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Recognising and rewarding teachers One of the most influential factors in students’ learning is the knowledge, judgement and skill of their teachers. A recent paper by ACER Principal Research Fellow Dr Lawrence Ingvarson in Professional Development in Education reviews the Scottish Chartered Teacher Scheme in the light of international interest in policies designed to promote teacher quality. The Scottish Chartered Teacher Scheme emerged in 2001, designed to recognise and reward teachers who attained high standards of practice. The scheme aimed to attract and retain effective teachers, and to ensure all teachers continue to engage in effective professional learning. Some key features of the Scottish scheme include: Those gaining chartered teacher status receive a pay rise of about 20 per cent. The standards-based professional learning is of a very high quality. Gaining chartered teacher status calls for a major commitment of time, effort and money from teachers. Chartered teacher status is portable – not tied to a particular position or job with a particular school. Dr Ingvarson said the teaching profession in countries like Australia and Scotland is still not fully comfortable with the idea of better pay for better teaching, rather than better pay for extra jobs. In the early 1990s most Australian states allocated often trivial extra work to full-time advanced skills teachers to justify the extra pay, rather than thinking about how their expertise might best be used. A flaw in some Australian schemes in the 1990s was the failure to adapt to the idea that a teacher might be worth more as a practising teacher. “Teachers themselves often found it difficult to live with the idea. They looked for extra work to justify their pay rise, leading to more stress,” Dr Ingvarson said. One of the main strengths of the Scottish scheme is the extent to which universities have been mobilised to develop new master’s degree programs. The scheme seems to have a high level of credibility with teachers, and offers a viable alternative to crude merit pay schemes that are usually short-lived and limited in their effects on professional learning. Dr Ingvarson’s paper was based on an address given to the National Chartered Teacher Conference in Edinburgh in June 2008. Article reference: Ingvarson, L. (2009). Developing and rewarding excellent teachers: the Scottish Chartered Teacher Scheme. Professional Development in Education. 35(3) September, pp. 451-468. Full text copies of the article can be purchased online from informaworld. A limited number of offprint copies of the article is also available. To request a copy please contact Dr Ingvarson by email. « Back to eNews
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One of the most influential factors in students’ learning is the knowledge, judgement and skill of their teachers. A recent paper by ACER Principal Research Fellow Dr Lawrence Ingvarson in Professional Development in Education reviews the Scottish Chartered Teacher Scheme in the light of international interest in policies designed to promote teacher quality.

The Scottish Chartered Teacher Scheme emerged in 2001, designed to recognise and reward teachers who attained high standards of practice. The scheme aimed to attract and retain effective teachers, and to ensure all teachers continue to engage in effective professional learning.

Some key features of the Scottish scheme include:

Those gaining chartered teacher status receive a pay rise of about 20 per cent.
The standards-based professional learning is of a very high quality. Gaining chartered teacher status calls for a major commitment of time, effort and money from teachers.
Chartered teacher status is portable – not tied to a particular position or job with a particular school.

Dr Ingvarson said the teaching profession in countries like Australia and Scotland is still not fully comfortable with the idea of better pay for better teaching, rather than better pay for extra jobs. In the early 1990s most Australian states allocated often trivial extra work to full-time advanced skills teachers to justify the extra pay, rather than thinking about how their expertise might best be used. A flaw in some Australian schemes in the 1990s was the failure to adapt to the idea that a teacher might be worth more as a practising teacher.

“Teachers themselves often found it difficult to live with the idea. They looked for extra work to justify their pay rise, leading to more stress,” Dr Ingvarson said.

One of the main strengths of the Scottish scheme is the extent to which universities have been mobilised to develop new master’s degree programs. The scheme seems to have a high level of credibility with teachers, and offers a viable alternative to crude merit pay schemes that are usually short-lived and limited in their effects on professional learning.

Dr Ingvarson’s paper was based on an address given to the National Chartered Teacher Conference in Edinburgh in June 2008.

Article reference:

Ingvarson, L. (2009). Developing and rewarding excellent teachers: the Scottish Chartered Teacher Scheme. Professional Development in Education. 35(3) September, pp. 451-468.

Full text copies of the article can be purchased online from informaworld.

A limited number of offprint copies of the article is also available. To request a copy please contact
Dr Ingvarson by email.

Recognising and rewarding teachers