EDUCATION RESEARCH
Towards a Research-Rich Profession
The Alliance collaborative project, to establish capacity building for a research-rich education profession, will be completed soon. The two-stage collaboration of the ACDE, the Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) and the Australian Teacher Education Association (ATEA) began with a series of workshops and roundtable discussions with 73 participants around Australia. Stage Two involved a survey, which generated 417 completed responses. The report can be downloaded here.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Scoping Professional Teacher Experience
In 2017, the ACDE’s Network of Academic Directors of Professional Experience undertook the largest study on the status of Australian professional experience, with the aim of helping to identify issues and laying a path for their future resolution.
The series of five studies provides an account of current developments in ITE, their impact on the delivery and quality of professional experience, and issues that need to be addressed to support further improvements.
Download the full report here.
HUMAN RIGHTS
Australian Human Rights Commission Project
ACDE worked on an AHRC project to scope human rights, cultural competency and anti-racism education in initial teacher education. The project, which aims to identify current ITE practices and gaps, will inform how the AHRC prepares ITE resources.
The ACDE contracted Professor Jo Lampert (La Trobe) to prepare the online survey sent to NADLATE members.
The project gave Australian ITE providers the opportunity to identify gaps and good practice in the human rights education and is helping them to map their programs against the related Australian Professional Standards for Teachers and Initial Teacher Education Program Standards.
Download the report here.
SELECTING TEACHER EDUCATION STUDENTS
Teacher Selection Project
This project examines the ways in which Schools and Faculties of Education assess non-academic traits in potential teacher education entrants by:
- Describing and mapping selection methodologies used by Initial Teacher Education (ITE) providers
- Assisting in understanding diverse approaches and institutional contexts of ITE providers
- Providing advice to the ACDE, the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership, the Department of Education and Training and the wider community.
ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER EDUCATION
MATSITI, which finished in 2016, was a national, four-year initiative to increase the professional capacity and number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander teachers in Australian schools.
Two ACDE-MATSITI initiatives supported the aim of the Behrendt review to increase the number of students and staff to align with the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the wider community.
PARENTAL ENGAGEMENT
Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth Project
ARACY commissioned ACDE to scope current parental-engagement practices and curricula in ITE in Australian universities. All ACDE members have been sent the survey developed with ARACY. Almost half have completed the survey but, if you are yet to do so, we would greatly appreciate your input into this valuable project.
The investigation covers how ITE students are prepared to work with parents, particularly in relation to student learning. It identifies effective Australian practices and will inform ARACY’s plans to develop training materials that could be useful to all levels of teacher education, including leadership and administration. Project outcomes and the final report are expected to be available to ACDE members once approved by ARACY.
PROGRAM STANDARDS 3.1 & 3.2
A 2012 ACDE project, commissioned by the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL), found that pre-service teacher literacy and numeracy are most likely to improve through the ongoing development of skills during entire degree programs.
The final report is available here.
TEACHING FUTURE TEACHERS
The Teaching Teachers for the Future (TTF) Project built systemic information, communication and technology capacity into Australian universities’ teacher education programs.
The final ACDE Report to TTF can be found here.