Academic literature on the topic 'Primary Victoria Curricula'

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the food system professionals’ opinions of a new senior secondary school food literacy curriculum named Victorian Certificate of Education Food Studies in Victoria, Australia. Design/methodology/approach A purposive sample of 34 food system professionals from different sub-sectors within the Australian food system was interviewed individually in late 2015 and early 2016. Interviews were analysed using the template analysis technique. Findings Most participants appreciated the extensive coverage of food literacy aspects in this new curriculum. However, many suggested amendments to the curriculum including pay less emphasis on food history-related topics and pay more focus on primary food production, nutrition awareness and promotion, and food security, food sovereignty, social justice, and food politics. Practical implications A well-structured, comprehensive secondary school food literacy curriculum could play a crucial role in providing food literacy education for adolescents. This will help them to establish healthy food patterns and become responsible food citizens. The findings of this study can be used to modify the new curriculum to make it a more comprehensive, logical, and feasible curriculum. Moreover, these findings could be used to inform the design of new secondary school food literacy curricula in Australia and other countries. Originality/value The exploration of perspectives of professionals from a broad range of food- and nutrition-related areas about school food literacy education makes this study unique. This study highlights the importance of food professionals’ opinions in secondary school food-related curricula development.

AbstractConcern exists over the extent to which environmental education is being addressed in Australian primary school curricula. This is especially so since the release of the nationally developed Statements and Profiles in eight key areas of learning because no documents specifically relating to environmental education were produced. This paper reports the results of a study in which a survey based on outcomes relevant to environmental education, as drawn from curriculum documents in use in the Australian states of New South Wales and Victoria, was completed by a sample of primary teachers from both states. Results indicated that, in most schools, outcomes relevant to environmental education were being given significant attention. However, the extent to which different outcomes were addressed varied widely, as did the extent to which individual schools addressed outcomes over the years kindergarten/preparatory to year 6 (K/P-6). Implications for teacher education drawn from the findings are discussed.

PurposePrimary schools provide continuous, intensive contact with large numbers of children starting from a young age, thus providing an appropriate setting for the promotion of healthy eating through food and nutrition education (FNE). This qualitative study explores the views of Australian primary school parents about FNE in primary schools.Design/methodology/approachIn total, 19 parents of primary school children from Victoria participated in semi-structured interviews. Audio recordings were transcribed and underwent thematic analysis using Nvivo. A total of three themes emerged: FNE topics currently taught in primary schools, essential food skills and knowledge for primary school children and the importance of FNE.FindingsMost parents thought that FNE is as important as the core subjects of primary school. Parental support for FNE, which is delivered over a prolonged period, and expanded by hands-on content such as cooking and gardening classes was evident. Parents viewed these classes as likely to improve children's food-related knowledge and healthy eating behaviours. Parents expressed appreciation for schools' emphasis on food sustainability and its alignment with school policies and practices. Parents were keen to see more sustainability included in the curriculum.Practical implicationsThese results may have implications for curriculum developers and schools, as the findings can assist the design of food and nutrition curricula for primary schools which can empower children as well as their families to make better food-related decisions.Originality/valueAustralian parents' views of FNE in primary schools have been under examined.

The area of severe intellectual disability has received little attention in Australian research. This Victorian study examined the issue of access to curricula in post primary school and special school placements for a group of students with severe intellectual disability. Results from the investigation indicated: that parents were generally dissatisfied with the lack of choice available regarding educational placements and the lack of opportunity for them to contribute in a supportive manner to their daughter's/son's schooling: that teachers in post primary schools reported an urgent need for special training or for specialised staff to assist them with curricular modification: and that the female students in this group experienced disadvantage in several curricular areas.

AbstractScience education in the Australian primary school curriculum is a relatively rare event. Several studies over the past twenty five years have all reported disappointingly low amounts of science being taught and the reluctance of primary school teachers to make science a priority in their teaching. Similar outcomes have been reported for environmental education. Even though primary aged children are very interested in science and the environment, primary school teachers often struggle to teach science/environmental education because they are not confident and competent in the content, lack curriculum resources and equipment, have inadequate time to prepare, and have difficulty finding a place for science/environmental education in what they perceive as an already overcrowded curriculum. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the experiences of primary schools involved in the Victorian Science in Schools Research Project which was concerned with improving science teaching and learning strategies but which also unexpectedly led to more environmental (“sustainability”) education occurring. The paper will also suggest a curriculum strategy for achieving more widespread acceptance and implementation of “sustainability education” through primary school science curricula.

Primary school languages education continues to be a challenging issue for all states in Australia. In Victoria, LOTE study is provided at the primary level to address the needs of linguistically diverse communities, as well as to provide an enriching learning experience for monolingual speakers of English. The challenge remains to ensure that programs that are run are effective, address the needs of the community and are embraced as a valuable and enriching component of the school curriculum. This study looks at the provision of LOTE in 2003 in Victorian primary schools and in particular, through an analysis of the geographical location of community groups and primary LOTE programs, how effectively community needs are being met. We also analyse the nature of LOTE programs through an examination of teachers’ qualifications, time allotment and program type. Factors identified by some schools as impinging on LOTE study at the primary level, such as literacy concerns and multilingual diversity, will also be examined.

Primary school languages education continues to be a challenging issue for all states in Australia. In Victoria, LOTE study is provided at the primary level to address the needs of linguistically diverse communities, as well as to provide an enriching learning experience for monolingual speakers of English. The challenge remains to ensure that programs that are run are effective, address the needs of the community and are embraced as a valuable and enriching component of the school curriculum. This study looks at the provision of LOTE in 2003 in Victorian primary schools and in particular, through an analysis of the geographical location of community groups and primary LOTE programs, how effectively community needs are being met. We also analyse the nature of LOTE programs through an examination of teachers’ qualifications, time allotment and program type. Factors identified by some schools as impinging on LOTE study at the primary level, such as literacy concerns and multilingual diversity, will also be examined.

Purpose The Victorian School of Languages began on the margins of the Victorian education system in 1935 as a “special experiment” supported by the Chief Inspector of Secondary Schools, J.A Seitz. The purpose of this paper is to present a historical analysis of the first 15 years of the “special experiment” and it reports on the school’s fragile beginnings. Design/methodology/approach The historical analysis draws on archival materials, oral sources and other primary documents from the first 15 years of the Saturday language classes, to explore its fragile role and status within the Victorian education system. Findings The Saturday language classes were experimental in nature and were initially intended to pilot niche subjects in the languages curriculum. Despite support from influential stakeholders, widespread interest and a promising response from teachers and students, the student enrolments dwindled, especially in the war years. As fate would have it, the two languages initially established (Japanese and Italian) faced a hostile war environment and only just survived. Questions about the continuing viability of the classes were raised, but they were championed by Seitz. Originality/value To date, this is one of few scholarly explorations of the origins of the Victorian School of Languages, a school which became a model for Australia’s other State Specialist Language Schools. This paper contributes to the literature about the VSL, a school that existed on the margins but played a pioneering role in the expansion of the language curriculum in Victoria.

During the 1970s and 1980s there has been a growing awareness of the environment. This has been particularly evident in the general community through:• passing of environmental legislation;• growth in status of environment groups;• media coverage of environmental issues.As a result the direction of formal education has been influenced. For example, through the Victorian State Conservation Strategy, the community has indicated the direction for tertiary institutions, where one of the objectives of this strategy is to:promote and strengthen inter-disciplinary environmental education programs in schools and tertiary institutions. (Victorian Government, 1987, p.89)Similarly, the Australian Government's Ecologically Sustainable Development process (ESD) has proposed the incorporation of ESD, in tertiary curricular (Ecologically Sustainable Development Steering Committee, 1992).Linke (1979) has described the development of environmental education curricula during the 1970s whereby consideration of aspects of the environment became more common. Most activity was noted to be in primary and secondary sectors, however, at tertiary level a range of subjects focussing on the environment were apparent, as were several courses which were specifically designed to provide training in environmental understanding.

This particular case study looks at the problem of curriculum and professional development in environmental education at a small semi rural primary school in south western Victoria. In this paper the ‘study’ refers to the case study research at Elliminyt Primary School and the ‘project’ refers to a wider OECD-CERI ENSI project which included many other case studies other than the one described here.

Music educators are continually striving to find a comprehensive curriculum to adequately cover developments made in music. It could be argued that, at present, Victorian music curriculum places more emphasis on the aesthetics of music education rather than the learning of music concepts. This researcher firmly believes that the concepts of music are the building blocks through which children become better musicians. Researchers, music educators and curriculum designers must understand the way in which concept knowledge develops in children, so that they can use this knowledge in order to create meaningful learning experiences. The aim of this study, therefore, is to find out whether the acquisition of concepts, particularly rhythm, pitch, harmony and melody can be directly related to development in children, specifically primary aged children in State Government schools in Victoria.

This thesis is about the teaching imagination. By this term I refer to three things. First, the teaching imagination is how teachers define and practice imagination in their classrooms. Second, it is the imagination that teachers themselves use as they teach. And thirdly, it is the imagination I am taught to identify and enact for doing social science research.
The thesis is based upon participant-observation research conducted in grade four (and some composite grade three/four) classrooms in primary schools in Melbourne, a city in the Australian state of Victoria. The research took me to five schools of different types: independent (or fee-paying); government (or state); Steiner (or Waldorf); special (for low IQ students); and Catholic. These five classrooms provide a range, not a sample: they suggest some ways of doing imagination. I do not claim a necessary link between school type and practices of imagination. In addition I conducted semi-structured interviews with each classroom’s teacher and asked that children do two tasks (to draw and to write about ‘a time you used your imagination’).
From this research I write a thesis in two sections. In the first I work to re-imagine certain concepts central to studies of education and imagination. These include curriculum, classrooms, and ways of theorizing and defining imagination. In this section I develop a key theoretical idea: that the most recent Victorian curriculum is, and social science should be, governed by what I call a logic of realization. Key to this idea is that knowers must always be understood as participants in, not only observers of, the world.
In the second section I write accounts of five case studies, each learning from a different classroom teacher about one way to understand and practice imagination. We meet imagination as creative transformation; imagination as thinking into other perspectives; imagination as representation; imagination as the ability to relate oneself to the people and materials one is surrounded by; and imagination as making connections and separations in thought. In each of these chapters I work to re-enact that imagination in my own writing. Using the concept of the ‘relational teacher’, one who flexibly responds to changing student needs and interests, I suggest that some of these imaginations are more suitable to a logic of realization than others.

This is a case study of the development of the Buddhist Education in Victorian Schools program in state primary schools. It is located alongside the theoretical and policy frameworks of Australian state schooling and a growing but disparate international movement that is applying meditative techniques and principles with roots in the Buddha- Dharma in secular and pluralist education. The meta-ethics of wisdom and compassion, it is argued, are the foundation for spiritual education, personal development and positively engaged citizenship in the Dharma. These are also and congruent with the intrinsic aims of education.

Schools of today are very much about preparing young people to function as productive members of society. Schools equip young people with the skills and knowledge needed to participate in the social, economic and cultural life of their local, national and global communities. Alongside a vocational role schools have another role. This role is to provide a health promoting setting within which students can develop the skills, knowledge and attitudes required to live healthy lives both in the short and long term. Using a case study, this thesis examines how a cross-disciplinary collaboration between teaching and social work can negotiate the global, national and local policy trends that require schools to focus on both vocational pathways and student wellbeing needs.

There is growing consensus about the importance of physical activity and regular engagement is known to have a number of health and developmental benefits. Accordingly, research across a variety of fields has argued for the importance of laying the foundations for lifelong physical activity engagement in the early years. The school plays a central role in this effort by impacting children’s initial relationships with physical culture. Within the school, PE is often the primary vehicle for the promotion of physical activity. However, the problems with PE and its failure to connect with all children has been widely reported. Concurrently, there has been a significant physical activity dropout rate in adolescence for girls, and some boys. Scholarly attempts to address these concerns have focused mainly on late primary or high school settings, specifically curriculum and pedagogy. To date, very little research has focused on the early (Year One/Two) years of PE, when many children are developing their initial physical subjectivities. Rather than a period which all children enter as a ‘blank slate’, early PE is defined by the differing levels of experience that children bring to class. How these differing levels of embodied experiences are valued mean the children are constantly engaging in a range of stratified interactions. The outcomes of these interactions can have a profound impact on how students engage in physical activity, both in PE and on the playground. To examine how children are embodying and developing their physical subjectivities in these two spaces, a six- month ethnographic project was conducted at a primary school in Victoria. This allowed for the examination of the experiences of a Year 1/2 cohort through the implementation a variety of ethnographic and child-centred methods. Drawing on a theoretical approach, combining Bourdieu (1998) and Collins (2004), this thesis shows how the outcomes of PE activities, impacted the types of activities that children chose to engage in on the playground. Additionally, the findings show how the children play a key role in reproducing the dominant elements of the field (including the ‘naturalized’ gender order inherent in sport/PE) and the hierarchies that contextualized each activity. This research offers an in-depth focus into the complex social processes, in the playground and PE, which continue to usher children along seemingly pre-determined physical paths. This thesis concludes with a call for a critical approach to early PE that incorporates the different experiences of the children to create 2 curricula, with a particular focus on teaching children to be reflective of the impact of their embodied experiences. This also incorporates changes to the playground as a continuation of the PE space.

This study identifies and articulates the interrelationships between six key components essential for authentic learning to maximise the student-centred learning opportunities in kitchen and garden-based learning projects. Interpretative case study methodology using multiple qualitative methods for data analysis were used to direct three layers of inquiry around kitchen and garden-based learning: the context, content and characteristics of kitchen and the garden-based learning, the student learning, and the teachers’ work. Review of the literature indicated significant gaps in understanding how teachers can foster children’s interest in nature, and plan for effective authentic learning experiences in the garden. Through analysis of the literature, together with the perspectives of the Grades 4, 5 and 6 children, and their teachers, key components for authentic, contextualised learning were identified. These included: a real-world context, the opportunity for working as professionals, within a collaborative learning community, work requiring higher-order thinking, ownership of learning and authentic integrated assessment. Teachers’ pedagogy and practices are often hidden but were nevertheless significant factors affecting student outcomes. Teachers made the learning experiences more meaningful by ensuring student reflection was embedded in learning tasks. Planning and providing arenas or “safe platforms” for discursive reflection was an essential step in transforming tacit understandings to explicit knowledge enabling children to connect their personal experiences with the experiences of others. From this discourse deeper understanding of ecoliteracy emerged with one cohort, and understandings about the intricacies of collaborative teamwork with another. The focus group discussions about common experiential learning experiences had wider implications for teaching; they were a key step in making the children’s tacit understandings explicit. Examination of the staff and students’ immersive experiences within a kitchen garden learning environment, led to the development of a model of learning that provides educators with a comprehensive approach to scaffold authentic learning opportunities.

The Classics were core to the curriculum and ethos of the intensely homosocial Victorian and Edwardian public schools. Yet ancient homosexuality and erotic pedagogy were problematic to the educational establishment, which expurgated classical texts with sexual content. This volume analyses the intimate nexus between the Classics, sex, and education primarily through the figure of the schoolmaster Philip Gillespie Bainbrigge (1890–1918), whose clandestine writings explore homoerotic desires and comment on classical education. It reprints Bainbrigge’s surviving works: Achilles in Scyros (a verse drama featuring a cross-dressing Achilles and a Chorus of lesbian schoolgirls) and a Latin dialogue between schoolboys (with a translation by Jennifer Ingleheart). Like other similarly educated men of his era, Bainbrigge used Latin as an intimate homoerotic language; after reading Bainbrigge’s dialogue, A. E. Housman went on to write a scholarly article in Latin about ancient sexuality, Praefanda. This volume, therefore, also examines the parallel of Housman’s Praefanda, its knowing Latin, and bold challenge to mainstream morality. Bainbrigge’s works show the queer potential of Classics. His underground writings owe more to a sexualized Rome than an idealized Greece, offering a provocation to the study of Classical Reception and the history of sexuality. Bainbrigge refuses to apologize for homoerotic desire, celebrates the pleasures of sex, and disrupts mainstream ideas about the Classics and the relationship between ancient and modern. As this volume demonstrates, Rome is central to Queer Classics: it provided a male elite with a liberating erotic language, and offers a variety of models for same-sex desire.

The Australian Catholic University (ACU National at www.acu.edu.au) is a public university funded by the Australian Government. There are six campuses across the country, located in Brisbane, Queensland; North Sydney, New South Wales; Strathfield, New South Wales; Canberra, Australian Capital Territory (ACT); Ballarat, Victoria; and Melbourne, Victoria. The university serves a total of approximately 27,000 students, including both full- and part-time students, and those enrolled in undergraduate and postgraduate studies. Through fostering and advancing knowledge in education, health, commerce, the humanities, science and technology, and the creative arts, ACU National seeks to make specific and targeted contributions to its local, national, and international communities. The university explicitly engages the social, ethical, and religious dimensions of the questions it faces in teaching, research, and service. In its endeavors, it is guided by a fundamental concern for social justice, equity, and inclusivity. The university is open to all, irrespective of religious belief or background. ACU National opened its doors in 1991 following the amalgamation of four Catholic tertiary institutions in eastern Australia. The institutions that merged to form the university had their origins in the mid-17th century when religious orders and institutes became involved in the preparation of teachers for Catholic schools and, later, nurses for Catholic hospitals. As a result of a series of amalgamations, relocations, transfers of responsibilities, and diocesan initiatives, more than twenty historical entities have contributed to the creation of ACU National. Today, ACU National operates within a rapidly changing educational and industrial context. Student numbers are increasing, areas of teaching and learning have changed and expanded, e-learning plays an important role, and there is greater emphasis on research. In its 2005–2009 Strategic Plan, the university commits to the adoption of quality teaching, an internationalized curriculum, as well as the cultivation of generic skills in students, to meet the challenges of the dynamic university and information environment (ACU National, 2008). The Graduate Diploma of Education (Secondary) Program at ACU Canberra Situated in Australia’s capital city, the Canberra campus is one of the smallest campuses of ACU National, where there are approximately 800 undergraduate and 200 postgraduate students studying to be primary or secondary school teachers through the School of Education (ACT). Other programs offered at this campus include nursing, theology, social work, arts, and religious education. A new model of pre-service secondary teacher education commenced with the introduction of the Graduate Diploma of Education (Secondary) program at this campus in 2005. It marked an innovative collaboration between the university and a cohort of experienced secondary school teachers in the ACT and its surrounding region. This partnership was forged to allow student teachers undertaking the program to be inducted into the teaching profession with the cooperation of leading practitioners from schools in and around the ACT. In the preparation of novices for the teaching profession, an enduring challenge is to create learning experiences capable of transforming practice, and to instill in the novices an array of professional skills, attributes, and competencies (Putnam & Borko, 2000). Another dimension of the beginning teacher experience is the need to bridge theory and practice, and to apply pedagogical content knowledge in real-life classroom practice. During the one-year Graduate Diploma program, the student teachers undertake two four-week block practicum placements, during which they have the opportunity to observe exemplary lessons, as well as to commence teaching. The goals of the practicum include improving participants’ access to innovative pedagogy and educational theory, helping them situate their own prior knowledge regarding pedagogy, and assisting them in reflecting on and evaluating their own practice. Each student teacher is paired with a more experienced teacher based at the school where he/she is placed, who serves as a supervisor and mentor. In 2007, a new dimension to the teaching practicum was added to facilitate online peer mentoring among the pre-service teachers at the Canberra campus of ACU National, and provide them with opportunities to reflect on teaching prior to entering full-time employment at a school. The creation of an online community to facilitate this mentorship and professional development process forms the context for the present case study. While on their practicum, students used social software in the form of collaborative web logging (blogging) and threaded voice discussion tools that were integrated into the university’s course management system (CMS), to share and reflect on their experiences, identify critical incidents, and invite comment on their responses and reactions from peers.