University of Sydney vice-chancellor Mark Scott to head review of teacher education

University of Sydney vice-chancellor Mark Scott will lead an ­expert panel review into the education of teachers at universities and ensure graduates are better prepared for the classroom.

University of Sydney vice-chancellor Mark Scott. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Nikki Short

University of Sydney vice-chancellor Mark Scott will lead an ­expert panel review into the education of teachers at universities and ensure graduates are better prepared for the classroom.

Education Minister Jason Clare will announce the review on Thursday, arguing that it will help boost graduation rates.

It will report back to him before June 30 next year.

“There aren’t many jobs more important than being a teacher, and we don’t have enough of them,” Mr Clare said.

The panel, led by Professor Scott, includes Emeritus Professor of Education at the University of WA Bill Louden; former teacher of the year Rebecca West; president of the Australian Council of Deans of Education Michele Simons; former principal of the year Andrew Peach; and chief executive of the Australian Education Research Organisation, Jenny Donovan.

Mr Clare said a roundtable in August featuring teachers, principals and education experts had discussed the teacher shortage, and one of the key issues raised was the need to improve “initial teacher education.”

Initial teacher education is aimed at ensuring that graduate teachers start their careers with the necessary knowledge and skills to be successful in the classroom.

In March 2021, the then Coalition education minister Alan Tudge announced a review into initial teacher education and a report was released in February 2022. It made 17 recommendations after finding that new incentives would attract more high-achieving school leavers to teaching, that graduates needed more support to improve their classroom readiness, and that early career teachers needed more assistance in transitioning into the profession.

Recommendation 15 advised the government to establish an expert group to examine the possibility of developing a new “quality measure” for initial teacher education courses. This would allow performance-based assessments of different courses to help guide commonwealth funding towards better-performing higher education providers.

The creation of the expert panel will fulfil this recommendation. But the panel will also ­address recommendation seven, which proposes that initial teacher education courses be amended to ensure graduates have a better sense of classroom management.

Improving initial teacher education courses for those transitioning to the profession later in life will be another key theme ­addressed by the expert panel. In providing its advice to government, the panel will also draw on the best-practice models in medicine and other disciplines.

It will consult with schools and higher education providers and is instructed to “take account of the need to increase the number of people starting and finishing initial teacher education”.

Professor Louden, who is on the Albanese government’s expert panel, was also on the panel which authored the February review into the quality of initial teacher education.

That review proposed a national recruitment campaign to feature expert teachers and celebrate the positives of teaching.

Professor Scott, who will lead the new review, was formerly the secretary of the NSW Education Department and managing director of the ABC.