Stuart Henry (Hasluck, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

In speaking in support of the report Top of the class: report on the inquiry into teacher education I would like to firstly acknowledge the City of Gosnells, in my electorate of Hasluck, which hosted a day’s hearing on 25 October. They provided a great deal of assistance and support to the Standing Committee on Education and Vocational Training in setting up the hearing room for that day, which was greatly appreciated. I would also like to acknowledge the work of the chair, the member for Cowper, and fellow committee members. This was a very interesting, enlightening and educational opportunity to hear all of the evidence and to discuss the issues with members of the committee during the course of the hearings. I would also like to commend the work of the secretariat in organising, administering and providing support to the committee and in the detail of the report.

Top of the class is a comprehensive review of some of the problems faced by trainee teachers. The report will give us a better understanding of the opportunities currently available and the changes that need to occur to provide even more support and, most importantly, to improve teacher performance in the classroom. As was said at the tabling of the report, there is not a crisis in teacher education, but there is an opportunity to improve performance in teacher education. Importantly, the report seeks to bring about solutions to support teachers, as they are the most important factor influencing student achievement, influencing our children as they go through the school process.

The committee recommends the Australian government’s continued support of Teaching Australia in its development of a national system of accreditation. This is not a new idea. I understand it has been on the agenda of the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs for years, but unfortunately it has not happened. A common set of national, professional standards for teaching needs to be developed for use by all jurisdictions—for the registration of teachers and for the accreditation of courses. Key stakeholders need to be involved in the development of these standards. A national system of accreditation will not only strengthen the quality of teacher training but also provide the public with the assurance that graduating teachers are trained to a nationally accepted standard. Doctors, accountants, engineers and even plumbers operate within a national standard. National standards are set not just to ensure entry standards performance expectation but also to ensure accountability and continuing registration to practise.

Another aspect of the report, which is significant and must be addressed, is that of practicum. Practicum is a very important aspect of teacher training. The committee heard evidence of shortages of practicum placements, a weak link between practicum and theoretical components, the differing quality of supervisors, inadequate funding, along with additional problems faced by those undertaking practicum in rural and remote areas, all of which need to be addressed. These problems have been outlined time and time again for many years and they appear to escape an effective solution. Whilst there are a number of initiatives in place that are designed to improve practicum and whilst there are many teachers who are outstanding supervisors, it is still unacceptable that the quality of practicum is so varied across the country.

In Western Australia a teacher is required to have only 45 days of supervised practice teaching. Having the opportunity to experience a classroom, honing the skills required to not only manage the classroom but also plan for each term’s classes whilst at the same time keeping the students not only focused but engaged requires as much practical experience as possible during training. I believe this practical experience must commence early in training, not at the end, because it gives a student teacher the opportunity to discover early if their preferred profession is really what they wish to do. Many young trainee teachers spend three years at uni and find themselves in front of a classroom only to discover that they do not have the skills, the knowledge or the competency to control students in the classroom environment. These people tend to drop out, leading to the attrition rate that we seem to experience amongst qualified teachers.

Having the opportunity early on to discover the class environment can then lead to remedial steps being taken. It is important that these sessions are properly supported and supervised. Recent graduates rated practicum highly, but much of the evidence before the committee showed that it is an area of major concern. Practicum sets out to achieve integration of the theory with professional practice across teacher education, content, knowledge and professional knowledge. It is important that it is implemented in such a way that there is a partnership with the teacher educational institutions, the schools and the relevant professional bodies.

I might just underline that partnership aspect and its importance in ensuring a proper, practical process of teaching student teachers in the classroom about classroom management—managing students and the issues that students have. Its aim is to assist progressive development of newly acquired skills for the trainee teacher, providing valuable classroom experience in a variety of circumstances whilst working with the students. This provides a trainee teacher with the opportunity for evaluation and can then assist them in their response to their classroom experience. Practicum is also vital in providing feedback to the training institutions to ensure that their course best serves their trainee teachers.

Evidence before the committee showed that a number of course providers are working hard to improve the professional experience, and the committee commends these efforts. However, where the system was not as good can largely be attributed to a current division of responsibilities for delivering teacher education and the lack of recognition of shared responsibilities between the major parties. Teacher education facilities, the schools involved in the partnerships and the supervisors all play an integral role in providing the best practicum experience for the trainee teacher. It is not a difficult role but it is imperative that it occurs, as everyone, including the students, will benefit from an increase in responsibility.

I strongly support the recommendations of the committee to rectify these problems. Ensuring that high-quality practicum is carried out and assessed by high-quality supervisors will ensure that course providers better meet the expectations of the trainees. In all professions, the governing bodies ensure that apprentices, doctors and lawyers serve an extended period under supervision. This supervised on-the-job training is vital. It should be no less important an opportunity for those who are charged with the education of our children.

With an attrition rate of some 60 per cent of teachers and an ageing population, it is extremely urgent that we address the problems that are leading to this exodus from the profession. The Howard government recognised the trend in the shortage of teachers and capped the HECS fees for tertiary teaching courses in 2005. Unfortunately, the state government in Western Australia took a lot longer to act. In Western Australia at the start of this school year there was a shortage in the public schools of more than 250 teachers. That impacted on a number of classrooms, with children attending school for the first time without teachers.

It is not as though there are not teachers with qualifications. In fact, I had a young constituent approach me last year who spent four years at university gaining a qualification in physical education and the best that the state education department could do was place him as a relief music teacher—not within his area of discipline. We need to make sure that these allocations and the development of skills and disciplines are applied in the best possible interest of the teachers but also the students.

Relief teachers in Western Australia are being allowed into the classroom with just three years training, rather than four, under part of a desperate plan by the government to tackle the shortage. This situation has not occurred overnight. They have been warned for several years that this was the trend. The response of the Labor minister for education, Mark McGowan, was to send a party of three officers from the Department of Education and Training to attend a range of immigration expos in universities in places such as Birmingham, London, Edinburgh and Belfast on a recruitment drive to overcome this issue.

He also intends to recruit teaching students from England, Scotland and Ireland who are only due to complete their studies in June of 2007. That is on top of 16 UK and overseas teachers employed at the beginning of the school year who now find themselves in classrooms in the far north of Western Australia. Imagine being plucked from those areas in the Northern Hemisphere and being placed in the north of Western Australia. The difference in climate itself would be a significant challenge to teaching. What support will these new teachers have? Apart from the differences in the classroom, how are they to deal with other aspects such as government employee housing conditions and a department that is completely foreign to them, not to mention the cultural differences and homesickness?

As legislators it is imperative that we ensure that teachers enter the classroom with the best possible training and the best approach to the job at the same time as not only keeping intact what was once a desire but also ensuring that their passion for teaching remains strong. As William Butler Yeats once wrote:

Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire.

We must ensure that the classroom experience is closely aligned to the perceptions gained during training. I commend the report to the chamber.

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