Volume 16 Issue 1

Holy work with children : Making meaning together is the culmination of personal experience and qualitative research by Campen (2021), children's ministry pastor and director of the Discipleship of the Rio Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church in San Antonio, Texas.

Social researchers McCrindle and Fell draw on their experiences in following trends in technology - information management, social media, robotics, and artificial intelligence; demographic trends - aging and diversity in the population, and social trends including interactions between the mix of generations within current society. COVID-19 accelerated and highlighted such trends.

Listening in the morning is a manifesto of sorts. Written by teacher, lecturer and passionate educator Dr Trevor Lloyd, Listening in the morning is a devotional book with a singular golden thread running through out - teaching is a missional calling.

Avondale University is committed to providing quality higher research degrees. Data on candidate and graduate experiences from the institution and across the sector are central in shaping good practice and informing policy, processes and systems designed to support candidate and supervisor research training (TEQSA, 2018) and employment opportunities (Bentley & Meek, 2018).

This paper reports on research conducted at our institution which focused on the following two questions: What were the differences between the way current candidates and graduates reported on their postgraduate learning experiences in the MPhil or PhD degrees at Avondale? And, what were the differences between the way males and females reported on their postgraduate learning experiences in the MPhil or PhD degrees at Avondale?

In this mixed methods research project questionnaires and interviews were used to determine what is valued by current and past HDR candidates of Avondale and which areas of our HDR programs need further development. This is the second of two papers that report the findings of this project and identifies future research which may further support HDR candidates’ holistic experiences.

This article examines and discusses how two influential Christian authors from different eras perceive the importance and development of character in the lives of Christian believers. It is a discourse that is intended to offer 'food for thought' to Christian teachers in the context of current educational interest in character development.

Meet Aaron Johnston (BEd, 2008), who epitomises the bright future of teaching.

Early in the naughties (90s) we asked the question 'How do our client see us?' The answer was clear - as a school that prioritised care and nurture. That gave us an opportunity to buy into that intentionally or try to change that. We decided to buy into that deeply.

The latest in a series of books about how teachers reveal Jesus to students can help safeguard Christian education in a changing society, says its editors.

Oppositional Defiance Disorder (ODD) was at first, anecdotally, considered to be unacceptable behaviour by children who had been poorly managed. However, by 1980 a specific definition and description had been made. ODD is a serious juvenile mental health concern causing extreme distress to both parents and educators.

This paper has been written from a Christian perspective and describes the criteria for a diagnosis as well as its incidence. Research has been ongoing and a number of known links to the condition are detailed. The greater part of the paper focuses on effective, evidence-based strategies together with succinct summaries. These include teaming with parents, the school team, classroom structure and management, pedagogy and engagement, relating to the child and teacher well-being.

Summer starts early in the Northern Territory. This is what our students discovered during school placements that introduced them to the ministry of teaching in indigenous culture.

Education is perceived, among other things, to be a character-building enterprise. Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, a renewed emphasis on character development through values education has been on the agendas of Australian schools. Many schools now offer programs designed to inculcate values into the lives of students. Although values literacy is widespread in schools, there is less evidence to demonstrate that values actualisation, that is, making positive values the basis of behaviour at school and in life, has taken root. This case study in one primary school used focus groups to gather children’s perceptions of how they actualised values in the context of a school garden program. The garden program’s organisational elements were found to positively impact the actualisation of intrapersonal and interpersonal values.

This article outlines the results of a recent study that investigated the challenges primary department leaders in Christian schools in Sydney are faced with as they seek to implement a biblical vision for education, along with strategies used to overcome the challenges.

Competing Priorities was found to be the central challenge facing Christian school leaders as they seek to implement a biblical vision for education. Others identified include: Governance Issues, Changed Parent Expectations, Commodification of Education, Dealing with Conflicts and Human Resource Management Issues.

With consideration of the challenges faced by Christian school leaders, the paper highlights a number of key strategies found in the study. These could be critically effective in assisting educators to help overcome the current problem facing Christian schools, that their ideologies are being challenged due to a rise in secularism in Australia, and assist them as they implement a biblical vision for education in their school. The results were displayed diagrammatically.

How often do we hear the phrase “the research says” in our discussions about improving teaching and learning? What do we mean by the term ‘research’? For many of us, we use this concept under the assumption that something like the ‘scientific method’ has been used to describe educational reality in a way that can help us in our teaching.

This thinking, in turn, sits under our assumptions about the validity of education being part of the ‘social sciences’. But what do we mean, ‘social science’? For some of us, it means using statistical methods to help us discover cause and effects within teaching practice. This can be in the use of ‘qualitative’ as well as ‘quantitative’ methodologies.

Yet it is not uncommon to hear people use phrases such as “But what does the hard data show?” Or, “Was this a real / solid / large enough piece of research?” Such suggestions rely on the assumption that if we use the same scientific method as the physical sciences (which can be referred to as the ‘natural’ or ‘hard’ sciences), then the research is better. This article will review these assumptions with some suggestions for how to be more inclusive in how we conceptualise research with those involved in teaching and learning – i.e. the humans in our classrooms.