Universities are warning the federal government against meddling with teaching degrees as the higher education sector looks at ways to address the national shortage of teachers.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Education Minister Jason Clare declared initial teacher education was "screaming out for reform" following a roundtable discussion with state and territory education minister, unions and teachers last month.
The teacher workforce shortages issues paper said enrolments in initial teacher education had declined by 8 per cent and completions declined by 17 per cent between 2017 and 2020, contributing to the lack of teachers in an ageing workforce.
University of Canberra executive dean of education professor Barney Dalgarno cautioned against jumping into new reforms to teaching degrees considering the most significant reform in the history of teacher education, the 2014 Teacher Education Ministerial Advisory Group or TEMAG reforms, had only just been implemented.
"The graduates who have had all of the experiences that were proposed under the previous set of reforms, they've only just started coming out," professor Dalgarno said.
"It's kind of a challenge here of... over-assuming that there's a problem, when in fact maybe the problem has been solved but we just haven't seen the outcomes in schools yet."
READ MORE:
Professor Dalgarno said there was still room for improvement with his own university recently making changes to the way they teach reading, pedagogical capabilities and classroom management.
He said the government should be careful about using Commonwealth supported places as a reward - or penalty - to universities based on the quality of their teaching courses.
"If you get it right, then it will really help to reward universities that are up-to-date and really kicking goals.
"But if you get it wrong and those measures of quality are lagged or not based on accurate data, then you could really penalise regions that really depend on a single provider."
Australian Catholic University Canberra campus dean associate professor Darius von Guttner said universities need to explore ways to make teaching more attractive, such as paying students on work placements and combining work in schools with study.
"It's time to look at teaching as a clinical course and some university degrees already started using that kind of language. How different is educating a future teacher from educating a future doctor?" he said.
Associate professor von Guttner said everyone had a role to make teachers feel respected and therefore attract more people to the profession.
"I think this is work for our whole community, our whole society. It's not something that universities can do alone," he said.
"You don't need to be the most highest achieving person to go to teaching, but you need to be the one who has enough conviction that you wanted to change the world every day in a classroom."
We've made it a whole lot easier for you to have your say. Our new comment platform requires only one log-in to access articles and to join the discussion on The Canberra Times website. Find out how to register so you can enjoy civil, friendly and engaging discussions. See our moderation policy here.