Professional standards for teaching have been developed in many countries during the 1990s. In Australia, the first wave of standards development has been dominated by the large state government school systems, and influenced by competency-based conceptions of standards. This paper provides a review of the first wave standards, concluding that these standards are characterised by long lists of duties, opaque language, generic skills, decontextualised performances, an expanded range of duties and weak assessments. As a second wave of standards development begins, led by teachers professional associations and deeply influenced by the methods of the American National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, the paper proposes a set of standards for development of professional standards in Australia. Standards, it is argued, should be brief, transparent, specialised, contextualised, focused on teaching and learning, and matched by strong assessments.
AdeyK. (1998). Preparing the profession: Report of the National Standards and Guidelines for Initial Teacher Education Project. Canberra: Australian Council of Deans of Education.
2.
AngusM.LoudenW. (1998). National reform in a federal system: Australia's National Schools Project. In HargreavesA.LiebermanA.FullanM.HopkinsD. (Eds.), International handbook of educational change (pp. 831–854). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer.
3.
Centre for Teaching Excellence. (1997). Standards framework for teachers. Brisbane: Author.
4.
ChadbourneR.BrownC. (1998). An Australian study of the American National Board standards for English teachers. English in Australia, No. 122, 70–79.
5.
ChadbourneR.IngvarsonL. (1994). Implementing Advanced Skills Teacher 1. In L. Ingvarson & R. Chadbourne, Valuing teachers' work: New directions in teacher appraisal (pp. 11–45). Melbourne: ACER.
6.
ChadbourneR.IngvarsonL. (1998). Self-managing schools and professional recognition: The Professional Recognition Program in Victoria's Schools of the Future. Australian Educational Researcher, 25(2), 61–93.
7.
ChittendenE.JonesJ. (1997). An observational study of National Board candidates as they progress through the certification process. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, April 1997.
8.
Darling-HammondL. (1997). The right to learn: A blueprint for creating schools that work. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
9.
Education Department of South Australia. (1992). Teachers' work. Adelaide: Author.
10.
Education Department of Western Australia. (1997, June 18). Applying for Level 3 classroom teachers. School Matters, pp. 13–14.
11.
ElmoreR.F.PetersonP.L.McCarthyS.J. (1996) Restructuring in the classroom: Teaching, learning and school organisation. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
12.
GrimmettP.McKinnonA. (1992). Craft knowledge and the education of teachers. Review of Research on Teaching, 18, 385–486.
13.
HoustonW. (1985). Competency-based teacher education. In HusénT.PostlethaiteT. N. (Eds.), The international encyclopaedia of education: Research and studies. Oxford: Pergamon Press.
14.
IngvarsonL. (Ed.) (in press) Evaluating teachers for professional certification: The first ten years of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. Greenwich, CN: JAI Press.
15.
Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium. (1991). Model standards for beginning teacher licensing and development: A resource for state dialogue. Washington, DC: Council of Chief State School Officers.
16.
Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium. (1996). Standards for school leaders: Draft model standards. Washington, DC: Council of Chief State School Officers.
17.
JacksonP. (1968). Life in classrooms. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
18.
JasmanA.BarreraS. (1998). Teacher career structure: Level 3 Classroom Teacher: Final report. Perth: Murdoch University and Nexus Strategic Solutions.
19.
LoudenW.WallaceJ. (1996). Quality in the classroom: Case studies in primary education. Sydney: Hodder Education.
20.
LoudenW.WildyH. (1999a). ‘Circumstance and proper timing’: Context and the construction of a standards framework for school principals' performance. Educational Administration Quarterly, 35(3), 398–422.
21.
LoudenW.WildyH. (1999b). Short shrift to long lists: An alternative approach to the development of performance standards for school principals. Journal of Educational Administration, 37 (2), 99–120.
22.
MastersG. (1998). A developmental paradigm for standards and assessment. Paper presented at the international conference on Professional Standards and the Status of Teaching, Fremantle, Western Australia, 24–26 February 1998.
23.
National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. (1989). Towards high and rigorous standards for teaching practice. Detroit, MI: National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.
24.
National Project on the Quality of Teaching and Learning. (1996). National competency standards for beginning teaching. Sydney: Australian Teaching Council.
25.
New Standards. (1996). Performance standards. Washington, DC: Author.
26.
Schools Council. (1990). Australia's teachers: An agenda for the next decade. Canberra: NBEET.
27.
ShulmanL. (1987). Knowledge and teaching: Foundations of the new reform. Harvard Educational Review, 57(1), 1–22.
28.
Standards Council for the Teaching Profession, (1996). Professional standards for teaching. Melbourne: Author.
29.
TuckerM.S.CoddingJ.B. (1998). Standards for our schools: How to set them, measure them and reach them. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
30.
WallaceJ.WildyH.LoudenW. (1999). Selecting teachers for advanced certification: The Western Australian Level 3 experience. Unicorn, 25(2), 24–36.
31.
WildyH.LoudenW. (1998). The trouble with talk about teaching. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Diego, 13–17 April 1998.
