MORE than 300 teachers and principals from Catholic schools have gathered in Melbourne for the one day conference Improving Educational Outcomes – Reflections from the UK, which featured renowned British educationalist, professor Alan Smithers.

Smithers is the director of the Centre of Education and Employment Research at the University of Buckingham and has advised previous UK Conservative and Labour governments on education policy.

Stephen Elder, director of Catholic Education, explained that Smithers was invited to speak at the September conference because of his research on the impact of national testing at schools in the UK and in New York, which shows that national testing has not necessarily improved student outcomes.

"[Smithers’] very clear message is that if you are going to use exam results as a means of rewarding teachers, then you’ll have missed the mark, because test results should not be seen as a result of teacher input, that there are a whole lot of other [contributing factors]," Elder says.

"What we wanted to do was in Catholic education to contribute to the public debate on a whole lot of reforms that are being introduced here in Australia.

"Testing and school accountability must be designed so that it does not hinder Catholic schools and their focus on the education of the whole child, which is central to the ethos of a Catholic education," Elder adds.

A WEBSITE set up by the Australian Literacy Educators Association is offering teachers a national platform to share their students’ digital responses – such as videos, photos, blog posts, and digital art – to stories during National Literacy and Numeracy Week.

The Celebration of Literacy site allows students to showcase their work, while also giving teachers a forum to scope out other technologies they might like to use in the classroom.

Cathie Sutton, a Year 5 teacher at Roxburgh Homestead Primary School in Victoria, has contributed to the resource and says it has given her new professional development ideas about other projects and programs being used across Australia.

"Getting on ... and seeing what other schools are doing and how they’re responding quite differently to the way that we chose to do it, and even within our school seeing how other people chose to respond to different books, because we are a large school and to be able to see what other grades are doing in response to different stories within our school as well, it’s been fabulous," Sutton says.

"There was one school that did Mulga Bill, and the students were actually out there re-enacting ... that might be something we look at later on down the track. Getting the kids involved in short film [by] responding to a story is probably the best way to get started because the content and everything is already there, they just need to re-adapt it themselves," she adds.

Sutton’s class created digital responses as part of an in-depth study of Pearl Verses the World, written by Sally Murphy and illustrated by Heather Potter, and were lucky enough to have the author reply to them when they got in touch.

"We looked at one particular book and we all focused on the one book, and we really pulled the book apart ... from doing that whole activity, and the author actually responding to us and sending us congratulations on our efforts through our classroom blog, I think if I was to ask my class what was one of their favourite books for this year that would be it."

Sutton also worked in new skills learned during a Master of Literacy she is undertaking at Monash University. "My first assignment through Monash was looking at multi-literacies and integrating digital media through the literacy program and so, during all of that research, I came across the Animoto program that we used. I set up an account and my children used my account with me, and [they love it]." Sutton says.

INTAD has around 550 members and a state committee of about six. Its main focus is to enhance teaching and student learning in the thinking/skills arena.

Support for these ends are driven through four printed term journals, to which all members are invited to submit articles, an annual state conference, local subject meetings and the INTAD website, as well as 12 hour Pro/ENGINEER training courses. The INTAD website www.intad.asn.au contains material for free download for members to utilise in the classroom.

In July, the Toowoomba INTAD branch ran a very successful Technology in the Country state conference that was well attended by over 140 delegates. The event included: a mobile black-smithing stand allowing teachers to involve themselves in the hands-on use of the forge and anvils; senior subject workshops; and on-site visits to local stone masonry firms, laser cutting industries and plastic tank production facilities. The 2011 conference is in Brisbane on July 10-11.

INTAD is a member of DATTA Australia. DATTA Aust has had several letters of exchange between Julia Gillard (as Federal Education Minister) and input to the Australian Curriculum staff for the design and technology teaching area to continue as a stand-alone subject.

Neville O’Brien

2010 INTAD state president