The preparation of Mathematics Teachers in Australia - ACDS

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Australia were causing dissatisfaction and concern among teachers and heads of mathematics in that state. Career uncertainty was highest among young, early-career teachers. This highlights the value in providing a supportive and attractive school environment if the loss of large numbers of new teachers is to be avoided. The findings point to a trend in recent years for teachers to have come to teaching as a ‘second profession’. It is worth noting that early-career teachers who have followed this pathway were more certain of their future as teachers than were their first-profession colleagues. Irrespective of their qualifications, teaching experience or pattern of teaching responsibilities, mathematics teachers encouraged the provision of ongoing professional development opportunities. They valued professional development that was practical, relevant to the discipline, and that encouraged greater networking and sharing of ideas and resources. Attracting people to careers in mathematics teaching Both heads and teachers advocated greater financial incentives in order to attract more people to mathematics teaching in the future. They also described a need to promote both mathematics and teaching in schools, universities and society more broadly. Societal attitudes toward the teaching profession were of concern to many teachers, and seen as a disincentive for people considering a career in teaching. The demand for teachers with strong mathematics backgrounds is set to increase dramatically in coming years. Governments and universities need to be alert to this, and to be ensuring that sufficient numbers of graduates have the necessary knowledge, skills and motivation to meet the rising demand. Failure to do so will have consequences beyond secondary schools. Mathematical understanding is central to many disciplines, studies and professions. Australia cannot afford to compromise the ability of schools to offer the best in mathematics teaching. 59
Appendix 1: Schools surveyed – additional information A.1.1 Schools surveyed A database of school details was obtained from a commercial source, Prime Prospects (Melbourne). Permission to survey government schools was sought and obtained from the relevant state and territory based government authorities. Catholic diocese’/Archdiocese’ were approached for permission to survey Catholic schools. Permission was received from all except three that did not respond. The 23 schools they represented were therefore excluded from the survey. All independent schools were contacted directly. In total, 2808 schools were surveyed. A.1.2 Further description of the dataset State and sector responses are detailed in Chapter 2. The following tables detail responses from: different ARIA regions (Table A1.1); country and metropolitan schools (Table A1.2); schools of different sizes (Table A1.3); and schools offering various year level combinations (Table A1.4). Table A1.1 Number of responses from teachers, heads and schools, grouped by state/territory and ARIA code. Schools represented by teacher response(s), head response, or both Highly Accessible (n=1927 schools surveyed) Accessible (n=436 schools surveyed) Moderately Accessible (n=218 schools surveyed) Remote or Very Remote (n=227 schools surveyed) Teachers (n) Heads (n) Schools (n) Schools (% response rate) Teachers (n) Heads (n) Schools (n) Schools (% response rate) Teachers (n) Heads (n) Schools (n) Schools (% response rate) Teachers (n) Heads (n) Schools (n) Schools (% response rate) ACT 68 11 16 36 * * * * * * * * * * * * NSW 531 120 170 27 156 36 59 35 22 9 9 21 6 2 4 22 NT * * * * 33 6 8 42 2 1 1** 100 18 4 5 10 QLD 302 71 85 29 48 11 19 26 79 18 24 31 22 5 10 21 SA 233 53 67 42 46 11 14 34 29 7 9 38 11 6 7 22 Tas 79 13 19 33 19 9 9 27 1 1 1** 13 0 0 0** 0 Vic 792 121 173 31 67 18 18 26 38 9 12 41 * * * * WA 275 57 71 38 22 9 12 34 16 7 11 31 9 6 9 12 all 2280 446 601 31 391 100 139 32 187 52 67 31 66 23 35 15 * No schools listed in this classification ** Fewer than ten schools surveyed in this region Note regarding ARIA codes Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia (ARIA) categories: schools were classified into one of 5 ARIA categories. These are based on road distances to large population centres, and excude any reference to socioeconomic status or urban/rural environment. From most to least accessible they are: Highly Accessible (HA); Accessible (A); Moderately Accessible (MA); Remote (R) and Very Remote (VR). 60
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The Preparation of Mathematics Teac
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Contents Contents..................
Page 6 and 7:
Table 6.3 Average age of secondary
Page 8 and 9:
Recommendations: The Australian Cou
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• Heads of mathematics expressed
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Acknowledgements This report was pr
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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 and 58: Chapter 7: Recruiting and retaining
Page 59 and 60: In previous years I have had little
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: Chapter 9: Conclusions The growing
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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