Michael D Carey

This study investigated tutors’ pronunciation teaching delivery in the Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (CELTA) through two sequential qualitative case studies. The study was conducted in three phases: 1) case 1 - teacher interviews, 2) case 2 - a Delphi with pronunciation specialists, 3) Comparative Case Study analysis. Phase one involved four semi-structured interviews with five English teachers from Australia via virtual group meetings. Phase two involved responses to three rounds of online Delphi questionnaires with an international panel of 13 pronunciation specialists. Information about pronunciation teaching practice emerged from the teacher interviews that informed the Delphi question frame. The pronunciation specialists’ consensus in the Delphi was that CELTA tutors need to develop an eclectic knowledge base of pronunciation instruction that reflects contemporary approaches in pronunciation research and teaching. Phase three combined the phase one and two results in a Comparative Case Study analysis that attended simultaneously to dimensions of time, policy, and culture to identify a model of pronunciation instruction amenable to the CELTA. Recommendations for tutors’ professional development based on a comparison of the teachers’ extant practical knowledge and the pronunciation specialists’ research-informed knowledge include a community of practice and a mini curriculum. 

This controlled experimental study investigated the interaction of variables associated with rating the pronunciation component of high-stakes English language speaking tests such as IELTS and TOEFL iBT. One hundred experienced raters who were all either familiar or unfamiliar with Brazilian-accented English or Papua New Guinean Tok Pisin accented-English, respectively, were presented with speech samples in audio-only or audiovisual mode. Two-way ordinal regression with post-hoc pairwise comparisons found that the presentation mode interacted significantly with accent familiarity to increase comprehensibility ratings (χ² = 88.005, df = 3, p < .0001), with presentation mode having the stronger effect in the interaction than accent familiarity (χ² = 59.328, df = 1, p < .0001). Based on odds ratios, raters were significantly more likely to score comprehensibility higher when the presentation mode was audiovisual (compared to audio-only) for both the unfamiliar (91% more likely) and familiar speakers (92.3% more likely). The results suggest that semi-direct speaking tests using audio-only or audiovisual modes of presentation should be evaluated through research to ascertain how accent familiarity and presentation mode interact to variably affect comprehensibility ratings. Such research may be beneficial to investigate the virtual modes of speaking test delivery that have emerged post-COVID-19.

This study explored the culturally based learning needs of Korowai students living in a lowland-remote area in Papua to address the question of how education in this part of Indonesia could be inclusive and engaging for indigenous students and their community. Case study was selected as it has potential to reveal detailed structured information and in-depth description of people and their experiences within a particular location, time and socio-political circumstance. The case study school was purposively chosen, due to its uniqueness of being situated in a remote, hunter-gatherer community that only recently began to modernise. School physical environment and building design was one of the identified themes that emerged in the case study school. This theme included some sub-themes, namely (1) the school building design, (2) forest as the school’s physical environment, and (3) school garden and animal husbandry. The Korowai students brought social and cultural capital and expectations to their local school that differed from those of traditional Indonesian school expectations and presented different learning needs. How the local school and teachers responded to these varied expectations and learning needs also differed and revealed further needs for differentiation in education. These points of differentiation include needs in their physical environment: to build some classrooms in the style of Korowai treehouse dwellings and to replant forest and food trees close to the school to provide students with a sense of cultural connection and school belonging.

This study investigated the effect of using the Accelerative Integrated Method (AIM), with or without additional revision and video-guided practice, on junior primary students' spoken recall accuracy in French. The same beginner AIM French activities were taught by a language specialist to 12 classes in four junior primary levels. Three different conditions of instruction were used each week: (1) one session of AIM instruction , (2) one session of AIM instruction plus one session of revision, and (3) one session of AIM instruction, plus one session of revision, and three sessions of video input. The instruction and revision sessions were facilitated by a language teacher, whereas the video sessions were played by the main class teacher. A two-way ANOVA revealed that Year 1 students benefited from a revision session with the language teacher, but Prep and Year 1 did not benefit from further video exposure. Conversely, the Years 2 and 3 students did not benefit from extra revision with the language teacher, but they did benefit from additional video exposure. Direct observation of the student response to the AIM suggested that the pace of the program needed to be slower for the younger learners.

Internationally, there is an under-supply of intellectual capital to provide for STEM-related employment. One contributing factor is the low number of female students selecting STEM school subjects and careers. Despite the literature recommending students engage in STEM activities earlier, many initiatives are not implemented until high school. This paper reports on an Australian project named MindSET-do which provided students with early positive STEM experiences prior to high school to raise awareness of, interest in, and aspirations for STEM-related subjects and careers. The case study surveyed n = 107 Year 6 boys’ and girls’ interests, ability beliefs and expectations in STEM school subjects and careers. Students’ awareness and interest in STEM-related subjects and careers increased significantly following experiences with inquiry-based STEM activities, χ2(1, n = 107) = 4.57 to 63.67, p < .05. Expectancy for success in mathematics was significantly higher for males than for females (U = 1125, p = .044, r = .2). Expectancy for success in science was slightly lower for the female group, but p > .05. Logistic regression found females were 24 percent less likely to have a positive view of mathematics than males (p = .003). Gender differences in STEM ability versus ability beliefs and expectancies for success are discussed, with recommendations for earlier positive experiences with STEM tasks.

According to creative writing pedagogies academic Susanne Gannon (2019) and the Federal government-commissioned NAPLAN review (McGaw et al., 2020), NAPLAN has restricted how writing is taught in secondary schools. A NAPLAN-influenced structural approach to teaching writing has subsumed the development of imaginative capacity. Given the considerable negative criticism of the NAPLAN writing tests, including the negative impact it has had on the teaching of writing, there is a need, we argue, for a fit-for-purpose assessment rubric that assesses creative writing. In a ten-week project, teaching creative writing with three classes of Year 9 students in Steiner schools, we evaluated the use of a novel creative writing rubric, created by published creative writers and lecturers (the second and third authors), to assess the students’ creative writing pre- and post-program. Consecutively, the NAPLAN narrative criteria was also used to assess the same writing scripts as a point of comparison. The creative writing criteria privileged craft-based approaches to imaginative writing compared to the function and form-focused criteria of NAPLAN. Statistical analyses of the reliability and validity of the creative writing rubric showed that the construct can be scored with a significant moderate level of reliably by different raters (r= 0.5-0.7; ICC = 0.6). Internal consistency reliability of the criteria was found to be excellent (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.94). Content validity of the instrument was found to be strong (r=0.7-0.9) and significant. Unexpectedly, analyses for concurrent validity showed that the instrument correlates strongly (r=0.7) and significantly with the NAPLAN narrative rubric, suggesting some overlap, but not parity with the NAPLAN assessment. We found students’ post-project writing improved in all aspects according to the creative writing rubric, with a statistically significant improvement in students’ structural elements and presentation and group average improvement approaching significance in two other criteria: words, sentence and voice and characters and context (effect sizes d=0.3-0.4). However, there were no significant improvements in the students’ post-program writing according to the NAPLAN criteria, possibly because the NAPLAN narrative task criteria did not capture student development of a unique writing style or individual ‘voice’ or other craft-based standards of proficiency measured by the creative writing rubric. Given the validity and reliability evidence, we conclude that the creative writing rubric is a fit-for-purpose guide to school-based learning and assessment of creative writing.

This study explores how using action plans, SMART goals, personal learning networking and peer teaching in a first-year education technology course influence pre-service teachers' (PSTs') self-efficacy beliefs in their technological pedagogical knowledge (TPK) and technological content knowledge (TCK). Pre- and post-course survey items from the Teaching Teachers for the Future project were administered to examine PSTs' judgements of their self-efficacy to support students' use ICT in the classroom, including digital and robotics technologies. Results showed a significant increase in PSTs' confidence in using ICT in the classroom with the strongest effect-size for supporting students' use of robotics and digital technologies (r > 0.5). Course design features are discussed with reference to the corresponding impact on PST self-efficacy with recommendations for improvements to practice.

Data driven pedagogy has been introduced into Australian schools over the last decade to improve student learning outcomes, but are teacher educators preparing preservice teachers to be data literate? We used a survey to investigate ready-to-graduate preservice teachers' beliefs regarding their knowledge and skills in data literacy. Before entering a course on data literacy their belief responses indicated that they had basic data interpretation knowledge, but they were unsure of how to translate that knowledge into the classroom to improve student outcomes. The survey was administered again after a data literacy course, which included a five-week supervised professional experience task of observing data being used in schools to drive pedagogy. The post-course survey responses showed students increased confidence in their ability to interpret and use data, suggesting that a data literacy course linked to the professional experience task improves teachers' sense of preparedness to use data in the classroom.

With the GAISE emphasis on prioritising concept development over mathematical calculation in statistics education, statistical language has increasingly become the focus of research. Yet, there is a dearth of research investigating techniques to teach statistical language. To redress this gap, we introduced a group of statistics tutors to some cooperative learning techniques commonly used to teach language and concepts in other disciplines (Jigsaw and Think-Pair-Share). The twofold aim was to explore the tutors' uptake of the techniques and how to improve their proficiency in implementing the techniques. The techniques were delivered experientially with tutors through a professional development session followed by implementation of the techniques in their tutorials. A semester-long exploratory case study was conducted using surveys, focus group sessions and shared self-reflection on a digital discussion board. From the tutors' reported experience and feedback, areas for improvement in the implementation of the techniques were identified, pertaining to the effectiveness of the techniques, expectations of teacher and student roles in learning, and classroom management. Plans for addressing these areas for improvement in future studies are presented, which include enhancing the professional development and adding in-class mentoring of tutors.