A national system for professional accreditation for teachers should be introduced to maintain and even improve the quality of schooling in Australia, according to a recent paper by two ACER researchers.

ACER Principal Research Fellow Professor Lawrence Ingvarson and Dr Elizabeth Kleinhenz recently published a paper, A Standards-Guided Professional Learning System. The paper was part of the Centre for Strategic Education’s Seminar Series.

In most professions, the idea of a Standards-Guided Professional Learning System is well recognised and understood. Becoming a member of a profession usually depends upon practitioners demonstrating, through various processes of certification or accreditation, that they meet advanced standards set by the relevant professional agencies.

However, there are several problems with current arrangements for professional learning for teachers:

• Many professional learning activities still place teachers in the passive role of course attendees; the link between course attendance and change in practice is often left to chance.
• Current arrangements have the capacity to engage only a small number of teachers in the kind of professional learning that leads to significant change in practice.
• There are not clear expectations about what they should get better at with experience.
• There are weak incentives for evidence of professional learning that makes a difference to student learning outcomes.
• The profession has not developed its own professional learning system to encourage long term professional learning that is guided by standards for highly accomplished teaching and endorsed by professional certification.

In a Standards-Guided Professional Learning System (SGPLS) professionals typically undertake a number of work-based activities in line with a set of profession-wide standards. The purpose of these linked activities is to gather evidence to show that the candidate has met the standards, through a process of professional learning and certification. The evidence-gathering processes, which include substantial reflection on practice, take place over a period of time – typically about a year. The evidence is documented and presented for assessment by peer professionals.

A fully functioning Standards-Guided Professional Learning System has four components:

• Standards that describe effective practice and provide goals and direction for professional learning over the long term;
• An infrastructure for professional learning that enables practitioners to develop the attributes and capabilities embodied in the standards;
• A credible, voluntary system of professional certification, based on evidence that the standards have been attained;
• Selection procedures and career paths that provide recognition and incentives for those who gain professional certification.

The key to increasing the effectiveness of professional learning for teachers on a national scale is the establishment and public acceptance of an independent national professional certification body for education. This body would need to reflect that the quality of learning opportunities that students receive is a shared responsibility between the profession, governments and other employing authorities.

The certifying body would need to nurture and encourage teachers’ professional associations as they gain sufficient confidence to articulate standards for what their members should know and be able to do – standards that will enable the profession to play a stronger role in determining long-term professional goals for its members.

The full paper, A Standards-Guided Professional Learning System, can be found at Centre for Strategic Education (CSE) website.

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