Page 2715 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 12 August 2015
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Due to the high level of work done in ACT schools to introduce and embed the Australian professional standards for teachers, the ACT was chosen to pilot the nationally agreed process for certifying teachers against the highly accomplished and lead levels of those standards. Consequently, the level of acceptance and understanding of those standards is very high across all our schools.
Another significant outcome of the national partnership, coordinated again through TQI, was the development of the ACT teacher mentor program, which has been accepted as a unit in the master program at the University of Canberra. The TQI now requires all teachers seeking re-registration in the ACT to demonstrate their ongoing commitment to professional learning through the completion of at least 20 hours of quality professional learning in the previous twelve months.
A component of this professional learning must have been accredited by the TQI using the Australian professional standards for teachers. This requires more than simply sitting passively though a professional learning model; teachers must record and reflect on the professional learning they undertake, assessing its impact on their practice. The TQI mantra is to continue learning, reflective practice and professional growth. The recent teacher education ministerial advisory council report advised that improvements can be made in the preparation of future members of the teaching profession. Indeed, the TEMAG report referenced work that has already commenced here in the ACT.
A comment on the federal government’s approach: there would be many in all sectors in the ACT that would say that the feds have merely adopted a blueprint of what the ACT already has underway. That is recognised and referenced in the TEMAG report. Mr Doszpot may scoff at that, but it is most unfortunate that he has not acknowledged the clear showcasing in the report, which he referenced, of the work already underway in the ACT through the coordination of the Teacher Quality Institute.
We know we need to better ensure that the right people are being selected into initial training education programs, that quality assurance procedures for accrediting initial teacher education programs are more rigorous and that the practical experience programs in our schools better support new teachers who will be ready to teach.
The AITSL is currently producing a series of case study videos nationally showcasing good practice examples of professional experience in initial teacher education, and the TEMAG report, for the interest of members, goes to the common practicum assessment tool that is used by both universities—the University of Canberra’s teacher secondment program and a partnership between the ACU and St Mary MacKillop College, fine examples of nation-leading work. For the ACT, AITSL has chosen to highlight the value of the partnership between University of Canberra, the TQI, the Education and Training Directorate and the extended professional experience program at the university’s new Master of Teaching.
Modelling high expectations is important to the learning process and I believe that it is crucial that our teachers are capable of modelling high standards of literacy and numeracy for our students, and our community expects this of our teachers. This is
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