Stephen Dinham

• PhD
• University of Melbourne

This paper describes the implementation of the Master of Teaching degree which was introduced at the University of Melbourne in 2008. The programme aims to produce a new generation of teachers (early years, primary and secondary) who are interventionist practitioners, with high-level analytic skills and capable of using data and evidence to identif...

This project was commissioned by the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership Limited (AITSL) with funding provided by the Australian Government. The Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) has contracted The University of Melbourne Commercial Limited (UoMC) and the Centre for Program Evaluation (CPE) to under...

In response to evidence that teacher quality has the greatest in-school impact on student learning, and the consequent need for reform of intial teacher education, clinical approaches to the preparation of pre-service teachers have gained international prominence since the turn of the twenty-first century. This adaptation of medical discourse for t...

This commentary explores the so-called global ‘crisis’ in education and the corresponding pressures and moves to ‘reform’ education, and in particular, public education. The myths underpinning and driving these developments are examined. Supposed problems with (public) education and proposed solutions are explored. The solutions include government,...

Teacher education in universities continues to diversify in the twenty-first century. Just as course offerings, course delivery, staffing and the teaching/research mix varies extensively from university to university so does the procedure for pre-service teacher selection. Various factors bear on selection procedures and practices however few unive...

There have been persistent concerns over teacher pre-service education for decades. The basic model of university or college coursework plus practice teaching has been found wanting. Despite attempts to rectify this, beginning teachers in Australia rate themselves as not being well prepared when they begin full-time teaching. This article examines...

There has been a major and growing international focus on improving the quality of teaching for decades. In Australia, there have been numerous key national initiatives introduced since 2007 with the aim of improving school, teacher and student performance. These include national testing and reporting of student achievement, national professional s...

Principals play key roles in creating the conditions in which teachers can teach effectively and students can learn. Principals are increasingly being held accountable both for teacher quality and for student learning and development so that young people can become ‘successful learners, confident and creative individuals and active and informed cit...

This paper describes the implementation of the Master of Teaching degree which was introduced at the University of Melbourne in 2008. The programme aims to produce a new generation of teachers (early years, primary and secondary) who are interventionist practitioners, with high-level analytic skills and capable of using data and evidence to identif...

Purpose This paper aims to serve as an introduction to and overview of this special issue of the Journal of Educational Administration entitled “Building organisational capacity in school education”. The co‐editors have solicited contributions from authors in Wales, Australia, Canada, the USA, England, Hong Kong and New Zealand. Design/methodology...

The quality of leadership and the effectiveness of schools to deliver an appropriate education through quality teaching have been ‘hot’ topics within education and more widely for several decades. This article provides a brief historical overview of developments in research and changing paradigms of Australian school leadership, followed by a discu...

There is a long held belief in the teaching profession—a belief approximating the status of folklore—that when a teacher stays in a school for an extended amount of time, the enthusiasm for the job wanes and becomes less effective, turning into the ‘living dead’, awaiting retirement. In this folklore, then, teacher mobility is positioned as desirab...

Teachers’ professional learning has been shown to be fundamental to successful teaching, student achievement and successful schools (Hattie, 2003, 2007; Dinham, 2007a, 2008b). In recent times there has been a movement away from traditional approaches to teachers’ professional learning towards more decentralised, contextualised forms of learning. (D...

The Catholic Education Commission of Victoria (CECV) Leadership Standards Framework (the LSF) was published by the CECV in 2005. It was the outcome of a co-operative venture between the Catholic Education Offices of Melbourne and Sale and the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER). The LSF is organised as a set of ‘Leadership Actions’ w...

In universities throughout Australia, increased emphasis is being placed on the quality of teaching and learning as a pathway for demonstrating excellence and establishing the national and international credentials of the university. Demonstrations of quality teaching are also being linked more explicitly with strategic planning, performance manage...

Among your most serious management responsibilities, hiring and firing poses pitfalls. Lean on available resources to ensure compliance with hospital and legal standards.

In this article the authors explore the possible origins of nativist myths about teaching expertise in the cultural and organisational context of teaching. They propose that the cultural preference for explanations for human behaviour that are based on personal dispositions conceived of as entities, combined with the opaque nature of teaching exper...

This paper reports an evaluation of Quality Teaching Action Learning (QTAL) projects conducted at New South Wales (NSW), Australia public (state) primary and secondary schools and explores how distributed leadership facilitated and was an outcome of the QTAL projects.The evaluation encompassed all 50 projects at 82 NSW public schools, and nine of t...

Stephen Dinham describes the characteristics of the Australian school system, particularly the latest developments in the area of curriculum and professional training.

Drawing on school-driven action learning paradigms and professional development, the article examines action learning projects implemented in 82 government schools in New South Wales, Australia. The article reports on teachers and students engaging in changing schools for quality teaching and learning.

https://research.acer.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1010&context=teaching_standards

THERE have been a variety of (seemingly) simplistic, populist approaches to the challenge of improving teacher quality. These include “merit” or “performance” pay; payment by student examination results; raising entry standards to teaching; higher teacher pay generally; smaller class sizes; standardised testing; publishing “league tables” of school...

There is a vast body of research confirming the important influence of the classroom teacher on student achievement. A key issue, then, is how the quality of teaching and learning within individual classrooms can be influenced and improved. This paper argues that educational leadership is a key influence on the quality of teaching and learning and...

Professional learning communities among teachers and schools have been envisioned as a mechanism for development, knowledge building and implementation. However the formation of an effective learning community is more complex than giving teachers a project and asking them to share a room. This paper reports a synergistic interaction between a model...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of the secondary Head of Department (HoD) in leading teams producing exceptional education outcomes in Years 7‐10 in New South Wales (NSW, Australia) government schools. Design/methodology/approach Sites where exceptional educational outcomes were believed to be occurring were selected using...

Extensive research has revealed the key role played by the individual teacher in the achievement of student outcomes. However contemporary research into quality teaching, teacher learning and educational change has also revealed the role played by learning communities and educational leadership in creating environments in which students and teacher...

Purpose Aims to explore the role of Principals in producing outstanding education outcomes in Years 7 to 10 in New South Wales (Australia) government schools. Design/methodology/approach Sites where “outstanding” educational outcomes were believed to be occurring were selected using a variety of data including performance in standardised tests, pu...

This study identified effective teachers of high-achieving Grade 12 students in New South Wales, Australia. Nineteen teachers, across a variety of curriculum areas, were observed teaching and then interviewed. A further six teachers were interviewed only. Despite the high-stakes end-of-schooling examination, generating interest in and understanding...

This article investigates and reports on the use of the portfolio with 29 teachers. The teachers were recipients of an award for â–˜qualityâ–™ teaching which encompassed the early childhood, primary, secondary, technical education and university sectors. The award was based upon referees' reports, the development of a professional portfolio built a...

Interest in teacher “stress” and its relationship to teacher well-being has a long and distinguished history. However, there has been criticism of this research endeavour for its conceptual narrowness and lack of psychometric rigour. An international project investigating teacher and school executive career satisfaction, motivation and mental healt...

Recent international research has demonstrated a relationship between physical health and occupational status/level of appointment: people who hold higher level positions enjoy better physical health on average than those in lower positions. Researchers have speculated that this may be in part due to the lower levels of control exercised over pace...

Education is not alone in becoming the focus of attention and anxiety about the quality of its activities and outputs, although it is perhaps unique in the degree to which it has been publicly and conspicuously subject to scrutiny and castigation for its ‘failings’. Certainly, public education throughout the Western world has been under attack and...

An important issue in the (re)conceptualisation, conduct and renewal of junior secondary schooling is the manner in which it is characteristically organised. In New South Wales, this is shaped and even determined by what has been called the 'impregnable fortress' of the school-subject department. Whether or not this is in the best interests of stud...

This article reports the results of research into the career motivation and satisfaction of a sample of over 3,000 teachers and school administrators in four countries: Australia, New Zealand, England, and the USA. Using the participants' own words, we explore the effects on educators of recent international educational change, understood here...

Postgraduate study is something of growth industry with, worldwide, a substantial increase in the number of courses offered and students enrolled (Kerlin, 1995). A substantial part of the requirements for the successful completion of a research degree is that the research conducted should be in some way original and also make a worthwhile contribut...

Models of teacher satisfaction post-Herzberg have generally presented two mutually exclusive domains of teacher satisfaction/dissatisfaction. However, use of a survey with 2,000 teachers and school executive in England, New Zealand and Australia has provided evidence for a third domain of teacher satisfaction/dissatisfaction grounded in the wider e...

This paper presents the results of a study of a sample of 609 English teachers and school executive (headteachers, deputies, etc.). The study sought to examine and benchmark teachers’ occupational motivation, satisfaction and health and to test a model of teacher satisfaction developed in Australia in a previous research phase.English teachers were...

This paper presents the findings of a three-way comparison of teachers and school administrators in Australia, England, and New Zealand. The Teacher 2000 Project examined teachers' feelings about and reactions to teaching. Researchers used a seven section, self-report questionnaire that included items on demographics, orientation to teaching, satis...

This report presents information from a study of the Higher School Certificate (HSC) in New South Wales, Australia. The study investigated teaching strategies that led to success at the HSC. Researchers identified successful teachers, observed them teaching an HSC class, and followed up with an interview. Groups of ex-students also completed interv...

In the time it takes to school a single generation, the Australian education system has undergone remarkable change. Shifts in education methodology; fallout from political, social and economic fluctuations; a complete rethink of teacher training; different student profiles; changing class sizes a variety of internal and external factors have trans...

This paper presents a model of teacher and school executive satisfaction derived from a study involving 892 respondents in 71 government schools in Western Sydney, Australia. Factor analysis of survey items was utilised to develop an eight factor model of teacher satisfaction. The eight factors were named: school leadership, climate, decision makin...

This study of 543 English teachers and school executives examined teachers' occupational motivation, satisfaction, and health and tested a model of teacher satisfaction developed in Australia in a previous research phase. Teachers came from schools representative of all types of schools and all levels of socioeconomic status. Teachers completed a s...

This paper describes the first phase of a study of teachers and school administrators in Western Sydney, Australia. A survey to measure teacher satisfaction, motivation, and health was designed based on findings from earlier research. Participants were 529 teachers and school administrators at 47 primary, secondary, and special purpose schools. Maj...

Draws on the findings of a major research project funded by the New South Wales Department of School Education in Australia which sought to examine the school-community interface and communication in government comprehensive high schools in that state. Data were drawn initially from nine schools in Western Sydney with three of these schools being t...

A review of literature and interviews with 57 teachers were conducted to determine general measures and specific strategies to improve teacher satisfaction and reduce teacher dissatisfaction. The 57 interviewees were teachers who had resigned from the New South Wales (Australia) Department of School Education in 1991. The interviews revealed that t...

This paper draws on the findings of a major research project funded by the New South Wales Department of School Education (Australia) which sought to examine the school-community interface and communication in comprehensive high schools. Data were drawn initially from nine schools in western Sydney, with three of these schools being the subject of...

Despite the recognition of the problems faced by beginning teachers, the provision of effective induction programs both in Australia and other nations has been less than universal, with only approximately one-half of beginning Australian teachers involved in any substantive form of teacher induction program. This paper offers a review of literature...

Findings of a study that examined teachers' personal reasons for resigning are presented in this paper, which develops a model of teacher persistence. Interviews were conducted with 57 teachers who resigned from primary schools, and various regional and Head Office positions with the New Wales (Australia) Department of School Education during the 1...

The project set out to investigate one primary school where, for four years or more, boys have outperformed girls in standardized Year 3 and 5 Basic Skills Tests in literacy and numeracy, which contradicts general findings on male and female performance in standardized literacy and numeracy testing. The school placed a heavy emphasis on literacy pr...

Postgraduate study is something of growth industry with, worldwide, a substantial increase in the number of courses offered and students enrolled (Kerlin, S., 1995). A substantial part of the requirements for the successful completion of a research degree is that the research conducted should be in some way original and also make a worthwhile contr...

This paper arises from an evaluation of an activity titled Quality Teaching Action Learning (QTAL) in New South Wales (NSW) public schools. QTAL projects took place in 2004- 2005 and were funded through the Australian Government Quality Teaching Program (AGQTP). The evaluation took in all 50 Quality Teaching Action Learning projects involving 82 NS...

This paper provides a critical review of the literature that has attempted to identify ‘best practice’ in middle schooling.. It is noted that despite the large and burgeoning literature claiming positive effects of approaches to middle schooling that focus on the cognitive, developmental, social and emotional needs of adolescents, evidence to subst...

Research indicates that direct instruction has a large effect on student learning, so it is time that all educators understood exactly what it is and is not. The author looks at certain types of teaching practices and the effects these have on students' achievement. Many teachers and teacher educators hold the view that facilitatory teaching - whic...

Concurrent Session Block 1

There is a vast body of research confirming the important influence of the classroom teacher on student achievement. A key issue then, is that of how the quality of teaching and learning within individual classrooms can be influenced and improved. Based upon findings from a range of research projects investigating aspects of quality teaching, it is...

Is middle schooling more effective than the traditional primary to secondary school structure? What happens in schools is more important than how they are arranged,

Stephen Dinham is the Research Director of ACER's Teaching and Leadership research program, which undertakes research to strengthen the teaching profession and improve student learning in educational settings. An increasingly crowded primary school curriculum means generalist teachers often have a breadth but not a depth of knowledge. Stephen Dinha...

This paper explores the role of principals' leadership in producing outstanding education outcomes in Years 7-10 in New South Wales government schools. The study sites were of two types: subject departments or faculties responsible f NB or teaching certain subjects, and teams or groupings responsible for cross-school programs. In the case of both s...

Australian business leaders want to see reforms to school education that improve learning outcomes and opportunities for all students. If we are to continue to compete effectively in the global market, the quality of our education system needs be among the best in the world. Research has shown that improving the quality of teaching is the most effe...