TQI and the Australian Professional Standards

All teachers in the ACT are required to engage in 100 hours of professional learning (PL) over
a five year period. ACT has annual registration renewal and therefore the legislation
requires teachers to submit 20 hours of reflected PL each year.

There are two types of PL: Accredited and Teacher Identified. The two types are valued
equally; however, at least 5 hours of each type must be recorded.

For the Accredited PL, the learning is gained from a Recognised Provider. This means that
the Provider (for example, your school) is registered with TQI and has confirmed
accreditation for the particular program or workshop or learning session.

For the Teacher Identified PL, the teacher records their learning through the TQI portal on
their own profile. They record the title of the session/ learning experience, the Standards
that were addressed and a brief description of the activity.

When recording the PL time, the teacher must provide a reflection to incorporate the
standards identified/ demonstrated by or during the activity. Typically, the reflection
involves responding to Likert-scale style questions as well as open-ended questions relating
to how the activity improved the teachers practice. TQIs online form guides the teacher
through the reflection process.

If several separate activities are attended, the teacher has two options:
1. Each activity is recorded separately, with a reflection for each. The total time of
attendance in the activity can then be recorded. For example, a suite of four 2 hour
activities has been attended, then this would total to 8 hours of PL time.
2. The activities are bundled and described as a group of activities, but only recorded
once and only one reflection is required. The total time for this can be claimed up to
5 hours. For example, a suite of four 2 hour activities has been attended, but
recorded as one grouped activity, then this would total 5 hours of PL time.

CMA and the provision of Professional Learning
As the CMA is a small volunteer-only association, it has been decided that we only have capacity to
provide Teacher Identified PL in 2014. The process and documentation required for the TQI
accreditation of workshops requires time and resources that we currently do not have at our
disposal. The CMA committee will review this situation for 2015.
We continue to be committed to providing quality, on-going Professional Learning opportunities to
support our members.
Bronwyn Welch
President
Canberra Mathematical Association
30 July 2014