Professional Teaching Standards Project

National Discussion Paper

Standards of Professional Practice for Accomplished Teaching in Australian Classrooms is the title of a national discussion paper completed in September 2000. Click here to access the paper.

This document is the outcome of a collaborative exercise involving a number of professional associations who have been working on teaching standards for some time.

The objective of the paper is to stimulate discussion within and across the Australian and wider educational and broader community about the need to identify and deploy standards of professional practice for accomplished school teachers.

Educators from all levels, systems and settings are encouraged to contribute their ideas on issues raised by the discussion paper, as well as suggestions on ‘Where to from here’? (see Discussion Pointers on p.12).

The closing date for all responses to the paper is FRIDAY 15 DECEMBER 2000.

Responses will then be analysed with a view to planning and implementing a second national forum, possibly in mid-2001.

Professional Teaching Standards Forum

A national issues forum entitled Professional Teaching Standards: Issues, Challenges and Opportunities was conducted in Melbourne at the Melbourne Business School on 24-25 February 2000.

The Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE), the Australian College of Education (ACE) and the Australian Curriculum Studies Association worked collaboratively to co-host this interactive forum to generate a productive and future-oriented professional exchange on this important issue. A survey conducted prior to the forum identified what each delegate regarded as the main issues, challenges and opportunities for teaching standards.

International speakers included Mary Buss, a full-time secondary language arts teacher at Bookcliffe Middle School in Grand Junction, Colorado; Dr Jim Kelly, Founding President of the US National Board of Professional Teaching Standards and Professor Susan Moore-Johnson from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Given that a good deal of work on professional standards is underway around Australia, a number of forum workshop sessions reflected critically on current developments and small facilitated discussion groups allowed delegates to debate the issues.

An outcome from the forum was the development of the following document:

Professional Teaching Standards: Towards Collaborative and Strategic Action

A working document emerging from a national forum held on 24-25 February 2000

Context

A national forum on professional teaching standards was conducted in Melbourne on 24-25 February 2000. Around 150 educators assembled to explore contemporary issues, challenges and opportunities associated with such standards and to construct a framework for collaborative and strategic action. Co-hosted by the Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE), the Australian College of Education (ACE) and the Australian Curriculum Studies Association (ACSA), the forum was also supported by a number of sponsors.

Process

During the forum, various processes were devised to provide participants with opportunities to re-visit initial work undertaken on professional teaching standards; to hear from practitioners and international guest speakers in whole group sessions; and to gain specific knowledge about current research in concurrent workshops. Participants were also provided with an opportunity to become immersed in the debate by contributing to semi-structured discussion groups. It was from these groups that a set of 'strategic intentions' was generated; modified in the light of additional information; and redefined during the final plenary session.

It is important to emphasise that this is a working document to be refined and extended in a context of cooperative action. The language used is couched in terms of actionable outcomes, designed to capture the momentum and spirit of the forum. Thus it assumes that action will follow and that the profession will be actively involved in the process of taking the standards debate forward. Please note that for the remainder of this document, the term standards refers to 'professional teaching standards'. It is envisaged that forum participants and others will work individually and collectively in pursuit of the nine strategic intentions that are summarised in dot-point form below.

Strategic Intentions

1. Focus

• The focus will be on accomplished teachers, advanced standards of teaching practice and professional certification.
• Existing and proposed work on standards (e.g. entry-level and advanced standards) will inform the process.
• Progress will be informed by, and conducted in parallel with, the work of education systems.
• Advanced standards and professional certification will be accessible to all teachers within the profession (e.g. through encouragement, support, incentives etc).

2. Ownership

• Standards will be owned and driven by the profession (e.g. responsibility for defining standards for advanced professional practice will rest with educational practitioners in consultation with other key stakeholders).
• Professional ownership will constitute a fundamental principle upon which all future work on standards is based.
• A groundswell of interest in, and support for, standards will be established and maintained in the education and wider community.
• An informed dialogue on standards that is both systematic and strategic will be generated.
• The participation of educational practitioners in processes of professional recognition will be an imperative.

3. Rationale

• An explicit rationale for the development of standards will be developed (e.g. distinctions will be made between registration, accreditation and certification).
• The rationale will provide both vision and purpose for ongoing work on standards.
• Purposes for developing standards will be clarified (e.g. to promote quality learning and teaching; to improve levels of student achievement etc).
• The rationale will be circulated for discussion amongst the profession and the wider community.
• Work on standards will be linked to structured and purposeful professional development (e.g. there will be a focus on identified needs within the profession).

4. Links

• Existing work being conducted by national professional associations through Australian Research Council grants for English/Literacy (AATE/ALEA), Mathematics (AAMT) and Science (ASTA), will provide a significant base upon which to draw.
• Future projects on standards will build on relevant work on standards either completed or being implemented by research agencies, education systems, registration authorities and other agencies.
• Links will be established with research and development projects under way in other countries.

5. Coherence

• A coherent and consistent approach to work on standards will be promoted and communicated to multiple audiences.
• This work will embrace a broad range of approaches including generic/core, subject-specific and developmental stages.
• This work will explore the feasibility of using such standards as the basis for a coherent national system of advanced standards and professional certification.

6. Rigour

• A rigorous approach to the development of standards and assessment structures will be established to ensure that they are credible in the eyes of the profession, education systems/sectors and the wider community.
• Research and related opportunities for the trialling of assessment processes that are integral to professional development will be fostered.

7. Collaboration

• The commitment and support of key stakeholders will be secured (e.g. teachers, employers, registration authorities, research groups, unions, parents, business and the wider community).
• Particular attention will be paid to working cooperatively with education systems and sectors.
• Emphasis will be placed on the development of effective leadership and professional advocacy.
• There will be close alignment with the broader 'teacher quality' agenda (e.g. as outlined by presenters at the national forum).
• Teachers who volunteer to undertake professional recognition and certification processes will be acknowledged and rewarded.

8. Resourcing

• Multiple sources of potential funding will be explored to develop and implement professional teaching standards in Australia.
• The possibility of linking future work on standards to the strategic elements of DETYA's Quality Teacher Programme (QTP) will be explored.

9. Capacity

• A 'connecting capacity' at a national level will be developed to guide future work on standards (e.g. working collaboratively, adding value to former and existing work, networking etc).
• Strategies for learning from and working with established agencies such as the US National Board for Teacher Professional Standards will be explored.
• The possibility of identifying a high-profile Australian (e.g. Sir William Deane) to act as an external 'advocate' will be pursued.

Next Steps

A degree of consensus was generated during the final plenary session with regard to the following action plan.

1. Disseminate the Outcomes

The three co-host organisations - AARE, ACE and ACSA - will continue to work cooperatively (a) to ensure that the outcomes of this forum are documented and disseminated; and (b) to facilitate the establishment of two new working groups. For example, a copy of this working document 'Towards Collaborative and Strategic Action' will be circulated to all participants for comment. A revised version will then be published in the April issue of Unicorn along with keynote presentations, summaries of panel sessions and workshop reports emanating from the forum. All participants and stakeholders will then be encouraged to raise awareness of these forum outcomes by various means at their disposal (e.g. web sites, newsletters, meetings, conferences etc).

2. Establish a Strategic Working Group

A strategic working group of around 6-8 members will be established to take the debate generated during this forum to the next level. Consideration will be given to developing and employing a range of 'circuit breakers' designed to overcome existing barriers and impediments. The group will facilitate the development of a discussion paper which focuses on the work on standards being owned and driven by the profession, establishing a clear rationale and securing adequate resources (see points 1, 2, 3, 8 and 9 above). The draft discussion paper will be distributed for wide consultation and be subject to on-going revision and refinement, given that this is a long-term agenda. The group will also explore the idea of identifying a high profile Australian to act as an external 'advocate' for the profession.

3. Establish a Technical Working Group

A technical working group of around 10-12 members will be established to bring together previous and existing work in order to identify similarities and avoid duplication. It will also establish a coherent approach, develop rigorous assessment criteria and determine processes for working with and gaining support from key stakeholders (see points 2, 4, 5, 6 and 7 above). The technical aspects of the work will be carried out by organisations that sponsored the forum, groups already implementing projects on standards and individuals with demonstrated expertise on standards.

It should be emphasised that the work of the strategic and technical working groups will proceed in parallel and complementary ways.

4. Conduct a Second Forum

A second forum will be conducted later this year where progress on the proposed tasks of the working groups will be shared and the next steps identified for action. The interests and concerns of key stakeholders will need to be identified and their support garnered with a view to generating productive outcomes. For example, select groups might include CESCEO, NCEC, NCISA, participants of the February national forum, professional associations, unions, parents, registration authorities, the US National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, colleagues and organisations in the UK, Canada and New Zealand etc, as well as business and community groups.

Note: An initial draft of this working document was developed by the co-hosts of the national forum on professional teaching standards, namely, AARE, ACE and ACSA; circulated for comment to all forum participants; and revised subsequently in the light of comments received.

The entire outcome from this forum and the keynote presentations is published in Unicorn Volume 26 No. 1 April 2000.

ACE Professional Teaching Standards (PTS) Online Discussion Group

The Australian College of Education has established an online discussion group to actively involve the profession in determining the purpose and form of professional teaching standards. As a member of ACE you are invited to 'have a say' in an open forum of educators who are committed to ensuring the quality of teaching and learning in Australia. This is your opportunity to contribute short comments, useful references or anything that you may consider provides constructive input to this debate. Your responses will be shared with other ACE members via the discussion list which will be managed by Carolyn Mathews who is the President of the SA Chapter. We look forward to the discussion.