Who Teaches The Teachers?

Being an effective teacher is one of the most important and difficult jobs there is. It is essential that we prepare teachers well for the classroom.

In a new report by The New Zealand Initiative, authors Dr Michael Johnston and Stephanie Martin highlight a need for improved teacher training in New Zealand. They found that the current university model leaves many new teachers ill-prepared.

The report shows that university teacher education courses lack a focus on the science of learning. It also highlights that primary school teachers are insufficiently prepared with content knowledge in numeracy and science.

Furthermore, the report identifies a strong emphasis on social constructivism in teacher education programmes, which diminishes the role of the teacher. It also criticised limited practical experience and mentoring quality in these programmes, and the lack of rigorous assessment of classroom readiness before graduation.

Johnston commented that "teachers start out knowing too little about how children learn". Martin confirmed this, based on her experience as a young teacher: “I expected to learn more about human learning fundamentals and practical classroom skills but found myself unprepared for the challenges of teaching.”

The report makes concrete recommendations for reform:

• Giving schools a much greater role in preparing teachers for the classroom.
• Allowing the establishment of new professional bodies for teachers.
• Introducing regular monitoring of the effectiveness of teachers registered with each body.

From the executive summary -

How well do New Zealand’s initial teacher education (ITE) programmes prepare new teachers for the classroom? At present, approximately 90% of primary and secondary teachers complete their professional qualifications at universities. Yet, both the structure of university-based ITE and its pedagogical ethos have a number of serious flaws. The coursework components of these programmes are dominated by social constructivist and ‘social justice’ theory. They have almost no focus on scientific understanding of human learning.

Less than 1% of the thematic descriptors we analysed showed evidence of a focus on the science of learning. More than 30% were associated with a socio-cultural focus. Yet, there is little evidence that pedagogy based in sociocultural theory is effective. Primary school teachers are not being prepared well by university programmes to teach the foundational skills of literacy and numeracy.

This leaves too many young people ill-equipped to succeed at secondary school, and to function successfully in society and employment as adults. In mathematics, far too many primary teachers lack basic numeracy knowledge themselves and many more lack the pedagogical skills to teach either literacy or numeracy effectively.

Teachers-in-training in university programmes receive too little practical experience in classrooms – often as little as 16 weeks. Furthermore, because this practicum experience occurs in blocks, classroom experience is disconnected from the theoretical components of the programmes.

For a complete copy of Who teaches the teachers? you can download a copy here.

ENDS

Dr Michael Johnston, Research Fellow

michael.johnston@nzinitiative.org.nz

M: 021 0227 3415

About The New Zealand Initiative

The New Zealand Initiative is an evidence-based think tank and research institute contributing to public policy discussion.

Supported by the nation’s leading visionaries, business leaders and political thinkers, we are committed to making New Zealand a better country for all its citizens with a world-class education system, affordable housing, a healthy environment, sound public finances and a stable currency.

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