Positioning ICT in teachers' career path: ICT competency as an integral part of teacher standards (Australia) [pp.21-43 in Diverse approaches to developing and implementing competency-based ICT training for teachers: A case study, Volume 1]

Twenty-first century teachers need the technical, pedagogical and content skills to use information and communication technologies (ICT) to create meaningful learning experiences for their students. In Australia, Standards have been developed and operationalised at the national level and steps have been taken to ensure that both beginning and practising teachers demonstrate appropriate ICT competencies. Firstly, the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (AITSL, 2011a, 2011b) describes what a teacher should know and do at four career stages: Graduate, Proficient, Highly Accomplished, and Lead. One such Standard is simply entitled ‘Information and Communication Technology’, and requires individual teachers to demonstrate increasing capacity and leadership in ICT pedagogy. Second, teacher education institutions must show national accreditation panels, through the Initial Teacher Accreditation Programme Standards (AITSL, 2012a), how preservice teachers have opportunities to gain and demonstrate the relevant Australian Professional Standards for Teachers at Graduate Level; and, also, how institutions themselves are using ICT in their own teaching and in the resources they make available to their students. This case study will detail the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers and Initial Teacher Education Programme Accreditation Standards relating to ICT pedagogy. This study will build on the ambitious large scale 2011-2012 ‘Teaching Teachers to the Future’ (TTF) project (ACDE, 2012) that involved all major teacher education providers in Australia and provided an important step in building the capacity necessary for effective ICT pedagogy. Both national Standards and the TTF project have helped to ensure that Standards are enacted in the daily practice of classrooms across the nation