“The evolution of social media into a robust mechanism for social transformation is already visible. Despite many adamant critics who insist that tools like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are little more than faddish distractions useful only to exchange trivial information, these critics are being proven wrong time and again. ”
– Attributed to Simon Mainwaring
The @EduTweetOz Twitter account describes itself as “RoCur for Aussie educators to share ideas, experiences, q’s & passion. Building community. New host each wk” and is a very worthwhile Twitter account to follow. Each host brings with them a new topic and their own perspective on that topic to the table for discussion, and each host is also given an introductory interview blog on the EduTweetOz blog site which allows the accounts followers to gain an insight into the week’s host.
The beauty of the account is that it is open to nominations from educators from any sector of the industry, which keeps the discussion topics from the account fresh and interesting. You can nominate yourself to be a guest host by clicking here.
Recently, the account was hosted by Mark Johnson (@seminyaksunset) and I stumbled onto a conversation regarding pre-service teachers partway through the weekend, and joined in, as you can see below:
There are a few thoughts that arose from this conversation which I believe are important to discuss and if I provoke some constructive dialogue, whether it be in comments to this article here on WordPress, or alternatively, on Twitter or Google+, I believe that I will be happy. There were six main ideas or topics that I drew from the conversation with Mark, and this article will address the first of them, with others emerging over the course of the next week.
- Entry into Pre-Service Teacher Training / Initial Teacher Education (ITE) courses
- Pre-Service Teacher Training / Initial Teacher Education (ITE) structure and content
- The value of teachers and teaching as perceived in the public sphere
- The role of the Education minister and his/her (currently his) stance towards education and teachers and the way the Education Minister is perceived by teachers.
- The integration of graduate teachers into the profession
- The rate of graduation vs the available number of employment opportunities
I certainly do not believe that I hold the answers to any of these issues, though I certainly have some opinion, however rigorous discussion around some of these issues appears to be sparse in their occurrence, despite the level of importance to which society as a rule attaches to education. The above issues are all, to a certain degree, inter-related, so their may be some topic-jumping, however I will do my best to keep this series of articles on topic.
- Entry into Pre-Service Teacher Training / Initial Teacher Education (ITE) courses
This topic was my initial entry-point into the conversation, on the back of the below Tweets:
Raising Uni Entrance scores to improve teaching? Myth according to me. Students with high scores free to go into teaching now.
— Edutweetoz (@EduTweetOz) June 6, 2015
Raising Uni Entrance scores to improve teaching? Cut out the low entries? They might become some of our most inspiring teachers?
— Edutweetoz (@EduTweetOz) June 6, 2015
I do not disagree with the premise, that increasing the entry score for ITE courses will necessarily equate to a raising in teacher standards. I strongly believe that there are too many variables in play, as with any sort of standardised testing regime for the overall mark awarded at the end of a students secondary education when they are either seventeen or eighteen to be any indication of the kind of teacher they will be later in life. I pointed out that as a secondary student, I performed poorly in my final secondary education exams, receiving a University Admission Index (UAI, currently known as the ATAR (Australian Tertiary Admission Rank) in NSW) score of only 55.55.
There were a number of potential reasons for my low score, which are ultimately irrelevant in this conversation, but I entered university as a mature age student, put in much more effort than I ever did in my secondary education, and came away with Honours Class I, the Education Faculty Medal and will be the Graduate Speaker at my cohort’s graduation ceremony in July of this year. My UAI was no indication of what kind of tertiary student I would be, and my tertiary academic results are no indication of what kind of teacher I will be.
So I do not believe that relying solely on an arbitrary ITE entrance score would necessarily have any real impact on the quality of teachers that graduate. My initial response, that ITE should move towards an entrance model akin to the medicine entrance model that combines entry score requirements with an interview and personality test would only help to a degree. For someone who wished to enter the teaching profession immediately out of high school in their late teens, the interview process would serve well to weed out those who only want to enter the ITE courses as they see them as an easy option. This may sound a little silly, but I distinctly recall hearing two classmates during my undergraduate state that they were only doing the course because their parents said they had to go to university after high school and teaching was easy to get into. However this alone would serve to reduce the number of disinterested teachers entering into the profession and that reason on its own, to me, seems to make introducing entrance interviews worth examining further.
Another measure that I believe could be added into the entry process is perhaps more controversial. I am aware from conversations with a number of my classmates that many of us feel that nothing in our ITE properly prepared us for what teaching is actually like. I was not offered a permanent position under the NSW Department of Education and Communities Targeted Graduate Program (TGR), and to be quite frank, I am rather thankful for that fact. I picked up some casual days early this year at a local school where one of my classmates received a permanent position under the TGR and when I asked how she was finding the position, she commented to me that, and I’m paraphrasing from memory here, “…[she] was not ready for a full-time spot straight out. There is so much stuff that was not covered [in our ITE]; even just the admin requirements alone, forget the need to interact with parents.”
This is a sentiment that I can sympathise with. I do agree that there was a lack of understanding imparted to us as to the way in which teaching can consume you if you do not take steps to prepare yourself, and the requirements outside of the purely teaching that are placed on teachers. A teacher friend of mine, who is currently in an Executive position, commented to me during a conversation one afternoon that “…teaching is a twenty-four hour job.” A sentiment which my classmate, and myself, are only just starting to properly grasp to truth of.
This knowledge, this understanding needs to be made more explicit somehow during the admission process. Whilst it may scare off some who would in fact be excellent teachers, it would also scare off those who think that teaching is a nine-to-three job, and allow prospective teachers to go in with, if not eyes wide-open, than at least somewhat aware of the enormity of the role which they are undertaking. There are a few ways in which this could be done, such as requiring prospective teachers to spend time with a teacher, not just in the classroom, but attending staff meetings, professional development session, report writing, planning and programming in an attempt to understand the workload that is placed on teachers. However, something such as I have just described could not realistically be expected to occur before the commencement of the ITE.
I am not sure what measures, other than introducing an interview process or perhaps some sort of requirement to spend time in a classroom prior to commencement of the ITE, could be introduced to the front-end of the ITE the system that would actually enhance the quality of teachers that graduate at the back-end. I would very much like to hear from anyone who has ideas to achieve this, either in the comment section here or alternatively on Twitter or Google+.
Thank you for reading my semi-organised thoughts on ITE today. The next article, which will be published on Monday, will discuss the structure and content of ITE courses in general, and mine specifically.
Century 21 Teaching 
Hi Brendan, this is a great piece – yours is a very relevant and worthwhile perspective to this discussion.
I’m interested in your suggestion that people considering teaching shadow a teacher for some time before making that decision. When I did my 4 year primary education degree, my university sent us into schools for a month’s practicum 4 weeks after commencing our first year. We continued to do 4 week practicums every semester until our final year where we did an internship. I remember several students dropping out after their first and second pracs. For many it wasn’t that they didn’t measure up, it was that they discovered they didn’t like the environment or the real nature of the work.
Since then, for a range of reasons, universities seem to have cut back on the amount of practical experience their students have throughout their degree. My school takes in students in their 3rd year of an education degree but are on their very first prac. By that stage, they’ve invested so much in their degree, that its much harder for them to decide its not for them. The HECS debt also creates a disincentive to change courses. Back when I was at uni, HECS was only a small amount, so the stakes were not as high.
If there were a way to make it work, however, I’d like to see preservice teachers having more practical experience throughout their degree, to help them have a practical as well as theoretical understanding of the work of teachers and to decide early on if its the right career for them.
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Hi Brendan – thanks for a well-articulated post.
You requested information about my course structure – I am enrolled in Macquarie University’s graduate entry B.Ed (Primary) program. Thankfully we undertake professional experience placement in our first year (of a two year degree). I finished high school in the days of a mark out of 500, and I am unsure what my mark would translate to in terms of ATAR. To give comparison though, I did earn the requisite marks to undertake a teaching qualification at Sydney University at the time, had I taken that route
On a more general note – I second what Corinne has said. It is apparent, both from self-reflection, and my last practicum report that my classroom practice needs considerable work. That practice will not improve in the slightest by virtue of an ongoing high GPA. It is unfortunate that I will graduate from my two-year B.Ed. (graduate entry) degree with a mere 60 days of practicum placement (3 blocks of 20 days).
That said, I have approached my daughters’ local primary school and both practicum schools to ask (plead) for further in-class experience as a volunteer. Whilst I received plenty of “yes, that’s a great idea” responses, not one school has followed through on the request. As a result, I am left to wonder how PSTs and ECTS are supposed to improve their practice? I should also mention here that a local SSP were happy to take up my offer of volunteering, too, although that experience did little to further my growth as a PST in a regular classroom setting.
I am fortunate that I have run a Cub Scout pack for a few years, and have other “teaching opportunities” made available through non-classroom teaching experiences offered by the University. As a parent (to four) and as someone who has worked in a school in various capacities (from Kitchen Manager to Aide), I am also fortunate enough to have a reasonable understanding of the 24/7 nature of the profession. I am not sure how I might have managed as a student straight out of high school.
I look forward to your future posts.
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Hi Sally-Anne.
Thank you for replying. It is interesting to hear the different ways that ITE is structured at different institutions and whether it is an undergraduate or post-graduate program. I plan to address that topic in my next article, due on Monday.
Cheers,
Brendan
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Hi Corinne.
Thank you for the comment. You raise some valid concerns regarding around sunk cost fallacy, which I plan to address in my next article.
Cheers,
Brendan
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