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Additional Qualifications: Extending Professional Knowledge

School is never out for Daniel Hansen, OCT. Since he started teaching in 2012, he has taken 20 Additional Qualifications (AQ) courses — usually, at least two a year.

"It allows me to be more versatile and valuable," says Hansen, a teacher-librarian and special needs teacher at Henry Kelsey Senior Public School in the Toronto District School Board.

His choices of AQs have varied greatly. Specific subject areas, like Primary and Junior Mathematics, and Intermediate Dramatic Arts, have been sprinkled with course selections that can apply more broadly — Special Education, Mentoring, Guidance and Career Education, E-Learning, and Inclusive Classroom.

The AQs have opened opportunities, yet his career path isn't top of mind. Hansen's master plan is more about the pursuit of knowledge. "My goal is just to keep learning and to better myself," he says.

As the College's advisory on AQs notes, ongoing professional learning is an integral part of teaching, and AQs play a prime role.

AQs are part of the regulated system of qualifications in a division or subject. While the College works with experts to develop guidelines (around content, learning expectations, instructional strategies and assessment), outside providers conduct the AQs. These are courses designed by teachers for teachers.

Why take an AQ?

Maybe to increase your understanding of unique aspects of the teaching and learning environment. Or expand the range of subjects you can teach at the intermediate and senior levels. Some AQs provide learning that transcends whatever you teach. There are AQs that position you to supervise or co-ordinate a subject or department, or become a principal. Others can extend your knowledge of teaching in the French-language system. Still others can illuminate how to support learning for students with special needs.

Each year, thousands of OCTs enrol in AQs. Six OCTs — who've taken almost 50 of these courses between them — share how AQs have served their professional growth.

Mary Mahler, OCT, took her first AQ 26 years ago, the year she became a teacher, and has added 12 more since.

"The initial motivation was to increase my employability and move as far across the grid as I could," says Mahler, a kindergarten teacher at St. Christopher Catholic Elementary School in Burlington, Ont., in the Halton Catholic District School Board.

Every AQ had its own purpose. As a beginning teacher, she took Primary Education, Part 2 and Specialist. Her school had a high proportion of ESL learners, so to gain strategies Mahler took English as a Second Language, Part 1, Part 2 and Specialist (now known as Teaching English Language Learners).

Other AQ choices shifted with her goals. When she was an itinerant teacher, Mahler took the AQ Reading, Part 1. "I wanted to give the teachers I was working with proven strategies to help students grasp reading," she says. Later, to return to the classroom, she took Kindergarten, Part 1, Part 2 and Specialist.

Mahler loves the collaboration around AQs, especially as she says being a teacher is in many ways "a solo act." That knowledge sharing, and the increased confidence AQs have given her, have been invaluable. Beyond the immediate applications, she says AQs can turn you into "more of an all-rounder."

Like Mahler, Verity Thompson, OCT, was first attracted to AQs for job security. Her principal mentioned that the school needed more expertise in family studies, so that's what she pursued.

She has taken six AQs to date: Part 1, Part 2 and Specialist in each of Family Studies and Special Education. Apart from how the substance of the courses has strengthened her abilities, she has been invigorated by the process.

"It revitalizes your teaching," says Thompson, who teaches Grade 12 English and social sciences at Nantyr Shores Secondary School in Innisfil, Ont., part of the Simcoe County District School Board.

Thompson has loved being exposed to new ideas, the latest pedagogical approaches, and a wider community of peers. "Teaching is a dynamic career. But if you do the same thing year after year, it can get routine," she says. "You have to constantly change how you teach and maybe what you teach. Taking an AQ helps you to enrich your career."

She compares AQs to going to the gym. "You're engaging your teaching muscles differently," Thompson says.

Some AQs can pay dividends if teaching a specific subject or level in the future. Others can apply right now, every day, no matter what you're teaching.

Marcie Tellier, OCT, understands both possibilities. She teaches Grade 1 in Sudbury at École publique Hélène-Gravel in the Conseil scolaire public du Grand Nord de l'Ontario. Tellier started teaching in 2019, and the same year took the French as a Second Language, Part 1 AQ. That was in case she wanted to go to an English board and teach French Immersion.

She has also taken Special Education, Part 1 and Part 2. One reason is to prepare her to be a resource teacher. Tellier wanted to learn much more about Individual Education Plans (IEPs) and how modifications work in the classroom. Other learnings from those AQs have helped her immediately — ensuring readiness to learn, and creating a welcoming environment. That applies broadly. "You're building your resources," says Tellier.

Melissa Naresh, OCT, has the same attitude about how some AQs have overall applications.

She was an early childhood educator for almost seven years before returning to school to become a teacher. Naresh now teaches Grades 5 and 6 in the Durham Catholic District School Board. When she was hired in 2020, she was taking three AQs simultaneously, and has now taken two more. As with Tellier, her AQ in Special Education has been particularly helpful.

"That's a course I think every teacher should take," says Naresh. "My class has such a mix. There's no one-size-fits-all scenario. It's important to make education inclusive. Throughout my career I'll be dealing with students with Special Education needs. But those strategies can also benefit the entire class in providing opportunities for each student to be successful."

Her other AQs filled different needs. One on Intermediate Division, Health and Physical Education fit with her passion for physical activity and mental health. With another AQ, Religious Education in Catholic Schools, Part 1, Naresh absorbed social justice principles around the ideas of stewardship, responsibility, rights and equity.

Other courses can be just for your own edification. Naresh feels that way about the AQ First Nations, Métis and Inuit Studies, Part 1. "I took it to teach myself," she says. "The more I know, the better I can do my part in truth and reconciliation."

While Naresh has taken several AQs from the start of her career, Marie-Eve Linnard, OCT, recently took her first, 10 years into her career. Linnard teaches Grade 2 at École élémentaire publique Cité Jeunesse in Trenton, Ont., part of Conseil des écoles publiques de l'Est de l'Ontario. In the past, she has taken workshops routinely, but never an AQ until she took one in March 2021, Mathematics, Primary and Junior, Part 1. Her goal? "Just to be a better teacher of math — not to get a better position," she says.

She decided to take the AQ during the school year instead of the summer specifically so that she could put learning into practice while everything was fresh. She says that as the AQ transformed how she thought about math, her students were able to change how they looked at math too. "The kids were along the ride with me. I experienced what I learned with my students," says Linnard.

Whether you've taken a single AQ like Linnard or 20 like Hansen, the learnings from each one add to the teacher's toolbox.

One year, Hansen took Dramatic Arts, Part 2 mainly to get more insight into how to help students express themselves differently. That can be used in any subject, even science. Hansen once had students create a dance or drama piece to show different types of matter and how they react with heat or cold. Another year, he took the AQ Environmental Education, Part 1, which encouraged him to shake things up by using the outdoors more as a classroom. Why has Hansen taken so many AQs? The same reason he jumps at any learning opportunities. "If you don't keep up, you could become obsolete," he says.

Teachers have an obligation to extend their professional knowledge. The AQ advisory reminds why this is so fundamental: "A commitment to student learning, one of teaching's key professional values, presupposes a commitment to teacher learning."

That resonates with AQ participants.

"If I want to get my students to learn, I better be a lifelong learner," says Hansen.

By taking an AQ, Tellier feels that she can better step into her students' shoes. "I'll understand their difficulties because I'm in the learning mode, too," she says.

Hearing that sentence from the advisory, Mahler mentions a poster in her classroom. It says: "Everyone in here is a learner. And everyone in here is a teacher." She tells her students that we can all learn from each other, and that learning never stops. For her, taking AQs signifies that. "If you're in education, you have to believe in the power of learning," says Mahler.