Deakin's Head of School of Education responds to the Federal Government's review of teacher training

Transcript of an ABC News 24 interview with Deakin University Head of School of Education, Professor Christine Ure, about the Federal Government's review of teacher training.

ABC NEWS 24 - CAPITAL HILL

TOPIC: The release of the Federal Government's review of teacher training.

ANDREW GREENE: Returning to education and for more on the government's announcement of new university measures for teachers, I'm joined by Professor Christine Ure, the Head of the School of Education at Deakin University.

She's also a board member of the Australian Council of Deans of Education (ACDE).

Professor, welcome to Capital Hill.

DEAKIN UNIVERSITY HEAD OF SCHOOL OF EDUCATION, PROFESSOR CHRISTINE URE: Hello, Andrew.

GREENE: Firstly, can I get your response to what's been announced today by Christopher Pyne? Are you generally in favour of what's been announced?

PROFESSOR URE: Absolutely, Andrew. This report comes on the back of 101 reviews of teacher education and it brings together a lot of ground work into a national framework.

We applaud this report.

It is about action now – classroom-ready teachers.

It is our core business in higher education and teacher education to prepare teachers who are ready.

But it's also important to have a national framework so that we're all working from the same base.

GREENE: Is it an admission that at present, universities across Australia are churning out teachers who really don't have the right standards of literacy and numeracy to be teaching children?

PROFESSOR URE: Absolutely not.

Our teachers are well prepared.

Literacy and numeracy are absolutely core features of our current programs, as they are in the current national standards.

The new literacy and numeracy test will ensure, to the Australian public, that our graduates are in the top 30 per cent of all Australians with their literacy and numeracy skills.

That's what the test is intended to do.

GREENE: Does there need to be a refocus on what methods teachers are using in the classroom, perhaps a refocus on phonics and that style of teaching language?

PROFESSOR URE: The style of teaching that we every been developing in our teacher education programs has been more and more focused on working closely with schools, so that our student teachers are experiencing strong classroom practices and this includes in the areas of literacy and numeracy.

The reason we welcome this report is that it helps us continue to move more strongly in that direction to ensure that our student teachers are well prepared in the classroom and have a good transition to their full-time teaching.

GREENE: If we want to lift the standard of teaching graduates, do we need to consider having a minimum entry score for people applying?

PROFESSOR URE: The report, in looking at selection, hasn't pushed towards a minimum entry score and that's primarily because student teachers come from a number of different pathways.

Currently only 18 per cent of our student teachers come in with a Year 12 score. 40 per cent come in with a post-graduate qualification and many others come from multiple pathways.

They've either done other learning in other institutions, they have TAFE diplomas.

So the ATAR score is a red herring, really – it's about the quality of the entrants.

And certainly the report is focusing on being more transparent about how we select our student teachers.

GREENE: Finally, Professor, does today's announcement add another layer of regulation to universities?

PROFESSOR URE: No, not another layer.

It brings together all the regulations that we operate under at present.

So teacher educators operate under multi-layers in terms of their own universities and their university accreditation processes, as well as their state processes.

This report brings together the regulatory processes much more strongly under the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) and will form a more streamlined approach for teacher educators.

GREENE: Professor Ure, thank you very much for joining Capital Hill.

PROFESSOR URE: Thank you Andrew.