Introduction

The Australian Public Service (APS) comprises a suite of agencies and departments charged with providing a diverse range of services to a growing and changing Australian population. From schoolteachers, nurses, armed-forces personnel and other direct service providers, to those who work in the administration of policy and program development, the operations of the APS span the public, private and not-for-profit sectors as each has become involved in the delivery of government services. The delivery of these services does not exist in a vacuum. Governments in Australia and most developed nations are influenced in their decision-making by the prevailing views and ideologies – not the least of which is neo-liberalism. As we explained in Chapter 1, these ideologies are driven by beliefs regarding how best to use public taxes and income to deliver government services. This chapter examines the APS by providing an overview of the service and an account of the challenges it faces in providing government programs, payments and services, while seeking to implement private sector management practices. It also highlights the issues that are facing the APS with regard to attracting and retaining a suitably skilled workforce in an environment of increased pressure to cut costs and reduce its size.

Introduction

Changes in the work environment present significant challenges to workers’ health and safety. The pursuit of labour flexibility, intense competitive pressures and the shift towards decollectivism and deregulated labour markets have produced new workplace risks to occupational health and safety (OHS), while eroding the capacity of workers to respond to such risks. Foremost is the challenge posed by the changing nature of employment, specifically the growth of precarious forms of employment, as well as greater job insecurity experienced by permanent employees. The second risk is the surge in psycho-social distress associated with increasingly demanding employment conditions, and third is the decline in occupational health and safety worker representation and consultation, contributing to a void in mechanisms for identifying, monitoring and controlling risks at work. These risks are not inevitable, but reflect choices made by organisations and governments about the priority given to worker health and safety vis-à-vis other economic and political objectives.

Introduction

Trade unions are ‘collective organisations of workers in the workplace that focus on improving the terms of the wage–effort bargain through creating collective leverage’ (Gall 2009: 177); that is, they act as collective agents to protect and improve their members’ wages and conditions through bargaining and other means. Some trade unions also have a legal, political, ethical and broadly social agenda, which means that unions are also interested in their members’ welfare and rights away from work. These interests also affect wider society and include activities that fall under the label of ‘community unionism’.

Introduction

Over the last two decades, human resources management (HRM) increasingly has been seen as a strategic partner to management, and in these volatile times this can cause tension with its traditional role of employee champion. In Australia and elsewhere, the strategic promise of HRM has supported the elevation of human resources (HR) professionals to strategic, senior management positions (see Fisher, Dowling & Garnham 1999; Sheehan, Holland & De Cieri 2006). At the same time, significant changes to Australian workplace relations legislation (examined in Chapters 5 and 8) have brought additional responsibilities to the HR role that require more direct involvement in the employer–employee relationship. The progressive decentralisation of the employment relationship through enterprise bargaining, non-union agreements and individual contracts that promote direct dealings between employers and employees at the workplace level have intensified the focus on the HR professional as a key stakeholder in the successful management of the employment relationship. Consequently, those working within the HR function are expected to fulfil the role of strategic partner, as well as to attend to the traditional employee advocacy roles and remain a steward of the social contract (Buyens & De Vos 2001; Lansbury 2004).

Introduction

The Australian Curriculum and New Zealand Curriculum documents (Australian Curriculum and Reporting Authority (ACARA), 2012; Ministry of Education (MoE), 2007) provide the scope and direction for science education in our schools. Both documents, consistent with science reform documents and curricula internationally, present a vision for science education that is much broader than acquiring science content. Science content remains, of course, as Science Understanding in the Australian Curriculum and as four contextual strands in the New Zealand Curriculum; but science process is given equal prominence in the curriculum as the Science Inquiry Skills strand in Australia and Investigating in Science in New Zealand. Perhaps most significantly, however, is the much broader vision of science education provided in both documents by including the emphasis on science as a human endeavour as the Science as a Human Endeavour strand in the Australian Curriculum document and as the Nature of Science strand in the New Zealand Curriculum.

Introduction

This chapter focuses on the learning and teaching of chemistry in primary school classrooms through the use of representations and appropriate vocabulary. It will examine ways of organising knowledge and linking scientific models and theories to observations and experiences. The Australian Curriculum (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), 2012) and the New Zealand Curriculum (Ministry of Education (MoE), 2007) cover common chemical concepts, under the banners of Chemical Science and the Material World respectively, related to the composition and behaviour of substances. Central to this are the ideas of matter, the changes matter undergoes, and the energy involved in these changes (ACARA, 2012; MoE, 2007).

Introduction

While the learning and teaching ideas explored throughout this book make sense on paper, the challenge for many primary school teachers is implementing and sustaining these strategies and approaches in their everyday practice. You will have already read about many of the problems that you might come across, but we hope that you have also made sense of the many ways that you can overcome these potential barriers. This chapter will offer some further suggestions as to how you can make science work in your primary classroom and school.

This book is crammed with ideas, theories and practical tips to ensure that you have the coni dence and ability to teach science to children in primary classrooms. Science is central to our lives in the 21st century and a vital learning area in the primary school curriculum. We all know that the primary curriculum is crowded, with literacy and numeracy dominating teaching time (see chapter 9 for an approach to how this can be overcome). Teachers are also aware that there are high expectations of what schools should be able to do with an increasingly diverse student population. We recognise that there are more assessment, reporting and public accountability measures in place than ever before. Even though science is recognised as a priority for governments on both sides of the Tasman, few primary schools currently provide science education programs that are considered to be generally, let alone highly, effective. And yet, this is a crucial time in a student’s education. They will either be encouraged and turned on to an endlessly fascinating subject, or they will view science as a collection of boring facts and useless information which is all too difficult to understand.

Introduction

This chapter aims to help you as a primary school teacher to better understand key ideas in physics, particularly force, by exploring how they are relevant to everyday life. It also aims to provide you with a range of ideas about how you can help your students to connect physics ideas to their own lives through the use of hands-on investigations and multiple ways of representing their ideas. This will open up opportunities for a range of learning styles and approaches. In particular, this chapter takes a constructivist approach to learning and will help you to develop a deeper understanding of force and motion. Ultimately, you should be able to design learning and teaching activities that help your students to make connections between their experiences and scientific explanations of how the world works.

Introduction

Talk of assessment often conjures up images of formal testing, but this is only one small aspect of the assessment activity that takes place in a classroom. Assessment can be observations made as students are working on a task or sense-making during a whole class discussion. It can be teacher feedback written in student books or offered during an investigation. It can be embedded in the student action of asking questions to clarify an idea, comparing their work with peers in order to improve it, and conducting another trial when the result of the first was a surprise to them. As these multiple images of assessment suggest, within any classroom, assessment takes on many forms and is undertaken by teachers and students for a range of purposes. However, it is the notion of assessment for learning that is integral to teaching, because it is responsive to student needs and interests as well as being a core professional competency and capacity for teachers to hold and work towards (Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership, 2011; New Zealand Teachers Council, n. d.). This chapter aims to do the following four things in supporting primary school teachers to better understand this concept:

Introduction

While previous chapters have acknowledged that science as a learning area is often minimally taught or avoided in primary school classrooms (see chapter 2 for an explanation of the barriers to teaching science), biology is an area of science that is widely covered. It is considered that this area may be a particular focus because primary school teachers can more easily relate to the science content, find themes that generate curiosity and interest amongst their students, and create links to daily life. The Australian Curriculum refers to this area as Biological Sciences (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), 2012), while the New Zealand Curriculum uses the term Living World (Ministry of Education (MoE), 2007). Throughout this chapter, the more generic term ‘biology’ will be used. This chapter will explore the science curriculum requirements for learning and teaching biology at a primary school level. It will also outline a learning journey, which uses the 5E instructional model (Bybee, 1997) as an approach to biology-focused science learning and teaching in primary school classrooms.