Learning To Teach In The NZ ITP Sector: Lessons From Literature

Abstract

Now more than ever, Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics (ITPs) are central to enabling New Zealand to be competitive in a global market as both an economic force and as a quality, skills-based education provider. There is growing evidence to suggest that practitioners in this vocational sector need to have a "sophisticated pedagogical repertoire" (Guthrie, 2010, p. 12) and be skilled at pedagogical decision-making in both learner-centred and workbased practices (Brown, 2017; Guthrie, 2010; Lucas, Spencer, & Claxton, 2012). Despite this growing expectation on teachers' performance in the New Zealand ITP sector (Messman, Mulder, & Gruber, 2010) and a reported correlation between quality vocational provision and teaching competence (Guthrie, 2010), there is limited research on how best to support novice ITP teachers to learn to teach. As yet, there is no national framework of competence for ITP teachers and no requirement for teachers in this sector to hold a teaching qualification. As a result, polytechnics tend to employ new teaching staff members on the basis of their domain-specific knowledge and skills and then expect them to gain a formal teaching qualification whilst doing the job of teaching.