Page 1280 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 5 May 2015
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for professional registration purposes. However, it is clear that more needs to be done to link the aspirations of the standards to the actual practice of teachers in the classroom, which, as I have said on another occasion, is where the rubber hits the road in terms of student outcomes.
The TQI will be strengthening its quality assurance of teacher professional learning to support genuine engagement with the standards across all sectors. The institute will continue its work with Catholic, independent and public schools supporting early career teachers who are progressing to full registration. Further awareness training about the standards and their links to professional practice is also currently being offered by TQI to teachers from all sectors.
In the public sector, the Education and Training Directorate is negotiating to align career structures with the standards and to link salary increment rewards with certification against the standards. In concert with the recommendations of the TEMAG report, we need also to strengthen the understanding of teachers about evidence-based assessment of their own teaching practice and its impact on students. Again the ACT will lead the way with this. The TQI will continue its efforts to foster cross-sectoral collaboration and sharing of best practice.
The TQI will be extending its support for teachers across all sectors, with further professional development in standards-based assessment of evidence of teacher practice. For public sector teachers, initiatives are being developed in the Education and Training Directorate to recognise the importance of high quality, ongoing professional learning in every public school. We need to continue to strengthen the rigour demonstrated in the preparation of pre-service teachers in our universities.
The TQI will continue its collaboration with the universities to support more effective practical experience components of teacher preparation and to provide a platform for the transfer of teaching evidence from the pre-service stage to the early employment stage of their careers through online digital portfolios.
The directorate will build on its practices, ensuring graduate teacher support in the first three years of professional practice, and provide strong school leadership to raise expectations of quality teaching and student outcomes. Through the coordination work of TQI there will be common expectations across all ACT schools for high quality pre-service teacher professional experience and high quality in-service professional learning.
Let me conclude by noting the very considerable progress that we have made as a small jurisdiction in this very significant and important matter. Change in any field always presents some challenges to past practices and to established habits. However, the vast majority of members of the teaching profession across all sectors of schooling in the ACT are responding positively to the measures to support them in improving the professional character of their work and the standing of their profession in the community.
It is hard to see a time when we could be complacent about teacher quality. I am confident that all ACT teachers will find the challenge to engage with standards and
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