What are the education standards today?

[davey]

Son is a teacher and has been teaching Indigenous students most of his career - they didn't necessarily teach him any specialized skills in Uni - daughter too but lives in the city and teaches more mixed nationalities - again requiring skills not necessarily taught at uni - I'm a retired teacher - I think the love and passion is always there but you do need to learn new skills along the way - particularly me! we do need to keep up with the times ie new technologies but a little bit of history is useful

 

[Warrigal]

Son is a teacher and has been teaching Indigenous students most of his career - they didn't necessarily teach him any specialized skills in Uni - daughter too but lives in the city and teaches more mixed nationalities - again requiring skills not necessarily taught at uni - I'm a retired teacher - I think the love and passion is always there but you do need to learn new skills along the way - particularly me! we do need to keep up with the times ie new technologies but a little bit of history is useful

My teacher training was at Sydney Teachers College in 1962 and it was mostly useless. I had to learn how to teach effectively on the job, but even so, it wasn't until I went to work in a catholic school where the nuns were committed to teaching the whole student and every student regardless of social background or intellectual capacity that I truly understood what teaching is all about.

Midcareer I had the opportunity to return to university to take a course about teaching children with special needs and this was an eye opener. Later I enrolled in a post grad course devoted to the needs of gifted and talented students.

It would be a wonderful thing if school teachers could avail themselves of a paid sabbatical year after ten years or so of being in the classroom to engage in further study or research into specialised education. It could be a masters degree, or simply and undergrad course in something relevant like the needs of indigenous or disadvantages children.

It will never happen, of course, because it would be expensive and only well endowed private schools could afford such largesse, but perhaps if the teacher were to sign a bond requiring them to serve the education authority, or an individual school, for a set number of years in return for having tuition fees reimbursed, then maybe this could be a way of uplifting teaching standards overall. It would certainly benefit a lot of students.

 

[davey]

My teacher training was at Sydney Teachers College in 1962 and it was mostly useless. I had to learn how to teach effectively on the job, but even so, it wasn't until I went to work in a catholic school where the nuns were committed to teaching the whole student and every student regardless of social background or intellectual capacity that I truly understood what teaching is all about.

Midcareer I had the opportunity to return to university to take a course about teaching children with special needs and this was an eye opener. Later I enrolled in a post grad course devoted to the needs of gifted and talented students.

It would be a wonderful thing if school teachers could avail themselves of a paid sabbatical year after ten years or so of being in the classroom to engage in further study or research into specialised education. It could be a masters degree, or simply and undergrad course in something relevant like the needs of indigenous or disadvantages children.

It will never happen, of course, because it would be expensive and only well endowed private schools could afford such largesse, but perhaps if the teacher were to sign a bond requiring them to serve the education authority, or an individual school, for a set number of years in return for having tuition fees reimbursed, then maybe this could be a way of uplifting teaching standards overall. It would certainly benefit a lot of students.

good idea! - why not write to the education dept with your thoughts? - or are they still chasing after you?

 

[Warrigal]

good idea! - why not write to the education dept with your thoughts? - or are they still chasing after you?

I've been retired for upwards of 25 years so I cannot begin to know what is happening in Australian schools today. What I do know is that public schools are underfunded on the whole and that TAFE needs more government support. Also, the whole premise of student loans for tertiary education is flawed when it comes to repayment. Compounding interest based on market rates is extortionate.