Brendan's interesting issues for VCE English

[brendan]

Citizenship test
http://www.education.theage.com.au/pagedetail.asp?intsectionid=0

[marbs]

I was reading through your topics and found some of them interesting especially the merit pay.

Our schools topic is 'encountering conflict' can this work.

My teacher also said that she has many points against merit pay, and I should reconsider.

What do you think stick with that topic

[brendan]

My teacher also said that she has many points against merit pay, and I should reconsider.

Just a question: is she a crap teacher?

[Collin Li]

My teacher also said that she has many points against merit pay, and I should reconsider.

Why should you reconsider simply because he or she has many points against merit pay? It sounds like intimidation to silence you. An oral presentation is not what your teacher believes in, but it is about presenting good facts and arguments.

[brendan]

Given that your teacher
(1) is female
(2) has said that she has many points against merit pay

There is a high probability that she is in fact against the idea of performance pay. There is also a high probability that she is a Labor voter. There is also a reasonable probability that she is a member of the AEU, a teachers union, which staunchly opposes performance pay, though the AEU have come up with their own "merit pay" proposal.

Assuming that your teacher is marking you, and that she has a negative predisposition to the idea of merit pay, the research on persuasion shows that she would mark you harder and be more critical of your work than if you argued a case that she agreed with. Yes, that is biased marking, and yes that is probably unfair. But most teachers do it subconsciously and don't notice it.

So it depends how much you want to risk. If you are in year 12 it's probably not worth the trouble.

If your primary objective is to get the highest marks possible with the minimum amount of input, then get to know her, talk to her a bit more, and find out what issues she is passionate about, find out her political positions, etc. Then argue a case that she would agree with. She won't notice it, but she would probably be much more lenient in marking you.

[Collin Li]

Haha, much more pragmatic advice than mine. Disregard my post, although I still think that your teacher is ridiculous for telling you to "reconsider." You should reconsider though, simply because there is a possibility of biased marking - not because the teacher has "many points against" it.

[brendan]

You could call my strategy playing politics i suppose.

[marbs]

Thanks for the input brendan, coblin.

She is a crap teacher, and to be honest I probably won't risk it. She seemed dead against it, I was a bit shocked at first but whatever.

She seems to want people to do more on the citizen test, and no-one has yet done that so i'l probably do it on. 'Australia doesn't need a citizen test.'

[brendan]

She is a crap teacher,

lol well there you go, of course she would be against merit pay, because well she doesn't have much merit

[brendan]

http://blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au/lukeslattery/index.php/theaustralian/comments/curriculum_cordiality_in_the_air/
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23249327-12332,00.html

[Eriny]

Given that your teacher
(1) is female
(2) has said that she has many points against merit pay

There is a high probability that she is in fact against the idea of performance pay. There is also a high probability that she is a Labor voter. There is also a reasonable probability that she is a member of the AEU, a teachers union, which staunchly opposes performance pay, though the AEU have come up with their own "merit pay" proposal.

Why does being female have anything to do with it?

[Collin Li]

It's most likely part of the statistics, and not a sexist comment (I doubt it would come from Brendan). I think you (or we) should ask him for the source.

[brendan]

Given that your teacher
(1) is female
(2) has said that she has many points against merit pay

Edlund, L. and Pande, R. (2002) ‘Why have women become left wing? The political gender gap and the decline in marriage’, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 117(3), 917-961.
http://depts.washington.edu/crfam/seminarseries01-02/Edlund.pdf

Niederle, M. and Vesterlund, L.(2007) 'Do Women Shy Away from Competition? Do Men Compete Too Much?', The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 122(3), 1067-1101.
http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/qjec.122.3.1067?journalCode=qjec

Gneezy, U., M. Niederle and A. Rustichini (2003) “Performance in competitive environments: Gender differences,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 118(3), 1049- 1074
http://www.stanford.edu/~niederle/Gender.pdf

Datta Gupta, N., A. Poulsen and M.C. Villeval (2005) “Male and female competitive behavior - experimental evidence.”
http://ftp.iza.org/dp1833.pdf

Uri Gneezy, Kenneth L. Leonard, John A. List (2008), "Gender Differences in Competition: Evidence from a Matrilineal and a Patriarchal Society" National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No. 13727
http://www.nber.org/papers/w13727

M Daniele Paserman, "Gender-linked performance differences in competitive environments: evidence from pro tennis"
http://www.voxeu.org/index.php?q=node/320

[sisqo1111]

my teacher has choose to do the bay dredging. Do you think this is an interesting topic? i havent really heard much about it

[brendan]

i dun think its as interesting as some of the issues i've identified