Jason Clare’s practical approach

After years of promises of better teacher training and classroom performance from universities and governments, Education Minister Jason Clare and his state and territory counterparts have wisely chosen the direct approach to tackle the malaise. At their meeting in Canberra on Thursday and Friday, the ministers agreed that universities would be given until the end of 2025 to rewrite their 300 existing teaching courses to include the core content mandated by the ministers. In terms of practical outcomes that should give education standards a much-needed boost, the meeting was one of the most significant for years.

It is better late than never, but successive governments, on both sides of politics, should have taken the direct approach years ago. The content of education degrees, Natasha Bita reported, will include phonics, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension, and the basis of reading instruction – all of which have been advocated but not always enacted for decades. All trainee teachers will also learn the six strands of mathematics – numbers, algebra, geometry, measurement, statistics and probability. That should overcome the problem of students being taught mathematics by teachers with no expertise in the discipline.

Initiatives such as young teachers learning the old-school skill of explicit instruction, with lesson planning to break down topics into manageable components and allow children to consolidate past learning into their long-term memories, should help improve classroom learning. So will the greater emphasis in training courses on managing classroom discipline. This is essential, with many school students, as well as their teachers and parents, wanting calmer classrooms. A federal government survey of 2790 students found 40 per cent wanted schools to do more to “manage classroom disruption’’. Assistance for junior teachers from experienced teachers serving as mentors, as agreed by the meeting, should also be useful. As University of Sydney vice-chancellor Mark Scott, a former teacher and NSW Education Department chief, said: “You want the best teachers in the school supporting the next generation of teachers.’’ Professor Scott has led an expert panel that recommended major improvements to teacher education to the government.

Given the potential of mobile phones to distract students and facilitate bullying, the ministers made the right call to ban the devices in classrooms. Despite the potential role for artificial intelligence in learning, it also makes sense that AI companies will be banned from cashing in on children’s private information under the first national rules for the use of AI in schools.