Education roundtable: teacher training the key to helping students

Experts gathered in Perth today to discuss how to improve teacher education so they can better help Australian students with disability and learning difficulties including dyslexia. The roundtable, hosted by the Minister for Education, the Hon Christopher Pyne MP is the second in a series in which the Minister will hear directly from stakeholders on issues affecting students with special needs. Mr Pyne said that teacher quality is the single greatest in-school influence on student achievement and was the focus of the day’s discussions. “We know that 90 per cent of students with disability and learning difficulties are educated in mainstream Australian schools so you can be sure that most teachers will have a student with additional needs in their classroom,” Mr Pyne said. “It is critical that we enable teachers to work effectively with all students and for all schools across Australia to meet their obligations under the Disability Standards for Education. “The Government is committed to improving teacher quality, not because we think teachers aren’t doing a great job - but because teachers have the most significant impact on student engagement. “That is why the Government established the Teacher Education Ministerial Advisory Group (TEMAG) earlier this year, to provide advice on how teacher education programmes can be developed in order to better prepare teachers with the right mix of academic and practical skills needed to teach our young Australians.” The roundtable will be attended by members of the teaching profession, academics, disability and learning difficulties advocates, parents and students as well as TEMAG Chair Professor Greg Craven. Teacher quality is a key part of the Government’s Students First platform which is working to make a real difference for all Australian students through four pillars: improving teacher quality increasing school autonomy engaging parents in education strengthening the curriculum. After the roundtable Mr Pyne visited Dawson Primary School in Forrestfield to observe a ‘Let’s Decode’ teaching session being delivered to pre-service and post-graduate university students. Let’s Decode is a scientifically based approach to teaching beginning reading. The training session will enable the student teachers to learn and practice the explicit method of teaching phoneme awareness, phonics and systematic decoding instruction to young children. For further information on the roundtable, visit: www.studentsfirst.gov.au. 20 August 2014