New South Wales Teacher Education Council :: The News

February 2008

2008 sees a full agenda for the New South Wales Teacher Education Council. There were a number of resignations at the end of 2007, one of which has resulted in a change of the leadership role of the 2007-2008 President, Associate Professor Geoff Riordan. Geoff, because he has been appointed to a new role within the University of Technology Sydney, had no further direct responsibility for Teacher Education and resigned as President and as a member of the NSW TEC. Professor Paul Chandler, Dean, Faculty of Education Wollongong, generously agreed to be appointed as President for the remainder of the term from December 2007, until the AGM in June 2008, when the annual election process will be conducted.

Professor Phil Forman also retired from the NSWTEC as the executive representative from the University of Newcastle. Phil will stand down as the Chair of the Initial Teacher Education Council on 28 February 2008 but has been appointed as Chair of the Quality Teacher Council (QTC). NSWTEC acknowledges the contributions of Associate Professor Geoff Riordan and Professor Phil Forman to Teacher Education generally, and NSWTEC specifically.

NSWTEC representatives continue to have various roles on NSW Institute of Teachers' (NSWIT) Committees. These include:

QTC (Professor Jo-Anne Reid, Minister for Education Appointee)
ITEC (Professor Jo-Anne Reid, Associate Professor Steve Wilson, Associate Professor Marea Nicholson, and Associate Professor Robyn Ewing, NSW TEC nominees) Professional Experience Working Parties (Dr Di Bloomfield)
Guidelines for Ethical Standards and Professional Experience Policy Drafting Working Party (Associate Professor Marea Nicholson, ITEC Representative)
Working parties to establish processes to access the voluntary Higher Levels of Accreditation (Noelene Weatherby-Fell)
TEC members have participated in panels to assessment of Course documents against the ITEC requirements.

Most Universities have been given interim approval for their teacher education courses for dates between 2008 and 2010. As courses are reviewed and adjusted to meet the NSW Institute of Teachers (NSWIT) requirements, existing courses with enrolled cohorts are being adjusted. This process consumes a significant amount of time for universities, with those who have submitted documents for endorsement waiting almost twelve months for the process to be completed. One university has advertised for an accreditation officer to ensure compliance of the university's teacher education programs.

Selection criteria recently adopted by a number of universities to meet the NSWIT requirements have included band 4 two unit English and Mathematics requirement for primary teachers and band 4 two unit English for secondary teachers. There is an expectation that literacy and numeracy requirements to meet the DEEWR condition for the enhanced professional experience funding may have further requirements for programs, however as yet this is unclear.

The 2008 student recruitment cycle for graduate entry programs was the first time universities had to manage the selection of students to meet the undergraduate discipline requirements without reference to the NSWDET. Previously the NSWDET provided an assessment of an undergraduate student transcript for entry into graduate entry programs, and the student's eligibility for employment with the NSWDET. This requirement has shifted a significant workload to universities. In preparation Professor Jo-Anne Reid organized a workshop in November 2007, hosted by University of Sydney, for program co-ordinators and administration staff who would be involved in assessing the undergraduate programs. This workshop was very successful and as a follow up, further workshops to review the process, establish a workflow and decision making scaffold will be conducted in the future.

An outstanding issue for the NSW TEC is the Professional Experience Requirements for NSWIT which are currently in draft for discussion. There are issues concerning the definition of Professional Experience which is different to the definition accepted by DEEWR last year in the negotiation of the 120 days for additional funding. A significant point of discussion is the mandating of the numbers of days as currently required by DEEWR within the NSW IT policy, if funding was to be reduced. The definition needs to be sufficiently broad to allow for the wide range of field based learning experience, or for the sector to further struggle to find sufficient days in schools contexts.

An emergent issue for universities is the accreditation of Early Childhood programs. Currently the NSW Department of Community Services is responsible for the determination that students from certain programs are able to have specific roles in the 0-5 prior to school setting, and the NSW Institute of Teachers has responsibility for K-6. Programs that have previously been designed to meet Birth-8 have been informed that the NSWIT will require programs to be assessed for the Discipline, Pedagogy Knowledge and Curriculum for the mandatory areas and the six Key Learning Areas (KLAs) for K-6. NSWIT has hosted a forum in 2007 to advance a shared understanding between early childhood educators and the NSW IT, and a working party has been formed to explore the issues. With the increased emphasis by the Federal Government on the importance of Early Childhood, and the oversupply of primary teachers (20,000 unemployed in NSW) this would appear to be the possible growth area.

This year's NSWTEC Conference will be held between 15-17 June 2008 followed by the Professional Experience Roundtable hosted by University of Newcastle (Ms Cheryl Williams, Conference Convenor). It is planned that one outcome of the conference will be a range of discussion points for the executive of the NSWTEC to take forward to the Minister. It is anticipated that National Accreditation, National Curriculum, NSWIT workload devolved to Universities, aging staff profile of staff within Education Faculties and recruitment challenges (wages and conditions) will be included in the discussion points.

Teachers Make a Difference

"In terms of student achievement, the teacher is a more significant factor than any other kind of school resource." (US National Commission on Teaching and America's Future)

"In a completely rational society, the best of us would aspire to be teachers and the rest of us would have to settle for something less, because passing civilization along from one generation to the next ought to be the highest honor and the highest responsibility anyone could have." (Lee Iacocca)

"Have you ever been at sea in a dense fog, when it seemed as if a tangible white darkness shut you in and the great ship, tense and anxious, groped her way toward the shore with plummet and sounding-line, and you waited with beating heart for something to happen? I was like that ship before my education began, only I was without compass or sounding line, and no way of knowing how near the harbor was." (Helen Keller)

"I believe that education is the fundamental method of social progress and reform. All reforms which rest simply upon the law, or the threatening of certain penalties, or upon changes in mechanical or outward arrangements, are transitory and futile... But through education society can formulate its own purposes, can organize its own means and resources, and thus shape itself with definiteness and economy in the direction in which it wishes to move... Education thus conceived marks the most perfect and intimate union of science and art conceivable in human experience." (John Dewey)

There are many reasons why people choose teaching as a career. These include:

To make a difference in the lives of young people;
To combine creativity and intellectual challenge;
To make a worthwhile social contribution;
To share their passion for learning, especially in a particular area;
Personal fulfilment and as sense of achievement.

Why teach? Because teachers make a real difference (www.education.qld.gov.au)

Teach... and make a difference (www.det.nsw.edu.au)

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