The preparation of Mathematics Teachers in Australia - ACDS

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Table 7.1 Schools experiencing difficulty recruiting mathematics teachers, grouped by state Responses from head of mathematics to the question: Does your school have difficulty recruiting mathematics teachers? Total number of responses Yes (%) Sometimes (%) No (%) All schools 607 39.0 33.1 27.8 ACT 11 36.4 9.1 54.5 NSW 166 38.5 27.7 33.7 NT 11 45.5 54.5 0.0 QLD 104 47.1 33.7 19.2 SA 75 34.7 45.3 20.0 TAS 22 50.0 40.9 9.1 VIC 141 35.5 31.9 32.6 WA 77 36.4 32.5 31.2 60 50 No Yes Sometimes 40 30 20 10 0 HA (n=433) A (n=100) MA (n=52) R & VR (n=22) ARIA Figure 7.1 Schools reporting difficulty in recruiting mathematics teachers, expressed as a proportion of the total number of schools responding per ARIA category [HA = highly accessible; A = accessible; MA = moderately accessible; R = remote; VR = very remote). The differences seen are significant [p
In previous years I have had little problem, but I recently placed an ad for one full time position and received no applicants that I considered worthwhile [Highly Accessible school in New South Wales with 10 mathematics teachers] There is not the same number of suitable candidates as in the past. In the end, you take the best of an ordinary lot [Highly Accessible school in Victoria with 23 mathematics teachers] Particularly in recent years, there seems to be a lack of graduates with a Maths major – it is more common to have it as an add-on [Highly Accessible school in South Australia with 13 secondary classes] We have found recently there seems to be less maths teachers available who have a major in mathematics – ie less available for senior school teaching [Highly Accessible school in South Australia with 20 mathematics teachers] We have not recruited a Maths Methods or Specialist Maths teacher for over ten years now. 3 teachers over 50 (years of age) teach these units [Highly Accessible school in Victoria with 14 mathematics teachers] Faced with a shortage of ‘maths-qualified’ teachers, particularly for seniors school teaching, there was a tendency for schools to move their most experienced teachers to senior classes and fill ‘gaps’ at junior school level with less qualified staff. We usually need to use lesser-qualified teachers (ie maths as 2 nd teaching area or not a teaching area at all) to fill all junior classes [Remote school in Queensland with 11 mathematics teachers] There are more Maths classes than the number of classes taught by Maths teachers … ie teachers outside the Maths Faculty are brought in to teach. They do not have the experience, knowledge or dedication to deliver meaning and good understanding [Highly Accessible school in Queensland with 13 mathematics teachers] One in five comments referred to difficulties linked to location or school type. Country school. We have difficulty recruiting teachers, let alone trained maths teachers [Accessible school in SA with 8 mathematics teachers] Mainly due to geographic location. The school is a small country school. This poses a general difficulty in attracting staff – not specifically mathematics staff [Accessible school in Victoria with 3 mathematics teachers] Isolated area, small school, they have to teach over several disciplines [Remote school in South Australia with 5 mathematics teachers] Being a large provincial town, we run into the situation where we lose specialist Maths graduates soon after they arrive at the school, because they are called on to do their “country service” in 1 st and 2 nd year here [Moderately Accessible school in Queensland with 21 mathematics teachers] We are an outer metropolitan school in a less affluent area. Many students are not academically inclined. We do not have a lot of applications by Maths teachers, especially if they want to work in an academically rigorous situation. Travel is also an issue for many [Highly Accessible school in South Australia with 8 mathematics teachers] A further 18 per cent of comments referred to difficulties filling short-term and ‘block’ vacancies, such as those that arose through maternity and long-service leave. These included school which otherwise reported no difficulties. Maths casuals are very rare in our area. Our whole department will retire within 7 years [Accessible school in New South Wales with 9 mathematics teachers] It is very difficult to source casual teachers with a mathematics background - (Yet) we are a popular school on the coast and teachers want to work in our location [Highly Accessible school in New South Wales with 5 mathematics teachers] It’s getting hard to find replacement teachers (especially for temporary and part-time) who are skilled, qualified and experienced. Many are being recruited after retirement [Highly Accessible school in South Australia with 8 mathematics teachers] When we need a contract person to replace someone on long service leave the pickings are poor. To replace a Year 11 or 12 teacher is practically impossible [Highly Accessible school in South Australia with 15 mathematics teachers] 46
Page 2 and 3:
The Preparation of Mathematics Teac
Page 4 and 5:
Contents Contents..................
Page 6 and 7:
Table 6.3 Average age of secondary
Page 8 and 9: Recommendations: The Australian Cou
Page 10 and 11: • Heads of mathematics expressed
Page 12: Acknowledgements This report was pr
Page 15 and 16: Chapter 2: The study’s purpose, m
Page 17 and 18: Questions involving named school su
Page 19 and 20: Box 1: Definitions of selected term
Page 21 and 22: Table 3.1 Responses to survey of he
Page 23 and 24: 60.0% 50.0% 40.0% New South Wales Q
Page 25 and 26: Table 3.5 The number of respondents
Page 27 and 28: Table 3.7 Range of teaching respons
Page 29 and 30: • The expectation of most heads w
Page 31 and 32: In light of the recognised differen
Page 33 and 34: Chapter 5: Mathematics teachers - t
Page 35 and 36: Table 5.2 Number of units of mathem
Page 37 and 38: 100% 80% 60% 40% major less than ma
Page 39 and 40: Table 5.6 Teachers’ perceptions o
Page 41 and 42: Table 5.7 Teachers’ comments rega
Page 43 and 44: Further analysis revealed a relatio
Page 45 and 46: 5.6 Tertiary qualifications of math
Page 47 and 48: Table 6.1 Responses received to the
Page 49 and 50: difference was marked by a ‘spike
Page 51 and 52: 400 350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 20
Page 53 and 54: 250 200 < 5 yrs experience (n=479)
Page 55 and 56: Table 6.8 Career plans of early car
Page 57: Chapter 7: Recruiting and retaining
Page 61 and 62: 7.2 The career plans of mathematics
Page 63 and 64: (Yes) - Getting too old to teach PE
Page 65 and 66: have contributed to this trend, inc
Page 67 and 68: Chapter 8: What attracts people to
Page 69 and 70: 8.2 Suggestions for attracting more
Page 71 and 72: Chapter 9: Conclusions The growing
Page 73 and 74: Appendix 1: Schools surveyed - addi
Page 75 and 76: Table A1.4 Number of responses from
Page 77 and 78: Appendix 3: Demographics of mathema
Page 79: References Barrington, F. and Brown
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The preparation of Mathematics Teachers in Australia - ACDS

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