The Teacher Education Expert Panel was established by the Australian Government to improve initial teacher education (ITE) to boost graduation rates and ensure graduating teachers are better prepared for the classroom.
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The Panel was chaired by Professor Mark Scott AO.
Strong Beginnings (Transition) Fund
The Australian Government is investing $4.6 million in the Strong Beginnings (Transition) Fund as part of its response to Teacher Education Expert Panel’s Report. The funding will support higher education providers to embed mandatory core content in their initial teacher education (ITE) courses by the end of 2025.
Applications close 20 May 2024.
Administrative Information for Applicants
Strong Beginnings: Report of the Teacher Education Expert Panel
The final report was released on 6 July 2023. The report includes 14 recommendations to improve teacher training and better prepare teachers for the classroom.
The recommendations are designed to:
- strengthen ITE programs to deliver confident, effective beginning teachers (recommendations 1-3)
- draw a stronger link between performance and funding of initial teacher education (recommendations 4-7)
- improve practical teaching experience (recommendations 8-11)
- enhance postgraduate initial teacher education programs for mid-career entrants (recommendations 12-14).
Stakeholder consultation
The Panel heard from a range of education stakeholders including teachers and ITE students through surveys, focus groups and the submissions process.
Stakeholders made 115 written submissions in response to the Panel’s Discussion Paper. Where permission has been given, submissions from those stakeholders have been published.
Commissioned Research
In addition to research completed by the Panel's secretariat, the Panel commissioned further research to inform its final report.
The Panel engaged the Australian Education Research Organisation, dandolopartners pty ltd, the Australian Catholic University Institute for Learning Sciences and Teacher Education, the Behavioural Economics Team of the Australian Government, and The Social Research Centre to conduct eight research pieces.