Teaching School Hubs (NECSTEP)

The National Embedded Cross-Sector Teacher Education Pilot (NECSTEP) is an innovative initial teacher education pilot led by AC, in collaboration with researchers at UNSW and ACU, and in partnership with NSW Department of Education. Currently, the program involves 8 unique school clusters (teaching school hubs) and over 60 schools nationally.

AC researchers are undertaking longitudinal research to identify the active ingredients in initial teacher education that lead to classroom, school, and sector-ready teachers.

This research is underpinned by what we see as the fundamental goal of initial teacher education: to ensure that those wishing to enter the teaching profession are ready to do so. Although the concept of readiness is complex and nuanced, our researchers are investigating whether there are identifiable elements foundational to any initial teacher education program, whether embedded or traditional.

Research within the Teaching School Hubs Cluster has four key aims:

• To identify the active ingredients unique to a school-embedded teacher education pathway.
• To explore the influence of these unique active ingredients on the preparedness of initial teacher education students.
• To understand who is best placed to support and guide initial teacher education students in relation to each of these ingredients.
• To develop a model to track and measure the growth and development of initial teacher education students, with the aim of understanding the impact of specific unique active ingredients.

More information about school hubs teacher training at AC can be found here.

BLOG POSTS

• New Research in Teaching School Hubs: What are the core ingredients for preparing new teachers? (2023) – https://www.aats.org.au/news/new-research-in-teaching-school-hubs
• Shared Understanding in Teacher Education: To teach.. To learn… To flummox… Do we all agree on what it means to teach? (2024) – https://www.aats.org.au/news/shared-understanding-in-teacher-education

PRESENTATIONS

• A Cake… A Box: National Embedded Cross Sector Teacher Education Program Research (May 2024). AATS Think Tank – GROW: The Future of Teaching Schools – https://www.aats.org.au/news/2024-think-tank-grow
• What makes it work? Exploring the emergence of embedded teacher education models (May 2024). Panel at ATEA Online Seminar Series.
• (Re)embedding initial teacher education through community and connection – a story of three innovative models (July 2024). Symposium at Australian Teacher Education Association (ATEA) 2024 Conference https://atea.edu.au/conferences/2024-atea-conference/
• Education in an age of uncertainty: Memory and hope for the future (August 2024). European Conference on Educational Research (ECER) – https://eera-ecer.de/conferences/ecer-2024-nicosia

LEAD RESEARCHERS

• Associate Professor David Hastie
• Dr Vanessa Miller
• Dr Rachel Perry (ACU)
• Associate Professor Tony Loughland (UNSW)

EXTERNAL FUNDING

Research in this cluster is supported by a grant of $2.9m from the NSW State Government to establish school hubs and investigate their effectiveness in initial teacher education.

PHD SCHOLARSHIPS

Full scholarships are currently available for doctoral research relating to school hubs. For details, contact Dr Rachel Perry.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

This research cluster contributes to the advancement of the following goals:

Related information

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