It is interesting to note that as a response to the issues that we have raised (such as the writing and grading of assessment) the Queensland Studies Authority have held themselves up as being well-placed to deliver professional development.

In recent years I have not attended one session of professional development around either the 2001 or 2008 Mathematics syllabi which was worth the precious state funding spent upon it.  To be taken on a guided tour of a syllabus for a half day and fed morning tea at the half-way-mark is hardly what I would call adequate professional development for either myself or any of my Senior Mathematics trained, and hence highly mathematically skilled staff.

Through sheer lack of funds within my own faculty, when the 2008 syllabi were released, I locked myself away for three days to do a linear comparison between 2001 and 2008 syllabi, only to later discover via a colleague from a neighbouring school that this was a far more valuable activity in syllabus orientation than the QSA offered professional development, which this person attended in our locality.

In Mathematics I have been met with a grim hybrid of pity (obviously at my stupidity) and abject hostility, when I have telephoned the QSA for a recommendation regarding certain of their procedures with which I must comply.  What would I really like as a Mathematics teacher?  To be able to get on with the business of educating students in Higher Mathematics, and spend less time agonising over the wording of a question in an assessment piece, lest it might not be considered to address certain attributes of the syllabus.  What would this mean for my students?  More time to learn Mathematics well and hopefully a better chance for more of them to enter tertiary institutions with a deeper understanding of the discipline (and hence a better chance for more of them to succeed).  For all that I as a Mathematics educator may feel unfairly done by our Queensland Studies Authority, our students and parents should feel more angered by the obvious shortfalls of this governing body.