Profession to have a say on future teachers

Profession to have a say on future teachers

“The teaching profession is set to have a say on the approval of New Zealand’s 170 initial teacher education (ITE) programmes and those selected to become our future teachers,” said New Zealand Teachers Council (the Council) Director, Dr Peter Lind.

“As part of our leadership role to ITE providers and the profession, the Council has today released new approval, review and monitoring processes and requirements for ITE programmes that lead to teacher registration.”

These will apply to all ITE providers in New Zealand - universities, wānanga, polytechnics, institutes of technology and private training establishments.

Informed by national and international research and in close consultation with the teaching profession, the Council has developed a forward-looking model that reflects the nature of teaching as an applied professional qualification.

“The new requirements will encourage collaborative partnerships between teacher educators (those teaching student teachers) and teacher practitioners (teachers in schools and early childhood education services),” said Dr Lind.

This will begin with the profession’s involvement in the selection processes of candidates into ITE programmes. ITE providers will be required to use visual interviews in their selection processes. Teaching is a linguistically demanding profession requiring a high level of successful engagement with individuals, small groups and larger groups.

“Together providers and teaching practitioners will determine a candidate’s likely ability to communicate effectively with learners and whanau in their chosen sector.

Dr Lind added that “the new requirements will support ITE providers who have ongoing engagement with the profession throughout a student teacher’s journey to become a practising teacher. This means that student teachers will be assisted to carefully interweave ideas and concepts learned in their coursework with meaningful teaching practice.”

The profession will also be involved in all panels that approve and review the effectiveness of New Zealand’s ITE programmes across the university and non-university sectors.

National core groups of teachers/professional leaders from each sector (including early childhood, primary, secondary and Māori medium) will contribute the viewpoint of teacher practitioners on panels; complementing the perspective of teacher educators and sector representatives.

“Another key goal of the requirements is firmly on continuing and evolving New Zealand’s tradition of a high-quality teaching profession.

“Professional leadership for teachers begins while they are studying. All student teachers will be required to meet the Graduating Teacher Standards prior to graduating to set them up for a successful career in teaching.

“All graduates will be ready to begin their journey as newly qualified teachers supported by their induction and mentoring programme across their first two years of teaching.”

The approval, review and monitoring processes and requirements for ITE programmes will be implemented from 1 January 2011. To view the report visit www.teacherscouncil.govt.nz/te/itereview.stm

ENDS

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