Australian Students Slipping Behind

[icyfroth]

A new report comparing Australian high school students with 65 other countries shows the nation is slipping further behind in maths and reading skills.

The 2012 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) measures the mathematics, reading and science skills of half a million 15-year-olds from around the world.

It found Australian teens placed equal 17th in maths, equal 10th in reading and equal 8th in science.

Asian countries like China, Singapore, Korea and Japan are pulling ahead of Australian students in maths and reading.

The results show Australian students are slipping in maths performance by about a half a year of schooling compared to 10 years ago.

ACER's director of educational monitoring and research, Dr Sue Thomson, says gender, Indigenous status and socio-economic status still divide student outcomes.

"Australia has slipped backwards to the type of gender disparity that was seen decades ago, and the performance scores of girls coupled with a number of particularly negative motivational attitudes puts Australia further away from providing all students with the same educational opportunities," Dr Thomson said.

Results back Government's plan to focus on teachers, says Pyne

Education Minister Christopher Pyne says Labor's education policies have been in place for most of the decade and they have now been shown as a spectacular failure.

"Today's report card shows that for all the billions spent on laptops and school halls, there is still no evidence of a lift in outcomes for students."

"Despite spending 44 per cent more on education funding over the past decade, results are still in decline.

"This clearly shows that more funding does not equate to better outcomes."

The Federal Government will go ahead with Labor's Gonski plan from next year but will only commit to four years of funding.

Mr Shorten says it needs to get on board for the full six years.

"It's time to implement Gonski in full. It's time to stop the political games and bandaid solutions and get on board giving the next generation of Australians the best start in life."

However:

Kevin Donnelly from the Education Standards Institute says he is not surprised by the results.

"We have in fact been in trouble, if you like, for many, many years.

"We have trouble with disruptive classrooms...[and] we don't allow our teachers to mentor one another and to help one another. In places like Singapore, they actually respect teachers, children respect teachers, they are well-resourced.

"They have a lot more time to learn from one another and to improve classroom practice."

He says the debate is not only about funding.

"Money is important, but it gets back to a rigorous curriculum, effective teaching practice, good teacher training - so there are a few things we can look at there."

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Good Old Labor, think if they throw enough (of the taxpayers) money at a problem, it will go away.

...

[fourandsixpants]

ref daydreamer ( and others) on this issue of 'keeping non-performer students back to repeat:

"It happened when i was in school. A kid failed and they were kept back to repeat the year.

No big deal.

Why are kids constantly rewarded and praised at school now?

Cant give F's out anymore cause that will make a kid feel bad.

Cant give the smart kids harder work because that will make the other kids feel bad.

Cant keep a kid back a year, even though they have done no work through the current year, cause that will make them feel bad.

.................................................................................................................................................................................................................

It is a big deal to the majority. There are/were many reasons why students are not kept back to repeat a year. Peer bullying is one reason.......we could go on and discuss the pro's and con's but I would like to see:

Education Support Class (for want of a better title right now) teachers incorporated into ALL schools, primary (and secondary). Not to be confused with 'Educ Support - 'Special Needs'. What I propose would be for ALL the other students, the 'majority' who attend our schools.....

These Educ Supp teachers would have their own classroom and no more than 8 students/session (say, 9.00am - 11.30 am) who have been identified/selected as 'getting behind' or need intense revision sessions or simply have not e.g. grasped 'long division' or 'how to write a story' or 'can't do comprehension' or 'no-one has listened to their reading since pre-primary' etc to attend the Educ Supp classroom in six (6) week blocks for morning sessions only (best time for brain operation and skill learning).... these students then join their usual classes in the afternoon. Purpose? to 'fill in the gaps', skill strengthening etc.

This would work.....it does work. I have done this. It works magnificently for all involved. No-one gets bullied once you address each class and explain to the students 'the plan' - infact the students encourage and support each other. The classroom teacher is delighted to see the huge improvement. The parents are impressed, relieved, grateful and pleased as punch but most importantly each of these students is thrilled with their performance and ability, their self esteem escalates - they 'grow' another foot in height :), they become fully engaged and learn and this 'attitude' flows on for them and with into their home classroom.

The end result - everyone gets a good report at the end of each year. All students graduate year seven with the academic skills to cope with year 8 in high school. .....I have done this at a Primary level.....don't see why same can't be incorporated into High Schools. 

[*crikey*mate*]

because, often by highschool, the gaps are too large to fill in 6 weeks.

A lot of grade 9 students would struggle with algebra or fractions.

Most seemed like "good kids" payed attention in class etc, did their homework" etc and upon testing you could see that they knew the rules and the principles involved. It was revealed that the issue was that they didn't know an underlying foundational skill.

They had not mastered basic computational skills and had thus not trained their brain to process 4 and 5 step equations. Each step taking so long to work out that their brain was unable to connect the required processes.

Math is easy if each step is MASTERED and each child has a different speed at which they acheive mastery, but with sufficient practise, it will happen, regardless of their perceived intelligence or lack thereof.

If you can't plus, you can't minus.

If you can't multiply, you can't divide.

If you cannot perform all of these 4 basic functions with speed, accuracy and mastery, then you cannot do fractions or higher level operations.

If you cannot perform all of these 4 basic functions with speed, accuracy and mastery, then you cannot work out how many cans of coke you can buy for $10 and how much change you should receive for the transaction.

There is absolutely no point in trying to teach a child algebra or fractions if they cannot perform the 4 basic functions with mastery.

Then we look at the curriculum itself.

a) ours is horizontal. Instead of immersion into one skill at a time and only allowing progression once it is mastered, we expect our kids to get a general idea of a broad range of topics all at once.

eg, they start teaching area, volume and mass in grade 1. Why does a grade one student who cannot yet multiply need to know this? Yet they introduce the concept at the expense of spending time on mastering addition, or worse, counting!

instead of focusing on a natural order of math to introduce concepts and then provide opportunity for mastery, we throw everything at the kids at once, provide no opportunity for practise and mastery and expect the results to be good.

Once a child has mastered addition, then they are ready to subtract. Once a child has mastered multipaction, then they can divide. They can then move onto 2 and 3 step equations where they can produce remainders and then move onto higher order operations as their thinking skills and brain synapses are strengthened.

b) every child learns differently and at different rates. A concept that one child finds easy to grasp, another may struggle, but then that same child may not struggle with the next concept should he have an opportunity to master the "hard" one.

What happens is the curriculum allows (for exaMPLE) 2 weeks to learn plus 3's. If you haven't mastered them in that time, the class and curriculum moves on without you, to plus 4's, before you have had a chance to master the earlier step. If you can't do plus threes, you can't do plus 4's. and once the holes in the foun dations appear, they only increase with time. until you get to where you just do not have the skills to do the level of math required.

[fourandsixpants]

yes my fav...... and the pressure on the students with this 'routine' is absolutely NOTHING compared to what pressure is on each primary school teacher.

There is no sense of accomplishment at the end of each primary year by many because 'the curriculum' is RIDICULOUS in content.

The focus should be based on the K.I.S.S. principle (keep it simple stupid).... MASTER the 3 'R's first and foremost.

ALL students that struggle/get behind should be given a helping hand and the opportunity to 'catch up' 

You know, I still remember back in the 70's and Libs promised that ALL class sizes would be reduced to 14-20 students per class!.........that didn't happen did it?! 

[*crikey*mate*]

Our curriculum and it's delivery is flawed.

Well, I suppose form a government perspective it isn't as it does serve the true purpose of schooling.

Paints, what methods did you apply to get success with your students for Math and Literacy?

For literacy I have received phenomenal results with Toe by Toe and Fitzroy. Spalding worked well, but was expensive to administer.

They're both vertical systems, and I have seen equally phenominal results with a vertical math system across a couple thousand children.

LOL, in my son's year 4 math text book, it actually showed him how to do his 9 times tables on his fingers FGS! Then the teacher got cross at me cos I ripped the pages out of his book

One day when I walked past my daughter's grade 1 classroom, I saw the teacher showing her how to count on her fingers.... I had a few words to say about that at morning tea.... I was absolutely furious!

Then I had another teacher (head of math) tell me my son would never be able to do calculus if he couldn't use a calculator. I informed her that Isaac newton invented calculus and they hadn't even invented calculators back then....

[polksaladallie]

I'm glad your children are not in my (adult) child's classroom.

[*crikey*mate*]

if that's how they teach, so am I.

[lakeland27]

i'd be surprised if they didn't give in. the pressure would wear most people down. much easier to say 'yes yes whatever you say mrs mfp''

[*crikey*mate*]

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@lakeland27 wrote:

i'd be surprised if they didn't give in. the pressure would wear most people down. much easier to say 'yes yes whatever you say mrs mfp''

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so you condone teaching a child to count on their fingers? Learn their multipication tables on their fingers? And to rely on a calculator for functions that can be performed with greater speed and equal accuracy with their brain?

You believe that a kid cannot do calculus and beyond without a calculator?

I suppose you also think it ok for a teacher to put the word "guage" on the spelling list and then mark the child wrong because they spelled it correctly.

Or for a teacher to keep a child in at lunch time to show the teacher how to do the math for the next math class.

[icyfroth]

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@my*favourite*poster wrote:

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@lakeland27 wrote:

i'd be surprised if they didn't give in. the pressure would wear most people down. much easier to say 'yes yes whatever you say mrs mfp''

---

so you condone teaching a child to count on their fingers? Learn their multipication tables on their fingers? And to rely on a calculator for functions that can be performed with greater speed and equal accuracy with their brain?

You believe that a kid cannot do calculus and beyond without a calculator?

I suppose you also think it ok for a teacher to put the word "guage" on the spelling list and then mark the child wrong because they spelled it correctly.

Or for a teacher to keep a child in at lunch time to show the teacher how to do the math for the next math class.

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OMG does that really happen? When I was going to school 100 years ago, if you were caught  counting on your fingers you were the class dunce.

I still do it, lol.

[lakeland27]

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@my*favourite*poster wrote:

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@lakeland27 wrote:

i'd be surprised if they didn't give in. the pressure would wear most people down. much easier to say 'yes yes whatever you say mrs mfp''

---

so you condone teaching a child to count on their fingers? Learn their multipication tables on their fingers? And to rely on a calculator for functions that can be performed with greater speed and equal accuracy with their brain?

You believe that a kid cannot do calculus and beyond without a calculator?

I suppose you also think it ok for a teacher to put the word "guage" on the spelling list and then mark the child wrong because they spelled it correctly.

Or for a teacher to keep a child in at lunch time to show the teacher how to do the math for the next math class.

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i didn't say that crikey. i was merely commenting on what a terrier you can be, not necessarily a bad thing.