Better Pay and more challenge: how to get our top students to become teachers Australia's young high achievers are turning their backs on teaching. They want to make a difference in their careers, and they are interested in teaching, but when it comes to the crunch they choose professions with better pay and more challenge. This is not just a cultural problem - governments can and should do more to make teaching an attractive career for our best and brightest. If they don't, we'll feel it for generations to come. In Australia, demand from high achievers for teaching has steadily declined over the past 40 years. As top-end salaries for teachers became less competitive with other professions, fewer high achievers chose to teach. Over the past decade, high-achiever enrolments in teaching courses fell by a third - more than for any other undergraduate field of study. Our survey of young high achievers (aged 18-25 and with an ATAR of 80 or higher) found the best and brightest would take up teaching if it offered better top-end pay and greater career challenge. High achievers know that teaching falls short on pay. They estimated that by the time they reached the top of their chosen career, they would be earning A$142,000 a year. That's a very achievable goal in fields like law, engineering, and commerce. But for teachers, that sort of salary is only a very remote possibility. We propose a $1.6 billion reform package for government schools to double the number of high achievers choosing teaching within a decade. The package has three key components: First, offer $10,000-a-year cash-in-hand scholarships to high achievers to study teaching, a fast and cheap reform. Second, make career pathways more challenging, by offering new roles with much higher pay and significantly more responsibilities. Third, run a $20 million-a-year marketing campaign, like the Australian Defence Force recruitment campaigns, to promote the new package and re-position teaching as a challenging and well-paid career option for high achievers. The reforms package will help current teachers too. All teachers benefit if there are better opportunities for career progression, higher pay and new dedicated roles that help teachers develop and improve. MGT10002 - Critical Thinking in Management The package would cost $1.6 billion across the country. It's not cheap and would difficult to set up and administer, but it is affordable - and ultimately it would pay for itself many times over in improved educational outcomes for future generations. This was adapted from an article published in The Conversation by Peter Goss and Julie Sonnemann on August 25th 2019 Questions for Section A 1. Present elements of an Argument Map that you can associate with the information provided in the article. a) What is the conclusion? (2 marks) b) What are three premises to support the conclusion? (6 marks) c) What could be an objection? (2 marks) d) What could be a rebuttal? (2 marks) 2. Choose any two of Paul & Elder's universal standards and evaluate the quality of the argument advanced in the article. (3 marks) In answering question 2, you should adopt a critical thinking approach, which demonstrates Paul & Elder's (2014) universal intellectual standards of: a. Clarity - The presentation of the argument is clear. b. Accuracy - The facts being presented are accurate, and any assumptions have been clearly identified. c. Precision - The information being presented is specific. d. Relevance - The evidence provided is relevant to the conclusion. e. Depth - The information provided reflects the complexity of the issue being discussed. f. Breadth - The argument examines the evidence from multiple perspectives. g. Logic - The supporting premises are logically connected to the conclusion. h. Significance - The supporting evidence is important, and not trivial or superficial. i. Fairness - The viewpoints of others are presented sympathetically and are not distorted, nor oversimplified.