1. Preparing New Teachers for
the 21st Century
A New Zealand Response

2. Challenges for Teacher Education
• The OECD fundamental challenge
• Challenges for research universities
• Challenges for governments
• Challenges for the teaching profession
• The measurement of quality

3. The OECD fundamental challenge
• Teaching is not yet a research-led
profession and to deliver the
educational results required it should
be.
– OECD (2005) Teachers Matter: Attracting,
Developing and Retaining Effective
Teachers, OECD, Paris, page 14.

4. Research on the characteristics of effective
professional development indicates that teachers
need to be active agents in analysing their own
practice in the light of professional standards, and
their own students’ progress in the light of
standards for student learning.

5. Teaching remains largely unchanged as other forms of
work have been dramatically transformed. Many other
professionals commence their working lives with a
sense that they are entering a role that has been
shaped by past research and that will be transformed
during their working lives by future research. That is an
excitement that teaching has not yet offered. There are
signs of change in some countries, with teachers
developing a research role alongside their teaching role;
with teachers engaging more actively with new
knowledge; and with professional development focused
on the evidence-base for improved practice.
OECD (2005) Teachers Matter: Attracting, Developing and Retaining Effective Teachers, OECD,
Paris, page 14.

6. Challenges for research universities
• Ensuring that Faculties of Education
have the same research ethos and level
of activity as other Faculties (e.g.
Science)
• Ensuring that teacher education is
research-led and taught by those active
in research
• Ensuring that academic staff are involved
in the practicum, and see it as an
opportunity for research

7. Challenges for programmes
• Meeting professional standards
• Meeting immediate needs of schools
while ensuring graduates can adapt to
the needs of schools in the future
• Involving teachers and schools in the
training of teachers while making sure
graduates can innovate and use
research for ongoing development

8. Challenges for governments
• Ensuring an adequate supply of qualified
teachers in all subjects and at all levels
• Demonstrating improvements in student
achievement
• Controlling costs and relative costs
• Managing incentives around teacher
education and teaching as a career
• Establishing effective mechanisms for
ensuring that teachers respond to new
curriculum initiatives

9. Challenges for the teaching profession
• Moving from a craft-based to a
research-led profession
• Developing systems to recognise and
encourage innovation
• Becoming evidence-based in their
practice
• Maintaining standards and controlling
membership of the profession in a
principled way

10. The measurement of quality
• Entry standards
• Graduation standards
• Performance in teaching
– Assessment of principal or supervising
teachers
– Evidence of student achievement
changes caused by new teacher
– Adjusting for student background
– Focus on provision of rich learning
opportunities

11. Challenges for research universities:
Our response
• Teacher education staff are expected to be research
active, to publish in books and in quality assured
journals, and to use their research in their teaching
• Teaching methods are similar to those in other
research-led disciplines
• All academic staff do some supervision and
assessment of the practicum; some is done by
experienced teachers recruited for the purpose
• We recruit high quality students, mostly graduates,
who have demonstrated an aptitude for self-directed
learning and who can interpret and apply research
findings to their developing teaching skills

12. Challenges for programmes:
Our response
• Assessment both of coursework and of the practicum
is based on Graduating Teacher Standards set by the
New Zealand Teachers’ Council
• Graduates must have demonstrated an ability to
evaluate their teaching performance on the basis of
evidence of student learning, and an ability to
understand and use relevant research
• Our programmes are based around two seven-week
practicum placements in schools, and advisory
groups of teachers help us set performance criteria.
Co-operating teachers provide evidence that is used
in assessment of students on the practicum

13. Challenges for governments:
Our response
• Policies to date have not matched graduate numbers
to demand from schools. Funding incentives produce
too many narrowly trained primary teachers, and can
lower entry standards
• Government scholarships have attracted more
secondary mathematics, science, and technology
teachers
• Government is rightly concerned about the spread of
student achievement in schools, but lacks the
commitment to making teaching the kind of research-
led profession that could find ways to reduce disparity
of achievement
• Teacher unions are powerful, and resist any attempts to
pay teachers on the basis of their effectiveness.

14. Challenges for governments:
Our response
• Pay rates are centrally determined and while
employment decisions are made by schools, pay and
movements within the pay scale are rigidly
prescribed. This may discourage the recognition of
excellence among teachers
• Our graduates have the motivation and intellectual
skill to improve their practice continuously on the
basis of evidence and new research. The New
Zealand Teachers’ Council’s Graduating Teacher
Standards do not emphasise this in a way that would
ensure it is the case across all programmes

15. Challenges for the teaching profession
Our response
• Strong adherence to craft-based ideals remain. Many
experienced teachers are still highly sceptical of the
place and benefits of research and evidence-based
practice
• Strong commitment to the idea of recognising
excellence in teaching, but no agreement on how to
do this
• There is a slow increase in the number of teachers
and schools that are strongly evidence-based in their
practices.
• There are robust processes for dealing with
incompetence and highly unethical behaviour.
Systems for ensuring strong professional standards
are less well developed

16. The measurement of quality: Our response
• We require a degree with at least a B average to
enter our graduate diploma (one-year) early
childhood, primary, and secondary programmes.
Strong secondary school qualifications are needed to
enter an undergraduate degree
• Graduation standards are set nationally by the New
Zealand Teachers’ Council. In addition to these we
set higher university standards that require an ability
to operate as an evidence-based teacher
• We currently involve co-operating teachers in the
assessment of students on the practicum and student
performance is linked to the quality of the programme

17. The measurement of quality: Our response
(continued)
• We use an independent research company to ask
teachers and principals how well our graduates are
performing. Several samples of the results follow this
slide
• What we are still working on is reliable ways to:
– Measure the ability of new graduates to provide
rich learning opportunities for all students
– Measure the quality of graduates by their students’
achievement after adjusting for student
background

18. 50
68
36
239
86
91
14
20 0 20 40 60 80 100
Supervisor
Teacher
Base: All respondents
Strongly AgreeStrongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree
To what extent do you agree or disagree with the
following statement…?
The PRT is capable of managing the classroom
effectively

19. 79
73
21
1855
100
82
20 0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Supervisor
Teacher
Base: All respondents
Strongly AgreeStrongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree
To what extent do you agree that the BTeach programme
has provided the skills to do the following….?
Relate positively to students

20. 47%
62%
41%
24%
88%
86%8
34
5
4
2
40 20 0 20 40 60 80 100
Supervisor
Teacher
To what extent do you agree that the Graduate Diploma of
Teaching programme has given you/the teacher:
An understanding of teaching and learning theory and practice
Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree
Base: All respondents

21. 57
59
36
365
93
95
7
20 0 20 40 60 80 100
Supervisor
Teacher
Base: All respondents
Strongly AgreeStrongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree
To what extent do you agree or disagree with the
following statement…?
The PRT is flexible in their approach to teaching

22. To what extent do you agree that the programme has
provided the skills to do the following….?
35%
57%
47%
25%
10%
17%2
82%
82%
4
40 20 0 20 40 60 80 100
Supervisor
Teacher
Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree
Base: All respondents
29%
48%
56%
33%
9%
14%
4
5
85%
81%
1
40 20 0 20 40 60 80 100
Supervisor
Teacher
Relate positively to students
Recognise and value diverse cultures within the
classroom

23. Our Programme
• Some details of our teacher preparation
programme for graduates
– Requires a B average in the first degree to
enter
– Three different specialisations: early
childhood, primary, secondary
– Requires two teaching subjects (e.g.
mathematics, chemistry) for secondary
specialisation

25. Early Childhood

26. Primary

27. Secondary

28. Graduate Course Pattern
•
Common course
First three specialist
courses
First seven
week practicum
First three specialist
courses continue
Final Common
course
Second three
Specialist courses
Second seven
week practicum
Second three specialist
courses continue
First three specialist
courses continue

29. Sample of Graduating Teacher Standards
• PROFESSIONAL KNOWLEDGE
• Standard One: Graduating Teachers know what to
teach
• have content knowledge appropriate to the learners
and learning areas of their programme
• have pedagogical content knowledge appropriate to
the learners and learning areas of their programme
• have knowledge of the relevant curriculum
documents of Aotearoa New Zealand
• have content and pedagogical content knowledge for
supporting English as an Additional Language (EAL)
learners to succeed in the curriculum

30. Sample of Graduating Teacher Standards
• Standard Two: Graduating Teachers know about
learners and how they learn
• have knowledge of a range of relevant theories and
research about pedagogy, human development and
learning
• have knowledge of a range of relevant theories,
principles and purposes of assessment and
evaluation
• know how to develop metacognitive strategies of
diverse learners
• know how to select curriculum content appropriate to
the learners and the learning context

31. Questions