Summary

Teachers of Year 7-10 students in New Zealand are generally well prepared to enter the teaching profession, though would like more training in ICT. Almost all teachers participated in professional development in the past 12 months.

Key Findings

Year 7-10 teachers in New Zealand are generally well prepared to enter the teaching profession. Initial teacher training was wide-ranging, on average covering at least 8 of the 10 topics asked about in TALIS. Most novice teachers¹ (75%) felt well prepared for general pedagogy and for subject-related classroom practice, pedagogy and content from their formal education or training. However, fewer than half of novice teachers felt well prepared for the use of ICT in teaching (46%) or for teaching cross-curricular skills (41%).

Schools also appear to support new teachers well through induction and mentoring, with almost all (96%) of novice teachers engaged in either formal or informal induction at their first or current school and all principals reporting that induction was available for new teachers in their school.² Mentoring is available in 87 percent of New Zealand schools, much higher than the OECD average (64%). Having an assigned mentor was more common for novice teachers (56%) than experienced teachers (18%).

Almost all teachers (98%) had engaged in some professional development in the 12 months prior to the survey. On average, teachers participated in five of the types of professional development activities asked about in TALIS during the year. Eighty-seven percent of teachers reported a positive impact on their teaching practice from at least one of their professional development activities during the previous 12 months. Release from teaching duties (70%) and the reimbursement or payment of costs (51%) were the two main factors reported by teachers as supporting their participation in professional development.

The proportion of New Zealand teachers who agreed that there were barriers to their participation in professional development increased between 2014 and 2017. The largest reported barrier to participation in professional development was that it conflicts with the teacher’s work schedule (56%). Compared to the OECD average, a lower proportion of New Zealand teachers reported that the barriers asked about were impacting on their participation in professional development.

Footnotes

1. Novice teachers are defined as those with fewer than or equal to 5 years of teaching experience.
2. “New teachers” includes beginning teachers, novice teachers (up to 5 years’ teaching experience), and more experienced teachers new to the school.