Teachers need deep content knowledge and comprehensive understanding of student learning processes to be effective in the classroom, says the latest ACER paper on teacher education.

A study by Lawrence Ingvarson, Adrian Beavis and Elizabeth Kleinhenz has been published in the European Journal of Teacher Education. The study investigated the characteristics of effective pre-service education programs, essentially asking the question: What changes should be made to teacher education courses to better prepare future teachers?

More than 1,000 teachers at the beginning of their second year of teaching responded to the survey, which asked them to rate how well their teacher education course had prepared them for the reality of the classroom. The survey, commissioned by the Victorian Institute of Teaching, found that on average teacher education programs produced graduates who felt moderately prepared to meet the Institute’s professional standards describing what beginning teachers need to know and should be able to do. Significant variation in responses, however, indicated that while many teachers felt well prepared, a worrying proportion believed their preparation was less than adequate.

The teachers who felt best prepared for the classroom were those who had a strong grasp of the content they were teaching and how to teach it, of not just factual knowledge but also methods of teaching specific to the content, of gauging and building on students’ existing understanding, and of developing and implementing units of work.

The implications of this finding are significant given the wide variation that exists across universities in the proportion of time spent on courses with a focus on areas of curriculum content (such as literacy or mathematics), and how to teach that content. In mathematics, for example, another ACER study found that the proportion of time varies from as low as 3 per cent in some universities to as much as 30 per cent in others. This raises questions about the criteria currently used to accredit teacher education programs and whether they need to include clearer expectations about the proportion of course time to be spent on ensuring deep understanding of the content and how to teach it effectively.

Courses that focused on methods of planning and assessment produced graduates who felt able to design challenging curriculum units, manage classrooms, monitor student progress, teach cross curriculum and work effectively with parents. Less than 20 per cent of respondents, however, said that the their courses had adequately prepared them to establish appropriate learning goals for their students, give useful and timely feedback to students and keep useful records of their students’ progress.

Opportunity to receive feedback from lecturers and practising teachers also had a significant effect on teacher preparedness. Most respondents, however, reported receiving little feedback as they were learning to teach; one respondent noted being observed just once in a four-year degree with 100 days of teaching practicum.

The nature and extent of the practicum, however, was not strongly related to the preparedness of the teachers. This is not to say that the practicum is not important; it is more likely that the practicum experience was probably much the same for students across all courses. Teachers from most courses made frequent mention of unsatisfactory arrangements for practicum. Many had difficulty integrating theory and practice.

While the study found wide variation in the reported quality of teacher education programs, it has not found that teacher education is unnecessary; quite the opposite. In a field where some have questioned the impact of, or need for, professional preparation programs, this is a significant finding. The results of the study, though perhaps unsurprising, do say that teacher education matters.

The full report from the ACER study, Teacher education courses in Victoria: Perceptions of their effectiveness and factors affecting their impact, can be found at www.vit.vic.edu.au

An article about the study was published in the European Journal of Teacher Education, Volume 30, Issue, 4 November 2007.

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