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Minister for Education
Speech by the Hon Adrian Piccoli MP
NSW Council of Deans of Education
10.15 am Monday 17 June 2013
Tenison Woods House, Australian Catholic University
8-20 Napier St, North Sydney
‘Revisioning the identity of teacher education into the 21st century’
A blue print for action:
Recent educational reforms in New South Wales
Introduction
I would like to begin by acknowledging we are on the traditional land of
the Cammeraigal people of the Eora nation.
I pay my respects to their elders, past and present, and to all other
Aboriginal people here today.
Professor Craven, Dr Aubusson, ladies and gentlemen.
Thank you for inviting me to open your conference today..
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The identity of teacher education into the 21st century
As we all know there is a growing awareness of the performance of NSW
(and Australia) on the world stage.
Our performance has either remained steady or fallen in key international
assessments such as PISA. At the same time, the performance of
countries such as China, Korea and Finland has been rapidly improving.
These countries are diverse, however they share a commitment to
ensuring that only the best students are admitted to teacher education
courses; and to ensuring that only the best students graduate from those
courses.
We now know an increasing amount about which teacher practices will
most effectively improve student outcomes.
The evidence tells us that teachers are most effective when, for instance,
they are trained in the analysis of student outcome data.
We also know that the best teachers are usually those with strong skills
in literacy and numeracy; and those who manage their classrooms as
effective learning environments.
Partly as a result of the growing awareness of these factors, the
community’s expectations of schools and teachers have been increasing
dramatically … and, while we have many, many excellent teachers, we
want all teachers to be on top of all the curriculum areas for which they
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have responsibility… to be able to engage students in relevant studies so
they will be inspired to be lifelong learners.
Ultimately, strengthening teacher quality will result in a more highlyeducated and highly-skilled population, allowing us to remain competitive
with high-performers internationally, and to maintain our nation’s
productivity and our lifestyle.
Teacher education providers will play a key role in delivering these goals.
Great Teaching, Inspired Learning
That’s why last year I asked the NSW education community to contribute
to a wide-ranging discussion about what measures we could take to lift
the quality of teaching across the career cycle of a teacher.
The discussion paper, Great Teaching, Inspired Learning, was
developed by a panel comprising three of the state’s leading educators –
Dr Michele Bruniges, Director-General of the Department of Education
and Communities, Tom Alegounarias, President of the Board of Studies
NSW and Patrick Lee, who was then Chief Executive of the NSW
Institute of Teachers.
It was pleasing that the greatest number of contributions was from
individual teachers.
There were also submissions from Education stakeholder organisations,
parents, business and industry.
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In particular I would like to thank the NSW Council of Deans of Education
for their submission to the discussion paper.
I also asked the Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation to
analyse international and national research on effective teaching.
There were clear messages for the Government from these initiatives
and from the panel’s final report, which contained 16 major
recommendations to improve teaching and learning in NSW schools.
Today I will speak about the first two of these: entrance to teacher
education and the training received in teacher education courses.
Attracting the best entrants
In moving to our goal of great teaching in every school we all agree that
we need to make sure we attract the right people into the profession.
Teaching is a highly-skilled profession that requires entrants to have high
levels of academic knowledge and analytical skills. Teaching is the
knowing and caring profession (Paul Brock)
As I mentioned earlier, we know that high-performing countries including
Singapore, Korea and Finland share a high level of selectivity at course
entrance level, rather than making that decision at the point of
employment
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McKinsey and Company report that countries recruit their
undergraduates from within the top third of the academic cohort.
This is why we want to work with Initial Teacher Education providers to
raise the bar at the entry level, and ensure that school-leaver entrants to
teaching have demonstrated a high level of academic attainment, the
equivalent of 3 Band 5s including English, before starting their studies in
teaching.
The NSW Institute of Teachers, as part of the Implementation of Great
Teaching, Inspired Learning, has clarified a range of options for students
who are seeking admission to teaching courses…that maintain the new
high academic standard… but allow providers to meet the needs of their
contexts and students.
We will also work with Universities and other providers to be sure that all
undergraduate entrants to teaching, not just those entering from school,
have reached a similar high level of attainment prior to starting their
course of study.
Let’s cut to the chase here. I know some universities are not happy about
this as they see it as their role to set the standard for entry and exit of
their students. I am sorry to be blunt here but Universities have not set a
high enough standard for students either entering or exiting so the
government has been forced to set the standard through our reforms.
I don’t know a single Principal who cannot tell a story about a University
student either doing practicum or in their first year who was utterly ill
suited or ill prepared for teaching and the Principal has recommended
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that that student be failed only to see that student appear shortly
thereafter as a teacher graduate. That’s why the teaching profession,
and Principals particularly, strongly support the minimum entrance
requirements and the literacy and numeracy assessment test. The
argument that anyone can go into university to do teaching and the
University will turn them into a brilliant teacher is simply not reflected in
what happens at schools.
In Addition as universities enrol more and more students into ITE DEC
and the non government schools have to find practicum places for those
students. Not an easy thing to do nor cheap. And whilst Universities
receive funds from the commonwealth to fund that practicum very little of
that funding ends up with the school or the teacher hosting that
practicum – see Action 4.8.
On top of these academic reasons for the Band 5 requirements the
profession has no doubt that a higher entry level will enhance to status of
the teaching profession. Teaching is regarded by too many people as the
degree you do when you can’t get into anything else.
I also note the commonwealth has made announcements about entry
into teacher training. I deliberately don’t call them reforms because their
not. It’s a promise to develop reforms. Everyone talks about the need to
raise standards but the NSW government is the only jurisdiction with the
courage to actually detail how they will do it. I know that when Minister
Garret made that announcement Greg held the media release in his
hand and waved it around like Neville Chamberlain declaring peace in
our time but I’m sorry Greg the two documents share a common fault –
of being meaningless.
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In Action 1.3 of the GTIL Blueprint, we will also require teacher education
students to pass a Literacy and a Numeracy assessment prior to being
granted their final professional placement, demonstrating literacy and
numeracy skills equivalent to at least the top 30 per cent of the
population.
Economic research has found that highly literate teachers improve
student achievement between 0.2 and 0.4 grade levels more than the
least literate.
Inspired learning
We know that academic skills alone are not enough to inspire a love of
learning in students.
We believe, and the evidence supports us in this, that those who want to
be teachers should have an aptitude for teaching, and be capable of
inspiring a love of learning in their pupils.
The literature review undertaken by the Centre for Education Statistics
and Evaluation found that teachers who are passionate about students’
succeeding and who establish relationships of respect and trust with
their students are consistently shown to be the most effective.
This same point was also made in the Council of Deans’ submission to
Great Teaching, Inspired Learning.
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In light of these findings, a framework of attributes will be developed by
the NSW Institute of Teachers, working in close collaboration with initial
teacher education providers.
The framework will identify characteristics associated with suitability to
teach and how best to assess this suitability.
I am aware that there are models of suitability frameworks already in
use in NSW Universities, and the Institute of Teachers will work closely
with providers to develop the most effective model for our state.
Pathways
The NSW Government is committed to raising the proportion of 25-34
year olds with at least a bachelor-level qualification to 44 per cent by
2025.
We are also committed to increasing to 20 per cent the proportion of
undergraduate enrolments coming to university from low-socioeconomic
backgrounds.
We recognise that university degrees in the field of education will play an
important role in helping us reach these goals. This point was made in
the Council of Deans’ submission to Great Teaching, Inspired Learning.
It was also made by a recent report published by the Australian Institute
for Teaching and School Leadership, which found that the range of
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entrants to initial teacher education programs provides the students in
our schools with teachers from diverse backgrounds.
That report found that, compared with all fields of higher education, a
greater proportion of entrants to initial teacher education had a lowsocioeconomic status background or came from a regional area.
Teaching courses also attract a slightly higher proportion of Indigenous
students than other courses.
So, as part of our reforms to initial teacher education, we will
acknowledge and build on the existing pathways for Aboriginal students,
students from rural and regional areas, and students from lowsocioeconomic backgrounds.
This will ensure that, while there is no lowering of the bar for these
students, they remain supported in training for, and entering, the
teaching profession.
Educating the entrants - practicum
Next, we want our student teachers to have excellent professional
training.
To help achieve this, the NSW Institute of Teachers will assess and
publicly report on the quality of initial teacher education programs each
year.
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As you all know, excellent professional training needs to include
comprehensive practical experience so that graduates beginning their
careers in NSW schools are knowledgeable, highly skilled and well
suited to the profession.
We also know that collaboration is central to an effective practicum.
The Great Teaching, Inspired Learning discussion paper asked how we
could build stronger partnerships between schools and teacher
education institutions.
The submission from the Council of Deans argued that a serious effort
was required to establish a new understanding around practicum.
That submission drew attention to the potential for observation and
internship components for sustainably increasing in-school experience
for teacher education students.
We have listened to these concerns.
The reform I have outlined in the blueprint for action will involve
employers, the Institute and initial teacher education organisations
working together to:
 Develop an agreed framework of expectations for high-quality
professional placements
 Share workforce data and plan to meet future teacher needs and
 Identify options for extended internships for high performing preservice teachers
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Assessment data
We want our student teachers to be able to use assessment data, so that
they are well-equipped to identify their students’ needs and respond to
them. Data and analysis is complementary to, not a replacement of,
teacher judgment. Teacher professional judgment is paramount.
However research conducted in New Zealand reveals that student
achievement gains accelerated at more than twice the expected rate
when teachers used high-quality assessment data.
Gains were found to be greatest for the lowest-performing students.
More recently, a report from a Commonwealth Senate Committee into
teaching and learning had as its number one recommendation that
teachers be trained on how to use and interpret evaluative data.
We are acting on this evidence.
The NSW Institute of Teachers will lead a project to ensure teacher
education courses include instruction on how to analyse and use student
assessment data.
Our initiatives mean that teachers will be better prepared to apply the
data in evaluating student learning and, modifying their teaching practice.
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The need for school funding reform
We cannot, however, talk about changes to initial teacher education, or
school reform in NSW more broadly, without also discussing changes to
school funding and Commonwealth initiatives, including the ‘Gonski’
reforms.
The research tells us that, although teachers play an enormously
significant role in students’ academic performance, students’
backgrounds play an even bigger role.
While teachers contribute about 30 per cent to the variance in student
performance, students and their homes contribute between 50 and 60
per cent.
This is where disadvantage such as socioeconomic status and
geographical remoteness plays a role.
To give one example of the impact of disadvantage, research that the
Department of Education conducted for the Review of School Funding
confirmed what we all know – that an individual student’s socioeconomic
status affects that student’s performance: it found a broad, upward trend
in student performance as socioeconomic status increases.
The research also demonstrated, however, the significant effect of
concentrations of advantage or disadvantage within schools.
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To provide another example, we know that non-metropolitan students
experience educational disadvantage from early childhood right through
to university.
We can chart this disadvantage back to early childhood, when children in
remote and very remote areas are significantly more likely to be
developmentally vulnerable when they start school.
Schools in non-metropolitan areas not only have higher proportions of
students from low-socioeconomic status backgrounds, they also tend to
have greater numbers of Aboriginal students.
However, while we accept that socio-economic and geographical
disadvantage – can be powerful, we do not accept that it determines a
child’s destiny.
The research that the Department of Education and Communities
prepared also showed that there is great variation in individual student
performance, irrespective of socioeconomic status.
Great teachers are central to ensuring that all students have equal
access to a well-rounded education and are provided with an equal
opportunity to achieve, regardless of where they are born.
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Impact of the reforms
Our reforms are extensive in their depth and breadth.
We are raising the bar for all aspects of the teacher education and we
are working to ensure that students in NSW start off on a more even
playing field.
I expect these reforms to raise the status and quality of teaching and
school leadership.
. . . because the bottom line is we want to lift the performance of all
students in all schools in NSW.
Collaboration
To finish up today, I want to emphasise that I am committed to working
with teacher education providers and other education stakeholders to
deliver these reforms.
I will continue to seek your advice about implementation within the
context of universities and colleges.
One way I am already doing that is through the new Council of Deans
and Education Sectors Working Group.
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One of the areas of focus for this group will be the implementation of
Great Teaching, Inspired Learning.
The Working Group will also discuss other areas of shared interest
including Commonwealth initiatives and the implementation of the
National Education Reform Agreement.
Dr Peter Aubusson and others present here today will be involved in
leading this Working Group.
I know that cooperation here will be important as we implement the
range of NSW reforms that touch upon teacher education.
I believe we are at an exciting and historic time in school education in
NSW and, indeed, Australia.
I commend you on your dedication to teacher education and to education
more broadly – the importance of the role you serve in providing the next
generation of teachers cannot be overstated.
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