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67
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Introduction
I conduct research on issues pertaining to curriculum and pedagogy at primary, secondary (especially junior secondary) and tertiary levels as well as the scholarship of learning and teaching in higher education. I also have broad interests in educational sociology including democratic education, student-centred curriculum integration, Christian education, inclusive education and social justice in education.
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October 2005 - January 2013
Publications
Publications (67)
Heutagogy—also known as self-determined learning—empowers individuals to take charge of their personal growth by fostering proactive approaches to self-development. In a Christian context, self-enacted spiritual growth can operate within a range of personal, denominational, and/or hermeneutical understandings of discipleship. Moreover, self-determi...
This article investigates how James A. Beane’s model of student-centred curriculum integration (CI) enhances students’ learning experiences in the classroom by meeting diverse learning needs and fostering democratic citizenship. It discusses the theory of Beane’s model of CI with respect to John Dewey’s underpinning philosophy of democratic educati...
A review of the contemporary Australian church reveals a spiritual malaise in which passive learning has become the main staple for many church members or attendees. This sense is heightened by demographic trends over the last fifty years that reflect a sustained decline in Australians identifying as religious. Although commitment to Christianity i...
Consistently, it has been reported that persons with disabilities face multiple challenges in societies and thus it is important that deliberate intervention programs are initiated to empower them to overcome exclusion. The United Nations has taken the lead through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) project, which is a framework for assisting...
When working with students with disabilities who are prone to trauma, it is vital for teachers to be able to identify and manage trauma. Given that students with disabilities have varying levels of trauma, this study assessed teachers’ self-reported competence toward trauma identification and trauma-informed practice among students with disabilitie...
Sports data analytics is a helpful tool for making important strategic decisions regarding gameplay and for athletes to monitor and improve their performance. For instance, in the American NBA, several teams, such as the Philadelphia 76ers, are capitalizing and utilizing intricate data analysis techniques and complex data analysis tools, such as da...
Mental health and well-being among high-performing male and female engineering students were investigated to account for variance. A self-report survey was used to assess mental health and well-being, and the results of the end-of-year evaluation were used to measure academic accomplishment. This study was unique in that it created the self-reporte...
Grassroots reform, particularly in the private educational sector, has had a noticeable impact on the Australian middle years of schooling landscape. Middle years’ grassroots reform however, has often been implemented in ad hoc ways, which has meant it has not always resulted in meaningful change that is aligned with middle years’ research and phil...
The current emphasis on quality teaching focuses on the correlation between professional learning and development (PLD), teacher efficacy and enhanced student learning outcomes. Abundant research evidence demonstrates that young adolescents (10-15 years old) have specific educational needs that are best catered for via developmentally responsive cl...
The current emphasis on quality teaching focuses on the correlation between professional learning and development (PLD), teacher efficacy and enhanced student learning outcomes. Abundant research evidence demonstrates that young adolescents (10-15 years old) have specific educational needs that are best catered for via developmentally responsive cl...
This book is an arresting interdisciplinary publication on Christian education, comprising works by leading scholars, professionals and practitioners from around the globe. It focuses on the integrated approaches to Christian education that are both theoretically sound and practically beneficial, and identifies innovative pedagogical methods and to...
Current societal trends are creating new opportunities for community organisations –including church groups and non-profit organisations – that specialise in the delivery of extra-curricular services to young people. This chapter discusses the case of a non-profit community organisation in Queensland that uses ‘Values Integrated Through Action-base...
This chapter introduces the reader to the notion of learning and loves in relation to Christian education. In particular, it draws from James K. A. Smith’s (2016a) keynote address at the 2016 research symposium “Learning and Loves: Reimagining Christian Education” and sketches a range of contemporary perspectives on the nature and purpose of Christ...
Using the concept of a developmental lens (Brighton, 2007; Caskey & Anfara, 2014; Davis, 2006; J-F, Pullen, & Carroll, 2013; National Middle School Association, 2010; Peterson, 2010), this article focuses on young teenage students’ perceptions of teachers. School teachers play an important role in the educational development of teenagers but little...
The study discusses the implementation of Beane’s model of student-centred curriculum integration via the professional narrative of a primary school principal who implemented the model in Aotearoa New Zealand. The findings show that implementing student-centred curriculum integration in contexts that are meaningful and relevant to students has the...
The concept of curriculum integration occupies a backwater in mainstream education systems yet it keeps resurfacing in Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ). Innovative teachers in NZ, who traditionally have held an enduring commitment to tenets of progressive education, have implemented versions of curriculum integration in their classrooms for many decades (...
In Australia, Year 9 generally represents the third year of compulsory secondary schooling and caters for students aged 14-15 years. Year 9 has emerged as a distinct sub-group within the broader sphere of middle years’ education, with research on Year 9 identifying worrying levels of student disengagement, absenteeism and teacher stress (Dinham & R...
This presentation examined American educator James Beane’s (1997) model of student-centred curriculum integration (CI), which is designed to enhance students’ learning experiences by dissolving traditional subject boundaries to create authentic learning experiences and, in the process, meet diverse learning needs and foster democratic citizenship....
Over the last three decades, a wealth of research evidence has shown that young adolescents, encompassing the 10-15 year age group, have specific physical, social, emotional and cognitive needs (Caskey & Anfara, 2014) that are most effectively catered for through middle level teacher pedagogies and practices that are specifically designed to be res...
Improving student achievement outcomes is a priority for all who are involved in teaching (Dinham & Rowe, 2007; Hattie, 2012; New Zealand Education Review Office, 2009). Abundant research evidence shows that young adolescent learners have specific educational needs that are best catered for by pedagogies and practices that are responsive to their d...
Current societal trends are creating new opportunities for community organisations –including church groups and non-profit organisations – that specialise in the delivery of extra-curricular services to young people. This paper discusses the case of a non-profit community organisation in Queensland that uses ‘Values Integrated Through Action-based...
Over the last three decades a plethora of accumulated research evidence has shown that young adolescent students, encompassing the 10-15 year age group, have specific physical, social, emotional and cognitive needs (Caskey & Anfara, 2014) that are most effectively catered for through middle level teacher pedagogies and practices that are specifical...
Queensland schools are engaged in change as they shift Year 7 from primary to high school settings from the start of 2015 and implement Junior Secondary in all public schools in Years 7, 8, and 9. This agenda signals one of the most significant reforms undertaken in Queensland education and is accompanied by a systemic policy commitment, including...
The New Zealand Curriculum (Ministry of Education, 2007) mandates that all schools catering for Years 7-10 students must provide high quality schooling tailored to the specific needs of young adolescents, however the well-documented disengagement rates of young people in the 10-15 year age group (Durling, 2007; Gibbs & Poskitt, 2010) viewed in tand...
The middle years of schooling (Years 5-9) has emerged as a significant field of educational research in the last two decades but investigation of specialised approaches to middle level teacher education has received little attention. The rationale for specialised programs or units is that middle level teachers require specific preparation to be abl...
This presentation reports on doctoral research concerning the work lives of central school principals in remote inland areas of NSW. Situational contexts included devolution of government school systems, community remoteness and low socio-economic status, and leading small schools with both secondary and primary departments. The study used a mixed...
The aim of this research study is to investigate how democratic curriculum designs enhance students’ learning experiences in terms of promoting citizenship and emancipatory outcomes. A hallmark of such designs is that they confer agency to students and teach them to ‘make a difference’ within their communities. The study is situated in the multicul...
Dismounts from apparatus containing multiple rotations, performed by elite gymnasts during competition, require great courage and virtuoso displays of precisely organized movements and skills. The dismount and landing leave the final impression in a routine and are often the key to a successful evaluation by the judges. Landings require precise bod...
Implementing new and large systemic change in schools can be daunting and challenging. In 2015 Queensland state schools saw the biggest education reform in the last 50 years with all Year 7 students moving into high school for the first time. With this impending change, it was recognised that there was an urgent need for targeted professional devel...
This presentation investigates how democratic curriculum designs enhance students’ learning experiences in terms of promoting citizenship and emancipatory outcomes. A hallmark of such designs is that they confer agency to students and teach them to ‘make a difference’ within their communities. The study is situated in the multicultural context of t...
Within the school context teachers play an important role in the development of teenagers but little is known in terms of how developmental domains/needs (i.e., social, emotional, physical and cognitive) are involuntarily catered by teachers from the perspectives of teenagers. In an effort to capture how developmental domains are being catered by t...
The concept of curriculum integration has been recommended as an ideal curriculum design for the middle years of schooling (e.g., MYSA, 2008) but much of the literature is confusing, ambiguous and generally difficult to make sense of (Beane, 1997; Dowden, 2007). Teachers’ knowledge and understanding about curriculum integration is often hazy with t...
Democratic classrooms are learning environments that scaffold students in becoming active collaborators and decision makers in their own learning community (Dewey, 1916; Frieberg, 1996). Democratic classroom practices have garnered strong support in approaches to middle schooling (Chadbourne & Pendergast, 2010). It is well established that democrat...
Queensland state schools are engaged in significant change as they implement the major reform, A Flying Start for Queensland Children. One of the most significant of the reforms is the transition of Year 7 to high school in all Queensland schools from 2015 and the introduction of Junior Secondary for Years 7, 8 and 9. The research team have been wo...
This article is an account of a collaborative self-study of the process of providing written feedback on assessment to our teacher education students. Our five-year study grew out of concerns that written feedback might not always meet the learning needs of our students. The study was informed by on-going analysis of our reading of the relevant lit...
Although the discourse on middle schooling in Aotearoa/New Zealand (NZ) has continued for two decades (Stewart & Nolan, 1992; Dowden, Nolan & Bishop, 2009), the impact of middle schooling philosophy in classroom practice in NZ has been muted. In contrast, the imperative for developmentally responsive education in the middle years or 'middle schooli...
The concept of curriculum integration (CI) has been repeatedly recommended as a curriculum design for the middle years of schooling but the extant literature is confusing, ambiguous and generally difficult to make sense of. In particular, the literature provides insufficient practical guidance and direction for teachers who want to implement CI in...
Contemporary research shows that raising the level of student achievement in schools is largely dependent on the effectiveness of classroom teachers. This research finding is widely accepted in New Zealand (NZ) and has been convincingly confirmed by NZ research (for example, Alton-Lee, 2003; Hattie, 2002). Despite this received wisdom, successive r...
This article argues the case for reinvigorating teacher preparation for the middle years in NZ by establishing a specialised focus on middle level education (Years 7-10). The article draws its data from a doctoral research study (Shanks, 2010) that interviewed teacher educators to investigate the extent to which developmental needs during early ado...
This paper reports on a two-year study of tertiary education students’ perceptions of written feedback on assessment. Contextualised in a regional Australian university and drawing on a cohort of Master of Teaching pre-service teachers, a survey approach was used to collect data from participants in both years of their graduate-level entry program....
This poster explores the nexus between the subject area of science, which is often portrayed by science stakeholders as being essentially acultural, and student-centred designs for curriculum integration, which are typically embedded in local cultural contexts. Specifically, it investigates the classroom outcomes resulting from curricular collision...
A small but growing body of research has investigated students’ perceptions of written feedback in higher education but little attention has been brought to bear on students’ emotional responses to feedback. This paper investigates students’ perceptions of written feedback with particular emphasis on their emotional responses within a teacher educa...
Few contemporary pre-service teachers would have completed their schooling with the extensive aid of computers.Yet, classroom use of information and communication technology (ICT) is now ubiquitous in much of the world. Today’s pre-service teachers are the ‘cusp generation’ who, at a unique moment in history, straddle the two worlds of the ballpoin...
This article presents three ‘lessons’ from the legacy of past examples of curriculum integration (CI) in Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ) to assist teachers who wish to utilise CI as a curriculum design for supporting inquiry learning pedagogies. These lessons reflect an innovative vitality that has long been characteristic of NZ teachers and, given that...
Middle schooling has attracted growing interest and attention in Australia but this has been slow to spread to the island state of Tasmania. The exception is provided by independent schools in Tasmania; some of which have created dedicated middle schools within their larger organisation. This article discusses the findings of a study on middle scho...
Although curriculum integration occupies a theoretical backwater in the extant literature and remains relatively obscure in mainstream education, a persistent trickle of teachers in Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ) continue to ’do’ curriculum integration. Clearly, in order to implement curriculum integration, these teachers - who follow a proud NZ traditi...
This paper buttresses two decades of Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ) research on the middle years (Years 7-10) of schooling; also referred to as ‘middle schooling’. It argues that there is an urgent need to reinvigorate teacher preparation for the middle years in NZ by establishing a specialised focus on middle schooling. The paper draws its data from re...
Purpose
This study seeks to trace the development of curriculum integration and related curricula designs in state schools in Aotearoa/New Zealand (NZ) during the “New Education” era (1920s‐1940s).
Design/methodology/approach
The mixed historical/theoretical analysis draws on primary and secondary data.
Findings
The paper concludes that largely f...
Studies have shown that young people have a keen interest in environmental issues and the controversies surrounding them, yet environmental controversies often struggle to gain unfettered access to the classroom curriculum. This article discusses the findings of a research project that investigated the beliefs of secondary school teachers about a p...
This paper tells the story of the evolution of curriculum integration for the middle years in Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ). It traces developments early in the twentieth century during the interwar period. It goes on to describe how curriculum integration was reconsidered in the 1980s and 1990s in response to concerns about unsympathetic schooling dur...
For abstract see doctoral thesis 'Curriculum integration for early adolescent schooling in Aotearoa New Zealand: Worthy of serious trial' (Dowden, 2007). The book version does not include an abstract.
Information and communication technology (ICT) has changed society. Yet schools have been largely untouched. For a change like business process re-engineering to occur in schools, it has been proposed that pre-service teachers should bring new ideas into institutions. There are tensions associated with the engagement of pre-service teachers as ICT...
Recent Australian research has focused attention on middle level education (Barratt, 1998; Luke et al., 2003) and, in particular, the need for specialised middle level teacher education (Chadbourne, 2002; Mitchell et al., 2003; Pendergast, Whitehead, de Jong, Newhouse-Maiden & Bahr, 2007). Over the last decade, programmes of specialised middle leve...
Schooling for young adolescents in New Zealand (NZ) is problematic. Although NZ education has an enviable international reputation, the bipartite primary-secondary system has responded poorly to many young people who struggle to negotiate the transition between the two types of schooling. In this chapter we discuss the emergence of an indigenous mi...
The New Zealand Curriculum (Ministry of Education, 2007a) recognises that young adolescents (Years 7-10) need a particular kind of curriculum that is responsive to their developmental needs. This implies a type of schooling for young adolescents in New Zealand that is somewhat removed from traditional methods and approaches implemented in either pr...
The concept of curriculum integration has long held appeal as a way to both unite knowledge and meet the educational needs of young people. Yet most contemporary researchers seem to have dismissed this concept as a romantic but unworkable idea. Nonetheless, during more progressive periods in the history of NZ education, a few determined teachers, o...
Integrative curriculum design promises much for middle level teachers who wish to develop classroom programmes that will encourage
early adolescents to actively engage in their learning (Beane 1990, 1997). Beane’s model is highly responsive to the educational
and developmental needs of young people. In contrast, multidisciplinary curriculum design...
Student-centred curriculum integration or ‘integrative curriculum’ offers much to educators who want early adolescents to actively engage in their learning (Beane, 1990 & 1997). Moreover, integrative curriculum designs have the capacity to be highly responsive to the developmental needs of young people at the middle school level. In contrast, subje...
The concept of curriculum integration has long held seductive appeal as a way to unite knowledge and meet the educational needs of young people. However, researchers have largely dismissed the concept as a romantic but unworkable idea. Nonetheless in the short history of education in Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ), notions of integration have persistent...
Questions
Questions (5)
Given that young adolescents are more at risk of not coping with developmental and social changes than at any other stage of life, what recommendations would you make about designing curriculum and pedagogy for the Junior Secondary years (Years 7-9) which, in Queensland state schools, immediately follow primary (elementary) schooling?
