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The Society for the Advancement of Excellence in Education provides non-partisan education research and information to policy-makers, education partners and the public. Our purpose is to encourage higher performance throughout Canada's public education system.
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Teachers Need Better Training, Professional Development: Report
[ Vancouver, Sept. 30 - CP - The Canadian Press ] Canadian teachers need better university training, more on-the-job professional development, regular evaluations and incentives that would encourage them to tackle difficult assignments, says a report released Monday.
The report by Susan Phillips, an educator with 25 years experience in the Victoria public-school system, was released by the Society for the Advancement of Excellence in Education, a non-profit educational research centre based in Kelowna, B.C.
Giving teachers the support and encouragement they need to excel in the classroom, while also speeding up the process of identifying those who aren’t suited to the profession, would have a direct effect on student achievement, Phiilips wrote in the study, Teacher Quality in Canada.
Phillips said she did not examine the quality of teachers but only the changes that are needed to make them more effective.
The report said teacher preparation programs at post-secondary institutions must be reassessed to ensure new teachers are properly equipped for the workplace.
Institutions should consult with schools to identify skills that are needed in the classroom but are not currently being taught and should also talk to each other about best practices, it said.
Because there are no national standards or comparative evaluations, post-secondary institutions now control the content of teacher preparation programs, she said.
But Frank Echols, associate dean of educational studies at the University of B.C., said that criticism isn’t valid in this province because the B.C. College of Teachers, the licensing authority, ensures all teacher education programs here meet certain standards.
The report also called for more mentoring programs to help new teachers and additional professional development for all teachers, saying the six days now designated as Pro-D days in British Columbia and scattered over 10 months are insufficient to ensure teachers are in top form.
It suggested changing the teaching calendar to recognize 12 months of work rather than 10 and devoting some of that summer holiday time to intensive professional development.
Many teachers already spend summer days preparing for September so this proposal wouldn’t be as radical as it sounds, Phillips said in an interview.
The president of the B.C. Teachers’ Federation said he doesn’t see a need for a new emphasis on professional development because teachers are already committed to on-going learning.
"Teachers spend far more than six days on professional development," said Neil Worboys.
But he said the federation agrees there should be more mentoring and has called on the province to fund a comprehensive mentoring program for new teachers.
The report also recommended a longer probation period for new teachers to ensure they are suitable for the job and regular evaluations of their performance.
The current processes are largely prescribed by collective agreement language that limits the content, use, scope and consequences of the results," it said.
Worboys said evaluation processes are in collective agreements because teachers and employers recognized that those processes were fair and comprehensive.
The report also suggested pay increases and other incentives could be used to encourage teachers to take additional training.
Phillips said the incentives would be clearly linked to a specific performance or accomplishment by an individual or a group of teachers in a school.
(Vancouver Sun)
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 Society for the Advancement of Excellence in Education
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