how should teachers be taught?

The Australian, Justine Ferrari, 14 September 2007; The Australian, Justine Ferrari, 14 September
2007; The Age, Jewel Topsfield, 14 September 2007

 

The Senate Standing Committee on Employment, Workplace Relations and Education has released a finding report into
the ‘academic standards of school educators.’

The Senate has found that some Australian students were still functionally illiterate after having completed school, and that students were able to move on to tertiary study with restricted vocabularies and an inability to construct complex sentences.

The report states that four-year education degrees should be abolished, and that prospective secondary-school teachers should be required to complete an arts or science degree before studying ‘specific education courses.’

The lack of content and substance taught to students in straight education courses is also a concern to the Senate Committee. The Committee’s Chair, Senator Judith Troeth, said that the ‘emphasis has swung too far toward how to
teach rather than what to teach.’

Senator Troeth believes that Bachelor of Education degrees should only be offered as a postgraduate qualification, and that teachers ‘need more then just an education degree to get a teaching position.’

The Federal Minister for Education, Science and Training, Ms Julie Bishop, has said that all recommendations made by
the report will be taken into consideration. She also said that the move of teacher preparation from teacher colleges to universities ‘has resulted in a more academic approach to teacher education that has not necessarily promoted higher standards.’

Even though Opposition education spokesperson, Mr Stephen Smith, believes the report’s recommendations are ‘worthy
of consideration’, he believes that the suggestions should not ‘be considered as the only relevant or required pathway
into the teaching profession.’

Professor Sue Willis, the Chair of the Australian Council of Deans of Education, has said that the deans believe that a ‘three-year discipline-based degree’, followed by a further two-year diploma in education will reduce ‘poor grounding’
in subject disciplines and better prepare budding teachers to enter the classroom.

To read the Senate’s report, click here.

 

 

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