Australia, The Education Professional Standards Movement Research

The subject of this research is Professional Teaching Standards Movement inAustralian which appears at the end of 1980's and the beginning of 1990's. Theagenda for this movement is standards setting for teachers and school leadership inAustralian elementary schools and for teacher education. Factor Analysis Approachis used in this research to probe into the factors for the movement appearance andfind out factors include economic development, policy strategy, educationaldevelopment, standards related activities in other countries and other professions ofAustralian at that time. The reasons for further development and transformation ofthis movement at the end of 1990's and the beginning of 2000's lie behind the newpolicy on the professional teaching standards hold by the newly elected federalgovernment of Australian in 1996, the experience of previous educational reformsand the new theory achievement.Historical research is used to investigate the process of this movement development.From which can make the conclusion that the rise of this movement contribute toAustralian federal and state government who deliberately made many effort to theappearance of this movement. A majority of standards set during this period areprofessional teacher standards which belong to general standards also. Standardsdevelopers mainly come from educational bureaucracy and the content of thestandards focus on the competencies required for specific educational aims in theform of these level criteria. The implementation of the standards does not getappropriate attention.At the time of the end of 1990's and the beginning of 2000's, educationalprofessionals get the leader position in this movement who are the leading actor ofstandards setting and management and forum runner concerning standards issuesetc.. During this period, The standards for subject teachers and for excellenceteachers are set, standards for educational leadership and teacher education becomemore popular. Classroom teacher are welcomed in standards setting activities andstandards setting methods get improved. Professional development perspective isused in content criteria design. Standards-based accreditation, standards-basedprofessional development system etc. starts to run and the assessment against thestandards now conclude portfolio assessment, assessment centre etc..Based on the former analysis, this research believes that the aim of this movement isto improve the quality of Australian educational professionals through thecooperation of Australian federal and state government and professional associationsfor the goods of the entire Australian elementary education. By comparison thestandards construction between the first stage and the second stage, and between theinternational educational standards construction, and between the standardsconstruction in other Australian professionals, conclusion that standards constructionin this movement is mature can be made which is beneficial to the aims of thismovement to be achieved. The influence of the movement widely spread into thestakeholders of Australian elementary education. The implications of this movementlie in the quality assurance system and education professionalization. There arealso some problems needs further effort to overcome for future movementdevelopment, such as the purpose a standards serves is not so clear at present, the theory underlie the standards development is not so conceivable, various set ofstandards needs to be systematical etc..