AFMLTA 2009: 9 – 12 July 2009
Dialogue Discourse, Diversity
Sydney, Australia
Penelope Johnstone
Oatley Public School
Olivier Maxted
Richmond River High School

Overview:
1. Reflection on own teaching
2. Investigate standards overseas
3. PSP in Australia
4. Activity – 8 Standards
5. Sharing of opinions on PSP
6. Where next?
2

Question:
Why did you become a teacher?
3

Was it because….?
• A desire to share the joy of learning.
• Enjoy the company of young people.
• Lots of holidays!
© Commonwealth of Australia 2007 4

Question:
How do we prepare students for
the modern world?
5

• ‘One size fits all’ approach
• Embrace diversity and encourage
students to find their niche in a
globalised world.
© Commonwealth of Australia 2007 6

Question:
Why are teachers the first ones
targeted during a revolution?
7

Is it because…
a) Former students want revenge?
c) Officers haven’t completed their
assignments?
e) We’re the ones who know how to
effectively organise groups of people.
8

Answer:
• Worldwide acknowledgement of how
teachers build society
As a profession we recognise this and
seek to ensure that professional
standards are maintained.
9

Question:
• What are the standards that underpin your
own teaching?
10

What are the standards that
underpin your own teaching?
• Please share your ideas.

Teaching Standards
Overseas

Teaching Standards in the USA
A key influence on the debate in
Australia is the USA’s NBPTS:
www.nbpts.org/
• Voluntary organisation since 1993
• Less than .04% of teachers are
registered
13

Professional Standards in the UK
• Since 2007 the Training and
Development Agency for Schools
(TDA) uses professional standards to
www.tda.gov.uk/
assess teacher competence.
14

The TDA in the UK
• The framework of professional standards for
teachers defines the characteristics of
teachers at each career stage.
• Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) (Q)
• Teachers on the main scale (Core) (C)
• Teachers on the upper pay scale (Post
Threshold Teachers) (P)
• Excellent Teachers (E)
• Advanced Skills Teachers (ASTs) (A)
15

Teaching standards across
the Curriculum
• Principal and teaching associations are
working with Teaching Australia to
develop national profession-wide
standards.
• NSW Institute of Teachers has
developed a set of Professional
Teacher Standards.

Since 2007 Professional
Standards for Teachers have
been used for registration
purposes in Queensland
17

Developing Professional
Standards in Australia
• In 2004, the AFMLTA was granted
funding by the former DEST to
develop professional standards for
languages teaching. This produced a
set of professional standards which
were designed to be generic across
languages.
18

Aim of the Professional Standards
Project
To improve student outcomes
through quality language teaching
© Commonwealth of Australia 2007 19

Overview of the PSP - Professional
Standards Project
• A nationally coordinated professional learning
programme for teachers of languages
• Australian Government funded project
undertaken to support the implementation of
the MCEETYA National Statement for
Languages Education in Australian Schools
and the National Plan for Languages
Education in Australian Schools 2005-2008
• Uses the Professional Standards for
accomplished teaching of languages and
cultures as a framework designed to enhance
professional practice
© Commonwealth of Australia 2007
20

About The Standards
The Standards:
• provide a platform for teachers to
identify and then guide their
continuing professional development
• Inform programme development for
pre-service education
• Represent the aspirations of the
teaching profession
© Commonwealth of Australia 2007 21

Accomplished languages and
cultures teaching
8 Dimensions generic across
languages:
• Educational theory and practice
• Language and culture
• Language pedagogy
• Ethics and responsibility
© Commonwealth of Australia 2007 22

Accomplished languages and
cultures teaching
(cont’d)
• Professional relationships
• Awareness of wider contexts
• Advocacy
• Personal characteristics
© Commonwealth of Australia 2007 23

Language Specific Annotations
• The AFMLTA first developed language
specific annotations of the Standards
document for Indonesian.
• Using this document as a template
they collaborated with teachers to
develop language specific annotations
for a further six languages (Chinese,
French, German, Italian,
Japanese, Spanish).
© Commonwealth of Australia 2007 24

Delivery of the Professional Standards
Project
• 10 modules were delivered by way of
professional learning materials in each
state and territory.
• A total of 400 languages teachers
from all sectors and year levels across
Australia have participated in the
programme.
© Commonwealth of Australia 2007 25

Delivery of Modules
Modules were divided into 2 streams:
• Stream A: 2x3 hour modules aim to
familiarise teachers with the
dimensions of the Standards
• Stream B: 8x3 hour modules focused
on educational theory and
practice, language and culture and
language pedagogy. Teachers
participating in Stream B undertook
classroom investigations.
© Commonwealth of Australia 2007 26

Activity
Match The Standards to their description.
• Educational theory and practice
• Language and culture
• Language pedagogy
• Ethics and responsibility
• Professional relationships
• Awareness of wider contexts
• Advocacy
• Personal characteristics

Educational theory and practice
• Accomplished languages and cultures
teachers have knowledge of
child/learner development appropriate
to the level at which they teach and
apply this knowledge in all aspects of
their teaching.

Language and Culture
• Accomplished languages and cultures
teachers are both users and teachers
of linguistic and cultural knowledge.
• They have a knowledge of the
language(s) and culture(s) they teach
which enables them to participate
readily in interactions in the language
in and out of the classroom. In
addition, they have a developed
intercultural awareness and know how
to communicate across languages and
cultures.

Language pedagogy
• Accomplished languages and cultures
teachers have a developed
understanding of the language
learning process. Their
understanding comes from their
formal and informal learning about
teaching and learning and also from
their own experiences of being a
language teacher and user, either of
the language they teach or of another
language.

Ethics and responsibility
• Accomplished languages and cultures
teachers take responsibility for the
teaching and learning relationships
and for social and cultural
relationships in their teaching.
• They seek to enable students to
understand issues from multiple
perspectives so that they can make
their own choices and judgments.

Professional relationships
• Accomplished languages and cultures
teachers are part of a professional
educational community and they
establish professional relationships
with other languages and cultures
teachers, with teachers in other
disciplines, with students, with
parents and with school communities.

Active engagement with wider
context
• Accomplished languages and cultures
teachers actively engage with the
social, political, economic and
technological climate of the times.
• Languages and cultures teaching is
fundamentally about relationships to
wider contexts and the ability to
connect the local to the global.

Advocacy
• Accomplished languages and cultures
teachers are advocates for language
learning, intercultural communication
and intercultural sensitivity, linguistic
and cultural diversity.

Personal characteristics
• Accomplished languages and cultures
teachers are passionate about
languages and cultures and about
teaching.
• They connect and engage with their
learners and inspire students and
others.

Accomplished languages and
cultures teaching
Activity – order of importance
• Educational theory and practice
• Language and culture
• Language pedagogy
• Ethics and responsibility
• Professional relationships
• Awareness of wider contexts
• Advocacy
• Personal characteristics
© Commonwealth of Australia 2007 36

Benefits of the Professional Standards
Project
• Networking opportunities and
collaboration across languages at the
State/Territory level
• Providing teachers with access to
ongoing support throughout the
professional development programme
• Learning how to use the Standards in
teaching of specific languages
© Commonwealth of Australia 2007 37

Benefits of the Professional Standards
Project
• Encourage teachers to reflect on
professional knowledge and practice
and to develop self assessment skills
• Increasing teachers’ capacity to
engage with students in collaborative
construction of their learning area
knowledge and understanding
• To develop greater awareness of how
to work towards attaining the
attributes and capabilities embodied
in the Standards
© Commonwealth of Australia 2007 38

Conclusion
Professional outcomes
• Involvement in the PSP Project enabled
teachers to develop a deeper understanding
of the dimensions which form the basis of the
Professional Standards for Accomplished
Teachers of Language and Culture (2005),
thus enhancing and informing teaching
practice.
Personal outcomes
• Participation in the PSP Project provided
teachers with the opportunity to network with
other language educators from varying
teaching backgrounds and contexts across the
State.
© Commonwealth of Australia 2007 39

Collegiate survey
• What comments do you have about the
idea of a national system of
professional standards?
40

Comments:
• It should assist teacher mobility
between states.
• Would be a good idea but I doubt if it
can happen smoothly or efficiently.
• For such a small nation we need to
have a more uniform standard of
educational delivery. States having
their own systems does not allow for
subject associations to grow.
41

Comments:
• Is there funding and how would it be
monitored and evaluated?
• What is the purpose? Who pays?
• Depends on who is developing the
standards. teachers? managers?
industry people? who is to decide
what and who is of a professional
standard? Whose interests are being
met?
42

Comments:
• What happens if you don’t get the
standards?
• Good if all tackle education with a
common philosophy and set of
standards
• Standard approaches lead to better
outcomes for students
43

What did I learn?
•Excellent opportunity to form
or extend links with
colleagues from around the
state.
•Given me a framework for
further professional
development

What did I learn? continued
• Confirmed why I decided
to become a languages
teacher; put it back into a
larger context.
• Investigated the tools of
my trade, such as
assessment, from a
Professional Standards
viewpoint.

Above all, the PSP:
• Reminded me that I’m not
just a teacher of a subject,
I teach CHILDREN.

Where next?
• Professional Standards Project
Phase 2:
• To be conducted by the AFMLTA,
2009-2010. Approval has been given for the
AFMLTA to collaborate with the team at the
Research Centre for Languages and
Cultures at the University of South Australia
to prepare Stream C which will focus on
assessment.
47

olivier.maxted@det.nsw.edu.au