news support research into best-practice teacher preparation ”, and “ strengthening national moderation and oversight of Teaching Performance Assessments , to ensure ITE students are assessed against a nationally consistent high standard ”.
The next step
Government releases final report on review into initial teacher education .
By Richard Garfield
The Federal Government has released the final report from its year-long investigation into improving outcomes for newly graduated teachers , titled Next Steps : Report of the Quality Initial Teacher Education Review .
The review , announced by then- Education Minister Alan Tudge in April last year and conducted by an expert panel , was aimed at identifying ways to attract and retain high-quality teachers while also improving the classroom-readiness of teaching graduates .
“ Some teachers are still graduating from their courses insufficiently prepared to teach in a classroom either because there has been too much focus on theory at the expense of practice , or because evidencebased teaching methods are not taught ,” Tudge said during a speech at the Menzies Research Centre in March last year .
The announcement was met with criticism at the time , with some education commentators questioning the reasoning behind the review and likening its announcement to treating initial teacher education as a “ political football ”.
The final report makes a total of 17 recommendations grouped into the following focus areas :
ATTRACTION AND SELECTION Panel recommendations include undertaking a “ national campaign to debunk the myths surrounding the profession and encourage high-quality , diverse candidates to consider becoming teachers ”, and “ recognising the prior learning of high calibre mid-career changers with skills in areas of high demand ” to enable a one-year secondary teaching qualification .
ITE PROGRAM QUALITY Recommendations include the creation of an “ ITE Centre for Excellence to deliver high-quality , evidence-based ITE and
EARLY YEARS OF TEACHING The panel recommends the development of a “ national model to project ITE workforce supply and demand , with the aim of addressing key data gaps and improve teacher workforce planning between ITE providers and jurisdictions ”.
The release of the final report was met with enthusiasm by Professor Claire Wyatt-Smith from the Australian Catholic University .
The internationally recognised researcher in the areas of standards , moderation and teacher preparation said : “ The Next Step report heralds new opportunities to build on the significant reforms from the previous TEMAG review , introduces new reforms , and confirms the need to turn to quality and evidence .
“ The Next Step review strengthens the turn to research-informed innovation and evidence-informed practice ,” Wyatt-Smith continued .
“ While the field of teacher preparation has changed considerably in the last decade , much remains to be done .
“ A main challenge facing ITE in Australia is that we have not had access to an established database showing the effectiveness of teacher preparation programs and the preparedness of graduates when they finish their preparation .” ■
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