Initial Teacher Education Research Programme - A Summary of Four Studies

Overview of the project

Until the 1990s, New Zealand teachers completed their initial teacher education in one of a small number of specialist colleges of education. The deregulation of teacher education, the introduction of a competitive market, and changes in funding policies in the 1990s saw significant growth in the number of new providers and qualifications. By 2005, there were 27 providers offering 85 different qualifications.

Since 1996, there has been a series of reviews of initial teacher education, such as the Education and Science Parliamentary Select Committee inquiry, which indicated disquiet about the quality of initial teacher education in New Zealand. But there has been no clear evidence for the concerns, and, in particular, no national review of initial teacher education that takes into account the diversity of qualifications being offered.

National and international research shows the significant impact teachers have on the quality of teaching and learning and the correlation between initial teacher education and quality of teaching and learner achievement.¹

Government policies focusing on teaching quality and anecdotal evidence about quality and variability of initial teacher education have reinforced the need for systematic research to inform future policy and practice.

To meet this need, the Ministry of Education and the New Zealand Teachers Council, in 2004 and 2005, commissioned a research programme comprising four studies. With the exception of the first study, which focused on primary and secondary, the studies are of early childhood, primary and secondary initial teacher education. Together, the studies provide a comprehensive overview of the characteristics of initial teacher education in New Zealand.

For more background information on research on initial teacher education in New Zealand, refer to Cameron and Baker, pp. 13–24.

The four studies

The four studies commissioned by the Ministry of Education and the Teachers Council are:

• Quality of Initial Teacher Education: Analysis of New Zealand Teachers Council Documentation. This small study of a sample of archived initial teacher education programme approval documents and monitoring reports held by the New Zealand Teachers Council was conducted by Marie Cameron in February 2004.
• Research on Initial Teacher Education in New Zealand: 1993–2004. Literature Review and Annotated Bibliography. This literature review and annotated bibliography was completed by Marie Cameron and Robyn Baker, of the New Zealand Council for Educational Research.
• Initial Teacher Education Policy and Practice. This is a systematic description of initial teacher education in the early childhood, primary and secondary sectors in New Zealand. The lead researcher was Professor Ruth Kane, College of Education, Massey University.

• Perspectives of People outside Tertiary Institutions Involved in Initial Teacher Education: Working Paper. This paper explores what those involved in teacher education, excluding providers, understand as quality initial teacher education. The lead researcher was Dr Janinka Greenwood of the Christchurch College of Education.

Summary of the four studies

This report provides an overview of the four studies in the research programme, and the key themes they identify. It is hoped it will provide a useful summary for all those individuals and groups with an interest in initial teacher education in New Zealand .

How the research was done

Each study in the research programme had a different focus and used different, but complementary, methods. These are outlined below.

Quality of Initial Teacher Education: Analysis of New Zealand Teachers Council Documentation (the Cameron report)

The Cameron report analysed documents held by the Teachers Council relating to programme approval, monitoring and moderation, entry standards, graduation standards and quality assurance mechanisms of primary and secondary teacher education programmes.

The study looked at a sample of programmes from 12 different providers and the sample reflected the different types of qualifications offered from a range of providers.

The study was intended as a preliminary information gathering exercise for the Teachers Council and the Ministry of Education. The study did not include early childhood education provision. The researcher was unable to locate some appropriate data for the provider sample chosen, within the time allocated for the project.

Many of the findings from the Cameron report informed the subsequent studies in the research programme.

Research on Initial Teacher Education in New Zealand: 1993–2004. Literature Review and Annotated Bibliography (the Cameron and Baker literature review)

The Cameron and Baker literature review included New Zealand research conducted since 1993 which could be categorised as research, as defined by the Tertiary Education Commission; thus it excluded reports, commentaries and submissions on initial teacher education.

Cameron and Baker searched for research held on library databases and by tertiary education institutions that offer initial teacher education programmes. The researchers also wrote to all initial teacher education providers asking them to submit appropriate research. Research did not have to be published or peer-reviewed to be included, as that would have limited the number of projects that could be included. Of the studies in the literature review, 127 were included in the annotated bibliography.

Initial Teacher Education Policy and Practice (the Kane report)

The Kane report, the substantive study in the research programme, was a national survey of initial teacher education qualifications in New Zealand. The information was obtained from documents provided by the initial teacher education providers and interviews with key staff from the providers.

The study looked at providers’ qualifications in terms of the philosophy and content of the qualifications, the standards for entry, the standards for graduating and the quality assurance processes in place.

It covered 27 providers and 85 qualifications. The researchers were unable to look at the differences in modes of delivery, for example, between campus based, distance or flexible delivery.

Perspectives of People outside Tertiary Institutions Involved in Initial Teacher Education: Working Paper (the Greenwood paper)

The Greenwood paper investigated the perspectives of people outside the provider institutions but who were involved in initial teacher education – that is, stakeholders such as employers, principals, lead teachers and associate teachers.

The project was a qualitative study using interviews with open-ended and semi-structured questions at a range of sites to provide a “snapshot in time”. It included the perspectives of stakeholders in all sectors, including Māori-medium and Pasifika settings, with more than 80 participants interviewed at 21 sites.

The study was confined to what the participants told the researchers and it provided a stakeholder voice to the debate. It focused, in particular, on stakeholder perceptions of the qualities desirable in beginning teachers, stakeholder perceptions of the nature and value of the practicum and how stakeholders view their relationships with tertiary providers. The sample of schools and early childhood services was representative but very small in number. Thus, responses should not be seen as generalisable.

Key findings from across the studies

The key findings from across the four studies are summarised under the following headings:

• the structure and organisation of initial teacher education
• student teachers, including selection criteria and exit or graduating standards, and newly qualified teachers
• initial teacher education programmes: content and curriculum, the practicum, and teacher educators
• quality assurance policy and processes.

Structure and organisation of initial teacher education

The studies show the provision of initial teacher education in New Zealand is complex and diverse.

The number of providers has increased significantly from the six colleges of education who were the sole providers of teacher education until the 1990s to 27 providers in 2005 – nine private training establishments, seven polytechnics, six universities, three wānanga and two colleges of education.

New Zealand also provides a variety of sites and modes of study, including multi-site delivery through main and satellite campuses; face-to-face, distance-based and web-based learning; flexible, part-time courses; and, early childhood education, also offers centre-based programmes. The distance, web-based and flexible delivery models make the qualifications available to rural communities and students who are unable to attend a course at a main centre. Web-based courses are increasingly used to supplement campus-based courses.

Kane found universities and colleges of education dominated primary and secondary provision, accounting for more than 90 per cent of primary and 96 per cent of secondary student teacher enrolments in 2005. Private training establishments and institutes of technology/polytechnics offered mostly early childhood qualifications, and together these two groups accounted for more than 50 per cent of the student intake for qualifications in this sector in 2005². Wānanga offer only early childhood and primary qualifications, and accounted for less than three per cent of the student intake in 2005 (see Table 1).

The teacher education programmes offered by wānanga were mostly Māori-centred and Māori medium qualifications, although most immersion and bilingual teachers were prepared within the university sector.

There was a large number of qualifications, with a total of 85 different qualifications offered through 131 programmes.³

Just under half of providers of initial teacher education offered only one qualification, and this was typically an early childhood qualification.

In all, 20 providers offered early childhood education qualifications, 17 offered primary qualifications and 10 offered secondary qualifications.

In the early childhood sector, the main qualifications were three-year undergraduate diploma and degree qualifications. The predominant qualification in the primary sector was the three-year undergraduate degree, while the main qualification in the secondary sector was a one-year graduate diploma.

However, there were also one-year graduate diplomas for early childhood and primary teaching and a small number of three or four-year degree combined qualifications that prepared for teaching across the early childhood and early primary years, or across the primary and secondary years. There were also specialist two-year qualifications, and four-year double degree qualifications (for example, a bachelor of arts or science with teaching).

Table - Student intake 2005 by sector at each type of institution

No. of institutions		Early Childhood		Primary		Secondary		Total students	% of Total
		No. of students	% of EC students	No. of students	% of Primary students	No. of students	% of Secondary students
Private training establishment	9	549	26.3	52	2.4	46	3.1	647	11.3
Polytechnic	7	566	27.1	24	1.1	0	0.0	590	10.3
University	6	678	32.4	1314	61.5	1059	70.9	3051	53.3
Wānanga	3	22	1.1	109	5.1	0	0.0	131	2.3
College of education	2	276	13.2	638	29.9	389	26.0	1303	22.8
TOTAL	27	2091	100.0	2137	100.0	1494	100.0	5722	100.0

Source: From Kane, Table 1, p.13 and Table 3, p.14

*Student intake data are missing for three private training establishment primary qualifications and one wānanga primary qualification.

For more information, see Kane, pp. 12–23 and pp.216–19.

Footnotes

1. See, for example, Cochran-Smith, M. & Zeichner, K. (Eds.). (2005). Studying Teacher Education: The Report of the AERA Panel on Research and Teacher Education. AERA Washington D.C. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
2. Kane identified Te Tari Puna Ora o Aotearoa/New Zealand Childcare Association as a PTE. It is in fact an OTEP (Other Tertiary Education Provider)
3. Kane defined a programme as a different pathway to a particular qualification; for example. studying for a qualification from a site other than the main campus, or through distance, web-based or field-based learning. She examined only base qualifications, not separate programmes.

Related Pages on Education Counts 

See Initial Teacher Education publication home page.