The NSW Department of Education collaborates with initial teacher education providers to undertake research and innovation in professional experience. This expands the knowledge of and enhances practices for consistent quality professional experience.

Our research projects include:

Supervising Teacher Research Project (2024)

The department commissioned the NSW Council of Deans of Education to undertake research and deliver a report on the attributes of quality supervising teachers, the attributes of effective supervising teachers, the ways they can be supported, and how universities and schools can work together to enhance the supervision process.

For more information about the report of the project, please contact professionalexperience@det.nsw.edu.au.

Work-Integrated Learning Case Studies in Teacher Education Epistemic Reflexivity

Working with academic colleagues, teachers in the department’s Professional Experience Hubs published case studies of their professional experience practice. The book shows the importance of the rich, reciprocal partnerships in place between initial teacher education and our schools, sharing the experiences of these partnerships across initial teacher education providers to encourage practices that advance quality teacher preparation.

The book can be assessed on the Springer website. Department staff can access the book using institutional login under NSW Department of Education.

Examining the Role of the School Professional Experience Coordinator in the NSW Department of Education’s Professional Experience Hub School Program 2021

The department commissioned the NSW Council of Deans of Education to undertake research on the role of a Professional Experience Coordinator.

Evidence from the project strongly points to significant role the Professional Experience Coordinator plays in the generation of a professional learning culture that enhances the status of professional experience in their schools. They achieve this by increasing the number of teachers willing to supervise a Pre-Service Teacher and improving the standard of their supervision thus reducing the historical variance in the quality of supervision on professional experience. This study also identifies the strategies that all stakeholders in professional experience could develop to enhance the quality of this important aspect of Initial Teacher Education in the future. These key strategies are improved clarity in the roles and responsibilities, documentation, processes and accountabilities for all stakeholders in professional experience and for the Professional Experience Coordinator to play a greater role in the program planning and delivery of Initial Teacher Education courses.

For more information about the report of the project, please contact professionalexperience@det.nsw.edu.au.

Videos on mentoring pre-service teachers – Graduate Teacher Exemplars

A joint research project by the department and the NSW Council of Deans of Education developed a suite of videos and resources which demonstrate pre-service teachers working towards or teaching at the Graduate level of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers.

These are intended to be used in a developmental growth model that focuses on the mentoring steps supervising teachers could take to help the pre-service teachers move to the next level.

They are all available on the NSW Council of Deans of Education website