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1.Where should the emphasis be on improving productivity, teacher quality or student background? 2.Does the focus on education for economic competitiveness detract from broader aims of education such as citizenship and social-emotional goals such as resilience? Across systems, teacher quality impacts both student performance and well-being. Teacher practice, or consistently strong teacher practice creates the opportunity to address disadvantage and productivity. Great teachers create a culture of engagement, agency and access. Ultimately this impacts both economic and social factors which benefit society. A system targeting only one of these outcomes is deficient. A student focused approach is impeded through focus upon testing over learning. Teachers who focus upon understanding, various perspectives, empathy, creativity and entrepreneurship, provide the conditions which serve both economic and social factors, benefiting society. A focus upon testing, "back to basics", and competition based upon a valued set of facts, produce outstanding test takers, ill-prepared for future economic and social realities. The workforce requires adaptation, transdisciplinary knowledge, social skills and creative application of knowledge to solve problems.

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1.        Rather than productivity, the emphasis should be on improving the quality of human existence and that of the planet through education… access to quality education for all.  Improving teacher quality is one part of the bigger picture.  Teachers exist within a system that is not geared to address the learning needs of all children.  Improving teacher quality is of no benefit if students are not able to access teachers or if the conditions that teachers work under are so unacceptable that they are unable to sustain quality teaching practice.  Improving teacher quality is only one part of the puzzle.  Addressing student background again requires big picture thinking.  How do we create equity in education in a society riddled with inequality?  At one end we have children playing with the latest technology and at the other we have children faced with basic survival needs. The differences across Australia are huge and yet essentially our school systems work on a principle of one size fits all.  I would argue we need to question the very structure of our education system and the purpose it fulfils.

2.       In a society where economic competitiveness is the focus of education there will always be losers.  Capitalism and competition rely on those that have and those that don’t; the winners and the losers.   If rather we consider education as providing the tools that are needed to lead fulfilling and purposeful lives and to address the complex issues we are faced with in our world, then social-emotional learning and social and personal capabilities are critical.

3.       Increasingly many of the schools I work in place student wellbeing at the core of their work.  They operate on the belief that effective teaching and learning take place when basic needs are addressed.  In the school support agency I work in there are five key lenses through which we work – culturally and linguistically responsive, relationships based, trauma-informed, strengths based and community connected.

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1. I echo the sentiment of others here in that I do not believe each of these elements to be mutually exclusive.  I do not believe that there is a right or wrong side to this question.  Just as we take into account the individuality of the student in the classroom, this question must also be addressed individually for each individual school, perhaps even for each individual class.
@Aly Yes, I agree with you, the Finish system would be amazing, however, their teacher training (dare I say teacher quality) is at a much higher base level than ours.  Every teacher is required to have a masters (or higher) qualification.  Due to this extra training their profession is elevated within their society and the culture surrounding education is substantially different to a large sector of the rest of the world (Australia included)
2. The focus on education for economic competitiveness shouldn't detract from broader aims, however, I think it would be naïve to think that it doesn't.  Citizenship and social-emotional goals, such as resilience, should e lorded in the business world (and yes, in some places it is) but the sheer cut-throat nature of the real business world sometimes means that these are pushed aside to close the deal or get the job done.
3.  On the surface it may appear that we don't place a lot of emphasis on SES.  We are also a private school charging moderate fees.  However, a lot of scholarships and bursaries are offered on a yearly basis.  A lot of emphasis is also put into helping others in need, raising funds or providing time an support to organisations which need it.  We are very strong in demonstrating and practicing social and civic responsibility, and the students are reminded very often just how fortunate they are.

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1. I don't think that productivity, teacher quality and student background need to be mutually exclusive.  I do feel teacher quality can certainly influence on the productivity and on the student.  While a passionate and dedicated teacher can't change a student's background, they can certainly influence them and 'level the playing field' by offering support and differentiation.  While it is utopian, I do believe that more equal student backgrounds would be beneficial.  Regarding productivity, I would argue that passion and purpose will always lead to higher productivity than just focussing on productivity for the sake of it.

2. While I have never seen myself wanting to teach to 'make a child a more economically competitive citizen', I do strive to impact and educate students in their social-emotional learning.  By educating them in the importance of social-awareness and their decision making (2 of CASELs SEL benchmarks)...I can certainly influence their desire to be a more concerned and empathetic citizen who is willing to play their part in creating a more equitable society...and in a roundabout way, that could help to make our society more economically competitive.

3.  Our school doesnt place much emphasis on SES context.  We are a private school charging moderate fees, so to a certain degree this probably influences our family make-up.  That being said, we certainly offer a lot of support for students with learning difficulties and limited English-speaking backgrounds.

@Aly.  I agree with the workload statement.  Im getting sick of seeing all the 'look how awesome education is in Finland' videos on Facebook...but then we don't do anything about it!  It seems something we talk about, even strive for...but seem to be moving even further away from.

I feel there is many times more pressure on teachers today than 10 years ago.

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@Brianna. That is interesting that in NT there are amny unfilled positions. In NSW it has been quite the opposite for over 24 years. They keep pushing out the prac students who find it hard to get placements because staff won't take them on. Universities have resorted to sending students in pairs because they can't find prac placements for them. The United States also has a huge teacher shortage it was interested to be involved in interview panels while I was over there for teacher positions and they would be lucky to get 3 candidates for a position. That was in the city. In schools that were further out they have many unfilled positions and are now offering more money for teachers to take these positions. I think with what you are talking about if there are programs and units of work that are taught across schools that teachers don't have to write there would be greater consistency across schools and would also assist casual teachers that are not in permanent positions for whatever reason. This could only benefit all students. Having consistent programs that schools in the same areas use also benefits those students who are transient and move to different  schools as they are being taught the same content. This is why the United States originally introduced giving schools in local districts programs to teach from to cater for these students.

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@Brianna. That is interesting that in NT there are amny unfilled positions. In NSW it has been quite the opposite for over 24 years. They keep pushing out the prac students who find it hard to get placements because staff won't take them on. Universities have resorted to sending students in pairs because they can't find prac placements for them. The United States also has a huge teacher shortage it was interested to be involved in interview panels while I was over there for teacher positions and they would be lucky to get 3 candidates for a position. That was in the city. In schools that were further out they have many unfilled positions and are now offering more money for teachers to take these positions. I think with what you are talking about if there are programs and units of work that are taught across schools that teachers don't have to write there would be greater consistency across schools and would also assist casual teachers that are not in permanent positions for whatever reason. This could only benefit all students. Having consistent programs that schools in the same areas use also benefits those students who are transient and move to different  schools as they are being taught the same content. This is why the United States originally introduced giving schools in local districts programs to teach from to cater for these students.

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Danielle.

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@Aly. I agree totally. Having worked in the US where I was given 5 hours release compared to now being back here and only getting two it is really frustrating. No wonder our exchange counterparts couldn't wait to get back to their scools in the US. Not only did we get given programs so there was no time wasted on program writing but the students left school on Wednesdays at 1.00 and the teachers participated in Professional Development. There was no staying behind after school because they believe that this is family time and I saw the benefits first hand in the students work as teachers are able to focus on their teaching. There was plenty of room for teachers to deliver their lesson how they wanted but the time wasted here on programming and paper work went into deliver high quality explicit teaching. Here we are expected to do it all and in our own time and our own expense. Teachers are not at all being supported with the resources or the time to meet the expectations and extra work load they are being faced with. Why haven't any of these reforms taken into consideration the impact on teacher and student well being? 

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@Aly. I agree totally. Having worked in the US where I was given 5 hours release compared to now being back here and only getting two it is really frustrating. No wonder our exchange counterparts couldn't wait to get back to their scools in the US. Not only did we get given programs so there was no time wasted on program writing but the students left school on Wednesdays at 1.00 and the teachers participated in Professional Development. There was no staying behind after school because they believe that this is family time and I saw the benefits first hand in the students work as teachers are able to focus on their teaching. There was plenty of room for teachers to deliver their lesson how they wanted but the time wasted here on programming and paper work went into deliver high quality explicit teaching. Here we are expected to do it all and in our own time and our own expense. Teachers are not at all being supported with the resources or the time to meet the expectations and extra work load they are being faced with. Why haven't any of these reforms taken into consideration the impact on teacher and student well being? 

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Danielle

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Congratulations on your insightful observations. There has got to be a balance here somewhere!

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Congratulations on your insightful observations. There has got to be a balance here somewhere!

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@Danielle Shaw. Really interested in the US model you talked about. Imagine being given a unit of work! (As long as it was not prescriptive and not an enforced unit leading towards standardized testing). Imagine how much more time we could spend improving the units, and preparing engaging lessons, rather than constantly writing the work. I am an English teacher, so our texts change fairly regularly and we are forever chasing our tails programming. It is so hard to just keep up with the work for students there is very little time spent on refining the units and lesson design. 

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@Danielle Shaw. Really interested in the US model you talked about. Imagine being given a unit of work! (As long as it was not prescriptive and not an enforced unit leading towards standardized testing). Imagine how much more time we could spend improving the units, and preparing engaging lessons, rather than constantly writing the work. I am an English teacher, so our texts change fairly regularly and we are forever chasing our tails programming. It is so hard to just keep up with the work for students there is very little time spent on refining the units and lesson design. 

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@Aly Hill. I also agree completely with Aly about workload. I think it ties in with this point as well. We are very overloaded in so many ways;  programming and administrative tasks are just two examples of this. Imagine if we just had to teach one less class, how much more time and effort we could put into our other classes.
Also, the Finnish model is an excellent one and one we should aspire to. Though, one issue we may need to consider in Australia is that I am not sure that Finland has such a tail of disadvantage, and so when students start school at a later age and don't go to school for as long, they actually have more support at home, and a more positive attitude towards education. I guess my comment is that we need to combat socio-economic disadvantage more effectively in Australia alongside an educational model more like Finland (public education/masters degrees etc).

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It is interesting that there are a number of comments regarding teacher quality, and people pushing for permanent positions. In the NT, we are in quite a different position in that there are over 75 unfilled teaching positions currently both in urban and remote schools, and relief teachers generally work 5 days a week and are relief teachers as a lifestyle decisions rather than not being able to receive a contract. This then produces another issue for schools, is a warm body better than no body?

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The emphasis should be on all - improving teacher quality, productivity and addressing student background. In Victoria at the moment there is a clear focus on these elements in order to improve student outcomes. There have been policies implemented recently with a great push in supporting ‘out of home care’ students as well as the revised ‘high impact teaching strategies’ from the ‘FISO’ (Framework for Improving Student Outcomes).

There is a focus on SES within most of the schools I have worked in. The Student Resource Package (school funding) reflects consideration to SES and that funding is meant to be targeted towards addressing local concerns in this area. While there is the opportunity to allocate those funds elsewhere, in my experience, school leaders understand the great need for supporting these students and not only in that targeted funding channelled into supporting them, any other available funding is as well. Beyond funding, there are great efforts within schools to address the inequality. From breakfast clubs, cool clubs, fundraising to subsidise excursion/camps/incursions, accessing Target vouchers and extra support funding through SFYS through to the many modifications and adaptations teachers make within their day-to-day teaching on a daily basis – SES context factors are addressed to support and improve engagement and performance.

There is always room for improvement I say that in terms of improving teacher quality, productivity and how we support all of our students and families. I believe we would be negligent to say we have done enough.

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I am ready for a debate! If you want to improve ‘teacher quality’ than we need to adopt the attitude ‘less is more’. Stop giving teachers paper work and added strain. Let’s try to keep excellent teachers in the profession and support them to avoid burn out or early retirement. I feel disheartened when teachers put all their time, energy, passion and love into their work and others just coast by, and are allowed to do this. According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, an average Finnish teacher teaches 600 hours annually, as opposed to an average U.S. teacher with an average of 1,080 hours per year, which equates to six or more lessons daily. Finland schools have much shorter school days (approximately five hours) and no longer use standardised tests. Rather than Australia re-inventing the wheel or spending hours in research finding a solution for our issues (which theoretically might sound nice on paper), why don’t we simply adopt the Finnish approach? There students are achieving much higher than those in Australia and isn’t this where we want our students to be? In regards to my institution placing emphasis on addressing SES context factors, these are based on individual circumstances. Most single families are on FEE-Help and are given second hand uniforms. For student engagement and performance concerns, these are addressed by the class teacher. We offer support and extension programmes for all year levels but are limited in numbers due to resources.

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I am ready for a debate! If you want to improve ‘teacher quality’ than we need to adopt the attitude ‘less is more’. Stop giving teachers paper work and added strain. Let’s try to keep excellent teachers in the profession and support them to avoid burn out or early retirement. I feel disheartened when teachers put all their time, energy, passion and love into their work and others just coast by, and are allowed to do this. According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, an average Finnish teacher teaches 600 hours annually, as opposed to an average U.S. teacher with an average of 1,080 hours per year, which equates to six or more lessons daily. Finland schools have much shorter school days (approximately five hours) and no longer use standardised tests. Rather than Australia re-inventing the wheel or spending hours in research finding a solution for our issues (which theoretically might sound nice on paper), why don’t we simply adopt the Finnish approach? There students are achieving much higher than those in Australia and isn’t this where we want our students to be? In regards to my institution placing emphasis on addressing SES context factors, these are based on individual circumstances. Most single families are on FEE-Help and are given second hand uniforms. For student engagement and performance concerns, these are addressed by the class teacher. We offer support and extension programmes for all year levels but are limited in numbers due to resources.

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Aly

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One would hope that all three would be a priority for all governments in Australia. Striving for a more equitable society in terms of the growing economic inequality should be a priority. 15 years ago 1 in 8 lived in poverty now the figure is 1 in 6. A more equitable distribution of income through better taxation policies could help reverse the trend then the problem is reduced. Economic competitiveness is all part of the global economic model of consumption. Consume more and the economy is stronger. If we really are about education then we should understand that it is this very model that has the world in an increasingly dire state environmentally. Economic competition and the global model of sustained economic growth is the problem. My service runs a range of Professional developments for schools around addressing SES context factors. I spent an entire year developing with a working group a one day PD on the impacts of poverty for education.

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Danielle Shaw
After just spending a year in the United States where things are vastly different I have come to the realisation that the following things are very important. Improving productivity in education is extremely important but we newed to be considerate of the fact that teachers are being swamped by the workload in its present form. In the United States they are given programs to teach from. Obviously within that there is room for individuality but teachers do not have to waste time writing programs. They can simply teach from the program they are given which allows them to spend more time on quality teaching - not paperwork! Teacher quality is extremely important.  The issues facing teaching today are there are many casual teachers in the system who are trying to get a permanent job. They often put in a lot of effort when they know jobs are coming up. Once they get a permanent job they don't always put nearly half as much effort into their job either. This is where I believe schools should be able to employ teachers who have similar visions and values as the school. This gives them greater autonomy to employ quality staff unlike in NSW where teachers come off a list and are randomly placed in a school which may not suit their values. This also leads to low staff moral which plays an important role in teacher quality also. Student background is very important. Schools in districts in the United States teach from the same program however schools can differ vastly with their students. Parental support in the classroom teachers recieve from students from low socio economic backgrounds is also far less. I think the focus on globalisation has certainly changed the game and the focus. Students are now more competitive and less aware of other students needs. This is why Wellbeing and Minfullness programs have now beome so essential to help students deal with the pressures placed upon them and to help address some of those issues.

In terms of SES context the needs of students are addressed on an individual basis. Initially this is dealt with by the teacher and supports are put in place if required. I thinks this is largely dependent on the school.

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In regards to point 1, improvements  are needed equally for both sides to increase productivity. Far to often excess time and energy is spent on preparing lessons and not getting to know the student and how they learn.  Is this a disservice to the student? not because there is a lack of quality in the teaching, rather the need to redirected time and energy to generate quality teaching. Knowing the students background and forming new/different teaching methods need to be supported by the institution and the teacher (not the teacher alone)

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In regards to point 1, improvements  are needed equally for both sides to increase productivity. Far to often excess time and energy is spent on preparing lessons and not getting to know the student and how they learn.  Is this a disservice to the student? not because there is a lack of quality in the teaching, rather the need to redirected time and energy to generate quality teaching. Knowing the students background and forming new/different teaching methods need to be supported by the institution and the teacher (not the teacher alone)

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SSL

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I found this section quite provocative. I always become defensive at anything ‘improving teacher’ as it has that subtle undertone that we are not doing our jobs properly. Really looking forward to seeing what discussion emerges here.

1.       On the argument of teacher quality, I am torn. On the one hand, I see excellent teachers doing amazing work every day. Teachers who put in huge amounts of their own time marking, preparing units and lessons etc. I would say that these teachers are incredibly capable of improving productivity, given the time and the right resources, and that there is absolutely no issues with teacher quality.

On the other hand, I see teachers who have the same qualifications, who do not put in the same effort or are very negative about their work, or struggle significantly with behavior management due to either their attitude or personality.

In terms of teacher quality, I almost think that what makes a good teacher is not really something that can be measured against a standard. How do you measure passion, effort and personality?

So, I guess what I am saying is that I don’t really see what can be done to improve teacher quality. There are some amazing teachers out there, and there is something else letting them down (I don’t know what - syllabus restrictions or overload/workload??)

Student background on the other hand, is something that we face in class rooms every day. A student who shows up to class without having eaten properly, without the supplies they need and without a positive attitude towards education, is immediately behind the student  they are sitting next to with all of these things. To me this seems like something that could be more meaningfully addressed.

2.       I think that this idea came up in the Bottery reading at the very start about why we need a global perspective. I wrote down the question ‘Where is the line between local meaning and global understandings?’ I think, like all curriculum design, it is a question of balance. I don’t think these things need to detract from one another, in fact educational outcomes like resilience are necessary for economic competitiveness.

3.       On a surface level, I would say no, that the school does not emphasize SES; that it would be down to the individual teacher as to how they encourage and address engagement and performance. The teacher though, is supported by the school through the availability of supplies, discipline protocols, extra teacher support etc. I suppose that supports for engagement and performance are so built into the system, it is difficult to analyze their origin.