ALA

The University of Melbourne is revolutionising higher education in Australia, becoming the first Australian university to introduce a comprehensive graduate school model of education.

Today the University officially unveiled the first of its graduate schools.

This bold move breaks with the status quo in Australian higher education and provides genuine diversity in Australia’s university sector. Melbourne’s graduate school model is aligned with an emerging global norm, but remains distinctively Australian.

The Melbourne Graduate School of Education is one of the new graduate schools which will be home to the University’s first suite of professional Masters-level graduate degrees to commence in 2008.

Dean of the Melbourne Graduate School of Education, Professor Field Rickards said today: “In the tradition of esteemed graduate schools of Education at institutions such as Virginia, Stanford and Harvard, the Melbourne Graduate School of Education will forge the way in research-led practice and practitioner-led research. We have a proud history of 140 years of preparing teachers at the Parkville site, and this transformation signals the next step in our evolution to the great benefit of aspiring teachers, their students and the school system.”

“We have re-imagined teacher education in the form of a new and radically different program, the Master of Teaching. We genuinely believe that we will be creating a new generation of teachers who will push the boundaries of knowledge and professional practice in our schools and beyond.”

To complement the Master of Teaching, the Melbourne Graduate School of Education will continue to offer established educators a variety of coursework and research programs, such as the flagship program, the Master of Education, designed to enhance practice and explore specialist areas of study.
The Master of Teaching is set to revolutionise the state of teacher education, with a curriculum influenced by international teacher education programs, and a new approach to ‘teaching rounds’ that will capitalise on a unique school partnerships arrangement. The outcome, says Professor Rickards, “will be the creation of a new generation of teachers who will be interventionist practitioners, with high-level analytic skills, enabling them to use data to identify the learning needs of individuals and know how to address them.”

Students who undertake study in the Melbourne Graduate School of Education will have the opportunity to be led and inspired by visionary educators such as Professor Kaye Stacey, an active researcher in the field of Maths and Science Education; Professor Patrick Griffin, an international expert in post-compulsory education, school literacy and numeracy profile development, and in the use of qualitative and quantitative research techniques; and Professor Barry McGaw, former Director of Education for the OECD, and renowned commentator on the state of education and educational policy in Australia and around the world.

More information:

Stephanie Mollica, Faculty of Education
Tel: 8344 8640
Email: smollica@unimelb.edu.au

Rachel Wellam, Faculty of Education
Tel: 8344 3425
Email: rwellam@unimelb.edu.au