Extending assessment beyond skill competency. Professional induction as a mechanism to improve undergraduate teacher retention

In Australia, the teaching profession is faced with the prospect that teacher education is no longer a popular choice among young people. This is problematic as the teaching workforce is at an average age of 43.4 years, with the proportion of teachers aged 50 or above at 39 per cent. Thus for the profession, retention of teacher candidates in ITE programs is critical to ensuring sustainability. At present retention rates in ITE programmes from year 1 to 2 ranges from 67 to 83 per cent. More alarming are graduate attrition rates of 30-40 per cent within the first five years. The literature draws attention to notion that retention to a profession has to extend beyond assessment of candidates’ competency against a range of set standards. In particular, data from other professions indicate that quality of a professional induction received by newcomer professions is predictive of retention and perceptions of success. This presentation will report on the development of a theme based WIL placement designed to provide a professional induction for teacher candidates as a means of increasing their perceptions of satisfaction with their WIL experiences and decreasing their intention to quit