Authentic learning in senior secondary music pedagogy: an examination of teaching practice in high-achieving school music programmes

Authentic learning approaches are designed to immerse students in contexts that promote real-life applications of knowledge, and provide meaningful learning experiences beyond the abstract instruction of the classroom. In a grounded theory study of music teaching practice in high-achieving schools, 50 teachers from 23 schools across New South Wales (NSW), Australia, were asked to describe how they taught their senior secondary students and the musical environment they curated within their school. Through examination of the interview data, authentic learning exposed itself as uniquely situated in classroom music teaching of high-achieving music programmes for senior secondary students in NSW. This is shown through the use of thorough inquiry-based and student-centred learning tasks like video journals, the use of professional resources and expertise and collaborative learning in authentic contexts, in and outside of the classroom.

How do Principals of High Performing Schools Achieve Sustained Improvement Results?

Education systems across the globe have enacted national testing regimes to monitor and report student achievement progress as an outcome of teaching performance. This paper reports on an investigation of strategies that Principals of high achieving schools use to achieve school results, based on NAPLAN reports (the National Assessment Program in Australia) and interpreted via the Alignment, Capability and Engagement (ACE) model of organisational readiness. Our findings identified specific Principal behaviours, actions and attitudes as necessary for effective school-wide improvement programs, as well as the existence of commonly shared strategies and approaches that help to explain why these particular Principals have been successful in their pursuit of school improvement. These include a shared vision for improvement, use of data-driven decision making, and building positive, “transparent” relationships to encourage teacher buy-in. Importantly, these findings identified “organisational readiness”, a foundational principle of the ACE model, as a fundamental requisite to effective school improvement.

An investigation of grade level and gender-based science achievement gaps in schools with different science achievement levels

Science achievement gap between fifth, sixth, and eighth grades and boys and girls in low and high performing schools were under investigation in the present study. In accordance with this purpose, three schools were selected to represent high performing schools and two schools were selected to represent low achieving schools for their performance on a nationwide exam. A total of 612 fifth, 816 sixth, and 604 eighth grade students in high achieving schools and 231 fifth, 364 sixth, and 328 eighth grade students in low achieving schools constituted the study sample. Students’ end of semester science grades were used as their science achievement measure. Results showed that students’ science achievement decreased from 5th grade to upper grades both in low and high achieving schools. In addition, they showed girls’ science achievement was higher than boys in several grade levels both in low and high achieving schools. Finally, results showed that science achievement gap between genders is more evident in high achieving schools.