Teacher Education Excellence Awards
Victoria’s Faculty of Education held their annual Teacher Education Excellence Awards on Tuesday 24 April, celebrating graduating students who excelled in their academic studies and performed strongly while on teaching practicum experience in 2011.
The 14 recipients will graduate in May and are drawn from undergraduate and graduate qualifications in Early childhood, primary and secondary teaching. The winners achieved excellent grade point averages in course work and have also been outstanding performers in the classroom or early childhood setting.
Rain Forest, Tiffini Campbell, Umi Kamalruddin, Nicola Goodman, Amanda Stevens, Paula Turner, Tracy Toye, Bridie Mawdesley, Rose Cook
Professor Dugald Scott, Dean of the Faculty of Education said “The need to attract and reward the best possible candidates to teaching is obvious to everyone. In words used in the OECD report, Teachers Matter, “Good teachers are the backbone of any education system. That is why governments are constantly seeking teacher policies that will help them recruit and retain the best” For New Zealand the best teachers will be those who have the skills and knowledge to help maintain or improve the already impressive scores our 15 year old students achieve in international rankings, while reducing the wide dispersion of achievement.
The Minister for Education, Hon Hekia Parata, agreed “Quality teaching has the greatest effect on student achievement and relies on the teacher’s ability to establish a relationship with the learner.” She continued “Education has a two-fold purpose – to build social and cultural capacity and to contribute to economic growth. Our challenge is to facilitate learning and achieve the high level of learning for all students”
Two other teacher education awards were presented during the evening, the Ilse B Steinberger Prize and the Swafford Family Prize. Both prizes are awarded annually to outstanding students based on academic merit and teaching performance.