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College Invites Members to Assist
in Revising AQ Guidelines

The College is revising the guidelines for the more than 200 Additional Qualification (AQ) courses and programs that thousands of Ontario teachers take every year to enhance their qualifications.

As always, the Standards of Practice and Education Committee is inviting College members and the public to provide feedback on draft materials through a web-based consultation. Providers of the courses and programs use the guidelines to develop detailed course outlines that the College must approve before they can be implemented. Many of the guidelines for these AQs were last revised in 1978 and refer to curriculum documents, policies and legislation that, in some cases, are no longer in effect.

Revising the guidelines for each course or program requires considerable research, as well as the input of both subject experts and teachers. Many classroom teachers across Ontario have already been involved in revising guidelines that are now in the draft stage. The College hopes to enlist much more input from teachers through this consultation process.

POSTED FOR CONSULTATION

As the draft guidelines for each course or program are completed, they will be posted on the College web site at www.oct.ca/english/professional_affairs/aqrev.htm where they will remain for approximately two months. A form that can be used to provide comments is posted with each guideline. All feedback will be considered by the Standards of Practice and Education Committee before the guideline is finalized.

The final version of the guidelines will also be posted on the College web site. The Principal’s Qualification Program guidelines have been completed and can be found on the web site. Currently, draft guidelines for the Associate Teacher and Teaching Writing AQs have been posted on the Professional Affairs section of the College web site and members’ comments are invited until June 18th. Also posted on the web for consultation until June 18th are new Additional Basic Qualifications for Intermediate History and Intermediate Mathematics that are part of the French-language services pilot project on distance learning.

The approved guidelines will also be used in the future by the Accreditation Committee as the College expands its accreditation activities of in-service courses and programs.