IEUA Speaks on Professional Experience Guidelines
Professional Experience Guidelines highlight the importance of a professional approach to workplace practicums
1 November 2024
The Australian Professional Experience Guidelines, (the Guidelines) released today, offer the opportunity for a renewed focus on the components of effective high quality professional teacher experience.
The Guidelines were developed by AITSL, who were commissioned to lead the work, based on the final report of the Teacher Education Expert Panel’s Strong Beginnings: Report of the Teacher Education Expert Panel. Consultation took place across sectors and with many stakeholders, including with the IEU.
Our union has consistently raised the importance of strong partnerships and collaborative relationships between Initial Teacher Education (ITE) providers, schools/early childhood settings and systems that clarify the requirements, expectations, roles, and responsibilities of key stakeholders. It is only through a commitment to shared responsibilities that ITE students can access the support they need to develop appropriate skills and knowledge, and eventually meet the criteria required by the Australian Professional Teaching Standards for Graduates.
The IEU has also long advocated for a greater focus on establishing structured and regular support for teachers who take on the demands of guiding and assisting ITE students during their professional experience. For too long, some ITE providers and schools have relied on teacher goodwill to provide this critical support, exhausting the priceless resource embodied by experienced teachers and exacerbating already unsustainable workloads.
The Guidelines require ITE providers and schools to develop memorandums of understanding, and to consider critical support measures for supervising teachers including additional time release, high-quality professional learning in preparation for supervision, financial incentives, enhanced recognition (such as crediting mentoring hours towards registration requirements), resources to support supervising teachers in assessing pre-service teachers, and the evaluation of existing workloads of supervising teachers. These measures are likely to elevate the status of the teacher supervising role and encourage participation by experienced teachers.
There is also an appropriate focus on the wellbeing of ITE students and recommendations on support to be offered to ITE students who will be participating in a practicum while engaged in employment, an increasingly common occurrence due to the ongoing teacher shortages across sectors.
IEU members have a clear understanding of the integral role of high-quality professional experience in the development of classroom-ready teachers. The Guidelines offer an opportunity for a reset of professional experience for ITE students in Australia. It’s an opportunity too good to waste.
