Terence Lovat
Ron Toomey
Neville Clement
Robert Crotty
Thomas Nielsen

$55.00 inc GST
158 pages, 240x174mm, Softcover
ISBN 9781921333-217

May 2009

The Book
The contents of this book represent a revolution for education and especially teacher education. The revolution centres on the effects on student learning that have been demonstrated through research and pilot projects concerned with values education, quality teaching and service learning, in Australia and internationally. The demonstrated effects concern transforming student behaviour and teacher-student relationships, improving the environment of learning, strengthening teacher and student resilience, and hence staff and student satisfaction, and enhancing student academic diligence.

While values education, quality teaching and service learning have separate research and practice traditions, they are bound by a central optimistic belief in the power of pedagogy to make the difference and enjoying in common many of these positive effects. The book uncovers research that illustrates how these three research and practice traditions can work together to form an even more powerful pedagogy capable of driving transformative learning through the most insurmountable of obstructions. In this sense, they act as a TROIKA, that cleverly constructed Russian snow cart that, when pulled by three strong horses well aligned and working together, can haul the heaviest load through the thickest snow.

While many of the conceptions and practices related to the TROIKA of values education, quality teaching and service learning have transformed school environments and pedagogy, it seems there has been less impact on teacher education. The book suggests that the time has come for teacher education to be transformed as well to become the vital training arm for the twenty-first century that is its proper role.

The book draws on updated research and practice from across the globe but it centres especially on findings from the various Australian Values Education projects of 2003 to 2009, with special reference to the project managed by the Australian Council of Deans of Education, with which the authors were associated. 

The Authors
Terence Lovat is Professor of Education at The University of Newcastle, Australia, and Immediate Past President of the Australian Council of Deans of Education. He has served as chief investigator of a number of Values Education projects funded by the Australian Government

Ron Toomey is Adjunct Professor at the Australian Catholic University and Conjoint Professor of Education at The University of Newcastle, Australia. He has been co-investigator and manager of a number of Values Education projects funded by the Australian Government

Neville Clement is a Research Associate at The University of Newcastle, Australia, who has been involved in a number of Values Education projects funded by the Australian Government

Robert Crotty is Emeritus Professor of Education at The University of South Australia who has served as a University Associate for a number of Values Education projects funded by the Australian Government

Thomas W. Nielsen is a Senior Lecturer in Education at the University of Canberra, Australia, who has served as a University Associate for a number of Values Education projects funded by the Australian Government

Thanks also go to the following teachers who each led one of the case studies outlined in the book:

Sue Cahill, St Charles Borromeo Primary School, Templestowe, Victoria

Marion McKenzie, Seaford 6-12 School, South Australia

Rita Van Haren, Lanyon School, Australian Capital Territory

Contents
Chapter 1:
The New Values Education and the Troika Metaphor

Chapter 2:
Ramifications of the New Values Education for Teacher Education

Chapter 3:
The New Values Education and Student Wellbeing and Achievement: Confirming the Troika Effect

Chapter 4:
The ACDE Values Education Partnerships Project: A History

Chapter 5:
The Troika, Student Wellbeing and Learning

Chapter 6:
A Communal Approach to Values Education, Quality Teaching and Service Learning

Chapter 7:
The Troika and Developing the Whole Human Being: Head, Hands and Heart

Chapter 8:
Concluding Remarks on the Ramifications of the Troika Effect for Teacher Education