Instructional Flexibility in Rural and Suburban Secondary Schools in North West Queensland

A Comparative Analysis

Abstract

The instructional flexibility of rural and suburban secondary teachers in two educational regions of Queensland was investigated. It was proposed that the qualitative and quantitative differences between rural and suburban secondary, and particularly the significant differences in class size, would see rural secondary teachers more instructionally flexible than suburban counterparts. Using interpretative and positivist data gathering processes and analysis techniques, it was found however, that in all respects of instructional flexibility, there was no significant difference between rural and suburban secondary teachers. Several reasons were advanced for the finding. First, it was found that the same teaching paradigm dominated teaching regardless of setting that of teachers standing out the front of their classes and delivering the information to their students. Second, both teachers, and the Department of Education, have a simplistic notion of learning style which arguably impaired their ability to construe teaching and learning in other than traditional ways. Third, in what all teachers indicated they would prefer to do as teachers, and what they felt able to do in reality as teachers, there was considerable discord, attributed mainly to the perceived demands to 'get through the work program' regardless. This is construed to be an attitude which is essentially incompatible with catering to student learning style differences. Finally, it was suggested the significant factors affecting a teacher's instructional paradigm are the model of teaching demonstrated by the teacher training institution, the teachers own personal construct of teaching, and the role of the teaching practicum in perpetuating the traditional, teacher centred, dais based model of instruction.