Promoting Excellence in Teaching
On Tuesday, 1 September, I had the wonderful opportunity to attend a dinner hosted by the University of Melbourne Graduate School of Education. The University is fortunate to have Professor John Hattie as a member of their staff who leads the research component behind the science of learning that forms the basis of the Masters of Teaching degree.
Hattie, is the author of multiple books, the most well known being the Visible Learning Series in which he conducts a meta-analysis of 1200 studies incorporating nearly 250 million students to determine the impact of teachers within classrooms.
Unfortunately, the view presented by Hattie was one that education has been recycling mediocrity for decades in terms of the teacher training providers across Australia. To combat this the University of Melbourne has developed a unique two year Master of Teaching degree which sees trainee teachers spend two days a week in schools from the outset.
The course is also bucking the trends when looking at the average ages of teachers accepted to study the programme, being 27.
Hattie also has another role within education in Australia; he is currently Chair of The Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership. The AITSL standards now form the benchmark for teachers as they move from graduate teachers, to proficient teachers and further into their careers as highly accomplished and even lead teachers.
At Scotch we are fortunate to have teachers who regularly demonstrate their ability to engage our students, motivate them and inspire them to learn. Our staff are using the standards as a guide to reflect on their own professional practice with the aim of continual improvement in their roles. I encourage parents to take some time to view the standards so they can gain a sense of the path of development on which the College's staff are focusing.
The standards can be accessed here: http://www.aitsl.edu.au/australian-professional-standards-for-teachers/standards/list .
Mr Peter Allen
Director of Teaching and Learning
