4.0 Invest in professional learning and curriculum support

A healthy education system is underpinned by the commitment of educators to ongoing, professional renewal and maintenance of currency in professional matters, such as curriculum design and pedagogical practice. The last decade has seen ballooning requirements in the professional realm and major changes to the Australian Curriculum, pedagogical frameworks and assessment, moderation and reporting processes, as well as an increasing focus upon capability development. By and large, the work associated with maintaining up-to-date professional knowledge and skills has been borne by the profession. Primarily the time, resources, energy and commitment are costs that the profession has absorbed, with insufficient budgetary input by the government. The Queensland Government must stop relying upon the goodwill and commitment of the profession to make up the shortfall in funding, and allocate funds in its 2023/24 state budget for measures that constructively support the profession in doing its crucial work. This could be undertaken by the following. 

4.1    Increased investment in professional development (PD) of teachers and education leaders

• Increase the dedicated funding allocated for PD in school budgets.
• Ensure that PD support identified in collaborative capability discussions is earmarked in capability plans to improve access.
• Reintroduce direct funding to schools of mentoring and beginning teacher (MBT) professional development monies, to allow meaningful school-based programs to be developed.
• Develop a culture that encourages and values participation in a broad variety of PD options and supports teachers to access these, not just those in areas that are current systemic priorities.
• Provide additional support via TRS and a regional district relief teacher (DRT) pool to allow small school principals to undertake collaborative capability development with their staff and to enable their access to PD opportunities. 
• Provide improved services and resources for First Nations employees to access professional development and tertiary education that supports their career advancement.
• Provide dedicated learning hub spaces in schools with First Nations employees who wish access tertiary education, to support their capacity to undertake further studies that advance their career options.

4.2    Increased resourcing for curriculum implementation

• Provide centrally-developed relevant and useful resources that reduce the workload associated with the implementation of version 9 of the Australian Curriculum (ACV9), to decrease the replication of this work on a school-by-school basis.
• Provide centrally-developed ACV9 resources that meet the variety of schools’ needs across the system (small schools, multi-age contexts, schools of distance education, correction centres, kindy programs).
• Provide adequate TRS release time to all schools to ensure the familiarisation and implementation phases of ACV9 to be undertaken during rostered duty time.
• Develop a flying squad of teachers who can provide TRS relief in regional and remote locations to support the familiarisation and implementation phases of ACV9 across the state.
• Provide additional TRS to assist schools with the transitions that will arise from the recommendations of the review of senior assessment and tertiary entrance (SATE) applied subjects.
• Provide additional TRS and support to assist schools with the transitions that will arise from the inaugural review of the new SATE system. 

4.3    Increased resourcing and support in the planning, teaching and learning cycle and reduction of the professional demands associated with:

• Planning and preparation - Teachers’ development and use of planning is a highly personal process. The value of this must be demonstrated by the following:
  • Provide additional TRS resourcing that supports the creation of school-developed unit plans, which teachers then utilise to develop a meaningful weekly/daily planning system that suits their professional practice. 
  • Stop the current “monitoring” of teacher planning, unless there is a clear performance matter that needs to be addressed, and in such cases provide meaningful support to help teachers address these matters.
  • Negotiate a new joint statement with the QTU on planning, prep, differentiation, moderation, and individual curriculum plans (ICPs), with a view to a simplified approach to this cycle of work. 
• Differentiation – Provide relevant and adequate resourcing to address the many and varied differentiation needs of students 
• Individual curriculum plans 
  • Provide additional release time for schools to enable release of teachers and education leaders to develop ICPs during rostered duty time (RDT).
  • Provide the additional resourcing and support needed to ensure that ICP needs are adequately supported. 
• Moderation – Limit teachers’ participation in moderation cycles to two a year
• Data collection 
  • Negotiate a new joint statement with the QTU on the purpose and use of data, to reduce the data collection undertaken at the school level. 
  • Allow the uploading of data to be undertaken by other employees within the school via additional monies for teacher-aides and other support staff.

The increased expectations in professional issues, pedagogy and curriculum development have seen an exponential increase in workload for members, particularly related to working in diverse and increasingly complex 21st century classroom contexts. A commitment to reducing class sizes to enable teachers to appropriately manage these demands and investing the appropriate level of resourcing to ensure that Queensland teachers are best equipped to manage their work, requires significant budgetary input from the Queensland Government.

RECOMMENDATIONS

21. Invest in professional development.

22. Increase resourcing for curriculum development and implementation.

23. Increase resourcing and support, and reduce the professional “demands” associated with the planning, teaching and learning cycle.

24. Provide sufficient release time via NCT and professional release time to allow for capability development.

25. Negotiate new agreements with the QTU on data collection.

26. Commit to reduction of class sizes to manage complex 21st century classrooms.

QTU State Budget Submission 2023-24