Key points
- The Grattan Institute’s latest report found the typical teacher spends six hours a week sourcing and creating materials.
- Its survey of close to 2250 teachers and school leaders found only 15 per cent of teachers had access to a common bank of lesson plans for all their classes.
- The think tank says helping schools to establish a bank of shared materials for all learning areas could save 20 million teacher hours a year.
- It recommends governments invest in high-quality lesson plans in literacy/English, humanities, social sciences, maths and sciences first.
All Australian schools would have access to a bank of lesson plans for teachers, developed externally, to reduce their workload, boost results and stop educators having to plan classes from scratch.
The plans would be developed by educational companies, not-for-profits and government departments, under the Grattan Institute’s proposal.
Federal Education Minister Jason Clare said he was open to the idea of providing pre-prepared curriculum materials, and the Australian Education Union gave it qualified support but warned they should not be imposed.
The Grattan Institute’s Dr Jordana Hunter says the typical teacher spends six hours a week sourcing and creating materials.Credit:Rhett Wyman
The Grattan Institute said providing common lesson plans to all schools could save teachers up to three hours a week, significantly improve the quality of classroom curriculum materials, and increase student learning.
“Many Australian teachers are being left to fend for themselves, creating lessons from scratch and scouring the internet and social media for teaching materials,” the think tank said.
“This has contributed to unsustainable workloads and a high degree of variation in teaching and learning from one classroom to the next. It creates a lesson lottery for teachers and students.”
Grattan’s latest report, titled Ending the lesson lottery: How to improve curriculum planning in schools, found only 15 per cent of teachers had access to a shared bank of high-quality curriculum materials for all their classes.
Teachers at disadvantaged schools had the lowest access of all, its survey of close to 2250 teachers and school leaders found.
“Teachers are struggling with their workload,” said Grattan Institute education program director Jordana Hunter. “And we’re trying to move to that next part of the conversation of what we can do about it.”
The report recommends governments invest in high-quality lesson plans – firstly in literacy/English, humanities, social sciences, maths and sciences – and make them available for all schools.
“As an immediate priority, governments should consider buying high-quality curriculum materials from overseas, and adapting them for the Australian context,” the report states.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and former education minister James Merlino tour Docklands Primary School with principal Adam Bright in 2021.Credit:Penny Stephens
Two-year-old Docklands Primary School is part of a small group of Victorian schools that has developed its own curriculum from scratch. Staff also share effective teaching techniques on a PDF and work with teaching leaders known as “instructional coaches” to improve their practice.
Principal Adam Bright said: “I’ve got six prep classes and I know that every child in prep is receiving a really high-quality education because of the work that our teams do together, to work smarter not harder”.
“I’ve got six prep classes and I know that every child in prep is receiving a really high-quality education because of the work that our teams do together, to work smarter not harder.”
Emina McLean, Docklands Primary’s head of English and literacy, said the in-house curriculum had freed teachers to focus on the craft of teaching instead of lesson planning.
“We wanted to specify the knowledge and to say exactly what we were going to teach and how it was going to be taught,” she said.
“For example, if I’m in grade 1 and I’m teaching phonics, every teacher has access to pre-planned units of work. So, they’re all teaching the same lessons every day and they’re not having to think, ‘What am I teaching tomorrow?’ and having to plan that out.”
Education expert Peter Adams said whole-school curriculum planning might mean additional time and effort for staff, but would probably reduce teacher preparation time in the longer term.
Adams, a former general manager at the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), said the underlying principle of a bank of high-quality materials was correct.
”There is absolutely no doubt that teachers, school-based tutors, and integration aides are extremely well served by expertly prepared, very accessible, and high-quality curriculum material,” he said.
“Governments at every level need to finish their curriculum work by giving teachers the necessary guidance and support. The focus must not be on debating the principle, but assuring the quality of these materials.”
Federal Education Minister Jason Clare said the Grattan Institute’s push for shared lesson plans had the potential to reduce the workload on teachers if done well.
“I am keen to talk to teachers about the findings in this report, as well as ACARA and my state and territory colleagues when we meet in December,” he said.
A Victorian government spokesman said the Victorian Curriculum gave students the “comprehensive education needed for life-long learning, and we have been leading the nation to ensure that our teachers and students get the support they need”.
The Victorian Education Department publishes sample lesson plans online, covering topics such as English, mathematics and financial literacy. Learning sequences covering prep to year 4 will be published next month.
Australian Education Union federal president Correna Haythorpe.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
Correna Haythorpe, federal president of the Australian Education Union, gave qualified support to the idea but said the union would reject any attempts to impose them.
“Teachers are highly qualified individuals who should be afforded the professional respect and autonomy to consider and respond to the unique learning needs of the students that sit in their classrooms,” she said.
A recent national survey of 32,000 teachers – the biggest of its kind – found that full-time teachers worked an average of 55 hours a week, much of it unpaid, and that overwork was the biggest reason many were contemplating exiting the profession.
With Adam Carey
The Morning Edition newsletter is our guide to the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up here.
Most Viewed in National
From our partners
Source: Read Full Article
