specialisation, prioritising science, mathematics or a language’. Thus,‘classroom
ready’teachers appear to be those who can work with data, engage with parents,
and can teach literacy and numeracy, preferably with a subject specialisation.
How do these recommendations position teachers and teacher educators in
relation to the role of research, especially by comparison with the conclusions of the
BERA and RSA ( 2014 ) report discussed earlier? One could argue that thecontent
andstructureof programmes with the above characteristics should be informed by
research-based knowledge and scholarship, but there seems to be little expectation
that pre-service teachers (or even teacher educators) should be engaged with and
discerning consumers of research. The contribution of research is at the level of
programme and course design, and not necessarily in the enactment of teaching and
learning in these courses, so that research remains invisible to those who should be
engaging with it.
43.4.2 Classroom Readiness—How?
Given the lack of elaboration in the TEMAG recommendations on what classroom
readiness means, it is not surprising tofind little explication of how classroom
readiness of graduates is to be recognised. Recommendation 26 calls for AITSL to
‘develop a national assessment framework...to support higher education providers
and schools to consistently assess the classroom readiness of pre-service teachers
throughout the duration of their programme’. Recommendations 27 and 28 go on to
ask for development of Portfolios of Evidence that assist pre-service teachers to
collect‘sophisticated evidence of their teaching ability and their impact on student
learning’. Although it will be the responsibility of AITSL to develop the assessment
framework, universities are currently considering ways by which graduates and
programmes could demonstrate impact, and how to plan for collecting evidence of
impact. The role of research in this process might well be limited to informing
programme structure, although there are signs that the need for evidence of impact
could become a catalyst for embedding small-scale research projects or
action-research inquiry into initial teacher education programmes.
43.4.3 Classroom Readiness—Standards?
If classroom readiness is to be assessed in some way, then the evidence collected by
pre-service teachers needs to be compared against some specified standard of
knowledge, skills and capabilities to be demonstrated by graduates.
Recommendation 29 of the TEMAG report calls for AITSL to review the Graduate
level standards in the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers‘to ensure that
knowledge, skills and capabilities required of graduates align with the knowledge,
43 The Place of Research in Teacher Education?... 645