The UMass students say that their professors and the classroom teachers who observe them for six months in real school settings can do a better job judging their skills than a corporation that has never seen them.

They have refused to send Pearson two 10-minute videos of themselves teaching, as well as a 40-page take-home test, requirements of an assessment that will soon be necessary to be teachers in several states.

Lily Waites, 25, who is getting a master’s degree to teach biology, found that the process of reducing 270 minutes of recorded classroom teaching to 20 minutes of video was demeaning and frustrating, made worse because she had never edited video before. “I don’t think it showed in any way who I am as a teacher,” she said. “It felt so stilted.”

The Teacher Performance Assessment that Pearson and Stanford are developing is still in the pilot stage, being tested by 200 universities in more than two dozen states. Student teachers who do not pass would not be licensed.

Stanford officials say that, to the best of their knowledge, the UMass program is the only case of resistance.

The Chair of TEU’s teacher education committee, Brian Marsh, say the pilot is dystopian:

“Surely this is exclusively about economic rationalism – no more visiting lecturers, no travel costs, all done remotely at $75 a pop. If we are to embrace the notion of professional development and life-long, or career-long, learning, what kind of signal does it send that a summative (and possibly summary) judgment can be made about a teacher’s practice at a distance, based on a video clip?”

Students who went in thinking they had a guaranteed job at the end of their training are now finding they have nowhere to go, according to the Herald.

The global economic crisis is being blamed for a rise in the number of teachers staying in their jobs, meaning few new positions are becoming available.

“The number of school teachers leaving the profession is at its lowest point for 10 years, and so is the number of teaching vacancies,” TeachNZ manager Di Davies told theHerald.

Post Primary Teachers Association president Robin Duff said he understood about 400 to 500 newly qualified secondary teachers were without jobs last year.

One is Tara-Brock Sullings Tasi, who graduated with a bachelor of education degree in primary teaching from AUT but found getting a job was not easy.

“I applied for at least 40 to 50 jobs, all with ‘Unfortunately, you have not been successful’,” she said.

After months of disappointments, Miss Sullings Tasi left for South Korea last week and is now teaching new entrants at a school in Seoul.

TEU national president Dr Sandra Grey said the government needs more evidence and consistency if it is going to engage in workforce planning.

“In 2009 it created incentives for hundreds of new teachers, but by 2011 it was concerned almost exclusively with trades training. This year there is almost no mention of either of those professions – all the emphasis is on science, maths and technology. ”

“The government appears to be making short-term workforce guesses about what is important without any evidence to back it up other than anecdote. Then next year it jumps on a new bandwagon and tries to pick a new winner.”

The Herald reported yesterday that Victoria University was one of only five organisations so far to express an interest in running a private charter school.

Dr Grey says Victoria’s expression of interest to run a charter school raises worrying questions about what direction the university has for education.

“If it has innovative new ideas for education, why is it not already teaching and promoting those ideas in our existing public schools through research and teacher education at its own Faculty of Education.”

“New Zealand has a high quality public education system, from early childhood right through to adult and tertiary education. One of its strengths is that everyone, no matter where they come from, has the same opportunity to high quality teaching and learning. In contrast, charter schools, like many other private education providers, are limited and divisive. They take the focus away from improving education for all New Zealanders to focus instead on rewarding private, for-profit companies. Victoria should not involve itself in legitimising this attack on quality public education,” said Dr Grey.

For more information:

Dr Sandra Grey, TEU national president, 021 844 176 or 04 801 5098
Stephen Day, TEU communications officer, 021 2900 734 or 04 801 4792

http://www.teu.ac.nz

“If we don’t have strong evidence that charter schools provide better outcomes for students, why would we adopt them? What’s our purpose?”

Mr Marsh says a central component of New Zealand’s successful and highly regarded education system is its focus on ensuring all schools employ staff who are educated and qualified to be teachers. Most models of charter schools in other countries move away from that premise, by freeing private education providers to hire teachers with qualifications or registration.

Dr Peter Lind, Director of the Teachers Council has also warned that charter schools do not have any strong evidence to support their introduction.

“Bringing an American governance model into New Zealand right now may distract attention and resources away from initiatives to strengthen teaching here,” said Dr Lind.

Mr Marsh says it would be a shame to see charter schools undermine the value and integrity of New Zealand’s teacher education system by sending out a message that high quality teacher education is optional.

Hundreds of TEU members denounced the possibility of forced jobs cuts at Canterbury University this week and committed themselves to campaign to protect and promote education for local Canterbury people.

A large crowd of TEU members gathered at a stop-work meeting this week and passed a resolution that they “are here to educate and support the people of Canterbury and we commit to campaign and do all we can to protect our university and all its staff and students.” TEU members at the university are also currently voting on a further series of resolutions that say that any changes to the university should enhance the quality and range of courses offered to students, and that decisions about any changes be made in a truly democratic way that involves staff who are fully informed with sufficient information.

The university’s vice-chancellor, Dr Rod Carr, who told Radio New Zealand on Friday “there is no proposal [for job cuts] at the moment” sent an email to all staff calling for voluntary redundancies on Monday, just before staff attended their stop-work meeting.

On Friday Dr Carr said:

“What we don’t know, and we won’t know, is where there are rationalisations of courses within programmes – where we may be able to, instead of having twelve flavours, have eight flavours. We may require staff to teach four courses instead of three courses. But the impact on the actual programmes we offer will be quite modest.”

“These are staff who are very committed to their university and their city,” said TEU national president Sandra Grey. “They have stayed through a very difficult time and worked in extraordinary ways for their students and the city. The university and the government cannot cast them aside now. The university, its academic reputation and the city will all suffer if that is the path the university and the government take. There must be no forced job cuts as a result of the earthquake.”

Also in Tertiary Update this week:

1. Massey proposes end to undergraduate teacher education
2. TEU opposes Aoraki closures across South Island
3. Government spinning wrong story from crises
4. Academics disagree on Freedom Day

Other news

In the latest Auckland University staff magazine, UniNews, Vice-Chancellor Stuart McCutcheon said academics must back up any controversial statements with research to avoid damaging the university’s reputation - Sunday Star Times

Campaign to Keep MMP spokesperson Sandra Grey said that if a majority of voters opt to keep MMP at this year’s referendum, it would lock in an independent review by the Electoral Commission to hear from the public about improvements that can be made to our current system. “We know that aspects of MMP irk some people, who otherwise broadly support a voting system where everyone’s votes count equally, no matter where they live. It is important that not only supporters of MMP, but supporters of MMP with some tweaks, vote to keep MMP this November” – Campaign for MMP

A proposed operations budget for the Otago University Students’ Association has been slashed in the wake of a recent legislation change which introduced voluntary student membership (VSM) for 2012 – Otago Daily Times

In a paper entitled “College of Education Academic Reform”, the university is proposing radical change to initial teacher education. It proposes to discontinue all undergraduate teacher education by cutting its three-year Bachelor of Education Early Years degree and the four-year Bachelor of Education Primary. That would mean students could only study teacher education through a one year, graduate diploma.

It is also proposing to merge the Massey University College of Education into an Institute of Education beneath the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, with an increased focus on attracting post-graduate research. This move may threaten the jobs of teaching staff involved in initial teacher education, who aren’t classed as “research-active”.

Young and new members of the teachers’ union NZEI Te Riu Roa believe the proposals could be incredibly damaging to teacher education in New Zealand. Jennifer Langridge, currently studying a graduate diploma through Massey says “although post graduate study can produce quality teachers, post-graduate students often agree that the pressure-cooker situation of being pushed through training and out into the ‘real world’ often leads them to be burnt out and feel under-prepared in some areas of the classroom.”

NZEI says is wants to see the university challenge the growing assumption that post-graduate research is superior to undergraduate teaching.

However Massey University spokesman James Gardiner said the proposed changes create “an exciting opportunity to position Massey University’s teacher education as an international leader.”

“It also proposes new pathways into postgraduate education that will lead to more highly qualified teachers who are effective professionals and professional leaders throughout their lives.”

Mr Gardiner said international evidence suggested the best outcomes would be achieved by providing teacher education to those who already had undergraduate degrees.

“What is proposed is by no means a radical change – we have numerous excellent teachers in the profession now who have completed one-year graduate diplomas … having first completed undergraduate degrees,” Mr Gardiner said.

Mr Draper and Ms Francey are both experienced TEU officials who many of their union colleagues will know well. Details of the election, including campaign material from the candidates, will be available soon. All TEU members who are academics at an ITP will be eligible to vote.

Sharn Riggs, the union’s national secretary and returning officer announced the results of a recent round of nominations for TEU officer positions.

Sean Sturm, University of Auckland, John Prince, AUT, Scott Walters, Lincoln University, Diane Ruwhiu, University of Otago, Dov Bing, University of Waikato and Brian Marsh the teacher education rep were all elected unopposed to the University Sector Group. Likewise Helen Brett, University of Otago , Roland (David) Brownlee, University of Auckland and Annie Barker, University of Waikato were elected unopposed to the General Staff Sector Group.

Technology Education

The vital importance of technology education in schools has been widely recognised in New Zealand since at least 1995. Technology is one of the eight essential learning areas in the New Zealand Curriculum.  Primary school teachers are required to be able to incorporate all of these areas into their teaching, while technology education is an important option for secondary teachers.

The significance of technology education is reflected in the investment the Government has made in recent times. The Ministry of Education has funded ongoing curriculum research since 2000, to support the development of the 2007 curriculum and its subsequent  implementation. This research funding will continue until at least 2013. The Government launched a Growth and Innovation Framework in April 2005 to improve teaching and increase student participation in senior secondary school technology courses. The Ministry of Education has, for five years, funded national  technology hui, three days, three times a year in Wellington.  These hui enable representatives from each of the six University Colleges of Education to meet and develop the technology framework and resource materials. Currently technology is on the MoE’s list of subjects requiring additional support, with a national coordinator position being funded as well as considerable in-service professional development support for technology teachers.

Technology Curriculum at Victoria University

The technology curriculum courses at Victoria University’s Faculty of Education have been carefully developed and adapted over the years to align with current research-based initiatives. As a result, over the last two years, 95% of graduated new technology teachers who have sought employment in New Zealand secondary schools have been successful.

As current technology staff in secondary schools continue to retire (a high percentage of technology teachers are over 50 years of age), the need for new technology teachers grows.  Victoria must continue to provide new technology teachers with the knowledge and confidence to use the current curriculum, progression  and assessment strategies.

Change proposal

The University is proposing to cut staffing in the area of technology education from 2.0 FTE to 1.0 FTE. The university claims that this in line with other curriculum areas and that there is low demand for the technology curriculum. In fact, technology is one of the curriculum areas most in demand in 2011. The proposal compares technology  to the music curriculum, which has one FTE staffing. However, student demand is significantly lower in music, which is also one of four aspects of the arts curriculum.

Staffing in technology was reduced from three to two FTE at the start of 2010. If it is reduced to one FTE, that staff member will be unable to meet student demand and maintain quality of work at the current level. Research, publication and thesis supervision will be cut dramatically. Collaborating on courses and moderating assessment will become extremely difficult, especially with one staff member teaching over all three trimesters.

The cuts will exacerbate what is already a very concerning situation in teacher education at Victoria and elsewhere. A proposed six week crash course in teacher education for graduates to be piloted soon at Auckland University (“Teach First”) involves as much total contact teaching time for students as the full year course at Victoria. If Victoria and other universities continue to withdraw investment from teacher education then New Zealand’s proud tradition of high quality teacher training may be lost altogether, much to the detriment of our education system.

What you can do

Please take a moment to make a submission, however brief, opposing the reduction of Technology curriculum staff to one FTE. Please feel free to cite the concerns raised above from your perspective, whether as an academic or general staff member or student of the university – or simply as a parent or grandparent. These perspectives are all relevant and valuable. You may also wish to raise other concerns not mentioned above.

Submissions are due to Karen.mcewan@vuw.ac.nz by 3pm Wednesday 13 July, 2011.

This factsheet was prepared by the Tertiary Education Union of New Zealand on behalf of its members in the VUW Faculty of Education 

Mrs Tolley said students at the university’s faculty of education had been “let down” and were “clearly distressed” by the teaching of Professor Martin Thrupp, who is a critic of her national standards policy currently being implemented in primary schools.

“They deserve to be treated with respect, no matter the personal views of Professor Thrupp,” Mrs Tolley told the Waikato Times.

Primary teachers’ union NZEI appointed Professor Thrupp last month to lead a three-year study into the standards. Mrs Tolley said Professor Thrupp had “long campaigned against” the national standards.

“If he wants to work for NZEI outside the lecture hall then that is his decision, but while he is teaching students he should be working for them,” Mrs Tolley said.

TEU national president Sandra Grey said she is concerned that a minister of education would be taking such a lax view about academic freedom.

“Academic freedom is enshrined in the Education Act; a piece of legislation the minister should be well aware of. To publicly criticise an academic who is engaged in research-based teaching, and who is able to make cogent academic arguments supporting his thesis suggests the minister either does not understand, or does not care about academic freedom.”

“Academics not only have a legal right, they have a legal duty to actively critique, both through research and teaching, the society they live in, and that includes the duty to critique Mrs Tolley’s own policies,” said Dr Grey.

However education union NZEI Te Riu Roa is concerned the “summer school” scheme could put “undercooked” students in low decile schools and would undermine other teacher education programmes.

“Being a top graduate doesn’t automatically mean you’re going to be a good teacher,” says NZEI President Ian Leckie.

“Trainee teachers in proper teacher education spend large blocks of practicum time in classes where they gain invaluable teaching experience. These fast track programmes won’t even touch the sides, particularly as they’ll be held over summer when there are no children in schools to teach.”