A
Caring, Competent and Continuously Improving Teacher for Every Child
in Australia: Dream or Reality?
by: Carole Cooper & Julie Boyd
A
Caring, Competent and Continuously Improving Teacher for Every Child
in Australia: Dream or Reality?
by: Carole Cooper & Julie Boyd
© Global
Learning Communities 1997
This article may be downloaded and used with discretion.
SYNOPSIS: In Australia we have many excellent teachers. Unfortunately, our system does not encourage, support, and enable teachers to maintain their enthusiasm, momentum and commitment to continuous improvement of their practice. Consequently, many of our skillful teachers are leaving the profession. In Australia, we need to improve our efforts to recruit, nurture, and retain quality personnel in the profession. This paper suggestssome ways in which this can be done.
Introduction
CAN WE ENSURE that every child in Australia has a competent and caring teacher each and every year? Whether this is an impossible dream or a preferred reality is something that each person involved in education in Australia must address. We can not sit, hope and pray that our children get the most skilled teachers in their schools; we need to guarantee that they will! Unless we address the professional development needs for individuals and for systems, this will remain a dream. School change, the development of innovations such as full service schools, magnet schools, site-based management, curricular, instructional, and assessment changes mean nothing if they do not lead to ensuring that every child in every classroom has access to the learning and teaching they need to meet the demands of the 21st century.
The most critical issue of school reform and improvement is educator professional development and systemic organizational development. Research (Brophy, 1989; Darling-Hammond, National Commission on Teaching, 1996, and many others) confirms that the most important determinant of student achievement is the expertise, qualifications, and beliefs of the teacher.
Australia, like other countries of the world, is facing a teacher shortage and growing school enrolments. We are trying to make massive and comprehensive change in education. We are, at once, trying to change what is taught, how it is taught, how learning is assessed and communicated, how schools are governed, and to clarify parent/community roles in facilitating learning. All of these changes require ongoing systemic and systematic professional development of our current teaching force, as well as preparing new teachers and administrators.
Organizations, which are highly successful in today's rapidly changing world, invest 10-20% of their budgets to improving staff knowledge, skills and attitudes. Education systems usually invest less than 1% of their budgets to professional development. Other industrialized countries, such as France, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium and Japan, place their primary educational investment in the support and development of teachers. In these countries, 70-80% of education employees are teachers, not administrators or bureaucratic employees. Teachers in these countries are highly prepared with an undergraduate degree in education, followed by at least 2-3 years of postgraduate education. Their teaching preparation requires at least one full year internship working in a school with a master teacher. In Japan, teachers teach together in the mornings with afternoons to reflect and plan together on their teaching. In each of these countries, teachers are allocated 15-20 hours per week to work together to plan, solve problems, improve curriculum and learn from each other. In the United States, most school districts have 6-8 days of inservice training per year and USA teachers are rewarded through pay increases for additional course work and professional development throughout their careers. In many of the countries mentioned above, teachers receive salaries comparable to other professionals, such as engineers and lawyers, and they are accorded professional status within the community.
In Australia we have many excellent teachers. We have had the honour of working with many whom we would consider to be among the best and most student-centred in the world. Unfortunately, our system does not nurture these talents in ways which encourage, support, and enable teachers to maintain their enthusiasm, momentum and commitment to continuous improvement of their practice. Consequently, many of our skillful teachers are leaving the profession. In Australia, we need to improve our efforts to recruit, nurture, and retain quality personnel in the profession.
Throughout Australia, we often have teachers teaching in areas for which they are not qualified. Many teachers in Australia have little or no background in human development, little in how children (and people, in general) learn and fragmented information and experience in recent teaching and learning strategies. Linda Darling-Hammond in the National Commission for Teaching's report, What Matters Most, states:
The status of teaching is being constantly downgraded. Outside the profession, we experience a widespread ignorance of the conditions, commitment, and changing requirements of the teaching profession. We also need to look within the profession, at how we view ourselves, our colleagues, and what each educator is doing to uphold and improve the status of the profession. The conditions and situations teachers are expected to handle have both multiplied and become more diverse. Pay systems, for the most part, do not reward excellence in teaching. There is little financial incentive for teachers in Australia to continue their education and to constantly refine their skills.
Our beginning teachers are often treated to 'trial by fire' by being given the most difficult assignments - teaching in Aboriginal communities for which they are not trained, teaching composite classrooms, teaching subjects they are not trained for, and teaching the most difficult students in the least desirable physical settings of the school. In most other professions, beginners are supported, coached and mentored for extended periods of time by experienced members of the organization or firm. In education, we seem to be losing a high proportion of our enthusiastic novice teachers within their first five years in the profession.
In addition, and despite the best efforts of a number of people, the structures of schools often encourage isolation rather than collaboration in order to work and learn from each other. For the most part, teachers are not able to come together to talk about the craft of teaching. Few schools have sustained professional development that addresses the real issues of professional practice and acknowledges that the achievement of real change takes years. Single, isolated workshops do not help teachers effectively implement the strategies needed to meet the demands of today's students; in fact, they often add to the workload, confusion or guilt of teachers.
Research (Joyce and Showers, 1992,1986; Glickman,1993, and others) shows that 16-20% of teachers two months after a workshop are implementing elements from the inservice program (and those 20% were the ones who were so committed and involved that they could have picked up the book and read the information to implement it!). As Garth Boomer pointed out to us years ago, an enormous amount of time and money is being wasted when we do not support continued on-site refinement and reflective practice.
All of these concerns for today's education relate to the need for quality, comprehensive, sustained, on-site, job-embedded professional development. We cannot make the needed changes in education without highly qualified and continually learning teachers and administrators. In order to address these issues we make the following recommendations:
Establish Standards for Professional Practice
We need professional standards that can be used to guide teacher preparation programs, hiring or credentialling procedures, and ongoing professional development. At Global Learning Communities, we to use the ASCD and ETS framework for enhancing professional practice, which address the following components of teaching:
1. Planning and Preparation
2. Classroom Environment
3. Teaching and Learning
4. Professional Responsibilities
Improve Teacher Recruitment
Promoting teaching as a valuable, worthwhile profession is the responsibility of each of us; yet, sometimes, educators, themselves, are the ones who speak against the profession and who encourage their children to pursue other careers. We need to advocate for education. We need to actively recruit people into high-need areas, such as Aboriginal and rural communities, and into high-need information areas such as science and technology. We also need to seek out people who have experience and the capacity to work in a way that promotes lifelong and integrated approaches to learning. Many of these people are to be found in other professions, or among the ranks of the 'experienced yet retrenched', and who, with a program which emphasizes coaching and support could become valuable assets to the profession. We may need to provide more incentives for teaching in areas of projected shortage. We need to eliminate barriers to teacher mobility and to encourage quality teaching training options which, themselves model the most effective professional learning experiences, throughout the country and internationally.
Better Prepare and Nurture Teachers
Teacher education needs to be organized around the standards and skills noted in #1. University staff need to develop courses that integrate theory and practice, that address the professional practice standards above and that provide opportunities for students to practice and demonstrate these skills. University staff and mentor/coach teachers need to model these standards, using effective teaching and learning practices throughout their work with students.
Prospective teachers need to be involved in year-long internships with master teachers at different types of schools. A better balance of on-site observation, peer coaching and support, dialogue and planning, and exposure to contemporary theory and practice needs to be implemented.
Better Support New Teachers
Beginning teachers need to be involved in mentorships with teachers who are experienced, competent, and passionate about their profession. New teachers also need the opportunity to meet together to share experiences and learning challenges. Beginning teachers should be given classes and subject loads that will ensure their success and refine their commitment to the profession. We all need a commitment to the success for our young teachers. In addition, a system of early identification and alternative career planning for those not suited to the profession needs to be developed.
Provide Ongoing, Systematic Professional Development For All Educators
Single workshops can simply provide information and experience at an awareness-raising level, they do not create sustained change. We, therefore, need to take a long-term view of professional development. Each school needs a three-year school improvement plan that states how they are working toward becoming a collaborative learning community for the 21st century. The school then needs to develop a corresponding professional development plan, both for the school community as a whole, and for each individual which shows how they are going to enhance their knowledge, skills, attitudes and practices to achieve that plan and to move the school and student learning to the desired goals. These plans needs to actually represents the directions which the entire staff, school community, and individual teachers wish to take, rather than a plan which has simply been developed to satisfy bureaucratic requirements. A major source of burn-out in teachers is created by all of the changes thrust upon them, their perception of the distinct and isolated nature of these changes, and their guilt at not being able to accommodate so many changes competently. At Global Learning Communities, we work as 'inside-outside facilitators' with schools, clusters and districts over periods of 3-4 years in a focused, sequential, developmental approach to integrate and align their practices to the standards above, and to accomplish their school change plans.
Redefine Professional Development to Encompass Collaborative Reflective Practice
Workshops are not the best way for teachers and administrators to learn, they are one-way. To be most effective, workshops need to be attended in teams so on-going dialogue and planning can occur. Single workshops held on the same day for each person across an entire state, and no allocation of school-based time for teachers planning and reflection can be counterproductive. However, for quality implementation and sustained, refined practice, there needs to be on-site collaborative reflective practice. We have found that the most effective forms of professional reflection occur when the concept of reflection is mandated; yet, the type or form of reflective practice is left up to individual or small group. We recommend a menu of possibilities such as those below, taken from our book, Collaborative Approaches to Professional Learning and Reflection:
* Individual Reflective Practices * Self-Contracting and Monitoring * Portfolios * Journals * Case Studies * Professional Reading, Writing and Study * Partner Reflective Practices * Learning Buddies * Mentoring * Assessment Interviews * Collegial Coaching * Work Exchanges or Shadowing * Small Group Reflective Practices * Action Research * Study Groups * Collegial Support Groups * Professional Dialogue Groups * Electronic Networks * Large Group Reflective Practices * Assessment Centres * Exhibitions and Panels * Presentations * Professional Development Schools * Teacher Centres * Educator Institutes * Partnerships
Reward Educator Learning
We need to provide financial and other incentives for ongoing professional development. Career ladders or career continuums need to be developed for teachers and administrators that include educator appraisal and compensation systems which reward educators knowledge and skill. Recognition needs to be given for the sustained application of new knowledge and skills, not simply for attendance at programs. We need to align the assessment procedures we know enhance learning for students with the way we assess educators. This involves the development of journals and portfolios, the demonstration of one's understanding and use of knowledge and skills, as well as continual reflection on learning. Those teachers and administrators that demonstrate competence need to be rewarded and those who do not need to be encouraged to grow or be removed. Expert veteran teachers need to be given opportunities to teach other educators so we can have quality teachers in every classroom.
Restructure Schools to Ensure Educator and Student Success
We know that improved professional performance requires structural and systems change. We cannot have high quality individual development without high quality organizational development. We need to reduce hierachical structures and increase collaboration and teaming. We need to select, prepare and retain principals who understand teaching and learning and who can facilitate schools as collaborative learning communities. We need to link professional development to school improvement planning. The 'project or program' mentality needs to be put aside, instead we need to focus on the kind of culture, curriculum, teaching and assessments we need to facilitate student learning. We need to harness the infinite possibilities now available to us through information technology for teachers to contact, dialogue and plan with others about their tasks and their own ongoing learning and development. The focus needs to be on creating the school as a collaborative learning community rather than the implementation of a specific program or project. Resources and money need to be reallocated to teachers, to classroom and learner-based technology, and to providing time for teachers to plan, learn, and reflect together.
Establish a National Association Dedicated to Educator Professional Development
With the demands on education, we need qualified broad-based and comprehensive professional development to accomplish the points mentioned in this paper. We advocate for the formation of an Australian Professional Development Association that (a) provides a voice for professional development and that addresses issues that are broad-based, cross-sectoral, and across curricular areas, (b) encourages and promotes the professional development expertise of both school-based and external facilitators, (c) encourages and promotes professional development materials and research, and (d) provides forums and networks for the exchange of information on professional learning. We would be interested in hearing from those who might be interested in supporting the association's development.
Keep the Focus of Schools on Learning For All Involved
People cannot give away that which they do not have. We need educators who love learning in order to encourage students to love learning. All educators must model lifelong learning in order for others to see its benefits. We need to take advantage of information technology in order to create the new knowledge economy products and services needed in our global world. We know our students need to construct their own meaning in order to learn - so do teachers! This is accomplished through setting learning goals, being actively engaged in learning processes and experiences, and reflecting on one's learning - a constant 'plan, do, review' process. Professional development is not about passively attending a workshop, collecting a certificate and then going about our business as usual. Most educators now realise this and they need constant support in their efforts to improve themselves and their schools. Professional development is about facilitating educator learning; just as teaching is about facilitating student learning. Now, the focus for all of our schools is not on teaching, but on learning - mindful, relevant learning for all members of the school community.
If we were to reallocate our priorities to ensure a caring and competent teacher for every child in every classroom in Australia, we would change the future of our country. A study in Harvard Journal on Legislation by R. Ferguson, found that every additional dollar spent on raising teacher quality netted greater student achievement gains than did any other use of school resources. The recommendations in this paper are cost-effective, because the cost of not implementing them is mediocre teaching, declining support for schools, lower student performance and reduced ability to compete in international markets. We actively need to seek support and work to implement this 10-point plan. We need to focus on today's most essential and critical element of school reform and improvement - comprehensive professional development, so each child can have a quality teacher and educational experience, and so each teacher can look forward each day to knowing that they are enhancing the learning and living of each person they encounter, including themselves. Let us demand what is essential for each of us, for our profession, and for all of our children.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Carole Cooper and Julie Boyd operate Global Learning Communities, International Office in Launceston, Tasmania, Australia.
Email address: info@julieboyd.com.au
References
Brophy, J., (1989) Effective Schools Research, Institute for Research on Teaching, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA.Cooper, C. and Boyd, J. (1996) Collaborative Approaches to Professional Learning and Reflection. Global Learning Communities, Launceston, Tasmania, Australia.
Danielson, C. (1996) Enhancing Professional Practice: A Framework for Teaching. ASCD, Arlington, VA.
Darling-Hammond, L. (1996) What Matters Most. Report of the National Commission on Teaching, PO Box 5239, Woodbridge, VA. 22194, (212) 678-3204.
Ferguson, R. (1991) 'Paying for Public Education: New Evidence on How and Why Money Matters', Harvard Journal on Legislation, 28, 465-498.
Glickman, C. (1993) Renewing America's Schools: A Guide for School-Based Action. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA.
Joyce, B. and Showers, B. Transfer of Training, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, 1986.
Joyce, B., Showers, B., and Weil, M. (1992) Models of Teaching. Allyn and Bacon, Sydney, Australia.