Aiming for Excellence in Teacher Education
27 November 2004
The University will soon be welcoming its first Professor of
Education, Tanya Aspland.
Professor Aspland is currently a Professor of Education in the
Faculty of Community Services, Education and Social Science at
Edith Cowan University in Perth. She has previously worked at
Queensland University of Technology and for Education
Queensland.
Professor Aspland will have oversight of the three teacher
education degrees that the University will offer in 2005. The
degrees will prepare graduates for secondary teaching. These
degrees create opportunities for people in the region and
contribute to important regional and national economic goals.
Each of the degrees incorporates a strong teacher education
component alongside an equally strong component provided by one of
the University's three faculties. This is to ensure that graduates
will have extensive knowledge of the subject areas that they will
teach and of the methods and principles of education.
To prepare graduates to function well in the classroom, wide use
will be made of appropriately qualified and accomplished teaching
professionals in many of the education courses offered on campus.
This goal will also be assisted through a program of school-based
experience.
The University has introduced teacher education because it wants
to create employment opportunities for people in its region. It
wants also to achieve a national reputation for excellence in some
areas of teacher education. That reputation would, of course,
enhance the employment prospects of its graduates.
The Commonwealth Government has identified maths and science
teaching as national priority areas. The Commonwealth is keen to
see the development of degree programs that produce high quality
graduates who can teach in these areas. It is also keen to see
research being undertaken on how to improve the quality of maths
and science teaching in schools.
The main reason the Commonwealth has these concerns is because
it believes that high level skills and understandings in maths and
science are crucial to the nation's economic future. The same
concerns are evident at the state level in the policies that aim to
develop a 'smart' State.
The development of a sophisticated, knowledge-based economy
requires a pool of employees and entrepreneurs with skills and
understandings in maths and science. Without these it is difficult
to develop crucial industry sectors such as biotechnology,
nanotechnology and software engineering. Creating the pool is a
project that begins in school and is one in which high quality
teachers will play a crucial role.
The teacher education degrees offered by the University will
enable students to gain the competence to teach in a number of
different subject areas. They certainly do not focus just on maths
and science. It is, however, in the maths and science areas that
the University hopes to secure a national reputation. These are
areas on which other universities have not intensively focused and
which are not as well researched as they should be.
The University aspires to lead the way in developing programs
that produce high quality maths and science teachers. And it
aspires to lead the way in researching the issues and problems that
impact on achieving excellence in maths and science teaching. The
reputation that the University aims to build will reflect well on
all of its teacher education graduates.
Professor Robert Elliot is Acting Vice-Chancellor in the
absence of the Vice-Chancellor