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This paper analyses some contemporary educational contexts that teachers should consider for their puberty education programmes and/or curricula, for primary and secondary school students. The educational contexts addressed here include significant international puberty education framework documents, socio-biological factors including earlier puberty and a developmental approach, demographic and technological factors, and school factors including what students want from such education, and its professional teaching standards. Teachers and course designers may use these educational contexts to guide their planning, accommodate students' needs and motivation, identify goals, processes and solutions, and respond to international policy directions encapsulating the accelerated change that is the spirit of the age.

The processes of puberty, including reproductive fertility and social-role transitions, now begin earlier, last longer, and are experienced in very different contexts. Because of this, all children and adolescents need good-quality puberty education in school curricula, and this need is supported by positive cost-benefit analysis and international professional consensus. The introduction of a new nationwide curriculum is an ideal opportunity to seek evidence for the presence of puberty education, in this case, in the Australian Curriculum. This study, a concise account of the first-known search for such evidence, aims to examine the compulsory curriculum Content Descriptions in the subject Learning Areas (LAs) developed for Australian students in Years 1-10. Quantitative and qualitative content analyses were conducted of audits taken at critical learning/teaching stages for students aged 5, 10 and 15. Findings highlight negligible levels of puberty education presence, even in the LA of Health and Physical Education (HPE), but immense potential for the inclusion of puberty education in all audited LAs. The introduction of consistent, continuous and competent programmes in all school years would likely enhance students' well-being, health and safety, educational outcomes and life chances.

In many countries, there are no professional standards determining attributes, praxis, effectiveness and evaluation for teachers of relationships and sexuality education in schools. However, in the USA, a new set of pre-service teacher preparation standards has been developed for sexuality education and health. Australia has a set of generic teacher professional standards, but none specifically designed for teachers of relationships and sexuality education. This study aims to explore the possible development of such specific education professional standards for Australian teachers, by comparing and contrasting the knowledge, skills, and competencies exemplified in the prospective USA preparation standards with those in existing generic Australian teacher standards at graduate level. The analysis points to common areas of suitability, competencies, and effectiveness that could help pre-service/initial teachers, in-service teachers, and teacher educators find appropriate and relevant benchmarks for the teaching of timely and comprehensive relationships and sexuality education. The findings show structural similarities, content consistencies, and helpful commonalities in both standards' sets, comprising seven USA teacher preparation standards, and seven Australian teacher professional standards. Such information may be useful for teachers and educators wishing to generate professional standards for the teaching of relationships and sexuality education in Australia.

Sociological contexts are key factors in education and schooling. Contemporary contexts of world-view, or "Weltanschauungen," such as human rights, public health, demographics, biosocial factors including earlier puberty and a developmentalist approach, and technological connectivity, warrant significant professional consideration by education authorities for children and adolescents. Such sociological contexts encapsulate the impetus for change that is the overwhelming spirit of the age, or "Zeitgeist," and so may generate significant positive requirements for school-based teaching and learning. These sociological contexts are particularly relevant in the design of any school puberty/sexuality curriculum. This paper examines a number of these significant sociological contexts, and provides a guide for their consideration in the architecture of global, contemporary puberty/sexuality curricula for primary and secondary school students.

Quality school-based sexuality education is important for all children and adolescents. The global trend towards students' earlier, longer, and technologically connected pubertal experience makes the timely provision of such education particularly significant. Quality international sexuality education documents are available for teachers developing curriculum-based frameworks and pastoral care programmes, and these variously include policy and structural guidance, equity standards, comprehensive content and pedagogical strategies. This paper aims to compare three such documents for their relevance in meeting the educational needs of students, and their usefulness for teachers and educators. The results show that these three documents, produced by global organisations for multi-national application, provide highly professional and sustainable responses to the dire need for improved sexuality education for all children and adolescents, in formats accessible to any curriculum planner or teacher. Inclusive and timely provision of any of these document frameworks would help enhance sexuality teaching and learning in contemporary primary and secondary schools, and they are highly recommended for use by teachers around the world.

All children need timely puberty and sexuality education. The task falls to schools because they have the learning and teaching processes, competency programmes, opportunities, and resources for age-appropriate cognitive, knowledge, and skills development in children and adolescents. Quality sexuality education guidance documents have been designed for teachers to use in programmes at all school age levels, and in many countries. However, this paper aims to show how teachers can use a theoretical framework that particularly addresses learning and teaching processes to guide their planning, provision, and assessing for specific pedagogical solutions in puberty and sexuality education classes. A recommended theoretical framework employs six cognitive processes linked with four types of knowledge in an evidence-based, cumulative, and transparent organisational table, for use in any learning area or educational context. Its application can assist teachers' implementation of quality, effective puberty and sexuality education lessons, Units of work, and full-year learning and teaching in primary and secondary schools. This theoretical framework can also be used by appropriate child and adolescent educators in out-of-school situations, and other evidence-based interventions. The timely, continuing, and normalised implementation of such learning and teaching processes, can, in turn, support students' experiences of puberty, which now start earlier, and also enhance their developmental opportunities, health, safety, prosocial values, and future lifechances.

The processes of puberty are now commonly observed in primary school-aged students. Schools, therefore, need to address puberty and sexuality education for students' health, well-being, safety and pastoral care. Similarly, preservice teacher education needs to address future primary school teachers' unfamiliarity and lack of confidence with these issues and topics, and develop appropriate and normative learning and teaching practices to benefit students of all ages. This paper explores the types of sexuality education content and pedagogies student-teachers prefer to learn about, and be assessed on, in a dedicated sexuality education course in their preservice Bachelor of Education (Primary) degree. A mixed-method design collected quantitative preference ratings and qualitative responses revealing that student-teachers prefer content about the social, developmental and psychological aspects of primary school children's puberty and sexuality. Student-teachers also prefer school counsellors and school nurses as guest speakers, learning pedagogies in tutorial or small groups and assessments through case studies by oneself or small groups. This Australian evidence may be useful to designers of preservice health and sexuality education courses, who aim to assist primary school student-teachers become more competent, confident and professionally trained in puberty and sexuality education.

Much contemporary educational literature exhorts teachers, at all educational levels, to undertake continuous self-reflection on their teaching practices. However, at pre-service university level, many student teachers do not appear to understand the concept very deeply. Teacher educators and student teachers could benefit from knowing more about the characteristics and scope of student teachers' reflective competencies. This paper explores the competencies identified by primary school student teachers in their abilities to self-reflect on their own teaching capacities during practice teaching. Some 166 student teachers each wrote a 1500-word essay focusing on their reflective competencies. These essays were subjected to a Narrative Content Analysis using a modified version of Bain et al's. theoretical framework, with six components containing 19 levels of reflection. The results show that most of these student teachers were able to reflect in terms of reporting, responding, and relating, but were unable to do so in terms of reasoning, reconstructing, and representing reflection. Females generally performed better except in terms of responding, where males were more likely to respond in terms of significant aspects of teaching the incident or issue, to make judgments about the incident or issue, or to pose questions or identify problems. These outcomes have implications for teacher educators and pre-service students in terms of developing higher quality self-reflections about teaching and learning.

Background: Children and young adolescents are reaching puberty earlier. Providing information about such changes before puberty can help them develop in a more competent and informed manner. Context and Objective: UNESCO's "International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education" forms a comprehensive, evidence-based, authoritative document. This review analyses the Guidance for children and young adolescents aged 9-12 years who attend upper primary school. These students are very likely to be experiencing puberty, but are very unlikely, in many countries, to receive sufficient sexuality health information or education from parents or school at this crucial time. Design: This review analyses the text and narrative of this internationally-acknowledged sexuality education curriculum, and the relevant learning objectives/key ideas of a comparable state-designed health and physical education curriculum. Setting: Children and young adolescents who attend upper Primary school. Method: Analysis of text and narrative of this UNESCO Guidance. Results: Analysis shows that UNESCO's Guidance has greater, more relevant content, wider coverage, specific definitions and vocabulary, and more learning objectives, than does a contemporary upper primary school curriculum for the same cohort. Conclusion: Health curriculum designers and teachers can use this helpful Guidance to provide students with a fulsome puberty learning experience including age-appropriate knowledge, understanding, skills and values.

Child abuse and neglect, particularly child sexual abuse, is a pastoral care issue that deeply concerns all education professionals. The literature strongly supports specific training for pre-service teachers about child sexual abuse and its mandatory reporting, although few studies identify how such training should be academically structured. Experiential theory suggests that learning, at any age, is greatly enhanced when students experience content in practice, rather than abstractly as lectures or handouts, and that consideration of students' needs, interests and preferences greatly enhances their engagement and learning outcomes. This study gathers and explores quantitative and qualitative data on the specific preferences that primary and secondary school student-teachers (N = 321) have for a pre-service course on child sexual abuse and mandatory reporting, considering factors, including duration, timing, mode, academic value, size and integration. Results show that student-teachers want more content regarding child sexual abuse than they currently get, they want it to be integrated with early experiential in-school learning, and they want it delivered just before their first block of practice teaching in schools. These findings support pre-service implementation of specific, engaging, socio-praxis learning experiences that accommodate student-teachers' expressed needs and preferences, and so may be used to guide the planning and configuration of a dedicated course regarding child sexual abuse and its mandatory reporting.

Primary school teachers are often tasked with puberty/sexuality education for students who are undergoing sexual maturation at ever-earlier ages. This study explores the changing trajectories of the pre-service learning and teaching of primary school puberty/sexuality education at an urban university, including student-teachers' childhood learning, professional pre-service studies, and technological educational future. Biographical narratives and a theoretically based conceptual and diagnostic framework are used to analyse the views of fourth-year Bachelor of Education student-teachers about their own primary school puberty/sexuality education, their present university professional education for teaching these subjects, and their intentionality to teach them to future Grade 6 school students. Results show that these student-teachers intend to replicate their own primary school learning experiences. Pre-service professional education appears to have failed to operationalise the contemporary learning and teaching of puberty/sexuality education that would allow a new generation of more effective knowledge and pedagogies to be implemented. (Contains 4 tables and 1 figure.)

This paper evaluates UNESCO's recommended sexuality educational framework for junior school students aged 5-8 years. It also compares it to an existing state-designed Health and Physical Education curriculum that includes sexual and reproductive health for the same cohort. Based on the universal values of respect and human rights, UNESCO's" International Technical Guidance" (2009) promotes clear, comprehensive, and evidence-informed sexuality education in the compulsory school years, for all countries. Aimed at education and health decision-makers, the framework addresses knowledge, values and discussion of often-stifled issues that are appropriate for healthy child development, and necessary to counter children's vulnerability to abuse, exploitation and sexually transmitted infections. Most importantly, it emphasises that children are not ready for sexual contact with other people. The results of this paper's evaluation show that the "Guidance" offers timely, definitive, wide-ranging, inclusive and effective sexuality education for children who are usually left "to find their own way". The comparative results show that the sampled Australian curriculum is woefully inadequate for the task of teaching puberty, sexuality and reproductive health and safety education.

Globally, adolescents aged 12-15 years are making sexual and reproductive decisions of profound significance for their future, often based on misguided, inadequate or dangerously wrong information. Very few countries provide evidential and comprehensive education about puberty, sexuality, and reproductive health and safety to children and young adolescents at school, when it is most effective and beneficial. UNESCO has produced a culturally applicable framework for such education, with the primary aim of reducing sexual risk behaviour and sexually transmitted infections including HIV/AIDS. This study analyses the 2009 "International Technical Guidance" for its appropriateness, relevance and contemporaneity to this young teenage cohort, who are at most risk of the consequences of ignorance. (Contains 1 figure.)

Children's education may be adversely impacted by external factors during their childhood. For example, learning to learn, critical reflection, experiential learning and self-direction may be permanently impaired. Many children in out-of-home residential care during the last century suffered ongoing child abuse and neglect, including sexual abuse, and very few received an adequate education. This paper explores the educational development, educational achievements and educational opportunities of a sample of 10 men who, as children in residential care from 1950 to 1975, were sexually abused. Purposive sampling was used to locate former residents, now members of a community support centre in long-term recovery, specifically, from child sexual abuse. Employing narrative analysis, 10 anonymous male survivors volunteered to give qualitative narrative interviews about the immediate and long-term impacts on their education of child sexual abuse they suffered while in residential care between 1950 and 1975 in Queensland, Australia. Of all the factors of institutional life, nine of the 10 survivors perceived child sexual abuse, in particular, to have permanent and debilitating impacts on their educational development, opportunities and achievements. Until the early 1970s, children in residential care, already deprived of a functioning family life, were deemed to be a burden upon society. In contemporary society, education is the great enabler; the best way to help people have a fulsome life. Children who are at risk of missing out on this should receive earlier, specialised and more intensive teaching, educational support and counselling resources.

Background: Teenagers need information about their changing bodies. Many young people do not receive adequate or accurate puberty/sexuality education from their parents or school, so many teenagers are going online to have their sexuality questions answered. Purpose: This research examines teenagers' web questions on sexuality, and an example of the puberty and sexuality education content that some may learn in school. It looks for evidence of heteronormative conceptualisations of gender and sexuality, using a theoretical framework based on the Four Discourses of Sexuality Education. Sample: This includes the web questions (n = 200) of an evenly gendered sample of 13-15-year-old students (n = 180) from four English-speaking nations, namely UK, USA, Canada and Australia, selected from a reputable puberty/sexuality education site, and, for comparison, an example of an age-representative public school Health and Physical Education (HPE) puberty/sexuality education curriculum. Method: A gendered and narrative-thematic Content Analysis was undertaken, using the Four Discourses theoretical framework, on the students' sexuality web questions, and also on the school HPE curriculum. Results: The discourse of Victimisation was evident in nearly half of all students' web questions, and over a third of the HPE curriculum. The discourse of Individual Morality was present in a quarter of both students' questions and the curriculum, while the discourse of Desire was evidenced in a fifth of students' questions and almost a third of curriculum content. Somewhat surprisingly, the discourse of Violence was present in 9% of exclusively female students' web questions, and in 12% of the curriculum. Conclusion: It is recommended that the sampled HPE curriculum, and similar curricula in these sampled students' countries, need explicitly to address gender differences in students' metacognition and conceptualisations of puberty and sexuality. This may enable students to embrace their entitlement to sexual subjectivity, in education and across the lifespan, thus helping to ensure students' healthy, positive and purposeful life outcomes. (Contains 2 figures.)

Preparing children and adolescents for sexual safety and reproductive responsibility lies at the heart and purpose of puberty/sexuality education. The document of International Technical Guidance released by UNESCO in December 2009 aims to provide an evidence-based and rights-based platform offering children and adolescents vital knowledge about relationships, sexuality, reproduction and HIV/AIDS, within a structured teaching and learning process in the compulsory school years. The document, targeted at education and health sector decision-makers and professionals, includes evidence and expert advice on the importance of sexuality education, its implementation in schools, its age-appropriate topics, useful resources, and steps for key stakeholders. This study investigates and analyses the International Technical Guidance for its relevant, appropriate and contemporaneous educational response to the challenges of young people's sexual and reproductive health and protection, and its potential impact on Australian curricula at a time of national review. (Contains 1 box.)

Many children raised in orphanages suffered ongoing child abuse and neglect including sexual abuse, and nearly all were denied an adequate education. This paper explores adult females' perceptions of the impacts on their education of child sexual abuse they suffered while living in orphanages in Australia. In-depth qualitative and anonymous one-on-one interviews were undertaken with 10 female volunteers. Their narrative quotes emanate from questions asked about their experiences and perceptions of child sexual abuse, and its impacts on their educational achievement, educational development and educational opportunity. Of these volunteer females, only two had completed primary school, none had completed more than two years of secondary school, and none had undertaken any tertiary education. All had perceived child sexual abuse, in particular, to have had overwhelmingly negative impacts on their lifelong, educational achievement, educational development and educational opportunity. These impacts have had detrimental inter-generational consequences upon their own children. These adult females perceived child sexual abuse to be a major factor in their very poor, life-long educational development, achievement and opportunities, with intergenerational consequences for their self-esteem, wellbeing and success. Implications for practice are that children at risk should receive specialised teaching, educational support and counselling; adults with deficient education need help with learning processes such as dynamic learning, to help achieve active and inclusive citizenship.

Teacher-educators need ways of assessing the adequacy of university curriculum and the extent to which student-teachers meet learning objectives. One potentially useful tool is Anderson and Krathwohl's (Addison Wesley Longman, New York, 2001) theoretical framework, which can be applied to assess student-teachers' knowledge types and their cognitive processes in critical pre-service curriculum areas such as child sexual abuse and personal safety. This study aims to illustrate the use of Anderson and Krathwohl's framework in assessing student-teachers' learning of pedagogies in relation to child sexual abuse and personal safety. Participants were a final year cohort of 122 Bachelor of Education (Primary School) students at an Australian university. Student-teachers' essays regarding the pedagogical practices that they would implement in teaching about child sexual abuse and personal safety were content analysed using Anderson and Krathwohl's framework. Pedagogies identified by the student-teachers were unevenly distributed across the cells within the theoretical framework. Well-represented pedagogies tended to reflect mid-level cognitive processes (those of understand, apply, and analyse), and low to mid-level knowledge types (those of factual, conceptual, and procedural). Under-represented were pedagogies reflecting higher-level cognition such as creating (in all four knowledge types) and evaluation (of factual and conceptual knowledge). The findings provide a basis for assessing the adequacy of current university teacher-education curriculum structures. Student-teachers' understandings of under-used theoretical and pedagogical strategies can be identified as a guide to enhance their cognitive processes and knowledge dimensions. This study illustrates a method that has applicability as a diagnostic and assessment tool across a wide range of pre-service teacher education curriculum areas.

In Health Education, much sexuality education appears to have little evidence of an acknowledged theoretical basis for its knowledge and skills' teaching and learning. The Health Education teacher can frequently be at a loss to decipher what theoretical principles could or should permeate sexuality education curricula, which may be both detracting and distracting from the educational process. This paper explores and analyses a suggested selection of sexuality education pedagogies integrating the theoretical framework of Anderson and Krathwohl and Gardner's Inter-personal Intelligence theories. In response to the earlier maturation of girls and boys, and the concomitant need for better and earlier sexuality education, pedagogies relevant for three age groups, elementary/primary school (7-9 years), middle school (10-12 years) and high school (13-15 years), are identified and analysed as appropriate for these students' cognitive abilities. The integration of these two educational theories has implications for Health Education practitioners, whereby this approach may be useful to assist sexuality educators in identifying and anchoring pedagogies in a more theoretical and structured approach. Providing theoretical starting points, and directions to achieve students' learning goals, may enhance the quality of Health teachers' conceptualizing and planning for implementing quality sexuality education knowledge and skills' teaching and learning.

The introduction of a Department of Education policy on child sexual abuse and mandatory reporting is significant for school teachers. The mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse by school teachers carries wide-ranging and significant implications for the lives of school-aged children, and for the teachers who must implement the policy's requirements, processes and procedures. There is very little literature on student-teachers' pre-service knowledge about such a mandate. Most student-teachers do not receive compulsory university training in Child Protection and its legal requirements. This study audits an Australian cohort of 56 Bachelor of Education (BEd) primary school student-teachers in their final fourth year, on the sources of the professional knowledge they garnered during those four years concerning the Department of Education's policy on child sexual abuse and its mandatory reporting. The results show that such sources of knowledge that were available to student-teachers during their BEd were incidental, sparse and sporadic. These results are cause for concern; however, they may be used to help educators and curriculum planners design effective, appropriate and compulsory pre-service training for student-teachers. (Contains 9 figures.)

Many primary school teachers avoid teaching sexuality education. In light of the earlier maturing of both boys and girls, and the educationally and personally significant effects of their experience of puberty, this is unfair to children. In response to this avoidance, however, some schools employ external providers of sexuality education, who visit the school to provide lessons on puberty and sexuality. Little literature has been found on the educational approaches or pedagogies that external providers use in these school-based sexuality education lessons. This study aims to construct an outline of a sample of three female sexuality education external providers' perceptions of their most successful and least successful pedagogies, common questions about puberty and sexuality asked by students, specific pedagogical problems that may arise, and the best overall way to assist the sexuality education of primary school students aged from five to 11 years in Grade 1 to Grade 7. The results show that these external providers aim to provide trusting, respectful and enjoyable pedagogies for all girls and boys in Grade 1 to Grade 7; however, the infrequency of their visits and lessons to schools such as once per year is inadequate to provide a comprehensive and quality sexuality education at all grades of primary school. (Contains 1 table.)

This study aims to understand how primary school teachers, as mandatory reporters of child sexual abuse, are responding to child sexual abuse and its mandatory reporting, even though many teachers do not receive a compulsory course in Child Protection and its legal requirements in their pre-service university training. A cohort of 81 Australian final fourth-year Bachelor of Education (Primary) student-teachers was asked about four aspects of it. Qualitative data gathered from these student-teachers' questionnaires provide important insights into their knowledge of child sexual abuse; their knowledge of Department of Education policy on it; their professional competence in mandatory reporting of it; and their recommended educational and professional training in it. The results show that all of these student-teachers feel inadequately prepared to address child sexual abuse and mandatory reporting in schools, being unaware of both knowledge of it and the Department's policy, even though many recognise the gravity of sexual abuse for the child survivor and the need, and seriousness, of child protection. Finally, these student-teachers all want better training about these issues during their four-year degree. In conclusion, these results, and some recommendations, may provide a guide for curriculum planners to design compulsory and appropriate pre-service university courses to enhance student-teachers' knowledge, skills and competencies about child sexual abuse and its mandatory reporting.

Background: Teachers of sexuality education can often be uncertain about what theoretical basis and pedagogical strategies to use in their teaching. Sexuality educational programmes designed by teachers can often show few evident theoretical principles that have been applied in its construction. Thus, there seems to be a dearth of evidence of ways in which teachers can use appropriate theoretical foundations in their planning and teaching in sexuality education. Purpose: This paper aims to suggest a way of providing such an appropriate theoretical framework for sexuality education teachers of young people aged 7-15 years of age. Analysis: Age-appropriate primary and middle school pedagogies based on two integrated educational theories, namely Anderson and Krathwohl's theoretical framework of learning and teaching, with Verbal Linguistic Intelligence from Gardner's Multiple Intelligences, were analysed and evaluated. Key considerations were the earlier maturing of girls and boys, findings from relevant literature about children and young people's cognitive capacities, as well as the relevance of curriculum content for upper primary and middle school students, and the concomitant need for better and earlier sexuality education. Conclusion: This approach, integrating Anderson and Krathwohl's theoretical framework of learning and teaching, with Gardner's Multiple Verbal Linguistic Intelligence, may be useful to assist health and sexuality education teachers in identifying and anchoring pedagogies in a more theoretically structured manner, thereby enhancing the quality of their sexuality education planning and teaching. (Contains 1 table.)

A departmental review of education curricula in Queensland, Australia has found that minimal or no learning about sexuality education takes place. Its public schools and teachers are able to avoid or not fulfil their obligations regarding the teaching of sexuality education and reproductive health to children and young people. This lacuna in schools' duty of care may significantly compromise the well-being, choices, life skills and opportunities for young people as they mature towards adult citizenship, and may even lead to potentially hazardous situations for them. To redress this deficiency, a new curriculum and supporting documents have been developed by Queensland's curriculum authority. This paper audits both the current Human Relationships Education and the new Sexual and Reproductive Health Education curricula. This paper also analyses the rationale for teaching school students about sexuality, relationships and reproduction as an essential part of Health and Physical Education, in light of significant contemporary sexuality education issues and contexts. (Contains 1 table.)

Many regional and local Departments of Education in many countries now require their primary school teachers to be mandatory reporters of child sexual abuse. However, many student-teachers are not provided with courses on child protection and its policy requirements during their pre-service university education. So, how do student-teachers source, and develop, their professional information about this important role? This study examines an Australian university cohort of final 4th year bachelor of education primary school student-teachers, asking them to identify and clarify the nature of any relevant professional information they accessed over the 4 years of their teacher education. The results show that, in the absence of formal child protection courses, such professional information was scarce and sporadic. Student-teachers consistently indicated a pattern of not learning about essential Department of Education policies and procedures whilst at university. These results, although disappointing, provide a rationale for university curriculum planners to design appropriate pre-service university training courses that initiate, develop, and enhance student-teachers' professional competencies as mandated reporters of child sexual abuse.

Human Relationships Education is a very important part of primary school student-teacher education. All primary school children need sound guidance and enhanced knowledge about puberty, growing up successfully, and feeling competent and confident in themselves. An interactive multimedia CD-ROM was designed and developed for some Australian university student-teachers in the final fourth year of their Bachelor of Education (Primary School), and addresses the Human Relationships Education curriculum. This paper analyses some of the pedagogies used in this pastoral care learning as examples of a Constructivist approach to designing multimedia interactivities based on Anderson and Krathwohl's learning framework. Such an approach may be useful for other educational designers to improve student-teacher involvement in their pastoral care learning, to provide pedagogical variation and to use interactive multimedia, thus enhancing learning outcomes for student-teachers and, in turn, their primary school students. (Contains 1 table.)

Sexuality education for school-aged young people is a crucial component of all quality education systems. It prepares young people for participation in society as responsible, mature and community-minded citizens. Most contemporary school education curricula generally aim to enhance young people's knowledge, skills and understandings of the world, and of their rights as human beings and citizens of nations. The current sexuality problems of many young people are the opposite of these; namely, ignorance, lack of skills, misunderstandings, and loss of rights, as well as unnecessary fear and shame about themselves and others. Many young people do not receive any sexuality education at all, and frequently parents have been found to be unsatisfactory providers of sexuality education for their offspring. Schools, then, become the logical place to provide this. Nowadays, the earlier maturing of girls and boys provides a further persuasive argument for quality sexuality education in all schools. The absence or erosion of school-based sexuality education through ignorance, fear or unreasoned response helps support ignorance about sexual behaviours, increased rates of unwanted pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections, and the cruel loss of life opportunities for young people. The present paper responds to 12 parental objections to school sexuality education, by providing research facts and evidence-based reasoned arguments to them.

Background: In the Australian state of Queensland, many Department of Education Policies include behavioural directives for school teachers, whereby "the teacher must..." behave in a certain manner. The introduction of an education policy, such as the mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse by teachers, has significant and wide-ranging implications for the lives of children. However, little is known, and little literature has been found, about student teachers' knowledge and understanding of these new behavioural directives for teachers. Purpose: This study audits Bachelor of Education (Primary School) student teachers who are about to become qualified teachers, on their knowledge, and their confidence in that knowledge, of the Department of Education behavioural directives on child sexual abuse mandatory reporting policy, which they will soon have to implement when they are employed in professional teaching positions in primary schools. Sample: A fourth-year, final-semester volunteer cohort of 52 Bachelor of Education (Primary School) student teachers at a major university in Queensland, Australia, provided this sample of 42 females and 10 males, whose ages ranged from 21 to 45 years. Design and methods: The audit's five-page, anonymous and confidential questionnaire included a series of valid statements, and one invalid statement, about the behavioural directives for teachers contained in the Queensland Department of Education policy on the mandatory reporting of suspected child sexual abuse. Participants self-evaluated their knowledge of the policy on a quantitative three-point scale, and their confidence in that knowledge on a four-point scale, and then responded to an open-ended qualitative query about their understanding of the policy, during their tutorial classes. The quantitative responses were analysed and displayed as histograms, and the qualitative responses were clustered into three categories. Results: Analysis of the data shows that while the majority these student teachers claim satisfactory levels of knowledge and confidence concerning their Department's behavioural directives, such results seem disappointing given a necessarily high standard of competence, and significant numbers indicating uncertainty of knowledge and/or lack of confidence regarding their roles as mandatory reporters of suspected child abuse. Conclusions: It is expected that all new teachers be properly equipped and prepared in pre-service training, with appropriate knowledge and understanding of these important directives, to report the cases of suspected child abuse they will encounter in their schools. Current pre-service education of primary school teachers at this Queensland university, and very likely throughout the state, does not reach a standard that engenders educators' satisfaction and confidence in student teachers' understanding of their Department's behavioural and legal requirements upon qualification. This conclusion is consistent with national and international research, showing that teachers and student teachers lack confidence and are inadequately prepared to fulfil their role as mandatory reporters of child sexual abuse. (Contains 4 figures.)

Teachers in many schools have only recently gained a new role to fulfil as mandatory reporters of child sexual abuse. However, little is known, and little literature has been found, on the preparation they receive, as student-teachers, for this significant role. This study examines a final-semester cohort of 81 Bachelor of Education (Primary School) student-teachers in Queensland, Australia, by questionnaire, on their knowledge and understandings of child sexual abuse and its mandatory reporting. Using quantitative and qualitative data, the results show that while these student-teachers have a substantial awareness of the role's importance, without gender or age differences, they are suffering a crucial lack of confidence in their ability to identify child sexual abuse, and also in their ability to respond appropriately to suspicions of it. This evidence may be useful to inform the development of more appropriate and effective pre-service education programmes, and departmental policy to ensure that teachers entering the profession are better prepared to deal with it. Thus, this study accords with a variety of imperatives in national and international government-sponsored research, policy and practices which are focussing on this timely, ubiquitous and costly issue, in addressing enhanced pre-service teacher preparation to respond more effectively to child sexual abuse and its mandatory reporting.

Modern Health Education in primary schools is increasingly using computer technologies in a variety of ways to enhance teaching and learning. Here, a Constructivist approach for a web-based educational activity for Grade 7 is discussed using an example of designing a healthy Food Handling Manual in the food industry. The Constructivist principles and their applications provide a useful set of underlying theoretical principles that focus and enhance the characteristics of the planning and the pedagogies for learning. Those identified here may be useful for Health educators designing web-based pedagogies to enhance good practice. (Contains 4 online resources and 5 resources.)

Human sexuality is a significant issue for educators to understand and teach about, and for young people to learn about. The development of interactive multimedia technologies has added a range of new dimensions associated with designing pedagogies for sex education on Interactive Multimedia (IMM). Here, a module on CD-Rom on Sexuality and Human Relationships designed for student teachers is presented as an example of a resource, and analysed for the pedagogical considerations that accompany it. The paper concludes that the conceptualisation and design of IMM on CD-Rom on sexuality is able to address a range of commonly used pedagogies. The most significant pedagogical renegotiation appears to lie in the transposing of human-to-human interaction, as in discussion, real life scenarios, simulation, role analysis, values and attitude clarification, to human-to-screen interaction. This may be addressed principally by using camera phones where human-to-human interaction occurs visually and in real time, whilst email and discussion groups can cater for delayed, typed text human-to-human interactions. For some learners, using IMM on CD-Rom for sex education may be less effective, but for others it may be ideal as it provides for privacy, solo contemplation, self-dialogue, and negates embarrassment in front of peers or teachers. (Contains 2 tables.)

This paper explores student teachers' understandings of child sexual abuse and strategies to deal with it that are appropriate for the primary school classroom. Evidence of surface and deep learning were obtained from a content analysis of student teachers' responses to an essay-type exam question, using Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives. The results show that participants were most likely to be rated as having achieved at intermediate levels, and less likely to be at either the lowest or highest levels. The data suggest that greater provision should be made for addressing child sexual abuse during the training of such professionals to enhance their deeper thinking about child sexual abuse and strategies to deal with it. Since pre-service teacher education plays a significant role in enhancing the quality of future teachers, it is important that they are helped to achieve the highest levels associated with understanding universals, principles, generalizations and abstractions. The implications of these results for teaching in primary schools strongly suggest the importance of comprehensive, enhanced, longer, and on-going programmes on child sexual abuse across pre-service education. (Contains 3 figures.)

Objective: To examine a statewide sample of school counsellors' reporting behaviour of suspected cases of child sexual abuse, and their need for further education in this area. Design: A questionnaire using four hypothetical vignettes on child sexual abuse requested information on the degree of suspicion, reporting behaviour and familiarity with the reporting procedures for child sexual abuse in state schools in particular, and the state in general. Setting: Although school counsellors in Queensland, Australia have been delegated with responsibilities regarding child sexual abuse, little is known about whether or not they have the appropriate reporting behaviours to fulfil these roles, and their training needs. Method: Some 283 questionnaires were mailed to all school counsellors employed by the Department of Education across Queensland. The final sample of 122 counsellors consisted of 52 males (43 per cent) and 70 females (57 per cent); a ratio comparable to the membership of the state Counselling Association. Results: There was a tendency for school counsellors to under-report their suspicions of child sexual abuse. School counsellors were more likely to suspect abuse than report cases to the appropriate authorities. A considerable proportion of school counsellors in Queensland also believe they have little knowledge of the symptoms that identify cases of child sexual abuse, lack counselling skills and procedures to work with sexually abused children, and do not have the necessary training and knowledge to act as resource persons. All school counsellors expressed interest in attending in-service education programmes addressing knowledge, detection, intervention, prevention and treatment of child sexual abuse and other forms of child abuse. Conclusion: School counsellors are in a unique position to aid in the battle against child sexual abuse. However, the results of the present study suggest that they lack confidence in their ability to identify and work with children who have been sexually abused. Consequently, the development and implementation of training programmes to increase school counsellors' skills and knowledge of child sexual abuse seem to be crucial in fighting this crime against children. Because of the significant deficits found here in counsellors' professional responses to child sexual abuse, it seems necessary, then, for future research to address the type, nature and duration of support school counsellors need in this area, including emotional factors, which may well intervene in the process. Research could also address the range of policies that could identify quality of relationships and inter-professional partnerships with other helping professionals and government organisations such as the Department of Families, Department of Health, Children's Commission, police, social workers, private counsellors, and, of course, school teachers, in order to promote whole school approaches to enhancing the welfare of all children.

In many countries, one aspect of health education, namely child sexual abuse, has become an important issue for teachers in pre-schools, primary schools and high schools to address. In Australia, many states now have mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse by teachers to their Principals then to the police or the Department of Families. Consequently, as preparation for this role, all teachers should have appropriate knowledge and attitudes about child sexual abuse. This paper analyses the educational bases of an interactive multimedia CD-Rom module on child sexual abuse designed for use by Australian university undergraduate teachers, to enhance their knowledge and attitudes about child sexual abuse. This application of Bloom's Levels of Thinking Skills as well as Constructivist principles in designing educational multimedia may assist other educational curriculum developers when designing pedagogical interactivities that are appropriate, productive and relevant in teaching about child sexual abuse to undergraduate teachers. (Contains 1 table.)

A survey of undergraduates (N=427) in Queensland (Australia) found child sexual abuse prevalence rates of 19% for males and 45% for females, with incestuous abuse reported by 9% of males and 19% of females. Other findings addressed age at onset of abuse, gender, types of unwanted sexual experiences, and media exposure. (DB)

Describes a CD-ROM written by faculty in an Australian university that is based on principles of a constructivist theory of learning. Examines three examples of appropriate interactivity to indicate the variety, relevance, pedagogical principles, and interest that can be generated to enhance student learning by using multimedia. (Author/LRW)

Interviews regarding physical and sexual development were conducted with 838 children ages five through 15 in Australia, England, North America, and Sweden. Children identified the people whom they asked sex-related questions and indicated their major sources of information. Mothers, school, and the media were the most frequently cited sources. (Author/DB)

A sample of 838 children ages 5 through 15 years in Australia, England, North America, and Sweden were interviewed about physical and sexual development. The study covers essentially the same area as Bernstein and Cowan (1975) but extends the sample on the dimensions of age, number, randomness, and comparisons made. (Author/RH)

Research into child sexual abuse is fraught with methodological problems. This paper provides an overview of some common aspects of them. Definitional inconsistencies are frequent, including that of child sexual abuse itself and what age limits define a child. Other methodological difficulties include determining the number of children sexually abused in any period of time, choice of sample, the type and number of questions asked, factors such as publicity associated with the historical period, and estimates of the rate of increase of child sexual abuse over time. It is suggested that greater consistency, particularly of definition, would assist comparative conclusions to be made with less ambiguity and greater validity., Many areas of social research are riddled with problems of methodology. Child sexual abuse is no exception. In the last 30 years much of the research into child sexual abuse [...]