By Lucy Carroll
It was just over six years ago when Sarah Trestrail walked into a school classroom in south-west Sydney to take her first lesson as a newly qualified teacher. “I realised pretty quickly that I didn’t know what I was doing. I was completely thrown in the deep end,” she recalls.
She had graduated with a bachelor of primary education the year before, and, after a short stint in casual positions, was assigned a year 3 class for her first full-time teaching role.
When she first graduated, Grose View Public School primary teacher Sarah Trestrail felt ill-equipped to do her job.Credit: Wolter Peeters
“I was lucky I had mentors and professional learning that first year because, honestly, they taught me everything I needed to know in those first terms.”
A four-year undergraduate degree armed her with knowledge about different learning philosophies, Trestrail says, but left her without practical skills to cope with the realities of the classroom. “There was a lot of fluff. I had no idea about routines, how to structure a class. I had no idea how to teach a child to write.”
How teachers are trained has come under scrutiny for decades. More than 100 reviews into teacher education have been commissioned since the 1970s, but hundreds of recommendations and previous attempts at reform have failed to result in major change.
The release of a report this month by a teacher education expert panel, led by University of Sydney vice-chancellor Mark Scott, could mark a turning point. Education ministers have given “in-principle” support to the report’s 14 reforms as part of plans to radically overhaul teacher training and boost the number of students choosing to become teachers.
The Teacher Education Expert Panel was established by the federal government and led by Sydney University vice chancellor Mark Scott.Credit: Michael Quelch
“There have been deep-seated concerns – given complexities graduates are facing – that we are [not] doing everything we can to get student teachers ready for the classroom,” Scott said.
Universities will be given until 2025 to modify more than 300 courses to include back-to-basics “core content” that includes evidence-based reading and maths instruction, explicit teaching and effective classroom management skills.
“If a program fails to pass muster, they can lose accreditation and the right to offer initial teacher education programs,” Scott says, adding that the next step is to amend accreditation standards by the end of the year.
The panel’s recommendation to set up an Initial Teacher Education Quality Assurance Board to police universities is key, he says. The watchdog would reward universities that use evidence-based teaching approaches and punish those that do not.
“We need clear expectations for those employing graduates what skills and capabilities they are arriving with, and to give ministers quality assurance. There is no more important area of public policy than education,” Scott says.
Jenny Donovan, head of the Australian Education Research Organisation and a review panel member, emphasises the importance of four core content areas outlined in the report: the brain and learning, effective pedagogical practices, classroom management and responsive teaching. It’s the oversight board that will “put real teeth into accreditation”, she says.
“It is very difficult to compare the quality of teaching courses at universities across the country,” she says, pointing to La Trobe University as the one that offers courses most closely aligned with the panel’s reforms. “Their courses teach students how human brains learn, the science of learning, how to manage a class and phonics-based reading instruction.”
Last year, NSW mandated the use of phonics – the sounding out of words – when teaching children to read. The decision followed decades of heated debate between two camps: the proponents of explicit phonic instruction and those that favour the whole language approach.
About 10,700 teachers have signed up to La Trobe’s Science of Language and Reading Lab six-week reading instruction courses in the past three years, including more than 1600 from NSW.
Joanna Barbousas, dean of La Trobe’s education school, overhauled the university’s education degrees in 2020. Credit: Simon Schluter
Joanna Barbousas, a former art teacher who is now dean of La Trobe’s education school, says many educators feel they are teaching children to read by pure chance.
“Coming from a regional university it is my responsibility to make changes that will improve outcomes for disadvantaged students. If you look at NAPLAN data, we can say we are doing pretty well,” says Barbousas, who has worked as an academic in teacher education for 20 years. “But the gap between rich and poor students is increasing.”
Barbousas, who decided to completely rewrite La Trobe’s teaching courses after becoming dean in 2020, says university education degrees have been heavily influenced by liberal arts and sociology traditions. “This doesn’t prepare graduates for classrooms. We kept some philosophy but switched to focus on evidence-informed approaches to developing teacher’s skills.”
As an art teacher, she was flabbergasted when students arrived in the classroom without being able to read. “You can’t engage with art without rich knowledge of the English language,” she says.
But there are fears universities could resist change. “It’s going to be very difficult to get universities re-accredited within two years,” says Jennifer Buckingham, director of strategy at literacy company Multilit. “Those without staff who have expertise in the content required will struggle even if they don’t try to resist, which many will.”
“They will need to look to psychology or speech pathology departments for staff, or recruit because expertise has been lost over time.”
A 2021 review of initial teacher education in England – which recommended revised standards and accreditation – faced fierce push back. The University of Cambridge threatened to stop running teacher training courses over the changes, arguing there was no single “right” way to train teachers to work in diverse settings and to support pupils with different needs.
Head of the University of Sydney’s school of education Deb Hayes has argued the panel’s report “contains misrepresentation and an absurd overreach”, saying the report manufactures a crisis about the quality of initial teacher education.
Scott says he welcomes the diversity of debate. “At times people disagree; and that’s fine. We are educating student teachers for a purpose, we are not just giving them a liberal arts education. We are training them to be teachers, and we have a stake in them being successful.”
Centre for Independent Studies director of education, Glenn Fahey, says while education ministers have supported reforms, “we are yet to see what further action is being taken in their jurisdictions to advance this shared goal”.
“We have some outstanding teacher educators and programs but also many that could use improvement. It’s one thing for ministers to sit in a meeting and nod along, but another to see a state leader come out and say exactly what they are doing to implement changes.”
Trestrail is completing her masters in language and literacy at La Trobe.Credit: Wolter Peeters
Meanwhile, Trestrail – who is now an assistant principal in curriculum and instruction at Grose View Public School near Windsor – said years of professional learning support provided by the NSW Department of Education was critical in helping her to be able to effectively teach children how to read.
She is also midway through a masters in language and literacy at La Trobe. “By the time I entered my masters I was an excellent teacher, but it’s added that extra layer take my skills to the next level.”
“There is a focus on explicit instruction, the essential skills and progression a child goes through in learning to read. And teaching reading is our core business. For a university to spit out graduates that can’t do that is a massive injustice for our children,” she says.
“It’s also helped me learn how to create good routines. From how students enter a classroom, to the supplies they need at the start of class. Routines mean kids know what they are doing, so it decreases behaviour issues and anxiety. We have lots to teach and not a minute to waste.”
With nearly four in 10 teaching students leaving their course within six years of starting their degree, Scott believes there is a clear need for more work.
“There is this high drop out rate, and teachers struggling to endure the first years. The challenge with initial teacher education is many people have a stake in the outcome, but we need a clarity and focus about what is most important.”
Scott said the report looked specifically at what happens during teacher education and the day a graduate starts in a school, while the next National School Reform Agreement, due at the end of the year, will examine funding and what happens in schools in the first years.
“Initial teacher education – while not the whole answer – is part of it.”
“What is at stake here is children who don’t maximise or reach their potential, and that will come at significant cost to them throughout their lives.”
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