QUOTE
AUSTRALIAN teenagers commonly complete secondary school without a firm grasp on how to construct a complex sentence, a Senate committee is believed to have found.
In a provocative report to be released today, the committee is believed to have expressed alarm at the fact that some students can go through six or more years of school and emerge functionally illiterate.
The majority report is expected to say that trainee teachers are more concerned with classroom management than teaching theory, and they often feel ill-prepared for the classroom at the end of their degrees.
The inquiry, by the Senate's standing committee on education, was announced in February, hours after Prime Minister John Howard said some school curriculums contained "incomprehensible sludge".
The timing of the inquiry prompted claims that it was a politically motivated exercise in bashing Labor states — claims believed to have been echoed by Labor members of the committee in a dissenting report.
The Age believes the report will cite evidence that students emerging from secondary school with restricted vocabulary and without a firm grasp of complex sentences somehow manage to go on to higher education.
It is believed the committee found much dissatisfaction with the bachelor of education degree, mainly due to the poor grounding offered in some university subject disciplines.
The report is likely to recommend that the lobby group Universities Australia encourage a more rigorous and evidence-based approach when educating trainees on methods of teaching literacy and maths.
It is also expected to recommend that federal and state education ministers negotiate a comparable year 12 certificate with common national standards that could be assessed in public exams.
The report is believed to say that researchers have shown that the quality of teaching is the single most important influence on students' performance.
However, it is likely to say the lack of a definition of teacher excellence hinders recognition and rewarding of teachers, specifically in terms of academic achievement.
The committee is expected to recommend a review into the remuneration of teachers to encourage more people into the profession and improve retention rates.
Under a future Coalition government, the states would be forced to introduce performance-based pay for teachers, a common national curriculum in key subjects and public year 12 exams in order to receive their share of $42 billion in federal funding from 2009.
The day the inquiry was announced, Mr Howard said the teaching of English had been allowed to drift into a "relativist wasteland", and that text messages and Big Brother were robbing children of their cultural heritage.
Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop has also repeatedly criticised standards in state schools.
The inquiry received 73 submissions and held eight public hearings across the country.
An education psychologist at RMIT University, Kerry Hempenstall, told the inquiry that the written expression of his postgraduate students was generally poor and he often fixed basic spelling and grammatical errors in their assignments.
Senior Canberra education bureaucrats warned that young Australians were inadequately prepared for the 21st century.
The committee's Labor senators, in their dissenting report, are believed to say the Government has commissioned 22 reports on standards and teacher education since 1998, but has failed to act on them.
They are also believed to claim the inquiry did not take into account the Federal Government's failure to fund programs adequately or to provide constructive policy to raise standards.
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2007/09/...9276809712.html
In a provocative report to be released today, the committee is believed to have expressed alarm at the fact that some students can go through six or more years of school and emerge functionally illiterate.
The majority report is expected to say that trainee teachers are more concerned with classroom management than teaching theory, and they often feel ill-prepared for the classroom at the end of their degrees.
The inquiry, by the Senate's standing committee on education, was announced in February, hours after Prime Minister John Howard said some school curriculums contained "incomprehensible sludge".
The timing of the inquiry prompted claims that it was a politically motivated exercise in bashing Labor states — claims believed to have been echoed by Labor members of the committee in a dissenting report.
The Age believes the report will cite evidence that students emerging from secondary school with restricted vocabulary and without a firm grasp of complex sentences somehow manage to go on to higher education.
It is believed the committee found much dissatisfaction with the bachelor of education degree, mainly due to the poor grounding offered in some university subject disciplines.
The report is likely to recommend that the lobby group Universities Australia encourage a more rigorous and evidence-based approach when educating trainees on methods of teaching literacy and maths.
It is also expected to recommend that federal and state education ministers negotiate a comparable year 12 certificate with common national standards that could be assessed in public exams.
The report is believed to say that researchers have shown that the quality of teaching is the single most important influence on students' performance.
However, it is likely to say the lack of a definition of teacher excellence hinders recognition and rewarding of teachers, specifically in terms of academic achievement.
The committee is expected to recommend a review into the remuneration of teachers to encourage more people into the profession and improve retention rates.
Under a future Coalition government, the states would be forced to introduce performance-based pay for teachers, a common national curriculum in key subjects and public year 12 exams in order to receive their share of $42 billion in federal funding from 2009.
The day the inquiry was announced, Mr Howard said the teaching of English had been allowed to drift into a "relativist wasteland", and that text messages and Big Brother were robbing children of their cultural heritage.
Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop has also repeatedly criticised standards in state schools.
The inquiry received 73 submissions and held eight public hearings across the country.
An education psychologist at RMIT University, Kerry Hempenstall, told the inquiry that the written expression of his postgraduate students was generally poor and he often fixed basic spelling and grammatical errors in their assignments.
Senior Canberra education bureaucrats warned that young Australians were inadequately prepared for the 21st century.
The committee's Labor senators, in their dissenting report, are believed to say the Government has commissioned 22 reports on standards and teacher education since 1998, but has failed to act on them.
They are also believed to claim the inquiry did not take into account the Federal Government's failure to fund programs adequately or to provide constructive policy to raise standards.
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2007/09/...9276809712.html
hah, you're still no match for the mainland fobs. twy hard more
My English teacher this year has never given me anything above a 7. The highest mark for my English essay is 6.5.
