Anonymous #035

Submitter information

Name

Anonymous #035

Where are you located?

Queensland

What type of area do you live in?

Regional or rural

Are you an education professional?
(e.g. teacher, school leader, learning support assistant, teacher’s aide)

Yes

Which sector do you work in?

Secondary

What is your occupation?

Teacher

Elevating the profession

The actions proposed recognise the value teachers bring to students, communities and the economy.

Somewhat agree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

Action One - why only focus on these areas of teaching? This will make other types of teachers seem not as valuable eg an Arts subject teacher in a mainstream school.

Action Two - similar to Action One - all teaching area should have a award, not select some areas. Also will give teachers more to do to be able to fill out the application with evidence.

Action Four - a good aim - find out why teachers are not get accredited as HALT. In my experience teachers are stopped by the cost - excessive for the current high cost of living, the lower pay rate of teacher, it is lost if the application is not accepted, it is only for 5 years, teacher must also fund the high cost of obtaining a Masters qualification which is consider necessary to progress in the profession. Teachers are also stopped by the time - to find evidence on every aspect, in particular wording when teacher are so overworked already. I know many highly experienced teacher who would appreciate the recognistion and extra pay and would meet the requirements but are choosing not to apply.

Improving teacher supply

The actions proposed will be effective in increasing the number of students entering ITE, number of students completing ITE and the number of teachers staying in and/or returning to the profession.

Somewhat disagree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

Action Five and Ten - each preservice teacher studying at university needs a supervising teacher while doing their practicum placements. These teachers must find spare time to supervise, advise and complete forms for this reservice teacher. The payment is tokenistic only. For preservice teachers to be better supervised (leading to a better practising teacher), teachers must be given time release and schools paid for their replacements.

Action Six and Seven and Eight and Nine - government money directed toward new teachers rather than existing teachers will devalue and disappoint existing teachers. Keeping teachers should be a priority rather than adding in more new teachers who may then follow the same pattern of burnout and leaving.

Strengthening Initial Teacher Education (ITE)

The actions proposed will ensure initial teacher education supports teacher supply and quality.

Strongly disagree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

Action Ten - previous

Action Eleven - recognition of qualifications for teachers of VET certificates must also be reviewed. Currently, teachers with education degrees must obtain, and keep up to date, a Certificate IV in Teaching, Assessment and Education (the TAE). This would seem unnecessary for qualified, practising classroom teachers. Teachers must also hold the qualification (or higher) of what they deliver, eg Certificate III in Business or Hospitality. Better recognition of prior learning could streamline the workload for teachers.

Maximising the time to teach

The actions proposed will improve retention and free up teachers to focus on teaching and collaboration.

Strongly disagree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

I believe workload is the most pressing concern for current teachers are the main reason for leaving the profession. These measures go nowhere near enough to making a dint in teacher workload. Face-to-face teaching time reduction of 1 hour is a drop in the ocean. One email or phone call can take 1 hour. For quality teaching, I believe 1 minute in-class needs 1 minute of preparation and 1 minute of follow-up. Preparation for high-impact teaching and learning strategies and follow-up for communication with students, families, and teaching colleagues to feed into planning. I believe another significant factor is communication expectations by students and families. The expectation for same day, individual responses on a regular basis has teachers on their devices in the evenings and weekends as noted in Action 15.

Action 16 - reducing change is a very important factor. Reducing the frequency of reviews and updates will indeed make an impact. This needs to also happen for Years 11-12. This gives teachers time to create and improve units of work and for matching resources to be published. In 2023 I must begin teaching a new syllabus for a Year 11 subject and the publishers have advised they have either no authors for a textbook or they will be spending their time updating other textbooks for changes to the Australian Curriculum which is occurring at the same time. Creating this work will be another task for me to do in my time outside of class. Ideas to have one bank of lesson resources is not effective. This was seen with the Queensland C2C materials. They are a starting point but still need teacher time to review and adjust to suit each class.

Action 23 - this should have been done before writing this document. Spend more time actually asking actual teachers what is going on.

Better understanding future teacher workforce needs

How effective are the proposed actions in better understanding future teacher workforce needs, including the number of teachers required?

Slightly effective

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

written in previous

Better career pathways to support and retain teachers in the profession

The proposed actions will improve career pathways, including through streamlining the process for Highly Accomplished and Lead Teacher (HALT) accreditation, and providing better professional support for teachers to retain them in the profession.

Somewhat agree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

Action 24,27,28 - suggestions to make it easier for teachers to upskill/sideways skills and get better recognition for expertise is welcome.

No action has addressed another area that has a great impact on existing teachers - student behaviour and family behaviour. Teacher burnout is also due to the stress of the daily battles and fear due to confrontations with students and families. Some of this is due to society's opinion of teachers. I believe having two adults in each classroom will assist, not just a sole teacher and more options for students who are not wanting to be in a classroom - alternative models of schooling.