. Similar to the setup, pre-empting issues and being proactive is key at the end of the day – knowing that your students are going to start feeling tired and fatigued, consider what could go wrong with the planned group activity, or art lesson, and make adjustments to your plan where necessary. If you think they require some time to regulate, complete a calming ‘brain break’. If it seems as though they are lacking energy, complete an energising activity. (Although ‘brain breaks’ can be done at any time throughout the day, the end of the day is often when they are utilised most regularly).
Allow yourself plenty of time for packing up, giving yourself at least 10 minutes at the end of the day to finish calmly and smoothly with an activity before students are dismissed such as read a story/poem, play a game, silent reading or journaling, guided drawing, practise gratitude, dance or sing. The activity could be a routine one or be different every day, this is up to you and your class. Just as the expectation stands for entering the classroom, be consistent with clear expectations for how students leave the classroom when the bell rings. Think about how many students will you dismiss at once- will they be the same students at tables/desks or the students who are packed up and quiet? Supporting a positive and calm end to the day will not only support your students in finishing the day on a good note but is also good for our own wellbeing to avoid ending the day in frantic chaos.
When you need support…
With the increase of students with additional needs enrolled in public schools, over the course of a career, teachers will likely be met with students who challenge and provoke our thinking. Sometimes, when redirection and all proactive, positive systems have been exhausted or when the safety of a child, a class, or staff members is at risk, different strategies are required.
Whether or not an individual behaviour plan is required, at times, it is critical to utilise expert and experienced staff, including senior executives, for support.
Some things to remember, if and when faced with more complex, challenging and escalating behaviours, are:
remain calm – think about your tone of voice, body language, what you are saying, how you are moving, where you are positioned,
explain why the specific behaviour is unacceptable – Is it unsafe? Is it disturbing the learning of others? Is it respectful?
don’t buy into any secondary behaviours which may arise,
give short and direct instructions – it is helpful to use the student’s name first and then the clear, explicit direction,
follow through,
call for assistance.
Remember, once any incident is dealt with, it is important to move on and start fresh.
Students come to school to learn and they all have a right to do so in our vibrant and diverse public education system. With clear and visible expectations and routines which are reiterated and retaught consistently through a calm and predictable teacher, you set yourself and your class up for success (Dix, 2017).
Consistency
For many students, their school, and in particular their classroom, is the place where they feel most at ease, at baseline and where they can truly be themselves. Their teacher is a constant and when we act and react predictably to all situations, it makes our students feel safe. Safety allows students to remain calm, display positive behaviours and in turn, engage in learning. ‘Visible consistency with visible kindness allows exceptional behaviour to flourish’ (Dix, 2017).
A High School Context
Teaching is a highly complex activity, which, depending on which research you read, requires a teacher to make as many as 1500 decisions a day.
As stated earlier, teachers have a core responsibility to ‘Create and maintain supportive and safe learning environments’ Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (2018). Our students also have a core responsibility to ensure that they are contributing to a positive learning environment. As Helen McMahon stated in our introduction: while public education accepts all students, we do not accept all behaviours.
High schools are busy places, in which movement and transitions are an integral part of every school day. The effective management of student behaviour is critical to ensuring that our practice and pedagogy impacts positively on the learning of our students. Without it, learning cannot take place.
Three ways in which teachers can impact on student behaviour are through: routines and structures, controlling the learning environment and engagement.
Routines and Structure
As high school teachers, we are always receiving students who are arriving from another context, be it roll call, recess, lunch or the previous lesson. Our class may be arriving as a group who were together in the previous lesson or be a group coming together for the first time that day. This poses significant challenges for a teacher who needs to ensure that the start to their lesson is both orderly and purposeful.
Paul Dix, author of When the adults change, everything changes (2017)states, “Your students might claim that they prefer to lead lives of wild and crazy chaos. In reality, it is your routines, and your relentless repetition of them, that makes the students feel safe enough to learn.”.
Managing the Start of Lessons – Explicitly teaching clear and consistent routines throughout the structure of your lesson has many benefits for you and your students. Meet students in the same way every lesson, if they line up, do it the same way every time. Greet every student, building a connection before entering the classroom. Ensure that the first contact is proactive, positive and within your control. If you search YouTube, you will find videos of teachers sharing elaborate handshake routines which are individual to each student. This would not be something we could all do, but a personal verbal greeting to all students is something we can all achieve, it could be asking about the lesson they have just left or simply a personalised greeting. These interactions also help teachers, before entry to the classroom, to pick up on issues students are arriving with.
Feeling Safe – Consistent routines and structures provide students a connection to, and a feeling of safety in, our classrooms. For students, the idea that ‘I know what to expect’ allows space for engagement in initial instructions and explicit teaching. For students who have experienced trauma and those who have additional learning needs this is critical to building a sense of trust and safety as a learner.
Managing the End of Lessons – Our role in supporting smooth transitions is particularly important at the end of lessons. It allows for reflection on the learning which has taken place and provides support to our colleagues who will be receiving our students during the next teaching period. It also directly impacts on the safety of students and staff as they move to the next location of their day. Having a consistent routine at the end of lessons is as important as at the start of each lesson. Developing a suite of strategies such as exit tickets, routines around packing up and preparing to leave the room are vital and the important thing is to, as Paul Dix said, be relentless in your repetition of them.
Controlling the Learning Environment
Taking control of your classroom is a vital component of being a successful teacher. There is no one way to do this, and every teacher is different, however, being passive is not an option.
The NSW Department of Education’s Classroom management: Creating and maintaining positive learning environments (CESE 2020) cites research which says:
Put simply, classroom management and student learning are inextricably linked; students cannot learn or reach their potential in environments which have negative and chaotic classroom climates, lack structure and support, or offer few opportunities for active participation (Hepburn & Beamish 2019, p. 82), and students report wanting teachers who can effectively manage the classroom learning environment (see Woolfolk Hoy & Weinstein 2006, p.183; Egeberg & McConney 2018)
Layout – Assert your control of the classroom environment through the arrangement of furniture. Set up the space before students arrive whenever you can. If there are materials to distribute to allow learning activities to begin, have them on desks before students arrive. This saves time and removes opportunities for disruption.
Managing Behaviour -Exercise power to gain power and, therefore, control of the environment. Gain compliance through small instructions which are easy to follow, such as completing a simple task of collecting or getting out equipment or setting up a page in a workbook can settle a class and establish your authority in the classroom. Taking ownership of behaviour management is critical in establishing your authority. You should always know how to get support from colleagues and your Head Teacher but resolving issues yourself will always pay off in the long run. It is important to note that knowing when an issue needs to be escalated is also critical.
Seating Plans – A well-considered seating plan allows students to know where to be and for you to control where individuals are in your learning space. Some students may have specific positions described in their Individual Learning Plans (ILPs). A seating plan can allow you to establish effective group work as a supportive structure in your classroom.
Non-Verbal Communication – The use of non-verbal communication is a core skill we all need to develop; it can allow us to intervene early and get behaviour back on track without drawing attention to a student or their behaviour. This can be as subtle as eye contact at the right moment, a hand movement to suggest calming or even a smile and a nod.
Positioning – Where you place yourself at key times such as student arrival, roll marking, giving instructions, asking questions will impact on each activity’s effectiveness. Your ability to move around the room while maintaining a scanning view allows you to keep on top behaviour and levels of student engagement. Some teachers use a specific position in the classroom to manage student behaviour which is separate to positions they use for explicit teaching. Used consistently, this can even become an example of non-verbal communication as students learn to associate it with an intervention by the teacher.
Pace – Your control of the pace of your teaching and the learning in your classroom is also a key strategy in developing an orderly and effective classroom. Research has shown that a slow pace of instruction can cause significant behaviour problems. The right pace in a lesson will positively impact on student engagement and progress in learning.
Engagement
Any teacher, who has become involved in a struggle of attrition with an individual or a class around behaviour, knows that it is a negative cycle, which needs to be broken. The way to break it is always through positive engagement in learning.
Explicit Teaching – Students’ knowledge of what they are learning, and why they are learning it, impacts on their engagement. Building their ‘field’ of knowledge around a topic or specific activity adds richness and promotes genuine understanding and interest.
Modelling – Modelling an activity for a class, or group within a class, draws students into a task and provides the opportunity for a teacher to build credibility with students. A teacher sharing skills is a way for students to see that their teacher is an expert from whom they can learn.
Questioning – A skilled teacher will use a wide range of questioning techniques to develop students’ ideas, to check on understanding, to draw individuals into the learning process and to inform their own decision making on where to take the lesson next. Questions allow a teacher to take a class deeper into a topic and promote students’ skills of justifying and explaining their reasoning. Simple techniques like ‘no hands up’ or ‘think, pair and share’ place structure and enhance the teachers control of order in a classroom. The use of closed questions to check recall and open questions to promote deeper thinking and analysis will be appropriate at various times within a class’s learning. Click here for the link to the Department of Education’s section on Questioning
Participation – Designing learning activities or tasks which require active participation is fundamental to building student engagement.
When teachers require that students participate in lessons, rather than sit as passive listeners, they increase the odds that these students will become caught up in the flow of the activity and not drift off into misbehaviour (Heward, 2003).
This idea is explored in detail by Geoff Munns’ JPL article from 2021. He said,
“We talked about students being ‘in-task’ (positively involved in their learning) as opposed to being ‘on-task’ (just complying with teacher instructions).”
No matter which stage you are teaching, being prepared, and having as much organisation in place as possible will enable any teacher to deal with the unexpected. As stated earlier a teacher will make as many as 1500 decisions in any normal school day, each one may be critical to a student’s learning or the management of their behaviour. Teaching really is rocket science.
Cook, C, Fiat, A, Larson, M, Daikos, C, Slemrod, T, Holland, E, Thayer, A & Renshaw, T (2018). ‘Positive greetings at the door: Evaluation of a low-cost, high-yield proactive classroom management strategy’, Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, vol. 20, no. 3.
Dix, P. (2017). When the adults change, everything changes: seismic shifts in school behaviour. (1st ed.). Independent Thinking Press.
Egeberg, H & McConney, A (2018) What do students believe about effective classroom management? A mixed – methods investigation in Western Australian high schools. Springer International Publishing
Hepburn, L & Beamish, W (2019) Towards Implementation of Evidence Based Practices for Classroom Management in Australia: A review of research Australian Journal of Teacher Education
Heward, W.L. (2003) Ten Faulty Notions about Teaching and Learning That Hinder the Effectiveness of Special Education. The Journal of Special Education
Wannarka, R., & Ruhl, K. (2008). Seating arrangements that promote positive academic and behavioural outcomes: a review of empirical research. Support for Learning, 23(2), 89–93. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9604.2008.00375.x
Woolfolk Hoy, A., & Weinstein, C. S. (2006). Student and Teacher Perspectives on Classroom Management.
In C. M. Evertson, & C. S. Weinstein (Eds.), Handbook of Classroom Management. Research, Practice, and Contemporary Issues (pp. 181-219). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Helen McMahon is an experienced secondary History and English teacher. For much of her career she taught in the south-west region of Sydney. Helen held the position of Deputy Principal at Bankstown Girls High School before being appointed as Principal to Leumeah High School. Following her retirement as principal she returned to the classroom, teaching English at Keira High School.
Helen is the author of a popular article on behaviour management published in the very first edition of the JPL which is still available. The article was based on beginning teacher professional development courses she delivered on behalf of the Federation.
Andrea Gavrielatos began teaching in 2015 at Bardia Public School in Sydney’s South West.
She has worked in mainstream and special education settings. Prior to her current role she worked as a relieving Assistant Principal in an SSP which caters for students with Emotional Disturbances, Behaviour Disorders and Intellectual Disabilities.
Andrea is currently an Assistant Principal at a large Primary School in the Canterbury-Bankstown area. She has worked in infants and primary.
Throughout her career, Andrea has supported early career teachers to establish planning/programming routines and classroom management strategies as presenter at various conferences and courses.
Michelle Gleeson began teaching in 2005 as a primary teacher and is currently acting Deputy Principal at a large primary school on Sydney’s Northern Beaches.
Throughout her career, Michelle has been involved in advising early career teachers on accreditation processes and supporting beginning teachers to establish planning/programming routines and classroom management strategies as presenter at various conferences and workshops for the CPL and NSWTF.
She worked as a Professional Learning Officer at the NSW Institute of Teachers (now known as NESA) and advised teachers and school executive on designing and implementing effective processes to support the learning and development of all staff, using the framework of the Teaching Standards.
Trystan Loades has been a high school teacher for 26 years. He has held classroom teacher and executive roles in both NSW schools and schools in the UK, where he was a Faculty Head Teacher for 6 years. He is currently a Deputy Principal at Keira High School in Wollongong.
In recent years Trystan has worked closely with the University of Wollongong Master of Teaching program. He collaborated in the writing and delivery of professional learning for teachers supervising Professional Experience.
He currently leads new staff induction and support for beginning teachers at his school.
Natalie Lopes examines the reasons why teaching Drama in primary school classrooms is so important. She writes about the benefits brought by Drama for students’ learning and development as well as the joy it brings to them . . .
I have a clear memory of my seven-year-old self running home from my first speech and drama lesson to set up my bedroom like the room in which my teacher taught. Sarah, from across the road, came over to play and I tried to give her the lesson I’d just experienced, much to her annoyance. From that moment on drama and performance became my strongest passion and I relished any opportunity for them.
We did very little drama at my primary school, but I had my weekly lessons outside of school. I studied Drama at high school and completed a Bachelor of Arts (Acting for the Stage and Screen) at university. When faced with the choice between Honours or a Diploma of Education (Secondary Drama) I chose the Dip Ed, knowing that, as a performer in Australia, I’d need a day job. I always felt teaching Drama would be more fulfilling than being a waitress. I never planned to be a full-time teacher; it would be suitable work whilst I was waiting for the phone to ring.
After five years as a casual teacher, I was offered a Drama RFF teaching role in a primary school. I decided to take it because securing part time work in the summer school holidays was becoming tiresome. Sixteen years later I am still at the same primary school teaching Drama.
When I was asked to write this article I immediately panicked, and my imposter syndrome reared its ugly head. I’ve taught Drama for many years, but what do I know really? I didn’t plan to be a primary school teacher, and always thought I’d end up in a high school. I decided to talk to my students about it. ‘Why do you think Drama is important in primary school?’ I asked them. ‘What does Drama mean to you?’ Their answers helped inspire what I realised I could share with you.
‘Drama is great because you can escape the real world and jump into a different reality.’ – A Year 5 student
Drama allows its participants to pretend. Young children love to engage in make believe role playing when they play together, and drama is an extension of this natural ability. Drama is a chance to play, to imagine, to create characters and act like other people, to create ideas, stories, worlds. Playing roles also gives students the option to use the role as a shield, where they can let themselves go in a manner they wouldn’t be able to if they weren’t ‘playing a role’.
‘It lets me reach out and stretch my imagination and creativity.’ – A Year 5 student
Drama is an imaginative experience where the students are constantly creating. When students improvise and devise their own performances, they are using critical and creative thinking to do so. The ability to spontaneously improvise and really ‘be in the moment’ is an amazing skill to develop. Students learn to resist the temptation to pre-plan what they will do when performing. One must surrender to the experience.
‘It boosts your confidence and lets your emotions out with joy.’ – A Year 6 student
More people in this world fear public speaking than death. This means, (I tell my students regularly) that more of the population would rather die than get up in front of an audience and perform. If you can do that confidently from a young age that is an excellent skill to have. Drama, when taught in a safe environment (and by safe, I mean a space where students feel they can explore and present ideas without ridicule and extreme judgment), helps to foster self-confidence in students. Each time they participate in a drama activity their confidence grows. Students develop trust with the space, with each other and with the teacher. A safe creative environment cannot operate successfully without a level of trust. Students know they won’t be ‘wrong’ if they participate. They can always grow and improve, but the space is a safe one to experiment and take risks. Drama also becomes a safe space to explore feelings and emotions that they might not feel comfortable expressing in real life.
‘Drama helps me understand what characters are thinking.’ – A Year 4 student
Drama helps students to develop empathy. By looking at situations from different characters’ points of view, they begin to understand that all humans deal with life differently: that we are complex beings and that we respond to experiences with varying feelings and emotions. When we play characters, we put ourselves in other’s shoes. Empathy and understanding grow because of this.
‘I like working with others. You can show all your ideas and have fun.’ – A Year 6 student
Drama is a group-based subject. In my classroom the students know that to devise in a group they must do the three C’s – Collaborate, co-operate, and compromise.
Collaborate – they need to creatively work together as a team.
Co-operate – they need to cohesively work together as a team. Save the drama for the stage!
Compromise – they must meet in the middle with their ideas. This is often the trickiest skill to develop when you have several passionate group members who want to be in creative control of the idea.
Group Drama activities call on these skills to be in constant use and the students develop confidence in using them for group work. Group devising in Drama allows students to develop their ability to problem solve.
‘You can be whoever you want to be.’ – A Year 6 student
Drama is fun! Whether students are improvising and creating their own stories, playing Drama games, or acting out scripts or texts others have written, Drama is a joyful experience that most children love. Drama is not competitive in the classroom and can be a subject students realise they enjoy and are good at, despite their ability in other areas. Drama is an organic subject – you don’t need anything to do it except yourself. Drama is for everyone. Experiencing and participating in Drama is not just about rehearsing for a performance. That is, of course, one part of it – and a rewarding and fun part of it indeed – but the benefits of exploring drama in the classroom go much deeper than simply the ability to perform well. The confidence, creativity and imagination, problem solving skills and ability to work in a team are lifelong skills that benefit all students.
A specialist Drama teacher RFF role in a primary school is a privileged position and I can appreciate that not all schools can accommodate this. However, there are many ways that Drama can be incorporated into a primary school teacher’s lesson.
These are a few suggestions for ways to use more Drama in your classroom.
As a physical activity often linked to PDHPE. There are numerous Drama games and activities that involve using your body. These are well suited as warm up games at the start of a PDHPE lesson. K-2 students enjoy games like Traffic Lights and Knights in the Museum whilst 3-6 students love Wolf in a House and Zombie Tag. They can also be great as brain breaks in the classroom, for example, Knife and Fork, What Are You Doing? and can be utilised to get students using their bodies to help fire up their creativity and imagination when brainstorming.
As a literacy tool. Drama and literacy are intrinsically linked and the use of Drama when exploring texts in the classroom is a way of developing a deeper understanding whilst having fun. Having the chance to move and/or act like a character from a text can bring it to life. Simple storytelling games where students retell the events of a story can enhance the students understanding of the plot and characters. Improvising and acting out scenes that happen in the text, as well as creating scenes that do not happen in the text (for example, alternative endings) provide wonderful opportunities for students to delve deeper into the text.
As a devising tool. Improvisation can be used to help plan stories and scripts. It is also a valuable tool when students are beginning group work in a range of subject areas. For example, students might improvise a story for the Drama activity of Typewriter where they narrate the story out loud. Later, they might use that story as a first draft for a piece of creative writing. A group of students might improvise a television commercial they are planning for the product/service they have created in a unit of work in HSIE.
For more suggestions of how to use Drama in the primary school classroom check out the following resources – Act Ease and Arts Unit here
‘Drama’s just the best…yeah that’s all.’ – A Year 6 student
It’s hard not to feel inspired about why Drama is important in the primary school classroom when you see the joy it brings the students. I hope this article has helped to highlight the importance and some of the many benefits of utilising Drama in your classroom.
Natalie Lopes is a drama teacher at Stanmore Public School where she teaches RFF Drama to students in K-6. She also runs an after-school Drama program for students in Years 3-12. Natalie also works as an actor, writer and director in the theatre and TV industry, however the arrival of two small thespians of her own have meant less time for this area of her life in recent years.
Rayanne Shakra and Jim Tognolini give clear and comprehensive advice to teachers on how to use modern definitions of assessment to better assess their students’ Higher Order Thinking Skills.
Defining Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) is no easy task. Research nearly forty years ago noted that “Defining thinking skills, reasoning, critical thought and problem solving is troublesome to both social scientists and practitioners. Troublesome is a polite word; the area is a conceptual swamp” (Cuban, 1984, p. 676). Four decades onwards not much has changed definition-wise, to clean-up the ‘conceptual swamp’. However, modern definitions of assessment have emerged that are useful in guiding teachers to better assess HOTS for students in any school year.
To produce evidence on how students think, teachers need to develop assessments that enable the students to demonstrate what it is they know, can do and value. For the purposes of this paper the focus will be on cognitive abilities and the following definition of assessment will be used. Assessment involves teachers making informed judgements based upon an image formed by the collection of information about student performance (Tognolini & Stanley, 2007). This image is used to monitor student growth (progress) through an area of learning or domain of knowledge. The higher levels of growth are differentiated by students having to demonstrate that they can do something with the knowledge that they have gained e.g., they can solve problems, think critically, evaluate the effectiveness of different strategies for solving problems.
Thinking is an internal process. Teachers cannot see this internal process, so they must depend on cognitive models and tools that can be used to categorise levels of learning. These models use verbs to describe the complexity of the thought processes students should demonstrate. Blooms’ revised taxonomy (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001) is one of these models.
This taxonomy is a powerful tool for teachers because it provides a way for teachers to differentiate between different levels of cognitive depth. It categorises learning into the following three domains: psychomotor, cognitive and affective. The cognitive domain. This domain involves six major categories to which students’ skills and abilities are listed from the simplest thinking behaviour, also known as the Lower Order Thinking Skills (LOTS), to the most complex, known as the Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS). The taxonomy lists the skills in hierarchal order from the LOTS to the HOTS, as in Figure 1. These skills include the mental processes of remembering, understanding, applying, analysing, evaluating, and creating.
Figure 1Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy
The logic behind this hierarchy is that before students can understand a concept they must remember it; to apply a concept they must first understand it; to evaluate a process they must have analysed it; and to create an accurate conclusion, students must have completed a thorough evaluation. Students’ thinking progresses from the LOTS to the HOTS. While the skills are presented in hierarchical form, the way students’ skills are developed does not necessarily have to be linear, that is, the skills may overlap onto each other (Krathwohl, 2002).
The thought processes are usually linked to the verbs associated with the thinking level that teachers are aiming to teach or assess. The mention of the verb here is not the actual word denoting the verb, it is the thought process or action behind the meaning of the verb. If teachers want to assess critical thinking, they should not look at a question beginning with ‘criticise’, rather the focus should be on how the student is going to solve the task that is being set. That is, when the students have produced the evidence from answering the task, does their evidence indicate a higher level of cognitive functioning? It isn’t the verb but the manifestation of the response to what is requested in the task that indicates whether the students have demonstrated higher order thinking in this circumstance.
Learning, by its nature, is developmental. Teachers act as facilitators in assisting the students to grow in knowledge, skill and understanding through the teaching of subject content. As students gain more content knowledge, and can use this knowledge to demonstrate growth, then teachers are required to provide tasks that are cognitively more demanding, to tap into the higher order thinking of their students. The cognitive level needed to solve these tasks is generally referred to as the depth of knowledge associated with the task (Webb, 1997). Cognitively demanding tasks require the students to think and use the knowledge that they have gained to solve both real life problems and even conceptually abstract problems.
HOTS are not only fostered and assessed in both mainstream primary and secondary students of diverse racial and socio-economic backgrounds, but also for students in special education classes. In fact, students in years 9-12 enrolled in special education classes, and who were given cognitively challenging tasks, outperformed students without disabilities at the same year level and who were given tasks that were less challenging (King, Schroeder, and Chawszczewski, 2001). Teachers need to deliberately provide their students with tasks that academically challenge and engage them. Often teachers think that their classroom assessments incorporate higher order thinking however, most do not (Care, Kim, Vista & Anderson, 2018: Hoogland & Tout, 2018; McMillan, 2001; McMillan, Myran, & Workman, 2002). Teachers are teaching HOTS through many new pedagogical methods such as inquiry learning or Project-Based Learning, but are not assessing for these skills (Anderson, 2002).
Assessment is integral to teaching and learning (Baird, Andrich, Hopfenbeck, & Stobart, 2017). The success of HOTS development is determined by the alignment between learning outcomes to be achieved, as stated in curriculum documents, and the implemented assessments (Fitzpatrick & Schulz, 2015). The importance of teachers knowing the targeted HOTS they are teaching and assessing means that teachers need to actively engage in developing appropriate assessments and to use both formative and summative assessments together. Formative assessments provide timely, regular feedback that informs instruction as students learn increasingly complex tasks. Summative assessments are necessary to determine if standards have been met or if students can perform tasks that involve HOTS.
Devising HOTS tasks that can lead to the production of valued outcomes and can be recognised through intuitive understanding is quite burdensome. Teachers need to formulate HOTS tasks that require reasoned thinking on behalf of the students, and this is far from simple.
Therefore, it is important when planning for lessons to know where to incorporate HOTS in teaching sessions (Collins, 2014). Without prior planning, the tasks that teachers might end up requesting spontaneously may not lead to their students’ demonstrating HOTS.
Not every difficult task immediately measures HOTS. In fact, difficulty is not the same as cognitive depth. The difficulty of a task is usually determined by how many students can get the task correct. If very few students get it correct, it is a hard task for the group of students. If everyone gets it right, it is an easy task for the students.
This does not necessarily align with the cognitive depth of the task, nor the level of higher order thinking required to solve the task. Cognitive depth refers to the thought process, knowledge and skill required to solve the task. Hence planning beforehand, specifically for assessing HOTS, is key.
Professional Development and HOTS
For lasting changes to occur in education, it is imperative that teachers recognise necessary changes in learner expectations as well as the purpose of teaching: teaching students to think (Retna & Ng, 2016). In addition to the cognitive thinking models that teachers can utilise, they can also look at research that documents practices that encourage students to develop and practise higher quality thinking.
Professional development courses are a key factor in reviving teachers’ understandings and methods of implementing higher order thinking skills in our classrooms. Professional development courses should be structured in a way to provide teachers with a better understanding of what higher order thinking skills are. These courses also help teachers to conceptualise how the three categories of transfer, critical thinking, and problem solving are coherently interrelated in their instructional strategies.
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Appendix A – Tips for writing HOTS tasks
The following are some tips for teachers to think about when they are writing HOTS tasks for their students:
First, teachers should focus the load of the item on the problem to solve rather than on the content.
Second, items that require students to predict the outcome of a situation are more suited for HOTS than simply labelling or listing.
Third, give them examples and ask for the principle, or theory, they illustrate.
Fourth, design items that permit multiple interpretations or solutions.
Fifth, the skill required to respond to the item is what determines the relative difficulty, not the verb used.
Sixth, make sure that the item is written in a way that makes it very clear to the students as to what is required of them in their responses.
Appendix B – Examples of tasks that promotes HOTS in students and assess their cognitive depth
The following are some examples of assessment tasks that help to both promote higher order thinking skills and assess their current cognitive depth:
Example 1:
Suggest a method, other than a vaccine, that scientists might develop to keep us safe from COVID. Then provide a short persuasive paragraph arguing why people should support this method.
This task can be given to students in any year. It is authentic and taps into the students’ creative thinking skills. Suggesting a new method other than the current ones available assumes students will formulate or create a new method. The persuasive text assumes that students will argue and provide an evaluative judgement of why their method should be accepted widely by the public.
To answer this the students will have to compile information together in ways that they have not yet been explosed to and combine content elements to propose new solutions. The answer to this question can be done collaboratively between the students and in conjunction with the teacher. This collaboration will spark higher order thinking because the students will acknowledge that the teacher does not know the answer and will work to devise one together.
Example 2:
The following is taken from NAPLAN year 3 Numeracy
This question presents the students with an unfamiliar scenario where they must extrapolate a mathematical pattern and apply it by making connections to more than one set of information. The students have to rotate the rectangle and make the connection of how the shapes within it will also vary and change their location.
Example 3:
The following is taken from NAPLAN year 5 Reading
Students are required to make connections between the meanings presented and the text. They also need to infer the meaning of each of the answer choices according to their comprehension of the text to be capable of providing a prediction of which answer best resembles the phrase in the question.
Anderson, P. (2002). Assessment and development of executive function (EF) during childhood. Child neuropsychology, 8(2), 71-82.
Anderson, L. W., Krathwohl, D. R. (Eds.). (2001).A taxonomy for learning, teaching and assessing: A revision of Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives: Complete edition. New York, NY: Longman.
Baird, J. A., Andrich, D., Hopfenbeck, T. N., & Stobart, G. (2017). Assessment and learning: Fields apart?. Assessment in education: Principles, policy & practice, 24(3), 317-350.
Bloom, B.S. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives. Vol. 1: Cognitive domain. New York: McKay, 20 (24), p.1.
Brookhart, S.M. (2010). How to assess higher-order thinking skills in your classroom. ASCD.
Care, E., Kim, H., Vista, A., & Anderson, K. (2018). Education system alignment for 21st century Skills: Focus on assessment. Center for Universal Education at The Brookings Institution.
Collins, R. (2014). Skills for the 21st century: teaching higher-order thinking. Curriculum & leadership journal, 12(14).
Cuban, L. (1984). Policy and research dilemmas in the teaching of reasoning: Unplanned designs. Review of Educational Research, 54(4), 655-681.
FitzPatrick, B., & Schulz, H. (2015). Do curriculum outcomes and assessment activities in science encourage higher order thinking?.Canadian Journal of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education, 15(2), 136-154.
Hoogland, K., & Tout, D. (2018).Computer-based assessment of mathematics into the twenty-first century: pressures and tensions. ZDM, 50(4), 675-686.
King, M. B., Schroeder, J., & Chawszczewski, D. (2001). Authentic assessment and student performance in inclusive schools. Research Institute on Secondary Education Reform (RISER) for Youth with disabilities brief. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED467479
Krathwohl, D.R., 2002. A revision of Bloom’s taxonomy: An overview. Theory into practice, 41(4), pp.212-218.
Lewis, A. and Smith, D., 1993. Defining higher order thinking. Theory into practice, 32(3), pp.131-137.
McMillan, J. H. (2001). Secondary teachers’ classroom assessment and grading practices. Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice, 20(1), 20-32.
McMillan, J. H., Myran, S., & Workman, D. (2002). Elementary teachers’ classroom assessment and grading practices. The Journal of Educational Research, 95(4), 203-213.
Retna, K. S., & Ng, P. T. (2016). The application of learning organization to enhance learning in Singapore schools.Management in Education, 30(1), 10-18.
Tognolini, J., & Stanley, G. (2007). Standards-based assessment: a tool and means to the development of human capital and capacity building in education.Australian Journal of Education, 51(2), 129-145.
Webb, N.L., 1997. Determining alignment of expectations and assessments in mathematics and science education. Nise Brief, 1(2), p.n2.
Prof Jim Tognolini
Professor Jim Tognolini is Director of The Centre for Educational Measurement and Assessment (CEMA) which is situated within the University of Sydney School of Education and Social Work. The work of the Centre is focused on the broad areas of teaching, research, consulting and professional learning for teachers.
The Centre is currently providing consultancy support to a number of schools. These projects include developing a methodology for measuring creativity; measuring 21st Century Skills; developing school-wide practice in formative assessment. We have a number of experts in the field: most notably, Professor Jim Tognolini, who in addition to conducting research offers practical and school-focused support.
Lisa Edwards
Lisa Edwards is a school leader passionate about the potential of public education to change lives.
With over 20 years of experience with the NSW Department of Education, working in schools in Sydney’s south and southwest, Lisa is an English teacher by training, and at heart. Her leadership journey has included the roles of Head Teacher Wellbeing, Head Teacher English, and Deputy Principal. She has developed resources and presented on assessment, pedagogy and programming, working in collaboration with the Department’s secondary curriculum team, and has published and presented for the NSW English Teachers’ Association. Lisa received an Australian Council for Educational Leaders award and a Premier’s Award for Public Service for her work leading improvement in literacy and HSC achievement, and currently presents for the NSW Teachers’ Federation’s Centre for Professional Learning on leading lifting achievement and quality assessment practice.
Lisa is a strong advocate for public education and educational equity, dedicated to supporting teachers in public schools to maximise learning outcomes and, therefore, opportunities for our students.
Rayanne Shakra
Rayanne Shakra is a NESA sponsored scholarship doctoral student at the Centre for Educational Measurement and Assessment CEMA) and a sessional academic at The University of Sydney.
Jowen Hillyer and Rosemary Henzell give some practical advice on how to teach Reading to Write and Module C the Craft of Writing of HSC English Advanced and Standard syllabuses . . .
When we first encountered Module C there was a bit of confusion and in some cases trepidation. We found that reactions went a few ways:
Hooray I get to work on the intricacies of refining writing with my kids!
Oh great, a whole MODULE on writing with my kids (who barely pick up a pen)
So, we annotate and look mainly at language techniques, right?
If it’s not a close study then what is it?
Really the answer lay somewhere in between and was often context dependant. Due to Covid blocking our initial Centre for Professional Learning (CPL) conference plans, we had a whole year to actually apply what we presented. Despite our very different contexts, we decided to trial a uniform approach in both our schools to see if it would be effective.
From there we presented some approaches that worked.
Ultimately the philosophy behind both Read to Write and Craft of Writing did not change between courses or context:
Stay still, dive deep
READ TO WRITE
Some early approaches to this module, which worked brilliantly in many contexts, did not work for us. Many teachers created exciting units with a focus area and worked with texts centred on that concept- such as ‘Dystopian texts’ or ‘voices of protest’. While this helped us to tie things together in our minds it did not always work for students. Sometimes students saw the texts and the concept before they understood the module and their focus was diverted. Ultimately the module is not about a concept but about: incremental skill building, testing those skills and then expanding on them.
It was better to strip it back to the pure tools of writing where form is the focus. Asking students to consider the purpose of form was one of the most powerful things we uncovered.
In Read to Write we introduce students to “the writer’s toolbox/toolkit”- Vocabulary & grammar, elements of style, elements of composition and the often neglected one- fine tuning and refining.
The last tool was very important because, although it appears in our syllabus documents, the temptation for students to say ‘one and done’ is great. This module offers a chance at a retraining of PROCESS.
We devised a few steps to keep us on track too:
Read
Discuss
Zoom in
Create
The secret to success was to not skip any steps. It is so tempting last period Friday with a recalcitrant group to not bother discussing and just annotate and write silently but we tried that too and it led to incomplete writing and running out of things to say. Skipping steps means skipping process and that is what this module is training students for – the process and particulars of writing. It is called Read to Write so that the focus is on the students wide reading- a springboard into having something to say.
Kicking off reading to write
To begin the unit, we would start with letters to themselves on their last day of year 12- it acts as goal setting, introduces you to them and allows you to have a good idea of where they are at with discursive writing
Then we follow the process. An example might be Roald Dahl’s Lamb to the Slaughter:
We read aloud, this helps students to hear the craft of the text and to understand performative aspects of text (as well as simply enjoying being read to)
Discuss – this is not random ‘around the room with someone holding court’ It must be a guided discussion. Using the 4Cs routine was our chosen thinking organiser – often in group work .
Zoom in on the text using different lenses go over it once for vocabulary and grammar, then for elements of style, then elements of composition
Create Now that they understand how the text works and how they think and feel about it, they create a text which springboards from it- it could be an alternate version, a different context or even just an element of style or composition which was important in creating meaning in that text.
Table 1. The 4Cs Routine (Harvard Graduate School of Education, Project Zero)
Our reflections
Students enjoyed it more- there is safety in structure. It gave us an opportunity to purposefully choose texts to dive into and model excellent examples of discursive and persuasive texts. Students reported seeing the practicality behind English, reading long form fiction for the first time in years and most importantly about why we read and write.
CRAFT OF WRITING – THE EVOLUTION FROM READ TO WRITE
In Read to Write students engage with other’s writing to build their own.
In Craft of Writing students focus on their own authorship.
In Read to Write they are building a bicycle with an instruction manual (complete with scaffolded training wheels sometimes).
In Craft of Writing, they ride the bike.
In Read to Write we filled the toolkit.
In Craft of Writing, we build things- not well at first sometimes but practice is key with little bits of writing regularly.
In Module C the texts, on the prescriptions list, do not contribute to the pattern of study so it is a good opportunity to expose students to textual forms they are not as strong in or need development in. Not only does it assist with their crafting, but it helps strengthen the Paper 1 Section 1 muscle too.
Alongside the texts that teachers choose, students should be encouraged to read widely and in the 30 mandated hours for this course there can still be lots of other modelled texts to explore, alongside the prescribed ones selected.
Regardless of the course (Advanced or Standard), most Module C texts are hybrids.
The process doesn’t change much from Read to Write in the way we approach texts. This is not a close study and extreme annotation is not the aim of the game.
The steps are:
Read & think- what emotions/idea does it raise, why did the author write this?
Zoom in- with a layers routine (think of the text like a dish on MasterChef- look at the whole story, break it apart and look at the elements, look how it fits together so we understand the whole, evaluate).
Springboard from layers- look at FORM, DYNAMICS, THEMES/IDEAS
Create
Reflect- This is a structured activity. – we are not defending our work but making direct connections between our own writing and the techniques chosen from the texts we have read. You are composer and critic in Module C.
Table 2. Layers routine1 (Harvard Graduate School of Education, Project Zero)
Table 2. Layers routine 2 (Harvard Graduate School of Education, Project Zero)
Ultimately, both Read to Write, and The Craft of Writing are about skill development through creative exploration. Students and teachers will find in these modules a space to explore great writing from all genres, times and places. Most importantly it is a space to work with students as they discover the power and versatility of language.
Jowen Hillyer is currently Head Teacher of English, HSIE and languages at Aurora College, the Department of Education’s first selective virtual school for rural and remote students (7-10) and remote students in Stage 6.
Jowen has been a teacher, head teacher and teacher educator for 26 years, with experience in both rural and disadvantaged public schools, as well as 3 years as an Associate Lecturer at The University of Sydney.
In her current role Jowen leads a large, diverse faculty situated all over the state in new approaches, innovation, and student engagement. Her research interests are centred on project-based learning, boy’s writing in the middle years and mentoring programs for beginning English teachers.
Jowen has also contributed to the Journal of Professional Learning and recently has had a peer reviewed article published on post pandemic teaching in the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy.
Rosemary Henzell
Rosemary Henzell is an English and Drama Teacher at Willoughby Girls High School. Rosemary has a keen interest in project-based learning ranging from individual creative writing projects to building a whole-grade website exploring the modern relevance of Shakespeare.
As a senior member of her school’s Professional Learning Team, she is helping lead the school-wide implementation of Costa’s Habits of Mind, and Project Zero’s Cultures of Thinking Project.
Rosemary has also contributed to the Journal of Professional Learning and the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy.
Waine Donovan and Kerry Boyenga give teachers an insight into the journey they took to create the Dhurga Djamanj (We all talk Dhurga) Language Program in NSW public schools. They inspire us with the story of how their dictionary, a wonderful and extremely valuable resource for anyone who wishes to learn the traditional language of the Dhurga speaking people of Yuin Country, was written . . .
The Dhurga Dictionary and Learner’s Grammar (Ellis, P et al., 2020) was borne from the belief of the authors’ grandmother, Ursula Connell, and mother, Patricia Ellis Sr, that education is the key to everything. So much so, that seven of the children in their immediate family are employed in education in one form or another. They strongly believed that if you have an education, you become a confident, strong contributor to society.
Up until the year 2000 at Broulee Public School, German was taught as a Language Other Than English (LOTE). German was taught to the students during their classroom teacher’s RFF (Release from Face to Face). This meant that the classroom teacher could not consolidate the language that was taught during the following week.
Eventually the teacher moved away leaving the school unable to provide LOTE (Languages Other Than English).
Kerry Boyenga, an Indigenous teacher employed at the school, proposed to the then Principal, Mr Jeff Ward, that they teach a Community Language Other Than English (CLOTE). That language being Dhurga. Over the next 2 years, discussions took place about the amount of language we had and, if indeed, there was enough to teach it.
At the same time teachers from Vincentia High School wanted to do a similar project. Since Vincentia is on the cusp between Dharawal and Dhurga, they decided to teach Dhurga because there was more information about it than there was for Dharawal. Gary Worthy (brother-in-law to the authors of the dictionary) had several discussions with Kerry. Over that period of time, funding avenues were also sought by both schools. It was then decided that the two schools would work together as partner schools and the process began.
Dhurga is still taught as a one-hundred-hour course at Vincentia High School to this day.
In 2003, staff from Broulee Public School joined Vincentia High School to research and develop a Community Language Program to teach the Dhurga Aboriginal language that was traditionally used, and is still being used, by Aboriginal communities of the South Coast including the Walbandja people of Batemans Bay, Mogo and Broulee, the Murramarang people from Ulladulla and the Brindja yuin people of Maurya.
A number of linguists supported the research, including Luise Hercus, who originally recorded Aboriginal people speaking the Dhurga language from the South Coast during the late 50s and early 60s. Her research was integral in the formation of the Dhurga Djamanj (We all talk Dhurga) Language Program at Broulee Public School. These recordings are held at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) in Canberra. Broulee Public School and Vincentia High School language groups attended a two-day workshop at AIATSIS, coordinated by linguist Jackie Troy.
Ms. Jutta Besold was employed, by the joint schools, through grants received from the Department of Education and Training and The Board of Studies (now NSW Standards Authority – NESA). Jutta was instrumental in the research and reclamation of the language. Her thesis Aboriginal Languages of the South East Coast was instrumental in the production of the Dhurga Dictionary and Learners Grammar. (Ellis, P et al., 2020). She visited the South Australian Museum with community consent, to search for evidence of the Dhurga language. Jutta’s involvement was pivotal in presenting and clarifying the sound system and orthography of the Dhurga Language.
In 2004, Pip Dundas and Susan Poetsch, from the Board of Studies, supported the program and, in 2005, Dr Jennifer Monroe, another linguist joined the team. Jennifer’s role was to assist the schools with programming the language into the Human Society in Its Environment (HSIE) curriculum and putting it onto the Board of Studies Website as an example for other schools to follow. It is still on the NSW Education Standards Authority’s (NESA – the current iteration of the Board of Studies) website to this day.
A number of formal and informal meetings were held with Broulee Public School, Aboriginal Student Support and Parent Awareness Program (ASSPA), Cobowra Local Aboriginal Land Council, Djuwin Women’s Lore Council and local Elders. From these meetings two golden rules were established: It was decided that the Dhurga language would only be initially taught to Aboriginal People, at a TAFE level, to ensure our people got their language back and were the ones to be employed to teach it. The decision was also made that words would not be made up to fit with the times, for example words for computer, televisions, cars etc. This has been done in other language reclamations. Those decisions were made to ensure the language was kept pure and the English versions of those words would be included in conjunction with Dhurga. As is done in other languages around the world.
In 2005, at Broulee Public School, the Dhurga Djamanj Language Program commenced, delivered by Indigenous teachers Kerry Boyenga and Waine Donovan, strongly supported by Jutta Besold and Jeff Ward. The program was designed to teach basic Aboriginal language to all students from Kindergarten to Year 6 as well as the classroom teachers.
Each Thursday, Waine taught seven of the classes ranging from Kindergarten to Year 6. Each Friday, Kerry taught the remaining seven classes ranging from Year 1 to Year 4. The program was delivered within the context of the team-teaching model, with every class having a 30-minute lesson each week, this was then consolidated during the week by the classroom teacher.
On Thursdays and Fridays, Waine and Kerry spent the afternoon sessions developing resources for the delivery of the program. Since all of the students and teachers were beginning language learners, the same resources were developed fourteen times. Each student was given a Dhurga Workbook to put their work in, which followed them throughout the time that Dhurga was taught at the school. This gave them a resource to take home to continue using Dhurga beyond school.
Broulee Public School formed a partnership with Cobowra Local Aboriginal Land Council in Moruya, to develop resources and to provide transport for Elders and other community members to observe weekly lessons at the school. Elders often became emotional, displaying their pride and excitement in seeing their language being taught in the school. Their participation validated that the program was being implemented correctly.
The Cobowra Local Aboriginal Land Council members voted to support the use of two Dhurga phrases found by Jutta Besold at the South Australian Museum, as the chorus of the song Eurobodalla, written by local songwriter and musician Jeff Aschmann, about the Eurobodalla waterways. He wanted to include Dhurga words in the song. He was thrilled when presented with the two phrases in Dhurga. Both phrases refer to bringing fish to the camp and the children eating fish at the camp. The Year 3 and Year 4 students from Broulee Public School were recorded singing the chorus for the song.
The Broulee Public School Language Group travelled to Dubbo, Canberra, and Sydney to participate in workshops and present at linkup conferences that included other language groups from all over NSW. Kerry and Waine were regularly invited to schools and community groups along the South Coast to present the Dhurga Djamanj Aboriginal Language Program and facilitate workshops. Since then, numerous schools and groups are now running their own language programs based on this model.
The Dhurga Djamanj Aboriginal Language Program was nominated by Broulee Public School staff and was successful in receiving a School Program Award in Excellence from the Eurobodalla Learning Community.
Kerry and Waine presented the Dhurga Djamanj Aboriginal Language program to the NSW Aboriginal Education Consultative Group (AECG) State meeting in 2006 and received the AECG’s endorsement. The program was also presented to, and endorsed by, the Djuwin Women’s Lore Council.
In 2008, Kerry and Waine presented the Dhurga Djamanj Aboriginal Language Program at the World Indigenous Peoples Conference in Melbourne. The program has received several prestigious awards.
In 2008, the first Certificate One in Aboriginal Languages was delivered at the Moruya Campus of TAFE Illawarra and was called Dhurga Buradja which translates to Dhurga Tomorrow. This course was delivered by Kerry and Waine, strongly supported by Jutta Besold. Eighteen students enrolled with a 100% retention rate throughout the course. During that course, Kerry and Waine delivered the Dhurga Language to elders from their family and the local community. It was a great privilege to do that because traditionally elders from community were the teachers. Since this delivery the Dhurga Aboriginal Languages course has been delivered to communities in Moruya, Mogo, Nowra, Narooma, Jervis Bay, Braidwood and Ulladulla by Kerry Boyenga and Patricia Ellis respectively.
A Certificate Two in Aboriginal Languages is currently being developed.
Patricia Ellis completed her Masters in Aboriginal Languages course through the University of Sydney, which became the impetus for the production of the Dhurga Dictionary and Learner’s Grammar. She worked tirelessly with Kerry and Waine, other family members and linguists from ANU, to produce the dictionary that is available today.
The authors of the Dhurga Dictionary and Learner’s Grammar believe that it is the most valuable gift that they could give to their family and community.
Open All
Ellis, P., Boyenga, K., & Donovan, W. (2020). The Dhurga dictionary and learner’s grammar. Aboriginal Studies Press.
Besold, J. (2012). Language recovery of the New South Wales South Coast Aboriginal languages. The Australian National University. https://doi.org/10.25911/5D78D7B2E457D
The dictionary is available online here and in bookstores.
Waine Donovan
Waine Donovan is currently the NSW Teachers Federation Organiser based in Queanbeyan. He is a proud Brindja Yuin man from the South Coast of New South Wales.
Waine worked for ten years at Mogo Public School as an Aboriginal Teachers Aid (ATA) later changed to Aboriginal Education Assistant (AEA). Whilst at Mogo Public School, he fulfilled the role as representative for ATAs/AEAs with the PSA.
Prior to becoming an Organiser, he taught at Bodalla Public School and Broulee Public School on the South Coast for seventeen years. During the last nine years of his time teaching in schools, he was a member of the NSW Teachers Federation Executive.
Waine and his sister Kerry Boyenga both taught the Dhurga Language to all students and teachers at Broulee Public School over four and a half years, as well as Certificate 1 in Aboriginal Languages at Moruya TAFE twice, to local Indigenous community members.
Waine held the position of Federation Representative in both schools that he taught in and was also a Federation Councillor for over ten years and an Annual Conference delegate during that time.
Kerry Boyenga
Kerry Boyenga has been working in education for over thirty-five years. She studied at the Australian Catholic University and gained an Association Diploma in Aboriginal Education, a Bachelor of Teaching, and a Graduate Diploma in Adult Education. She has been a teacher at several schools in her local area for over twenty-three years and is now teaching the local Indigenous language, Dhurga at Bodalla Public School and Moruya Public School, and at night classes to adults. Kerry has represented her community at local, regional, and state levels of the NSW Aboriginal Education Consultative Group (AECG) for over thirty years. Kerry describes her role as teacher of Indigenous langage in local schools as her perfect job.
Joanne Rossbridge & Kathy Rushton share a framework for improved extended response writing…
Introduction
Teacher knowledge about language and how it works is critical for not only developing dialogue around texts but can make explicit for students the strategies used by effective writers across subject areas. This requires understanding of the grammatical features of the common genres students commonly are asked to write in the secondary school.
This article looks at the extended response to support teachers to analyse student writing and examine both the language and literacy demands related to writing extended responses in secondary settings. The following outlines the approach and principles that are drawn upon in both a one-day and three-day CPL course entitled Conversations about Text in the Secondary School and Developing Dialogue about Text in the Secondary Schools respectively.
Making appropriate choices – Field, Tenor and Mode Framework for writing
Texts can be discussed using a framework developed by Michael Halliday (Halliday & Hasan, 1985) in which the three critical aspects of the register of the text, field, tenor and mode are utilised to analyse and understand how successful texts are constructed to reflect their context and purpose:
Field refers to the subject matter of the text and this of course will differ across and within subjects;
Tenor is the relationship established between the reader and writer;
Mode addresses the nature of the text itself and the role language plays within it.
When viewed together, all students can be supported to understand the range of language choices which need to be made to successfully realise the purpose of a text for the audience it is addressing.
For further explanation see Halliday & Hasan, 1985 and Rossbridge & Rushton, 2015.
This helps students to realise that careful reading and note-taking may address field but to meet the challenges of engaging an audience and establishing a clear purpose for their text a range of other language choices need to be made.
The following framework provides teachers with a time-saving and focussed way to provide the support that developing writers may need at all levels of text from word, clause, group and sentence to paragraph and text levels (Derewianka, 2011).
Choices in context: a case study from the ancients
The context for writing in secondary schools is provided by the subject areas. Students may be involved in field building through the focus on teaching content around a topic such as an example of The Ancient World in History. In addition to acquiring the field knowledge we also need to be explicit about who the audience may be that they are writing for as well as the relationship between the writer and reader.
The following examples show how the field of the writing may be similar but the tenor and mode differ. This can be seen by the more personal connection with the audience in Text 1 while Text 2 seems to convey more authority on the topic. In addition, the mode of the texts may differ in that the writing may be more spoken or written-like as evident in Text 2, which sounds more written-like or academic in the way the ideas have been packaged and organised.
Text 1
Have you ever wondered what life was like for women in Ancient Sparta? They had lots of power and could think for themselves more than some of the other women in other places in Greece.
Text 2
Spartan women had a reputation for strength and independence. They enjoyed greater freedom and power than women in other city-states in Ancient Greece.
This framework for considering and talking about language choices in context can provide the basis of a strong scaffold (Hammond, 2001; Vygotsky, 1986) for adolescent writers.
Writing pedagogy
The genre based pedagogy known as the Teaching Learning Cycle was originally developed by Sydney School genre theorists… [it] has proved a powerful resource for scaffolding literacy development, with numerous published units of work documenting and/or guiding its implementation. (Humphrey & Macnaught, 2011, p. 99)
The Teaching Learning Cycle includes building the field, text deconstruction, joint construction and independent construction. Our focus is on supporting teachers to undertake the more challenging text deconstruction and joint construction.
We consider that the critical dialogue about text occurs during text deconstruction and joint construction (Rossbridge & Rushton, 2014). In many classrooms, texts are modelled but the rich language about language, metalanguage, can only be developed when the teacher and students talk together about the language features of the texts they are reading or writing (Lemke, 1989).
For this reason, one of the courses involves the conversations about text that teachers can develop to support writing development (Rossbridge & Rushton, 2010 & 2011). By using the field, tenor, mode framework for writing, not just the field (content) but also the tenor (relationship) and mode (nature) can easily be the focus of these conversations.
What a conversation might lead to
The following transcript provides an example of the conversations which might occur between a teacher and students. In this example from a whole class joint construction the notion of perspective in History texts is explored by considering the development of the noun group to name participants in events.
Student: Dan would say he’s like a visitor because he wouldn’t say he is trespassing or doing anything wrong. He’d say he’s visiting and helping out his country.
Student: You probably know that their settling there as a new country.
Teacher: So are you saying he’s a settler?
Student: Yeah. Like saying he would know he’s not really going to be going anywhere.
Teacher: So, is he a visitor or a settler?
Students: Settler.
Teacher: What have we built? Dan, who was a young British settler. What have we just built?
Student: Noun group.
Teacher: Yes, we’ve built a whole noun group with an adjectival clause.
(See Rossbridge & Rushton, 2014 & 2015)
Key principles for developing a critical dialogue about text
The key principles for developing the critical dialogue about text are, in our view, language, the learner and the support or scaffold provided for the student. The teacher needs to be very clear about the language needed to write target texts as well as having a clear view of the purpose of talk in the classroom.
The dialogue can be supported by questioning, Think Alouds (when the teacher verbalises their thinking as they read for meaning to model the thinking skills required for comprehension) and other strategies which provide opportunities for talk and substantive communication.
The learner needs to be both engaged and supported to undertake risks (Hammond, 2001) if they are to master the challenges of writing an extended response in an academic context. The support needed is not just modelling but the ability to hand over the tasks to the students (Gibbons, 2002 & 2006) at the right point, the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) (Hammond, 2001; Vygotsky, 1986). This may require both micro and macro scaffolding when programming and teaching.
One of the most important understandings about language development is that it can be viewed on a continuum from spoken-like to written-like language, the mode continuum. At one end of the continuum is oral language which differs from written language mainly in its density. Written language is lexically dense in the sense that more meaning is carried in fewer words (Halliday, 1985). The challenge teachers face is to support students to develop the lexically dense texts which are valued in our education system.Written language is lexically dense in the sense that more meaning is carried in fewer words
Nominalisation and theme
Using the framework of field, tenor and mode two very useful tools for writing can be drawn upon. These are the features of nominalisation and theme which can be identified in texts. Students can be taught how to use them to make their texts more effective. Nominalisation is a resource that allows writers to change verbs, conjunctions and adjectives into nouns.
Making language more powerful
We should reduce mining near the coastline.
The reduction of mining near the coastlinewill result in greater preservation of coastal ecosystems.
In the example the verb group in the first clause has been turned into a noun group (nominalised) and placed at the front of the second clause in theme position. By doing this the main focus of the writing can be put up front, the writing sounds more written-like and by repackaging the first clause into a noun group the writer is able to add additional information.
Such conversation and dialogue around text enables students to take on knowledge about language in the context of texts and apply it to their own writing.
The use of these features relates to the genre of the target text (Macken & Slade, 1993; Martin & White, 2005; Martin & Rose, 2008). While unfamiliarity may initially challenge students, when teachers become adept at deconstructing both modelled and student texts even very young students are able to grasp the concepts and begin to utilise them in their writing.
Our CPL courses demonstrate a range of strategies for developing extended responses which include the effective use of these features and support students to master them.
References:
Derewianka, B. (2011) A new grammar companion for primary teachers. Newtown: PETAA
Gibbons, P. (2006) Bridging discourses in the ESL classroom: Students, teachers and researchers (pp.59-70). London: Continuum
Gibbons, P. (2002) Scaffolding language, scaffolding learning: Teaching second language learners in the mainstream classroom (pp.77-101). Portsmouth: Heinemann:
Halliday, M.A.K.(1985) Spoken and written language (pp.61-67). Victoria: Deakin University Press
Halliday, M.A.K. & Hasan, R. (1976) Cohesion in English (pp.238-245). London: Longman
Halliday, M.A.K. & Hasan, R. (1985) Language, context, and text: Aspects of language in a social-semiotic perspective (pp.238-245). Victoria: Deakin University Press
Hammond, J. (Ed.) (2001) What is scaffolding? Scaffolding teaching and learning in language and literacy education (pp.1-14). Newtown:PETAA
Humphrey S., Droga, L. & Feez, S. (2012) Grammar and meaning: New Edition. Newtown: PETAA
Humphrey, S. & Macnaught S. (2011) Revisiting joint construction in the tertiary context. Australian Journal of Language and Literacy. 34(1), 98-116
Lemke, J. (1989) Making text talk: Theory into practice. Columbus, Ohio: College of Education Ohio State University
Macken, M. & Slade, D. (1993) Assessment: A foundation for effective learning in the school context. In Cope. B & Kalantzis, M. (1993) The powers of literacy: A genre approach to teaching writing. (pp.203-222) Bristol, P.A.: The Falmer Press
Martin, J. & Rose, D. (2008) Genre relations: Mapping culture London: Equinox Publishing
Martin, J. & White, R. (2005) The language of evaluation: Appraisal in English. (pp.26-38) Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
Rossbridge, J. & Rushton, K. (2015) Put it in writing. Newtown: PETAA
Rossbridge, J. & Rushton, K. (2010) Conversations about text: Teaching grammar with literary texts. Newtown: PETAA
Rossbridge, J. & Rushton, K. (2011) Conversations about text: Teaching grammar with factual texts. Newtown: PETAA
Vygotsky, L. (1986) Thought and Language. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press pp.xi-xliii
About the authors
Dr Kathy Rushton is interested in the development of literacy, especially in socio-economically disadvantaged communities with students learning English as an additional language or dialect. She has worked as a literacy consultant, EAL/D and classroom teacher with the DOE (NSW), and in a range of other educational institutions. Kathy is a lecturer in the Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Sydney.
Joanne Rossbridge is an independent English, language, literacy and EAL/D consultant working in both primary and secondary schools across Sydney and Australia. She has worked as a classroom and ESL teacher, literacy consultant and lecturer in universities. Much of her experience has involved working with students with language backgrounds other than English. Joanne is particularly interested in student and teacher talk and how talk about language can assist in the development of language and literacy skills.
Martin Ommundsen finds that incorporating movement activities into Mathematics can contribute to positive impacts on learning and class dynamics…
If asked ‘What is good for the body, mind and spirit?’ a typical Mathematics teacher might answer ‘Maths!’
This author agrees and presents empirical research that targeted and regular inclusion of movement-based Mathematics pedagogy has beneficial learning outcomes for all students, including those who might typically be thought to be high achieving and coping well in more traditional, seated, classroom settings. The article sets out background research and context and goes on to detail findings for learning and social impacts, drawing on student voice and primary research, before presenting a series of examples for effective activities connected to the NSW syllabuses.
Background
The positive connection between physical activity and cognition has been understood since Sibley and Etnier’s meta-study from 2003. They concluded that the academic level of achievement in a range of different subjects, including mathematics, does not decrease when students spend increased time on physical activities in these subjects (Sibley & Etnier, 2003).
Five years later, Tomporowski and colleagues, in a further meta-study, stated that positive changes in children’s mental functions caused by physical education lessons are primarily seen in the executive functions. In other words, increased movement in physical education will be followed by increased self-control, short-term memory and cognitive flexibility (Tomporowski et al., 2008).
However, movement during school time can be many other things than those in dedicated subjects, such as NSW’s sport or Personal Development, Health and Physical Education (PDHPE). In my home country of Denmark, since 2014, it has been a requirement that students should do some kind of movement averaging 45 minutes per day. The aim of the new law was to bring a lot of movement activities or games into subjects like Mathematics, Danish, English and so on, building on an understanding that physical activity contributes positively to the learning output of students.
The findings below come from empirical research, including my own, which included students interviews with my Class 9 (aged around 15 years old), who frequently received Mathematics instruction involving planned moving games and activities. Their answers are used to understand how these ‘games’ are experienced from a student’s perspective, and in this article, their responses will be referred to as “Year 9 Student”.
Impact on learning
There is evidence that physical activity improves student learning. Danish studies report that in Mathematics, students in the youngest school classes can increase their mathematical skills by 35 per cent compared to students who do not have physical activities incorporated into their Mathematics lessons. An Australian study of NSW students at the older end of the age scale advocated that implementation of activities like high intensity interval training programs increased students’ fitness and improved their well-being with potential subsequent benefits to academic performance. (Lubens et al., 2019). However, according to brain researcher Jesper Lundbye-Jensen (Sederberg et al., 2017), for targeted impact on learning outcomes, it is necessary that the physical activities are connected to the subject itself and that they are not “just” a run around. In Mathematics, several cognitive dimensions can be improved, for example, problem solving, logical thinking, spatial perception, short-term memory and awareness.
Student experience and brain function
So, what about the Year 9 class? How did they experience these movement games and did they find the strategies helpful in their lessons? One of the students gives the following description:
You are really using your brain a lot while sitting and working, and you can get quite tired. It’s nice with a break halfway through, but you still stay in Mathematics. While moving you refresh what you’ve learned about prime numbers, square numbers or similar, and after that you are ready to work again.
Another student explains it like this:
It makes things more interesting. You get some oxygen to your brain. You don’t feel so tired. Some things you remember better this way, instead of writing them down.
There are several interesting key points to draw out from this. Firstly, the use of Mathematics when moving instead of sitting seem to freshen up the students. It is also important to remember that students are usually sitting down in all other subjects except for physical education, so moving activities can really bring a welcome change. Secondly, it apparently helped the students with the learning afterwards as well. Last but not least, it appears that certain concepts can be easier to remember, perhaps as the body embraces the knowledge in more than one way while moving. This last insight is also supported by other empirical research arguing that the brain develops when practising motor skills (Sederberg et al., 2017). Furthermore, the role of novelty is important here, as in an educational world where most learning is expected to occur whilst sitting at similar looking tables, in similar looking classrooms, the body and brain will more quickly remember the exact learning that happened when it was connected to distinct or novel movement activities in a different setting in the school yard or likewise.
Not only for disengaged
Some might think that movement activities are only or mainly for those students who struggle to sit in their seats doing usual work at tables. However, one of the Year 9 students explained how that was not correct.
Even though I would categorise myself as a student who is fully capable of sitting down for one hour and listening, I also find it good and welcome to do something where the academic work and physical activities are blended together.
From my own master thesis research, it was evident that movement activities are absolutely not only for students who are struggling with the normal classroom setting, but indeed for anyone in the classroom, regardless of academic level and gender. Interestingly, these findings have been very similar across very different countries, such as Denmark, Tanzania and Nepal (Ommundsen 2016). My own interpretation is that there could be a universal appreciation for such an incorporated model.
Careful selection is required
At this point, though, it is important to clarify that not all parts of the Mathematics syllabus can be met through such activities. In the first instance, it would obviously be too monotone and not very interesting. The Year 9 students identify certain areas where they find the physical activities fruitful. As example,
Repetition, very clearly! It could be something with questions and answers that are matching. For instance, equations, geometry or mental arithmetic tasks.
Repetition. Like calculation rules, prime numbers or square roots.
This suggests that it is important not to implement new, difficult, or complex Mathematics topics in the movement activity itself. Rather, aim to repeat some previously introduced concepts or areas and then allow the students to practice on that through the movement strategies. As a Mathematics teacher, that is a welcome opportunity to review some of those things you might not otherwise find the time for. Also, it can become easier to relate future discussions to something concrete, as for instance, when using prime numbers again, you can refer back to the physical experiences and say “remember, those were the ones we practiced when we did that activity outside…”.
Impact on social life
In addition to the positive impacts on learning outlined above, there can also be advantages for the social life and dynamics of the class as a group. Year 9 student responses on this specific matter illustrate a range of different, important points:
That’s a really important part (the social life) and one of the most important reasons to do it. When you’re together in groups, everybody is moving, and everyone is passionate. That creates a better teamwork. You build much more on your teamwork when there is some movement in the teaching.
You are talking and communicating more with people. You easily come around to each other. Maybe you come to chat to someone you usually aren’t talking to.
Maybe you get some fun memories with each other, you get a little closer with each other, because you have something you can look back on.
Other students interviewed over the years have expressed similar views; that movement activities provide a special mood in the classroom (or outdoor space) when these activities are going on. It would seem unnecessary here to argue further about why a good mood in the classroom is a positive factor.
Whereas in the normal classroom setting students are not usually meant to talk to very many other people, besides maybe their table partner and the teacher, the students in the movement activities pass a lot of other students simply because they are moving around to lots of different places. In my master’s thesis, I found that the students actually did not get disturbed by their classmates in these activities, something that I noticed tended to happen more frequently in the quiet (supposedly) classroom settings. The most likely reason why is that they are so engaged themselves by the activity (Ommundsen, 2016).
There are obviously different ways of creating fun memories together, but the theory of science of body phenomenology argues that the body plays a distinctly important role. Merleau-Ponty (1994) argues that bodies have a will for some kind of freedom. Steen Nepper Larsen further explains how the motorical system operates prior to consciousness so that We can, before we know[i]. It has been my experience that movement activities in and of themselves often help create those important fun memories that build the class up together.
Movement activities linked to the NSW syllabuses
Thus, having argued that there are several benefits, some specific examples of activities to try are included below. All of the following are activities I have had good success with and each is connected to some relevant syllabus outcomes. The suggestions below are designed to give an indication of starting points and it is anticipated that Mathematics teachers could find many ways to modify and extend these to suit their students.
Tall, broad, thin, low
Method
Most likely to be done inside the classroom.
The teacher writes the following on the board:
76-100: tall
51-75: broad
26-50: thin
1-25: low
The students are given (the teacher can write on the board) different questions like: 3 x 8 – 2. Students can use lots of different combined calculation methods and indicate their answer by manipulating their body to reflect the category for the range the answer falls into. In this example, the result is 22, and so all students should make themselves as low to the ground as possible.
Divide the students into two or three groups and let them compete against each other, or make a class challenge to notice how fast the whole class can do ten questions.
Raise the difficulty by using percentage. For example, “How much is 25% of 240?” In this case, using the same range above, the answer is 60, and so students make themselves as broad as possible.
NSW syllabus outcomes
MA3-6NA: selects and applies appropriate strategies for multiplication and division, and applies the order of operations to calculations involving more than one operation
MA4-5NA: operates with fractions, decimals and percentages
True or false
Method
Most likely to be done outside or in a big hall.
The students are divided into two teams. On each team the members stand in a line next to each other, all facing the opponent team. There should be approximately two steps between the two lines, each student facing a student from the opposite team.
A “goal line” is marked about 10 m behind each line of the students.
One of teams is the true team, the other is the false team.
If the teacher says something which is true, the true team turns around and runs back to their own goal line for safety while the false team tries to catch them. If they teacher says something which is false, the false team has to turn around and run back to their own goal line for safety, and the true team has to try to catch them. So, if the teacher says, “A triangle consists of 190 degrees”, the false team runs back to their goal line and the true team tries to catch them.
If someone is caught before the goal line, this student will go on the other team when the students are lining up to the next question. When doing this activity the first time, it can appear a bit confusing, but the students will soon learn it.
For making it easier, the teacher can make a break before saying the last part of a sentence, for example “5 x 5 x 2 equals… [pause]… 50”. Then students are given a better chance to calculate.
Play for a set period of time, until one side has caught 10 players from the other team, or until one team is fully captured.
NSW syllabus outcomes
MA3-6NA: describes and compares length and distances using everyday language
MA3-7NA: compares, orders and calculate with fractions, decimals and percentages
The whole class stand in a big circle, each student standing at a spot (marked by a cone/textbook/chair), with one student in the centre of the circle.
Every participant is given one of four different numbers (for example 6, 7, 8, 9).
The teacher calls out a larger number which is a product of one or more of the four selected numbers (for example 21, 24, 72). The students who have the relevant number(s) run from their place to another vacated place around the circle (several will always be free at the same time as there are only four numbers allocated).
Importantly, the student in the centre also has to find a free spot each time, and so every time there will be one student who does not find a spot, and this person will be the new person in the middle for the next round.
Change the numbers after 5-10 minutes and remember, even though it is a very fun game it is supposed to be a ‘brain break’ and so not consume the whole lesson.
Note. This game works well for other subjects such as English or languages, with four words allocated and teachers calling out categories, so please consider sharing with your colleagues.
NSW syllabus outcomes
MA2-6NA: uses mental and informal written strategies for multiplications and division
MA3-6NA: selects and applies appropriate strategies for multiplication and division, and applies the order of operations to calculations involving more than one operation
Over to you!
The benefits of physical activity are well understood in health fields, and finding ways to incorporate this knowledge into the school experience is a challenge which, if achieved, could have significant advantages. The strategies outlined in this article suggest that thoughtful integration of subject-specific movement activities into teaching programs can bring improvement in mathematical understanding as well as potential gains in student wellbeing and class cohesion for the full range of students in the middle years.
Merleau-Ponty, M. (1994). Kroppens fænomenologi [Phenomenology of perception]. Det lille Forlag.
Ommundsen, M. S. (2016). Når det sociale mønster i skolen bevæger sig [unpublished Master’s thesis]. Aarhus Universitet.
Sederberg, M., Kortbek, K., & Bahrenscheer, A. (2017). Bevægelse, sundhed og trivsel: I skole og fritid. Hans Reitzels Forlag.
Sibley, B. A., & Etnier, J. L. (2003). The relationship between physical activity and cognition in children: A meta-analysis. Pediatric Exercise Science, 15(3), 243-256.
Tomporowski, P. D., Davis, C. L., Miller, P. H., & Naglieri, J. A. (2008). Exercise and children’s intelligence, cognition, and academic achievement. Educational Psychology Review, 20(2), 111-131.
Martin Ommundsen is a Mathematics, History, Social Science and Physical Education teacher educated in Denmark. He now lives in Australia and has experience teaching students from Year 1 to Year 9 in a range of cultures and countries including Tanzania and Nepal. Martin completed a Masters Degree at Aarhus University in 2016 and his research interests and final thesis include the sociological aspects of movement activities in the classroom.
[i] This observation was made by Professor Steen Nepper Larsen during a lecture at Aarhus University, Denmark, in 2015.
Elizabeth Scott argues for managing behaviour by engaging students in their learning…
Often, as teachers, we focus on behaviour strategies to improve student engagement and achievement. What would it look like if we flipped this relationship around? This article suggests ten strategies that have been successful for improving student behaviour in low-socio-economic settings, along with a list of online references which could be considered for use by teachers across all contexts and stages of their career.
Establish clear roles
In the classroom it should be clear that students are there for learning and teachers are there for teaching. Develop explicit routines to facilitate smooth transitions, structures and behaviour expectations. Promote socially acceptable behaviours such as co-operation, self-control and being productively engaged in learning tasks. Set high expectations that are consistent and appropriate. Explicitly teach students social skills, and how to express ideas and opinions respectfully during dialogue. Ensure that there are enough resources and that students can access them in a socially acceptable manner.
Be proactive
Make informed choices about the use of structure, routine, instruction and discipline in order to facilitate engagement and learning. Acknowledge that there are usually explanations when students experience difficulties (for example, social or learning needs) and look for solutions, not excuses, for lack of success. Actively promote and model a can-do, no-excuses attitude towards learning. Be aware of what is occurring in all parts of the classroom by moving around the classroom while students are working and intervene early and quickly to deal with disengagement and any inappropriate behaviour choices. Consistently expect high standards of behaviour for all and explain that all students have the right to learn and teachers have the right to establish optimal learning environments.
Know your content
Be familiar with syllabus documents and support materials to be confident, credible and engaging. If you know the content you are teaching well, you will be better positioned to plan explicit, systematic units of work and lessons.
Be prepared
Plan ahead and make good use of your release from face-to-face teaching time. Be familiar with readily available, relevant and engaging resources such as the school library and stage-appropriate websites, such as ABC Education. Make sure you have enough equipment in the classroom (including scissors, glue sticks and so on) so that students can get on with their learning tasks without delay. Check that technology is working and fit for the intended purpose, and have a back-up plan as well as a plan for those students who are “fast finishers”; this might be an independent, engaging task to go on with that does not require too much time spent on explanation.
What is the hook?
Think about how you are going to generate interest and engagement in each and every lesson. It could be by using a quality picture book, a video clip, playing a game or telling a story. Discussions could begin with making connections to previous learning, prior experiences or student interests, as well as establishing relevance as to how students will use this learning in real life.
Facilitate meaningful dialogue
Ask thoughtful questions that require higher cognitive demands, for example, open ended or inferential, and provide sufficient wait time (usually at least three seconds) to improve the number and quality of responses from a range of students in your class. Plan for how you will provide regular opportunities and time for students to engage in real discussion, rather than question and response, and share their thoughts and opinions using strategies such as “think, pair, share” (teacher asks a question, allows think time, then students pair up and discuss possible answers before sharing with the class) and “opinion lines” (students stand along a line to demonstrate the relative degree of agreement or disagreement they have with a statement). Generally, engagement lifts as students become more accountable, active learners, and this also promotes positive peer relationships and opportunities to hear from someone other than the teacher.
Provide feedback
Good feedback helps students take control of their learning and should focus on improving tasks, improving processes or improving self-regulation. Feedback needs to be clear, positive and timely, and is most effective if it is part the learning dialogue and offers clear suggestions for improvement that are aligned with expectations and learning intentions. If it is timely, for example after a first attempt or a first draft and before task completion, students can receive and act upon the feedback and be more engaged and in control in their learning.
Monitor engagement levels
Notice disengagement and respond before undesirable behaviour choices escalate. You might need to restate instructions, cut an activity short, introduce a quick “brain break”, revise previous learning or modify an activity (for instance, bring the group together to make a task more teacher guided rather than independent for a period).
Get up and move
Include different classroom spaces in your lessons rather than sitting quietly for long periods of time. A long period of time in primary might be 15 minutes for K-2 and 20 to 30 minutes for Years 3-6. Be creative with ways to include movement and student interaction into lessons. For example, seat students near the whiteboard for brainstorming, rotate students through tasks set up at workstations around the room, split into pairs or small groups and utilise different spaces within the classroom for discussion, move to a designated corner to show an opinion (for example strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly disagree) or along a line to indicate their view on an issue as part of meaningful dialogue.
Plan for and implement explicit vocabulary instruction
Vocabulary knowledge will deepen students’ engagement in reading, writing, speaking and listening in all subject areas. Explicitly teach the academic words that are used commonly across curriculum areas but are less likely to be used in everyday talk (such as scrutinise, survey). Students also need to be explicitly taught the more subject specific words that are more limited to very specific curriculum areas (for example, photosynthesis in Science). It is important that expectations for vocabulary remain high for all students, including in low socio-economic contexts, as higher levels of engagement in learning correspond with deeper understanding of the meaning of words.
Final message
Recent research has shown that students learn more when they are engaged in schooling with teachers who establish high expectations for behaviour and learning. This positive engagement in learning needs to begin during the early years of schooling and is particularly important for students from low-socio-economic status (SES) backgrounds in order to be as successful at learning as their peers from high-SES backgrounds. The suggested strategies outlined above are by no means an exhaustive list of ways to improve student engagement but are offered as food for thought for teachers looking for ways to foster deep engagement in learning and improve classroom behaviour.
Nottingham, J., Nottingham, J., & Renton, M. (2017). Challenging learning through dialogue: Strategies to engage your students and develop their language of learning. Corwin.
Nottingham, J., & Nottingham, J. (2017). Challenging learning through feedback: How to get the type, tone and quality of feedback right every time. Corwin.
Elizabeth Scott is an Assistant Principal at Barrack Heights Public School. She has spent the majority of her career serving disadvantaged schools in south-western Sydney and the Illawarra. She has a long history of involvement in programs for low SES schools at the school, district, regional and state level. She is a highly experienced teacher and school executive, who has taught in both early childhood and primary settings. Currently, she teaches and supervises Stage 3, and works closely with other school executive designing and implementing engaging programs to improve student comprehension (with a focus on understanding vocabulary), and embedding Aboriginal Education into classes K-6.
