Proposed Reforms to Initial Teacher Education in Australia
Proposed Reforms to Initial Teacher Education in Australia
Universities will be given two years to overhaul their education degrees or risk losing their accreditation as part of a national bid to fix Australia's teacher shortage.
What do you think about the proposed changes to teacher education courses at Australian universities? Do you think this shift in emphasis towards direct explicit instruction and classroom managment is the answer to Australia's teacher shortage?
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I think ITE needs to better equip new teachers coming in. How many of us find what we learnt at uni relevant to teaching? It's fine to look at that and I agree with what the findings are here. But don't sell it as a way to keep teachers in the profession or use the teacher shortage to shift attention away from your insufficient ITE courses.
Fixing this is a small bit of the puzzle that is fixing the broken education system.
I can only speak for the ITE programme I did, but I found that there was a big focus on how to research into issues and work out solutions for yourself -- very much a "give them a fish, feed them for a day; teach them to fish, teach them for a lifetime" philosophy. After all, teaching is a complex environment that requires creative problem-solving, and what works in one context may not work well in another. So really, an ITE programme is going to be about giving new teachers a good theoretical foundation on which to build, and it is on-the-job where they will hone their teaching practice. Do our ITE programmes need to be overhauled? I think the one I personally attended was very good, but it seems others may have had a less positive experience.