Symposium Taking professional standards into practice 12 May 2006

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Symposium Taking professional standards into
practice12 May 2006
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• The purpose of the Symposium was to bring
  together key educational stakeholders supporting
  new scheme teachers to achieve professional
  competence. Participants explored and shared
  current practices and strategies for productively
  supporting new scheme teachers. They explored
  innovative and effective strategies to further
  contribute to supporting the new scheme teachers
  meet the key stage of the Professional Competence
  standard.

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Symposium summary
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Key issues for supporting new scheme teachers

• Danger of accreditation practice driving the
  collection of evidence rather than the quality of
  the teaching practice
• Knowledge of the accreditation information,
  processes and appropriate authentic evidence
• Significance of the impact of culture, context
  and expectation for new teachers practices

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Key issues - continued

• Quality of the support from the mentor,
  supervisor, school leadership
• Time
• Developing shared and agreed expectations
• Professional isolation

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Key issues - continued

• Recognition that classroom management skills are
  grown from and embedded in practice
• Linking accreditation processes to teacher
  professional learning
• Challenges for new teachers to meet the standards
  without a class or school

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Strategies that can support new scheme teachers

• Developing consistent judgements of the standards
• At what point do the professional standards
  become relevant for new teachers
• Relationships between new teachers, mentors,
  supervisors and colleagues

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Innovative strategies for support

• The professional teaching standards are the work
  and responsibility of the whole school -
  knowledge building and sharing and supporting new
  teachers
• An open school culture with planned strategies
  for classroom observation, joint lesson planning,
  team teaching, focused discussion with
  colleagues, structured feedback and reflection
  focused on and guided by the standards

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Innovative strategies for support

• Developing consistent judgements of the standards
  through lesson observations, examination of
  student work samples, joint development of lesson
  plans
• New teachers jointly present work at staff
  meetings and forums as an outward sign of valuing
  their pedagogy

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Innovative support - continued

• Provide training for mentors and supervisors that
  is focused on the quality of the teaching
• Design professional learning strategies to
  challenge and support new teachers through
  planned risks to trial innovative pedagogies

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Innovative support - continued

• Design tailored support for context and point of
  need - providing just in time learning
• Make the site for professional learning the
  classroom, the classroom next door, the school
  next door and in classrooms across the state