By Christopher Harris and Robyn Grace
Australian universities could be stripped of their accreditation if they fail to equip the next generation of teachers with proven skills of how to manage a classroom, a major review has found.
The nation’s education ministers on Thursday backed a major overhaul of Initial Teacher Education that review author Mark Scott said would use a “carrot-and-stick” approach in a bid to force universities to use evidence-based practices when it comes to educating.
Under the review, universities will be forced to streamline course content in teaching degrees.Credit: Louie Douvis
Scott said universities across the nation would be policed by a new Initial Teacher Education Quality Assurance Board that would reward those who used evidence-based teaching approaches and punish those who did not.
“The stick is a real one, with real teeth: standards which are consistent across the country and reports to go to education ministers annually,” he said. “And if a program fails to pass muster, they can lose accreditation and the right to offer initial teacher education programs.”
The 2022 Quality Initial Teacher Education Review found that many beginning teachers were under prepared to teach in several key areas, including reading, cultural responsiveness, classroom management and family/carer engagement.
Under the review, universities will be forced to streamline course content, with evidence-based practices including classroom management and responsive teaching identified as essential for all beginning teachers.
They will also have to publicly report a series of indicators to provide visibility for prospective students around selection; retention; preparedness of beginning teachers and student satisfaction; and employment outcomes.
Universities will receive funding to implement the core subjects into their courses.
Mid-career professionals could also be fast-tracked into classrooms and practical placements could also be overhauled in a more formal attempt to stem the exodus of students from teaching degrees.
Scott said while universities would still have time to focus on issues like the philosophy of education, he said universities would now be expected to embed effective pedagogical practices.
“What we are saying is that we need to follow the evidence for what works best for educating our children and we should be unapologetic about that,” Scott said.
Australian Catholic University’s executive dean of education Professor Mary Ryan welcomed the improvements to school placement programs, but said more work needed to be done on practical teaching.
“Professional experience is probably one of the biggest areas that we need to reform,” she said. “It’s very ad hoc, it’s very expensive, it’s not supported well enough at a system level.”
Ryan said the course indicators were useful and would give universities a sense of the health of the system, but having a provider losing its accreditation would be a “fairly extreme outcome”.
Education Minister Jason Clare says many teachers tell him they don’t feel prepared for the classroom upon graduating university.Credit: Flavio Brancaleone
Monash University dean of education Viv Ellis said he thought the report was a “missed opportunity and a bit disappointing”.
He said there was a disproportionate emphasis on teacher education in attempting to solve the systemic problems of understaffing and under-resourcing in the system.
“Establishing a national board, as they proposed, is going to be fraught with problems, political and regulatory. It adds another layer of bureaucracy in already over-bureaucratised system,” Ellis said.
But Ellis said improving how teachers manage classrooms was beneficial, as was evidence-based practice.
“Can teachers be taught to anticipate and deal with every situation in classroom? No. That comes with experience. That’s where making the school a safe place for teachers to learn and mentoring is so important.”
Glenn Fahey, director of education at the Centre for Independent Studies, welcomed the initial performance measures and the funds provided to incentivise them but said the report had missed assessments for the success of students’ practical experience and the knowledge they had taken from training.
“It’s an encouraging step forward for improving teacher preparation in Australia, but more work could be done in ensuring transparency and incentives for sustained high performance,” he said.
Education Minister Jason Clare said many teachers had told him they didn’t feel prepared for the classroom when they finished university.
“That their university course didn’t prepare them well enough to teach things like literacy and numeracy and manage classroom behaviour, and that prac wasn’t up to scratch,” Clare said. “This report is about fixing that.”
Australian Education Union federal president Correna Haythorpe said while the panel made a number of useful recommendations, the union was disappointed that the biggest barriers to people joining the teaching profession – unsustainable workload and uncompetitive salaries – were overlooked.
Clare will on Friday chair the first meeting of the National School Reform Agreement Ministerial Reference Group – made up of teachers, principals, students and key education stakeholders – to discuss the next agreement, due in 2025.
A consultation paper released on Wednesday said there was currently not enough data from school funding authorities to effectively evaluate how spending affected student outcomes.
It also called for greater emphasis on student wellbeing, teacher retention and improving student outcomes, particularly for those falling behind.
With Nicole Precel
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