AITSL eNews for educators

Dear colleagues,

Technology is changing the world on an unprecedented scale and at a record pace. It’s changing the way we work, live and learn. And it’s opening up opportunities for people to connect in ways never before known.

The education sector, of course, is not immune from the impact of technology and online learning is an example of that. Earlier this month, we released an AITSL Spotlight report that unearths evidence about the rapid increase in students accessing online initial teacher education (ITE) courses. Our report highlights that one-in-four student teachers are now choosing online ITE courses. That’s 22,100 online (or off-campus) ITE students in 2016, more than double the online uptake in 2007.

Read the rest of the CEO's blog here

Supporting our future teachers to thrive

Evidence shows that quality teaching has the biggest in-school impact on student learning. It is critically important that beginning teachers are able to be impactful from day one, and that they are well prepared to take on the responsibility for the learning and legal safety of their students.

In 2014, the Teacher Education Ministerial Advisory Group (TEMAG) looked at how initial teacher education in Australia could be improved to better prepare new teachers and provide them with the practical skills needed to teach in a classroom.

TEMAG made a series of recommendations across five themes: strong quality assurance of teacher education courses; rigorous selection for entry; improved professional experience; robust assessment of graduates; and national research & workforce planning capabilities.

As part of the reforms, AITSL developed the free My Induction App; with expert advice, resources and activities to help beginning teachers develop.

Much work remains to be finalised, so we thought we could give you an update on progress so far in our latest article.

Read our article here

Ensuring all teachers meet national standards at graduation

A crucial TEMAG recommendation was to put in place teaching performance assessments (TPAs). TPAs will be used to assess that a student meets the Graduate Teacher Standards in a reliable and consistent way, with an emphasis on practical teaching skills in the classroom.

Supervising teachers may often be involved in this assessment of students as part of the final placement, but responsibility for the assessment rests with the higher education (ITE) provider. Some teachers may have already been involved with TPAs; with trials commencing in some schools in 2017. Their use will become more widespread from 2018 onwards.

Because of this relationship between schools and ITE providers, AITSL wants to keep supervising teachers and school leaders in the loop about the requirements for all providers to have TPAs in place, as well as the progress of TPAs.

Find out about TPA progress here

How are our future teachers learning?

Not only are our initial teacher education courses changing but the way we learn is changing too. One-in-four of Australia’s 87,134 student teachers are now choosing ‘online only’ courses.

What’s most important is that no matter where a student completes an ITE course in Australia the number one focus needs to remain on a student’s practice, skills and knowledge so that the highest quality graduates are entering the profession, ready to teach from day one.

The big questions are: how will online teacher courses change the face of teaching in Australia; and what does the future look like? These questions and more are increasingly a focus for AITSL, and we’ll keep you posted.

Read the Spotlight report here

A clearer picture of Australia's teachers

We know the teaching profession is changing shape (the ITE Online Spotlight is evidence of that) which makes it even more important that we have an accurate picture of what the national workforce looks like. The Australian Teacher Workforce Data (ATWD) project will help support just that.

Starting this year, most states and territories will begin participating in the ATWD. It will provide – for the first time in Australia – a comprehensive picture of the national supply of the teacher workforce. It will follow trends over time from ITE through to retirement and will assist in addressing important issues like teacher shortages and out-of-field teaching.

By learning more about the teaching experience, we can better understand the challenges and opportunities teachers face as a collective and support the profession.

The ATWD will put teacher privacy first. It is designed to look at aggregate trends, not individual teachers, so teachers will be anonymous. Data will be de-identified and stored in a secure data storage environment.

Find out more on our website

Meet Abby: from Graduate Standard to Highly Accomplished and Lead

We sat down with Abby Saleh, a nationally-certified Highly Accomplished Teacher from NSW, to chat about AITSL's standards, being a HALT and her thoughts on emerging trends in the profession.

On AITSL's Teacher Standards: "The standards empower educators by providing them with the tools for improvement. I have always spent a lot of time reflecting on my practice with the aim to refine and improve it, and the AITSL standards provided me with a framework to identify my areas of need and work towards addressing them."

On becoming a HALT: "Being a HALT has improved my educational self-efficacy. My practice has been validated and recognised, and my sphere of influence has expanded. It's almost as though there's no turning back - I feel as though my future career is on an upward trajectory."

On emerging trends: "Something I believe has begun and will flourish is the breaking down of competition in the workplace between educators. Teachers are developing the mindset that we are stronger and better when we collaborate and share."

Revisit AITSL's Teacher Standards

Learn about HALTs

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