4.3 Content and relevance of teacher education programs for subsequent classroom teaching
This section focuses on the content and relevance of teacher education programs for subsequent classroom teaching. First, graduates’ overall satisfaction with their teacher education programs is discussed. Then, perceptions of graduate teachers’ level of preparedness and effectiveness in the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers are tracked at three time points from the time of graduation to early in the second year: Round 1 (March 2013), Round 2 (October 2012), and Round 3 (March 2013). The analyses are augmented and exemplified with data from the follow-up interviews with selected graduate teachers.
Box 10 lists the main findings for Section 4.3
Box 10. Main Findings: Content and relevance of teacher education programs for subsequent classroom teaching
For each survey round, approximately three-quarters of graduate teachers who held teaching positions either agreed or strongly agreed that they would recommend their teacher education program to others (76 per cent in Round 1, 74 per cent in Round 2, and 79 per cent in Round 3). 65-67 per cent of new graduates not teaching would recommend their teacher education program to others.
Graduate teachers who had a teaching position felt more positive about their initial teacher education than those without a teaching position. For example, in Round 3, for those with a teaching position, 79 per cent either strongly agreed or agreed that they would recommend their teacher education program to others, but for those without a teaching position, the agreement group was 65 per cent.
The Australian Professional Standards for Teachers in which more than 75 per cent of graduate teachers felt well prepared by their teacher education programs included 'Engage in professional learning' (89 per cent agreement in Round 1), 'Know students and how they learn' (78 per cent in Round 2) and 'Plan for and implement effective teaching and learning' (76 per cent in Round 2).
Regardless of teacher education program, graduates felt least prepared to ‘Engage professionally with colleagues, parents/carers and the community’ (36 per cent disagreement that their teacher education prepared them in this area) and to ‘Assess, provide feedback and report on student learning’ (25 per cent disagreement).
Overall, less than half of the graduate teachers considered they were well prepared to ‘Engage professionally with colleagues, parents/carers and the community’. This was corroborated by the principals who highlighted engagement with parents, families and communities as one of the key challenges for beginning teachers
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Box 10. (continued)
By the end of their first year of teaching, females seem more likely to feel better prepared (and more effective) than males to ‘Know students and how they learn’, ‘Plan for and implement effective teaching and learning’, ‘Create and maintain supportive and safe learning environments’, ‘Engage in professional learning’ and ‘Engage professionally with colleagues, parents/carers and the community’.
Early in the second year after graduation, graduates who had completed a graduate diploma felt less prepared to 'Know students and how they learn' and 'Know the content and how to teach it', while graduates with a masters degree felt better prepared to 'Know the content and how to teach it' and ‘Assess, provide feedback and report on student learning’. In the first year, graduates with a bachelor’s degree reported feeling better prepared to 'Engage professionally with colleagues, parents/carers and the community'.
In the first year after graduation, early childhood graduates felt better prepared to ‘Create and maintain supportive and safe learning environments’, 'Assess, provide feedback and report on student learning’, ‘Engage in professional learning’ and ‘Engage professionally with colleagues, parents/carers and the community’. Secondary graduates felt least well prepared in this last area and more effective in relation to the standard 'Know the content and how to teach it' but less effective to ‘Create and maintain supportive and safe learning environments’ and ‘Engage in professional learning’. Primary graduates felt less effective in 'Assessment and the provision of feedback and reporting on student learning'.
More than 80 per cent of graduate teachers felt effective in most standards. They rated themselves highly effective in the areas of:
Know students and how they learn
Know the content and how to teach it
Plan for and implement effective teaching and learning
Create and maintain supportive and safe learning environments
Principals agreed with graduate teachers’ perceptions of their effectiveness in relation to all the standards but principals had more positive perceptions of the effectiveness of graduates than the graduates themselves to ‘Plan for and implement effective teaching and learning’.
More graduates considered that they were more effective in teaching in relation to the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers than they had been prepared in these areas. The key areas with the largest difference between perceptions of being prepared and perceptions of being effective were 'Engage professionally with colleagues, parents/carers and the community' in Rounds 2 and 3, and 'Know the content and how to teach it' in Round 3. This disconnect reflects graduate teachers’ feelings of growing efficacy in teaching over time but also highlights the importance of thinking about learning to teach as a continuum of professional learning, learning that occurs in varying degrees at different times in universities, in schools and in communities.
