VC’ s corner
career had me dealing with students from much more varied backgrounds, particularly in Western Australia, where I taught Indigenous students, rural students, and students from economically and socially disadvantaged backgrounds. Eventually, reality dawned – even for a constitutional lawyer and a Victorian. I realised that good university teaching can unlock vast potential, and there is far more to being a good professional than a good score at the age of 17.
The second point relates to workforce. The demand necessary for teaching graduates to meet workforce needs across the sector is a particularly complex phenomenon that is unavoidably hard to quantify. Recruitment, retirement and resignation of full-time staff reflect only some of the demand metrics. There is a significant need for flexible and available teachers – often estimated to be as high as 20 per cent of the current full-time equivalent staff members. There is often a great deal of confusion when people talk about the number of permanent new positions required, which is quite small, as opposed to total workforce requirement, which is very large.
The third point is that teacher education operates on a continuum. Universities have an important role to play in preparing teachers for the classroom, but teacher education doesn’ t stop when they graduate from university. ACU believes in a tripartite approach to a continuum of professional learning – with universities, principals and other school management, and teaching peers sharing responsibility and ownership. So university is the best place to enable the pre-service teacher to develop the necessary discipline, pedagogical insight and knowledge, and theoretical framework to support ongoing professional development. Meanwhile, management is best placed to demonstrate the implementation of ideas and strategies introduced at university, support preservice teachers in their teaching, and provide feedback and mentoring as staff members learn. And teachers in schools are best placed to assess whether the pre-service teacher has the appropriate interpersonal and communication skills to be an effective teacher.
My colleagues and I in the ministerial advisory group have been tasked with providing practical, evidence-based advice on how teacher education programs can be improved to better provide new teachers with the practical skills needed for the classroom.
There are 400 accredited teacher education programs, delivered across 48 different higher education providers, and catering to about 76,000 pre-service teachers at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Almost all students enrolled in a teacher education program in Australia are in a commonwealthsupported place.
As you may have noticed, the teaching profession is subject to a significant level of scrutiny that few other professions encounter. Some take a very critical view that the teaching profession is completely broken in Australia. Others argue that everything is perfectly fine and teachers should be left alone to get on with the job. The view of the advisory group sits somewhere between those two.
I believe that a great number of programs do an outstanding job of preparing their graduates for the profession. But we also know that pre-service teachers and school leaders report that there are areas for improvement. For example, the 2010 Staff in Australia’ s Schools Survey found that a proportion of early-career teachers felt they could have been better prepared to work effectively with parents, and to teach students with differing needs and backgrounds. The same survey highlighted principal perceptions that teacher graduates could have been better prepared for classroom management, and providing effective feedback to students.
We also know that persistent challenges remain in the areas of science, technology, engineering, mathematics and foreign languages. It is important that those teaching these subjects have the depth of content knowledge and relevant pedagogical expertise to teach them effectively. We also need the right number of teachers in these subjects.
Given the complexities of the teacher education landscape, the advisory group is determined to focus on the real issues, and to ensure that our recommendations reflect their complexity and encourage innovative reforms at the jurisdictional and individual university level. It should also be noted that in terms of the advisory group work, reform is not to be confused with regulation. Our intent is to drive innovation, not stifle it. In this vein, the interaction between national, state and university initiatives needs to be harmonious.
The work of this particular advisory group can be distinguished from the many that have come before in the way it seeks to focus on the three distinct areas of pedagogical approaches, subject content and professional experience. As chair of the taskforce, I am determined that it will focus on the real issues pertaining to these areas, and will not become distracted by matters that grab headlines but lack evidential rigour.
We intend to draw on the work completed to date, the knowledge and experience of teacher education experts and the available research to develop practical, cost-effective recommendations that will have a demonstrable impact on student learning. To feed into this, we will be engaging an independent researcher to undertake rigorous benchmarking of world’ s best practice in teacher education programs.
The advisory group has released an issues paper as part of the consultation process, focusing on four items.
Firstly, the characteristics that should be fostered and developed in graduate teachers through teacher education. Secondly, teaching practices that have the greatest impact on student outcomes. Thirdly, the integration between universities and schools in the delivery of teacher education and professional experience. And finally, the balance needed between understanding what is taught and how it is taught.
I encourage all stakeholders and interested parties to participate in the consultation process, and I look forward to sharing our findings with you. ■
Professor Greg Craven is vice-chancellor of Australian Catholic University.
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