Anstey and Bull Consultants in Education

What are our current and recent projects?

2010 has been a busy year so far, just some of the highlights have been:

1. Working long term with schools in Queensland conducting regular PD sessions focussing on topics that have emerged from their analysis of NAPLAN results. We find this approach works well as it provides regular contact and feedback and enables us to address issues that are of critical importance to the school concerned.

2. In March we are conducting a full day workshop on Multiliteracies with the Association of Independent Schools Victoria (AISV) in Melbourne

4. The long long term (18 month) Action Learning Project with the AISV on changing pedagogies through multiliteracies continues. This project involves working with groups of teachers from five Independent schools in Melbourne and surrounds as they identify and carry out an action learning project and investigate their pedagogy.

5. We will be keynote speakers and workshop presenters at the Riverina Region Teaching and Learning Conference in Albury on 29 and 30 March run by the NSW Department of Education

6. We have just completed our next book Evolving Pedagogies : Reading and Writing in a Multimodal World. It will be published in June by the Curriculum Corporation/Education Services Australia.

7.We will be presenting papers at the IRA World Congress on Reading in Auckland New Zealand in July.

8. We will be returning to Melbourne in July to work with a number of schools and to finish the AISV long term project.

Recent highlights have been:

1. Traveling to New Zealand to conduct professional development in various towns on the North and South Islands for the New Zealand Reading Association.

2. The launch of our research report Finding the Gaps: Navigating Sustainable Learning Future for Indigenous Students in the Darling Downs and South West it is available at http://www.learningplace.com.au/uploads/documents/store/resources/res_41211_Finding_the _Gaps_2009.pdf

General News

1. Major Research Project Completed
Between September 2008 and June 2009 we completed a major research project examining the enablers and blockers to Indigenous students' success in Education in the Darling Downs and South West for the Greater Toowoomba Advisory Committee of DEEWR . The project was funded under the Whole of School Intervention Strategy (WOSIS). There are approximately 3,469 Indigenous students in 233 schools across systems in the Darling Downs Southwest Education Region.
The report titled Finding the Gaps: Navigating Sustainable Futures for Indigenous Students: A Pilot Study can be accessed at:
https://ceo.twb.catholic.edu.au/Curriculum/Documents/Forms/General.aspx

The guiding methodology utilised was ethnographic in nature and included a combination of place based interviews, focus groups and questionnaires with stakeholders. NAPLAN data for students in the region was also analysed. As the region and the student population is so large it was necessary to utilise a sampling methodology with a focus on:
•    Comparison between urban, regional, rural and remote community contexts,
•    Comparison between parent, student and teacher and Administrator perceptions of Indigenous education and learning,
•    The establishment of benchmarks for future comparison,
•    Strategic planning, and
•    Recommendations for action
Questionnaires were provided to 539 students, 480 parents and 459 teachers. 100 students were also individually interviewed.

2. New Book Coming
We are currently writing a new book to be published by the Curriculum Corporation in 2010. It is tentatively titled: Reading and Writing in a Multimodal World: The Consumption and Production of Texts. It will be in a similar format to Teaching and Learning Multiliteracies blending theory with practice and reflection. We are very excited about it and feel it will help teachers implement some of the theories of multiliteracies in practical ways using the multitude of digital electronic resources now available across all disciplines in the curriculum.