INTEGRATING COLLABORATIVE SKILLS IN 8TH GRADE ENGLISH TEACHING LESSON PLANS AT JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL

Collaboration is one of the 21st-century skills needed to survive in this era. The need in society to think and work together on issues of critical concern has increased, shifting the emphasis from individual efforts to group work, from independence to community. Integrating Collaborative skills in the educational field, particularly in assessment, has been broadly employed. However, lesson plans that incorporate collaborative skills are lacking. This study aims to explore the collaborative skill in English teaching lesson plan in junior high school in Indonesia. A content analysis approach is used in this study. The data was analyzed using a systematic content descriptive text methodology based on the ACER (Australian Council for Educational Research) Framework, which was used in this study as an instrument to analyze lesson plans to see if they were integrating or not. The expected result of the study is that Collaborative skills are found in lesson plans, indicators, and the learning process.

GEM Centre: Completion report for Phase 2 funding, 2017–2020

In 2014, the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) and the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) established a partnership under the Global Education Monitoring Centre. Since then, there have been two funding periods: Phase 1 from 2014–2017 and Phase 2 from 2017–2020. Phase 3 will cover 2020–2023. This report documents the completion of Phase 2 funding and describes the shared priorities of DFAT and ACER through the GEM Centre, followed by the objectives and key outcomes of the work program during this period. The outcomes and lessons learned, together with findings from the GEM Centre mid-term review (MTR) in 2019,1 are reflected against the impact and sustainability of the ACER–DFAT partnership. The MTR validated the overall success of the GEM Centre and identified areas for further development, specifically to improve the effectiveness of the partnership. This report concludes with a brief outlook on how these developments will be addressed under Phase 3 of the GEM Centre.

Acknowledgement of Country

Acknowledgement of CountryIn the spirit of reconciliation the Australian Council of TESOL Associations (ACTA) acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today. We acknowledge that the arrival of the English language to this continent impacted the traditional languages and cultures of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and celebrate the work to reclaim or maintain these languages. ACTA members teach English in addition to supporting the maintenance and development of First Languages, and encourage the acquisition and use of other languages – including First Nations Languages.

Courses Preferences and Occupational Aspirations of Students in Australian Islamic Schools

Course selection by year 11 and 12 students exert a significant influence on occupational outcomes of young people. While many studies have been conducted by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) across a broad spectrum of schools, not much is known about this aspect in relation to Islamic School students. In this research, data was collected on student course choice from nine randomly selected Islamic schools across Australia. For the first time, the results reveal the most prevalent course clusters studied by students are Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) aligned courses. Mathematics and sciences followed by legal and business studies sit at the peak of the course hierarchy. Long-held views and anecdotal evidence that suggest Arabic and Islamic Studies feature prominently in course selection proved to be unfounded. Preference for these courses are shown to be very low. Vocational Education & Training (VET) courses do not feature prominently in Islamic school curriculums to the disadvantage of students who may wish to pursue non-academic careers instead of opting for university inspired career paths. Professionally, medicine, engineering, law and business (in that order) are the most preferred occupations. We also find a conspicuous gender-based difference regarding course selection and occupational aspirations.

TIMSS 2019 Australia. Volume I: Student performance

The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) is an international comparative study of student achievement directed by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). TIMSS was first conducted in 1995 and the assessment conducted in 2019 formed the seventh cycle, providing 24 years of trends in mathematics and science achievement at Year 4 and Year 8. In Australia, TIMSS is managed by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) and is jointly funded by the Australian Government and the state and territory governments. The goal of TIMSS is to provide comparative information about educational achievement across countries in order to improve teaching and learning in mathematics and science. TIMSS is based on a research model that uses the curriculum, within context, as its foundation. TIMSS is designed, broadly, to align with the mathematics and science curricula used in the participating education systems and countries, and focuses on assessment at Year 4 and Year 8. TIMSS also provides important data about students’ contexts for learning mathematics and science based on questionnaires completed by students and their parents, teachers and school principals. This report presents the results for Australia as a whole, for the Australian states and territories and for the other participants in TIMSS 2019, so that Australia’s results can be viewed in an international context, and student performance can be monitored over time. The results from TIMSS, as one of the assessments in the National Assessment Program, allow for nationally comparable reports of student outcomes against the Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians. (Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs, 2008).

Sport means 'family and church': sport in New Zealand Pasifika communities

This study was conducted to gain a better understanding of the role that sport plays in New Zealand Pasifika communities. Eight focus groups and six key individuals were interviewed using a Talanoa approach. Spirituality, family and friends, the developing of life skills, fitness and health, and the release of aggression were all seen as important outcomes from participation in sport. Sport was conceptualised in a variety of ways by those interviewed. These differing conceptualisations of sport, many of which differed markedly from the traditional viewpoint, have ramifications for those working and researching in this area. While participants' experiences of sport were predominately positive, sport was also seen in a negative light by others. The negativity of some towards sport also suggests the need to consider reframing, reducing, or possibly replacing sport with alternatives when looking to promote physical activity. © 2013 Australian Council for Health, Physical Education and Recreation.

Sport means 'family and church': sport in New Zealand Pasifika communities

This study was conducted to gain a better understanding of the role that sport plays in New Zealand Pasifika communities. Eight focus groups and six key individuals were interviewed using a Talanoa approach. Spirituality, family and friends, the developing of life skills, fitness and health, and the release of aggression were all seen as important outcomes from participation in sport. Sport was conceptualised in a variety of ways by those interviewed. These differing conceptualisations of sport, many of which differed markedly from the traditional viewpoint, have ramifications for those working and researching in this area. While participants' experiences of sport were predominately positive, sport was also seen in a negative light by others. The negativity of some towards sport also suggests the need to consider reframing, reducing, or possibly replacing sport with alternatives when looking to promote physical activity. © 2013 Australian Council for Health, Physical Education and Recreation.

Calculative practices and socio-political tensions: A historical analysis of entertainment, arts and accounting in a government agency

The article examines entertainment, arts and accounting practices of a national arts council that funds arts organisations and artists. It does so by investigating the first 25 years of annual reports of the Australian Council for the Arts (1973-1996), using media reports to triangulate the data. Set against a background of socio-political change, the study explicates the differing treatments of entertainment and the arts, as political parties come in and out of power, national policy shifts, and macro-economic changes occur. Guided by legitimacy theory, analysis of narratives and budgets as calculative practices in annual reports illustrates how the nexus between entertainment and the arts changes over time, with the emphasis or value placed on entertainment diminishing relative to the arts. We conclude that the arts council has become the ‘arts council for the performing arts’, calling into question moral, pragmatic and cognitive legitimacy of the arts council.