In the four years following the Covid lockdowns that massively disrupted life and learning across Australia, teachers have proven their resilience and adaptability despite the many complex pressures that continue to weigh on the profession.
Marking World Teachers’ Day in October 2023, Australian Secondary Principals’ Association (ASPA) president Andy Mison said while teachers face a multitude of complex challenges, the bigger story is that they’re persevering through those challenges to help young people achieve their best throughout their learning journey.
“Teachers across Australia have endured much in recent years. They kept our schools running through the pandemic and have not stopped since,” Mison told The Educator.
“The pressures have intensified due to consequential impacts in our society, along with increased stress, disruption, and workload due to teacher shortages. If you want something done though, ask a teacher. They are the backbone of our education system and the heart of our communities.”
Resilient and adaptive: Two words that sum up our teachers
Kelly Hollis is the Australian Curriculum Specialist at Education Perfect, a leading learning, assessment and analytics platform for years K-12.
Acknowledged globally, Hollis is recognised as one of the top educators leading flipped learning worldwide by the Flipped Learning Global Initiative – a distinction that speaks to her dedication to innovative teaching methods and commitment to shaping the future of education.
When asked about the most positive trends she’s seeing in Australian education today, Hollis said teachers are showcasing remarkable resilience and adaptability going into 2024.
“One of the most positive trends is the growing emphasis on integrating technology into education,” Hollis told The Educator.
“The pandemic years saw a shift towards digital resources and interactive tools, enhancing the learning experience. As teachers return to traditional classrooms, many continue to provide a blended learning experience using these technologies.”
Another positive trend, said Hollis, is the increased focus on teacher wellbeing.
“Schools are adopting measures to support the mental and emotional health of teachers, recognising their importance in achieving better student outcomes. Despite challenges and perhaps bad press, individual schools are doing a lot to support their teachers,” she said.
“Additionally, schools are more prepared to pivot than ever before. This flexibility has been crucial in situations like floods and other emergencies, ensuring the continuation of education with minimal disruption.”
Teacher efficacy survey yields promising results
EP recently released the results of its 2023 Teacher Efficacy Survey, revealing a continuing positive trend in educators' perception of the service provider’s impact on teaching practices and student learning.
Highlighting significant growth in areas such as personalised learning opportunities, literacy and numeracy skill development, and reduced teaching load, Hollis said the survey underscores EP's role in enhancing educator effectiveness and student engagement across Australia.
“EP is addressing the challenges faced by the Australian teaching workforce by offering comprehensive assessment tools for formative and summative assessments,” she said.
“These tools feature automatically marked questions, reducing the time teachers spend on marking, while EP's content creation tools enable teachers to use or create assessments quickly and easily.”
Hollis said the platform's automatic analysis of assessment results helps teachers identify student strengths and weaknesses easily.
“EP also provides teachers with the ability to compare student results between two assessments simplifying student growth tracking over time. EP also provides a comprehensive bank of curriculum-aligned resources for immediate classroom use that can be integrated with leading Learning Management Systems,” she said.
“These resources offer automatically marked questions for instant feedback and scaffolded support, allowing students to progress at their own pace. The data from completed lessons provides insights into student performance, helping teachers tailor their instruction to individual needs.”
Bridging the gap: EdTech solutions for out-of-field teaching
Hollis said one major challenge for the Australian teaching workforce in 2024 is that of catering to the diverse needs of students.
“EP helps by allowing teachers to modify content for different student cohorts, enabling differentiated instruction,” she said. “EP's assessment tool also aids in creating individualised learning pathways by identifying student weaknesses and providing targeted content to individual students.”
Hollis said AI technologies offer the potential to continue to support teachers in providing individualised support for students by providing personalised learning experiences and further reducing teacher workload by assisting in marking and providing timely feedback.
“With many teachers teaching out of field and the prevalence of casual relief teachers, edtech tools like EP are crucial in supporting schools to bridge these gaps,” she said.
“In these situations, digital learning resources help reduce workload and prevent learning loss, ensuring no student is at risk.”