Education experts have started work on their examination of teacher training and how it can be improved.

The teacher education ministerial advisory group met for the first time in Canberra on Monday, joined by federal bureaucrats.

Education Minister Christopher Pyne urged the “high-powered and excellent” group to keep their focus on university teacher training courses because that was the area in which the commonwealth could have direct influence.

Chairman Greg Craven, vice-chancellor of the Australian Catholic University, said the group’s eight members were excited by the opportunity to look at practical outcomes.

“This isn’t going to be an exercise in writing theses, it’s going to be an exercise in coming up with implementable ideas,” he told the meeting.

The group is expected to report to Mr Pyne by the middle of 2014.