The future`s looking good for 18 students spearheading a new University of Queensland teaching degree focused on the middle years of schooling — the only one in Australia.
At the end of first year, job prospects are booming and demand is expected to exceed the 60 new places available in 2003, according to Acting Program Director Dr Victoria Carrington.
The program, available via a dual degree or graduate entry, won a $5700 Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences Teaching Innovation Award this year.
Dr Carrington, formerly of the University of Tasmania, is one of a team drawn from as far afield as the USA, New Zealand and Canada to design and teach the program. The team includes Drs Donna Pendergast, Nan Bahr, Lisa Stephens, Lisa Hunter, Cushla Kapitzke, Jane Mitchell and Tony Wright .
The degree emphasises real-life, participatory teacher education, with a focus on integration. It includes five days of community service, 100 days of teaching placements in schools and lectures by specialist teachers already in the workforce as well as with the lecturing team.
Innovative group activities impart team management and participation skills as well as knowledge of particular disciplines. Tai Chi, for example, does double duty for students working on health and physical education.
Dr Carrington said other teacher-education institutions offered electives built around this age group, but the University of Queensland degree was a national first with spin-offs including a masters degree and a graduate certificate.
"This is a fabulous opportunity to become a new kind of teacher," she said.
"Graduates will be all-rounders but specialise in students aged 10-14 in Years 5-9. The idea is to boost social and academic outcomes for a group at risk of disengaging from the system. We want to keep them at school, and keep them learning."
Dr Carrington said that while Middle Schools were well-established in the USA as part of a three-tiered system, the shift in Australia and the U.K was more philosophical.
"The aim is seamless transitions, with teachers participating in the development of curricula rather than just its transmission," she said.
"Adolescence is a special time of change with lots of intellectual challenges and we need to tap into that as well as provide support.
"For example, this group embraces technology, but not just as an add-on like using word-processors for assignments. So we`re training teachers to be leaders, to work in professional teams and to design their pedagogy around the needs of students and the potential of new technologies."
Media: For more information, contact Dr Carrington (telephone 3381 1529 or email victoriacarrington@uq.edu.au)
