THE BEST FEATURES OF AUSTRALIAN EDUCATION
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<strong>THE</strong> <strong>BEST</strong> <strong>FEATURES</strong> <strong>OF</strong> <strong>AUSTRALIAN</strong> <strong>EDUCATION</strong><br />
A solid education is the equivalent of a super-power. In his “Accelerating Innovation with<br />
Leadership” blog post – Bill Gates wrote that one of four objectives political leaders should<br />
prioritise is – ‘Give every student and teacher new tools so all students get a world-class<br />
education.’<br />
Learning opens humans’ eyes to possibilities and options.<br />
Credentials can change people’s entire quality of life, giving them earning potential and<br />
changing where they live and with whom they associate. Educational achievements can<br />
inspire personal confidence and positive self-concept.<br />
Schools can provide a safe-haven for those struggling in their other environments. Teachers<br />
can be the most powerful role models, inspiring their students to change and strive for more.<br />
It is easy to be critical about education when one is teaching or learning in a system that is<br />
achieving numerous quality outcomes.<br />
It is natural and commendable to strive for continuous improvement and focus on what HAS<br />
NOT, rather than what HAS been achieved.<br />
This article therefore focuses on the <strong>BEST</strong> features of Australian education.<br />
The intent of this article is not to claim that Australia has reached a panacea of education or<br />
that all of the country’s schools and universities maintain the same high quality standards.<br />
This article lists and describes 15 commendable features of education that can be found in<br />
Australian schools and universities and that should be celebrated and shared.<br />
This article is written to answer the question – if an educator was to look for inspiration from<br />
Australian education, what features should they be encouraged to emulate.<br />
These features apply to all levels of education, from primary and secondary to post-secondary<br />
including postgraduate studies.<br />
Readers will notice that many of these features are technology-enhanced and that is indeed<br />
the overall advantage, or in other words – super-strength, of Australian education – students,<br />
teachers, schools and institutions have access to useful technologies and have made wise<br />
choices regarding how and when to apply these technologies for learning.<br />
YOU CAN USE <strong>THE</strong> BELOW LINKS TO VISIT <strong>THE</strong> RELEVANT SECTION.<br />
1. Australian education is student-focused.<br />
2. Australian education develops students’ minds and bodies.<br />
3. Australian students are taught to think and how to learn.<br />
4. Australian teachers promote active learning.<br />
5. Australian teachers build strong and caring relationships with their students.<br />
6. Australian education is personalised and equitable.<br />
7. Australian education provides pastoral care to those in need.<br />
8. Australian education is varied giving students access to numerous disciplines.<br />
9. Australian students have access to portals and Learning Management Systems.<br />
10. Australian students do most of their study on their own computers.<br />
11. Australian students have access to useful software and applications.<br />
12. Australian assessment is well-designed and promotes quality feedback.<br />
13. Australian students are given rubrics to guide their work.<br />
14. Australian education focuses on graduate outcomes.<br />
15. Australian graduates have skills for careers and further study.<br />
https://graduateemployability.com/the-best-features-of-aus…/
STUDENT-FOCUSED<br />
Teaching does not matter if students do not learn. Metaphorically, imagine if a star-teacher<br />
from another planet came to teach in his alien language. It does not matter how accomplished<br />
that teacher is, if the students that are being taught cannot understand. Learning will not<br />
happen.<br />
Conversely, Australian teachers seek to understand whether their students are learning and if<br />
they are not, these teachers change their methods. In Australia, teaching is defined as all of<br />
the actions that the teacher undertakes that help students learn.<br />
Therefore teaching means lecturing and presenting content to the students. Teaching also<br />
means giving feedback on assessment, tutoring students who need extra help and meeting<br />
with families to understand the students’ context and what might be inhibiting learning.<br />
Being student-focused also means that Australian teachers focus on the whole student<br />
experience. They are interested, not only in interactions with students inside the classroom,<br />
but also students’ friendships and peer-support. Australian educators seek to help students to<br />
become well-rounded, balancing study, sport, music, leadership pursuit and other extracurricular<br />
activities.<br />
MINDS & BODIES<br />
Australia’s climate is conducive to spending time outdoors. Many parts of Australia have<br />
little variation between seasons with lots of days of sunshine throughout the year. Teachers<br />
are known to take their students outside, which increases opportunities for incidental<br />
learning. In addition, the Australian culture embraces competition, rivalry and<br />
adventuresome, outdoor pursuits.<br />
As a result, schools and universities tend to have a strong emphasis on sport, supporting all<br />
levels of participation from club-level to elite. There is also a reasonably high tolerance for<br />
physical risk and a less litigious environment compared to some other countries. Because<br />
schools have less worry about being sued, they are able to offer more rugged physical activity<br />
including adventure camps and more challenging playground equipment.<br />
Research has shown that physical activity and overall fitness stimulates mental performance.<br />
Australian students thrive in an environment where they are encouraged to develop both their<br />
minds and bodies. Fitness breaks rest their minds and can boost their academic performance.<br />
HOW TO THINK & LEARN<br />
In 1910, John Dewey, an educational theorist and thought-leader, wrote a paraphrased<br />
version of the proposition that – ‘it is not the purpose of education to teach every piece of<br />
information, but to train habits of mind and teach students how to differentiate between tested<br />
and untested beliefs.’<br />
This is even more relevant in the modern age where we have the internet. Students can now<br />
Google anything and receive countless Wikipedia and Youtube facts, descriptions,<br />
demonstrations and explanations. The teacher does not need to be the keeper (or conveyor) of<br />
information or the sage-on-the-stage. The teacher’s role is the guide-on-the-side.<br />
Australian teachers tend not to dole-out long lists of facts and figures, asking students to<br />
memorise and repeat. Instead, Australian teachers use approaches such as case studies and<br />
problem-based learning to teach students how to apply and assimilate knowledge. Learning<br />
how to think and how to learn, through their teachers’ guidance, allows students to achieve<br />
increasing independence for higher-level studies and how to think-on-their-feet in their<br />
eventual careers.
ACTIVE LEARNING<br />
Australian students do a lot more in their classrooms than listening and taking notes. When<br />
teachers lesson-plan, they write-down not only what they will do in the teaching exchange,<br />
but also what their students will do.<br />
Australian students build, create, test, construct, dissect, sort, organise, experiment, debate,<br />
discuss, diagram and illustrate. They actively engage with their learning so that the schoolbased<br />
experience has the variety and change of real-life.<br />
CARING RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN TEACHERS AND STUDENTS<br />
Where as some cultures have a strong and established power imbalance between teachers and<br />
students, this is not the case in Australian education. In fact, it can be rather unnerving for<br />
international students who have moved from other countries and cultures.<br />
Australian students are expected to question, form, state, support and defend their own<br />
opinions. The teacher does not want a silent classroom. Assignments and tests receive low<br />
marks when students repeat the teacher-delivered facts and perceptions without making-ittheir<br />
own thereby expressing their own supported perspectives.<br />
Teachers want to get to know their students and want students to visit them during their office<br />
hours. Students do not embarrass themselves by asking questions. Teachers are much less<br />
happy when students pretend that they understand and do not ask for help.<br />
PERSONALISED AND EQUITABLE<br />
There are some groups of students who tend to have more problems and challenges than<br />
others. In Australia, examples of students who may require extra supports are those with<br />
disabling conditions, those from regional and remote areas, particularly if their parents did<br />
not attend university, those who were raised in low socio-economic conditions, and females<br />
who are in traditionally male disciplines such as engineering.<br />
These students are not excluded from school or university. They are invited, encouraged and<br />
welcomed. Extra supports are put into place to ensure they feel like they belong and that their<br />
needs are met. Data analytics are applied to provide early alerts to contact students at risk of<br />
failing, dropping-out or becoming stressed-out.<br />
For example, if students do not access the online learning materials that other students in their<br />
class are regularly using and do not interact online with others in the education spaces, then<br />
someone contacts them to find out why and what can be done to help.<br />
PASTORAL CARE<br />
Pastoral care means that schools and institutions create an environment of care and nurturing.<br />
They provide the supports that students need to thrive academically, socially, physically and<br />
spiritually. Schools and universities have counsellors, nurses and sometimes doctors, tutors,<br />
career advisors and many other types of professionals.<br />
They provide elite sports canters to help students to make arrangements with their teachers<br />
when their training schedules and competitions take them off-campus for extended periods.<br />
There are prayer rooms and student lounges. All of these services and supports are genuinely<br />
provided and there is no negative stigma applied to the students who access these resources.<br />
MULTI-DISCIPLINARY<br />
The world is not compartmentalised into tidy separate boxes of science, maths, language,<br />
arts, business, law and other such disciplines. Neither should education.<br />
In order to thrive in careers and lead change, people need to be able to draw-upon and<br />
interconnect thinking and processes from across and between disciplines.
It is vitally important not to stream students into disciplines and careers too early, and even<br />
when they have made a career decision, they need to turn the lenses on understanding from<br />
multiple perspectives and frameworks.<br />
One of the champions of multi-disciplinary education in higher education is called the<br />
Melbourne model. Students complete a generalist and varied undergraduate degree before<br />
specialising through their postgraduate studies.<br />
ONLINE SYSTEMS<br />
Almost every school and postsecondary institution in Australia organises education online<br />
through a Learning Management System (LMS), such as Blackboard or Moodle.<br />
Students and teachers have one-stop-shop access to assessment instructions, learning<br />
materials, schedules and interactive tools. Through the LMS, students submit their<br />
assignments and teachers provide feedback.<br />
Students can test their subject mastery through completing formative online tests and they<br />
can access tutorials and demonstrations for extra help. They can track their grades and<br />
progress. They can post comments and ask questions of their teacher and peers.<br />
Online education systems to compliment the face-to-face teaching approach have become so<br />
successful that they are nearly invisible technologies in Australia.<br />
ONE-TO-ONE COMPUTERS<br />
Over the past decade, Australian education has increasingly moved away from paper towards<br />
digital and networked systems. The main item in a student’s backpack is now a laptop<br />
computer or tablet.<br />
Textbooks are increasingly online and interactive. Assignments are written on their<br />
computers and submitted online, after which, teachers reply with online feedback and enter<br />
grades into digital grade-books.<br />
Rather than asking students to open their text-books, teachers give them a URL. Many<br />
classrooms have Smart-boards rather than Blackboards or even Whiteboards. Smart-boards<br />
are internet connected and can display the work from individual students’ laptops.<br />
S<strong>OF</strong>TWARE & APPS<br />
Alongside supporting student one-to-one hardware (laptop computers or tablets), Australian<br />
educators ensure that students have the software and apps they need to maximise digital<br />
capacity.<br />
Most Australian laptops that are used for education are loaded with the latest versions of the<br />
full Microsoft and Adobe suites. That way, students are learning the tools that they will likely<br />
be using in their future workplaces for desktop publishing, digital video editing and spreadsheeting.<br />
One of the more popular education apps that is common to find on tablets and smart-phones<br />
is Evernote, which allows students to take notes, capture photos, share perspectives and<br />
access on any device because the content is stored in the cloud.<br />
ASSESSMENT & FEEDBACK<br />
One of the leading contemporary Australian educational theorists, David Boud, is famous for<br />
saying, ‘Students can survive bad teaching, but they cannot survive bad assessment.’<br />
Assessment is not just for confirming achievement in subject matter.<br />
Assessment is a key learning tool. Assessment and feedback go hand-in-hand, as Australian<br />
teachers give students lots of specific feedback throughout their studies so that students can<br />
apply it to continually reinforce and build their learning.
When students look back on their education, one of the significant features they often recall is<br />
significant assessment that helped them learn.<br />
It is important to map-out the purpose and rationale for each piece of assessment. Australian<br />
educators provide a wide variety of assessment to accomplish diverse learning objectives.<br />
While multiple choice exams test memorisation, and essays reinforce academic skills, reports<br />
prepare students for workplace skills. Increasingly, students are creating assessment that is<br />
posted online and can have real impact.<br />
For example, rather than submitting an essay that only the teacher will read, on a teacherassigned<br />
topic, students will choose a topic that they are passionate about and create a<br />
published online blog.<br />
RUBRICS<br />
When Australian students are creating an assessment piece, they usually have an online rubric<br />
open alongside. Rubrics are usually designed as tables. The columns of the table have the<br />
range of grades from High Distinction (A+) to Pass (D).<br />
The rows have the different elements of the assessment, such as Research, Critical Thinking<br />
and Grammar. Within each of the boxes details are provided.<br />
Students who are striving for top grades can read specific advice about what they will need to<br />
do for that level of achievement. Secondary school teachers often read a draft of an<br />
assignment before a final submission.<br />
They attach the rubric to the front of the draft, and on that rubric the teacher has highlighted<br />
the boxes where the assignment currently rests. If students want to improve their final grade<br />
on the assignment, they know which elements in which to put more work.<br />
GRADUATE EMPLOYABILITY<br />
To be employable is to have the knowledge, skills, attributes, reflective capacities and<br />
identity one needs to secure and maintain careers and contribute to the knowledge economy.<br />
Being employable also means that graduates will be able to ebb and flow with career-market<br />
changes brought on by digital evolution. In Australia, graduate employability features in the<br />
strategic plans of most universities. Supports and strategies for graduate employability are not<br />
left only to campus-based career centers.<br />
Employability supports go beyond teaching students resume writing and interview skills.<br />
Employability is embedded throughout the curriculum and assessment. Educators talk to<br />
students about what they are studying and how this relates to their future employability.<br />
SKILLS-BASED<br />
There is increasing world-wide concern that students are graduating from secondary and postsecondary<br />
education without the skills they need to thrive in their communities and<br />
workplaces.<br />
Specific, technical skills, such as learning to operate particular types of machinery or<br />
software, shifts, changes and becomes obsolete. This does not mean that students should not<br />
be taught these skills, because this experience teaches them how to learn. They will have<br />
learned the processes and frameworks for the next iteration of technical skills.<br />
Students also need to learn and develop super-skills. The main desirable super-skills are<br />
communication (spoken and written), demonstration of motivation and self-initiative, and<br />
leadership. Students need many interactive educational experiences in which to develop and<br />
practice these skills.
WHAT STUDENTS NEED<br />
In summary, what students need, and what they are usually provided through Australian<br />
education thanks to our dedicated teachers and well-designed systems, are:<br />
Teachers, schools and universities who care about students’ learning and their overall<br />
happiness and development.<br />
Opportunities to learn, play, socialise, get fresh-air and appreciate the joy of the world around<br />
them.<br />
Guidance in how to think and how to channel their brain-power for learning, achievement<br />
and success.<br />
Variety and engaging learning opportunities that invite students to DO, experiment, create<br />
and discover.<br />
Role models, inspiration and assurance of being cared for and cared about.<br />
Education that is adaptable to unique student needs and that supports the development of each<br />
and every learner.<br />
Extra supports and guidance, if and when, each student needs them.<br />
Mind-expanding curriculum allowing students to learn about pure and social sciences, math,<br />
language, culture, health, humanities and the arts.<br />
Efficient and user-friendly systems so that they can stay organised, and have ready access to<br />
information and interactive tools.<br />
Infrastructure to allow students to bring-their-own-devices, have support and training to use<br />
these devices as well as access to current software and reliable wifi.<br />
Assessment that helps them learn, and immediate and specific feedback so that their learning<br />
is shaped, guided and reinforced.<br />
Clear guidelines for their assessment so that students have the opportunity to meet teachers’<br />
expectations.<br />
Employability support and strategies so that students graduate with the suitable technical and<br />
super-skills that they need in communication, problem solving and managing change to<br />
evolve with new digital workplaces and careers.<br />
https://graduateemployability.com/the-best-features-of-aus…/