This report provides recommendations intended to achieve improvements in both the content and delivery of initial teacher education courses in Australia.

Executive summary

The evidence is clear: enhancing the capability of teachers is vital to raising the overall quality of Australia’s school system and lifting student outcomes. Action to improve the quality of teachers in Australian schools must begin when they are first prepared for the profession.

Initial teacher education in Australia has been the subject of a large number of reviews, but the outcomes have had limited impact on the policy and practice of developing new teachers. The goal of the Teacher Education Ministerial Advisory Group is to provide strong, implementable options to initiate genuine national reform.

It is clear that there is significant public concern over the quality of initial teacher education in Australia. This concern is intensified by both media comment and political intervention.

There is much debate over entrant selection and the desirable balance between academic skills and personal characteristics. There are mixed views on what teachers need to know, how they should teach, and how best to integrate theory and practice to have a measurable impact on student learning. Debate extends to assessment of classroom readiness and support for graduate teachers once they enter the profession.

The Advisory Group found a high degree of variability in the quality of practice across initial teacher education in Australia. There are examples of excellent practice, where providers deliver evidence-backed programs that are constantly reviewed and improved. Disturbingly, there are also significant pockets of objectively poor practice, and these must be addressed decisively. It is the Advisory Group’s view that the standard across all initial teacher education programs must be lifted. A culture of high expectations, best practices and continuous improvement is necessary to give Australian parents, students and the community confidence in those delivering school education.

Higher education providers and the teaching profession must together embrace the opportunity to fully participate in a reformed, integrated system of initial teacher education. This participation will be essential in embedding the reforms necessary to deliver high-quality teaching in every Australian school.

The Australian Government has a vital role to play in driving this structural and cultural change. National leadership is needed to bring providers, the government and non-government sectors and schools together to transform initial teacher education, so that every Australian school student has an effective teacher drawn from a high-quality, national teaching profession.