By Lucy Carroll and Christopher Harris
Teaching graduates should be tested on their ability to educate students effectively when they complete their degrees and not only on literacy and numeracy skills, a new report argues.
Education ministers last month backed a radical overhaul of teaching degrees that will force universities to teach students back-to-basics “core content”, including evidence-based maths and reading instruction and skills on how to manage unruly classrooms.
A new CIS report outlines possible changes to initial teacher education degrees.Credit: iStock
A research paper from the Centre for Independent Studies, released on Monday, said the reforms would have a better chance of success if graduates sat a standardised exit exam to test their knowledge of effective teaching practices.
“It’s one thing to change teaching degree course content, but to guarantee that translates to improved practice, teachers should be examined on the content of their degrees, the science of learning and how children’s brains learn,” Glenn Fahey, CIS research fellow and report author, said.
“Ultimately, the goal of teacher training is that graduates are ready for the classroom. But we don’t assess this in a consistent and reliable way.”
The CIS report argues that compared with school systems in the UK and United States, Australia’s policymakers “are years behind in initial teacher education reform efforts”, including the content in courses and accountability of the sector.
The report also recommends sending inspectors into universities to audit courses and have assessors visit providers to observe trainee teachers and course instructors.
Fahey said that expanding what was tested when students finished would guarantee universities were teaching the four core content areas outlined in the report released last month by the Teacher Education Expert Panel.
Under current rules, trainee teachers have to pass a compulsory Literacy and Numeracy Test for Initial Teacher Education, known as LANTITE, which was introduced in 2016.
“A common exit exam would test teachers in effective pedagogical practices, classroom management and responsive teaching – not on untested fads,” Fahey said.
Federal Education Minister Jason Clare said ministers had given “in-principle” support to the 14 reforms outlined in the initial teacher education review, led by Sydney University vice-chancellor Mark Scott.
“A lot of teachers will tell you that their university course didn’t prepare them well enough to teach things like literacy and numeracy and manage classroom behaviour, and that prac wasn’t up to scratch,” Clare said. “Fixing this is what the reforms we are progressing are all about.”
The CIS report also argues specialist teaching colleges be established to break the monopoly universities hold on training, a model that was in place in Australia until about the 1980s.
“Universities have an iron grip on the market. But that monopoly model has failed both teachers and employers of teachers,” Fahey said, noting that teacher colleges could help boost vocational and school-based placements for teaching students.
He said the justification for universities taking over teacher training decades ago was simple: that university research would flow on to best-practice teaching to new teachers.
“But the exact opposite has occurred. Untested academic theories and educational experimentation has profited in education faculties, with little or no reference to what works in the classroom,” he said.
Data shows that nearly half of undergraduate teaching students fail to complete their degrees within six years. The latest figures show that 43 per cent of undergraduates at the University of New England dropped out before completing their degree, and 40 per cent at Western Sydney University.
More than 20 per cent of students at the University of Wollongong, Macquarie University and Newcastle University dropped out of their teaching course after their first year.
“Policymakers have previously convinced themselves that the gap for graduate teachers was that too many didn’t have the smarts for teaching; but that was a red herring. The real gap is that most teacher trainers simply haven’t given graduates the teaching skills and knowledge that they need to be as successful as possible,” Fahey said.
The report also mapped teacher availability across regions, showing that across Sydney teacher shortages are most acutely felt in south-west and western suburbs.
Chief executive officer of Catholic Schools NSW, Dallas McInerney, said improvements are needed for practical teaching placements, including having students in classrooms earlier in their degrees.
“Students struggle financially when undertaking long practical placements, especially when it requires them to give up their normal part-time employment, and they have no other form of financial support,” McInerney said.
“A more consistent national approach is needed to support teaching students, which could include stipend or similar form of payment during a degree.”
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