Baseline Survey of Teacher Education Programs in Canada

Summary

The purpose of this project was to document the range of teacher education programs in Canada, examining variations between provinces and institutions. Teacher education qualification is determined by provinces, and granted by 89 degree granting programs. Annually, approximately 15,550 teachers earn degrees from these programs. Teacher attrition rates are high: the Canadian Teachers Federation notes that approximately 25% leave the profession in their first five years. At the same time, student and parent expectations have risen and the diversity of the student body is expanding. Teachers need a broader range of skills to develop competency in the field than in the past, and since about 1990, most teacher training programs have changed to reflect this. This project culminated in a report on the state of teacher education programs across Canada, which provides a foundation for future surveys to track change over time.

Grant Outputs

Teacher Education in Canada: A Baseline Study – http://www.saee.ca/upload/Teacher_Education_in_Canada.pdf

This report establishes a baseline of existing teacher education programs in Canada. The scale of the project was broad, comparing every teacher education program across the country. It examined how programs were designed, implemented, and received by program graduates, school principals, and existing teachers. The study finds that a majority of graduates (60%), faculty members (66%) and principals (73%) considered incoming graduates to be fairly well prepared to teach. It concludes that education degrees completed at the same time as bachelor’s degrees (concurrent programs) ranked higher among graduates than programs that were completed consecutively. Finally, the report found that the practicum was the most relevant and useful segment in teacher education programs, but that they vary widely in duration and supervision requirements across the country, ranging between 13 and 20 weeks.