Michael Johnston: Reforming teacher education without carrots or sticks

Teacher education in New Zealand needs serious attention.

Politicians are naturally drawn to top-down solutions. For one thing, they afford Ministers the illusion of control. For another, they promise quick results.

Ministers for Education from the Australian states have agreed on a major overhaul of teacher education. Their consensus follows a report identifying a range of deficiencies. These include failures to follow scientific evidence on how children learn, to prepare teachers to teach literacy effectively, and to set new teachers up to be capable classroom managers.

The Australian Ministers settled on a top-down solution.