Education Queensland Research Articles

A new equity deal for schools: a case study of policy‐making in Queensland, Australia

In this paper we draw on concepts from policy sociology to analyse the new equity deal for schools in Queensland, Australia. We examine this ‘new deal’ through an analysis of the language of ‘inclusion’ and ‘educational risk’ in key policy documents associated with a major reform of public education in Queensland. In addition, we analyse the interview talk of key policy actors involved in policy framing, carriage and monitoring. We note that globalism has increased rather than reduced social inequity. At the same time, good quality accessible education can play a crucial role in challenging the inequalities produced by global informationalism. In Queensland, Australia, equity is still on the agenda, but in radically new neo‐liberal economic ways. The focus is individualistic—each individual needs to be tracked because they are potentially ‘at‐risk’ of ‘school failure’. Identification of ‘at‐risk’ students has been devolved to the level of the school and district, and intervention strategies have to be devised at the local level. Stories of success are then to be shared/networked with other schools. We suggest that while ‘target group equity’ strategies were limited in terms of addressing issues of social exclusion and inequity, the new deal on equity, a market‐individualistic approach is an inadequate alternative. In tough times you stick together. … This was Labor’s ‘inclusive’ society: a social democracy sustained by the wealth‐generating power of free markets and economic integration with the world economy, and made strong by a practical ethic of social cooperation and fair distribution. (Watson, 2002, p. 316)

New literacies and old pedagogies: recontextualizing rules and practices

Despite a growing awareness of the implications of the changing nature of literacy due to the impact of technological innovations, literacy pedagogies in educational institutions across the world continue to be predicated on a performative model, in which emphasis is placed on transmitting narrow concepts of literacy that privilege the alphabetic principle. However, an examination of recent developments in England indicate that there is, increasingly, a disconcerting relationship between new literacy practices as experienced by children and young people outside of schools and the development of literacy curricula and pedagogy by policy‐makers. This paper draws on Bernstein's (2000) conceptualization of the ‘recontextualizing field’ in order to explore how national literacy policy in England is selectively appropriating aspects of new literacy practices and reformulating them in ways which dissipate their potential for innovation and transformation. Berstein's ‘Official Recontextualizing Field’ (ORF) and ‘Pedagogic Recontextualizing Field’ (PRF) in which these developments are taking place are analysed in order to determine how the out‐of‐school discourses of children and young people are being ideologically transformed as they start to inform national policy. Instead, it is suggested that account needs to be taken of the way in which children and young people are engaged in innovative literacy practices, drawing from current uses of social software on ‘Web 2.0’ as an illustrative example. In taking account of these developments, schools can adopt ‘productive pedagogies’ (Lingard, B., Ladwig, J., Luke, A., Mills, M., Hayes, D. & Gore, J. (2001) The Queensland school reform longitudinal study, Vols 1 and 2 (Brisbane, Education Queensland)) in order to ensure that all pupils become successful literacy learners.

Letters to the Editor

4 October 2006 Dear Editor, PREVALENCE OF OVERWEIGHT AND OBESITY IN A REGIONAL QUEENSLAND PRESCHOOL POPULATION The reported trend of increasing overweight and obesity among Australian school children1 has resulted in studies of younger children being undertaken in recent years in an attempt to determine the age at which this trend begins. Identifying age of onset may be an important factor in understanding the ‘obesogenic’ factors that lead to this condition. The rebound or increase in body mass index (BMI) that occurs after it reaches its lowest point in early childhood is referred to as ‘adiposity rebound’ (AR). The age at which children enter the phase of AR (usually 5–6 years) generally coincides with entry into the preschool system. An early AR has been shown to be associated with an increased risk of obesity in adulthood.2 The detection of an increased prevalence of overweight or obesity in preschool children may offer opportunities for research to determine the environmental factors associated with an early AR. Results of studies determining the BMI of preschool children from South Australia and Victoria have previously been reported.3, 4 These studies encouraged us to explore the incidence of overweight and obesity in our regionally based preschool population. Our research called the ‘Toowoomba Healthy Weight Study’ surveyed a cohort of preschool children attending State primary schools with collocated preschool in our regional Queensland district. We obtained ethics approval for this study from the Toowoomba Health Service ethics committee and from Education Queensland. Weight and height of 339 children was measured with informed parental consent by a single observer in Term 4 of 2005. Age ranged from 4.0 to 6.5 (mean 5.2 ± 0.3) years. BMI and the age of the child on the day of measurement were calculated and the age and gender-specific International Obesity Task Force cut-off points5 were used to classify overweight and obesity. Of the 182 boys and 157 girls measured, 89% were aged between 5.0 and 5.5 years. Overall, 18.3% of all children were overweight or obese. This figure is similar to the overall prevalence of 19.3% and 19.8% found in the South Australian and Victorian studies respectively. Table 1 shows the percentages of overweight, obese and combined overweight/obese children in the South Australian, Victorian studies and the Toowoomba Healthy Weight Study (permission was obtained from the author and publisher to amend and add our data to their previously published table4). Despite differences in sample size and sampling frames between the three studies, the results confirm a trend which affects preschool children in regional and metropolitan areas across these three states. A limitation to our study is that the results reflect the prevalence of overweight and obesity in children attending State schools with collocated preschool in our district and do not include children from non-State institutions. In addition, the number of children consented by their parents to participate in the study was 37% of the total cohort of children at these preschools. Despite these limitations, our findings that approximately one in five preschoolers in our district is already overweight or obese add to the alarming evidence of excessive weight gain in Australian preschool children affecting girls more so than boys. These data support the need to develop national awareness, educational, supportive and preventative programmes targeting families with young children to prevent these children from becoming overweight and/or obese. This research was funded by the Toowoomba Hospital Foundation and the Pure Land Learning College, Toowoomba.

‘Because it’s boring, irrelevant and I don’t like computers’: Why high school girls avoid professionally-oriented ICT subjects

The current paper details results from the Girls and ICT survey phase of a three year study investigating factors associated with low participation rates by females in education pathways leading to professional level information and communications technology (ICT) professions. The study is funded through the Australian Research Council’s (ARC) Linkage Grants Scheme. It involves a research partnership between Education Queensland (EQ), industry partner Technology One and academic researchers at ( affiliation removed for review purposes). Respondents to the survey were 1453 senior high school girls. Comparisons were drawn between Takers ( n = 131) and Non Takers ( n = 1322) of advanced level computing subjects. Significant differences between the groups were found on four questions: “The subjects are interesting”; “I am very interested in computers”; “The subject will be helpful to me in my chosen career path after school”; and “It suited my timetable”. The research has demonstrated that senior high school girls tend to perceive advanced computing subjects as boring and they express a strong aversion to computers.

Virtual Teachers: Negotiating New Spaces for Teaching Bodies

In 2002, the authors reviewed the educational performance of a state education department virtual schooling service during its first 2 years of operation, 2000-2001 (Pendergast, Kapitzke, Land, Luke, & Bahr, 2002). Established by Education Queensland, the Virtual Schooling Service (VSS) utilises synchronous and asynchronous online delivery strategies and a range of learning technologies to support students at a distance (see http://education.qld.gov.au/learningplace/vss/). The service commenced with a focus on senior secondary subjects. At present, there are over 700 students in 89 schools across the state enrolled in 9 subjects. In response to the recommendations of the study, a series of professional development activities were conducted with the VSS teachers by the authors. Opportunity for critical reflection was provided, including consideration of the ways in which the teachers were developing as a learning community. Some data, including visual representations, were collected from participants with the purpose of understanding how VSS teachers are constructed as professionals. This study compares and contrasts that data with self-constructions of teacher professionals in other fields.

Professional standards for physical education teachers' professional development: technologies for performance?

Background: The widespread and diverse models of professional standards for teaching raise questions with respect to the need to provide teachers with a pathway for continuing professional development balanced with the public nature of surveillance and accountability that may accompany standards. Ways of understanding technologies of power in relation to standards for teaching gives us a new language and, in turn, new questions about the standards agenda in the physical education profession. Purpose: To analyse how one health and physical education (HPE) teacher worked with Education Queensland's (EQ) professional standards for teaching within the broader context of teacher professional development and renewal. Participants and setting: An experienced HPE teacher working in an urban secondary school was the ‘case’ for this article. Tim was the only experienced HPE teacher within the larger pilot study of 220 selected teachers from the volunteer pool across the state. Data collection: The case-study data comprised two in-depth interviews conducted by the first author, field notes from workshops (first author), teacher diaries and work samples, notes from focus groups of which Tim was a member, and electronic communications with peers by Tim during the course of the evaluation. Findings: Tim was supportive of the teaching standards while they did not have a strong evaluative dimension associated with technologies of power. He found the self-regulation associated with his reflective practices professionally rewarding rather than being formalised within a prescribed professional development framework. Conclusion: Tim's positive response to the professional standards for teaching was typical of the broader pilot cohort. The concept of governmentality provided a useful framework to help map how the standards for teaching were received, regardless of teacher specialisation or experience. We suggest that it is not until the standards regimes are talked about within the discourses of power (e.g. codification for career progression, certification for professional development imperatives) that we can understand patterns of acceptance and resistance by teachers to policies that seek to shape their performance.

Mental health literacy in rural Queensland: results of a community survey

Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess the awareness of, and attitudes to, mental health issues in rural dwelling Queensland residents. A secondary objective was to provide baseline data of mental health literacy prior to the implementation of Australian Integrated Mental Health Initiative - a health promotion strategy aimed at improving the health outcomes of people with chronic or recurring mental disorders.Method: In 2004 a random sample of 2% (2132) of the estimated adult population in each of eight towns in rural Queensland was sent a postal survey and invited to participate in the project. A series of questions were asked based on a vignette describing a person suffering major depression. In addition, questions assessed respondents' awareness and perceptions of community mental health agencies.Results: Approximately one-third (36%) of those surveyed completed and returned the questionnaire. While a higher proportion of respondents (81%) correctly identified and labelled the problem in the vignette as depression than previously reported in Australian community surveys, the majority of respondents (66%) underestimated the prevalence of mental health problems in the community. Furthermore, a substantial number of respondents (37%) were unaware of agencies in their community to assist people with mental health issues while a majority of respondents (57.6%) considered that the services offered by those agencies were poor.Conclusion: While mental health literacy in rural Queensland appears to be comparable to other Australian regions, several gaps in knowledge were identified. This is in spite of recent widespread coverage of depression in the media and thus, there is a continuing need for mental health education in rural Queensland.

Mental Health Literacy in Rural Queensland: Results of a Community Survey

The aim of this study was to assess the awareness of, and attitudes to, mental health issues in rural dwelling Queensland residents. A secondary objective was to provide baseline data of mental health literacy prior to the implementation of Australian Integrated Mental Health Initiative--a health promotion strategy aimed at improving the health outcomes of people with chronic or recurring mental disorders. In 2004 a random sample of 2% (2132) of the estimated adult population in each of eight towns in rural Queensland was sent a postal survey and invited to participate in the project. A series of questions were asked based on a vignette describing a person suffering major depression. In addition, questions assessed respondents' awareness and perceptions of community mental health agencies. Approximately one-third (36%) of those surveyed completed and returned the questionnaire. While a higher proportion of respondents (81%) correctly identified and labelled the problem in the vignette as depression than previously reported in Australian community surveys, the majority of respondents (66%) underestimated the prevalence of mental health problems in the community. Furthermore, a substantial number of respondents (37%) were unaware of agencies in their community to assist people with mental health issues while a majority of respondents (57.6%) considered that the services offered by those agencies were poor. While mental health literacy in rural Queensland appears to be comparable to other Australian regions, several gaps in knowledge were identified. This is in spite of recent widespread coverage of depression in the media and thus, there is a continuing need for mental health education in rural Queensland.

Critical Approaches to Inclusion in Indigenous Teacher Education in Queensland: The Case of RATEP

Inclusion is a key consideration in Learning Futures. It is a process of addressing a diversity of needs of all learners regardless of individual background. It can be achieved through increasing p...

Everyday Life in Distance Education: One family’s home schooling experience

This article offers a narrative portrait of one family enrolled in a school of distance education in Queensland, Australia. Most of the families own or manage sheep and/or beef grazing properties, and their children receive their education by correspondence papers and daily UHF radio lessons. The students complete their school work at home with a home tutor, who is most often the mother, with support and assistance provided by the school of distance education’s teaching and support staff. As part of a larger inquiry focused on what home schooling is like as a component of living and working on sheep or cattle properties, and as but one part of the families’ everyday lives, the portrait includes biographical information about Louise Michaelson as home tutor, narrative sketches of her children Thomas and Timothy, and descriptive discussions of daily routines both within and outside of the schoolrooms used for the distance education programs.

The effects of an integrated curriculum model on student learning and attainment

In an earlier article, we considered the pedagogy and assessment practices enacted by physical education (PE) teachers when attempting to translate a centrally prescribed rationale into meaningful performance-led teaching within an integrated curriculum - Higher Still Physical Education (HSPE) in Scotland. Through further research this article analyses the consequences of teachers’ curriculum decision-making on students’ learning and assessment experiences, and on the development of their analytical abilities. Additionally, comparison with BSSSS Senior Physical Education in Queensland, Australia, highlights discussion points for the further review of policy and practice. Specifically, both data and comparisons reveal the need for the inclusion of students’ achievement evidence in subsequent evaluations of curriculum integration and teacher effectiveness. We also discuss whether the learning imperatives underpinning school examinations in PE are achievable within the constraints and pressures revealed by our investigations.

The power to educate and inspire

Fossils have the power to educate and inspire outside the specialist world of palaeontologists. Dinosaurs as a topic have captured the imagination of children worldwide, and are a theme used prolifically to inspire learning by early childhood educators. Fossils have the potential to unlock the minds of many ordinary people as they ignite curiosity, marvel, wonder and interest. Where do the discoveries, facts and findings of palaeontologists go after they've been published and let out into the public arena? How are they utilised? Does a child who loves dinosaurs have to become a paleontologist? Or can such an interest be a stepping-stone to other things? The following observations are a result of an interest in fossils, a career in education in Queensland and the Northern Territory, and work with both state museums.

Influencing Pre-Service Teacher Skills and Attitudes Towards Diversity: Is DOL the Answer?

Abstract: This paper reports on a preliminary investigation into the success of an undergraduate course, in helping preservice teachers at a regional university develop the skills and attitudes necessary to design inclusive learning environments that cater for, and celebrate, difference. The study is particularly relevant given recommendations by the Education Queensland Ministerial Taskforce (Queensland Government, 2004) that all pre-service teacher education programs must ensure that inclusive education is a pervasive theme. The paper starts by providing an overview of inclusive contexts and a rationale for inclusive education including critical elements. This leads into an overview of the undergraduate course EDED11400 Managing Diversity and discussion, based on feedback from the teaching team, on the capacity for the course to help pre-service teachers develop inclusive curriculum and pedagogical practices. The pedagogical framework Dimensions of Learning* is then discussed, with consideration given to whether this framework with its focus on critical thinking and habits of mind, might improve future learning outcomes in the course EDED11400 Managing Diversity. (*Dimensions of Learning is a pedagogical framework designed to teach thinking skills (Marzano et al., 1988). It explores five types of thinking represented in the framework by five dimensions of learning.)

Editors’ Introduction to Special Theme Issue: Meanings Under the Microscope (Part 3)

Articles in Part 3This is the third and hence the final of the three-part inaugural theme issue of the International Journal of Pedagogies and Learning, which has published the first wave of the refereed proceedings of the 2nd international pedagogies and learning conference, held at the Toowoomba campus of the University of Southern Queensland in Australia between 18 and 20 September 2005. The conference theme was Meanings Under the Microscope; the refereed theme articles in this issue contribute to a diverse and comprehensive account of the constructions of meanings in multiple educational contexts and of the effects and impact of those constructions. The remainder of this editorial introduction outlines the articles appearing in this issue; the introduction to the next issue will include selected reflections on the 18 theme articles constituting the conference's first and second wave refereed proceedings.In the first article, Allan Leslie White of the University of Western Sydney in Australia is concerned with the character of the relationship between graphics calculators and pedagogical change in secondary mathematics classrooms. The article develops a matrix of pedagogical approaches derived from the research literature and designed to maximise the effective use of graphics calculators to promote such change. At the same time, the author acknowledges both the limitations of using graphics calculators and the pedagogical implications arising from those limitations.The second article, by Robyn Torok from Education Queensland in Australia, focuses on the association between propositional and practical knowledge reflected in the metaphors and images articulated by pre-service teachers during their fieldwork experiences. The study explored three pre-service teachers' explications of the supposed theory-practice divide in relation to behaviour management and pedagogy. The author's major finding is that it was less this divide than the supervising teachers' teacher-centred pedagogy that prevented the pre-service teachers from developing their practical knowledge as comprehensively as they might have wished.Poh Gek (Julie) Lim, an experienced teacher in Singapore and a postgraduate student in the Faculty of Education at the University of Southern Queensland in Australia, uses the third article to identify effective pedagogical and learning strategies that promote Internet information literacy among secondary school students in Singapore. …

Critical discourse analysis and internet research

Many institutions have taken advantage of the proliferation of computer mediated communication networks (CMCs) to improve communication between members and/or interested individuals by establishing online discussion groups or listservs. Once established, the virtual communities that form around CMCs can often provide an increased sense of a participatory democracy. However, for authorities who manage these listservs, they can present new modes of governance that manifest themselves in the discursive practices revealed in online dialogue. Therefore, a new imperative has emerged for discourse analysts to develop a ‘toolkit’ designed to deconstruct these distinctive texts that are the artefacts of virtual discussion groups. This article explores the methodological issues that emerge when applying CDA (Critical Discourse Analysis) to a particular set of online texts through a critical evaluation of Fairclough's (2003) model of interdiscursive analysis. The virtual context in which this analysis occurs is the FRAMEWORK listserv, established and monitored by Education Queensland to assist in implementing the New Basics Trial in a selection of state schools. The results from this application of CDA are discussed with reference to some discursive practices observed in virtual communities. The implications of these research findings are explored in relation to the broader context of educational governance.

Pedagogies and Learning in Cooperative and Symbolic Communities of Practice: Implications for and from the Education of Australian Show People

[Abstract]: Groups and organisations are not automatically sites of effective and transformative pedagogy and learning; such outcomes are most likely to occur when entities become communities of practice (Wenger, McDermott & Snyder, 2002). One conception of community focused explicitly on the facilitation of pedagogy and learning is cooperative community, centred on five principles (Johnson & Johnson, 1998). Another productive notion of community is as a symbolic construction, centred on members' shared consciousness and boundary maintenance (Cohen, 1985). One community that demonstrates the pedagogical and learning potential of cooperative and symbolic communities of practice is the Australian show people (Danaher, 1998, 2001). Following generations of educational marginalisation, this community participated in a specialised program within the Brisbane School of Distance Education between 1989 and 1999, and since 2000 its members have benefited from having their own Queensland School for Travelling Show Children, established under Education Queensland' auspices. This paper maps and portrays enactments of the cooperative and symbolic communities of practice in the school and on the show circuits. It identifies specific strategies that underpin the pedagogies and learning made possible in those communities of practice, and it considers possible implications of such pedagogies and learning for other educational contexts and groups.

“Constructing the World, Constructing Meanings”: A Case Study of Program Coherence in Integrating Three Bachelor of Education First Year Courses to Teach for Deep Learning and Critical Thinking

IntroductionUniversity programs, especially those spanning three-five years, typically include a large number of discrete courses, often taught across several faculties and commonly allowing considerable student freedom in course selection. In this context, for program designers of professional education programs such as teacher education, achieving program is problematic. Fostering for students such outcomes as knowledge integration, deep understanding and development of professional identity becomes highly elusive. Buchmann and Floden (1991, p. 65) put challenge thus:In terms of intellectual how can one create a web of beliefs composed of subject matter understandings, concepts from foundations, and situated, strategic knowledge of teachers? How can different kinds of learning, located in different institutions (university, training college, workplace), and offered by different people (academics, student supervisors, teachers) be made to work together in practice?....There is a prevailing assumption that answers may be found in bringing together concept of with that of programme.In addition to this hope that may solve problems of fragmented curricula and a lack of transfer of university learning into practice (see, for example, Buchmann, 1987; Lortie, 1975), curriculum designers of professional degrees struggle with tension between conveying content (subject matter) and teaching thinking (generic cognitive competencies). They typically value the idea that curriculum should focus more on competencies such as learning to learn, interactive skills, communication skills, information processing, problem-solving and reflective skills (Tilemma, Kessels & Meijers, 2000, p. 266). In case of non-professional courses (e.g., women's studies), there can also be a search for curriculum in order to realise goals of these programs (Salley, Winkler, Celeen & Meck, 2004).Important work has been done at school level. Newmann, King and Youngs (2000) and King, Ladwig and Lingard (2001) identify five interacting organisational elements that build school capacity and lead to better student learning for all students. A key element among these is program which Newmann, King and Youngs (2000, p. 263) define as the extent to which a school's programs for student and staff learning are coordinated, focused on clear learning goals, and sustained over a period of time.In United Kingdom, Rudduck and Harris (1994, p. 198) address of broader term coherence, urging for a form of coherence that is about meaning and not bureaucratic commonality, consistency or tidiness. It is, say, significance of for students that matters and researchers fail if they do not set out to understand how students experience They argue (p. 198) that:Coherence is actively constructed rather than passively received. Students bring with them their own resource of experience and understanding, and represents linking of new insights, knowledge and with that resource. Thus, is about - how new curriculum experiences can be meaningfully taken on board by individual students.At its basic level, connectedness conveys idea of joining things together and it may refer to links between individual courses or between courses and out-of-school life. Taken in sense of linking curriculum content and processes to student experience outside school, this notion of connectedness has been identified as a key element of effective pedagogy by work done in United States (Newmann & Associates, 1996). Follow-up work (Lingard & Ladwig, 2001) that verifies and extends these results has been conducted in Queensland, as part of development of Education Queensland's (2001) New Basics curriculum. Subsequently, work done in New South Wales (New South Wales Department of Education and Training, 2003) has modified pedagogical model. …

From complexity to category: Responding to diagnostic uncertainties of autistic spectrum disorders

Recent data from Education Queensland has identified rising numbers of children receiving diagnoses of autistic spectrum disorder (ASD). Faced with funding diagnostic pressures, in clinical situations that are complex and inherently uncertain, it is possible that specialists err on the side of a positive diagnosis. This study examines the extent to which possible overinclusion of ASD diagnosis may exist in the presence of uncertainty and factors potentially related to this practice in Queensland. Using anonymous self-report, all Queensland child psychiatrists and paediatricians who see paediatric patients with development/behavioural problems were surveyed and asked whether they had ever specified an ASD diagnosis in the presence of diagnostic uncertainty. Using logistic regression, elicited responses to the diagnostic uncertainty questions were related to other clinical- and practice-related characteristics. Overall, 58% of surveyed psychiatrists and paediatricians indicated that, in the face of diagnostic uncertainty, they had erred on the side of providing an ASD diagnosis for educational ascertainment and 36% of clinicians had provided an autism diagnosis for Carer's Allowance when Centrelink diagnostic specifications had not been met. In the absence of definitive biological markers, ASD remains a behavioural diagnosis that is often complex and uncertain. In response to systems that demand a categorical diagnostic response, specialists are providing ASD diagnoses, even when uncertain. The motivation for this practice appears to be a clinical risk/benefit analysis of what will achieve the best outcomes for children. It is likely that these practices will continue unless systems change eligibility to funding based on functional impairment rather than medical diagnostic categories.

Education Reform for At‐Risk Youth: A Social Capital Approach

Using the Education Queensland Reform Agenda to illustrate examples and approaches to education reform, this article discusses education reform for at‐risk youth. It argues that the characteristics of modernity, the rise of Mode 2 Society, and the power asymmetries associated with the emergence of the politico‐economic will contain the reform ambitions of the Education Queensland and other education reform agendas. It is proposed that the State adopt a transgressive and complimentary set of reform strategies including the adoption of distributed governance, making available meaningful school performance data, encouraging experimentation and facilitating broad stakeholder, community and neighbourhood engagement in school planning and operations. The article argues that measures such as these will assist to mobilize trust, minimise social fragmentation, generate and regenerate community resources, build cohesion, foster the socio‐cultural‐self‐identities of ‘at‐risk’ youth and will assist youth to achieve full participation in a robust and vibrant democracy.

Professional standards for teachers: a case study of professional learning

This paper analyses the current Australian policy and research context in relation to developing quality teachers. Like other countries, many educational authorities in Australia are developing professional standards for teachers and the evaluation of teachers against those standards as a mechanism for ensuring and extending the quality of teaching in schools. A key policy consideration involves the use of professional standards as tools for extending professional learning and/or for credentialing and appraisal. This paper considers these uses of standards by drawing on an evaluation of Education Queensland's Professional Standards for Teachers pilot. The pilot focused on using a set of standards as a framework for professional learning. Teachers' perspectives on the standards and their intended use, their engagement with the standards during the pilot and the nature of professional learning associated with that engagement are discussed in light of current policy debates about professional standards.