Learn from Asia

THERE is much to learn from successful overseas systems, but some Australian educationalists argue that all is well and we need not change. Education, especially in the classroom, in countries such as Japan, Singapore and South Korea is characterised as inflexible, outdated and conservative. Not so. Research published in The Chinese Learner, edited by David Watkins and John Biggs, as well as Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study-related videotapes of Japanese classrooms demonstrate that Asian classrooms are interactive and lessons deal with concepts and skills as well as facts.

APEC has a role in strengthening education, a source of prosperity, in member economies, including ours. Beginning in 1993, the APEC Education Network has met regularly to collect information describing the education systems of members and to research topics such as mathematics and science education, the place of information and communication technologies in the classroom and ways to achieve an increase in the number of multilingual citizens. Australia has much to learn from members' education systems that achieve world's-best results in international tests such as the TIMSS. Held every four years, the TIMSS tests measure student performance in mathematics and science curriculums at middle-primary and lower and final years of secondary school.

Since the tests began in 1995, Australian students have performed above average, but we are in the second XI when it comes to results. While we like to win in sport, in education we are consistently beaten by students from Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan. In the 2003 TIMSS test, out of 49 countries, Australia was ranked 14th in Year8 mathematics and 10th in science. At Year4 level, our students were placed 16th in mathematics and 11th in science. Of concern, when compared with Australia's results in the 1999 tests, is that countries we once outperformed now achieve better results. Indeed, notwithstanding the millions spent on curriculum development and the changes forced on hapless teachers, such was Australia's relatively poor performance that Geoff Masters, the chief executive of the Australian Council for Educational Research and a strong supporter of outcomes-based education, has admitted that all is not well.

"During the 1990s, considerable effort went into the reform of curriculums for the primary and middle years of schooling in Australia, resulting in new state curriculum and standards frameworks," he says. "In the same period, education systems introduced system-wide testing programs to monitor student and school achievement. It is not clear that these efforts have improved levels of mathematics and science performance in Australian primary schools."

Some other APEC-member education systems are able to get more students to perform at the highest level when compared with Australia. In the 2003 test, only 9 per cent of Year8 students reached the advanced level, compared with 25 per cent from Taiwan and 15per cent from Japan. In mathematics, only 7per cent of our Year8 students achieved the advanced level, compared with 44 per cent of students from Singapore.

It also needs to be noted that while Australian students are in the second XI -- as a result of OBE's focus on nurturing self-esteem rather than telling children when they have failed -- our students regard themselves as highly confident and successful. By comparison, students from Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong, even though they perform at the top of the table, do not feel as confident. Why are Australian students underperforming? One reason is that, since the early 1990s, Australian states and territories, to varying degrees, have adopted an OBE model of curriculum. With this model, the focus is on teachers facilitating rather than teaching information. Students are described as "knowledge navigators"' and essential content gives way to new-age generic competency and skills.

As noted last year with Tasmania's so-called Essential Learnings and the debacle represented by forcing OBE into years 11 and 12 in Western Australia, it is also the case that the types of syllabus documents given to Australian teachers are second-rate. Not only are OBE curriculum documents full of jargon and edubabble, but what students are expected to learn is couched in hundreds of vague, confusing and vacuous learning statements that drown teachers in useless detail.

Stronger-performing education systems within APEC never experimented with OBE. More formal approaches to teaching are emphasised and, as a result, students have a clear idea of what is expected of them. There is less disruption and students, given regular testing and feedback, know where they stand in the class. The curriculum is academically based, competition is valued and students are rewarded for success. Teachers are also given clear, concise, year-level syllabuses that detail what needs to be taught. The last point is critical. Unlike in Australia, where teachers are supposed to be curriculum experts and each school has to reinvent the wheel in terms of mapping out what is to be taught, overseas education systems make more time available for teachers to mentor one another and to strengthen classroom practice.

The federal Labor Party and the Coalition Government have both announced that Australia is to have a national curriculum. One approach is to rely on those responsible for Australia's adoption of the OBE model to do the work, in particular the Australian Council for Educational Research and the Curriculum Corporation. As an alternative, given those APEC systems that consistently achieve results that place them at the top of the table in the TIMSS mathematics and science tests, why not look internationally and evaluate any new model of curriculum against overseas best practice?

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Amazing claim: School counsellor says pedophile "loved" schoolgirls

A SCHOOL counsellor employed by the Government to help teenage girls has supported a pedophile in court, describing Gary Faux as caring and loving to his victims. Heatherhill Secondary College student welfare co-ordinator Robyn Hughes appeared in the County Court on behalf of Faux, who admitted sexually abusing two schoolgirls. "He cared about them and he loved them," Ms Hughes said during a pre-sentence plea hearing before Judge Jeanette Morrish. Ms Hughes, who also sits on the Heatherhill school council, is a friend of Faux and told the court she was not concerned he may have been manipulating the girls.

The County Court was told Faux took sexually explicit videos and photographs of himself having sex and performing indecent acts with the 16-year-old girls, who did not attend Heatherhill school. Some were taken while one of the girls was wearing her school uniform. The court was told Faux, who was 48 at the time, gave one of the girls alcohol, cigarettes, compact discs, concert tickets and money, and performed sexual acts after encouraging her to wag school. She told police Faux would give her $50 to take photos of her.

Ms Hughes told the court "in normal relationships you buy gifts for each other". She agreed with prosecutor Kevin Doyle the relationship was completely inappropriate, but said Faux had not seen it as "a normal non-sanctioned relationship". "He shared things about himself with the girls, personal things about himself that he wouldn't share with anyone he didn't care about," she said. Ms Hughes told the court she thought Faux believed he was "having an equal relationship with the girls". "I didn't think he felt he was in a position of power in that relationship. I think he cared for them as any relationship does," she said.

Ms Hughes told Judge Morrish that dealing with young people's problems was her specific role at Heatherhill Secondary College, where she was acting assistant principal when she gave evidence.

Judge Morrish sentenced Faux to five years' jail with a minimum of three years. Faux had earlier pleaded guilty to four counts of sexual penetration and eight counts of indecent acts with a 16-year-old under care, supervision or authority. Police believed the offences started when the girls were 15, but could not prove the dates. Judge Morrish was told the charges had been resolved after negotiation and involved rolled-up counts of more than one incident in each charge.

The mother of two girls sexually abused by Faux said yesterday she was horrified Ms Hughes was still counselling girls. "I'm appalled. She shouldn't be dealing with kids," the mother said. "She doesn't even know my girls. She's never met them yet she's made that sort of outrageous assumption. "I just can't believe that the Education Department is turning a blind eye to someone with that attitude being in that sort of position".

Both the education department and the principal of Ms Hughes' school have told the Herald Sun her comments were none of their business. Ms Hughes hung up when contacted by the Herald Sun and asked to respond to criticism of her behaviour. Heatherhill principal Heather Lindsay also refused to comment. "It's purely a matter for the individual concerned," she said. An Education Department spokeswoman, Anna Malbon, also failed to address parents' concerns about Ms Hughes. "The teacher acted as a private citizen. In no way was she representing the school or the department," Ms Malbon said. She said the department had "no role in this case".

Faux denied taking sexually explicit photographs or videos of the girls until police found them when his unit was searched. Police also found two lists describing sexual positions and activities, which Faux later admitted during an interview were ideas he had for one of the girls. The Crown case was that Faux was guilty of a profound breach of trust and was motivated by lust. Prosecutor Kevin Doyle said there had clearly been a degree of grooming of the girls before sexual activity began. He said Faux regularly told one of the girls he had given her so much she should give something back.

Defence counsel Reg Keating told the judge Faux had been addicted to gambling and marijuana but was now being treated. He said Faux had suffered enormously during his life through the loss of people for whom he cared. Psychologist Sharon Groch said Faux's behaviour was not predatory. The court was told Faux suffered a stress-related heart problem caused by a blood clot last February and had been on sick leave since.

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Stupid Australian consumer watchdog hates Google but doesn't quite know why

Blind Freddy can see that search results and advertisements are separate. If the ACCC cannot, it suggests that they still live in the fountain pen era

The consumer watchdog suffered a blow in its mammoth court case against Google Inc, when a judge said yesterday its court documents were almost "incomprehensible", "opaque" and "somewhat repetitious". The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission was ordered to write out summaries of its key allegations against various Google companies to clarify its case.

The ACCC launched court action against Google and its subsidiaries in July, alleging misleading and deceptive conduct. The watchdog claims Google does not clearly distinguish between "organic" search results and "sponsored links", which are advertisements. Google says it is clear that the wording "sponsored links" and coloured shading indicates those listings are advertisements.

In a further blow yesterday, the judge hearing the case, James Allsop, said correspondence between the parties made it "tolerably clear" the ACCC did not have a misleading and deceptive case against subsidiaries Google Ireland and Google Australia as their pleadings currently stood. The parties were in court yesterday to ask the judge for separate orders. The watchdog asked the judge to give it permission to serve court documents on Google Inc and Google Ireland, which are outside the Australian jurisdiction. Google Ireland and Google Australia asked the judge to rule the case against them be thrown out of court, because there was no evidence they had engaged in any of the alleged conduct.

Justice Allsop said he would reserve his decision on those matters but made several comments on the documents he had seen so far, in which the ACCC had provided numerous definitions of internet-related concepts, some of which required further definition. "It becomes very difficult to succinctly and precisely explain matters using this technique and with respect it had caused many of the problems identified by (Google's barrister) Mr (Tony) Bannon as to lack of clarity," Justice Allsop said. "Very often an inability to express a proposition with the clarity (required) reflects something wrong with the proposition."

Earlier, Justice Allsop asked the ACCC's barrister, Christine Adamson, to give further details to back its claim that members of the public had been misled by Google. "These representations would have been made where?" Justice Allsop asked? "To the world you say. "Let's narrow it down to the Australian public. Where are those representations made?" Ms Adamson replied: "By Google itself but also in quite a lot of websites."

The ACCC's barrister also cited Google's annual report as a place where customers were told that search results were given by relevance to a user's inquiry. "This is evidence you need to identify in a pleading, how it is the representation has arisen," Justice Allsop said. Justice Allsop ordered the ACCC to file two-page summaries clarifying its position against the various subsidiaries.

Google Australia spokesman Rob Shilkin said the company had said from the outset that the case was wrongly based.

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Victorian Leftists defend selective schools

LABOR has launched an assault on the Greens for their policy to phase out selective government high schools such as MacRobertson Girls High. The ALP has funded a mail-out highlighting Greens education policy ahead of this weekend's Albert Park and Williamstown by-elections. Labor's claims have been branded a lie by the Greens.

Former MacRob student Sue Loukomitis yesterday said she approached the ALP to assist after hearing of the "kooky" Greens policy. The policy states that the Greens would work towards "phasing out selective schools, streaming and other models in the government system".

Ms Loukomitis is a former Labor member who works for Auspoll, which is the party's pollster. She does not live in the Albert Park electorate where the letter was distributed. ALP candidate Martin Foley said education had emerged as one of the key issues in Albert Park. "People want to see a good-quality public school option in their community," Mr Foley said.

Labor state secretary Stephen Newnham yesterday compared the Greens' education blueprint with their now-abandoned policy of decriminalising drugs. "The letter is completely accurate. They actually want to shut these schools," Mr Newnham said. The letter does not mention the ALP or Mr Foley, and the only indication the letter is from Labor is fine print declaring it was authorised by Mr Newnham. Labor made a dramatic U-turn on selective schools just before the November election last year, promising two new schools for talented students.

Greens MP Greg Barber dismissed Labor's interpretation of its education policy. "This is a lie. The Greens won't shut down any school," Mr Barber said. Voters this Saturday will choose replacement MPs for former premier Steve Bracks and his deputy, John Thwaites.

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