Does higher training make better teachers?

Rod Pitcher

By Rod Pitcher
Community contribution / February 1, 2016

Governments around the country are demanding higher qualifications for teachers. Most states now require a four-year degree and some are moving towards requiring a masters degree. I believe that this approach is misguided and will not necessarily produce better teachers. It may even cause some potentially good teachers not to enter the profession.

One day recently I discussed the claim that making teachers get higher qualifications will make them better teachers with a ...

Graduate Teaching Assistant

Veritas South East London

Teaching Aides & Special Needs / Mar 20, 2026

Story House Early Learning Stones Corner QLD

Dive into leadership at our Ballarat service! As a float, surf the waves of collaboration, aiding the manager in service operations.

Childcare & Outside School Hours Care / Mar 20, 2026

French Language Teacher

Canberra Grammar School Red Hill ACT

The School is seeking to appoint an inspirational and collaborative teacher of French Language

Teaching - Secondary / Mar 20, 2026

Feature / Falling short: prison reality locked in for Indigenous Australians

Efforts to improve the lives of Indigenous Australians continue to fall short on key measures, sparking renewed calls to better translate community leadership into government action.

School news / Less admin, more teaching: school report revamp part of push to cut down paperwork

The Victorian Government is revamping its student reporting for public schools as one of a raft of measures designed to help free teachers up from their current admin quagmire.

School news / ‘Show us some respect’: stop-work action to take place across three days

Teachers in Tasmania’s public schools will commence staggered strikes across three consecutive days next week, as the Rockliff Government faces continuing pressure over the state’s prolonged pay dispute.

School news / Dismantling the manosphere: how one school program is cutting through

For boys who have absorbed misogynistic views and warped ideas about masculinity, how can schools dismantle the manosphere’s influence from within the classroom?

School news / ‘All too hard’: the school camp sector is fighting for its very survival

School camps are a vital part of the Australian educational landscape, providing essential opportunities for students to build resilience, independence, and social skills outside the classroom – yet their very existence is coming under increasing ...

School news / SA’s return to constructivism: literacy experts slam proposed Year 2 phonics check

Once a lighthouse state showing the nation how the explicit teaching of reading could be improved at scale across public schools, South Australia has lost its way under a government that is straying from the evidence base about what works best, a ...

School news / High schoolers remain ambitious and resilient despite rising pressures: research

Australian high school students are more uncertain about their futures compared to a decade ago, with worsening social, economic and environmental pressures at the forefront of their minds, yet despite substantial challenges their optimism, adapta...

Community / Breaking down what the soaring fuel prices mean for Aussie teachers

In many households, fuel price apps are getting a serious workout as families struggle to find affordable fuel. The impact is being felt by teachers across the country, with those in regional centres and country areas being particularly hard hit.

School news / ‘We can and must do better’: national survey to strengthen sex and consent education

With the concerning rise in the influence of the ‘manosphere’, teachers are reporting a corresponding spiralling of gender attitudes in the classroom, with young people experiencing higher rates of peer-to-peer abuse.

Opinion / Every student deserves to see themselves represented in school reading

While not all adults have fond memories of the texts they studied at school, the reality is that these prescribed texts may be the only meaningful interaction that many young people have with fiction.

Comments