The teacher trainee challenge

Radio NZ reports:

The Education Review Office says too many new teachers feel poorly prepared for their jobs.

In a report published on Monday, the review office said 60 percent of the principals it interviewed said their new teachers were not ready.

So if this was a normal enterprise, if 60% of your customers were unhappy with your product, you’d be in deep trouble.

It called for an exit exam for graduating teachers, higher entry standards, and a push to attract the most academically able students.

It also recommended the Teaching Council review the effectiveness of different teaching courses.

ERO’s Education Evaluation Centre head Ruth Shinoda said some new teachers were unprepared in key areas.

“Concerningly, we have found that new teachers are not prepared in key areas that really matter.

“For example, over a third of teachers said they were not able to manage classroom behaviour when they started in the role and a third of new primary school teachers said they were unprepared to teach science.

Hey its just science!

ERO Education Evaluation Centre head Ruth Shinoda told Morning Report non-universities were better at preparing teachers.

This doesn’t surprise me.

In my experience the old teachers colleges while far from perfect, did reasonably well on practical skills for teachers. Then many of them got taken over by universities and came under control of academics who often put ideological theory first.