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3 July 2024

Teacher Training: Teachers’ Perspectives and Other Initiatives

What makes for quality teacher training?

A hot topic explored over decades in many countries, the debate should be guided by the voices of teachers working in a range of fields and contexts. In Australia, over a hundred teacher training reviews have been carried out since the 1970s, but this hasn’t led to positive, lasting change. Policymakers must be guided by real experience backed by evidence.

So what do teachers have to say?

More Prac, Less Theory:

Whilst in-depth knowledge of different learning philosophies is useful, this must be balanced by frequent opportunities to consult, observe mentors, and put what you see into practice. Knowledge about behaviour management, lesson structure and classroom routines is most effectively learnt on the job.

Sarah Trestrail, a primary school teacher with some casual teaching under her belt felt that her four-year undergraduate degree left her ill-equipped to teach children how to read and write. For her, professional development sessions and mentoring made all the difference in the first few months of a long-term teaching position.

Significantly, in June 2023, the Teacher Education Expert Panel chaired by Professor Mark Scott recommended improving “practical teaching experience, including better coordination of practical experience delivery and national guidelines, and professional recognition of mentor teachers to support teachers in mentoring ITE [Initial Teacher Education] students.”

Current Australian teacher training requires participants to complete a minimum of 80 days of practical training in schools for undergraduate programs and 60 days as part of graduate training. This is about half the time for prac allocated to teachers in England, who also experience the differing environments of two schools during training.

Interestingly, evidence suggests that although teachers may feel better prepared the more practical teaching time they have, it is the quality of mentors makes a difference, more so than length of prac time.

More freedom

According to a teacher with 25 years experience, Robin Nagy, compliance, regulation, and consistency of teaching is the order of the day. Hence, teachers have less freedom to teach what they want how they want, and to develop meaningful relationships with students. Creating positive bonds between teacher and students means that students are more likely to engage with the subject. The depersonalisation of teaching has meant that teachers are discouraged from giving personal opinions using “I” or “me” in reports.

More learning about different teaching styles:

Similarly, my teacher friend commented that despite rhetoric arguing that teaching should be personalised and adapted to different student needs and abilities, in the end teacher training focused on a particular teaching style. Expecting a teacher to adapt knowledge and activities for each child is unrealistic and time-consuming, but exposure to a few different learning styles wouldn’t go astray.

While there has been innovation in teacher training, a lot more must be done to turn trainees into confident educators. We need to listen to and trust their feedback, set realistic expectations with an eye on professional development, nurture, and respect for them.

Other Initiatives

Quality Controlled Programs:

The Panel of Experts also made content changes to teaching programs as well as a new accreditation program that providers must adhere to. Accreditation will be overseen by an ITE Quality Assurance board. Universities that don’t toe the line can lose accreditation and therefore, the right to offer training. Providers have until 2025 to ensure courses incorporate core content such as evidence-backed reading and maths instruction, explicit teaching, and classroom management competencies. Exploring how the brain learns is a key component.

Phased bursaries:

Currently, almost 4 out of 10 teachers drop out within six years of beginning their studies. It’s also difficult to attract experienced STEM educators. Englis Research suggests that supporting trainees financially with phased bursaries, particularly for staff in in demand fields may be the way to go.

Recruiting ex-teachers:

Only just over one third of Australians with teaching qualifications currently work in the field. Better paid employment, with the option to work from home, and less and/or flexible working hours, is highly attractive to many. The teaching profession has limits to the flexibilities on offer.

However here are two facts:

Rewarding specialisation and long service with higher pay is crucial to get qualified candidates teaching.
Replacing out-of-field maths and science teachers with qualified professionals would be one way to increase teacher numbers is certain subjects.

Support teacher wellbeing, promote development opportunities and respect for the profession:

Whilst seemingly straightforward, this is frequently neglected. As Professor John Hattie remarks – why enter a profession where you’ve reached the top of the ladder after only 10 years?

Failing to support teachers with regular check-ins and mental health programs leads to anxiety, burnout, and people switching careers.

Emphasis on evidence-based approaches to teaching maths and science:

Trainees are often expected to learn on the job and effortlessly adapt their teaching style to students with a range of needs, including those with disabilities. This is a huge cognitive load for educators. Surprisingly, researchers Glenn Fahey, Jordan O’Sullivan, and Jared Bussell found that out of 90 maths courses across 31 universities, impactful tried and tested teaching approaches are rarely mentioned.

Bibliography

“Careers education in the classroom – The role of teachers in making young people work ready.” Career Industry Council of Australia in partnership with Teachfirst.org.uk. Accessed 22 May 2024.

“Strong Beginnings: Report of the Teacher Education Expert Panel.” Chaired by Professor Mark Scott. Australian Government Department of Education. 6 July 2023.

“Trust teachers to do job paying it forward for next generation.” The Sydney Morning Herald [Letters]. 21 February 2020.

Bussell, Jared and Jordan O’Sullivan. “You would expect teacher training to be evidence-based… right?” Shaping Minds. Accessed 22 May 2024.

Carroll, Lucy. “’ Thrown in the deep end’: Inside the plan to fix the problems with teacher training.” The Sydney Morning Herald. 30 July 2023.

Clare, Jason. “Major reform to improve teacher training and better prepare teachers for the classroom.” Ministers’ Media Centre [Media Release]. 7 July 2023.

Clark, Emily. “Teacher training, pay and performance: What makes a difference to kids?” ABC News. 30 November 2017.

Clarke, Melissa, Connor Duffy, and Ange Lavalpierre. “How to keep teachers and improve learning.” ABC News Daily [Podcast]. 13 July 2023.

Davies, Lisa. “Support teachers to improve school outcomes.” The Sydney Morning Herald [Editorial]. 20 February 2020.

Fahey Glenn, and Rob Joseph. “Starting off on the wrong foot: How to improve Initial Teacher Education in Australia.” The Centre for Independent Studies. Analysis Paper 53. 14 August 2023.

Fahey, Glenn, Jordan O’Sullivan, and Jared Bussell. “Failing to teach the teacher: An analysis of mathematics Initial Teacher Education.” The Centre for Independent Studies [Report]. Analysis Paper 29. November 2021.

Nagy, Robin. “The epic failure at the root of Australia’s maths problem.” ABC News Opinion. 7 December 2019.

Reid, Jo-Anne, Colleen Alchin, and Marilyn Pietsch. “Preservice and in-service teacher education: A leadership model for collaborative learning.” ACER Research Conference. 2017.