Session Information
Contribution
Teaching Australia has been established with financial support from the Australian Government to be the professional body for the teaching profession in this country. It seeks to be a strong unifying body acting in the interests of teachers and school leaders, drawing the profession together to promote quality teaching and school leadership for the good of all Australians.Teaching Australia believes that one foundation of a quality profession lies in quality professional preparation programs. Hence it is seeking, as one of its early priorities, to put this belief into practice by developing Australia-wide accreditation of teacher preparation programs. It is drawing on research in the areas of quality teaching and school leadership, and quality teacher education and accreditation, to provide the evidential basis for this work. It is also initiating research that will develop understandings of how universities and schools can develop strong partnerships to support the initial preparation of teachers. There have been four research-related components to this activity. The first three related to commissioned research reviews, and the fourth is the commissioning of research relating to university/school partnerships. The first of these was a scan of research findings relating to quality teaching and school leadership (Watson, 2005). This was followed by a more complex 'analysis and synthesis' of research-based knowledge about quality teaching and school leadership, including advice regarding future research and ways of making research-based knowedge available to practitioners in schools (Zammit et al, 2007).The third commissioned work involved a review of national and international trends and practices in the accreditation of professional preparation programs, both in teaching and in other professions, in Australia and elsewhere. As well as reporting practices and trends, this work identified issues to be considered in developing a professional accreditation system (Ingvarson et al, 2006). The university/school partnership research involves reviewing the literature about effective and sustainable partnerships, identify some examples of such partnerships and provide an analysis of how they demonstrate the characteristics reported in the literature (in progress). Research on teacher quality reveals that simple measures such as years of experience or level of qualifications are inadequate as measures of effectiveness. The most powerful indicators of teacher quality are strong subject content knowledge and skills in teaching and learning. Research further identifies a range of professional attributes and practices that have a positive impact on student outcomes. Importantly, it shows that the skills and knowledge of teachers and school leaders are founded in their initial preparation and can be strengthened through ongoing professional development, reflection and dialogue. With this increased evidence of the importance of the quality of our teachers, greater attention is being given to the preparation that begins to shape that quality, including the capacity of teacher education providers to attract able students and to prepare them well to meet the demands of teaching. Accreditation is shown to be a key mechanism for assuring the quality of preparation for the professions, and for engaging members of the profession in decisions about standards for entry to the profession and about standards of preparation programs. Ingvarson, L., Elliott, A. Kleinhenz, E. and McKenzie, P. (2006). Teacher Education Accreditation: A review of international trends and practices. Teaching Australia, Canberra. Watson, L. (2005). Quality Teaching and School Leadership: A scan of research findings. Teaching Australia, Canberra. Zammit, K., Sinclair, C., Cole, B., Singh, M., Costley, D., Brown a'Court, L. and Rushton, K. (2006). Teaching and Leading for Quality Australian Schools: A review and synthesis of research-based knowledge. Teaching Australia, Canberra.
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