tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/student-teachers-18770/articlesstudent teachers – The Conversation2023-10-04T13:43:42Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2141722023-10-04T13:43:42Z2023-10-04T13:43:42ZTeachers can nurture students who care about the world: four approaches that would help them<p>Teachers wear many hats. They are expected to be subject matter experts, leaders, administrators, managers, lifelong learners – and not just in the classroom, but in their wider communities.</p>
<p>It is crucial to cultivate teachers who are socially aware and critical, especially in today’s unequal society. This helps them to successfully prepare their learners to confront, for instance, excessive consumption, waste, and a society that prioritises material items over the preservation of natural resources.</p>
<p>But how can this cultivation occur? As an academic <a href="https://theconversation.com/teachers-change-lives-but-what-makes-a-great-teacher-198313">working with trainee teachers</a> and researching <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/09732586231194438">social justice education</a>, I have found four essential approaches that help future teachers develop their students into responsible global citizens.</p>
<h2>Art and empathy</h2>
<p><strong>1. Identify the root cause of the problem instead of the one at face value.</strong></p>
<p>Social injustice results from unequal power relations. This may seem obvious, but sometimes people need guidance to keep this fact in mind. I often use <a href="http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2221-40702018000200006">defamiliarisation</a> to help trainee teachers grasp this reality. Defamiliarisation is the artistic technique of making things that are familiar seem unusual and foreign, to disrupt the mindset. </p>
<p>I have <a href="https://brill.com/display/book/9789004521742/BP000025.xml">also explored</a> how important this approach is in making students think more critically about global citizenship education. </p>
<p>For example, I often have my students look at current economic policies and international trade deals to see how these affect developing countries in Africa and often lead to economic and social imbalances. They are frequently urged to examine how uneven power relationships between western and African countries can worsen inequality and learn how they can work for fairness and equality in foreign relations. They do this by, for example, drawing how they <a href="https://journals.co.za/doi/epdf/10.20853/32-4-2922">view globalisation in Africa</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/teachers-change-lives-but-what-makes-a-great-teacher-198313">Teachers change lives -- but what makes a great teacher?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>2. Develop critical empathy.</strong></p>
<p>Empathy is not enough to get students to think in more socially conscious ways. That’s because, even when they start placing themselves in the shoes of others, it can still put them in a position of power over those whose lives they are trying to imagine.</p>
<p>Philosopher Nel Noddings coined the term “<a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1477878510368617">critical empathy</a>”. This requires what is known as “empathic accuracy”, when teachers really understand how their students feel. It also needs what is called a “sympathetic response”: teachers not only understanding their learners’ thoughts but also feeling some of their sadness or happiness. It’s like going through their emotional journey with them, with the idea of assisting them in any possible way.</p>
<p>For example, I have used critical empathy to help my students connect to and understand each other’s struggles and experiences of the COVID pandemic. Rather than talking <em>for</em> each other, they talk <em>with</em> each other, and don’t try to wear someone else’s metaphorical shoes, but listen to and learn about people’s actual experiences.</p>
<p><strong>3. Develop the ability to trust and take risk.</strong></p>
<p>Realising that change is necessary implies that everyone is a part of both the problem and the solution. Sociologist Anthony Giddens’s work <a href="https://voidnetwork.gr/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/The-Consequences-of-Modernity-by-Anthony-Giddens.pdf">examines</a> the relationship between trust and risk. Giddens challenges us: would you be brave enough to step into the unknown with someone you trust? Our past either holds us back or makes us want to take risks, and this balance of trust and risk could alter the way students, teachers and communities function in school environments.</p>
<p>Since 2016, I have facilitated a critical service-learning project – a form of service learning with a <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ831374.pdf">social justice orientation</a> – where students work with local communities to solve fundamental problems such as inadequate education or food insecurity in poor areas in Cape Town, South Africa. There is an inherent risk for communities here: we’re asking them to work collaboratively with us, relying on their trust in such engagements – and this may not always produce the desired results for communities. </p>
<p>Although the projects are not always as successful as planned, reflective learning still proves helpful. Students learn to understand and gain real-world insights; communities feel more able to share concerns and work together to solve them.</p>
<p><strong>4. Reflect critically, even if thoughts are conflicted.</strong></p>
<p>I once used the film <a href="https://www.showmax.com/eng/movie/69pli6p9-krotoa">Krotoa</a> to ignite discussions on the effects of colonialism’s legacy in South Africa. Based on a true story, the South African film is about a young girl who was taken from her Khoi tribe to work for founding colonial administrator Jan van Riebeeck.</p>
<p>Many students were left deeply unsettled. They felt pain, anger, helplessness and confusion. Experiencing these feelings in the classroom pushed them out of their comfort zones – precisely what was needed to encourage deep understanding. Critical reflection develops when students are forced outside their comfort zones. These intense emotions act as catalysts that prompt students to reflect on who they are, challenge their preconceived ideas and think carefully about the causes and effects of what they are learning. Students can gain a better, deeper understanding of the topic of colonisation, for instance, by grappling with these emotions and examining them.</p>
<p>Such encounters broaden students’ perspectives and encourage them to embrace the idea of <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/274374017_The_African_Philosophy_of_Ubuntu_in_South_African_Education">ubuntu</a> (a concept that emphasises the importance of including everyone and building a strong community). This fosters their development as thoughtful global citizens ready to contribute significantly to conversations about global justice and equality.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214172/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Zayd Waghid received funding from 2021 - 2023 from the National Research Foundation for a project called "Examining Remote Teaching in South African education institutions in response to an education crisis". In 2019, he was awarded the CHE-Heltasa National Teaching Excellence Award (Commendation), is an NRF-rated researcher, Fulbright Scholar, and was the DSI-NRF SARChI Chair at the Center for International Teacher Education (August - December 2023).</span></em></p>It is crucial to cultivate teachers who are socially aware and critical, especially in today’s unequal societyZayd Waghid, Associate professor, Cape Peninsula University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1946462022-11-23T14:03:47Z2022-11-23T14:03:47ZBlack Panther in the classroom: how Afrofuturism in a film helped trainee teachers in South Africa<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495637/original/file-20221116-145-s91scs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Letitia Wright in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Marvel Studios/Disney</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Back in 2018 I joined the millions of people who flocked to cinemas worldwide to watch Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther. The story of an ultra modern African society not shaped by colonialism was celebrated by critics and audiences alike as “<a href="https://time.com/black-panther/">revolutionary</a>”. It won three Oscars. Now its sequel, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, is dominating box office returns and delighting critics.</p>
<p>While I enjoyed and was entertained by the first film, I was also struck by its potential as a teaching tool. Its Afrofuturistic approach – using the past to imagine futures that differ from existing historical narratives – could, I thought, be a catalyst for dispelling myths about African history, culture and tradition. It might be a way to help my students – trainee teachers at a South African institution – overcome cognitive injustice. This is the idea that some forms of knowledge are more significant than others.</p>
<p>Eurocentrism, which is based on a biased view of western or European knowledge at the expense of knowledge from the global south, leads to cognitive injustice. </p>
<p>As I’ve <a href="https://journals.co.za/doi/abs/10.20853/32-4-2922">explored</a> in <a href="http://www.scielo.org.za/pdf/ersc/v7nspe/06.pdf">my research</a>, students at a university in the global south might experience cognitive injustice when the curriculum is dominated by western thought and knowledge.</p>
<p>Overcoming their own sense of cognitive injustice is a powerful way for educators to enable their students to question and transform society’s unbalanced power relations. This is especially urgent in a South African society troubled by <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/ramaphosa-says-number-of-women-murdered-in-south-africa-up-50-percent/6818242.html">gender-based violence</a>, <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-06-27-the-rise-of-xenophobia-is-south-africas-road-to-ruin/">xenophobia</a>, <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/sunday-tribune/news/parents-slam-christian-primary-school-over-monkey-jibe-64c628e1-0b42-460c-a547-1d1a2295acf6">racism</a> and <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2022/03/09/new-world-bank-report-assesses-sources-of-inequality-in-five-countries-in-southern-africa">social inequality</a>. </p>
<p>So I conducted <a href="https://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10.1386/ctl_00080_1">a study</a> in which I examined whether seeing Black Panther influenced future teachers to think differently about their identities and relationships with others. I used the film to introduce them to the concept of Afrofuturism. I found that Black Panther made a significant contribution to the students’ awareness by reinforcing the idea that people should be proud of how they look, and that beauty is not tied to a grand, western or global standard, but is, rather, fluid and different for each person.</p>
<p>By understanding the importance of identity and using teaching methods that are sensitive to different cultures, these teachers will be better able to promote diversity in their future classrooms.</p>
<h2>Varying messages</h2>
<p>Fifty-two trainee teachers were involved in the study. They were asked to see the film in cinemas and we then discussed what they learned from it.</p>
<p>The students identified with several aspects of Black Panther, often depending on their own place in society. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/afrofuturism-and-its-possibility-of-elsewhere-the-power-of-political-imagination-166002">Afrofuturism and its possibility of elsewhere: The power of political imagination</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>For instance, some of the female students found the film’s message of gender equality to be the most interesting aspect. These students perceived a connection between the many roles portrayed by the black actresses in the film and their capacity for both physical and emotional expression. They further seemed to have had the insight that a society’s power dynamics may be shaken up when women are given equal status within that society.</p>
<p>Most of the female students held the belief that the way women are treated in their communities or society renders them helpless. However, several of them felt inspired by the film to take a stand against the many forms of discrimination that, in today’s culture, make it difficult for roles to be shared equitably.</p>
<p>Several students felt the systems and structures of many modern African communities demonstrated that the continent was still subject to the policies of globalisation rather than developing its own policies, tailored to its requirements. </p>
<h2>Challenging norms</h2>
<p>A few other students expressed their views on the importance of challenging political norms, as well as resisting orthodox ways of thinking. They were firmly on the side of decolonisation – pulling entirely away from global north influence, theories and knowledge systems.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/black-panther-wakanda-forever-continues-the-series-quest-to-recover-and-celebrate-lost-cultures-193508">'Black Panther: Wakanda Forever' continues the series' quest to recover and celebrate lost cultures</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Others, though, insisted that it was essential to collaborate with others from across the globe rather than to operate in isolation. They argued that western and European knowledge had value but that African knowledge and policies ought to be at the centre of learning and teaching on the continent.</p>
<p>In my opinion, schools in South Africa are lacking a social justice curriculum that would teach students about the concept of cognitive injustice. Students should constantly be immersed in a welcoming learning environment that acknowledges and appreciates their individuality, while also fostering a feeling of community among their peers. Black Panther’s Afrofuturistic perspective, in my opinion, encourages students to reflect on what makes them unique and to be receptive to discussions on the impact of gender stereotypes and racism on their experiences in the classroom and beyond.</p>
<p>Using Black Panther as a way into exploring Afrofuturism led to decolonial ideas. That, in turn, could alter the students’ future classrooms if they take up these ideas in teaching and learning. Those classrooms would be fairer and more inclusive, giving pupils a chance to speak up and challenge society’s norms, values and attitudes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194646/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Zayd Waghid does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Black Panther and its sequel are more than just good movies: they can be used as teaching tools.Zayd Waghid, Associate professor, Cape Peninsula University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1921902022-10-11T14:04:32Z2022-10-11T14:04:32ZDecolonising education in South Africa – a reflection on a learning-teaching approach<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489103/original/file-20221011-17-7r5061.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Opening up spaces for students to talk to each other and to lecturers is a way to entrench education as a public good.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Klaus Vedfelt/Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It has been seven years since students in South Africa began <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/student-protests-democratic-south-africa">protesting</a> in a bid to “Africanise” the country’s university curricula. They viewed what they were learning as too <a href="https://oxfordre.com/education/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.001.0001/acrefore-9780190264093-e-404">neoliberal</a> – characterised by Western values pushing the marketisation of education. They wanted universities to become more relevant to students in an African country and more connected to their own lives.</p>
<p>The students’ calls propelled “decolonisation” to the forefront of national (and even <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/mar/16/the-real-meaning-of-rhodes-must-fall">international</a>) debate. Decolonisation in the university context involves dismantling the institutional practices and policies that uphold white supremacist, Western values. Since then there have been various initiatives at most of the country’s 26 public universities designed to change what students learn and how. </p>
<p>Every academic has their own opinion and their own approach. Mine, as a university educator who lectures future teachers, has been to adopt a teaching-learning approach called defamiliarisation.</p>
<p>The idea of defamiliarisation was coined by Russian literary theorist <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Viktor-Shklovsky">Viktor Shklovsky</a>. It is a process of looking at things differently through art, poetry, or film so that you don’t see them automatically; Shklovsky said that you could look at something you know several times without really analysing it. </p>
<p>I have <a href="http://ersc.nmmu.ac.za/articles/ERSC_June_2018_SPEd_Waghid__Hibbert_Vol_7_pp_60-77.pdf">researched</a> and used defamiliarisation in my teaching since 2015, finding it a good place to contribute towards disrupting the sort of neoliberal curriculum student protesters opposed. If a curriculum doesn’t consider the humanistic side of learning, the system and institution can treat students as a form of human capital. That ultimately changes education from a public good to a commodity. </p>
<p>By approaching my classes using defamiliarisation, I have been able to help students think beyond the usual stories about history. Crucially, they have been put in charge of their learning. In this way, education is shored up as a public good.</p>
<h2>A space to speak openly</h2>
<p>So, what does defamiliarisation look like in practise? One example is an activity a colleague and I designed: we asked a group of students, as part of a lesson, to draw how they saw themselves and how they felt about being taught in English at the university. While English is widely spoken in South Africa, most of our students speak isiXhosa as their first language. </p>
<p>Even though the question was about the university, many of the students’ drawn answers were about society and their communities in reference to the university. These examples showed that, for these students, the community and the university are not separate. The question seemed to bring up deeper issues that neither the students nor I were aware of at the time.</p>
<p>For example, one of the students I talked to about her drawing creatively explained how her feelings were connected to her beliefs, culture, and context pertaining to the dominant and gendered power relations in her community, and at the school she had attended. </p>
<p>She drew two portraits of herself: on the left, a false representation at the school she attended, depicting the aesthetic beauty and success that came with being able to speak English fluently and with excellent grades; on the right, a portrait of her dormant natural beauty that held on to her culture and true identity.</p>
<p>Her drawing showed how she saw herself and how she thought the rest of society saw her. Her drawing showed her race, language, culture, gender, and a false representation of who she was in her school environment. </p>
<p>The student said that in her community, people often asked her about her race because she spoke in a dialect that she may have picked up at a former Model C (whites only during apartheid) school, and that was often associated with “white culture” in her community. </p>
<p>The defamiliarisation approach allowed this student to make her peers and me aware of her socio-cultural context and, more importantly, the challenges and subtleties of her identity and how she felt about them. By doing this activity, she, like many of her peers, could talk about herself creatively and effectively.</p>
<p>This approach developed students’ openness, compassion, sympathy and responsibility. </p>
<p>You could say that defamiliarisation gave the students the freedom to become their own narrators. It also allowed them to understand what their peers were going through and show compassion for them around instances of marginalisation in society. This, in my opinion, is crucial for aspiring educators to fully comprehend the range of experiences and viewpoints held by learners from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds.</p>
<h2>Educators benefit, too</h2>
<p>I believe this kind of teaching was valuable and essential to assist students in developing the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviours needed for critical global citizenship. It allowed them to communicate openly about victimisation and unjust treatment in South Africa. </p>
<p>Even though in some instances it made them feel uncomfortable, defamiliarisation was met with <a href="https://journals.co.za/doi/pdf/10.20853/32-4-2922">mostly favourable reactions</a> from students. It helped them to open up about the challenges in their own lives. And I still use the approach today, mostly through the medium of film. For instance, I showed the <a href="https://www.showmax.com/eng/movie/69pli6p9-krotoa">movie</a> <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/krotoa-eva">Krotoa</a> to a different class. It examines the impact of Dutch colonisation on the culture and identity of the indigenous Khoi people of the Cape in the 17th century. </p>
<p>Defamiliarisation helps educators, too. I have reflected on my role as a university lecturer and, frankly, to question aspects of my teaching that seem dominant and obvious to my students but are just habitual to me. Learning about my students’ real-life experiences and sentiments helped me empathise with them and value their individuality. It helped us to connect in a meaningful way as equals. </p>
<p>Using this approach is a way for academics to return to the basics. That’s crucial if universities are to offer a curriculum that centres students’ needs as the primary focus of learning.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192190/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Zayd Waghid does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Putting students at the centre of their learning is a powerful tool for decolonising the classroom.Zayd Waghid, Associate professor, Cape Peninsula University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1878602022-08-08T20:02:55Z2022-08-08T20:02:55Z‘It hurt my heart and my wallet’: the unnecessary test stressing teachers before they even make it to the classroom<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477973/original/file-20220808-90374-rohu21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C38%2C5150%2C3309&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There is no shortage of articles about how teachers are <a href="https://theconversation.com/teachers-are-more-depressed-and-anxious-than-the-average-australian-117267">stressed</a>, due to their complex jobs and <a href="https://theconversation.com/this-is-like-banging-our-heads-against-the-wall-why-a-move-to-outsource-lesson-planning-has-nsw-teachers-hopping-mad-188081">high workloads</a>. </p>
<p>But what is happening before they make it to the classroom? </p>
<p>There are lots of reasons why Australia has a <a href="https://theconversation.com/growing-numbers-of-unqualified-teachers-are-being-sent-into-classrooms-this-is-not-the-way-to-fix-the-teacher-shortage-186379">teacher shortage</a> and my new research sheds light on one deterrent that is not often talked about. </p>
<p>This is the high-stakes Literacy and Numeracy Test for Initial Teacher Education, known as <a href="https://teacheredtest.acer.edu.au/">LANTITE</a>.</p>
<h2>What is LANTITE?</h2>
<p>Introduced in 2017, LANTITE is made up of two separate computer-based tests: one for numeracy, and one for literacy. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/this-is-like-banging-our-heads-against-the-wall-why-a-move-to-outsource-lesson-planning-has-nsw-teachers-hopping-mad-188081">'This is like banging our heads against the wall': why a move to outsource lesson planning has NSW teachers hopping mad</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The multiple-choice tests are administered independently of universities by the Australian Council for Educational Research. Universities have no visibility of the tests, or how students perform, even after results are released. </p>
<p>It costs A$196 to sit both tests, or A$98 to sit just one of them.</p>
<p>Students must find time to prepare for and attempt LANTITE on top of their theory and practical study in a teaching degree. They must pass both the literacy and numeracy components of LANTITE in order to graduate.</p>
<p>The pass rate is <a href="https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2020/07/22/student-teacher-test-graduation/">more than 90%</a>. </p>
<h2>A stress test</h2>
<p>For my doctoral research, I surveyed 189 student teachers about their experience with LANTITE through an online questionnaire. They came from 33 universities across Australia. From this group, 27 students also completed in-depth interviews to further describe their experiences. I also spoke to 41 teachers and teacher educators.</p>
<p>Among the many stories and experiences were students like Monique* who described the test as “fun” and “just like doing an IQ test”. However, it was far more common for interviewees to report <a href="https://search.informit.org/doi/epdf/10.3316/informit.747070367787061">negative experiences</a>, with a particular emphasis on the impact on mental health and wellbeing. As Suraya told me: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I ended up having a really bad panic attack, where I blacked out. I could not comprehend anything that was going on in front of me.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Suraya was not alone. My research uncovered other alarming accounts of panic attacks and even suicidal ideation from students after they had sat the test. For some students who did not pass, the stress and pressure of having to reattempt the tests resulted in prolonged mental health conditions.</p>
<p>Any test or exam creates a certain amount of stress. But for student teachers, LANTITE comes on top of existing study and practical teaching pressures as they finalise their degrees. For those students who need to reattempt one or more component of LANTITE, the stress escalates, as was the case for Vince. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>My journey has been a nightmare. I was panicking when it came to the last questions. I was running out of time and some of the words I didn’t understand because I was panicked.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>It is expensive</h2>
<p>I also found students are paying a high price to become a teacher. While the cost to sit both components of LANTITE is just under $200 per attempt, many students purchase professional study materials and pay tutors or attend workshops to help them prepare.</p>
<p>One student in the study reported spending $6,000 on private tutoring. These costs have to be paid upfront, unlike HECS loans which can be deferred.</p>
<p>Teacher educators I interviewed echoed concerns about these costs and pressures. As Wynette said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>As a student you already have time pressures, you already have stressors and financial demands […] and to have this extra thing on top is a bit more stressful.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, culturally and linguistically diverse students, and students with disability were more likely to emphasise how harsh the LANTITE experience can be. This suggests it may hindering a more diverse workforce. As Mary, another teacher educator, explained: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>If they are coming from a background or environment where they have not done a lot of high-stakes testing that will also mean that they don’t have the same experiences that your mainly more mainstream white-Anglo students do.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>We don’t need this test</h2>
<p>Yes, teachers need to have certain levels of literacy and numeracy going into the classroom. But we don’t need LANTITE to determine this. </p>
<p>Student teachers already have a wide range of assessments throughout their courses. These are both practical and theory-based and implicitly assess numeracy and literacy. For example, prior to graduating, students complete a nationally mandated individual <a href="https://www.aitsl.edu.au/deliver-ite-programs/teaching-performance-assessment">teacher performance assessment</a>, which looks at the practical skills and knowledge of a graduating teacher.</p>
<p>Teacher education programs also have ongoing accreditation requirements to ensure “<a href="https://research.acer.edu.au/aer/15/%20Bahr%20and%20Mellor">quality</a>” of graduates.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/student-teachers-must-pass-a-literacy-and-numeracy-test-before-graduating-its-unfair-and-costly-140059">Student teachers must pass a literacy and numeracy test before graduating – it's unfair and costly</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Standardised assessments in timed situations are also becoming less common in university studies, as programs seek more nuanced ways to assess the complex skills graduates need to teach.</p>
<p>A more sensible approach, which trusts the profession and universities to do their jobs training new teachers, is needed.</p>
<p>As other <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2020.1832061">studies</a> have argued, LANTITE is an ineffective quality control mechanism anyway, as you can resit the test multiple times if you fail. It does little to change who becomes a teacher and who does not. </p>
<p>If anything, LANTITE has only served to teach our future teachers how to sit a standardised test and pass. In the meantime, students’ graduation is delayed, resources are wasted and students are even more stressed. </p>
<p>As student Michael, summed it up, “it hurt my heart and my wallet”.</p>
<p><em>*All names have been changed</em></p>
<hr>
<p><em>If this article has raised issues for you, or if you’re concerned about someone you know, call Lifeline on 13 11 14.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/187860/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alison Hilton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>New research finds students are having panic attacks and losing money on a test they must pass to qualify as teachers.Alison Hilton, Academic Chair Secondary Education, Murdoch UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1863792022-07-21T20:23:07Z2022-07-21T20:23:07ZGrowing numbers of unqualified teachers are being sent into classrooms – this is not the way to ‘fix’ the teacher shortage<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474563/original/file-20220718-68548-9d50qq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C0%2C5455%2C3596&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Every few days there is <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/large-melbourne-school-cancels-classes-warns-remote-learning-may-be-needed-20220714-p5b1q9.html">another report</a> about the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-24/queensland-teacher-workforce-shortage-grips-state/101181212">teacher shortage</a> across Australia. Last week, we learned one of Melbourne’s biggest schools is <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/large-melbourne-school-cancels-classes-warns-remote-learning-may-be-needed-20220714-p5b1q9.html">considering</a> a return to home learning to cope with staff shortages.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-and-schools-australia-is-about-to-feel-the-full-brunt-of-its-teacher-shortage-174885">COVID and schools: Australia is about to feel the full brunt of its teacher shortage</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But as we look at the <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-education-minister-jason-clare-can-fix-the-teacher-shortage-crisis-but-not-with-labors-election-plan-184321">causes</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/could-more-online-learning-help-fix-australias-teacher-shortage-185877">possible solutions</a>, something we are not talking about is the risks around rushing student teachers into classrooms before they are fully trained and ready. </p>
<p>We are academics with a focus on teacher education and leaders of the <a href="https://www.acde.edu.au/networks-and-partnerships/nadpe/#:%7E:text=The%20ACDE%20Board%20established%20The,status%20of%20Australian%20professional%20experience.">Network of Academic Directors of Professional Experience</a>. We are alarmed about the growing trend of sending unqualified teachers into classrooms. </p>
<h2>Student teachers are teaching</h2>
<p>Our colleagues around Australia are regularly telling us about their students being recruited into paid teaching roles with special permissions to teach. This can be as early as their first, second or third year of study.</p>
<p>In New South Wales, university staff tell us between 20% and 30% of their final year (fourth-year) students are employed in teaching roles. Prior to the pandemic, this only occurred in exceptional circumstances.</p>
<p>In Victoria, as of July, the Victorian Institute of Teaching (the teaching regulator) has approved 782 “permission-to-teach” applications for final-year education students. This is a category specifically established at the beginning of 2022 to help support schools with COVID-related workforce shortages.</p>
<p>In Queensland, we are seeing students teaching in classrooms before they have graduated <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-12-09/preservice-teachers-rushed-through-registration-to-meet-demand/100683334">in the hundreds, rather than handfuls</a>. Industry partners are telling us they predict more than 600 “permissions to teach” for student teachers in Queensland in 2022. This is up from 320 in the state in 2021.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Children listening to a teacher in a classroom." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474560/original/file-20220718-22-mwdnro.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474560/original/file-20220718-22-mwdnro.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474560/original/file-20220718-22-mwdnro.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474560/original/file-20220718-22-mwdnro.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474560/original/file-20220718-22-mwdnro.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474560/original/file-20220718-22-mwdnro.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474560/original/file-20220718-22-mwdnro.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">All states and territories have schemes that can allow student teachers into classrooms.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dan Peled/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Mixing work and study</h2>
<p>All states and territories have schemes to allow student teachers into the classroom in a paid (non-studying) role. For example, in Tasmania, when a suitable registered teacher cannot be found, a school can apply to employ a student under a “<a href="https://www.trb.tas.gov.au/Web%20Pages/Limited%20Authority%20to%20Teach.aspx">limited authority to teach</a>”. In the Northern Territory, a <a href="https://www.trb.nt.gov.au/registration/authority-employ">similar process</a> allows schools to recruit people to teach in hard-to-fill or specialised teaching roles.</p>
<p>Western Australia has also opened up opportunities for final year students to work part-time in public high schools (with mentoring) and to register in the casual teacher pool. </p>
<p>The state also uses an existing fast-track to put students into the classroom as paid teachers. The <a href="https://teachforaustralia.org/leadership-apply-today/?utm_source=TI&utm_medium=PaidSearch&gclid=CjwKCAjwk_WVBhBZEiwAUHQCmTILF4s86RrKJ8uExDqqO7PtENegpuYMGn1dAfZsYwA83Kmt3j3_MxoCj8MQAvD_BwE">Teach for Australia</a> program employs “associates” in a school after six-weeks of intensive training. From this point on, associates balance study in a master of teaching program with employment as a teacher, with support from mentor teachers and Teach for Australia.</p>
<p>WA currently has 175 full-time equivalent staff in public schools, who may be Teach for Australia associates, or working towards a teaching qualification. This is up from 112 in 2020. Taking into account casual and part-time workers, the actual number of students teaching in the system is likely to be higher. </p>
<h2>A risky fix</h2>
<p>Putting student teachers in the classroom to help deal with the teacher shortage seems logical. But it is a quick and risky fix. </p>
<p>Arguably, education students are already less prepared for the classroom than their pre-pandemic peers. Around the world, student teachers have experienced <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03323315.2021.1916562">disrupted study because of the pandemic</a> with shortened, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-022-01316-3">simulated</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedro.2021.100120">irregular practical placements</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/could-more-online-learning-help-fix-australias-teacher-shortage-185877">Could more online learning help fix Australia's teacher shortage?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This is on top of interruptions to their regular coursework, thanks to disruption the pandemic has caused within and beyond their studies. </p>
<p>Additionally, student teachers are entering a stressed and depleted workforce.
COVID has added to <a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-and-schools-australia-is-about-to-feel-the-full-brunt-of-its-teacher-shortage-174885">teachers’ already demanding workloads</a>, made them sick (and therefore absent at times) and seen some reach the end of their tether and leave.</p>
<p>When more experienced staff are stretched, under-prepared teachers cannot be well-supported by those around them.</p>
<p>While all this is happening, it is becoming harder for student teachers to get supervised practical experience as part of their teacher training - there are less teachers to supervise them. </p>
<p>These factors mean student teachers are less prepared than in previous years and are entering workplaces that are demanding more of them. </p>
<h2>Graduates will burn out</h2>
<p>From an administrative perspective, this situation is placing a huge strain on teacher registration bodies around Australia, who are not structured to assess and process masses of “special authority” applications.</p>
<p>We are alarmed about the potential fallout here. Under-prepared and fast-tracked teachers cannot be well-supported. Nor can they be expected to perform as highly effective graduate teachers when they are drawing on disrupted university preparation and limited placements. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Young woman speaking." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473571/original/file-20220712-20-tvbzxs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C14%2C4912%2C2739&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473571/original/file-20220712-20-tvbzxs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473571/original/file-20220712-20-tvbzxs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473571/original/file-20220712-20-tvbzxs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473571/original/file-20220712-20-tvbzxs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473571/original/file-20220712-20-tvbzxs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473571/original/file-20220712-20-tvbzxs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Students are taking on teaching roles in schools that will not be able to adquately support them.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This leaves them vulnerable to burnout and leaving the profession prematurely. </p>
<p>Importantly, these factors are also likely to exacerbate <a href="https://www.isq.qld.edu.au/media/wx1drmwu/reflections-on-tandl-during-covid-19.pdf">the impact</a> of COVID on children’s learning and development. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/COVID-Catch-up-Grattan-School-Education-Report.pdf">increased needs</a> of many children and young people have increased the complex demands of teaching them. The training of future teachers needs to prepare them for <a href="https://www.monash.edu/education/research/downloads/Impact-of-covid19-on-perceptions-of-Australian-schooling.pdf">the new realities</a> and requirements of teaching. </p>
<h2>This will not improve ‘quality’</h2>
<p>The current approach contradicts the federal government’s talk about improving teacher “<a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/high-achievers-to-get-up-to-12k-a-year-to-become-teachers-under-labor-20220508-p5ajj8.html">quality</a>” and we fear universities will be blamed for the outcomes of putting under-prepared graduates into schools. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/no-wonder-no-one-wants-to-be-a-teacher-world-first-study-looks-at-65-000-news-articles-about-australian-teachers-186210">No wonder no one wants to be a teacher: world-first study looks at 65,000 news articles about Australian teachers</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>We need to put our focus back on preparing high-quality teaching graduates – even if this takes more time and resources to get them into the classroom. </p>
<p>Alongside other strategies and responses, employers need to prioritise placements for student teachers. This will allow them to progress through to career entry under conducive conditions. Good preparation is essential for teacher effectiveness and retention. </p>
<p>What we are doing at the moment is equivalent to giving student teachers an umbrella to go out into a raging thunder storm. This is not sensible, justifiable or sustainable. </p>
<p>This approach also has the potential to worsen teacher shortages in the coming years and risks seeing teacher attrition levels like we have never seen before.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/186379/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chad Morrison is part of the Network of Academic Directors of Professional Experience, which is part of The Australian Council of Deans of Education. The Council aims to ensure Australia produces teacher graduates of the "highest quality".
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brendan Bentley is part of the Network of Academic Directors of Professional Experience.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Clifton is part of the Network of Academic Directors of Professional Experience.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Susan Ledger is part of the Network of Academic Directors of Professional Experience.</span></em></p>Education experts say putting student teachers in classrooms risks seeing teacher attrition levels like we have never seen before.Chad Morrison, Academic Director of Professional Experience, Murdoch UniversityBrendan Bentley, Senior lecturer, University of AdelaideJennifer Clifton, Associate Professor in Teacher Education, Queensland University of TechnologySusan Ledger, Professor Susan Ledger, Head of School - Dean of Education, University of Newcastle, NSW., University of NewcastleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1601812021-05-27T20:02:43Z2021-05-27T20:02:43ZJohn Hattie: why I support the education minister’s teacher education review<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399768/original/file-20210510-5613-1dqasbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/smiling-female-lecturer-helping-student-during-1145576060">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Last month, Federal Education Minister <a href="https://ministers.dese.gov.au/tudge/initial-teacher-education-review-launched">Alan Tudge launched</a> a six month <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/quality-initial-teacher-education-review">review into teacher education</a>. The review aims to attract and select high quality candidates into teaching and prepare graduates to be more effective teachers.</p>
<p>The announcement was met with criticism from many in the sector. Some education experts have said the <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/teacher-training-review-key-to-arresting-declining-academic-results-tudge-20210414-p57j6i.html">review’s focus on teacher education</a> is too limited. Others found it offensive of the minister to suggest Australia’s teachers are not already effective.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1382473237766967297"}"></div></p>
<p>But the review is necessary. Its focus complements and adds to the previous review into teacher education in 2014.</p>
<h2>What’s happened since the previous review?</h2>
<p>In 2008, prominent education academic <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/249035674_101_Damnations_The_persistence_of_criticism_and_the_absence_of_evidence_about_teacher_education_in_Australia">William Louden noted</a> there had been around 101 reviews or inquiries into teacher education since 1979. It’s understandable then, why many people believe another is unnecessary.</p>
<p>But the current review’s terms of reference don’t double up on the last review, in 2014. In fact, they continue its progress.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/teaching-and-school-leadership/teacher-education-ministerial-advisory-group">Teacher Education Ministerial Advisory Group</a> was put together in 2014 to review teacher education with a focus on student outcomes. Its report’s title <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/teaching-and-school-leadership/resources/action-now-classroom-ready-teachers-report-0">Action Now: Classroom Ready Teachers</a> summed up the mission.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/minister-pyne-announces-yet-another-education-review-23470">Minister Pyne announces... yet another education review</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Since then, many universities offering teacher education and organisations such as the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) have been engaged in implementing the report’s 30+ recommendations. These include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>a review of accreditation standards for teacher education programs. (The <a href="https://www.aitsl.edu.au/deliver-ite-programs/standards-and-procedures">revisions to the standards occured in 2015</a>, with further updates made in 2018 and 2019)</p></li>
<li><p>ensuring higher education providers select the best candidates into teaching courses. (Guidelines were agreed to by all Australian education ministers in September 2015 and a <a href="https://www.aitsl.edu.au/tools-resources/resource/action-now-selection-of-entrants-into-initial-teacher-education---guidelines">document developed</a> by the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership)</p></li>
<li><p>for course providers to use a <a href="https://teacheredtest.acer.edu.au/">national literacy and numeracy test</a> to demonstrate all pre-service teachers are in the top 30% of the population in personal literacy and numeracy. (The Australian government instituted the Literacy and Numeracy Test for Initial Teacher Education Students (<a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/teaching-and-school-leadership/literacy-and-numeracy-test-initial-teacher-education-students">LANTITE</a> in <a href="https://education.unimelb.edu.au/study/current-students/literacy-and-numeracy-test-for-initial-teacher-education-students-lantite">2016</a>) </p></li>
<li><p>improved data on <a href="https://www.aitsl.edu.au/research/australian-teacher-workforce-data">teacher supply and demand</a> (The AITSL now hosts the Australian Teacher Workforce Data (<a href="https://www.aitsl.edu.au/research/australian-teacher-workforce-data">ATWD</a>), which connects data on teacher education and the workforce around Australia. Its <a href="https://www.aitsl.edu.au/docs/default-source/atwd/reports/new-pipeline-report/2020_aitsl-atwd_pipelinereport.pdf">first report</a> came out in 2020)</p></li>
<li><p>help for graduate teachers starting their careers (such as AITSL’s <a href="https://www.aitsl.edu.au/teach/start-your-career/my-induction-app">My Induction app)</a> </p></li>
<li><p>for course providers to equip all primary student teachers with at least one subject specialisation, prioritising science, maths or a language. (This became part of the accreditation standards for teacher education programs. AITSL <a href="https://www.aitsl.edu.au/docs/default-source/default-document-library/aitsl_primary_specialisation_guidelines_2020.pdf?sfvrsn=7f15fe3c_2">requires course providers</a> to publish specialisations available on their websites and report numbers of commencing, enrolled and completing graduates per specialisation annually). </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Improvements such as those above can be credited to deans, teacher registration boards and education staff. </p>
<p>Overall, teacher education is improving. In Victoria, where the minimum ATAR to get into teaching has been 70 since 2019, average ATAR scores <a href="https://www.vtac.edu.au/files/pdf/reports/atar-profiles-2019.pdf">have risen</a>. The percentage of students and school principals who argue graduates are well prepared for teaching <a href="https://www.qilt.edu.au/qilt-surveys/employer-satisfaction">has increased</a>, and the number of <a href="https://www.aitsl.edu.au/deliver-ite-programs/apl">teacher education programs</a> across Australia has dropped (to 359 — a decrease from 425 in 2013).</p>
<p>We do have excellent teacher education programs across Australia. The aim now is to make more programs attain a high level of excellence. </p>
<h2>Why we need this review</h2>
<p>Despite what many critics and pundits may say, the current review is not a review of teaching in general. Rather, it’s specific to some of the issues that have arisen out of the implementation of the 2014 TMAG report. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/yes-quality-teaching-improves-student-outcomes-but-that-means-all-teachers-need-support-not-just-those-in-training-160101">Yes, quality teaching improves student outcomes. But that means all teachers need support – not just those in training</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>One example of such an issue is how universities assess their student teachers as classroom ready.</p>
<p>A major recommendations of the 2014 review was for the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) to develop a national assessment framework to help universities assess the classroom readiness of student teachers throughout the duration of their program. </p>
<p>The teaching institute did <a href="https://www.aitsl.edu.au/deliver-ite-programs/teaching-performance-assessment#:%7E:text=What%20is%20a%20teaching%20performance,their%20initial%20teacher%20education%20program.">promote teacher performance assessments</a> (or TPAs) which require student teachers to collect evidence of their positive impact on students during the final term of their study.</p>
<p>Universities must have their TPAs reviewed by an expert advisory group to ensure the quality of these is consistent across providers. While many universities have had their teacher performance assessments reviewed, some have yet to do so. </p>
<p>The first half of the current review attends to issues of classroom readiness — particularly improving the teacher performance assessment process. It asks about the extent of evidenced-based teaching practices in the teacher education programs. </p>
<p>It invites discussion on how student teachers can get practise in schools (COVID highlighted some of the problems) and how school staff play a greater role in developing teacher education programs (and help reduce first year of teaching shock for some).</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-education-minister-wants-graduating-teachers-to-be-classroom-ready-but-the-classroom-is-not-what-it-used-to-be-159051">The education minister wants graduating teachers to be 'classroom-ready'. But the classroom is not what it used to be</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>It also asks how teacher education providers can play a stronger role in ongoing professional development and support of teachers.</p>
<p>The other half is about attracting and selecting high-quality candidates into the teaching profession.</p>
<p>In 2017, the <a href="https://www.aitsl.edu.au/docs/default-source/atwd/reports/new-pipeline-report/2020_aitsl-atwd_pipelinereport.pdf">average age of starting a teacher education course</a> was 23-29, so many come as a second career. </p>
<p>Giving up two years of earnings is a high price to pay, so finding ways to make programs attractive needs debate, as does ways to entice high performing and motivated school leavers to choose teaching as a career. </p>
<p>Teaching is a hard career to move into for mid to late career professionals. The announced review asks if there are ways to make this transition more feasible.</p>
<p>Almost half the students who enrol into teaching programs don’t complete their course (about <a href="https://www.aitsl.edu.au/docs/default-source/atwd/reports/new-pipeline-report/2020_aitsl-atwd_pipelinereport.pdf">30,000 enter each year and 18,000 complete</a>). Of the students who
started an undergraduate teacher education program in 2012, 47% had completed their study after six years (the length of an undergraduate course is usually four years full time). </p>
<p>There is little evidence on who drops out and why. </p>
<p>The teacher workforce in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/08/were-all-your-teachers-white-ive-often-been-the-only-one-who-looks-like-my-students">many schools</a> is mostly female and white. This does not reflect the school population. Are there ways we can attract a more diverse cohort into studying teaching so teachers better mirror the diversity in school and society?</p>
<p>The review aims to answer these questions. It’s a critical enquiry, aiming to build on the success teaching educators have built over the past seven years. It is focused, addressing unresolved issues from the last review, and it deserves submissions from as many people as possible representing a broad range of views. </p>
<p>We have a chance to be proactive, scale up success, and promote the high quality teacher education programs across Australia.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/160181/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Hattie is Chair of AITSL Board, appointed by the Minister of Education</span></em></p>The review into teacher education announced by the Federal Education Minister in recent months was met with criticism from many. But it is actually a necessary part of reforming the education system.John Hattie, Professor, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1222222019-08-26T14:17:05Z2019-08-26T14:17:05ZWhat student teachers learn when putting theory into classroom practice<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288908/original/file-20190821-170906-1w8s0o4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">When faced with a class full of learners, student teachers must adapt theory to practice. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sunshine Seeds/Shutterstock/Editorial use only</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The preparation of student teachers is a critical aspect of their journey to being professional teachers. And teaching practice – real-world experiences that students acquire from actual classroom teaching before they are qualified teachers – is one important characteristic of this preparation process. </p>
<p>During this process, student teachers entering the profession are supported to realise that teaching is not just about applying learnt theories. It also requires practical problem solving expertise that leads to effective teaching. Simply put, it’s not adequate for student teachers to only observe and read about teaching if they don’t also practise it. </p>
<p><a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2158244017709863">According to research</a>, mentorship from experienced teachers and systematic reflection in practice helps student teachers to cultivate knowledge of the subject, learners and teaching communities.</p>
<p>In South Africa, all initial teacher education institutions are mandated through policy to include teaching practice as part of the Bachelor of Education programme. I recently conducted <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334724654_Reflecting_on_English_student_teachers'_critical_incidents_during_teaching_practicum">a study</a> about teaching practice at one South African university. </p>
<p>At this institution, teaching practice begins in the first year of enrolment. In the first two years, the students are sent to schools for a time to observe an experienced teacher in the actual process of teaching. In the last two years of the study, the student teachers began the actual teaching under the mentorship of an experienced mentor teacher. </p>
<p>I wanted to know how student teachers in their third year deal with what are known as <a href="https://assets.cambridge.org/97805218/49111/sample/9780521849111ws.pdf">“critical incidents”</a>. These are defined as unplanned and unanticipated events that occur during a lesson or outside the classroom that provide an important insight to the practitioner about teaching and learning. For example, a high school teacher might plan to have learners debate on a topic, but discover that the learners are unable to construct a comprehensible English sentence. This incident will serve as a future reference to the teacher not to assume the learners’ level of proficiency. </p>
<p>In my study, I found that the student teachers used critical incidents to notice, reflect and reshape their teaching practices. Such reflection is critical as it enables them to question their practices, the initial process to their professional development. </p>
<h2>Three key areas</h2>
<p>In my study, I examined the critical incidents that the 38 student teachers who were being prepared to teach English in high school encountered during teaching practice. These incidents resulted from situations in which student teachers were puzzled about how to maintain an effective teaching environment. </p>
<p>Three key areas emerged from the study. One related to discipline; the second was about student teachers’ professional identity; the third outlined how student teachers grappled with differences between theory and practice.</p>
<p>Firstly, the student teachers felt challenged in maintaining classroom discipline. They found that there was a mismatch between the theories of classroom management they had studied at university and the realities of the classrooms where they had been placed. </p>
<p>Classroom indiscipline was largely a result of large classes and limited learning resources. Learners also often struggled with the English language – they came from multi-lingual backgrounds and were learning English as a second language.</p>
<p>The student teachers seem to have learnt that the failure to match subject knowledge and the actual context of the classroom caused ill-discipline among learners.</p>
<p>Secondly, the student teachers learnt that the way they chose to groom themselves as professionals, especially in dress, influenced how learners assigned credibility to them as teachers. The student teachers became aware that their developing professional identity was shaped in interactions with others – including the learners during various activities of teaching and learning. </p>
<p>While the student teachers had only focused on the classroom as a source of practising their professionalism, they came to realise that sites of instruction were multiple and, at times, informal.</p>
<p>Thirdly, the student teachers experienced estrangement between the theories of second language teaching and the practical instruction needs in the classroom. Although the student teachers have theoretical knowledge of teaching English, the realities in the classroom did not align to their preparation experiences.</p>
<p>Perhaps the most significant “incident” that all the student teachers described on this point was that their learners lacked the prior knowledge they’d expected to be in place at those levels. They filled the gap by developing remedial programmes to help their learners. But they told me they weren’t certain they’d be able to continue with this sort of support when they actually became full-time teachers. They worried doing this would add to an already heavy work load.</p>
<h2>What does this mean?</h2>
<p>These findings lay bare just some of the wide range of experiences to which student teachers are exposed when they work in classrooms and schools. The study also shows how student teachers responded to these incidents: they saw them as a learning process that caused them to act, respond and reflect so they could maintain quality teaching. </p>
<p>These descriptions are important as evidence of the way student teachers reframe, rephrase, reshape and ultimately transform their teaching practices to reflect both context and diversity in English Language teaching.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/122222/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nhlanhla Mpofu receives funding from the National Research Foundation Thuthuka Grant (TTK170427229083)</span></em></p>Student teachers saw certain incidents in their classrooms as a learning process that caused them to act, respond and reflect so they could maintain quality teaching.Nhlanhla Mpofu, Senior Lecturer, University of the Free StateLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1066192018-12-02T09:44:18Z2018-12-02T09:44:18ZHelping teachers get better at ‘how’ to teach as well as ‘what’ to teach<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/244542/original/file-20181108-74778-53sv3y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Physics teachers often pass on misconceptions to their pupils.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s always difficult to step out of your comfort zone. This is true for teachers too; research has shown that many educators are <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/64de/3b75717b98785ad057e69b573f538b566ae3.pdf">resistant to change</a>. This manifests in many ways. Some don’t want to try out new assessment methods. Others are reluctant to use technology for teaching. And some resist any sort of professional development because they’re used to doing things in a particular way.</p>
<p>But it’s hugely important that teachers try new things and develop new understanding of subject knowledge. Research shows that pupils learn better when their teachers are not only well versed in the subject, but are also willing to be flexible about how they teach. </p>
<p>We believe it’s valuable to target teachers who are still studying and haven’t yet started working in schools to think differently about what they know and how they teach. That’s why we created <a href="https://episteme7.hbcse.tifr.res.in/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/epiSTEME-7-Pages-1-474-with-header.pdf">a novel approach</a> to professional development for trainee physics teachers at Mauritius’ sole teacher training institute. </p>
<p>Over a period of 18 months, <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/n026teallxnbu8d/epi7_R-B%28post_review%29.pdf?dl=0*">we followed</a> the student teachers’ progress. At the beginning, we found that student teachers struggled <a href="http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.1002.2207&rep=rep1&type=pdf">to explain the physics concepts</a> they would be expected to teach to high school pupils. </p>
<p>The concepts were taught (in mock classroom settings) <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1165665">in a way</a> that would almost certainly lead to learners developing misconceptions about important concepts in physics.</p>
<p>We tackled this in our professional development course by getting the trainee teachers to write tests and integrate constant feedback into their work. This helped them become more aware of their existing physics knowledge – and where it was lacking. They became eager to keep learning and also to try a gamut of different approaches in the learning process. </p>
<p>By improving their content knowledge, we <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-94-6300-749-8_39">improved</a> their teaching skills. This set them up to enter the classroom better prepared, both in terms of <em>how</em> to teach and <em>what</em> to teach.</p>
<h2>Understanding the subject</h2>
<p>Teaching and learning physics is no easy task. In Mauritius, you can become a physics teacher if you hold an undergraduate degree in the subject and then complete a teacher training course at a later time.</p>
<p>The problem is that having a degree in the subject is no guarantee you’ll be a good physics teacher. For one thing, a lot of research <a href="https://sites.nationalacademies.org/cs/groups/dbassesite/documents/webpage/dbasse_073331.pdf">has shown</a> that people with undergraduate physics degrees don’t always have proper conceptual understandings of the various phenomena encompassing physics. </p>
<p>And that is not something which you can learn at a teacher training college. These institutions focus on the “how” of teaching: how to manage a class, how to devise a curriculum, or how to get pupils interested in a topic.</p>
<p>Our course featured some pedagogical knowledge – that is, equipping future teachers to go out and teach. But the focus was on content knowledge, particularly for those teaching 11 to 18-year-olds.</p>
<p>The idea was to keep testing pre-service teachers on what they knew about physics, so they could learn about their own misconceptions and knowledge gaps with the support of the facilitators. </p>
<h2>Correcting misconceptions</h2>
<p>Though we followed the work of several pre-service teachers in this process, we ultimately chose a case study approach. This involved following a single student teacher’s progress over 18 months, and seeing how she developed much stronger subject knowledge as a result of continuous and regular formative assessment tasks and ample written and verbal feedback.</p>
<p>In the beginning, the student battled to explain simple physics concepts – things like gravity and velocity. But she didn’t realise she was getting anything wrong; she could not identify her own misconceptions. The fact that she was enrolled in the course we’d set up meant that she had ample opportunities to learn where she’d erred. </p>
<p>This is extremely important: physics teachers’ misconceptions about their own subject knowledge should be identified and corrected before they become firmly ingrained notions. Working with pre-service teachers in a professional development context, rather than waiting until teachers are already active in classrooms and passing their misconceptions on to pupils, is crucial.</p>
<h2>A valuable tool</h2>
<p>By the end of the 18-month course we could <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/n026teallxnbu8d/epi7_R-B%28post_review%29.pdf?dl=0*">identify</a> to some extent some improvements in deductive reasoning and problem solving skills of the student teachers. </p>
<p>As we already stipulated, misconceptions are firmly ingrained in the mind of teachers, and these are very often intertwined with other concepts in physics and mathematics. </p>
<p>The 18-month course essentially drew the student teachers’ attention to the presence of their own misconceptions. It also gave them the necessary tools to address and repair these.</p>
<p>Our work shows that introducing conceptual tests during professional development courses (both for teachers who are already working and those who are yet to qualify) can be extremely valuable. </p>
<p>Testing content knowledge in these courses and offering constant feedback to teachers can help them to correct their misconceptions and eventually encourage them to reflect critically on what they do – and don’t – know.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/106619/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yashwant Ramma works for the Mauritius Institute of Education. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ajeevsing Bholoa works for the Mauritius Institute of Education.</span></em></p>By improving trainee physics teachers’ content knowledge and skills, we make them better.Yashwant Ramma, Professor & Chair, Research, Mauritius Institute of EducationAjeevsing Bholoa, Senior Lecturer, Mathematics Education Department, Mauritius Institute of EducationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/873782017-11-15T13:28:48Z2017-11-15T13:28:48ZSouth Africa must do more to keep teachers from seeking ‘greener pastures’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194354/original/file-20171113-27635-1uabqyn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Much more must be done to keep teachers in South Africa.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Around the world, many teachers are choosing to leave their home countries once they’ve qualified. It’s a global phenomenon, and one that impacts both developed and developing nations – in <a href="https://www.un.org/press/en/2010/gaef3291.doc.htm">some positive</a> ways, but with negative effects particularly for the source country that’s losing skilled teachers to supposedly “greener pastures”. International teacher mobility is driven primarily by the prospect of earning more money. Teachers from developing countries can <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jid.1313/pdf">double their real income</a> by teaching in some more developed host nations.</p>
<p>South African teachers are often recruited, particularly by industrialised nations, to deal with teacher shortages. South African teachers are particularly favoured for their hard work, loyalty and dedication. Most of them can also teach more than one subject.</p>
<p>I wanted to understand why South African student teachers might find working elsewhere more attractive. What is driving their migration, either through recruitment or on their own steam? So I conducted <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/18146627.2017.1286942">a study</a> with a group of final-year Bachelor of Education (BEd) student teachers from a South African university. They responded to a 27-item questionnaire whose aim was to find out their career plans for the near future.</p>
<p>A sample of 134 students were involved in the survey. Most (79%) planned to stay in South Africa in the year after graduating – but a relatively high number (38%) said they’d like to be teaching in another country in five years’ time. The good news is that, of the 38%, most plan to return to South Africa after teaching elsewhere for a time. There were three main reasons for migration: the opportunity to travel; the chance to earn a higher salary and professional development.</p>
<p>But what of those who plan to leave for good? It’s important for a country like South Africa, which has a <a href="http://sace.org.za/assets/documents/uploads/sace_29250-2016-08-31-A%20review%20on%20teacher%20demand%20and%20supply%20in%20South%20Africa.pdf">scarcity</a> particularly of maths, science and language teachers, not to lose its trained teachers. Policy needs to focus on making the teaching profession stable and more appealing. South Africa must ensure that its locally trained teachers are recognised and nurtured so that they have more reason to stay in the country.</p>
<h2>Greener pastures?</h2>
<p>Of the students I surveyed, 8% said that they planned to teach in another country upon graduating and 8% were undecided. Another 4% indicated that they would not be entering the teaching profession at all. </p>
<p>Australia was most students’ preferred destination country. More than a quarter of the students (27%) who were planning to teach in another country preferred Australia, followed by the United Kingdom (16%), South Korea (16%) and the United States (14%). The most important reasons for choosing these four destination countries were higher salaries, friendly people, family and/or friends as residents. The students also cited those countries’ high standard of education and opportunities for professional growth. </p>
<p>A small percentage were planning to migrate to Canada, New Zealand, Japan, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia, The Netherlands, Switzerland and Scotland.</p>
<p>For the most part, students were motivated by pull rather than push factors. Some were worried about <a href="https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/why-teachers-are-leaving-their-profession-20170830">bad working conditions</a>, bad social services, an <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2017-06-15-schools-are-so-violent-teachers-live-in-fear/">unsafe environment</a> and South Africa’s <a href="https://tradingeconomics.com/south-africa/unemployment-rate">high rates of unemployment</a>. Mostly, though, they were focused on what other countries had to offer – pull factors.</p>
<p>They indicated that their most important migration needs before leaving South Africa were information about health care, accommodation, salary scales, banking assistance, cost of living (transport and food costs), methods of learner assessment and tax advice.</p>
<h2>Making South Africa a more attractive option</h2>
<p>Migration is always an option, especially for professionals like teachers, and is in some cases inevitable. There are no reliable figures to show how many South African teachers are lost to other countries each year. But what’s important is that the country not lose too many of its teachers, whether they’re newly qualified or established; the best and the brightest of those who are already working are also targeted, especially in scarce skill subjects such as maths and science-related subjects.</p>
<p>More must be done to make teaching an attractive, stable profession in South Africa. This can be done by improving teachers’ working conditions and salary scales – particularly those who are teaching scarce skills subjects. Policy makers and authorities must monitor teacher recruitment agencies carefully to ensure that there isn’t a mass exodus of teachers that catches the country by surprise. </p>
<p>This is important if the country is to keep at least some of its qualified, passionate teachers and build up skills in areas like maths and science.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87378/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rian de Villiers does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Policy needs to focus on making the teaching profession stable and more appealing. South Africa must ensure its locally trained teachers have more reason to stay in the country.Rian de Villiers, Associate Professor: Teacher migration, University of PretoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/865502017-11-05T08:57:51Z2017-11-05T08:57:51ZDistance learning: the five qualities student teachers need to succeed<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192612/original/file-20171031-18689-1ao7exe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Students can feel very isolated when studying through a distance education programme.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>International bodies, politicians, policy makers and researchers have always been interested in the way teachers are prepared for the classroom. This is because the quality of a country’s teachers is <a href="http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1119369606.html">an indicator</a> of its developmental level.</p>
<p>Distance education is <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02607470500043557">often viewed</a> as a way to speed up the process of producing well qualified, good teachers. This approach involves a model in which students are physically separated from the university or training college in question. Students usually communicate with the institution through emails, online learning support systems or occasional face-to-face tutorials. </p>
<p>Distance education tends to be flexible and more affordable than full time study. It’s useful for a range of people when it comes to teacher education. Those who are just beginning to study teaching; those who want to continue their professional development and those who must familiarise themselves with a changing curriculum can all benefit. This is important, since teachers need an ever-changing set of skills, knowledge and competencies.</p>
<p>But distance education for teacher training also has its problems. Student <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02680513.2013.847363">retention rates are low and dropouts are high</a>. Some scholars have suggested that <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02680513.2013.847363">improved support</a> could help. But what form should this support take? How much of it should come from institutions? And how much can students do themselves?</p>
<p>My newest <a href="https://upjournals.co.za/index.php/Progressio/article/view/1527">research</a> focused on
trying to understand what disposition students need to support themselves through what can be a very <a href="http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.495.1633&rep=rep1&type=pdf">isolated</a> experience. Working with in-service teachers enrolled in a distance education programme at Zimbabwe’s Solusi University, I found there were five qualities that really mattered. These were: coping, pro-activeness, ingenuity, tenacity and problem solving. </p>
<h2>Five crucial qualities</h2>
<p>In Africa, as in most developing contexts, students in distance education programmes are largely from <a href="https://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/24119">rural or semi-rural settings</a>. Using Botswana as an example, educationists Godson Gatsha and Rinelle Evans <a href="https://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/24119">found</a> that students tend to be isolated from the resources distance education institutions offer as support. Students simply don’t have the money to travel relatively long distances to access facilities.</p>
<p>This suggests that in-service teachers enrolled in distance education programmes require support beyond physical resources to complete their studies. This is where self-motivation – or what’s also known as self-efficacy – becomes important. Self-efficacy <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/record/1985-98423-000">has been described as</a> a person’s</p>
<blockquote>
<p>judgements of their capabilities to organise and execute courses of action required to attain designated types of performances. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>With this definition in mind, I wanted to explore how students’ own initiatives and strategies – driven by self-efficacy – could motivate their academic success. Their answers and feedback helped me to identify five qualities that bolstered these students’ self-efficacy:</p>
<p><strong>Coping</strong>: The student’s ability to adapt to the challenges inherent in any educational programme designed for self-study. A student who creates a balance between their working lives and the demands of studying, perhaps by developing a careful schedule and personalised timetable, is coping.</p>
<p><strong>Pro-activeness</strong>: A student who displays initiative. She anticipates and prepares for the challenges that might result from the demands of studying. These students pay careful attention to both academic and administrative requirements. </p>
<p><strong>Ingenious</strong>: These students adopt creative and original approaches to their their studies. They have well developed study systems and have learnt how to access support from structures beyond the university, for example by forming study groups with other colleagues or using community libraries. </p>
<p><strong>Tenacity</strong>: These students are determined, persistent and self-motivated. They recognise their own weaknesses and identify individuals or hobbies that motivate them to complete their studies.</p>
<p><strong>Problem solvers</strong>: These students recognise the challenges inherent in distance education and find their own solutions. They identify problems, then categorise them – which will have an immediate effect on the quality of their studies, and which are less threatening? For instance, students realised that having limited knowledge about the structure of an academic essay was immediately problematic. They dealt with this as a priority, sometimes alone and sometimes through collaboration.</p>
<h2>Developing these qualities</h2>
<p>The five qualities I’ve described and discussed helped the students involved in my research to cope with the demands of distance education. These findings suggest that distance education students should be encouraged to develop self-efficacy before embarking on what can be a lonely, isolated course of study. And, crucially, they show that students can be their own greatest supporters in academic growth especially when enrolled in distance education.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86550/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nhlanhla Mpofu does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Distance education for teacher training has its problems. Improved support can address these issues - but some of it should come from students themselves.Nhlanhla Mpofu, Senior Lecturer, Director Teaching, Learning and Program Development, Sol Plaatje UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/719432017-02-01T15:58:38Z2017-02-01T15:58:38ZFoundation teachers are more than simply childminders. Here’s why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154721/original/image-20170130-7685-19v3kgv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Having good, well-trained teachers in their early lives benefits children enormously.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Teaching young children is complex and challenging and requires laying solid foundations for literacy, mathematics and language learning. It needs dedicated, well-educated teachers, along with mechanisms and resources to support them. </p>
<p>The foundation phase in South Africa, where we conduct some of our research and educate future teachers, includes Grades R (reception year) through to Grade 3 – six to nine year olds. </p>
<p>South Africa has a problem: the status of foundation phase teachers is very low. Many believe that these teachers are basically childminders. This implies that anyone can do it and that one doesn’t need intellect or cognitively demanding university-level education to become a foundation phase teacher. What is especially worrying is that even some student teachers believe this to be true. Research we’ve conducted among our students <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/254267848">shows</a> that foundation phase teachers are not taken seriously.</p>
<p>Some of our own experiences in running a “teaching school” at the University of Johannesburg’s Soweto campus suggest that it’s possible to turn these misconceptions around and boost foundation phase teachers’ status. In some high performing education systems, such as Finland’s, being a primary school teacher is a <a href="https://edpolicy.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/publications/secret-finland%E2%80%99s-success-educating-teachers.pdf">highly esteemed</a> career choice. It enjoys equal status with law and medicine.</p>
<h2>Poorly regarded</h2>
<p>We conducted research with 238 student teachers in two cohorts, at the beginning of each academic year in 2010 and 2011. The students were asked why they chose to become foundation phase teachers. We also asked what they thought of foundation phase teachers when they were in high school and what their family and friends said about them. Their comments were enlightening. </p>
<p>Most told us that family and friends were often surprised that they were thinking about foundation phase teaching as a career. This was particularly true if they were perceived as “bright students”. Teaching in general is not seen as an ideal career choice. But foundation phase teaching in particular seems to be very poorly regarded. </p>
<p>Those who express interest in pursuing foundation phase teaching are often bombarded with negative messages. For instance, one student told us that </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The general public looks down on foundation phase teachers. They think that it’s a low class profession. They don’t even believe you if you say you have to study for four years to become a foundation phase teacher. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Some students said they held similar views when they were at school: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I thought a foundation phase teacher was a low class teacher and they are not well educated teachers. They teach young kids simple education and therefore they don’t have to study hard and get high quality education.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is completely contrary to the way in which primary school teachers are viewed in the world’s high performing education systems. Finnish educational expert Pasi Sahlberg <a href="https://edpolicy.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/publications/secret-finland%E2%80%99s-success-educating-teachers.pdf">has written</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Among young Finns, teaching is consistently the most admired profession in regular opinion polls of high school graduates. Becoming a primary school teacher in Finland is a very competitive process, and only Finland’s best and brightest are able to fulfil those professional dreams.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Finnish teacher education is excellent and our faculty has learned from it, adapting some elements to the South African context. We and our colleagues have worked hard to raise the status of foundation phase teachers through advocacy, research and the teacher education programme on the university’s Soweto campus.</p>
<h2>Theory and practical experience matter</h2>
<p>The programme we’re involved in comprises of cognitively demanding coursework, with a strong focus on child development studies. All student teachers are also required to do language, literacy and mathematics courses for three years. During their degree programme they are placed in a variety of schools for practice teaching. But a large proportion of their practical experience is completed in the school located on the Soweto campus – a “teaching school”. </p>
<p>This allows an integration of coursework with practice periods at the school. It’s a model of teacher education that’s been used <a href="https://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisaproducts/46581035.pdf">successfully</a> in Finland since 1972. Though our model drew from the Finnish example, it’s been adapted to South Africa’s particular context.</p>
<p>Research findings from a collaborative University of Johannesburg and University of Helsinki project show that students integrate effectively what they learn in university coursework with what they learn at the school, preparing them well for the world of the classroom. </p>
<p>At the teaching school students also have continuous exposure to expert teachers, and have models of powerful teaching to emulate. Many of the teachers at the school, who serve as mentors for our student teachers, go on to pursue post graduate studies. This also helps shift student teachers’ views of primary school teaching as a soft option and a lowly career choice. </p>
<p>This all suggests that a great deal can be done to shift people’s perceptions of foundation phase teaching. Excellent teacher education
is crucial, but there are other avenues that should be explored.</p>
<h2>Champions are required</h2>
<p>Strong advocacy is required from various segments of society. Also, excellent teaching practices in the foundation phase need to be highlighted in national forums with accompanying messages about the importance of this phase of schooling as the basis for future educational success. </p>
<p>Robust foundation phase teacher education programmes in which student teachers learn to become both producers and consumers of educational knowledge, particularly of child development, are needed. And more dedicated funding in the form of prestigious bursaries for this phase of schooling is required. This would attract more young people, especially those who are talented and academically strong, into this field of study.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/71943/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Gravett receives funding - development grants: USAID, Elma Foundation, </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nadine Petersen receives funding from the National Research Foundation. She is affiliated with the SASOL Inzalo Foundation Board as trustee. </span></em></p>Many people look down on foundation phase teachers, believing it requires little training or expertise. This couldn’t be further from the truth.Sarah Gravett, Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Education, University of JohannesburgNadine Petersen, Professor: Teacher education for the primary school, University of JohannesburgLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/662872016-11-03T22:19:19Z2016-11-03T22:19:19ZHow training can prepare teachers for diversity in their classrooms<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142319/original/image-20161019-20333-199u70p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Teachers need support to make sure they deal well with diversity and conflict.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Akintunde Akinleye/Reuters</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Teachers have been shaping lives for centuries. Everyone remembers their favourite (and of course their least favourite) teachers. This important group of people even has its <a href="http://en.unesco.org/events/world-teachers-day-0">own special day</a>, marked each October by the United Nations.</p>
<p>Teachers are at the coal face when it comes to watching societies change. South Africa’s classrooms, for instance, look vastly different today than they did two decades ago. They bring together children from different racial, cultural, economic and social backgrounds. This can sometimes cause conflict as varied ways of understanding the world bump up against each other. </p>
<p>How can teachers develop the skills to work with these differences in productive ways? What practical support do they need to bring the values of <a href="http://www.gov.za/documents/constitution/constitution-republic-south-Africa-1996-1">the Constitution</a> to life in their classes?</p>
<p>To answer these questions, my colleagues and I in the <a href="http://www.sun.ac.za/education">Faculty of Education</a> at Stellenbosch University have put together four examples <a href="http://www.sun.ac.za/english/Documents/Yearbooks/2016/2016Education.pdf">from modules</a> within our faculty’s teacher education programme. These ideas are by no means exhaustive; other institutions also tackle these issues. What we present here is based on our own research, teaching and experience and is open to further discussion.</p>
<h2>1. Working with multilingualism</h2>
<p>English is only South Africa’s <a href="http://www.southafrica.info/about/people/language.htm#.WActfeh97IU">fifth most spoken</a> home language. Teachers must remember this: even if their pupils are speaking English in the classroom, their home languages may be far more diverse.</p>
<p>Trainee teachers can benefit enormously from a course on multilingual education. In our faculty, for instance, students are given the chance to place multilingual education in a South African policy framework. They model multilingual classroom strategies like code switching and translation. They visit schools to observe how such strategies are applied in the real classroom. Students then report back on whether this approach helps learners from different language backgrounds to participate actively in the lesson. </p>
<p>There’s also great value in introducing student teachers to the notion of “<a href="http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2015/09/10-ways-speakers-of-world-english-are-changing-the-language/">World Englishes</a>”. This focuses on the role of English in multilingual communities, where it is seen as being used for communication and academic purposes rather than as a way for someone to be integrated into an English community. </p>
<h2>2. Supporting diverse learning needs</h2>
<p>Student teachers must be trained to identify and support pupils’ diverse learning needs. This helps teachers to identify and address barriers to learning and development and encourages linkages between the home and the school.</p>
<p>This is even more meaningful when it is embedded in experiential learning. For instance, in guided exercises with their own class groups, our students engage with their feelings, experiences and thinking about their own backgrounds and identities. Other activities may be based on real scenarios, such as discussing <a href="http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/western-cape/rasta-boy-misses-school-over-dreads-1972722">the case</a> of a boy who was sanctioned by his school for wearing his hair in a way prescribed by his religion.</p>
<p>In these modules we focus on language, culture, race, socioeconomic conditions, disability, sexual orientation, learning differences and behavioural, health or emotional difficulties. The students also learn how to help vulnerable learners who are being bullied.</p>
<p>And these areas are constantly expanding. At Stellenbosch University, we’ve recently noted that we need to prepare teachers to deal with the bullying of <a href="http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2015-02-17-homosexuality-in-south-african-schools-still-largely-a-silent-taboo/">LGBT</a> learners. They also need to be equipped with the tools to support pupils who’ve <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-teachers-can-help-migrant-learners-feel-more-included-56760">immigrated</a> from elsewhere in Africa.</p>
<h2>3. Advancing a democratic classroom</h2>
<p>Courses that deal with the philosophy of education are an important element of teacher education. These explore notions of diversity, human dignity, social justice and democratic citizenship.</p>
<p>In these classes, student teachers are encouraged to see their own lecture rooms as spaces for open and equal engagement, with regard and respect for different ways of being. They’re given opportunities to express and engage with controversial views. This stands them in good stead to create such spaces in their own classrooms.</p>
<p>Most importantly, students are invited to critically reconsider commonly held beliefs – and to disrupt their ideas of the world – so that they might encounter the other as they are and not as they desire them to be. In such a classroom, a teacher promotes discussion and debate. She cultivates respect and regard for the other by listening to different accounts and perspectives. Ultimately, the teacher accepts that she is just one voice in the classroom.</p>
<h2>4. Understanding constitutional rights in the classroom</h2>
<p>All the approaches to teacher education described here are underpinned by the Constitution. </p>
<p>The idea is that teacher education programmes should develop teachers who understand notions of justice, citizenship and <a href="http://www.litnet.co.za/racial-difference-common-citizenship-hair-raising-issue/">social cohesion</a>. Any good teacher needs to be able to reflect critically on their own role as leader and manager within the contexts of classrooms, schools and the broader society. This includes promoting values of democracy, social justice and equality, and building attitudes of respect and reciprocity.</p>
<p>A critical reflective ethos is encouraged. Students get numerous opportunities to interrogate, debate, research, express and reflect upon educational challenges, theories and policies, from different perspectives, as these apply to practice. This is all aimed at building a positive school environment for everyone.</p>
<h2>Moving into teaching</h2>
<p>What about when students become teachers themselves?</p>
<p>For many new teachers these inclusive practices are not easy to implement in schools. One lecturer in our faculty has been approached by former students who report that as beginner teachers, they don’t have “the status or voice to change existing discriminatory practices and what some experience as the resistance to inclusive education”. This suggests that ongoing discussion and training in both pre-service and in-service education is needed.</p>
<p>At the same time, however, there are signs that these modules are having a positive impact. Students post comments and ideas on social media and lecturers regularly hear from first-time teachers about how useful their acquired knowledge is in different contexts. Many are also eager to study further so they can explore the issues more deeply.</p>
<p>Everything I’ve described here is part of one faculty’s attempts to provide safe spaces where student teachers can learn to work constructively with the issues pertaining to diversity in education. In doing so, we hope they’ll become part of building a country based on respect for all.</p>
<p><em>Author’s note: I am grateful to my colleagues Lynette Collair, Nuraan Davids, Jerome Joorst and Christa van der Walt for the ideas contained in this article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/66287/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Maureen Robinson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Teachers need training and support to deal with increasing diversity in their classrooms.Maureen Robinson, Dean, Faculty of Education, Stellenbosch UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/478792015-09-29T04:44:06Z2015-09-29T04:44:06ZHow to stop high drop out rate of first-year university students<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96417/original/image-20150928-415-lqloxp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Up to 40% of South African university students drop out after their first year. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The opening up of South Africa’s universities after the end of apartheid has proved to be a double-edged sword. Enrolment figures have <a href="http://www.dhet.gov.za/Teacher%20Education/Technical%20Report%20-%20Intergrated%20Strategic%20Planning%20Framework%20for%20Teacher%20Education%20and%20Development%20In%20SA,%2012%20Apr%202011.pdf">doubled</a> from close to 500,000 in 1993 to 938,201 in 2011, which means that far more people have had the chance to earn a university degree.</p>
<p>But universities have been largely unprepared for this astonishing growth. This has contributed to a high drop-out rate. First-year students have borne the brunt of this, with <a href="http://www.che.ac.za/sites/default/files/publications/Full_Report.pdf">more than 40%</a> of them dropping out in their first year of study.</p>
<p>The best way to create programmes and policies designed to support these students is to understand them: who they are; where they come from; and what the structural stumbling blocks are to their success. </p>
<p>I conducted a <a href="http://digitalknowledge.cput.ac.za/jspui/bitstream/11189/3160/1/Pather_S_DEd_2015.pdf">case study</a> of first-year teacher education students at the <a href="http://www.cput.ac.za/">Cape Peninsula University of Technology</a>, using both a survey and personal interviews to gather data. The purpose was to investigate what factors outside the academy were affecting their fledgling university careers.</p>
<h2>Family responsibilities</h2>
<p>The approximately 200 students involved in the study are older than the average first-time university entrant. They have a mean age of 21 and 84% are the first in their families to attend university.</p>
<p>Many of the mature students did not enter university out of choice, but more out of desperation to change their circumstances – as this student explains: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I decided I want to study; I’m gonna quit work because it’s not the life I want for me and I just said to myself, ‘No! you need to change your life, you need to go back to study.’ I wanted to do something better for me and my son to have a better life.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>They feel an urgency to succeed and view a university degree as being key to their financial stability. This attitude is part of the reason many chose a teaching degree. Teaching is perceived as a job that offers security to both the students and their extended families. </p>
<p>One student said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I want to prove to myself that I can do this, even with all of the challenges that I have, but it’s just that the need to succeed goes into supporting my family and putting them onto the map as well. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Money troubles</h2>
<p>Almost 94% of the students surveyed rely on bursaries or scholarships to study. Many have taken part-time jobs to have some income and don’t spend a lot of time on campus. There is simply no time to spend at a cafeteria chatting with fellow students or to socialise between lectures. They also miss out on the benefits of being full-time students, like visiting the library. One said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’m working every weekend now to pay, like, for my food. I work on a wine farm in Stellenbosch. So every Friday I take the taxi home and I work the weekend and then my dad brings me back Sunday night because the hours are long and there is no taxi so late into the city. I take my university work with me and then when it’s quiet and when there is [sic] no customers I would take my bag and quickly do some work.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Unlike their younger, less financially constrained peers, these students tend to make friends only with those they think might advance their own academic success:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I am here to study, not worry about other people’s marks. You need to put yourself with people who know they are doing something positive; people that can help you achieve your goal. You are not here to make friends, friends are a bonus; focus on your marks, you are here for something, focus on that.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Their family commitments are another reason these students say they can’t socialise or spend a lot of time on campus. They are trying to balance their academic work, family life and part-time jobs. Something has to give, and in this case it’s the amount of time they spend physically at university.</p>
<h2>Feeling of belonging</h2>
<p>These students’ circumstances mean that they don’t feel as though they “belong” to the university. If universities listened to their first-year students’ stories more closely they could design programmes and policies that consider these students’ needs. Once a student “belongs”, feels valued and receives the support they need, they are more likely to stick it out and complete a degree.</p>
<p>Universities should consider extended first-year orientation programmes that enhance both the social and academic life of a student. These should encourage peer-to-peer interaction and support as well as positive engagement between students and staff. The formal curriculum should be blended in parts with co-curricular activities to encourage more meaningful social and academic integration between students and academics.</p>
<p>Finally, universities should stop viewing first-year students as a drop-out risk. These youngsters are often determined, optimistic, enthusiastic and open to learning – qualities that will ultimately benefit themselves and their academic institutions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/47879/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Subethra Pather received funding from National Research Foundation and Department of Higher Education. </span></em></p>There are a number of factors outside the academy that hold first-year university students back. Addressing these can improve retention rates.Subethra Pather, Academic Development Lecturer, Cape Peninsula University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/447852015-07-27T04:36:41Z2015-07-27T04:36:41ZImproving student teachers’ in-school experiences is a smart investment<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89031/original/image-20150720-12527-1utm3t8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">South African teachers must operate in extremely varied socioeconomic conditions. Their practical training in schools needs to prepare them for this reality.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Nic Bothma</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For some student teachers, the compulsory practical period they spend in a school before qualifying is the highlight of their degree. </p>
<p>During this practicum period, which accounts for about 25% of student teachers’ time during their degree, they observe practising teachers and teach their own lessons. They get involved in school life. They experience the joys and tribulations of working with young people. </p>
<p>It can also be a stressful and negative time. Student teachers may receive inadequate mentoring and support or see other teachers acting as less than positive role models. These student teachers can become demoralised and even give up on the profession entirely. </p>
<p>Enrolments into teacher education programmes have significantly increased in recent years. But <a href="http://www.cde.org.za/teacher-supply-and-demand-2013-2025/">research suggests</a> that teacher shortages are still looming in some school phases and disciplines. How can the practicum period become such a universally positive experience that the profession doesn’t lose teachers where they are needed most?</p>
<h2>Creating new criteria</h2>
<p>Schools in South Africa operate in <a href="https://theconversation.com/private-vs-public-schools-its-not-a-simple-numbers-game-41899">hugely varied</a> socioeconomic and educational conditions. <a href="http://www.education.gov.za/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=lSvVL6UWSQ4%3D&tabid=628&mid=2065">Teacher education</a> must prepare student teachers for all of these contexts. </p>
<p>Many student teachers use their placement time to market themselves for a future post. Placements in different kinds of schools will ensure that young, enthusiastic teachers apply for positions across the social and geographical spectrum. </p>
<p>But the reality is that not all schools can offer the same quality of teaching and learning to their own pupils, nor the same quality of mentoring to student teachers. It becomes necessary, then, to identify criteria that universities can use for student teacher placements.</p>
<p>Research by the Department of Higher Education and Training has outlined what these criteria might be. The researchers interviewed school authorities, university academics and provincial departments of education in five of the <a href="http://www.southafrica.info/about/geography/provinces.htm#.VazrJvmqqko">country’s nine provinces</a> to create this list of criteria. </p>
<p>1) leadership and vision - includes characteristics like a positive ethos, a culture of teaching and learning and a caring, welcoming environment;</p>
<p>2) professionalism - this manifests in teachers who share knowledge and skills and are willing to learn;</p>
<p>3) functionality - includes a good work ethic and ethos, good internal and external channels of communication and an infrastructure which ensures that teaching can actually happen; </p>
<p>4) good teaching and learning - knowledge of the curriculum, positive learning outcomes and practices and processes that support learning; and,</p>
<p>5) resilience - the ability to prepare student teachers for different contexts and, most importantly, a commitment to ongoing teacher, pupil and student teacher growth. </p>
<p>This list offers a good starting point for selecting schools where student teachers can be placed. But the promotion of positive and diverse school experiences for student teachers also depends on factors beyond the school gates.</p>
<h2>Room for improvement</h2>
<p>Many schools complain that university education faculties don’t sufficiently communicate their expectations about student teachers’ responsibilities. They also don’t always explain what is required from the teachers who will act as mentors. </p>
<p>Where communication does exist, it very rarely offers opportunities for genuine and sustained dialogue between teachers and university lecturers. </p>
<p>They have no chance to discuss things like the purpose and design of the teacher education programme or how to judge the professional competence of a novice teacher. This minimises the chance for teacher education to combine insights from theory and practice in mutually productive ways.</p>
<p>Schools and universities have a strong, impressive history of being willing to support student teaching. But a range of broader policies and strategies could facilitate even more positive relationships between schools and universities. This will ultimately help to promote diverse experiences for student teachers.</p>
<p>These policies could include <a href="http://www.equaleducation.org.za/content/2013/09/26/New-draft-norms-and-standards_12-September-2013.pdf">norms and standards</a> for proper school infrastructure and interventions designed to improve the levels of safety and security in all communities.</p>
<p>Time must be set aside in the crowded school timetable for mentor teachers to meet with student teachers rather than the often rushed way in which such engagements happen.</p>
<p>Designated funding for transport and student accommodation would also enable students to travel beyond the comfort zones of their own neighbourhoods, or the neighbourhood of the - usually urban - university. </p>
<p>We need novice teachers to feel supported and enthusiastic about the professional path they have chosen. They have to appreciate the complexity of teaching and understand what it takes to be a teacher in urban, rural, rich or poor contexts. </p>
<p>By building the capacity of schools and universities across the spectrum to engage actively and positively in teacher preparation, we will be making an essential contribution to a quality education system for all in our country. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>Author’s note: This article is based on research commissioned by the Department of Higher Education and Training as part of a national strategy to improve the quality of education in the country. The full report – Teaching and learning together: the establishment of Professional Practice schools in South Africa – can be obtained from Abigail Nkoe on Nkoe.A@dhet.gov.za.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/44785/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Maureen Robinson has received grant funding from the Department of Higher Education and Training to conduct the research reported on here. No personal funds were accrued to the researchers. </span></em></p>There are a number of ways to improve the experience that student teachers have while completing their compulsory practical period in a school.Maureen Robinson, Dean, Faculty of Education, Stellenbosch UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.