by Brian Jamieson
The passion, commitment and dedication of Ontario teachers has once again been confirmed with the results of Professionally Speaking's ninth annual survey of members. Teachers say they're around for the long haul and want the best teacher education as they enter and continue in the profession.
It's virtually unanimous: Ontario certified teachers are loyal to their profession and to practising in the province.
According to Professionally Speaking's annual survey of members, about four in 10 intend to teach in Ontario until they retire, and an additional 28 per cent plan to teach in the province until retirement and possibly occasionally thereafter.
In July, the College sent out 25,000 invitations to members selected randomly to participate. Of those, 4,697 members completed the survey. The College conducted the survey and commissioned the public opinion and customer research firm COMPAS Inc to analyze the results.
The survey confirms members' dedication to teaching in Ontario. They value their College memberships, see media arts as a focus for Additional Qualifications, think teacher education could do with some fine-tuning and prefer learning by doing more than online delivery for pre-service education.
As well, they support advertising on the College's web site and say that Professionally Speaking was the best source of information on the College's recent professional advisory on the use of social media and electronic communication.
The sample results may be deemed accurate to within approximately 1.4 percentage points 19 times out of 20, COMPAS Inc says.
"The data provides an illuminating look at matters of importance in the eyes of our members; and what's important in the eyes of our members is important to the College as we review and seek to make improvements to our programs and services," said College Registrar Michael Salvatori, OCT.
Career and member loyalty
Ontario teachers are nothing if not steadfast.
Eighty per cent of respondents expected to be teaching in Ontario five years from now. Only two per cent said they would work in another province or territory before retiring. Five per cent said they'd teach abroad before retiring. Three per cent said they might leave teaching to work in another profession before retiring.
Travel, maternity and further study remain among the take-a-break options for teachers, and 13 per cent said they planned to consider one or more at some point and then return to teaching.
Respondents also see value in retaining their membership beyond retirement. More than half said they would keep their Ontario Certified Teacher (OCT) status after retiring, with 57 per cent likely or very likely to keep it. One in 10 said they were "not at all likely" to retain it. A combined 67 per cent of the respondents (14 per cent likely, 53 per cent very likely) said they would maintain their OCT status after they left teaching in Ontario.
Among the reasons to keep their College membership, respondents said:
- in case they decide to return to teaching (71%)
- because they value their OCT status and wish to stay connected to teaching (62%)
- to strengthen their resumes (41%)
- to enjoy OCT member discounts (35%)
- to receive Professionally Speaking (24%)
- to access the College's library (19%).
Ninety per cent of the respondents said they would keep their College membership for two or more years after they retire. Of those, almost a third (28 per cent) said they would retain it indefinitely.
Returning to work was the most compelling reason for retaining a licence. "Because you value
your OCT status and wish to maintain this connection to teaching" was the next most
popular response.
New teachers (those with fewer than four years of teaching) saw the benefits of membership as more favourable than did their experienced colleagues (five or more years). Recent recruits are more inclined to keep their membership after leaving the profession to strengthen their resumés and to receive Professionally Speaking.
Advice received
Well over half (61 per cent) of the members who responded heard or recalled reading the Professional Advisory on the Use of Electronic Communication and Social Media. Forty-four per cent attributed their knowledge of the advice to Professionally Speaking as the key source, twice as many as those who credited the College's Your College and You e-newsletter, which served as the next most popular source (21 per cent). A further 55 per cent said the magazine was where they learned the most valuable information.
The media (12 per cent) and a fellow teacher (11 per cent) ranked next in importance as sources, followed by other (6 per cent), social media (1 per cent) and friends and family (1 per cent).
Given the explosion in the use of electronic communication and social media, the College sought to provide advice to members advocating responsible, professional use of the new technologies within ethical and practice standards while also acknowledging the exciting opportunities the technology presents for reaching and teaching students.
Forty-five per cent of the survey's respondents reported finding the advisory useful or very useful. At the other end of the spectrum, 20 per cent felt it wasn't of use. However, when asked to think about what they would like to receive in future advisories, members spoke out strongly for information on student safety.
Seventy-six per cent thought an advisory on teachers' duty to report under the Child and Family Services Act would be useful or very useful. Ensuring student safety, including during potentially hazardous activities, registered as an important topic with 70 per cent.
Respondents also thought that advice on the confidentiality of student information (64 per cent), respecting and promoting diversity in the classroom (63 per cent), and what constitutes findings of incapacity (47 per cent) or incompetence (45 per cent) would be useful.
More than 900 people responded when asked if there were other topics they wanted the College to consider for professional advisories. Answers ranged from bullying and harassment - among students and of teachers - to how to discuss student achievement with parents, and the roles and expectations of teachers outside the classroom.
"Special Education and legality issues," said one member. "Communicating with parents and recognizing and dealing with harassing or bullying behaviour by parents toward teachers," offered another.
To advertise or not
Paid ads have long been a staple of Professionally Speaking as a means of offsetting the costs of production. But should the online version of Professionally Speaking also accept paid advertisements? Half of those who answered the survey thought so. Only 11 per cent opposed the idea.
Members also approved of allowing online advertising on the College's web site in general, although 12.5 per cent were opposed to the idea. Those in favour ranked ads that offer discounts to College members first among a list of possible reasons. Fully 76 per cent wanted discount-friendly suppliers to be able to promote their businesses and services.
Members also saw a benefit to the College accepting online advertising if it helped to offset member fees. Sixty-nine per cent supported the notion and 38 per cent opposed it. Forty-two per cent supported a small number of ads, whereas only 13 per cent wanted no ads at all.
Seeking advertising to help offset the cost of redeveloping the College's web site curried favour amongst 53 per cent of the respondents. Inviting ads from a select group of advertisers received support from 44 per cent of those polled.
As for posting research on teaching practices on the College web site, 78 per cent of the members surveyed - 45 per cent strongly - agreed.
Pondering teacher education
College members also had definite ideas about the pre-service and ongoing education offerings.
For example, 75 per cent of those who answered the survey thought that classroom management was a very important component of course content in teacher education programs. Not a single respondent considered the topic unimportant.
The survey asked members to rate aspects of their teacher education program for importance and performance. The gap analysis provides helpful insight regarding future attention in certain areas.
Eleven areas of pre-service teacher education were outlined. Not surprisingly, almost all were considered important.
Respondents said that classroom management (89 per cent citing it as important and very important) and assessing and evaluating student progress (90 per cent) was critical to the preparation of teacher candidates.
Differentiated instruction and learning how to motivate and maintain student interest fell in just behind in critical importance.
But the largest gap between issues considered important and the preparation teachers felt they actually received belonged to writing report cards. Seventy-six per cent of the respondents said that learning to write report cards was an important or very important part of teacher education. Just 16 per cent thought they were well prepared for the task.
Those polled felt that teacher education programs were doing a good job of preparing new teachers to create lesson plans and teaching the theory of pedagogy. But the challenge of covering all aspects of a complex profession during an initial teacher education program was also evident.
Eighty-two per cent of respondents thought it was important that pre-service candidates learn how to integrate new technology, such as Smart Boards, into the classroom. But only 18 per cent thought it was being done well.
Learning to use Ministry-approved software was cited by 66 per cent of those surveyed as important or very important. Fifteen per cent thought it was actually happening.
Overall, 60 per cent of those surveyed thought they were prepared to teach the Ontario curriculum. Thirteen per cent disagreed. Similarly, just 39 per cent thought they were prepared to teach and plan for children with learning difficulties or special needs. One-third of the respondents felt prepared by their teacher education to teach children from diverse ethnic backgrounds.
Best delivery methods
As for the delivery of the content in teacher education programs, surveyed members weighted the following methods as important or very important:
- practicum (93%)
- practice teaching opportunities toward the end of the program (91%)
- practice teaching opportunities midway through the program (88%)
- classroom observations at the beginning of the program (80%)
- classroom observations partway through the program (79%)
- demonstration classes/simulations (75%)
- new classroom teachers sharing their experiences with teacher candidates (77%)
- classroom observations toward the end of the program (72%)
- practice teaching opportunities at the beginning of the program (65%)
- practicum seminars or a dedicated class to reflect on the practicum experience (68%)
- case studies (57%)
- seminar or discussion groups (62%)
- guest speakers (54%)
- lecture-style courses (26%)
- field education in a school outside Ontario (international schools, for example) supervised by an Ontario teacher (31%).
Perhaps not surprisingly, practice teaching in its different forms earned the highest scores. Seeing other teachers in action also rated high among respondents.
Many members see some value in offering teacher education programs either partially or fully by distance education. When asked how important it was to have teacher education programs delivered partially or fully online, 43 per cent of the respondents felt that partial online delivery was important and one-quarter (25 per cent) thought that fully-online-delivered programs were important or very important.
Ongoing learning
The College poll also investigated which possible new Additional Qualification courses members were likely to take in the next three years and which courses the College might consider adding to Schedule C. Schedule C courses are created to extend teachers' knowledge and skills in the design and delivery of specific areas such as action research, mentoring, and student assessment and evaluation. There were more than 1,000 responses to the latter question.
Regarding potential AQs, however, 37 per cent of those surveyed said they were likely to seek Additional Qualifications in media arts. Teaching students with mild intellectual disability ranked as a learning priority with 34 per cent of the respondents. Twenty-six per cent targeted further learning in environmental education. AQs in Kindergarten, Occasional Teaching and Orientation to Teaching in Ontario were cited by 20 per cent, 13 per cent and four per cent respectively.
"We've been given a wealth of data to analyze, process and pursue," Salvatori said. "We'll make the most of it to improve the usefulness of our advice to members, to look for innovative ways online to raise money to offset costs to members and to ensure that the Additional Qualification courses we accredit satisfy member needs.
"We're grateful to members for their opinions and insights, and we'll put them to best use to advance teacher professionalism in the public interest."
Methodology: Professionally Speaking sent electronic invitations to 25,000 members selected at random to take part in the 2011 survey. Almost 4,700 people completed the survey. COMPAS Inc, a public-opinion and customer-research firm, was hired to help design the questionnaire and to analyze the results. The overall results are deemed accurate to within 1.4 percentage points 19 times out of 20.
Questions: Wording and order of questions may have been modified for brevity and presentation.
Rounding:
Due to rounding rules concerning survey results, percentages for some questions may not add up to 100 per cent.
Which of the following best describes your most likely career path?
You plan to ...

Due to rounding, percentages may not add up to 100 per cent.
- teach in Ontario until you retire
- teach in Ontario until you retire and then possibly teach occasionally
- before retiring, teach in another province or territory
- before retiring, teach abroad
- before retiring, leave teaching for another profession
- take a break for travel, maternity or further study and return to teaching
- other (please specify)
- no response
How long after you retire would you maintain your College membership?

Due to rounding, percentages may not add up to 100 per cent.
- one year
- two or three years
- four or more years
- indefinitely
Thinking about potential advisories the College could issue in the future, how useful would each of the following advisories be?
PERCENTAGES | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
NOT AT ALL | VERY USEFUL | ||||
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
|
teachers' duty to report under the Child and Family Services Act | 2 |
4 |
18 |
33 |
43 |
confidentiality of student information | 4 |
8 |
25 |
33 |
31 |
ensuring student safety, including during potentially hazardous activities | 3 |
6 |
22 |
34 |
36 |
respecting and promoting diversity in the classroom | 4 |
8 |
24 |
31 |
32 |
what constitutes a finding of incapacity by the Fitness to Practise Committee | 7 |
14 |
32 |
28 |
19 |
what constitutes a finding of incompetence by the Discipline Committee | 5 |
11 |
28 |
31 |
24 |
How important is it for teacher education programs to include course content on each of the following?
PERCENTAGES | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
NOT AT ALL IMPORTANT | VERY IMPORTANT | |||||
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
N/A |
|
classroom management | <1 |
1 |
5 |
14 |
75 |
5 |
creating lesson plans | 2 |
4 |
15 |
25 |
51 |
3 |
assessing and evaluating student progress | <1 |
1 |
5 |
17 |
73 |
4 |
writing report cards | 2 |
5 |
14 |
26 |
50 |
3 |
communicating with parents | 1 |
3 |
13 |
30 |
51 |
2 |
organizing parent volunteers | 11 |
20 |
33 |
19 |
13 |
4 |
motivating and maintaining student interest | <1 |
1 |
6 |
21 |
66 |
4 |
teaching theory of pedagogy | 3 |
11 |
25 |
28 |
31 |
2 |
use of Ministry-approved software | 3 |
8 |
21 |
29 |
37 |
2 |
integrating technology into the classroom | 1 |
3 |
10 |
25 |
57 |
4 |
differentiated instruction | 1 |
1 |
6 |
18 |
70 |
4 |
How important is it for teacher education programs to include each of the following?
PERCENTAGES | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
NOT AT ALL IMPORTANT | VERY IMPORTANT | ||||
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
|
lecture-style courses | 13 | 27 |
35 |
18 |
8 |
seminars or discussion groups | 2 |
8 |
28 |
37 |
25 |
practicums | 0 |
1 |
6 |
17 |
76 |
seminars or classes to reflect on practicum experience | 2 |
7 |
23 |
36 |
32 |
case studies | 3 |
10 |
30 |
34 |
23 |
new classroom teachers sharing experiences with teacher candidates | 2 |
5 |
16 |
34 |
43 |
guest speakers | 3 |
11 |
32 |
33 |
21 |
demonstration classes/simulations | 2 |
6 |
17 |
35 |
40 |
classroom observations at the beginning of a program | 2 |
5 |
13 |
26 |
54 |
classroom observations partway through a program | 1 |
4 |
16 |
30 |
49 |
ensuring student safety, including during potentially hazardous activities | 3 |
6 |
22 |
34 |
36 |
classroom observations toward the end of a program | 4 |
8 |
17 |
27 |
45 |
practice teaching opportunities at the beginning of a program | 4 |
10 |
21 |
25 |
40 |
practice teaching opportunities midway through a program | 1 |
1 |
10 |
25 |
63 |
practice teaching opportunities toward the end of a program | 1 |
2 |
7 |
22 |
69 |
field education in a school outside Ontario, supervised by an Ontario teacher | 21 |
22 |
26 |
17 |
14 |
Due to rounding, percentages may not add up to 100 per cent.
The College regularly refreshes the Additional Qualification programs available to its members. Which of the following possible new AQ courses are you most likely to take in the next three years?

Due to rounding, percentages may not add up to 100 per cent.
- Media Arts
- Environmental Education
- Occasional Teaching
- Orientation to Teaching in Ontario
- Teaching Students with Mild Intellectual Disability
- Kindergarten
- Other