We have had a great start to the year with VALBEC Committee planning meetings to ensure we have an action-packed year full of Professional Learning sessions all mapped out.
Two members of our committee attended the year’s first ACAL first planning meeting with all the CAL representatives from across Australia. Held in Adelaide, Linno and I attended and were privileged to be part of this group and assist to frame up new ideas for implementation this year. Importantly, the Joint Conference with ACAL will be held in Melbourne this year on September 4 and 5 with a growing list of interesting guest speakers and workshop facilitators. Watch this space!
Just last week we have had a most engaging PL session with our recent past president Liam Frost-Camilleri providing excellent strategies and updates about dealing with students with divergent needs. Titled ‘The calm within the Storm: Vocational research insights that foster student well- being,’ Liam was able to share his great research insights into creating appropriate learning environments for diverse and non-traditional students. There surely was something for every teacher to take away and explore further in their classrooms.
We have some exciting PL sessions being scheduled showing a diverse range of views and approaches to assist our teaching colleagues wherever their vocational setting. A face-to-face meeting with Catherine Devlin from ACFE State office was attended and some new initiatives will be followed up, including some potential exciting new projects for our sector.
Deborah Mullen, VALBEC President
VALBEC Membership
You can join or renew online.
https://valbec.org.au/membership/
If you join in August, September or October, deduct 50%. Renewal falls due the following February.
Members receive:
- Fine Print three times a year – a high quality journal for discussion and debate about good practice, theory and policy issues. Feedback and contributions are actively sought from members about content and issues.
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eVALBEC – our e-mail communication keeping members informed of professional development activities, general committee activities and more up to date policy changes.
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Discounts for the Annual Conference and other VALBEC statewide professional development.
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Issues-based forums.
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Focus on significant policy issues impacting on the field.
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Free numeracy resources.
The Invisible Barrier: Reaching the Learners We Never Meet
A VALBEC (Victorian Adult Literacy and Basic Educational Council) Professional Learning session presented by Dr Deniese Cox.
Dr Deniese Cox will be joining us to share how basic digital literacy requirements—from finding courses to completing enrolment forms—can become insurmountable obstacles for many aspiring learners.
This is a fantastic opportunity to discuss practical strategies for identifying and removing these hidden barriers, making our programs more accessible to all. You’ll leave this session with actionable insights on how to bridge the digital divide and extend their reach to these "invisible" learners who need our support but cannot currently access it.
Dr Deniese Cox is one of Australia’s leading authorities on effective online teaching strategies. Every strategy presented by Deniese in her webinars and workshops has been extensively trialled, refined, and proven to work by diverse educators and learners in a variety of vocational and workplace training contexts. The Good Practice Guide developed from her award-winning research on adult learner digital skill barriers has been downloaded more than 4,000 times.
We look forward to seeing you there.
VALBEC PL Forums Team
Who: Dr Deniese Cox
When: Thursday, 20th March 2025, 5.30-6.30 pm AEST
Where: Zoom
Cost: VALBEC Members Free; non-Members $10
Teachaway
Free resources for lesson planning
https://www.teachaway.com/blog/14-free-resources-esl-lesson-planning-i-couldnt-teach-without
Lingoda
Conversation topics that will get everyone talking.
https://www.lingoda.com/blog/en/esl-conversation-questions/
The first edition of Fine Print will be published in around May. We are open for submissions for this issue, or the final issue of the year in November. Please contact us through info@valbec.com.au
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Sat, 8 Mar 2025 International Women's Day resources
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The National Reconciliation Week (May 27 - May 3) theme this year is Bridging Now to Next, which reflects the ongoing connection between past, present and future. 2025 resources and background information are translated into Arabic, Greek, Italian, simplified and traditional Chinese, Korean, Punjabi, Spanish, Thai, and Vietnamese. Posters, postcards and other educational material is available at the Reconciliation Australia website.
Paulo Freire (1921—1997)
Freire’s most well known and regarded work centres around the idea that adult literacy is best addressed through a different approach to education that recognises that adults have their own strengths and experience. He refused to use the nomenclature of education and instead his classes were called cultural circles where discussion was encouraged, and teachers were known as coordinators or facilitators. In this way, Freire’s approach was more of a consciousness raising exercise as well as a literacy building class.
Freire coined the term banking method of education to describe the often used system whereby students are passive vessels that teachers are aiming to fill with knowledge. For Freire, it was critically important that students interrogated their learning, and that teachers encouraged it.
Freire said it was impossible to know the word, until you knew the world; meaning that knowledge of the class system (and we can expand that to include racism and other forms of colonial oppression, disability, gender and sexualities), and the place you have in it is critical to understanding the written word.
Critical friends of Paulo Freire include the highly regarded scholar, bell hooks. Listen to the interview here, where bell hooks discusses Paulo Freire.
eVALBEC
eVALBEC is the monthly electronic newsletter of (VALBEC) the Victorian Adult Literacy and Basic Education Council and is sent to about 1000 practitioners on the first of each month (other than January). It is also available in the ‘News’ section of our web site
Disclaimer:
The activities, goods and services mentioned in eVALBEC are not endorsed by Valbec in any way. People should make their own judgment about the suitability of each item.
How to submit items: https://www.valbec.org.au/evalbec