Tertiary practitioner education training and support – Taking stock

Dr Peter Coolbear foreshadows the findings of this comprehensive stocktake of tertiary qualifications.

As outlined in the November issue of Ako Aotearoa Alert, Ako Aotearoa recently commissioned Projects International to undertake a stocktake of qualifications and formal and informal support available to new tertiary teachers in New Zealand. The project included a detailed survey of qualifications available in New Zealand, an evaluation of enrolment patterns and completion data, interviews with a range of key providers and online surveys of tertiary education organisations about selection development and support for new staff. This comprehensive piece of work is now nearing completion and will be published towards the end of May.

The stocktake raises significant questions for the tertiary decision makers and tertiary professional development community in New Zealand about the nature of professional development provision for new teachers in the tertiary sector.

Key findings from the work are outlined below.

• Different parts of the tertiary sector are in the process of rethinking their approaches to the induction and support of new teaching staff. However, approaches vary widely from institution to institution.
• Publicly available summary data on the range of qualifications available for tertiary teachers is confusing. Initial keyword searches of national databases indicated there were 106 qualifications available to tertiary teachers from certificate to master’s level. However, almost a quarter of these were identified as not intended for the education and training of tertiary staff. Of the 81 qualifications correctly identified by the metadata, 62 were active.
• More than 8,000 people gained a tertiary teaching qualification between 2004 and 2008, with over 75 percent gaining qualifications at Levels 4 or 5. Of the Level 4 and 5 certificates gained, 74 percent were national  certificates.
• A significant number of qualifications do not appear to be graduating sustainable numbers of students. For example, 75 percent of all qualifications awarded during this period were for completions in just 13 percent of the qualifications (three national and five local).
• Graduate profiles for different qualifications are highly variable. Many provide very limited information about the skills, knowledge and attributes that employers may expect from graduates.
• It is difficult to identify clear academic progression between qualifications at Levels 4, 5 and 6 or between Levels 8 and 9 in published graduate profiles. The popularity of local Level 6 qualifications fell dramatically between 2004, when there were 243 qualifications issued, and 2008, when 11 were issued. Data suggests that demand for postgraduate qualifications is increasing.
• There are distinct differences between different parts of the sector in the importance attached to teaching qualifications. Private training establishments (PTE s) place a higher value on prior teaching experience and qualifications as a selection criteria than other parts of the sector, but most institutes of technology and polytechnics (ITPs) and PTEs require full-time staff to gain tertiary teaching qualifications, or the equivalent, after
  starting employment. Around half of the respondents in both of these subsectors require part-time staff to gain
  such qualifications.
• There are distinct differences between sectors in the types of support offered to new teaching staff. A much larger proportion of ITPs offer reduced workloads to support new teaching staff than either universities or PTEs. The majority of PTEs, and just under half of the ITPs, offer mentor support, while team teaching is also a favoured support approach in a large number of PTEs. Most providers offer induction programmes to new staff, with these programmes having very similar content, with the exception that the universities generally do not include moderation of assessment as a significant component of their programmes.
• Most industry training organisations (ITOs) require their assessors to undertake formal training in assessment and offer induction courses for new assessors. Most responding ITO s use mentoring support for new staff and/or membership of assessor networks as key components of support programmes.

One of the most interesting (and perhaps surprising) findings of the study is that we have been unable to identify any
consensus on the core competencies for new tertiary teachers. There is clearly scope for further discussion here and we
intend to pursue this in the near future.