tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/temag-14903/articlesTEMAG – The Conversation2015-03-31T19:02:59Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/394862015-03-31T19:02:59Z2015-03-31T19:02:59ZTeachers learn over many years in the job – not just at university<p>In a pair of opinion pieces in The Australian last week, it was claimed that universities have <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/education/universities-have-incentive-to-train-bad-teachers/story-fn59nlz9-1227281869586">incentive</a> to “churn out poor-quality teachers through cheap education courses” and that there are <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/the-six-steps-to-better-teachers-for-australias-school-system/story-e6frg6zo-1227281784369">six steps</a> to getting “better teachers”.</p>
<p>The recent attention on initial teacher education is due to the release of the Teacher Education Ministerial Advisory Group’s (TEMAG) <a href="http://docs.education.gov.au/node/36783">report</a> in February. More recently, education think tank <a href="http://www.learningfirst.org.au/">Learning First</a> also released a <a href="http://www.learningfirst.org.au/s/A-new-approach.pdf">report</a>. </p>
<p>The focus of initial teacher education is on what we call “pre-service” learning, which is prior to registration as a practising teacher. With a growing population driving <a href="http://research.acer.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1001&context=policyinsights">increased demand</a> for new teachers, it is timely to focus on the provision of initial teacher education in Australia.</p>
<p>However, the argument about <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/education/low-skilled-teachers-a-crime-says-christopher-pyne/story-fn59nlz9-1227257579502">teacher quality</a> taken up by the media is a distraction from real issues of <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-poor-kids-continue-to-do-poorly-in-the-education-game-23500">equity and access</a> for all Australian students, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds.</p>
<p>Contrary to what you might read in the papers, Australian universities do produce <a href="https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=48&ved=0CEMQFjAHOCg&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.universitiesaustralia.edu.au%2FArticleDocuments%2F672%2FSubmission%2520to%2520Teacher%2520Education%2520Ministerial%2520Advisory%2520Group.pdf.aspx&ei=h9QZVeDHOIKlmQXj1IBY&usg=AFQjCNGyTs9TaMXkaLHGeaiPuVnWVIDneQ&sig2=Okd_-RH_1HE285O1OJGLvg">high-quality</a> teaching graduates. Despite the rhetoric about <a href="http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/trainee-teacher-entry-scores-drop/story-fni0xqi4-1227111177953">low entrance scores</a> and <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/teaching-degrees-fail-to-get-a-pass-mark-review-20150213-13d885.html">poor</a> initial teacher education, this is not supported by the data on <a href="http://www.aitsl.edu.au/docs/default-source/initial-teacher-education-resources/ite-data-report-2014.pdf">employment rates</a>, <a href="http://docs.education.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/ues14_report_final_access2a.pdf">graduate satisfaction</a> and <a href="http://docs.education.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/ess_final_report_june_14_0.pdf">employer satisfaction</a>.</p>
<h2>What does initial teacher education look like in Australia?</h2>
<p>There are more than 400 different <a href="http://www.aitsl.edu.au/docs/default-source/initial-teacher-education-resources/ite-data-report-2014.pdf">initial teacher education programs</a> on offer in Australia from 48 providers, ranging from the intensive <a href="http://www.teachforaustralia.org/">Teach for Australia</a> program to four-year Bachelor of Education degrees. </p>
<p>These programs are formally accredited by state government authorities (such as the <a href="https://www.qct.edu.au/Education/program.html">Queensland College of Teachers</a>) and the federal government’s <a href="http://www.teqsa.gov.au/">Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency</a>, as well as undergoing regular audits and institutional accreditation.</p>
<p>Also, all initial teacher education programs are required to align to the <a href="http://www.aitsl.edu.au/australian-professional-standards-for-teachers/standards/list">graduate teacher professional standards</a>, developed by the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (<a href="http://www.aitsl.edu.au/">AITSL</a>) as part of a <a href="http://www.aitsl.edu.au/initial-teacher-education/national-approach-to-accreditation">national approach</a> to accreditation. It is a tightly regulated space.</p>
<p>Universities teach both practice and theory, where students learn about educational theories (from fields including sociology, psychology and philosophy) and engage in research-informed teaching and learning. Pre-service teachers are also provided with multiple opportunities to road-test their teaching repertoire through placements in schools and other educational organisations.</p>
<p>Accusations levelled against initial teacher education in the recent reports include a lack of evidence-based content, inadequate subject knowledge training, and limited professional practice.</p>
<p>The Learning First report presents Singapore’s 22-week professional practice in contrast to claims that Australian pre-service teachers do not spend enough time in schools, and in some cases, are expected to cold-call schools. </p>
<p>In Queensland, where I work, there is a mandated 80 days of placement in schools for Bachelor of Education students. At my university, there are actually <a href="http://www.usq.edu.au/handbook/current/education/BEDU.html#programpractical.experience">100 days</a> of professional placement.</p>
<p>In <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/the-six-steps-to-better-teachers-for-australias-school-system/story-e6frg6zo-1227281784369">The Australian</a>, the following claims are made:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The initial teacher education teachers receive at university generally fails to provide them with essential skills. Teachers are thrown in front of a classroom and left to sink or swim. Some are excellent in spite of their teacher training, not because of it.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It is unclear where the evidence base is for such claims. For example, on the argument about lacking basic teaching methods, the Learning First report references the TEMAG report, which then references two further reports. There appears to be little, if any, link to empirical research evidence.</p>
<p>The Learning First report contains 45 references, of which only nine are research papers from peer-reviewed journals. The rest include a non-research mix of government reports, working papers and books. The TEMAG review had a similar emphasis on other reports, opinion pieces and non-research references.</p>
<h2>Graduation is just the beginning</h2>
<p>The Learning First report makes the following suggestion: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Consider changing teacher registration so that only those who can demonstrate they are effective teachers can qualify to be registered. A comprehensive assessment would mean that only a percentage of applicants – not all – would pass and be registered.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Given my earlier point that initial teacher education accreditation is linked to the graduate teacher standards, any additional pre-registration test of teaching effectiveness would be redundant.</p>
<p>A similar argument made for testing graduates’ <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-02-13/teaching-students-to-sit-literacy-and-numeracy-test-to-graduate/6090062">literacy and numeracy</a> skills is likely to have as little impact on judging whether they are ready for classroom teaching.</p>
<p>A recent UK <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/399957/Carter_Review.pdf">review of teacher education</a> emphasised the “initial” in initial teacher education, given that much learning actually takes place on the job.</p>
<p>As such, there is a need for better mentoring support for graduate and early-career teachers. This is shown clearly in the <a href="https://docs.education.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/sias_2013_main_report.pdf">Staff in Australia’s Schools Survey</a>, where early career teachers expressed a strong need for professional learning.</p>
<p>However, the current focus on initial teacher education as the be-all and end-all of teacher education ignores the importance of ongoing professional development. This should take place not only in the first years of teaching, but throughout teachers’ careers.</p>
<p>As a comparison, medicine graduates study at university for five or six years, then still need to undertake an internship of one year before being allowed to <a href="http://www.medicalboard.gov.au/documents/default.aspx?record=WD12%2f9504&dbid=AP&chksum=wbPeZldtyqPMGvIkbt0Qgg%3d%3d">register</a> for general practice. Most go on to undertake a further two to three years of residency before beginning specialist training.</p>
<p>Perhaps we should be taking our cue from medicine, and treating our graduate teachers in a similar manner to medical interns and residents. Learning to teach is a process that begins at universities, but continues for an entire career.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/39486/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stewart Riddle 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>Accusations of Australian universities churning out poor teaching graduates are false and the evidence says otherwise.Stewart Riddle, Senior Lecturer, University of Southern QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/375132015-02-12T20:45:25Z2015-02-12T20:45:25ZChanges to teaching degrees are no guarantee of success for kids<p>The <a href="http://www.studentsfirst.gov.au/teacher-education-ministerial-advisory-group">Teacher Education Ministerial Advisory Group report released today</a> has much to live up to. After all, there have been <a href="http://theconversation.com/minister-pyne-announces-yet-another-education-review-23470">a couple of dozen reports</a> into teacher education over the past three decades. Is this one better, bigger, different?</p>
<p>The advisory group’s task was to investigate how teacher education in Australia could be improved, given the crucial role a quality teacher plays in achieving high student outcomes. </p>
<p>Their recommendations, which the government has substantially agreed to, all make for sensible reading, though many have been made before. A lot of them are “to do” tasks, which have been assigned to the <a href="http://www.aitsl.edu.au">Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership</a>. </p>
<h2>Overhaul course accreditation</h2>
<p>The first “to do” task is an overhaul of teacher education course accreditation processes and requirements. Teacher education accreditation already involves three different agencies: <a href="http://www.teqsa.gov.au/">TEQSA</a>, the federal agency which oversees accreditation of all university courses, <a href="http://www.aitsl.edu.au/">AITSL</a>, which provides national guidelines on the accreditation of teacher education courses, and each state and territory’s own teacher education accreditation agency.</p>
<p>The recommendation is not, unfortunately, an overhaul of this complicated, cumbersome and disconnected triumvirate, although it is suggested that TEQSA and AITSL could talk more. In fact, the report seemed keen to add a fourth regulatory body to the mix, but the government has decided not to accept that particular recommendation. And so, the “overhaul” is focused on AITSL providing further guidelines to their existing guidelines. </p>
<p>To achieve full course accreditation universities will have to prove their graduates have a positive impact on student learning, and that their employers are happy with them. </p>
<p>A key new guideline will be the requirement that all primary school teachers have a specialist subject, preferably maths, science or a language other than English. They need not teach this subject exclusively, but rather, be an expert in the school for others to consult. </p>
<p>No mention is made of specialists in the arts, health or other humanities, which seems remiss. However, Recommendation 17 is that all primary and secondary teachers should be teachers of literacy, which will require substantial reworking of some secondary education degrees.</p>
<h2>Identify best practice approaches for teacher candidate selection</h2>
<p>ATARs, or university entrance scores, will not be used as the only indicator of suitability for the teaching profession. AITSL has been charged with finding a better selection method.</p>
<p>The argument is made that academic competence alone is not sufficient to identify a good teacher. In the past, personality tests, interviews and essays have been offered as possible measures of suitability, so these will presumably be in the mix of what AITSL investigates. </p>
<p>However, while teacher education courses will not necessarily set minimum ATAR scores for entry, the government will require them to make their selection processes transparent. The aim of this is to instill public confidence in the quality of teacher candidates. Perhaps this transparency requirement in itself may prompt teacher education faculties to raise their ATAR entrance scores – if, of course, their universities are prepared to wear the subsequent drop in revenue.</p>
<p>Not requiring an ATAR still leaves the sticky problem of ensuring that teachers have good personal literacy and numeracy skills. To address this, from 2016, all graduating teacher education students will be required to pass a compulsory literacy and numeracy test. </p>
<p>This online test will check they know their “principle” from their “principal” and their “would ofs” from their “would haves”. While this is excellent news for all who despair of errors in the class newsletter, it won’t necessarily mean those teachers will be any better at teaching reading and writing. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-the-purpose-of-a-literacy-test-for-teachers-27103">I have argued before</a>, our children need teachers not copy editors. It will take more than a multiple-choice grammar test for teachers to build the literacy teaching skills the report identifies as missing in many graduates.</p>
<h2>The importance of practical experience</h2>
<p>The report claims, as have hundreds of studies before it, pre-service teachers need time in classrooms, with good supervising teachers, doing work that is connected to their university learning. </p>
<p>Currently, teaching students’ time in schools is decreasing, there aren’t enough “good” supervising teachers willing to take pre-service teachers and increasing workloads and decreasing face-to-face time in universities make partnerships with schools ever more challenging. </p>
<p>If this report can reverse each of those situations, teacher educators all over the country will be cheering.</p>
<h2>A national assessment framework for class readiness</h2>
<p>The report recommends both a “rigorous” assessment of class readiness before graduation, and quality mentoring and induction upon employment. The former is already well underway. The latter costs money that employers need to cough up. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.aitsl.edu.au/australian-professional-standards-for-teachers/standards/list?c=graduate">The Graduate Standards for teaching</a>, developed by AITSL, provide a detailed description of what a teacher needs to know and do in the classroom in order to graduate. Most teacher education institutions already use these as their assessment framework. </p>
<p>The report recognises good work is happening in teacher education faculties around the country, and the government has directed AITSL to collect these examples of best practice. </p>
<h2>A research focus on teacher education</h2>
<p>Perhaps the most encouraging part of the report is the recognition that teacher education needs to be researched. But research costs money and there is no mention of any funding in the government’s response to the report. Let’s hope AITSL Chair John Hattie managed to secure some funding when he was handed the “to do” list.</p>
<p>So, will teacher education courses change as a result of this report? </p>
<p>Probably. </p>
<p>Will student outcomes improve as a result of this report? </p>
<p>Hard to say, but hopefully there’ll be some real research funding attached to these recommendations and we can find out for sure.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/37513/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Misty Adoniou works as a teacher educator at the University of Canberra</span></em></p>The Teacher Education Ministerial Advisory Group report released today has much to live up to. After all, there have been a couple of dozen reports into teacher education over the past three decades. Is…Misty Adoniou, Senior Lecturer in Language, Literacy and TESL, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/280962015-02-12T20:45:23Z2015-02-12T20:45:23ZReview calls for teacher education overhaul: experts respond<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/71816/original/image-20150212-16628-p62tpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The review into teacher education says courses need to prove their graduates are classroom ready</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A <a href="http://www.studentsfirst.gov.au/teacher-education-ministerial-advisory-group">new report into teacher education</a> in Australia has called for an overhaul of the system amid concerns students are being selected who aren’t fit to teach and some graduates are not classroom ready.</p>
<p>The Teacher Education Ministerial Advisory Group report, chaired by ACU Vice-Chancellor Greg Craven, said improving teacher quality was vital to raising the quality of Australia’s school system and improving student success at school.</p>
<p>A major focus of the report was the accreditation of teacher education courses due to concerns the current standards were weakly applied and the time-frames too slow.</p>
<p>Providers of teaching degrees should be required to provide, and publish, convincing evidence of the success of teaching graduates, including their classroom readiness, the report recommended.</p>
<p>It also called for greater transparency in how students are selected for teaching degrees. Other key recommendations included:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>a test to assess that all teaching graduates are within the top 30% of the population in terms of literacy and numeracy skills;</p></li>
<li><p>that primary school teachers have a specialty – with a focus on science, mathematics and languages;</p></li>
<li><p>that higher education providers demonstrate their programs are evidence-based.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Experts respond to the report’s findings below:</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Jennifer Gore, Director of the Teachers and Teacher Research Program, University of Newcastle</strong></p>
<p>Like most of its predecessors, this government-commissioned report on teacher education offers hope of better outcomes – for graduates of teaching courses, their employers, and their students.</p>
<p>In many universities, much of what is proposed is already happening – strong partnerships with schools, portfolios of achievement, the capacity for primary teachers to specialise, enhanced literacy and numeracy preparation, and courses based on research evidence. Most of these recommended enhancements are already expected through existing accreditation requirements. And they align with the goals of teacher educators – to produce graduates who are ready to start, who impact positively on student learning, and who meet expectations of their employers. </p>
<p>Like other reports of this type, the devil will be in the detail – such as how already-stretched education faculties in universities will be able to annually interview applicants for around 28,000 places or how to guarantee high-quality placements and high-quality in-school supervision of professional experience in such a complex system. </p>
<p>The Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) is identified as the key body to implement the recommendations, with primary responsibility for accreditation, improvement, and, surprisingly, research leadership. While the evidence-base for teacher education is reportedly weak, a quick scan of ARC (Discovery) funding in Education over the past ten years suggests that fewer than 8% of the 174 funded projects were related to teacher education. </p>
<p>Investment in rigorous teacher education research as well as in teacher education provision would go a long way toward achieving the kind of outcomes sought. The action now needed if this report is to realise its vision is serious investment in teacher education of a kind not yet seen in this nation.</p>
<p><strong>Stephen Dinham, National President, Australian College of Educators and Chair of Teacher Education and Director of Learning and Teaching at University of Melbourne</strong></p>
<p>This is the most most far-reaching and focused review of teacher education that we’ve had in terms of getting to the heart of what we know about effective teacher preparation and effective teaching.</p>
<p>There’s a large number of recommendations and they are grounded in research evidence. There is still too much in teacher education and schooling generally that is not evidence-based. Too often it’s about fads and fashions and in some cases ideologies. As part of the accreditation process for teaching degrees we really need to ensure that what universities are doing has a strong evidence base, and that they can demonstrate what their graduates can achieve.</p>
<p>The central focus of the report is on improving the rigour of teaching courses through a proper accreditation process and this is absolutely essential. Processes we’ve had up to now have been extremely low-level, whereas teaching courses need the same sort of rigour as we see in other professions like engineering and law.</p>
<p>The report talks about this process being undertaken by AITSL, but this could be problematic given education is substantially a state responsibility and it would require agreement from all states. AITSL lacks regulatory powers under current legislation and this would be a significant barrier to implementation.</p>
<p>One of the measures the review proposed is having exit tests for graduate teachers’ literacy and numeracy, but it would make more sense to have an entry test. Those who meet that standard would be accepted, and those who don’t but are within an acceptable range could prove their capability throughout the course of their studies. An exit test means someone could waste four or five years and still not meet the standard.</p>
<p>The report says universities need to be able to prove their graduates’ “classroom readiness”, but this term is somewhat contentious because it involves preparing students for <em>every</em> classroom setting in Australia and that’s difficult. We need to look at not just the time they spend in schools which is purely quantitative, but the quality of the experience, and on collaborations between schools and universities. </p>
<p>The report talks about universities publishing their selection processes, but we need to get off the topic of ATARs. It’s a furphy to talk about ATARs given fewer than one-third of those entering into teacher education do so with an ATAR. We need to look more at capabilities. I’d like to see teaching move towards a graduate profession because it takes the ATAR out of the equation. </p>
<p>In primary education we perform less well against international measures than we do in secondary. There are <a href="http://www.austcolled.com.au/documents/item/77">issues in primary education</a> to do with the overcrowded curriculum, to do with the teaching of literacy, and to do with teachers in primary school often lacking confidence in some subject areas such as mathematics and science. So a major focus on primary education is essential, but it has to include evidence-based approaches to the teaching of literacy and numeracy.</p>
<p><strong>Glenn Finger, Professor of Education and Dean (Learning and Teaching) of the Arts, Education and Law Group at Griffith University</strong></p>
<p>This report goes over much of the same ground that previous reports have highlighted. For example, it’s hardly earth-shattering that there needs to be effective partnerships between providers of teacher education courses and schools where placements occur. </p>
<p>There’s also a disturbing absence of speculation about how learning and teaching is changing over time with little mention of technology and new teaching research and innovation in the report. Despite these shortcomings, the report has two important and commendable focuses that teacher education is in dire need of: higher expectations for teaching graduates, and an appetite for change and action.</p>
<p>Unlike so many measures in education it is clear this report has been developed through extensive engagement and consultation and there is a strong sense that the authors have built in recommendations which assist implementation. Education Minister Christopher Pyne has today given support, and he encourages a collaboration between states and territories, which will be critically important for positive change to be realised.</p>
<p>If these measures can be implemented there is hope we can build public confidence in teachers, improve the quality of courses, and improve student learning.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/28096/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
A new report into teacher education in Australia has called for an overhaul of the system amid concerns students are being selected who aren’t fit to teach and some graduates are not classroom ready. The…Alexandra Hansen, Deputy Editor and Chief of Staff, The Conversation AUNZLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.