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Teacher Standards

Discover the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers. Understand the expectations of all career stages, and access resources to support your teaching journey.

What are the Teacher Standards?

The Australian Professional Standards for Teachers outline what teachers should know and be able to do. There are 7 Teacher Standards and they are interconnected, interdependent and overlapping. 

The Teacher Standards are grouped into 3 domains of teaching:

  • Professional Knowledge
  • Professional Practice
  • Professional Engagement

Each Teacher Standard is broken down into specific focus areas, which include more detail about each domain.

These focus areas are then separated into descriptors at 4 professional career stages:

  • Graduate
  • Proficient
  • Highly Accomplished
  • Lead

The Teacher Standards can be explored in different ways. You can look across a single focus area to see how it develops across career stages, or look at one career stage to see what’s expected from a teacher at that level.