Preparing New Teachers for

the 21st Century

A New Zealand Response

Challenges for Teacher Education

• The OECD fundamental challenge

• Challenges for research universities

• Challenges for governments

• Challenges for the teaching profession

• The measurement of quality

The OECD fundamental challenge

• Teaching is not yet a research-led

profession and to deliver the

educational results required it should

be.

– OECD (2005) Teachers Matter: Attracting,

Developing and Retaining Effective

Teachers, OECD, Paris, page 14.

Research on the characteristics of effective

professional development indicates that teachers

need to be active agents in analysing their own

practice in the light of professional standards, and

their own students’ progress in the light of

standards for student learning.

Teaching remains largely unchanged as other forms of

work have been dramatically transformed. Many other

professionals commence their working lives with a

sense that they are entering a role that has been

shaped by past research and that will be transformed

during their working lives by future research. That is an

excitement that teaching has not yet offered. There are

signs of change in some countries, with teachers

developing a research role alongside their teaching role;

with teachers engaging more actively with new

knowledge; and with professional development focused

on the evidence-base for improved practice. OECD (2005) Teachers Matter: Attracting, Developing and Retaining Effective Teachers, OECD,

Paris, page 14.

Challenges for research universities

• Ensuring that Faculties of Education

have the same research ethos and level

of activity as other Faculties (e.g.

Science)

• Ensuring that teacher education is

research-led and taught by those active

in research

• Ensuring that academic staff are involved

in the practicum, and see it as an

opportunity for research

Challenges for programmes

• Meeting professional standards

• Meeting immediate needs of schools

while ensuring graduates can adapt to

the needs of schools in the future

• Involving teachers and schools in the

training of teachers while making sure

graduates can innovate and use

research for ongoing development

Challenges for governments

• Ensuring an adequate supply of qualified

teachers in all subjects and at all levels

• Demonstrating improvements in student

achievement

• Controlling costs and relative costs

• Managing incentives around teacher

education and teaching as a career

• Establishing effective mechanisms for

ensuring that teachers respond to new

curriculum initiatives

Challenges for the teaching profession

• Moving from a craft-based to a

research-led profession

• Developing systems to recognise and

encourage innovation

• Becoming evidence-based in their

practice

• Maintaining standards and controlling

membership of the profession in a

principled way

The measurement of quality

• Entry standards

• Graduation standards

• Performance in teaching

– Assessment of principal or supervising

teachers

– Evidence of student achievement

changes caused by new teacher

– Adjusting for student background

– Focus on provision of rich learning

opportunities

Challenges for research universities:

Our response

• Teacher education staff are expected to be research

active, to publish in books and in quality assured

journals, and to use their research in their teaching

• Teaching methods are similar to those in other

research-led disciplines

• All academic staff do some supervision and

assessment of the practicum; some is done by

experienced teachers recruited for the purpose

• We recruit high quality students, mostly graduates,

who have demonstrated an aptitude for self-directed

learning and who can interpret and apply research

findings to their developing teaching skills

Challenges for programmes:

Our response

• Assessment both of coursework and of the practicum

is based on Graduating Teacher Standards set by the

New Zealand Teachers’ Council

• Graduates must have demonstrated an ability to

evaluate their teaching performance on the basis of

evidence of student learning, and an ability to

understand and use relevant research

• Our programmes are based around two seven-week

practicum placements in schools, and advisory

groups of teachers help us set performance criteria.

Co-operating teachers provide evidence that is used

in assessment of students on the practicum

Challenges for governments:

Our response

• Policies to date have not matched graduate numbers

to demand from schools. Funding incentives produce

too many narrowly trained primary teachers, and can

lower entry standards

• Government scholarships have attracted more

secondary mathematics, science, and technology

teachers

• Government is rightly concerned about the spread of

student achievement in schools, but lacks the

commitment to making teaching the kind of research-

led profession that could find ways to reduce disparity

of achievement

• Teacher unions are powerful, and resist any attempts to

pay teachers on the basis of their effectiveness.

Challenges for governments:

Our response

• Pay rates are centrally determined and while

employment decisions are made by schools, pay and

movements within the pay scale are rigidly

prescribed. This may discourage the recognition of

excellence among teachers

• Our graduates have the motivation and intellectual

skill to improve their practice continuously on the

basis of evidence and new research. The New

Zealand Teachers’ Council’s Graduating Teacher

Standards do not emphasise this in a way that would

ensure it is the case across all programmes

Challenges for the teaching profession

Our response

• Strong adherence to craft-based ideals remain. Many

experienced teachers are still highly sceptical of the

place and benefits of research and evidence-based

practice

• Strong commitment to the idea of recognising

excellence in teaching, but no agreement on how to

do this

• There is a slow increase in the number of teachers

and schools that are strongly evidence-based in their

practices.

• There are robust processes for dealing with

incompetence and highly unethical behaviour.

Systems for ensuring strong professional standards

are less well developed

The measurement of quality: Our response

• We require a degree with at least a B average to

enter our graduate diploma (one-year) early

childhood, primary, and secondary programmes.

Strong secondary school qualifications are needed to

enter an undergraduate degree

• Graduation standards are set nationally by the New

Zealand Teachers’ Council. In addition to these we

set higher university standards that require an ability

to operate as an evidence-based teacher

• We currently involve co-operating teachers in the

assessment of students on the practicum and student

performance is linked to the quality of the programme

The measurement of quality: Our response

(continued)

• We use an independent research company to ask

teachers and principals how well our graduates are

performing. Several samples of the results follow this

slide

• What we are still working on is reliable ways to:

– Measure the ability of new graduates to provide

rich learning opportunities for all students

– Measure the quality of graduates by their students’

achievement after adjusting for student

background

50

68

36

239

86

91

14

20 0 20 40 60 80 100

Supervisor

Teacher

Base: All respondents

Strongly AgreeStrongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree

To what extent do you agree or disagree with the

following statement…?

The PRT is capable of managing the classroom

effectively

79

73

21

1855

100

82

20 0 20 40 60 80 100 120

Supervisor

Teacher

Base: All respondents

Strongly AgreeStrongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree

To what extent do you agree that the BTeach programme

has provided the skills to do the following….?

Relate positively to students

47%

62%

41%

24%

88%

86%8

34

5

4

2

40 20 0 20 40 60 80 100

Supervisor

Teacher

To what extent do you agree that the Graduate Diploma of

Teaching programme has given you/the teacher:

An understanding of teaching and learning theory and practice

Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly AgreeBase: All respondents

57

59

36

365

93

95

7

20 0 20 40 60 80 100

Supervisor

Teacher

Base: All respondents

Strongly AgreeStrongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree

To what extent do you agree or disagree with the

following statement…?

The PRT is flexible in their approach to teaching

To what extent do you agree that the programme has

provided the skills to do the following….?

35%

57%

47%

25%

10%

17%2

82%

82%

4

40 20 0 20 40 60 80 100

Supervisor

Teacher

Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly AgreeBase: All respondents

29%

48%

56%

33%

9%

14%

4

5

85%

81%

1

40 20 0 20 40 60 80 100

Supervisor

Teacher

Relate positively to students

Recognise and value diverse cultures within the

classroom

Our Programme

• Some details of our teacher preparation

programme for graduates

– Requires a B average in the first degree to

enter

– Three different specialisations: early

childhood, primary, secondary

– Requires two teaching subjects (e.g.

mathematics, chemistry) for secondary

specialisation

Early Childhood

Primary

Secondary

Graduate Course Pattern•

Common course

First three specialist

courses

First seven

week practicum

First three specialist

courses continue

Final Common

course

Second three

Specialist courses

Second seven

week practicum

Second three specialist

courses continue

First three specialist

courses continue

Sample of Graduating Teacher Standards

• PROFESSIONAL KNOWLEDGE

• Standard One: Graduating Teachers know what to

teach

• have content knowledge appropriate to the learners

and learning areas of their programme

• have pedagogical content knowledge appropriate to

the learners and learning areas of their programme

• have knowledge of the relevant curriculum

documents of Aotearoa New Zealand

• have content and pedagogical content knowledge for

supporting English as an Additional Language (EAL)

learners to succeed in the curriculum

Sample of Graduating Teacher Standards

• Standard Two: Graduating Teachers know about

learners and how they learn

• have knowledge of a range of relevant theories and

research about pedagogy, human development and

learning

• have knowledge of a range of relevant theories,

principles and purposes of assessment and

evaluation

• know how to develop metacognitive strategies of

diverse learners

• know how to select curriculum content appropriate to

the learners and the learning context

Questions