Teaching<\/a> and Learning Model 2.0 which mandated explicit instruction, in collaboration with the Australian Education Research Organisation (Aero), a contentious body which has heavily focused on that model.<\/p>\nUnder the VTLM 2.0, all Victorian government schools must fully embed the policy in their teaching by 2028 and in some instances will \u201cinclude retiring approaches and practices that do not align with the VTLM 2.0\u201d.<\/p>\n
Since the policy was announced, two Montessori streams in Victorian public schools and one Steiner stream have been shut down or phased out. There remains one Montessori stream in Victoria and five Steiner.<\/p>\n
The state education department said it is up to Victorian public schools whether they offer an alternative program such as a Montessori, Steiner or International Baccalaureate stream. In a letter to a parent, seen by Guardian Australia, the department says it, \u201chas not issued any directive in relation to the \u201cretirement\u201d of alternative curricula\u201d.<\/p>\n
The department says it has not issued any directive in relation to the \u2018retirement\u2019 of alternative curricula. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi\/AAP<\/p>\n
Mark Powell, director of education services at Montessori Australia, said Aero and the VTLM 2.0 model promulgate a one-size-fits-all approach to teaching, which doesn\u2019t work for all students.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn June 2024 the government launched VTLM 2.0, a mandatory teaching framework with a hard 2028 deadline, [with] very explicit language allowing for the retirement of non-aligned programs \u2026 and then the closure of three programs in the last two years, it looks like a policy design,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMontessori is an evidence-based methodology. It\u2019s been internationally recognised over the last century and it\u2019s been proven by many peer reviewed studies to be highly effective for diverse learners including those with neurodivergence.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the same time, the federal government has buried a damning independent report into Aero, which the body claims would cause it \u201cserious reputational harm\u201d.<\/p>\n
The education department blocked Guardian Australia\u2019s freedom of information request for the report by KPMG, commissioned by Labor, because it could risk damaging relations between the states and commonwealth.<\/p>\n
Aero objected to the release, according to the FoI rejection, saying it would \u201cundermine trust in the quality of evidence Aero generates, with a risk that educators and other stakeholders would cease using its resources\u201d.<\/p>\n
It said the release could cause \u201cserious reputational harm to Aero \u2026 damaging its ability to engage with partner jurisdictions\u201d, as well as harm Aero\u2019s relationships with members, \u201cundermining its ability to fulfil its functions\u201d.<\/p>\n
De-professionalising teaching<\/p>\n
Alex Bacalja, a senior lecturer who works in initial teacher education at Melbourne University, said teachers, schools and academics had criticised Aero because of its heavy focus on explicit teaching, and accused it of moving decision making and experience from educators to bureaucrats.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause Aero claims to know the best methods of teaching, and communicate that knowledge through departments of education, teachers are no longer allowed to decide what is best for the students in front of them at any one time, a bureaucrat has decided that for them \u2026 it aims to de-professionalise teaching,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like a bureaucratic department telling brain surgeons how to do brain surgery.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bacalja was involved in consultation sessions organised by KPMG during the audit.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought there would be a balance of those people who mostly supported Aero\u2019s work and others far more critical. It was all critical,\u201d Bacalja said. \u201cI know colleagues who attended other consultation sessions with KPMG who shared similar stories.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Greens education spokesperson, Penny Allman-Payne, said it was \u201cappalling\u201d the report was hidden from the public.<\/p>\n
\u201cAero is meant to be Australia\u2019s national education evidence body and yet they won\u2019t provide to teachers, other educators and school leaders, the evidence of the report into how well they\u2019re functioning \u2026 I think that\u2019s pretty appalling.\u201d<\/p>\n
The former public school teacher said she had heard criticism from educators and researchers that Aero \u201ctakes a very narrow focus on which evidence they use and look at\u201d, and heard other concerns that some of the resources on the website were \u201cinsulting\u201d because they were so basic and would have been covered in university.<\/p>\n
The federal government is working towards absorbing Aero, the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (Acara), the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL), and Education Services Australia (ESA) into a new \u201cteaching and learning commission\u201d.<\/p>\n
The department, in its FOI response, said some education ministers claimed the release of the audit could \u201cprejudice ongoing discussions\u201d about the new commission, but Allman-Payne said the KPMG report should be released because of the new body.<\/p>\n
\u201cInformation in that report is going to be critical to any decisions that are made \u2026 a good process would involve everybody understanding what\u2019s gone well with the bodies that they want to amalgamate and what hasn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
* A pseudonym has been used to protect identity<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michelle\u2019s year-eight daughter, Leah*, has been in and out of hospital since birth with complex medical issues, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":842447,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-842446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=842446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/842447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=842446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=842446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=842446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}