4 yr primary teaching qualification national first

Four-year primary teaching qualification a national first

The University’s College of Education is to launch a new four-year primary teacher education programme that will bring New Zealand in line with international teacher training standards and mean higher rates of pay for graduates.

The programme – a national first – will consist of a four-year combined Bachelor of Education and a Graduate Diploma in Education Studies.

Education Pro Vice-Chancellor Professor James Chapman says that the initiative addresses curriculum changes and best teaching practices. It also puts the training on a similar footing to other professions with four-year qualification programmes including social work, engineering, and veterinary science.

“The new programme recognises the value of educators, the challenges they face and ensures graduates a salary advantage when they enter the workforce,” Professor Chapman says.

“It is essentially the reform of a degree, a substantial change that started three years ago in response to the major changes that have been taking place in contemporary education.”

The new dual qualification includes four years of compulsory literacy and numeracy components, fully interwoven bicultural, inclusion and e-learning programmes and an emphasis on integrated curriculum as well as an increased amount of supervised teaching experience in schools.

“New Zealand is one of the only countries in the OECD that retains a three-year teacher preparation programme, so the move to a four year programme brings us into line with other countries.”

The primary school teachers’ union collective employment agreement with the Ministry of Education provides for a teacher with the postgraduate diploma to start on an annual salary $1161 higher than otherwise.

At the top of the pay scale they receive an additional $3000 a year and on current pay rates a teacher with the diploma would receive about $30,000 more in their first 10 years in the job.

The College of Education undertook an extensive consultation process when developing the new programme, which is the result of comprehensive and ongoing research into teacher education and best practice, Professor Chapman says.

“More than 70 per cent of college staff have been involved in shaping it – which is twice the number of those who will actually teach this particular programme. The result draws on a wealth of expertise and represents the true merger of pre-service teacher education in a university environment.”

Teacher Education Professor John O’Neill says that society makes huge demands on today’s primary teachers and the new programme has been specifically planned and designed to develop student teachers’ knowledge and confidence in much greater depth.

“Primary school principals, teachers’ groups and the Ministry of Education have all told us how excited they are at the prospect of having teachers in primary schools from 2012 who will have been prepared so rigorously at Massey for the classroom challenges they will face.

“They will be highly skilled teachers of literacy, numeracy, integrated curriculum assessment and e-learning to meet the needs of children in increasingly bicultural and socially diverse classrooms,” Professor O’Neill says.

The College of Education plans to introduce the programme next year in anticipation of receiving approval from the Committee on University Academic Programmes and the Teachers’ Council.

ENDS

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