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NCVER has just released a new report aimed at “identifying approaches that could enhance teaching quality in the vocational education and training (VET) sector.”
It found that there was strong support for implementing systematic approaches to teacher preparation, mentor support and providing opportunities for continuing professional development.
This new study
This report, authored by NCVER’s Josie Misko, is entitled “Building capability and quality in VET teaching: opportunities and challenges.” It was published in mid-September and draws on the insights of a wide group of VET’s stakeholders, including peak bodies such as VDC, regulators, representatives of the Australian Education Union, VET leaders and practitioners, the relevant Industry Reference Committee and representatives of VET teacher educators. In addition to the report there is a support document entitled “Building capability and quality in VET teaching: frameworks, standards and insights.”
This report builds on an extensive body of research over many years on VET teacher education and professional development recently summarised by Roger Harris in a landmark report for the VET Knowledge Bank we highlighted in VDC News in June this year.
What did it find?
First, Misko found that teaching quality in the sector is variable: some are great at teaching or have well-regarded industry expertise while others need improvement. And:
“There is strong support for using teacher capability frameworks and/or professional standards as diagnostic tools and guidelines for teacher self-evaluation and reflection, including for the planning of objectives for personal and professional development.”
These “outline the behaviours, values, skills and knowledge of VET trainers and leaders at various stages of their careers,” and can be used as “benchmarks against which individuals can self-evaluate.” But the diversity of the sector and the varying nature of teachers’ work may make it difficult to develop a “nationally prescribed VET teacher capability framework”. There are also mixed views on the need for mandatory teacher registration, which is consistent with views that Hugh Guthrie and Berwyn Clayton found in 2012 when they looked into the possibility of establishing a VET professional association.
What needs to be done?
Adequate resourcing of continuous professional development (CPD) opportunities is seen as a must to ensure teachers maintain their industry currency, update their skills and learn new ones, and “keep up with modernised and technology-enhanced training approaches.” And, as the report says, the VET Development Centre (VDC) and the Chisholm Institute’s Educator Passport pilot are seen as highly regarded initiatives (Yay VDC!).
Those consulted also felt there was a need for better approaches to help with induction and career progression, including using mentoring support from:
“knowledgeable, experienced and accomplished peers or higher-qualified colleagues to give both beginning and continuing teachers advice and feedback, or to engage with them in reflective practice.”
It’s also about attracting the ‘right people’ into VET teaching.
And then there’s the perpetually thorny issue of the Cert. IV
The Certificate IV and its quality have been thorny issues since it became the mandated qualification as a paper on how VET teacher education could be improved was published through the L H Martin Centre at the University of Melbourne showed. Misko’s paper raises the issues of the cost of regular Cert IV upgrades (also considered in this recent VDC news item), especially in a highly casualised teaching workforce with many small providers. Others argue for a higher level of basic VET teaching qualification at Diploma level at least.
Another issue the report highlights is “the sector’s lack of access to highly trained specialists to assist students with language, literacy and numeracy (LLN) difficulties.” It probably has not been enough to move an LLN competency into the core of the Cert IV because there are arguments about the need for LLN specialists to co-teach with subject-based VET teachers to address the needs of many VET students lacking these key foundation skills.
And finally, there is the attractiveness of VET teaching as a vocation. Some are born to VET teaching, some come to it out of strong desire to ‘give back’ to their industry or they just need a job. Whatever the motivation, one of our recent articles suggested that VET teaching is not an easy gig despite the value that TAFE in particular brings. However a paper by Erica Smith and Keiko Yasukawa has looked at the attributes of really good VET teachers, and it’s worth a read, and you can access it (maybe at a cost) here!