Shut UP!

Her voice boomed, bordering on hysterical.

It wasn’t unusual for her to erupt into shouting, aimed at one misbehaving student or several.

Those who fell into the very well-behaved category weren’t exempt.

She didn’t have control, wasn’t good at teaching, and the students knew it.

This undoubtedly made her job harder.

Every schooled person would have their own example of that one hopeless teacher, even a few, but isn’t one hopeless teacher one too many?

When looking  at the nation’s slump in maths, science and English – all states, bar Victoria, have declined since 2006 on the global scale, the answer is yes.

And when looking at Tasmania’s results – that one in two of us  struggle with literacy, it seems to me that every parent should be answering in the affirmative.

So too should every politician.

Eric Hanushek of the Hoover Institution found the difference between good and bad teachers on student results was great, sinking learning trajectories behind by a year.

A US report by the National Bureau of Economic Research also found students of high quality teachers were more likely to attend colleges, earn higher salaries, and less likely to live in lower socio economic areas.

Good education results in greater productivity and economic returns to the community; should this be a number one priority for Tasmania?

When looking at such gains no one can interject and argue that Education Minister Christopher Pyne’s review into teacher quality is a bad idea.

This is not saying that all teachers are doing a bad job, but it is saying that improvements can be made in the way we teach our teachers, and more importantly, how we select those who become teachers in order to ensure we weed out the ones who shouldn’t.

Submissions to the Teacher Education Ministerial Advisory that are already being discussed in the media reveal varied opinions about how to move forward.

One that stands out is the suggestion that universities submit prospective teacher undergraduates to personality tests.

Melbourne University has already adopted the Teacher Selector tool.

This tests the emotional stability, veracity, perseverance, grit and openness to the views of others in each individual candidate.

Education psychology Professor Rob Klassen and University of Cambridge researcher Fiona Patterson argue that such tests, which are similar to that used by the medical profession in finding good doctors, would be effective in finding the most suitable people for the teaching gig.

Indeed the best teachers in my schooling career had commitment, passion, and much, much more.

They demanded your respect, were friendly, but not your friend, always listened, explained concepts with ease to aid understanding, challenged the minds of their students, and could handle the various facets of classroom life.

For example, teaching trigonometry angles and explaining concepts one, two and 10 times, while two students persistently talk, one is distracted by a book and another is holding a conversation with a student on the other side of the room.

Raising the bar of admission into teaching would raise the esteem with which the profession is viewed by the community, so that it may sit alongside the prestige of the doctor, lawyer and accountant professions.

This could thereby fuel higher performing students desires to enter the profession, and from these, the aforementioned tests could find the greatest people to teach our nation’s kids.