Entries Tagged: ACER

An archive of entries with keywords: "ACER"

Switch to condensed view

Education observed by an American: Isaac Kandel

Australia and New Zealand, 1930-1940

By Craig Campbell, PhD DipEd. Posted .

In the wake of the World War I, but more so, the second world war, United States governments began to assume a leadership role in world politics. Closely associated philanthropic agencies such as the Carnegie Corporation supported such a development. The colonies and dominions of the declining British Empire were of interest for a number of reasons, one of which was to bolster them as potential allies as Bolshevism and fascism threatened the “free” world.… Continue Reading »

Constitution of Australia and education

Australia, 1901-2020

By Craig Campbell, PhD Dip Ed. Posted .

On 1 January 1901, the Australian federal constitution came into operation and the Australian nation was born. Among its many tasks, as in all federal constitutions, was the enumeration of powers to be divided between the national or Federal government, and the States of the Commonwealth. The Australian Constitution specified the exclusive powers of the Federal government.… Continue Reading »

School Furniture: Desks, tables and chairs

New South Wales, Late 19th century – 2000

By Dorothy Kass, Ph.D, Macquarie University. Posted .

The design, production, and use of desks, tables, and chairs, perhaps the most obvious objects within classrooms past and present, accompanied changing ideas of pedagogy and physical health from the late nineteenth century to the present day. This was the case in New South Wales along with other Australian jurisdictions and other countries.… Continue Reading »

School assessment and testing; public examinations and credentials

Australia, 1780-2020

By Craig Campbell, PhD., Dip.Ed.. Posted .

Teachers no matter what forms of pedagogy they engage have usually been concerned to evaluate the learning of their students. The historical tendency, especially in the last two hundred years has been to formalise the process. Written tests and examinations have mainly displaced oral displays of achievement. Concentration on the testing of individual mastery has tended to displace interest in collective achievement, though the latter was resurgent from the late twentieth century as nation states collected data especially on the literacy and numeracy of cohorts of young people at different stages of their school education.… Continue Reading »

Junior teachers (2)

South Australia, 1936-1945

By Anthony McGuire, PhD. Posted .

Teacher preparation in Australia has a complex history. The balance between school-based and college or university-based preparation tends to be rethought in every generation. It took until well into the twentieth century for ill-managed, often exploitative, pupil-teacher and junior teacher preparation schemes to be replaced by arguably superior forms of teacher training and teacher education.… Continue Reading »

Differentiated schooling

Australia and New Zealand, 1840-2000

By Craig Campbell, PhD DipEd, University of Sydney. Posted .

Different schools and different courses of instruction for different groups of students have existed throughout the history of schooling. It is only in relatively recent times, mainly from the mid-nineteenth century that common schools with a common curriculum developed, usually in public school systems.

In this entry, recent approaches to ‘differentiated teaching’ are not considered to any great degree.… Continue Reading »

Education for Complete Living (1938)

Australia, 1930-1960

By Craig Campbell, PhD DipEd, University of Sydney. Posted .

Edited by Kenneth Cunningham, the first director of the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), this volume collected papers given during the travelling conference of the New Education Fellowship through 1937.

Education for Complete Living was likely the most influential of any nongovernment publication about education and schooling in Australia in the first half of the twentieth century.… Continue Reading »