News
Articles by Dr. McKeith
Schools grapple with technology
The television ads for children's shoes and stationery tell us it's back-to-school time, bringing with it the thorny perennial public wrangling about equity and government funding.
There will also be much time and attention devoted to the growing debate about the role of selective schools. If NSW Education Minister Rob Stokes intends pursuing changes to selectives he can expect fierce resistance from self-interest groups and political opponents.
But by far the greatest challenge to schools this year will be the growing application of technology, despite the fact that it will probably receive little attention in media and political circles. Although It is already well accepted in the "adult world", schools will grapple with this multidimensional problem.
All families and schools are battling with how to afford the new technology and retain their currency over time; how to make effective use of these devices, equal access for all, and how to help control and balance the school and home application. The approaching pressure of online NAPLAN, at ever younger ages, is just one stress.
Easy access to online gambling and pornography affects our children and therefore our schools. How to manage and effectively respond to online bullying and the crushing mental health effects is a deep concern.
Where does the responsibility of the school and that of the family start and finish? The Office of the eSafety Commissioner is stretched to the limit and schools and families find it difficult accessing helpful support and advisory services.
How far do we go in allowing student access to smartphones and laptops in the playground – during recess and lunch breaks? What about in the classroom – recording science experiments, creating art works, photography and video recording on excursions with hand-held devices? How do we protect the interests of those who, for good reason, don't want to have their photograph taken?
And, how do we encourage play and physical activity, when there is such powerful adult role modelling and media hype given to digital literacy and IT competence and use? Schools are routinely confronting these challenges and responding as best they can.
Preschools and schools are encouraged to spend their scarce funds on creating and maintaining arresting websites, blogs, Facebook and Twitter connections. Parent access occasionally can be problematic. To what extent should limitations be applied to parent access to parent group emails? I have visited preschools and primary schools in countries to our immediate north, where parents can gain web camera access from their mobile phone to the classroom through cameras installed for the specific purpose of allowing parent observation and monitoring of classroom activity.
There are Australian schools that have this controversial technology installed, justified to the teaching staff as a way for the school administration to watch children and activities inside the classroom and to help in protecting teachers from unjustified complaint from parents.
A growing concern in the early years of schooling with the demise of handwriting, also will emerge, as technology throughout schooling gradually supplants handwritten student submissions. In some schools this has already happened, accompanying the school and university trend of replacing libraries – and books, by the faster and cheaper, possibly more effective, internet-based research.
These are fundamental and challenging issues for families and for preschools and schools. They get to the essence of what happens in schools. Teachers are in the front line of all these developments. Policymakers should be aware of the seriousness of these changes, consult with teachers and support and encourage all our preschools and schools.
Article originally published by Sydney Morning Herald on 26/01/18
Grandparents put their feet up after a year of helping the rest of us achieve the impossible
I suspect there are many grandparents feeling a sense of relief this week – feet up for a break from the routine tasks involved in ferrying grandchildren to and from school and pre-school. After-school carers, taxis and loving listeners for the enthusiastic stories from grandchildren in their care. It's now time for a short respite before it all begins again.
Rudolf the Rednosed Reindeer. I heard it the other morning coming from the local primary school. Children's voices reaching out into the wider suburb. Following me as I walked. Practising for a Christmas that has once again, suddenly, come surprisingly near.
I like having the school nearby. The integration of generations. Old and young. Interested, patient grandparents hand in hand with young children. And schools interspersed among shops, parks and close to residential aged care centres. All of us, mixed in together.
At this time of year, grandparents have been able to combine their childcare responsibilities with special moments at their grandchild's end-of-year celebrations. At this time of year, it's not all hard work, often six days a week, moving grandchildren from one parent-set commitment to another. Instead, generations come together to share in each other's joy.
Regrettably though, some older members of our community are isolated and separate – alone, maybe lonely. There are those who are down on their luck. And there are those who find themselves in residential care a long way from the real activity, the frenzied fusing of this synthesised enterprise.
For too many: an exceptional visit from a caring daughter or possibly a brief outside excursion for Christmas Day lunch. Some in our cities do this integration of generations better, or possibly differently, than others. For some, residential care remains a very last resort and instead, three or four generations of a family live together or nearby, connecting with each other throughout the year, not just at Christmas. Their celebrations reflect this togetherness.
Within our larger communities there are those in the older generation who work hard, generally without payment, for our benefit throughout the year. Many of us rely on the contribution, the kindness, the love of these older members of our community. Yet too often we fail to appropriately include and appreciate them.
Now is the time to reach out with love, friendship and unremarkable goodwill and harmony to all of those in our community, and to show goodwill to those of the older generations – within our families and outside of them – who have helped us throughout the year to achieve what would otherwise be impossible in our busy daily lives.
Article originally published by Sydney Morning Herald on 19/12/17
Recent 2017 consulting success: oversight of successful search for additional inner Sydney school property
Recent 2017 consulting success: oversight of successful search for additional inner Sydney school property
Recent 2017 consulting success: as education advisor, assisted search for new Principal of Australian International School Hong Kong
Recent 2017 consulting success: as education advisor, assisted search for new Principal of Australian International School Hong Kong
School uniforms: who needs them?
Following the Victorian government's ruling to allow girls to choose shorts and pants over dresses and skirts as uniforms, there is current community discussion in this subject in NSW.
Do we need to open more varied school uniform rules for girls: to allow them to wear a school uniform that is more traditionally male as now in Victoria.
At present, the discussion is limited to reducing the disadvantage experienced by girls, through the introduction of trousers and pants options, removing the expectation on girls to wear dresses to school – gendered uniforms.
But could we go further and get rid of school uniforms completely?
Full Article available here at www.smh.com.au
Not everything worth learning can be measured by an exam
"Schools are more than examination factories" and "education is not just about ATARS" are common complaints from teachers and politicians during exam season. But we haven't been serious about turning away from the competition that drives schools to be exam factories.
In recent years, education leaders and policy makers have encouraged a transformation in schools. Politicians have introduced and supported the growth in league tables, in competition at all levels – between children, between schools, between public and private. We've been told that in the apparent key performance indicators of school quality – literacy, numeracy and computer skills – we rank below the "leading education nations".
Schools have been grounded on the presumption that everything that can be learnt should be measured. They have been pushed to the limit with education policy dictated by government.
Full Article available here at www.smh.com.au
The conversation we should be having about our schools
If there's one message that the education system should take from this election and recent world events, it is that the key focus of schooling must be on building quality relationships one with another.
We can throw money at schools. We can improve our teacher/student ratios; put up new buildings and spend money on ever more laptops. But if the quality of our relationships is going backwards, our education will fail our young people.
Full Article available here at www.smh.com.au
What are we losing with the death of handwriting?
There is much more to handwriting than that which meets the eye. There is a culture. A tradition. A way of thinking.
Yes, it has a cost, but maybe that’s a cost that a mature society should be prepared to bear, writes William McKeith.
Full Article available here at www.smh.com.au
Schools need to experiment in the classroom to prepare students for the world
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's focus on research and risk is timely. He challenges us to creatively respond to the needs of our new and less defined world order. We are at a point in our history when those who can accept, manage and grow through risk, will flourish. Risk aversion will take us nowhere.
Schools with classrooms that place experimentation, research, entrepreneurship and innovation at the centre of their teaching and learning will prepare young people for this exciting new world.
For 30 years I have been the principal of a wide range of schools: traditional high-fee paying ones both in the city and rural, Islamic and recently Montessori schools. All very different and each one distinctive and impressive in its own way.
I have had the opportunity to attend conferences, visit schools and to benefit from extensive sabbatical experiences, within Australia and around the world.
Probably the most compelling finding from this experience is the importance of a culture that encourages risk taking and co-operative self-discovery. Some schools have it and many don't. Some schools model it and many don't.
Routinely, I am reminded of how amazingly competent our children are. How capable they are of accepting and responding to challenges that are thrown their way. We need to release our children and to assist and guide them towards the aim of becoming fully integrated and strong-willed human beings, able to make prudent and wise decisions and choices.
The ultimate goal is co-operation with others in an effort to forward civilisation in a unified and peaceful fashion. This is also the essence of what it means to be a disciplined human being with a fully developed will. Children need to learn to work by themselves, to set personal goals and to be the controller of their own force of will.
The challenge within our schools then is to grant freedom to our children. Within the bounds of clear, endorsed ethical standards, we need to develop school cultures that allow our children to fly, to accept responsibility, to grow individually as members of teams, co-operatively, in the acceptance and the group resolution of problems and issues. Children need to be challenged rather than scared, by the possibility of disorder and surprise.
The "old schools" that place power relationships, competition, certainty and hierarchical structures at the centre of their school communities are no longer appropriate. This industrial model is dead and schools that continue with it are doing our children and our Australian community a disservice.
There are schools which think that introducing laptops, bring-your-own-device solutions and initiating changes such as beautiful interactive web sites and contemporary 'comms' plans are substantial, possibly adequate responses to the new paradigm. They're not.
Internally, schools need to take measures that embrace the views and the needs of their communities. And we should be learning from the education experiences of acknowledged national education leaders such as Finland, where the distinguishing emphasis is on quality, rather than quantity. "Less is more" in Finland - less formal, less structure, less centralised control, and solutions are not found in more homework, more tutoring, more testing and more regulation.
We must respond to research that speaks persuasively of democratised and shared decision making that embraces the views and contributions of staff, students, families and wider communities. Effective risk taking requires trust and mutual obligation. Co-operation and respectful engagement with one another drive the effective new schools, just as these qualities drive productive work places anywhere in the world. Our schools, in this regard, are no different.
Turnbull is right to increase our focus of attention on innovation and risk. The business of Australia's future development and opportunity will be determined by how effectively we grasp this new challenge. We all know that there is a new dynamic that is driving our work environments and our international relationships and issues. It is a dynamic that has less order, less structure, is more precarious and uncertain. How we respond and how successfully we engage with this, will be determined by the young people that emerge from our current and future classrooms.
Published by The Sydney Morning Herald
Original Article
Oversight of Senior Management structure Review at Oxley College, Burradoo. NSW August
Oversight of Senior Management structure Review at Oxley College, Burradoo. NSW August
2014 continuing: principal of Inner Sydney Montessori School
2014 continuing: principal of Inner Sydney Montessori School
Assisting with St Peters Girls' School, Adelaide Principal search July-September
Assisting with St Peters Girls' School, Adelaide Principal search July-September
Assisting Rissalah College, Lakemba, May-Dec 2013 with governance/funding issues
Assisting Rissalah College, Lakemba, May-Dec 2013 with governance/funding issues
Assisting with Radford Principal search in March/April
Assisting with Radford Principal search in March/April
Australian Universities Need To Lift Their Game
Down the road from my apartment here in Hanoi, there is a local Vietnamese University advertising degrees from the University of Greenwich, UK. Downtown the British University of Vietnam offers degrees from Staffordshire University and the University of London. In the big cities of Vietnam aggressive marketing by Universities and business interests in the UK and the US, from Singapore and Japan, has resulted in on shore partnerships and joint venture relationships, global brand degree options, that are sucking the growth potential out of the conservative Australian tertiary sector international market place.
The Ernst and Young Report into the Australian University Sector, released this week, further highlights what many of us in the international education sector have been saying for some time. Our Universities are operating on 'borrowed time'. The global University sector has moved on. Australian Universities are struggling with inadequate government funding, an uncompetitively high Australian dollar and a failure to ambitiously and creatively grasp the education opportunities of our region.
The picture in Vietnam is in evidence throughout the Asian region. In China, Singapore and Hong Kong, there is a massive expansion in global partnerships and in the online delivery of course material. In Malaysia there has been an explosion in the number of international universities and off shore courses offered by Malaysian partners especially those sourced from other Muslim countries. In recent times Middle Eastern Universities have moved aggressively into the sector with extensive advertising and promotion, scholarships and other attractive incentives.
Australian Universities have failed to measure up in global branding recognition and in the international ranking status of many of their international competitors. For instance, Oxford and Cambridge Universities dominate the Asian education publications sector and through primary and secondary school and English language course provision, they monopolize the high status, high quality image field of the global education market.
Australian Universities need to lift their ranking on the various international measures. Students from the Asian countries look closely at these measures when deciding on an overseas University at which to spend their parents' hard earned income. The 2012 Times listing of top Universities by reputation, places the highest ranked Australian University at 43. Universities in the US and the UK dominate the rankings. There are six Asian Universities above Australia's first placed University, the University of Melbourne.
Another reputable ranking system, the Academic Ranking of World Universities, places the University of Melbourne, again number one amongst Australian Universities at number 57. There are other systems of global ranking that place Australian Universities even lower than this and point to the rapid growth in positioning of many of the recent tertiary course providers and the urgent need for Australian Universities to get moving in improving their global standing.
The Ernst and Young Report into the Australian University Sector, released this week, further highlights what many of us in the international education sector have been saying for some time. Our Universities are operating on 'borrowed time'. The global University sector has moved on. Australian Universities are struggling with inadequate government funding, an uncompetitively high Australian dollar and a failure to ambitiously and creatively grasp the education opportunities of our region.
The picture in Vietnam is in evidence throughout the Asian region. In China, Singapore and Hong Kong, there is a massive expansion in global partnerships and in the online delivery of course material. In Malaysia there has been an explosion in the number of international universities and off shore courses offered by Malaysian partners especially those sourced from other Muslim countries. In recent times Middle Eastern Universities have moved aggressively into the sector with extensive advertising and promotion, scholarships and other attractive incentives.
Australian Universities have failed to measure up in global branding recognition and in the international ranking status of many of their international competitors. For instance, Oxford and Cambridge Universities dominate the Asian education publications sector and through primary and secondary school and English language course provision, they monopolize the high status, high quality image field of the global education market.
Australian Universities need to lift their ranking on the various international measures. Students from the Asian countries look closely at these measures when deciding on an overseas University at which to spend their parents' hard earned income. The 2012 Times listing of top Universities by reputation, places the highest ranked Australian University at 43. Universities in the US and the UK dominate the rankings. There are six Asian Universities above Australia's first placed University, the University of Melbourne.
Another reputable ranking system, the Academic Ranking of World Universities, places the University of Melbourne, again number one amongst Australian Universities at number 57. There are other systems of global ranking that place Australian Universities even lower than this and point to the rapid growth in positioning of many of the recent tertiary course providers and the urgent need for Australian Universities to get moving in improving their global standing.
The Ernst and Young Report calls for Australian Universities to urgently rethink their approaches if they want to remain competitive in the global community. They encourage a more lean, more on-line, more creative competitive approach.
For those of us who are working off shore in the sector it is abundantly clear that our Australian Universities are at risk of missing the boat. Already, we have a serious decline in enrolment interest from the Asian countries felt more so in some Australian states than others. Australia was once a pioneer in the international market place but according to Ernst and Young now faces a bleak future if we fail to change our ways.
The Australian Tertiary sector is operating in an increasingly competitive community of University providers where both Private and Public Universities globally are aggressively competing for the mobile international student. There is a difficult balance to be found between attracting these students, maintaining course quality and integrity and University survival. There are external pressures such as Government policy, as evidenced again in this past week with the Swan announcement of a further reduction in research spending, and the current currency exchange rates that force our Universities' sector to compete with a substantial weight handicap.
The Ernst and Young Report is timely. It is alarming but there is a positive dimension. It points our Universities in a direction that will hopefully encourage a more creative bolder approach to their internal operations and course offerings. The global community is not going to sit waiting for us. We need to respond now.
Dr William McKeith AM is an education consultant working with education institutions in Australia and Asia
2012/2013 Final Examinations delivered by Australian invigilators in Asia: Fourth Year of AISC
2012/2013 Final Examinations delivered by Australian invigilators in Asia: Fourth Year of AISC
Schools called to double check compliance on students traveling overseas
With increasing numbers of schools developing global connections through student exchanges and overseas tours, some to very ambitious destinations, Dr McKeith has encouraged school Principals to check and recheck their paperwork and processes. SAWW will assist in this vital double check- a compliance overview- as required.
AISC students in Vietnam celebrate after receiving their AISC 2010/2011 certificates
AISC students in Vietnam celebrate after receiving their AISC 2010/2011 certificates. Rigid standards resulted in 75% pass or above (Credit, Dist. High Dist) standard.
Second annual AISC examinations delivered in Asia
Second annual AISC examinations delivered in Asia
USC grants direct articulation
University of Sunshine Coast grants direct articulation to undergraduate courses with AISC at credit average level.
http://www.usc.edu.au/
CQU Australia approved direct articulation
Central Queensland University has granted the AISC at Credit level, direct entry to first year undergraduate degrees without IELTS.
https://www.cqu.edu.au/