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Centre Aims to Boost Teaching Quality

The Coffs Harbour Senior College was one of 50 schools named as a Centre for Excellence, under the federal government's Smarter Schools National Partnerships initiative. The Centres for Excellence are designed to be hubs, where the next generation of teachers can observe high quality teaching first-hand and gain practical experience under close supervision.

While the Centre is located at the Senior College, it will provide support for other schools in the cluster – Coffs Harbour High School, Orara High School, Toormina High School and Woolgoolga High School.

Dr Judith Wilks, a lecturer in the School of Education, said the Centre for Excellence would provide professional development opportunities for high school teachers in the Coffs Harbour region and the capacity to make some innovations in pre-service teacher education.

"It's a really important partnership between the University and the local high schools in our region," Dr Wilks said.

"As part of the Centre, we are running a professional experience program in which our education students shadow a teacher in the Senior College for one day each week. This is about integrating the professional experience right from the beginning of the course. The students are literally being cycled in and out of theory and practice every week.

"This is a really authentic way of providing professional experience and the Centre for Excellence has created the mechanism for us to do that. Ultimately this will realign the practicum experience with our student teachers partaking in practicum simultaneously with their classes at university, and with their assessment blended into this process."

Mr Jonathon Hart, from the Coffs Harbour Senior College, is heading the team at the Centre for Excellence and is delighted with the results of the collaboration with SCU.

"Allowing university students the experience of being in the classroom has proved rewarding for all concerned," Mr Hart said.

Taken from Coffs Coast Advocate