Brenton Hawken 11538282 Due Date: Friday 7th April 2017

EED408 Assessment 1 Value 50%

Australian Professional Standards supporting teachers professional teaching and
learning
The Australian Professional Standards (APS) for teachers aim to improve educational
outcomes for students by outlining what constitutes teacher quality, and clearly defining the
work of teachers and effective teaching in 21st century schools (Board of Studies, Teaching
and Educational Standards NSW, 2015). The standards focus on three domains of teaching:
Professional Knowledge (teachers knowledge of their students, knowing the curriculum and
subject content); Professional Practice (how to make learning engaging and valued for
students); and Professional Engagement (teachers identifying their own learning needs)
(Clarke & Pittaway, 2014, p. 412). During the interview, John expressed his concerns on
many aspects of the standards. John feels the APS are not supporting him as an experienced
teacher, as the focus for the standards is to justify my existence as a teacher (John, 2017).
John has 17 years of teaching experience and was teaching before the standards were
introduced. He explains that he feels: we are being forced to do extra paperwork, ticking
boxes for the sake of it and jumping through hoops just to prove we are a decent teacher or
not (John, 2017). He adds that the standards can be useful for justifying going on
professional learning courses and they do help when writing his professional development
programs (John, 2017).

Do you think for a pre-service teacher coming into the career knowing these
standards, it would be more helpful and beneficial to me? (supplementary
question)

Hearing these concerns from an experienced teacher worried me, so I followed up with the
above supplementary question. John pointed out that: the standards will help you get your
accreditation during the early years, but after that I feel to maintain your accreditation, you
are just going to be looking at these standards and trying to tick a box (John, 2017). As a
pre-service teacher, it is important to remain open minded and accepting of many different
views. Although Johns opinion of the Teaching standards is rather negative, I must continue
to explore the standards to form my own opinion on whether they are useful to me. I believe
the standards are a helpful tool in developing quality teaching in Australia, and are useful in
helping me succeed whilst on my journey to becoming a successful teacher.