ASTA/Teaching Australia Science Standards Project
Teaching Australia has contracted the Australian Science Teachers Association (ASTA) to develop and write a set of descriptors of practice for science against the advanced teaching capabilities as developed by Teaching Australia. The advanced teaching capabilities are generic statements of the discrete elements of the knowledge and skills expected of teachers operating effectively at a high level of expertise in different teaching and learning settings.
ASTA comes to this task from a position of knowledge and experience being one of the first professional associations to publish its own set of standards in 2002, The ASTA National Professional Standards for Highly Accomplished Teachers of Science.
The final draft of these standards is now completed and has been submitted to Teaching Australia. It was launched at a recent forum of the Teaching Australia Network of which ASTA is a member. The Network brings together 34 national professional associations of teachers, principals and teacher educators.
The next step in the process to develop standards for science teachers, is to test and validate the standards with major stakeholders. If you would like more information regarding this process, please contact the ASTA office on (02) 6282 9377 or ceo@asta.edu.au
