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.
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.
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’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.
Many Canadian teachers worry about how to incorporate Indigenous content into the classroom. For one sociology professor, finding Indigenous mentorship was richly rewarding.
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.
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…
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…
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…
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