This appendix explains the teaching skills, the competencies, expected of newly-qualified teachers. The competencies are applicable to all subject areas. They should be acquired by student teachers throughout their training. The competencies are assessed during the teaching practice, by the mentor teacher(s) and the student-teacher’s university supervisor.
The first list, A3.1, gives the formal list of national competencies against which students will be assessed. These are the competencies which are referred to in the Standards, particularly Standards 1.2.2, 1.2.3, 1.3.2 and Domain 4. During the teacher education program, student-teachers have many opportunities, both in the faculty and in school, to learn and practise these skills. Many of the input and process standards contribute to their achievement - for example - the correct curriculum and the teaching-learning activities selected by faculty staff (Standard domain 1), the quality of the staff and their own experience (Standard domain 2), the quality and commitment of the students themselves (Standard domain 3), the partner schools, the nature of the partnership, and the quality of school experience (Standard domain 4), the facilities and resources on campus and how student-teachers learn to use them (Standard domain 5), and the effective use of management and quality assurance measures to improve teacher education (Standard domains 6 and 7).
A3.2 uses the subheadings of the first list and gives key points for school teachers and others to refer to as they observe student-teachers during teaching practice. This second list is easy to use during classroom observation. It is particularly useful for teachers new to the competencies and to observing student-teachers: they may use the list as guidelines for what to look for in lessons, instead of referring to the more comprehensive competency list of A3.1.
A3.3 gives guidelines to those who observe student-teacher lessons. More than one school teacher or faculty staff may observe the teaching of any one student-teacher. It is important that the observers agree on the standard of performance achieved by a beginning teacher. The indicators in A3.3 take the sub-headings of the formal list of national competencies (3.1). For each sub-heading, it summarises what could be expected of a good, an average, and a poor teacher. In effect, the indicators guide the observer on how to grade the student for each major competency: whether good, bad or average.