Raising Teacher Bar

A lot is being talked about in the community and reported in the media on the subject of teacher quality.

The soul-searching and almost daily comments around Australia and the Northern Territory are futuristic and forward-looking.

In looking forward, those responsible for teacher preparation need to reflect on past teacher training practices, revisiting and including some of the critical elements in our 21st-century teacher preparation courses.

I worry that critical teaching and preparation methodologies are insufficiently stressed.

Rather than prospective teachers receiving that understanding while in training, they graduate with degrees and, as neophytes, are expected to acquire practical teaching skills and dispositions upon full-time entry into classroom teaching positions.

It wasn’t good then, It isn’t good now!