What are the ITE Programme Approval, Monitoring and Review Requirements (the Requirements)?

The Requirements set out the Initial Teacher Education (ITE) Programme Approval, Monitoring and Review Requirements that the providers of ITE programmes must demonstrate in order for their programme(s) to be approved by the Teaching Council (the Council).

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What is the impact of the Requirements?

ITE programme approval requirements are the primary means by which the Council can shape a future-focused ITE system. They set the direction for ITE programme design and delivery, as well as ITE student selection and entry and graduate outcomes. They can influence programme funding and are a critical lever and mechanism to signal wider education system shifts.

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Why have the Requirements been developed?

As part of the Council’s wider ITE work programme, our Board was tasked with lifting the status of the profession and they wanted to do this in a coherent way in collaboration with the profession. Building the future of ITE, through developing the new Requirements, is one of the key ways for the Council to achieve this because how we recruit, select and prepare teachers will shape our future profession, our education system and our communities.

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What are the key shifts that these Requirements aim to achieve?

The Requirements will:

  • Lead to better ITE programme design that is reflective of Aotearoa New Zealand learners and better equips graduates for the setting they are likely to be employed in
  • Give employers of graduates confidence that they have the teaching knowledge, skills and professional attitudes to provide quality education for learners and can adapt their practice to different contexts and new situations as their experience grows
  • Allow providers to design programmes that will be more innovative to meet the diverse needs of graduates and learners, and have the ability to attract new people into programmes
  • Enable more opportunities for ITE students to have teaching experiences across their professional experience placements.

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What are the biggest changes from the previous Requirements?

  • Replacing the Graduating Teacher Standards with the Standards for the Teaching Profession which were released in June 2017
  • Establishing an assessment framework and new approval and moderation processes to provide greater assurance that each graduate meets the Standards (in a supported environment), including:
    • requiring providers to identify the key teaching tasks that their graduates can be entrusted to be able to carry out in a classroom or centre on day one
    • requiring an integrative assessment at the end of the programme, that requires ITE students to demonstrate that they can apply the knowledge, capabilities and skills they have learned during the programme
  • Strengthening expectations for high-quality professional experience placements, in particular, increasing the minimum periods
  • Further developing the use of te reo Māori in all programmes
  • Formalising an expectation of authentic partnerships with schools/centres/kura and iwi
  • Enabling flexible pathways into ITE programmes to increase diversity and grow our workforce
  • Implementing a national moderation process to build quality and consistency of judgements.

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How will school/centre/kura leaders be confident that ITE graduates will be ready to teach?

Confidence will come through them having greater input into:

  • the candidate selection process
  • programme structure
  • professional experience placements
  • identification of the key teaching tasks for a programme
  • development of the culminating integrative assessment
  • programme self-review, and
  • national moderation of provider judgements that their graduates are ready to teach.

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How will the Requirements ensure that graduates must demonstrate that they have sufficient knowledge of curriculum, teaching strategies, and assessment across the learning areas and curriculum levels they’ll be expected to teach? And also, the importance of other cultures in designing learning?

The Requirements state that programme must be structured in such a way, and contain such core elements, that ensures that graduates are able to demonstrate that they meet the Standards | Ngā Paerewa (in a supported environment).

The standards relating to ‘Design for Learning’ and ‘Teaching’ both require ‘setting-appropriate’ curriculum knowledge and a range of teaching strategies.

Programme approval panels will test (among other things):

  • how recent relevant research such as current socio-cultural, historical, political, philosophical, and curriculum and pedagogical perspectives have informed the various programme elements
  • how culturally responsive teaching has been integrated into the programme
  • how the programme will prepare graduates with the knowledge, skills and teaching strategies to teach in inclusive ways
  • how the programme reflects the setting(s) (early childhood, primary, secondary, Māori medium) or phases of child development in which graduates are likely to teach
  • the extent to which the programme adequately models the skills and practices required for effective teaching in the learning context(s) in which the graduates will be teaching
  • whether the depth of curriculum knowledge that student teachers will graduate with is sufficient
  • whether the programme will enable graduates to have sufficient knowledge of assessment across the learning areas and curriculum levels they will be expected to teach.

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How will the Requirements ensure that graduates are able to teach learners with additional support needs or disabilities?

The Requirements state that programme must be structured in such a way, and contain such core elements, that ensures that graduates are able to demonstrate that they meet the Standards | Ngā Paerewa (in a supported environment). Several of the standards relate to learners with additional support needs or disabilities.

Programme approval panels will test (among other things):

  • whether the programme will enable graduates to identify and respond appropriately to learners with diverse and additional learning needs
  • whether the programme will enable graduates to identify and respond appropriately to the additional learning and behavioural needs of learners with dyslexia, dyspraxia, and autism spectrum disorders.

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What are the biggest changes solely for Māori medium programmes?

The amount of an immersion programme that must be delivered in te reo Māori has been increased from 51% to 81% to align with the Ministry of Education’s definition of a Level 1 Māori medium programme. Level 1 programmes will operate at 81-100% in te reo (total immersion). Level 2 programmes will operate at 51-80% delivery in te reo Māori and English (bilingual).

There will also be the option of a Māori medium programme approval framework from 1 July 2020.

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Why have the Graduating Teacher Standards been replaced?

In our July 2016 discussion paper titled Strategic options for developing future oriented initial teacher education, we said that we would initiate a process to develop a new set of Graduating Teacher Standards that would explicitly describe the practices and impacts that graduating teachers need to demonstrate. This work expanded on our work developing the Standards for the Teaching Profession and the Code of Professional Responsibility, to make sure that graduating teachers are able to meet the Standards in a supported environment before they graduate.

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What organisations were represented on the ITE advisory group?

  • Evaluation Associates
  • University of Canterbury
  • University of Auckland
  • Teach First New Zealand
  • Teacher Education Forum of Aotearoa New Zealand
  • Te Kohanga Reo
  • Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi
  • Normal and Model Schools Association
  • New Zealand Council of Deans
  • New Zealand Catholic Education Office
  • Te Wānanga o Aotearoa
  • Eastern Institute of Technology
  • Bethlehem Tertiary Institute
  • Massey University
  • Te Kura Māori o Nga Tapuwae
  • Te Rito Maioha
  • Te Wānanga o Raukawa
  • Secondary Principals Association of New Zealand
  • Student teachers (through a student teacher rep)

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When will the Requirements come into effect?

The Requirements will come into effect from 1 July 2019. From this date, applications for programme approval will be considered under the new Requirements.

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How long will providers have to re-design their programmes and get them approved under the new Requirements?

Existing programmes can continue to be delivered after 1 July 2019 but will need to be replaced by new programmes designed and approved under the new Requirements by no later than 1 January 2022 (unless an extension has been given by the Council).

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What will happen to programmes that haven’t been approved under the new Requirements by 1 January 2022?

Unless the Council has given an extension, it will consider withdrawing programme approval.

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What support is available for ITE providers in the development of new programmes under the Requirements?

The Council has regionally based advisors who are available to support and provide advice to ITE providers in this transition to the new Requirements. We also have a toolkit for applying, full of resources and advice.

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