Impact Evaluation of the Teacher Internship Placement Program: Final Report

Effective teachers are essential to the wellbeing and productivity of our community. The quality of initial teacher training is a key element in supporting the development of effective teachers. This report explores the effectiveness of the Teacher Internship Placement Program (TIPP) in preparing new teachers for the profession.

Feedback from early career teachers both in Australia and overseas highlights the importance of extensive practical experience in classrooms during teacher training. The TIPP is an initiative of the Department of Education Tasmania, awarding selected education students a scholarship to spend their final year of study as an intern at a government school. The year‐long internship is followed by guaranteed employment at the same school the following year. Interns are expected to complete their university requirements online. They are assigned a mentor and a colleague teacher from within the school. The goals of the TIPP are to give beginning teachers the opportunity to experience a full year at a school in a co‐teaching situation before taking responsibility for their own class.

The Peter Underwood Centre for Educational Attainment conducted an evaluation of the effectiveness of the TIPP, in particular in terms of transitions to and retention in the teaching profession as compared to other initial education graduates. The research, conducted with graduate teachers, aimed to identify whether TIPP enhanced preparedness for entry into teaching, which features of the TIPP are most effective for supporting classroom readiness in the first year of teaching, and whether these might be replicable through other means in initial education programs. 2016 and 2017 graduates of initial teacher training were surveyed (N=60) and invited to participate in interviews (n=5). In addition, one supervising teacher of a TIPP graduate was interviewed. Participants included graduate teachers who had completed TIPP as well as those who had completed the standard program.

The study was informed by the following research questions:

1. Do TIPP participants have successful transitions to teaching and are they retained in the teaching profession?
2. What elements of the TIPP are particularly effective for supporting classroom readiness in the first year of teaching, and are they replicable through other means in the initial teaching education programs?
3. Does the TIPP produce significantly different outcomes in comparison with other initial education graduates who begin teaching without having participated in the TIPP?