Easing the transition from university to the school classroom

A series of informative seminars at USQ aims to make the transition from University to the school classroom easier for fourth year education students.

The first seminar in the series was presented to around 60 USQ fourth year students this week and received a good response from those who attended.

'These seminars are for our students that are graduating at the end of the year and this is an attempt to prepare them for their work as teachers next year,' Faculty of Education Dean Professor Nita Temmerman said.

'The first seminar dealt with behaviour management and the students were very appreciative and positive.'

Following a planning conference earlier in the year, the education faculty recognised the need for the seminars if graduating students were to be successful in the workforce.

'The idea for the seminars came out of a planning conference in February, when we saw that students needed to learn more about their work as teachers,' Professor Temmerman said.

'It is all about value adding as much as we can to the student experience.'

Four more seminars will be held at the University over the next few months, covering topics selected by the students.

'Other topics that will be discussed include education and the law, the new prep year and compulsory physical education in primary schools.

'They are all topics that the students said that they were concerned about, so it is addressing some of the issues that they have.'

A number of question and answer sessions have also being organised to coincide with the seminars.

'To compliment the seminars we are holding Q and A sessions with our final year students,' Professor Temmerman said.

'A panel of experts including teachers, principals and Education Queensland representatives will answer questions from the students.'

While the motivation behind the initiative is to help students make the transition to teaching as smooth as possible, Professor Temmerman also saw it as an opportunity to stay in contact with graduates.

'What we want to do is not lose touch with graduates when they are teaching next year.

'We want to keep connections with them while they are early year teachers.'

The next seminar is scheduled for October and will look at education and the law.

Media Contact: Josh Ada, USQ Media, +61 7 4631 1628