Improving initial teacher education is a long-term strategy. It won’t achieve the education minister’s goal of getting Australia to the top-performing nations in maths and literacy by 2030.
Student teachers need to pass a test to put them in the top 30% of Australia’s literacy and numeracy abilities. This test costs more money than some students have and can be discriminatory.
There need to be deeper reforms to teaching, such as higher pay at the top end, better opportunities for career advancement, and improvements to the professional working environment.
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Teacher preparation has been identified as a key factor in the quality of education. To improve the quality of the VET sector, we need to ensure teachers and trainers are qualified to teach.
How much does ATAR matter when selecting teacher education students?
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Some universities accept students into their teaching degree programs with an ATAR as low as 35. Do we need to raise the bar, or are other factors more important than a high ATAR for teachers?
There are now several new gate-keeping measures to test teacher quality introduced by universities in the last two to three years.
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Australia’s decline in PISA rankings and criticisms of NAPLAN tell us we should also be looking at how we assess teacher quality.
The programs are long and intense, the creativity and relationships aspect of the vocation has been eroded, there is pervasive negativity in the media, and comparatively poor salary and working conditions.
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There’s been a drop in the number of people enrolling in teacher preparation courses. This is due to problems such as pay, professional autonomy, and a national obsession with standardised testing.
Better local governance can make classrooms happier and more productive.
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Local governance can have a real effect - positive or negative - on the quality of schooling.
If teachers are aware of the positive influence they have on their students and colleagues they might have higher levels of self-efficacy and work satisfaction.
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Gratitude for and celebrating of the accomplishments of teachers is essential to keeping them motivated and engaged in the profession.
Thousands of copper nails representing thousands of Indigenous children who died in Canada’s residential schools were hammered into the Reconciliation Pole before its raising at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, B.C., on April 1, 2017.
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Many Canadian teachers worry about how to incorporate Indigenous content into the classroom. For one sociology professor, finding Indigenous mentorship was richly rewarding.
How can we change math instruction to meet the needs of today’s kids?
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Math instruction is stuck in the last century. How can we change teaching methods to move past rote memorization and help students develop a more meaningful understanding – and be better at math?
On the occasion of World Teacher’s Day, on Oct. 5, a scholar explains why borrowing teacher quality models from high-scoring countries such as Finland, South Korea or Singapore is not effective.
Do we need to make teacher education more selective in Australia?
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We need to have fewer teachers, to pay them more on scales differentiated by skill, and to have more restricted entry into teacher education programs.
By investing wisely in the best evidence-based teacher education programs, the government can foster quality teaching without increasing total funding.
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In many ways it’s incredible that in 2014 there is still a debate about whether teachers should be qualified or not. Imagine deliberating similar issues about your lawyer, your doctor or your surgeon…
Great at the job: can we test for that?
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Television documentaries such as Tough Young Teachers and Educating Yorkshire have shown how a teacher’s “soft skills” are key for success in the classroom – both for novices and veterans. Audiences followed…
Teacher education and recruitment in Australia lags behind other nations, meaning we don’t get the same results, or the same respect.
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Barely a day goes by when people aren’t bemoaning the state of teacher education in Australia. Australian students’ results are declining, entry requirements for teachers aren’t high enough, teaching courses…
With students paying more than ever for university, don’t they deserve quality teaching?
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Australian taxpayers currently give universities about $11 billion a year in grants and have taken on $22 billion in outstanding student debts. About one-fifth of the debts will never be repaid on current…
Visiting Professor in Biomedical Ethics, Murdoch Children's Research Institute; Distinguished Visiting Professor in Law, University of Melbourne; Uehiro Chair in Practical Ethics, University of Oxford