PPTA welcomes new teacher education requirements

PPTA welcomes new teacher education requirements

PPTA congratulates the Teachers Council for insisting on the inclusion of teacher voices in key decisions about initial teacher education, president Kate Gainsford says.

As part if the council’s new approval, review and monitoring requirements teachers will be involved in the selection of new candidates for initial teacher education programmes that lead to registration.

This, along with visual interviews, signalled a return to the good practice that prevailed prior to the deregulation of teacher education in the 1990s, Gainsford said.

The inclusion of teachers on panels that approve teacher education courses, was also a welcome addition, she said.

“This will bring a vital practitioner eye to these very important decisions.”

Gainsford said the requirements should ensure teacher educators worked collaboratively with schools.

“The Teachers Council’s insistence that students have teaching practice in schools across a range of socioeconomic and cultural settings is very important in preparing them for the range of places they might end up teaching,” she said.

Gainsford was also very pleased to see a requirement that all programmes must have well-taught courses to develop student teachers’ Te Reo Maori competency.

ENDS

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