Autumn 2006

The big picture - in education

Standards of professional practice: strengthening teaching

Teachers in Victoria are participating in the development of a set of professional standards to ensure continued excellence in classroom practice and to bolster the quality of pre-service training. Geoff Emmett and Andrew Ius explain the work being done by the Victorian Institute of Teachers.

One of the hallmarks of a profession is the ability to articulate a set of professional standards that defines the specialised knowledge and skills it practises. A profession can also articulate ethical standards for behaviour in providing services to the public and in dealing with professional colleagues.

The background

Over the past five years, seven of Australia’s eight state and territory governments have moved to establish or re-structure regulatory authorities (known variously as boards, colleges or institutes) to formally recognise, promote and regulate teaching as a profession. Most of these authorities have very similar roles, which include developing or articulating standards. They build on the work of national subject associations that have already developed standards for highly accomplished practice in their particular fields.

In July 2003, the Ministerial Council on Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA) endorsed a National Framework for Professional Standards for Teaching. Subsequently, in May 2005, MCEETYA agreed that all jurisdictions should align their teacher registration/accreditation arrangements with this Framework by the end of 2006.

For Victoria, these MCEETYA decisions complemented the work already initiated in 2002 by the Victorian Institute of Teaching (VIT), in developing professional standards of practice for full registration. VIT’s experience in developing and working with professional standards of practice is shared by and with other regulatory authorities.

The process

Attempts to improve and recognise the quality of accomplished teaching in the USA have relied on external assessments of individual teacher portfolios, designed to judge the quality of teaching against standards of professional practice. Apart from the costs involved, VIT felt that such an approach made little contribution to building collegiate and reflective practice at a school level and placed the focus for the professional growth and development of teachers entirely on the individual.

So, unlike the processes adopted in the USA, the VIT has placed schools and teachers at the centre of the task of maintaining and improving standards of professional practice.

The Council of the Victorian Institute of Teaching is using standards of professional practice developed by teachers to build and strengthen the profession. The focus is on the school and those structures at the school level that facilitate professional growth. Embedded in this approach is a belief in the importance of collegiate and reflective practice to continually improving and strengthening teaching. It is vital to encourage teachers to share and reflect on their experience and expertise collectively.

The standards

VIT’s standards of professional practice include an aspirational statement of principle and are then organised into three broad domains: professional knowledge, professional practice and professional engagement.

Under these domains are eight generic standards that broadly define what teachers should know and be able to do throughout their careers. A set of indicators or characteristics of effective teaching illustrate how teachers might demonstrate they have met or exceeded the standards at any point in their career.

Pre-service teacher training

VIT has also drafted standards of professional practice with the intention of using these expectations to drive improvement in the quality of pre-service teacher education courses. In Victoria, VIT now establishes the pre-service conditions for entry into the profession— currently four years of tertiary study, including one year of approved teacher education and a practicum of at least 45 days in a one-year course.

The quality of pre-service teacher education has been the focus of 25 enquiries over the past 25 years. All have been critical of its quality. VIT has been given the responsibility for approving pre-service courses in this state. The standards of professional practice provide expectations by which to develop more informed criteria for the approval of such courses.

During 2006, VIT will consult with teachers and relevant stakeholders throughout Victoria on these criteria, remaining mindful of what is practical in the context of funding and other demands on faculties of education.

Provisional registration

In many ways, the unevenness in pre-service course outcomes has influenced VIT policy for the beginning-teacher level. Additionally, teachers recognise that the teaching practicum—where lesson planning, classroom management, assessment and reporting are mediated by the supervising teacher—is a different experience from taking responsibility for all aspects of teaching as a qualified teacher.

So, graduates who meet registration entry requirements become provisionally registered and are required to meet an evidence-based process to move to full registration in their first 12 months of teaching, or two years if they request an extension. To provide new teachers with structured support, the requirements are built around induction and mentoring from experienced teachers.

In the context of this support, those with provisional registration are required to produce three pieces of evidence of their professional practice to present to a panel of peers. This panel then recommends to VIT whether the teacher has met the appropriate standard to move from provisional to full registration.

The evidence has three components:

1. Collegiate Classroom Practice— beginning teachers working together with experienced teachers in their classrooms. Underpinning this requirement is an attempt both to reinforce the importance of collegiate practice and to break down the barrier to improving the quality of classroom teaching created by the reluctance of some teachers to share and reflect on their practice.
2. Analysis of Teaching and Learning. This piece of evidence aims to enable new teachers to reflect on the range of knowledge and skills they need to master. Not possessing breadth of understanding of teaching leads to the unexpected, which can adversely influence new teachers’ views of their future. In fact, we are hoping the support for new teachers will reduce the large number (about one in three) who leave the profession in their first five years.
3. Commentary on Professional Activities. This enables beginning teachers to develop a view about continuing professional learning and its connection with maintaining standards of professional practice.

Renewal of registration

The relationship between standards of professional practice and professional learning is not just important for beginning teachers. It is exactly the connection VIT wants the profession to explore more deeply in the process of renewing registration every five years.

VIT is engaging teachers whose renewal of registration comes due in November 2007 in a discussion of the relationship between standards of professional practice for renewal and the quality, quantity and scope of professional learning needed by experienced teachers in order to maintain those standards.

These requirements will not be fully implemented until some time in the period 2008–2013, but a key to developing a professional learning culture will be enabling the profession to define the quality and scope of professional learning it believes will make a difference.

In the first round of discussions in 2005, teachers responded positively to the idea that continuing professional learning ought to be a part of their renewal of registration. Standards of professional practice will be a key component in defining what continuing professional learning means.

National consistency

The work of the individual state and territory regulatory authorities in the development and implementation of standards of professional practice is shared, with a view to national consistency, through the Australasian Forum of Teacher Registration and Accreditation Authorities (AFTRAA). This forum meets twice a year, working to promote national understanding and consistency in the registration and accreditation of teachers and pre-service teacher education programs.

Teaching Australia (formerly the National Institute for Quality Teaching and Learning) is a recent valuable national initiative. It will have a significant influence if it works to support the agreed national framework and complements the work of AFTRAA—particularly in working with teachers to build capacity and recognition for collegial and reflective practice within the profession.

Geoff Emmett is group manager of standards and professional training at VIT.

Andrew Ius is chief executive officer at VIT.

The author owns the copyright in this article. For information related to the reuse of this work in any form please contact the publisher denise.quinn@curriculum.edu.au