The Teachers Are Blowing Their Whistles!

Subtitle

Grace Grace, Queensland's state Education Minister,  wants the Federal Government to try to lure smarter teachers into Queensland schools.

Grace Grace, the Queensland Education Minister, has a plan to lift classroom standards in Queensland schools.


"All the available evidence shows that when you have the best teachers , you get the best results," Ms Grace told The Courier-Mail.


Ms Grace wants the Federal Government to provide real financial incentives to make teaching in Queensland more appealing.


She particularly wants to attract teachers who will agree to work in Queensland's rural and regional areas.


Ms Grace thinks that high-achieving graduates can be lured into teaching careers through Federal Government tax concessions and cut-price post-graduate qualifications.


Robina Cosser says : But are smart teachers really wanted in Queensland schools, Ms Grace? 


Or do they make principals feel threatened?


And will smart teachers be happy, trying to work all day, every day (and live, in the remote areas) with "peers" who are functioning at a much lower ability level?


We need some research into the experience of intelligent teachers who take jobs in Queensland schools.



And they all learnt happily ever after, Lauren Martyn-Jones, P.13, The Courier-Mail, 10 March 2018.

Smart teachers are at risk of being bullied in Queensland state schools.

(Hannah Hickey (see article below) is studying her fourth and final year in a Bachelor of Secondary Education, majoring in maths and history at QUT after achieving an OP1 in year 12.)


Good on Hannah. 


Hopefully she won't be bullied by another staff member or HOD who is threatened by her intelligence.


The current system is threatened by anyone who doesn't follow the status quo.


It's called the 'tall poppy syndrome' and it's alive and well in Education Queensland.


Unfortunately the general consensus is that smart people leave teaching, especially in the state system.


The Queensland state school system is now so under-resourced by lack of funding and in such chaos due to a dysfunctional and incompetent DETE many people are fleeing.


MaryJane, Reader's Comment, Why student teachers are turning away, Brittany Vonow, The Courier-Mail, 9 February 2016

Queensland teacher : We have already lost the battle. Many young teachers can't speak English properly.

If you've ever worked in schools in Brisbane's lower socio-economic suburbs, without mentioning specific schools, you will know that we have already lost the battle.

Many teachers can't speak English properly, with principals particularly guilty of 'imporden', and the young teachers fond of 'youse gise' and the word 'like' spattered throughout every conversation.

Teachers in the better suburbs, inner city and private schools are so alarmingly different and outwardly so much more astute (and older).

And raising teachers' wages will not fix this problem, because, to be honest, the former cohort of teachers that I've mentioned aren't worth a cent more in salary.

 

Art, Reader's comment, Male teachers abandon classroom fearing inappropriate label o working with children, Brittany Vonow, The Courier-Mail, 19 October 2015

Teacher education program entry scores continue to fall.

The Australian Institute for Teaching and Schools Leadership report on teacher education found that -

 

30,457 students started a teacher education program in 2012.

The majority of these students are females aged under 24.

86 per cent were admitted based on prior academic achievement.

20 per cent gained entry based on their ATAR.

 

Of the 20 per cent who gained entry based on their ATAR -

 8 per cent had an ATAR of 91-100.

56 per cent had an ATAR of 61-80.

13 per cent had an ATAR below 60.

 

The proportion of teacher education students with a tertiary admissions score (ATAR) below 60 almost doubled from 2005 to 2012.

At the same time, the proportion of teaching students coming from the highest achievers dropped significantly.

 

 

Trainee teacher entry scores drop, Katina Curtis, The Australian, 3 November 2014

Why are Australian universities enrolling so many poorly qualified teacher-education students?

In a submission to the federal government's review of teacher education, the NSW Board of Studies, Teaching and Educational Standards and the three state school sectors accuse universities of enrolling as many teacher-education students as they can, diluting the quality of teachers produced.

The submission says university staff regularly refuse to "take seriously the views of supervising teachers" in training when told that teaching students are struggling.

Dr Michael Spence, vice-chancellor of Sydney University, says government and other employers of teachers "have a responsibility to set high standards for entry to the profession."

The universities that enrol large numbers of students with low Year 12 marks argue that Year 12 marks are a blunt measure of ability and aptitude and that the focus should be on the quality of teacher produced.

But Tom Alegounarias, president of the Board of Studies, Teaching and Educational Standards told Justine Ferrari of The Australian that assessment processes for graduation conducted by universities were not transparent or comparable.

Uni echoes call to raise the bar for teachers, Justine Ferrari, The Nation, P.5, The Australian, 9 July 2014

Dr Jennifer Buckingham : Teacher education courses should have a cut-off of OP13 to OP14.

The Centre for Independent Studies has released a report which argues that teacher education courses should have a cut-off of OP13 to OP14 "to elevate the quality of candidates".

Dr Jennifer Buckingham, the author of the report, said that reducing class sizes increased costs and lowered the overall quality of teachers.

Dr Buckingham was in favour of giving all principals the power to hire and fire.

 

Robina Cosser says : Before we give all principals the power to hire and fire classroom teachers we need to deal with the problems in the promotion system.

For example : Before they are promoted, or even given 'acting' positions, principals need to demonstrate a capacity to read, comprehend and apply government policies to their own behaviour.

Principals who struggle to comprehend policies and to apply them to their own behaviour enforce mediocrity on their teaching staff.

 

Rich kids in state schools targeted, Tanya Chilcott, P. 15, The Courier-Mail, 30 April 2014.

Christopher Bantick : Some graduate teachers are close to being functionally illiterate.

The problem with the preparation of Australian teachers is twofold : inferior applicants and poor training in our universities.

There is no easy way of saying this.

Some teachers who qualify are frankly close to being functionally illiterate.

How did they get this far?

Universities have acted culpably in accepting students who have low scores into teaching degrees, knowing they are, on graduation, likely to inflict their incompetence on children.

 

 

Generalists not the answer to teaching woes, Christopher Bantick, Melbourne writer and senior literature teacher at a Melbourne boys' Anglican grammar school, P.15, Inquirer, The Weekend Australian, 25-26 January 2014.

We are training OP19 students to be teachers in Queensland - in 2014!

Queensland high school leavers in the bottom 8 per cent have been accepted into teaching courses in 2014.

 

The University of Queensland required Bachelor of Education students to have at least an OP11.

Queensland University of Technology's Kelvin Grove campus required Bachelor of Education students to have at least an OP13.

The Australian Catholic University required Bachelor of Education students to have at least an OP 16.

 

The Christian Heritage College accepted students with an OP19.

Dr Robert Herschell, Dean of Education at Christian Heritage College, said very few students at the lower end of the OP scale finished the course.

  

Bar low for teachers, Concerns as poor grade students get into education courses, Tanya Chilcott, P.7, The Courier-Mail, 25 January 2014.

Noel Pearson :  We are stuck with lots of low-OP teachers now, so we need to give them superior instruction materials.
The Howard government identified the need to fix the teaching of reading through the national reading inquiry in 2005.
 
But no effective implementation strategy was found and little progress has been made in the eight years since.
 
The seminal reports by McKinsey & Company in 2007 and 2010 set out the clearest blueprint on how school system reforms succeeded around the world.
 
Teachers have to carry the reforms, we get nowhere without them.

However, there is a difference between teacher quality and teaching quality, the noun and the verb.

The quality teacher may be characterised by higher intellectual aptitude, higher university entry standards and better initial teacher training.

Quality teaching may be characterised by superior instructional pedagogy and curricula.

Two lessons to take from understanding the subtle distinction between quality teacher and quality teaching:

First, teachers of average aptitude delivering superior instruction can make up for being average by delivering quality teaching.

Second, it will take less time to get average teachers to deliver better pedagogy that it will take to lift the mean aptitude of the profession, including higher university entry standards and initial teacher training.

Lifting teachers is a longer and more fraught aim.

Ordinary and average teachers can deliver effective instruction if they have the right training and programs that integrate properly designed curriculums with proven pedagogical practices.

Liberals believe granting public schools greater autonomy is key to school reform.

Giving principals powers over hiring and firing, budgets and devolving governance to school boards and so on.

This is partly right and partly wrong.

It is right in relation to good and great schools.

It is wrong in relation to poor and fair schools that still need to make the journey to good.

Failing schools require prescriptive interventions to become good.

Good schools require increased autonomy to become great.

This is plain from McKinsey's 2010 framework, where levels of autonomy depend on what stage of the reform journey a schools system -- or an individual school -- is at.

To give failing schools autonomy is folly, because it will merely continue to license failure.

 

Quality teaching would be easier to achieve than better teachers, Noel Pearson, man with the most amazing brain and chairman of the Cape York Institute for Policy and Leadership, The Australian, 6 July 2013 : http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/columnists/quality-teaching-would-be-easier-to-achieve-than-better-teachers/story-e6frg786-1226675078361

Peter Van Onselen : the right people to study teaching are not those who themselves struggled with the basics at school.

Peter Van Onselen is a professor at the University of Western Australia.

He writes that some students entering the tertiary system can't string a sentence together.

Improvements in teacher training at universities is one thing, but we must ensure that quality personnel enter the teaching profession.

Universities must pick the right people to study teaching.

Generally speaking, the right people are not people who themselves struggled with the basics at school.

We need to raise the requirements for anyone who wants to become a schoolteacher.

But for this to work, the profession needs to be attractive.

We need to offer teachers higher salaries, better working conditions and more respect.

 

 

Forget the electives : back to basics a must for education, Peter Van Olselen, P 18, Commentary, The Weekend Australian, 27-28 April 2013.

Adam Creighton : Teacher quality is slumping because of the teacher union push for smaller classes.
Smaller class sizes do not produce better results :
 
"Class-size reduction has been a costly policy that has not translated into a commensurate improvement in overall student outcomes," the Productivity Commission concluded in a report in May last year, which canvassed ways to improve teacher quality without spending a cent.

Andrew Leigh, federal Labor MP for Fraser, studied expenditures and outcomes at Australian schools between 1964 and 2003, during which time class sizes fell by about 40 per cent, and found "no evidence that the test scores of Australian pupils have risen over the past four decades, and some evidence that scores have fallen".

A landmark 2000 international study compared expenditure on schooling and student performance from 1970 to 1994 across 22 OECD countries.

Far from extra spending leading to better outcomes, the study by Erich Gundlach et al concluded "the quality of schooling output tends to have declined in those countries with the highest increase in the relative price of schooling".

As federal opposition education spokesman Christopher Pyne points out, education spending, even accounting for inflation, has increased by 40 per cent during the past decade.

The relentless rise in public spending on schools, ever smaller classes and constant or even dwindling outcomes are inextricably linked.

 

Julia Gillard's extra Gonski money will probably be used to reduce class sizes:

 

Australian students' flagging performance in global league tables -- dropping between 2000 and 2009 in mathematics and literacy -- prompted the Gonski review.

Julia Gillard's Gonski plan to boost school resources by an extra $14.5 billion across the next six years, based on recommendations by the 2011 Gonski review, will most likely help fund smaller classes still.

The Prime Minister's 1100-word press release stressed the huge increase in public spending without explaining how it would improve standards. 

 

Smaller classes lead to a slump in teacher quality :

 

In NSW 64 per cent of the $10bn spent annually on government schools comprises wages for teachers, rising to 77 per cent when school administrators are included.

Because the smaller the classes, the more teachers are required for a given student population.

And this leads to a slump in teacher quality.

"Lowering class sizes lifts the number of teachers but inevitably reduces the average quality of teachers because state governments will have to pay individual teachers less because public funding typically can't keep pace," says Moshe Justman, a professor of economics at the University of Melbourne specialising in education.

Lower wages for teachers lessens the attractiveness of the profession to other workers.

 

Asian schools have large classes :

 

Justman points out Australia dropped down the international standardised test rankings mainly against Asian countries. "Asian nations (which are poorer to begin with) typically spend less on education as a share of their national income, but their curricula attach a great deal of importance to standardised tests," he says. "They have larger class sizes and stricter discipline," he adds.

 

If spending ever more on education and reducing class sizes have been so wasteful, why does the trend continue, even accelerate?

 

Teachers unions in Australia and worldwide have been astonishingly successful at hoodwinking the public into thinking smaller classes matter.

The recent "I give a Gonski" campaign in Australia, complete with little, hapless children fitted out in campaign garb, tugs at the heartstrings of politicians and parents alike.

Who wouldn't want to help the children and support a better education?

 

 

This is a very interesting article, well worth reading in full :

Testing times for education, Adam Creighton, The Australian, 20 April 2013 :   http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/testing-times-for-education/story-e6frg6z6-1226624780567

Peter Van Onselen : many of our student teachers can't write properly.
There is a crisis in our universities that relates to the quality of written expression, and it directly affects primary and secondary schooling standards.

In a previous life I taught would-be teachers studying for a bachelor of education.

I was more than a little unimpressed with the standard of written expression of many students who were about to enter classrooms to begin their teaching careers.

Labor may have declared that an education revolution was on its way, but in the past five years literacy standards at schools have fallen - and they weren't all that great to start with.

The cycle is a vicious one if teachers are not adequately trained to fix the written expression problems of students.

And the private schools cherry-pick the limited number of new teachers who can properly string sentences together on a page.

 

Yes minister, there is a crisis in higher education, Peter Van Onselen, The Australian, 2 March 2013 : http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/yes-minister-there-is-a-crisis-in-higher-education/story-e6frg6zo-1226588532000

Madonna King : accepting students with an OP of 18 into university to study education is appalling policy.
How can authorities explain students with an OP of 18 being accepted into university to study education?

The answer is simple.

Despite decades of argument and billions in funding, we still don't value teaching as a profession.

The political posturing that goes on about lifting teaching standards is nothing more than cheap Canberra rhetoric.

The latest QTAC offers show school leavers can head off to study education with OPs between 14 and 18 at several universities across Queensland.

And even at the University of Queensland, where an OP of 11 is needed to get you through the door, entry requirements for education degrees are much lower than degrees such as exercise and sports science, which requires an OP of six.


The Gillard Government says it wants to lift our students' performance in reading, science and maths into the top five in the world by 2025.

How?

If we're not going to lift the standard of teaching, what's the chance of making that goal?

Nil.

And with seven out of eight teaching graduates failing to secure a permanent job with the Queensland Department of Education, what could possibly be the rationale for allowing so many education students into university in the first place?

It's appalling policy and bad politics, and it's cruel to those who spend years studying with no real hope of employment at the end of it.

 

Increasingly we hear of pushy parents who willingly criticise their child's teacher.

The behaviour of these pushy parents eats away at the respect with which the community holds teachers.

The response has been that many teachers, mid-career, chose to leave.

Until the Federal labor Government really commits to its education promises, the quality of our Queensland education system, and the treatment of those at its centre, our international scores will continue to limp along, and good teachers will continue to look elsewhere.

 

Our teachers are still not valued, Madonna King, The Courier-Mail, 26 January 2013 :  http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/opinion/our-teachers-are-still-not-valued-writes-madonna-king/story-e6frerc6-1226562039607

The low entry point for teaching is a reflection of social decay.

School leavers themselves know better than anyone the rubbish that teachers have to put up with so why would you expect them to finish school only to pay for a course that places them back in the classroom for their entire working life?

The low entry point for teaching is a reflection of social decay ... the lack of respect by a difficult minority, broken homes, poor parenting and government policy that fails to address this matter head on and protect the role of teachers.

Even though my wife is a terrific, dedicated teacher, I will strongly discourage my three kids from being teachers despite it being a noble profession.

 

 

Luke M of New Athens, Reader's Comment 10 of 12, Our teachers are still not valued, Madonna King, The Courier-Mail, 26 January 2013 :  http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/opinion/our-teachers-are-still-not-valued-writes-madonna-king/story-e6frerc6-1226562039607

We pander to mediocrity and appalling laziness in our Education undergraduate courses.

At a Brisbane Uni a 3rd year B.Ed. Tutorial group of 20 students were instructed to bring 'required readings' to class, including completed tasks related to the readings.

Only two students came to the Tutorial fully prepared, the others had not attempted any work at all.

The highly qualified and experienced Education Tutor 'revved' the kids up, explaining that this poor attitude would have devastating effects on their future classes and their performance in the classroom if rapid change did not occur.

Well, hooley dooley, the kids went to the Head of Dept, dobbed in the Tutor for being rude and demanding.

We lost that Tutor forever as the Head said, 'We don't do business your way'.

So are the 3rd yr. Edn. Uni students really winners?

Yes, and we will continue to come 7th in Australia at all National Testing levels, while we pander to mediocrity and appalling laziness in our Education under graduate courses.

So I can fully endorse the undervaluing of some Teachers that have clearly not made the grade at Uni.

Can Uni's really be trusted with their assessment criteria?

Bringing back the public perception of degrees 'not worth the paper they're written on'.

 

Rick O'Shea of Bulimba, Comment 11 of 12, Our teachers are still not valued, Madonna King, The Courier-Mail, 26 January 2013 :  http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/opinion/our-teachers-are-still-not-valued-writes-madonna-king/story-e6frerc6-1226562039607

Just sit in any primary staffroom and you will get the idea - a growing chunk of our teacher cohort is 'done up top'.
In December 2012, Australia's  scores on international measures of primary school literacy and numeracy were disastrous.
 
Australian pupils ranked lowest among English-speaking nations for reading and lagged in maths and science.
 
This poor performance has a number of causes.
 
No one seems to be talking about behaviour management.
 
A teacher can spend 80% of learning time just controlling behaviour.
 
Also, one or two dud teachers here and there makes no statistical difference.
 
The problem comes when a large chunk of the teacher cohort is under done up top.
 
We're at that dipping point now ... and it shows.
 
Just sit in any primary school staffroom & you get the idea.
 
There's little understanding of intellectual rigor & bright kids feel alienated because their teachers just don't 'get' them.
 
Very sad.
 
 
Jack from the West of Brisbane, Readers' Comment 3 of 11,  Universities told to raise bar for teachers, Stephen Matchett, The Australian, 24 December 2012 : http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/education/universities-told-to-raise-bar-for-teachers/comments-fn59nlz9-1226542761621
Kevin Donnelly : it is dangerous to have teachers who don't have a very high ability in maths or English going into our schools.
 
The Undergraduate Applications, Offers and Acceptances 2012 report found 532 students in the "50.00 or less" ATAR band were offered university places in teaching in 2012.

''It is very dangerous to have people doing an education degree going into the school and not being academically able," said Education Standards Institute director Dr Kevin Donnelly.

 "A lot of these graduates by their own admission don't have a very high ability in maths or English."

''It is wrong to suggest that everybody should go to university as not everybody has the ability, interest or motivation,'' Dr Donnelly said.

 

Low standards: Sub-par students let into teaching and nursing, Ben Pike, News Limited Network : 6 December 2012 :  

http://www.news.com.au/national/low-standards-sub-par-students-let-into-teaching-nursing/story-fndo4eg9-1226530628399?from=public_rss

Jane Caro : Thirty years ago, academically bright girls had limited career options - and so they became teachers.
 

Thirty years ago, if you were a girl who was academically bright, your career options were (un)fairly limited.

Career options for girls went like this: if you were smart – you became a teacher.

If you were a little less smart, you became a nurse.

If you were only average at school, it was secretarial college for you.

 

Some of the very best minds in the country went into teaching because - as girls - that was the only option they had.

Basically, what we have done for decades is cheerfully take advantage of these smart women.

Now, they are reaching retirement age.

We're about to lose the women (and men) who have been holding our schools together for as long as most of us can remember, and we are starting to panic.

We simply haven’t been attracting as many bright young people as we used to and that's because teaching has found itself in competition with other career options and hasn't kept up.

We are creating toxic employment conditions and our best and brightest men and women, those with the most options, walk away.

The current ATAR scores for entry into teaching degrees tell us exactly this story.

University entrance scores are a market-based system.

The more demand there is for the particular course, the higher the price, or, in this case, entrance score.

Unsurprisingly professions with high status, excellent working conditions and high salaries are those that attract the most applicants and so have the highest ATARs.

You attract great talent the same way in every profession.

You provide good working conditions.

Crumbling, draughty, leaking and run down schools where teachers must provide their own coffee, tea, milk, even toilet paper won't cut it.

You give your staff professional respect and courtesy, you trust them to know what they are doing and let them get on with it.

It's not rocket science.

 

A little respect: attracting top teachers is not rocket science, Jane Caro, The Drum, Opinion, ABC, 4 October 2012 :   http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/4293550.html

Dr Karen Brooks : setting a higher minimum standard for those wanting to enter the teaching profession makes a great deal of sense.
In a recent trial of numeracy and literacy, almost half the aspiring primary school teachers in Queensland found questions that Year 7 students were expected to answer challenging.
 
Having taught prospective teachers for years, I'm not surprised.
 
Too often, those entering teaching-related courses don't want to engage in the required studies.
 
Reading books, for example, is an anathema to them.
 
 
Editor's Note : This is amazingly true.
I once knew a lovely teacher who cheerfully admitted that she had never read a 'whole book' in her life.
I found this incredible.
I could not imagine living a life without books.
 
 
 
Poor spelling, grammar and an inability to string coherent sentences together result.
And there is an unwillingness to engage in critical thinking.
 
It's real.
 
It's happening.
 
And it's the result of a lack of quality in front of our classrooms.
 
After all, how can you teach what you couldn't or wouldn't learn yourself?
 
While empathy, compassion and a real love of teaching are essential to be successful in this job, raising the bar at the point of entry is also a great start.
Teaching degrees at various Queensland institutes have very different requirements for admission at the moment.
 
Australian Catholic university spokesman Julian Lesser says high marks don't necessarily guarantee a good teacher.
 
He's right.
 
But they do help prevent someone with low standards and indifferent abilities entering the classroom and teaching your child.
 
 
 
Those who have not learnt shouldn't be allowed to teach, Dr Karen Brooks, associate professor at the University of Queensland Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies, PP 20-21, The Courier-Mail, 19 September 2012
Sam Pidgeon, Queensland Teachers' Union Honorary Vice-President : a genuine belief in the power of education is more important than a student teacher's OP score.

Sam Pidgeon says : While an OP 17 may not shout academic excellence, it is teacher training and practical experience that shapes a person's readiness to teach, not their year 12 results.

... One might even argue that attributes such as a genuine belief in the power of education and a heartfelt desire to care for students and make a difference to their lives and the society we live in should be more desirable than a top OP score.

 

Robina Cosser says :

This is so Queensland.

Never mind your OP 17, just believe in the power of education and you can be a teacher!

 

WOW!  

And if I really, really believe in the power of medicine, Sam -

- and if I have a heartfelt desire to make a difference to your life,

- can I be your brain surgeon?

 

If I only had a blog ... Sam Pidgeon, QTU Honorary Vice-President, Opinion, p. 27, The Queensland Teachers' Journal, 6 July 2012, Volumen 117 Number 6.

John Ryan, Queensland College of Teachers : "Universities must provide extra tuition to education students who need support in literacy or numeracy".

11.8 per cent of high school graduates who entered teaching courses in 2012 had an equivalent of an OP 17 or worse.

About 3.6 per cent had an OP of 20 to 25.

Queensland College of Teachers director John Ryan said higher education institutions providing teacher education "must provide extra tuition to any student who needs support in literacy or numeracy".

 

Robina Cosser says: But how can these students study a uni course if they are not literate?

Surely students need to reach a certain level of literacy BEFORE they begin uni courses?

 

But Mr Ryan said the Queensland school-leaver figures were better than those nationwide.

"As a percentage, Queensland had more students with higher entry scores and less (fewer, Mr Ryan, fewer) people at the lower end of the scale than the rest of Australia entering teacher education.

"This data only applies to school-leavers and accounts for approximately 50 per cent of people entering teacher education."

 

Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek said school-leavers' OP results did not necessarily determine their ability to teach.

 

Teacher quality worry as OPs revealed , Tanya Chilcott, The Courier-Mail, 7 June 2012 : http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/teacher-quality-worry-as-ops-revealed/story-e6freoof-1226386776610

Education Queensland does not have a culture in which intelligence is rewarded.
There comes a time when a high school teacher has to be quite clever in delivering Maths B, Physics or Contemporary Art debates relating to aesthetics and deep meaning.
 
I have witnessed an older Maths teacher teaching young Maths teachers more challenging concepts, in order for them to teach a Maths A lesson.
 
Very sad.
 
The all rounder Primary teacher with an OP of 15 may be able to survive with conent knowledge, but would lack the spontaneous spark that comes with the brighter teacher.
 
Education Queensland does not have a culture of rewarding the highly skilled and highly intelligent teacher with promotion.
 
My experience was that animated show ponies that 'interviewed well' were given the nod and promoted after a one hour interview.
 
My concluding comment would be that there is a need to also investigate communication skills.
 
Some teachers and Principals have really poor, dare I say bogan, speech and children will model these appalling and frightful pronunciations.
 
 
Rick O'Shea of Bulimba, Comment 49 of 102, Teacher quality worry as OPs revealed , Tanya Chilcott, The Courier-Mail, 7 June 2012 : http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/teacher-quality-worry-as-ops-revealed/story-e6freoof-1226386776610
Teaching consists of stress, stress, stress and more stress. Other employment avenues are more attractive to high-OP students.
As an ex high school teacher I have become increasingly concerned at the OP levels of people admitted into teaching.
Teaching requires people who hold the best levels in academia; how else can you expect competent levels of resultant teaching?
If you admit the mediocre, then that is the level of teaching you will get in the class-room.
The problem is always that other employment avenues are far more attractive to the intelligent person as regards conditions, pay, promotion and job satisfaction when compared with those in the blackboard jungle.
 
Who today really wants a job consisting of stress, stress, stress and more stress, work overload, loss of self-dignity and active resentment from the very individuals you are being paid to teach ?
I wouldn't.
 
 
Tony Y of Blackbutt, QLD, Comment 28 of 102, Teacher quality worry as OPs revealed , Tanya Chilcott, The Courier-Mail, 7 June 2012 : http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/teacher-quality-worry-as-ops-revealed/story-e6freoof-1226386776610
The universities are using these low-OP education students as funding fodder.
OP 17 is not acceptable for a student teacher.
 
Universities are using these students as finance fodder.
 
Check the results of the trial test on teacher graduates.
 
There was an appalling failure rate by people awarded a degree by Qld universities who could not perform the most basic tasks of literacy and numeracy.
 
Our students deserve better
 
 
 
Don Wilson of Ipswich, Comment 4 of 102, Teacher quality worry as OPs revealed , Tanya Chilcott, The Courier-Mail, 7 June 2012 : http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/teacher-quality-worry-as-ops-revealed/story-e6freoof-1226386776610
There should be an OP cut-off for teaching. No student with a lower OP score should be accepted.
I sure as h*ll wouldn't want any of the OP 15+ people who finished high school in my year anywhere near my kids, or anyone else's for that matter.
It's an absolute joke.
Yes, you do need to have emotional intelligence to be a good teacher, but you also need to have a high enough IQ.
How to spell, multiply, divide, construct a sentence are very important. These are the fundamentals that everything else is built upon.
Yes, some people might be able to get their way through university with the aid of spell check and calculators, but you should still be able to complete basic maths and write an assignment without any outside assistance.
I worry about the future of humanity if our children are being taught by teachers who aren't very smart themselves.
There should be an OP cut-off, at which no lower is accepted.
I would think an OP of 10 would be a good point.
 
 
Marcus of Brisbane, Comment 42 of 102, Teacher quality worry as OPs revealed , Tanya Chilcott, The Courier-Mail, 7 June 2012 : http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/teacher-quality-worry-as-ops-revealed/story-e6freoof-1226386776610
Students with high OP scores do not want to be teachers. The problem is the low pay and the lack of respect.
It all comes down to pay and respect.
I'm a teacher with a high OP.
In comparison, students with the same OP as me are earning 50K or more than I am.
Why would a student with a high OP enter a teaching course only to get low pay, sworn at daily, disrespected and ridiculed?
 
Fed up, Comment 101 of 102, Teacher quality worry as OPs revealed , Tanya Chilcott, The Courier-Mail, 7 June 2012 : http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/teacher-quality-worry-as-ops-revealed/story-e6freoof-1226386776610
Some Queensland universities have been accepting education students with OP scores as low as 19.

In October 2010 the Queensland Government announced that it was considering requiring Education students to attain an OP score of 12 or better to gain entry to a teaching degree.

Some Queensland universities have been accepting Education students with OP scores as low as 19.

Teacher entry scores targeted in bid to lift classroom standards, Tanya Chilcott, The Courier-Mail, 16 October 2010.

You simply can't teach a subject you don't excel in yourself.
Very weak students (OP > 8) with an undergraduate BEd can possibly never be taught to teach.
 
You simply can't teach a subject which you don't excel in yourself or have an aptitude for.
 
 
B, Reader's Comment 30 of 225, Professionals could be Queensland teachers in six weeks, Tanya Chilcott, The Courier-Mail 21 February 2010 :  http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/professionals-could-be-queensland-teachers-in-six-weeks/story-e6freoof-1225832759831
When we lower the OP scores needed to be a teacher, do we expose students to the risk of harm?

A 43-year-old teacher on Thursday Island gave a 17-year-old student a printed copy of an email -

"Do you have a mobil (sic) ? Can I buy you one so I can call you?"

 

This is not the language or the behaviour of an intelligent man.

It seems to suggest that, when we lower the OP score required to be a Queensland teacher, we may expose Queensland students to a greater risk of harm.

Cairns region teachers in dangerous liaisons, Melanie Petrinec, The Cairns Post : 27 November 2010.

How can a low-achiever inspire students?

As a teacher myself, I'm all for increasing the OP required to get into Education at university.

It's an embarrassment when your fellow teachers don't have the academic abilities you would expect from someone who is supposed to be passing on these abilities to their students.

This is what is wrong with the education system these days in general - too much of a soft approach all over the place.

They are too scared to let anyone actually fail anymore and give too many chances all over the place.

Life isn't like that.

Make the OP required to study Education 12 or higher and, if students are dedicated and really want to teach, then they will find a way to reach that mark.

I would find it extremely hard to have any respect for a fellow teacher if they had only achieved an OP19 or similar - basically a low-achiever.

How would that inspire students?

Especially as the OP19 teacher most likely wouldn't be able to spell or use correct grammar ...

Toughen Up of Brisbane, Reader's Comment 58 of 108, Raising OP for teaching would hurt students, experts warn, Tanya Chilcott, The Courier-Mail, 18 October 2010.

Low OP score? Want desperately to be a teacher? You may need to look for another career.

It's a no-brainer.

Middling OP scores do not make good teachers.

Arguments often raised that high academic ability is not a determinant of excellence in the classroom are implausible.

Teachers need to be smart enough to teach content and skills well.

Many are not.

If you have achieved an OP score lower than mid-table at best, then it tells you something.

This is, bluntly, that you are likely to be not sufficiently able to teach the next generation of children well.

You might want desperately to be a rocket scientist but can't understand physics.

Look for another career.

Lessons to learn from OP scores, Christopher Bantick, Melbourne journalist, education commentator and teacher, The Courier-Mail, p. 33, Thursday 21 October 2010.

If you want excellence, you need a teacher who has achieved well themselves.

As a teacher of 30+ years and a classroom supervisor of wannabe student teachers, I have seen, generally, a horrible decline in the standard of people aspiring to be teachers : little natural intellectual curiosity, poor general knowledge, negligible interest in current affairs and the world beyond their own self interests and limited ability to fluently articulate their thoughts.

It is these qualities that high OP students actually have that enabled them to achieve highly at school.

If you want to be excellent at sport you would expect your coach would have achieved well in that sport; you wouldn't expect success if your coach had a mediocre personal record.

The same applies to school teaching.

Chalkie, Reader's Comment 52 of 104, Teacher entry scores targeted in bid to lift classroom standards, Tanya Chilcott, the Courier-Mail, 16 October 2010.

We need teachers who have been successful students themselves.

When I began my academic career in 1990, I was horrified to learn that the only students applying to enter teacher ed programs were those who couldn't get into any other course because their scores were so low, usually under 40/100.

These "teachers" are now in front of our classrooms.

They had low entry scores not because they were stupid but because they were really slack students, hardly the kind of people we want as classroom models.

They are why standards have dropped so far, why kids can't read or write or do maths, why "educators" want more and more soft subjects, where they get to teach their opinions rather than anything demanding or rigorous.

When students entering education courses have to be better, then the teacher graduates will be better too.

What the teaching profession needs are students who love learning, who are excited by it, who can pass on their enthusiasm and who have been successful students themselves.

Msbhavnmama of Mackay, QLD, Reader's Comment 4 of 14, Aptitude and academic excellence new must-haves for would-be teachers, Justine Ferrari, The Australian, 6 September 2010.

Some Queensland teachers are semi-literate. You have to try to work with them in a professional manner. It is difficult.

I left teaching, having been assaulted on several occasions.

I was also one of the few teachers in the school who could spell, write grammatically and with style and could teach.

Our English senior was semi-illiterate, the maths senior was really a sports teacher with no maths background who was given the job because no one else wanted it and the brilliant science senior ended up having a breakdown due to his treatment by staff and students.

Raising the quality of people entering the profession is essential.

Schools's out of SEQ, Reader's Comment 26 of 104, Teacher entry scores targeted in bid to lift classroom standards, Tanya Chilcott, The Courier-Mail, 16 October 2010.

 

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