Through the first half of the semester, students from Concord University in Athens, West Virginia and students from Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia have discussed similarities and differences of the two countries school systems. We exchanged information through various modern communication styles; which includes: email, skype, wiki blogs, and through Google docs. I was shocked to discover that the educational system in Australia is very similar to the system that we are familiar with here in the United States.
Through email, the students from Victoria University shared that Australia places a high value on education. They show this by allowing each student to choose where they want to attend school at, tuition free. The costs are …show more content…
Through Skype, we discussed issues within the Australian educational system. A major issue is the unequal treatment of the Aborigine students in Australian education. The group that I was collaborating with stated that when students take NAPLAN, a form of standardized testing, the aborigine students ' test scores are separated from the other students. This seems very cruel to me and surprising that this would be allowed in a developed country like Australia. Another issue that was brought up was the problem of cyber bullying. In Australia, bullying is more problematic over the internet. Australia is combating this through campaigns meant for awareness, prevention, and web safety. There is also a close monitoring of students, within the classroom, making sure the signs of major depression are not showing. The teachers try to keep an eye out for any students that seem to be misplaced or being picked on by other students. With this in mind, I asked our counterparts how there school systems accommodated diversity and the use of inclusive classrooms in their classrooms. We were told that most Australian classrooms are originally unique, because of the many social classes and countries that are represented in them. Inclusive classrooms are used in many ways but the example that we were provided with was classrooms used to teach the English language to students that regarded English as a second language. The ranking of Australia is 15th in the world, United States is the 14th according to the collaborative group that we worked
Through email, the students from Victoria University shared that Australia places a high value on education. They show this by allowing each student to choose where they want to attend school at, tuition free. The costs are …show more content…
Through Skype, we discussed issues within the Australian educational system. A major issue is the unequal treatment of the Aborigine students in Australian education. The group that I was collaborating with stated that when students take NAPLAN, a form of standardized testing, the aborigine students ' test scores are separated from the other students. This seems very cruel to me and surprising that this would be allowed in a developed country like Australia. Another issue that was brought up was the problem of cyber bullying. In Australia, bullying is more problematic over the internet. Australia is combating this through campaigns meant for awareness, prevention, and web safety. There is also a close monitoring of students, within the classroom, making sure the signs of major depression are not showing. The teachers try to keep an eye out for any students that seem to be misplaced or being picked on by other students. With this in mind, I asked our counterparts how there school systems accommodated diversity and the use of inclusive classrooms in their classrooms. We were told that most Australian classrooms are originally unique, because of the many social classes and countries that are represented in them. Inclusive classrooms are used in many ways but the example that we were provided with was classrooms used to teach the English language to students that regarded English as a second language. The ranking of Australia is 15th in the world, United States is the 14th according to the collaborative group that we worked