Raising the Bar - Ethics Education for Quality Teachers

Oct 15, 2026

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Since the 1970s, an “ethics boom” has emerged to counter the disappearance of ethics education from tertiary institutions, yet it appears missing from teacher education programs in Australia and the United States. To address persistent calls for enhanced teacher quality, a regional Australian university case study documents ethical dilemmas for pre-service and practising teachers, examines perceptions of ethics education in a BEd course, and reviews curriculum ethics content. Findings call for ethics philosophy units to equip teachers to explore and teach complex classroom ethical issues.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages18

Reading Time45 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Teacher Quality and Student Attainment

Australian Journal of Teacher Education Raising the Bar: Ethics Education for Quality Teachers Helen Boon James Cook University Introduction Abstract: Since the 1970s an ‘ethics boom’ has occurred to counter the disappearance of ethics education from tertiary institutions. This ‘boom’ appears to be absent from teacher education programs in Australia and the United States. Given persistent calls to enhance teacher quality this is problematic because quality teaching is inexorably linked to teachers’ beliefs, values and professional ethics. This case study, conducted in a regional Australian university, was designed to document examples of ethical dilemmas faced by pre service and practising teachers, to explore pre-service teachers’ perceptions of ethics education and to examine the BEd course curriculum for ethics subjects across the four-year degree course. Results highlight a need for teacher training courses to include ethical philosophy units. This represents a sustainable way to support professional practice and enhance teacher quality, by preparing and equipping teachers with techniques to explore and teach complex ethical issues in the classroom. Quality teachers are considered to be those individuals whose pedagogy is grounded in values and beliefs that lead to caring, positive teacher-student relationships, embedded in trust and high standards of professional ethics. In a context of focused attention upon professional ethics and values education, this case study was conducted to: a) explore professional ethical dilemmas encountered by pre-service and practising teachers, b) explore pre-service teachers’perceptions of the ethics education delivered during their bachelor of education course and c) examine the ethics content of a bachelor of education degree at an Australian university. Teacher Quality and Student Attainment Efforts to improve student attainment have given rise to much international research since the 1960s (for example, Coleman Report (1966), Plowden Report (CACE, 1967) . While earlier research tended to focus on socioeconomic and intake factors rather than the influence of school to explain student attainment, more recent studies have concentrated on the effects teaching and teacher quality upon student attainment (Carnegie Corporation, 1994; Darling-Hammond, 1996; Newmann & Associates, 1996) . For Newman (1996) and Darling-Hammond (1996) student attainment is enhanced by effective teachers who are not only technically competent, with good subject and pedagogical knowledge, but also able to form positive relationships and be a positive role model for their students. These two linked but distinct strands of teacher behaviours, constituting what teachers do in the classroom, enhance student attainment and define teacher quality. These propositions were Vol 36, 7, July 2011 76 Australian Journal of Teacher Education also endorsed in Australia. Rowe was emphatic that teacher quality is a key determinant of student outcomes: …the quality of teaching and learning provision are by far the most salient influences on students’ cognitive, affective, and behavioural outcomes…‘what matters most’ is quality teachers and teaching, supported by strategic teacher professional development! (Rowe, 2003, p.15) More recently, Hattie (2009) supported this view, maintaining that teacher quality is an important moderating factor responsible for the differences found in student performance within schools. Hattie (2009) analysed more than 50,000 studies and demonstrated that the differences between schools in terms of student performance were minute compared to the variances within schools, highlighting the importance of the classroom teacher. He concluded that teachers who used particular teaching strategies, such as providing challenging thinking tasks and appropriate feedback, and teachers who had high expectations of all their students and who created positive teach

FAQs

What problem does the study address regarding ethics education?

The study addresses the gap created by the disappearance of ethics education from tertiary institutions and its apparent absence in teacher education programs in Australia and the United States.

How does the study link teacher quality to student attainment?

It explains that effective teachers enhance student attainment through both technical competence and the ability to form positive, trusting teacher-student relationships, defining teacher quality.

What does the case study recommend for teacher training programs?

It highlights the need for teacher training courses to include ethical philosophy units, supporting sustainable professional practice and improved teacher quality.

Oct 15, 2026

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