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MEMORANDUM SUBMITTED BY THE NATIONAL
INTRODUCTION
1. The NUT welcomes the decision of the Select Committee to conduct an enquiry into the current nature and quality of initial teacher training and teachers' continuing professional development.
2. The NUT
is the only organisation to have developed its own CPD programme for teachers. Since the launch of its pilot programme in
1999, the NUT has provided high quality CPD opportunities for thousands of
teachers, members and non-members alike, throughout
3. The NUT has played a key role in ensuring that Government policy on continuing professional development supports the profession. It has a broad involvement in initial and continuing teacher development and training through regular meetings with organisations such as the Standing Council for the Education and Training of Teachers (SCETT) and the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA). The NUT is recognised as important to the process of developing national policies and programmes that meet teachers' needs in terms of CPD. This has led to a wide range of partnership programmes being developed as part of the NUT CPD programme such as the successful NUT/National College of School Leadership's 'Equal Access to Promotion' programme for black and minority ethnic teachers.
4. Creating an entitlement to high quality professional development which teachers can own and recognise as important to their pedagogy is a holy grail which has neither been realised by previous governments nor this Government. The James Report of 1971 argued for just such an entitlement and set out a national strategy to achieve that goal. The Report's proposals were never implemented. One consequence of the 1998 Government Green Paper, 'Teachers - Meeting the Challenge of Change' was the development of a National Professional Development Strategy for teachers launched in 2001. This was both imaginative, (offering teacher bursaries, Best Practice Research Scholarships, funded early professional development, and one term secondments for the toughest schools) and inclusive - in that it inspired teachers and their organisations across education. It was also short-lived. The strategy was curtailed in 2003.
5. Post-2003 a new Professional Development Strategy for teachers was developed. The material outcome of the new strategy was the provision of post-graduate professional development (PPD) and delivering the Government's commitment to introducing a Masters for Teaching and Learning (MTL). The reality is that the PPD offer is available to a small number of teachers and the MTL will focus on newly qualified teachers, new heads of department, and a single teacher in each National Challenge school. PPD and the MTL, therefore, are only a very partial proxy for a comprehensive offer and currently appear to many teachers as requiring an intensive burst of extra work over a relatively short period of time; the antithesis of the concept of continuing professional development. That is not to say that the MTL will not provide a genuine offer to a particular group of teachers but it cannot meet the objective of creating an entitlement to CPD for all teachers.
6. The NUT recognises, of course, that CPD takes place currently in many forms. If effectiveness is defined as the depth to which learning is embedded over time. The NUT itself, with its own CPD Programme, offers some of the most effective models. Indeed, it was left to the National Union of Teachers in the year 2000 to invest £70,000 in an EPPI Research Review conducted by CUREE to identify the best model for professional development; that of sustained collaborative CPD, for its programmes.
7. The National Strategies have their role and place, although the roll out of the Strategies has sometimes left teachers and head teachers, feeling disempowered. They fail, however, to be matched by the equally important concept of a funded entitlement to CPD for each teacher whose use is determined by teachers themselves.
8. If there is one recommendation the National Union of Teachers would make to the Select Committee, it is that the Government should launch, in partnership with the teaching profession, a national CPD strategy for teachers. The NUT uses such a phrase advisedly. It was a mistake for the Government and the Training and Development Agency to subsume its National Reference Group for teachers continuing professional development into a Wider Workforce professional development strategy. Merging and blurring the needs of the wider workforce and teachers does neither group of school staff any favours. The development of a professional development strategy for support staff should parallel that of a strategy for teachers.
9. The submission below focuses, in detail, on recommendations for the development of a comprehensive strategy for teachers' CPD. While there are a number of aspects to the McKinsey Report, 'How the World's Best Performing School Systems Come Out on Top' (2007) with which the National Union of Teachers would disagree, its statement that, "the quality of an education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers" seems self evident. That concept should be the focus of a future national CPD strategy.
10. The National
1. MEASURING QUALITY
- the extent to which there is an evidence base for and shared sense of what makes for good quality teaching; and
11. The Government first attempted to describe the characteristics of good quality teaching in autumn 2001, when it established a framework of Professional Standards for Teachers. The Standards were not, however, all developed at the same time by the same agency. For example, prior to the revision of the whole Standards framework in 2007, the QTS Standards, introduced in 1998, were changed in 2002. The Induction Standards were first introduced in 1999 and revised in 2003. The Head Teacher Standards, which have now been removed from the Professional Standards for Teachers, were first introduced in 1997 and revised in 2001 and 2005. They are currently being consulted upon again, with a view to implementation in September 2009.
12. The idea of what makes a 'good' teacher or head teacher will naturally change over time, but it is questionable whether such a fundamental concept should change substantially every three to four years. Frequent revisions to expectations about 'good teaching' also limit the extent to which teachers can familiarise themselves with and embed in their daily practice these expectations.
13. Numerous national and international research programmes have also attempted to define what makes a good teacher. It is still unclear, however, how much influence teachers have over student achievement and what specific teacher attributes lead to higher student achievement. For instance, does holding a Master's degree make one a better teacher? Do the best teachers hail from the 'best' universities? The difficulty from a policy perspective is that the relationship between readily quantifiable attributes such as a teacher's highest degree attained or level of experience and student outcomes is tenuous at best. In other words, good teachers certainly make a difference, but it is unclear exactly what makes for a good teacher.
14. Teachers' education (degree) and experience levels are probably the most widely studied teacher attributes because they are easy to measure. The Programme for International Student Assessment[1] asked school leaders to indicate the percentage of teachers with a university-level qualification in their respective subject area. Having more of these teachers was associated with better student results. For example, in reading, a 25 percentage point increase in the proportion of teachers with a university-level qualification in the relevant subject was associated with an advantage of 9 points on the reading literacy scale, on average across OECD countries. There is also some evidence that experienced teachers are more effective with students, but the benefits of additional years of experience appear to level off early in a teacher's career.
15. There is also evidence[2] to suggest that teachers' knowledge of their subject matter, as measured by relevant degrees, CPD courses, and certification in that area, is associated with high performance. Studies with more detailed measures of teachers' education levels and coursework in subject areas found that, in particular for mathematics and science, academic preparation does positively influence student achievement.
16. The influence of how teachers teach, or pedagogy, is more hotly debated as there is little research directly assessing the influence of pedagogical training on student outcomes. A DCSF-commissioned report[3] found that more effective teachers use appropriate teaching skills consistently and effectively in the course of all their lessons and suggested some 35 teaching skills or 'micro-behaviours' that the effective teacher constantly exhibits when teaching a class. It concluded that "pupil progress outcomes are affected more by a teacher's skills and professional characteristics than by factors such as their sex, qualifications or experience". There is certainly a need, however, for more research on effective pedagogy and more support for teachers to improve this aspect of their practice.
17. The NUT believes that teachers at the edge of developments in their subjects and in their pedagogy are likely to be good teachers. The enthusiasm about their learning and development is an essential building block for encouraging young people's enthusiasm for their own learning. The DCSF runs numerous websites which pick up exemplars of pedagogy practice, but those exemplars are chosen and mediated by the Government itself.
18. To further enhance teaching quality, teachers need their own pedagogic bank from which they can draw. A site should be established which is overseen and managed by teachers. It should provide a space for the exchange of innovative pedagogy. Responsibility for its overall management and development could rest jointly with the teacher organisations and the GTC(E) with funding support provided by the Government.
NUT Recommendations
· The Framework of Professional Standards should not be subject to frequent change, in order to facilitate its use by the profession.
· Teachers'
organisations and the General Teaching Council for
· Further research should be commissioned on effective pedagogy, which takes in to account the impact of school context and the extent to which teachers may exercise pedagogic autonomy.
- the ways in which the quality of teaching can be measured.
19. Although the NUT welcomed the establishment of the Standards Framework as a tool for teachers to use in order to identify their professional development needs and plan their own career progression, it has serious concerns about how the Standards may be used to measure quality.
20. In 2007, the Government added pay progression to the purposes of the Professional Standards. They are not Standards against which teachers measure their current practice and identify their professional needs. Both sets of Standards are seen by teachers as forms of job description which have to be fulfilled if they are to achieve pay progression.
21. A number of the current Standards are remarkably vague and subjective. Post Threshold Standard 1, for example, "Contribute significantly, where appropriate, to implementing workplace policies and practice and to promoting collective responsibility for their implementation", may have a political meaning to the drafters of the Standards, but it is meaningless to the vast majority of teachers.
22. Other Standards are equally vague and subjective. It appears that the process adopted for formulating the 2007 Standards Framework has produced a result which departs alarmingly from the normally accepted practice by which measurable objectivity is achieved in prescribing rules having statutory effect. The NUT considers this to be a wholly unacceptable trend.
23. By
calling on teachers to demonstrate that they have achieved a set of Standards,
the onus is on
24. There are simply too many aims and objectives within the current Professional Standards Framework for them to be used for measuring the quality of teaching. They are "statements of a teacher's professional attributes, professional knowledge and understanding, and professional skills. They provide clarity of the expectations at each career stage"; they "provide the framework for a teacher's career and clarify what progression looks like"; "clarify the professional characteristics that a teacher should be expected to maintain and to build on at their current career stage"; "support teachers in identifying their professional development needs"; and "provide a backdrop to discussions about how a teacher's performance should be viewed"[4]. Whilst many of the Standards may be suitable for describing progression in CPD, for example, they do not stand the test of being objective Standards for the purposes of measuring quality, to enable pay progression.
25. OFSTED also attempts to assess the quality of teaching. Its school inspection framework requires inspectors to evaluate:
(a). how well teaching and/or training and resources promote learning, address the full range of learners' needs and meet course or programme requirements;
(b). the suitability and rigour of assessment in planning and monitoring learners' progress; and
(c). the identification of, and provision for, additional learning needs.
26. OFSTED's definition of 'good' teaching includes secure subject knowledge; the provision of a well-structured range of stimulating tasks that engage learners; appropriate matching of work to the full range of learners' needs and the use of teaching methods which are effectively related to the lesson objectives and the needs of learners. It is not best placed, however, to make authoritative judgements on the quality of teaching because of the 'snap shot' nature of its observations, which may only be of five minutes' duration and the high stakes nature of inspection itself, which may lead teachers to 'play safe' rather than use more innovative teaching approaches. It is therefore more appropriate for schools themselves to take responsibility for on-going assessment of teacher quality.
27. The experience of the National Union of Teachers, as a provider of Continuing Professional Development, has produced a great deal of information, from research and evaluations by teachers, about what constitutes high quality CPD and the yardsticks against which quality can be measured.
28. When the NUT's CPD Programme was launched in 2000, there was substantial evidence that many teachers were dissatisfied with the CPD provided for or available to them. This was due, in part, to the absence of an entitlement to professional development; partly because what they did participate in was of poor quality; and also because they were, too often, not sufficiently engaged in the experience. The last of these was as the result of the lack of focus on their own professional interests and needs. Too much of the CPD available to teachers was driven by agendas determined by others, rather than designed to start from their knowledge and understanding and then nurture and inform their professional judgement.
29. The NUT recognised that it was in a unique position to provide professional development which could enhance teachers' engagement and, thereby, increase participants' potential for learning and the impact that, in turn, had on their pupils/students. CPD provided by the NUT itself could provide a 'no threat, no blame' learning ethos. This would allow teachers to honestly self-evaluate and address their own genuine strengths and weaknesses. Because the NUT's CPD Programme was not beholden to any orthodoxy or short-term political agenda, it could focus on what teachers themselves identified as their learning needs and aspirations.
30. To ensure that NUT's CPD Programme offered high quality opportunities which teachers and school leaders would want to sign up to, the NUT published aims for its Programme. Philippa Cordingley, Director of the Centre for the Use of Research and Evidence in Education, who acted as a key independent consultant during the development of the Programme, described these as:
· starting from what teachers know and can do already;
· focusing on classroom evidence;
· stimulating and supporting school-based learning by providing external expertise; and
· incorporating sustained opportunities for participants to experiment with and apply new approaches and teaching strategies in their classrooms.
31. A set of 'hallmarks' to spell out how the Programme would deliver its aims was adopted. These focused on:
· informing and enhancing teachers' professional judgements;
· providing 'no threat, no blame' learning opportunities;
· emphasising the value of teachers learning from other teachers;
· continuing to learn from evidence about teaching and learning and successful CPD;
· responding to teachers' own career development needs and aspirations - maximising relevance;
· developing partnerships with experts and other organisations with CPD expertise; and
· building on teachers' participation in the Programme by establishing networks and providing extended or sustained professional development opportunities.
32. Continuous evaluation by participants and positive feedback from tutors and others associated with the Programme have shown that these 'hallmarks' have stood the test of time and they remain the principles guiding the NUT's CPD Programme. They continue to influence the organisation and structure of the professional learning opportunities provided; guide the teaching, learning, behaviour and leadership content of those opportunities; and underpin the professional relationship between the provider, tutors and participants. The consequence has been that the learning and development of participating teachers has been maximised.
33. To
expand the evidence-base for the development of its CPD Programme, the
34. Awareness and knowledge about what is likely to maximise the benefits of professional development continues to grow. This is essential because, as Philippa Cordingley wrote recently:
"The starting points for teacher learning are more complex than those for pupils because they involve an already established set of skills, knowledge, values and beliefs that will have been internalised. Such internalisation is important for managing complexity. It isn't possible to make the second-by-second judgements that dynamic classroom interaction demands without having assimilated a wide range of knowledge, ideas and skills in a tacit form. But this means in turn that changing such knowledge and skills requires both a process to make them explicit and some challenging unlearning." ('Sauce for the Goose' - CUREE, 2008)
35. Within the structure and organisation provided by the NUT's CPD Programme, independent tutors seek to facilitate amongst participating teachers and school leaders, a high level of engagement and discussion. This helps participants to make 'explicit' the experiences and challenges they face. Then, aided by 'expert' specialist input, they plan changes which can be tried out in their everyday work in classrooms and schools. Finally, with their pupils/students, their colleagues, and other professionals and parents involved, participants can reflect on and evaluate what impact changes have had.
36. The learning opportunities provided by the NUT's CPD Programme thus become a stimulus to the process of 'learn, plan, implement, reflect and review', which should drive and continue throughout a teacher's career.
37. The cumulative benefits of such a professional process are the enrichment and enhancement of teachers' professional judgements. Professional judgement is increasingly informed by: evidence and new knowledge; feedback from pupils/students; input from experts; evaluation and coaching by peers and colleagues; effective leadership; and the views of parents, the community and the socio-political context. Professional judgement allows teachers to respond effectively to the multiplicity of teaching and learning interactions they experience every day and match the changing expectations upon them to the learning needs of their pupils.
38. The ingredients of effective continuing professional development can valuably be incorporated in hallmarks, codes of practice and guidelines. However, ultimately, the quality of CPD for teachers must be determined by the degree to which it informs and enhances the ability of each and every participating teacher to make informed sensitive and precise professional judgements which motivate pupils/students and ensure that their learning needs and aspirations are met.
NUT Recommendations
· Professional development should not be linked, via the Professional Standards or other mechanisms, to teachers' pay.
· The limitations of the OFSTED 'snapshot' approach to assessing teaching quality should be acknowledged and more emphasis given in school accountability mechanisms to schools' self evaluation.
2. ENTRY INTO THE TEACHING PROFESSION
- the characteristics of those who are most likely to be good teachers and the extent to which they are reflected in current entry requirements for ITT;
39. Too often the debate about ITT is predicated solely on the number of graduates coming into teaching. The issue is, however, whether teacher training providers are able to recruit the 'right' people into teaching.
40. The current statutory requirements for ITT providers place much emphasis on the qualifications and academic ability of candidates. Four out of the nine discrete requirements for entry to ITT relate to this. Candidates must not only hold a first degree, but also GCSE or an equivalent qualification in English, mathematics and, for primary trainees, science. Given these requirements, it is unclear why candidates must also be able to demonstrate they are able to "read effectively and be able to communicate clearly and accurately in Standard English" and "have the intellectual capabilities need to meet the required QTS Standards". The dominance of academic qualifications in the entry requirements is particularly perplexing given the need to pass the QTS Skills Tests in English, mathematics and ICT before QTS can be awarded. It would make far more sense to rationalise these requirements by using the Skills Tests, in addition to a degree, as the academic entry requirements.
41. This might enable more attention to be paid to the personal attributes of candidates and their suitability for teaching. At the moment, in addition to the practical requirements that candidates should be subject to a Criminal Records Bureau check, meet the Secretary of State's requirements for health and physical capacity to teach and be provisionally registered with the GTC(E), there are only two requirements which focus on the personal characteristics of candidates. Providers must conduct interviews to assess candidates' suitability to teach and candidates must demonstrate that they "possess the appropriate qualities, attitudes and values expected of a teacher".
42. How this might be achieved and applied consistently, given that ITT providers design their own interview and assessment processes, remains unclear. Indeed, the "qualities, attitudes and values expected of a teacher" are currently the subject of a GTC(E) consultation on its Code of Practice and Conduct. Whilst supporting ITT providers' autonomy, it would be useful to explore the potential for some kind of standardisation of this aspect of the selection procedure, perhaps by requiring candidates to undertake a period of voluntary work within schools prior to interview, so that consideration of their possession of appropriate values and attitudes would be rooted in the evidence provided in the placement school.
43. Such an approach would also provide candidates with genuine experience of working in schools before they began training, which might go some way to reduce the ITT drop-out rate. TDA data shows that approximately 12 per cent drop out during their ITT course. Non-completion is regularly higher for secondary courses, although this may be due to the fact that substantially more primary trainees follow the B.Ed route and only those in the fourth year of the course are counted by the TDA.
NUT Recommendations
· Consideration should be given to standardising the ITT selection process, including candidates spending a period of time in schools prior to their interview by ITT providers.
· The academic requirements or ITT should be reviewed, including exploring the potential to incorporate the QTS Skills Tests into the entry requirements.
- the appropriateness of the way in which trainee numbers and trainee quality are prioritised in the management of training places at national level;
44. The supply
model for ITT employed in
45. The Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) allocates funded places to ITT providers around the country. The system by which this process operates is directly related to the quality of provision as reflected by OFSTED inspection grades. The lack of consideration given to local and regional need by this system can lead to a gap between demand and supply, particularly as there is a strong tendency for teachers to seek employment near to the location of their initial training.
46. Even if there appeared to be sufficient numbers of teachers nationally, they might not necessarily be in the right place or have the appropriate specialism. The NUT is aware of significant numbers of newly qualified teacher members in the north east, north west and south west of England, for example, who have been unable to secure an inductable teaching post after qualification and who, because of personal commitments, are unable to move out of the area in which they trained to seek employment. As many of these people have been forced to look for alternative careers, the ITT allocation model may therefore actually contribute to teachers leaving the profession.
47. All ITT courses are expected to recruit as near to their targets as possible. There is, therefore, external pressure on the interviewing system, which may lead to some students who are not suited to the profession slipping through the net.
48. ITT providers are under enormous pressure. They have to recruit to their targets or they lose funding which, in turn, will lead to cutbacks in provision. At the same time, they have to recruit good students. The current ITT inspection system works on an output model and judges the quality of the course by the quality of the trainee, 75 per cent or more of whom are expected to be 'good' or 'very good'. To give a student the benefit of the doubt at interview is to take a huge risk - one student could lead to the closing down of a course.
49. It is evident that over a number of years the teacher training institutions have struggled to meet the secondary teacher training targets, particularly in certain subjects. In 2008, for example, the TDA reported shortfalls against ITT recruitment targets in ICT, science, mathematics, geography and modern foreign languages.
50. To reflect the falling secondary school population, most of the TDA's training targets for 2008-2010 were reduced. Any fall in the number of applicants for a particular subject do not this year, therefore, have as serious implications as they would have if these targets had remained the same or had increased. They still, however, reduce choice for ITT providers and can put pressure on providers to recruit candidates who might not otherwise have been considered potentially good teachers. This is particularly the case for the secondary shortage subjects, where ITT providers recruit a very high proportion of candidates. As noted above, the selection of candidates is important not only for their future performance as a teacher but whether, in fact they will complete ITT and become a teacher at all.
NUT Recommendation
· The Government should conduct an independent review of the management of ITT place allocation. Such a review would take into account the desirability of long-term planning for ITT providers; national and regional projected teacher vacancy rates; and the need to balance quality with quantity of candidates, particularly for secondary shortage subjects.
- whether the current range of routes into teaching is effective in attracting and developing those with the qualifications, skills and attributes to become good teachers;
51. Traditionally, potential teachers could choose between a four year undergraduate education degree course or take a one year PGCE course after they had gained a first degree. In 1990, a total of 11,838 students were recruited to B.Ed courses (9,524 primary, 2,314 secondary) compared to 11,956 PGCE (4,806 primary, 7,150 secondary). By 2000, the number enrolling on B.Ed courses had dropped dramatically: 8,960 (7,330 primary, 1,630 secondary) compared to 21,150 on PGCE courses (7,090 primary, 14,060 secondary). This trend has continued to the extent that B. Ed. Courses attracted only 6,690 students in total in 2006/07, compared to 22,600 for the PGCE. The growth in ITT has, therefore, been predominantly in terms of PGCE courses, highly influenced by Government financial incentives aimed exclusively at students on such courses.
52. Although trainees on undergraduate ITT programmes are entitled to the same level of financial support as other undergraduates, they do not automatically qualify for special funding. However, PGCE students do have access to additional support, such as training grants (partly means-tested); tax-free training bursaries; and one-off 'golden hello' payments for teachers of priority subjects, payable after trainees successfully complete their induction year in a state-funded school. The NUT has argued consistently for parity in the financial support available for all trainee teachers, regardless of their training route, to enable potential teachers to choose the training route which is right for them.
53. The other major development in ITT has been the rise of employment-based routes, which are also typically of one year's duration and have financial incentives attached. From the introduction of the school-centred initial teacher training (SCITT) initiative, the trend towards training 'on the job' has been promoted by Government through the Graduate Teacher, Registered Teacher and Overseas Trained Teacher programmes and, more recently, Teach First. Official figures[5] show that these programmes have expanded rapidly, from 2,440 trainees in 2001/02 to 7,840 in 2006/07. Their popularity is doubtlessly linked to the fact that trainees on the employment-based ITT routes are paid a salary by their employer, making it a particularly attractive route for carer changers or those with family commitments.
54. It is clear, however, from the findings of both NUT[6] and OFSTED[7] research, that there is significant variation in the type, quality and organisation of training and support experienced by trainees on the employment based routes.
55. As valuable as the employment-based routes to teaching are, a false dichotomy accompanied the introduction of school-based initial teacher training; that practical training experience in the classroom was more important than 'theory'. It is an absurd dichotomy. Theoretical knowledge should, in fact, provide the research basis for effective pedagogy. It should provide the rationale for learning and teaching, for classroom management, for child development and for responding to pupil behaviour. An understanding of key research studies and methodology should be seen as essential equipment for teaching.
56. There is certainly some evidence to suggest that trainees' professional knowledge and understanding is not always well developed currently. In the NUT survey questions which related to training needs, some respondents needed further practical training such as how to plan, assess or differentiate and subject specific content. Among a minority of respondents there was also a need for more theoretical input such as in child development, teaching and learning styles and curriculum studies. This observation would appear to be supported by the OFSTED finding that primary GRTP (Graduate and Registered Teacher Programmes) trainees had a good understanding of the content of the National Strategies frameworks for literacy and numeracy but not of the principles or research underpinning it.
57. In
addition, it is important to note that a number of NUT members who gained QTS
through the GTP route have reported difficulties with the qualifications being
recognised overseas.
58. It could be argued that the employment-based routes give a narrower image of the teacher as a professional and that, with a focus on school based learning and access to more theoretical studies from external sources limited, trainees are not always aware of the importance, or even existence, of gaps in their training programmes.
59. The input provided to trainees by school based mentors in this respect is critical, yet their ability to provide high quality support to trainees may be limited by lack of time or training. The NUT has supported members in a number of schools involved in ITT where insufficient support and/or reward for the responsibilities connected with ITT were provided, including instances where acting as a mentor was simply added to existing job descriptions without consultation.
60. For this reason, the NUT believes that the role of mentor should be a specific post of responsibility within schools with guarantees of reduced timetables given to mentors to carry out their roles. Training to be a mentor should be integral to a specific national professional development programme developed jointly by schools, including training schools, and colleges. Compensation should be provided to schools while teachers train to be mentors.
61. There would appear to be a clear link between the progress of trainees and their teaching commitments. In primary schools, a substantial number of employment-based trainees undertake a full teaching timetable in addition to their training. It would be extremely problematic for all but the most experienced to take on a demanding full time teaching post whilst at the same time undertaking the necessary reading, written assignments and study specified in their training plans.
62. Allied
to this concern about the lack of opportunity for trainees to undertake
sufficient training to meet their needs is the perception that the
employment-based programmes represent 'teaching on the cheap' or can be used by
unscrupulous (or desperate) schools to fill vacancies. Whilst this appears to be only the experience
of a minority of trainees, there are currently few legal constraints on schools
and ITT providers in ensuring a reasonable balance between teaching and
training for the employment-based programmes. The NUT believes that there is an urgent need
for a minimum entitlement to guaranteed, protected time for training for all
those who undertake these programmes, in the same way that newly qualified
teachers in
63. Despite the range of routes into teaching which are currently available, the NUT does not believe that potential trainees are able to base their choice of route solely on its quality because of the linkage of financial incentives with various routes. These financial incentives also feature strongly in the TDA's publicity materials which, it could be argued, should focus more on the skills and attributes needed to become a good teacher.
64. The NUT believes that the decline in the number of undergraduate degree courses in education has been a retrograde development. Students on one year PGCE or employment-based routes may receive a basic preparation necessary for teaching, but they do not receive the time they need to explore, in depth, the relationship of the curriculum to the development of children's knowledge, effective pedagogy, child development and the five Every Child Matters outcomes. The significant amount of time PGCE spend on school placements further inhibits the time available to spend on such matters.
65. Peter
Mortimore's proposals in, An Education System for the 21st Century,
provided an accurate, comparative analysis of initial teacher training in
"This training -
good though it is in comparison with many other countries - still falls short
of the Finnish model. There, all
teachers study for at least five years and qualify with the equivalent of a
Masters Degree. The predicted falling of
the school population provides a golden opportunity for
66. Rather
than continue to promote the basic one year PGCE or employment-based model of
ITT, the NUT believes the time is now right, given the Government's pilot
scheme for the new Masters in Teaching and Learning (MTL) for teachers in their
first five years of teaching, for the concept and relevance of a Masters
qualification to be re-examined, such that it can be integrated into ITT
courses, induction and continuing professional development. The provision of the option to PGCE trainees
to access Masters level credits during the courses is an encouraging
development. It should be seen by Government
as part of the development of a seamless ITT/CPD continuum in teachers'
professional learning. Relevant Masters
Degrees need to be developed, as they have been in
NUT Recommendations
· While there is merit in the MTL being integrated into initial teacher training courses, induction and teachers' continuing professional development, it should not provide the only route to a Masters nor should it be imposed. Initial teacher training should be integrated within a national professional development strategy for teachers. The MTL must be properly funded and the facility provided to teachers taking Masters for sabbatical time in order to complete written assignments and engage in tutorials. In short, the MTL should be properly funded, be genuinely voluntary for teachers, and be available as an option to all teachers.
· The Government should explore whether Post Graduate Certificate of Education and employment-based ITT courses should become two year programmes. Such a proposal is dependent on all Initial Teacher Training (ITT) students receiving sufficient grant aid, including support for tuition fees.
· All schools where there are students involved in teacher training should have mentors with specific posts of responsibility.
· Variation in the type, quality and organisation of training and support experienced by employment-based ITT trainees should be investigated as a matter of urgency.
· B.Ed and PGCE trainees should have access to the same level of financial incentives and support.
- the adequacy of current measures to improve the diversity of the teaching profession; and
67. It is not only the overall ITT recruitment targets that are important but also how they are met. Teaching's lack of success in tapping the widest pool of potential applicants may mean the profile of those accepted on training courses does not adequately reflect the needs of schools, or wider society, in terms of gender, age, ethnic background and location. It may also fail to harness all the talents of the widest possible pool of potential teachers, to make the education system 'world class'.
68. As one in five pupils in maintained primary schools and one in six in secondary schools are now from ethnic minorities, it is particularly important that recruits to the profession reflects the diverse society they will serve. Many pupils may find it easier to understand and relate to a teacher who mirrors the cultural diversity of the pupil population. Diversity in the teaching workforce is also an effective way of encouraging young people to understand and value diversity in society as a whole, contributing to social cohesion.
69. Men (in primary) and ethnic minority groups have historically been under-represented on ITT courses. Since 1997, the TDA has taken a number of steps to address this issue. These appear to be having some success. The latest figures from the TDA show that 15 per cent of pupils in secondary and 18 per cent of pupils in primary maintained schools are from minority ethnic groups compared to 12 per cent of new entrants to ITT in 2006. This exceeded the national target of 10.5 per cent considerably. The increase in the proportion of men training to be primary teachers is more modest but has still risen from 13 per cent in 2001/02 to 16 per cent of applicants in 2007/08.
70. Retention of minority ethnic teacher trainees into the profession is, however, a significant problem. 24 per cent failed to achieve Qualified Teacher Status in 2005/06 compared to just 12 per cent for white trainees. The reasons for this drop out rate are complex. From the work the TDA has done to date, it would appear to encompass a number of factors, from personal circumstances and family commitments, which are also commonly cited by all those leaving ITT early, to the high level of minority ethnic trainees studying mathematics and ICT, ITT courses which have traditionally had high drop out rates. As noted above, retention of those recruited to ITT courses, both during their training and in terms of taking up a teaching post after gaining QTS, is a serious issue for ITT in general and it would appear that as much if not more attention now needs to be given to this aspect as to recruitment.
71. There is limited research evidence available to inform national strategies to recruit and retain these groups in the profession. Most of the evidence appears to agree, however, that both male and ethnic minority recruits to teaching have misgivings about the perceived low status and rewards of the profession and concern about teachers' heavy workloads. These are the same issues raised by all ITT students and are amongst the chief causes of drop out from courses. In addition, in terms of potential male candidates, working with children, particularly of primary age, may be associated with a more 'female' caring role.
72. Some research[8] suggests that black and Asian trainees may be attracted to teaching by the prospect of becoming role models for minority ethnic children although this is not accepted by all minority ethnic entrants to the profession, some of whom are reported as resenting being cast as advocates for black and Asian pupils or viewed as experts on their cultures.[9]
73. A report commissioned by the TDA[10] found that many minority ethnic trainees were anxious about the possible reception they may receive on teaching placements in predominantly white schools, although the difficulties actually encountered by those who worked in such settings were little different from those teaching in multi-ethnic schools. This suggests that the problem lies more in the expectation than in the reality and that more effort is needed to deal with these concerns at an earlier stage.
74. The
same report highlighted a number of administrative obstacles to the recruitment
of ethnic minority trainees, in particular, difficulties were reported in
handling applications from candidates from overseas, especially from outside
the EU. The NUT has supported many
overseas trained teachers who have experienced difficulty in accessing ITT in
order to gain QTS and continue teaching in
75. There continue to be difficulties in such teachers securing initial assessments of their training needs by providers, which in turn has led to problems accessing appropriate ITT within the time limit. The complexities, and expense incurred by the trainee, in confirming their overseas qualifications is also problematic, as some NUT OTT members have reported that the National Recognition Information Centre for the UK (NARIC) processes for academic confirmation are bureaucratic and not always helpful to ITT providers' assessment of their level of qualification. They also do not take into account teaching experience undertaken in the country of qualification.
76. It will be important for the Committee therefore to re-examine all aspects of the selection and admissions process for overseas applicants and remove any other essentially bureaucratic barriers.
77. The 'hidden costs' incurred by those following ITT courses may also be a factor in limiting the diversity of the profession. Teacher training students, like many other students, not only pay tuition fees for being on their course, but continue to use their own funds to pay for essentials to achieve QTS. Student teachers often have to pay to travel to their placements that can be anywhere within their wider region; for equipment, often course specific like lab coats; or to make up for the lack of resources where they might be on placement.
78. All of these costs are prohibitive to students, particularly those from lower income families and may therefore have a direct effect on the ability of all suitable potential applicants to become teacher trainees. The NUT and NUS have been working together to challenge the hidden costs of undertaking a teaching training course while defending and extending the budgets in institutions that cover travel, equipment and under-resourcing costs as key requirements of ITT programmes. The Committee should consider that extent to which the prospect of hardship while training is a major deterrent to otherwise well-qualified entrants.
NUT Recommendations
· Further research evidence should be commissioned on the factors which contribute to the withdrawal of minority ethnic trainees from ITT courses.
· The administrative and initial assessment processes for overseas trained teachers seeking to gain QTS should be reviewed.
· Costs incurred by trainees as part of ITT school placements should be met centrally.
- the extent to which existing ITT provision adequately prepares trainees for entry into the teaching profession, whether they intend to teach in primary schools, secondary schools, early years settings or further education settings.
79. The current QTS Standards provide an adequate basis for the design of appropriate ITT courses by providers. There is, however, a notable bias in the amount of time spent in ITT on delivery of the National Strategies in particular, according to anecdotal evidence from NUT student members. This leaves many of them feeling that important practical issues such as behaviour management are not covered in enough depth, evidenced by the high demand for the NUT's own CPD courses for 'just qualified' and newly qualified teachers.
80. The NUT also believes that the QTS Standards should enable and encourage newly qualified teachers to undertake curriculum design or innovation themselves. The ability to exercise creativity is often cited as an attractive aspect of teaching as a career and the lack of opportunities to exercise it is frequently given as a cause for leaving the profession. The addition of knowledge about curriculum design within the QTS Standards would not only benefit practice within schools, but also recruitment and retention. Such a Standard could also feed into those relating to developing subject expertise further in the Standards for later stages of teachers' careers.
81. The current QTS Standards provide clear guidance to ITT providers, schools and trainees that cultural, social and linguistic diversity is an essential part of the education of new teachers. These include requiring trainees to differentiate their teaching with particular reference to more able and SEN pupils, supporting pupils learning English as an additional language and demonstrating awareness of and respect for pupils' social, cultural, linguistic, religious and ethnic backgrounds. This provision could be improved still further by references to issues such as working in mono-cultural and single sex schools.
82. A survey by the TDA found, however, that sixty-eight per cent of newly qualified teachers did not feel that their initial teacher training focussed sufficiently on how to teach in an ethnically diverse classroom.[11] By implication, many newly qualified teachers did not feel that they had the confidence and/or ability to fully meet the needs of minority ethnic pupils, including those with high mobility and English as an additional language. The provision of initial teacher training that enables teachers to become more confident and effective practitioners in a multi-ethnic and multi-racial society is essential. In addition, the inclusion of a community cohesion module in initial training and on-going career development of teachers would be useful.
83. There is still a need for pastoral aspects of teachers' work, within the context of Every Child Matters and the Common Core of Skills and Knowledge for the Children's Workforce, to be addressed much more explicitly in the QTS Standards if it is to capture the essence of teachers' day-to-day work as well as respond to these new policy developments.
84. Whilst the primary focus of teachers' work is unquestionably pupils' academic progress, the QTS Standards need to reflect the actuality of teachers' practice, which is based on concern for the development of the child as a whole. The QTS Standards could be strengthened further by references to having knowledge about and taking action informed by knowledge of child development. This holistic approach to the whole child is particularly important given the need for the QTS Standards to have relevance to the initial training of early years teachers.
85. The Common Core has a whole strand on 'observation and judgement', to reflect the importance of such skills in recognising developmental delay or behaviour changes. These would have a direct impact on pupils' academic progress and, as such, are therefore necessarily part of what all teachers do, although many have received little or no training for it. The requirement within the Common Core that those working with children should "know that development includes emotional, physical, intellectual, social, moral and character growth, and know that they can all affect one another", would appear to be a much closer definition of what teachers need to know than what is contained within the QTS Standards currently.
86. Although secondary trainee teachers are expected to be aware of the pathways for progression through the 14-19 phase in school, college and work-based settings, secondary ITT retains a traditional school/academic subject focus, therefore trainee teachers are not able to study vocational subjects currently. In addition, trainees on the employment-based ITT routes such as the Graduate Teacher Programme (GTP) are also limited to traditional school subjects. This has proved a particular barrier to gaining QTS for experienced FE lecturers/ tutors who wish to transfer to the school sector.
87. The new ITT requirement on providers, to prepare all trainee teachers to teach across two or more consecutive age ranges would suggest that a greater emphasis could be placed on ITT provision specialising in the 14-19 age range but, unless this is supported by training opportunities for the full range of vocational subjects, it is unlikely that these developments would have much impact on making ITT more relevant to the needs of the reformed 14-19 curriculum.
88. The experience of the NUT as a provider of Continuing Professional Development for teachers and school leaders has illustrated two 'truisms' which should continue to inform discussion about Initial Teacher Training.
89. Firstly, the need for professional development continues throughout teachers' careers. Secondly, the high demand for 'behaviour' CPD provided by the NUT (which is calibrated to meet teachers' needs and interests at all stages of their careers) shows that professional learning and development cannot be categorised as a 'done that' activity.
90. Teachers and school leaders need regular opportunities to review their experience; reflect on their practice; and plan their professional improvement in the context of ever-changing situations. As part of this process, teachers and school leaders are likely to wish and need to revisit, perhaps many times, aspects of teaching and learning, leadership and, as stated above, behaviour.
91. As well as being available throughout teachers' careers, the provision of CPD should have a coherence that has often not been the case in the past. The most likely way to ensure this coherence is to maximise the control and choice that teachers, themselves, have within a rich and diverse range of accessible opportunities. A good teacher is increasingly recognised as being associated with modelling a good learner. At no stage of a teacher's career, and certainly not at the initial qualification stage, should teachers be regarded as having reached their potential. The availability of CPD and individual teacher's entitlement to it should reflect these understandings.
NUT Recommendations
· ITT should aim to equip newly qualified teachers with the skills and knowledge necessary in order to exercise professional judgement rather than focus overly on 'delivery' of the National Strategies.
· The QTS Standards should give more emphasis to aspects of primary teachers' day-to-day pastoral work and child development.
· Child-development studies should be at the centre of initial teacher training and teachers' continuing professional development.
· Secondary ITT should provide more opportunities for those wishing to teach vocational subjects.
4. CPD PROVISION
- whether current CPD provision for new teachers, experienced teachers and head teachers supports and enhances their practice in school and, if so, to what extent; and
92. There are a number of significant practical problems associated with current CPD provision for teachers and head teachers. These include:
· There is no consistent equality of access to CPD throughout the education system. Unless the overwhelming majority of CPD and all that related to national and school priorities takes place within directed time, carers and those with other personal commitments are naturally disadvantaged. Supply teachers, those centrally employed and returnees to the profession all find it difficult to access relevant CPD provision because they are not attached to one school. In addition, anecdotal evidence from NUT members suggests that the introduction of Planning, Preparation and Assessment time in primary schools has meant that some head teachers have reduced the time they give teachers during the school day for out of school CPD.
· The emphasis given to professional development activities linked to national initiatives have squeezed the time and money available to schools for all CPD provision, restricting the opportunities for teachers to undertake professional development that is prioritised by them, rather than by Government.
· Conflicting demands on school leaders in terms of improving standards at the same time as managing a shortage of teachers in some areas and subjects as well as trying to balance school budgets. Whilst appreciating the potential benefits of CPD for their staff, these may be over-ridden by the more pressing demands of test and examination performance targets and tables and/or securing sufficient staff for the school to be able to operate.
· The level of personal commitment required to participate in CPD, particularly post-graduate award- bearing courses, in terms of both time and money. Given that teacher workload has continued to increase, despite the National Agreement on Workload, it is likely to be only the most 'driven' or ambitious teachers who take up such courses currently. These difficulties would be further exacerbated for teachers with families or other personal responsibilities.
93. The NUT has developed a number of principles, which are reflected in its own CPD programme and in its wider education polices. These have been used to inform its assessment of current CPD provision for teachers and head teachers.
(a). CPD must become an entitlement for all teachers.
A strategic approach must be taken to embedding CPD in the culture of schools, if it is to be seen as integral to the teaching profession and not as a bolt-on or luxury.
In order to maintain the high standards expected by parents and young people, continuing professional development must be part of each teacher's contractual entitlement. The National Curriculum can only provide a framework for the practical realities of teaching and learning. Teachers' professionalism is defined by their knowledge, skills, experience, training and professional development.
It is through an entitlement to continuing professional development, which is integral to teachers' work, and not additional to teachers' workloads, that teachers' enthusiasm and commitment to teaching can be enhanced. Such an approach will reduce also the still unacceptably high rate of teacher turnover and loss to the profession.
The NUT's proposals in its policy statement Bringing Down the Barriers (2004) focused on all teachers being given a material entitlement to professional development. The nearest the Government has come to defining this entitlement to date is within the 2006 Performance Management Regulations. There are two essential minimum components within the NUT's proposals. Teachers should receive a minimum funded entitlement annually for personal professional development. They should receive also a one-term sabbatical, every seven years, to conduct their own research into effective classroom practice.
The NUT is committed fundamentally to establishing for teachers an entitlement to CPD. The evidence from the NUT's CPD Programme and Union Learning Fund (ULF) ICT training programme is that CPD, valued and owned by teachers, enhances professional confidence, morale and learning. If appraisal and performance management are to mean anything, they must deliver CPD as a professional entitlement, not as an imposition.
Currently, lack of time and disruption to pupils' learning are the most frequent barriers to teachers accessing CPD. In the past, head teachers were advised by the DCSF not to allow staff out of school during the school day for CPD because of the difficulty of securing high quality supply cover. This view does not take into account, however, that some of the most important development can be learning from and with other teachers, which has to take place during the school day. There is strong evidence that teachers wish to have more opportunities to undertake such work - for example, it was the second most popular response of teachers to the question "what would you like to do more of?" in the PricewaterhouseCoopers Teacher Workload survey and scored consistently well as the type of CPD most valued by teachers.
In this context, the NUT would also support the view that increases in teacher workload have had an impact on take-up rates for CPD. Many CPD opportunities, for example award-bearing courses, demand a high level of personal commitment, in terms of both time and money. These difficulties would be further exacerbated for teachers with families or other personal responsibilities, limiting the ability of such teachers to access provision out of school hours. Given the forthcoming national roll out of the Masters in Teaching and Learning, issues relating to time constraints experienced by those undertaking award-bearing courses should be reviewed as a matter of priority. The identification of ways of facilitating time for study would be particularly useful for those teachers some way into their career, who are also more likely to have family commitments.
Teachers need support to achieve the high standards and successful implementation of the many initiatives imposed on them by Government. Government is reliant on teachers to deliver its education plans - they need high quality training and support to be able to achieve this. Although teachers have been forced to learn in response to imposed change, this has not always been supported by training in the past. A contractual entitlement to CPD would ensure that teachers were better prepared to implement Government policy in the future.
The NUT does not agree, however, that there is a need to introduce a contractual obligation for all teachers to take responsibility for their own CPD. There are already three specific references in the School Teachers' Pay and Conditions document, which refer directly to professional development, for example, paragraph 75.5.2 states the requirement for teachers to "participate in arrangements for his further training and professional development as a teacher". If this were to be introduced as an open-ended statement, it would place obligations on teachers without any reference to sufficient funding or appropriate and accessible training opportunities.
In addition, such an alteration to teachers' contracts would undermine their professionalism. In other professions, training and professional development are recognised as part of work. As professionals, teachers want to continue developing their knowledge, skills and understanding - a contractual obligation to do this is not necessary and would lead to much teacher resentment, taken as further evidence of a lack of trust in teachers' professionalism on the part of Government.
The OECD[12] has identified three broad strategies for integrating professional development throughout teachers' careers: entitlement-based; incentive-based; and school-based, which would provide a useful starting point for the Committee's deliberations. The OECD concluded that:
"A comprehensive approach to professional development would encompass all three strategies. Providing teachers with agreed levels of time release or financial support for professional development is an explicit recognition of its importance in teachers' work and a means of enabling participation. However, it is also important for teachers to see the value of taking part in professional development, to understand that it is an important part of their role and to see the "entitlement" to provision as the minimum extent of their participation rather than the maximum."
The NUT would commend the OECD's view to the Committee.
A key means of incentivising take-up of professional development would be, therefore, to improve both access to it and the quality and relevance of the provision on offer. This would not only make teachers feel valued by their schools and the wider education system, but it would also enable schools to compete with the range of professional development offered by other comparable employment sectors.
(b). Government's approach to CPD should reflect and be guided by the responses of the teaching profession, individually and collectively.
Government has, however, in recent years delegated its own responsibilities for CPD to the TDA and has placed considerable emphasis on approaches such as 'cascade training', whereby one member of staff attends a course which is run, typically, by someone following a National Strategies script. The participant is then expected to deliver the same training, often using the same script, to their colleagues at school. Such an approach inevitably leads to a superficial understanding of the professional activity concerned.
This situation is exacerbated by the fact that there has been a reduction in both advisory teacher support and professional development offered to primary teachers in many local authorities, which has combined to limit the overall amount and variety of CPD offered, such that it is now primarily focussed on core subjects, to the detriment of a broad and balanced, integrated primary curriculum.
It would be more beneficial, for both individual teachers and for the education system as a whole, if more attention was given to identifying and encouraging the sharing of schools' good practice in CPD and disseminating this to other schools, such as imaginative ways of organising the school timetable or the participation in networks and partnerships with other schools. This may be done through a variety of means including a new CPD website within TeacherNet, as a way of publicising good practice and encouraging local authorities to include the promotion of good practice in their Education Development Plans.
The ability of teachers to establish professional communities has been undermined seriously by the perceptions of many local authorities that they do not have the capacity to foster and sustain networks of professional communities. The development of professional communities has often been left to teacher organisations such as the National Union of Teachers which, through its professional development programme, has demonstrated that it is entirely feasible for a union to offer a national community of learning to teachers. Indeed, the Union Learning Fund (ULF), administered by the TUC, represents a template for the future funding of learning communities.
Through the ULF, the NUT has been able to organise in partnership with local providers basic ICT skills training for all teachers. It was aware from its members that there was a need for such courses, which the Government's New Opportunities Fund training programme did not address. To date, over 14,500 teachers have participated and the courses have grown in scope to include training on multimedia technology and interactive whiteboards. The success of this programme demonstrates that teachers' professional associations can have an important part to play in identifying the kinds of training that will have resonance and credibility with teachers, as well as provide support and help to those applying for grants or conducting research.
The NUT was proud to be the first teachers' union
to develop a network of NUT learning representatives. In 2002, the NUT's initiative was
acknowledged by a Government Minister as 'leading the way for the profession'. In April 2003, in recognition of the
project's success, the NUT received additional support from the Union Learning
Fund, enabling the
The role of NUT ULRs is complex and challenging - promoting learning among teachers. NUT Union Learning Representatives provide a crucial service, giving teachers access to the full range of opportunities available for their professional development, especially supply teachers, who have often been failed by school-based training. Our experience is similar to other trade unions - it is often easier for teachers to approach an NUT Union Learning Representative in confidence about their learning needs, in a 'no threat, no blame' context.
NUT Union Learning Representatives have been involved in a wide range of activities from promoting the NUT's training and continuing professional development opportunities, to surveying teachers' learning needs, meeting with individuals and helping them access funding for their learning and professional development. NUT ULRs are touching teachers' lives and work and acting as agents of change and support. Increasingly teachers are seeing their union as the place to turn to, not just on pay and health and safety but also on training and professional development. The Government should capitalise on this by involving ULRs in a two way process of developing and supporting national CPD strategy direction.
(c). Research and evaluation of provision and its impact on teaching and learning are essential to provide evidence of what works in CPD and to ensure a beneficial impact on teachers' skills and pupils' learning.
This has not always been a strength of current Government policy and was one of the reasons why the NUT has supported a number of Evidence for Policy and Practice Information (EPPI) research reviews, including on the impact of CPD on teaching and learning, collaborative CPD and the role of specialists in CPD.
By drawing on the EPPI findings and on other
national and international research and through independent evaluation, the NUT
has led the way in the development and promotion of peer coaching and mentoring
as a professional development tool, which empowers both parties involved. Its approaches have been adopted by the
National Strategies and TDA, for example and have shaped the wide-spread usage
of coaching and mentoring in schools across
All the evidence is that coaching and mentoring can only be effective if carried out in an atmosphere of trust, not in a climate in which the results of coaching and mentoring have high stakes implications for those who are coached or mentored. The NUT has recently launched support materials designed specifically for teachers subject to coaching and mentoring, in order to enable them to derive maximum benefit from feedback and to engage in constructive, professionally assertive dialogue with their coach/mentor.
Government must work with the profession to develop provision, assess its impact and to build a case for future development. Although some notable proposals for development have been made, such as the Masters level qualification in teaching and learning, too many successful national CPD programmes have been discontinued purely on cost grounds. These are discussed in the next section of this submission.
As indicated earlier, the NUT has given a qualified welcome to the introduction of a new Masters level qualification in teaching and learning (MTL) for teachers, which was first announced in the DCSF Children's Plan, based on its own experiences as a provider of award-bearing CPD.
The NUT supported the
development by the GTC(E) of the
The NUT is concerned, however, by the requirement that teachers must undertake the new Masters qualification in teaching and learning within the first five years of their career. It believes that, whilst a teaching profession qualified to Masters level is desirable, the means to achieve this should be developed in partnership with teachers as equals rather than enforced on staff for them to accept passively. All teachers should be able to access the new qualification if they wish, supported by the necessary time, space and funding required or this level of academic study.
The work done by the NUT and GTC(E) illustrates that flexible approaches such as the accreditation of prior learning and experience and the arrangement whereby teachers are able to work towards post-graduate awards at a variety of levels whilst following the same basic course, according to their particular circumstances, are effective. It believes it is essential that all providers are encouraged to use these types of approaches if Masters' participation and completion rates are to increase when the new programme rolls out nationally.
Such an approach would also go some way to addressing the most common reasons for non-completion of post-graduate award-bearing courses currently, pressure of work and the perception that the professional development activity is more important than certification. There must be a greater emphasis on the accumulation of credits towards the new MTL award.
There is a deficit in the evidence available on take-up and availability of post-graduate award bearing professional development currently. The NUT would suggest that measures need to be put in place to gather systematically information on enrolment and related issues, which would inform the future development of the MTL programme, including the identification of the kinds and levels of courses experiencing recruitment difficulties or which are fully or over-subscribed.
(d). Teachers must have ownership of the CPD, with a wide range available to meet individual needs.
A key issue for teachers at all stages of their career if that provision is responsive to individual need. The NUT is concerned that in recent years CPD provision has been linked to Government initiatives too closely, particularly in relation to the National Strategies, as such an approach would not always provide teachers with the professional development they had identified for themselves and could quickly become out-dated and irrelevant as initiatives evolved or came to an end. A DCSF report[13] found that:
"Teachers of the arts and more generally teachers of foundation subjects take the view that the sustained emphasis on literacy, numeracy and management has in effect cut them off from award-bearing courses." (paragraph 63)
This clearly shows that the current 'priorities' list for CPD limits the number of teachers who believe such professional development would be relevant to them. There is much that could be done at national level, in particular, revision of the national CPD 'priorities' list to encompass a wider range of subject knowledge and pedagogy, which would stimulate both volume and diversity of provision and allow currently unmet demand to be fulfilled.
The trend, however, has been for centrally-driven and prescribed provision. CPD determined by teachers' individual needs is currently dependent, to a large degree, on the culture and circumstances of the school they happen to be working in. It would be important for Government to work with the school leadership organisations to find ways to promoting teachers' involvement in school-level decision making concerning CPD priorities, as some head teachers and governing bodies do not fully understand the benefits of individuals' CPD or may have inequitable approaches to its allocation.
Teachers' prime concerns and motivation for participating in CPD are improving their subject knowledge and pedagogical skills. They believe, and there is growing evidence to support, that the greatest impact on changing teachers' practice comes from learning from and with other teachers, on their own and other schools, through observation, collaborative work and peer coaching and mentoring schemes. In addition, training needs to be focused on specific skill areas, with high quality materials and direct support, so that learning can be applied to the class room situation. Teachers have to believe that it will be of benefit to their pupils, given opportunities to test out theories and reflect on the lessons to be learnt for their own practice.
The NUT's own programme has illustrated that it is possible to put the classroom experiences and priorities of individual teachers at the heart of CPD, to enhance professionalism by creating opportunities provided by teachers for teachers, making use of the latest research and evidence about effective CPD and teaching and learning.
(e). Any strategy on CPD must be aimed at all levels of involvement - individual teachers, head teachers and local authorities as well as central Government.
There are many layers to CPD, some of which will be the product of Government legislation such as the new Education and Skills Act. The school as an institution will have professional development priorities and, fundamentally, professional development identified, chosen and owned by teachers themselves is the key to high morale, motivation and confidence among teachers.
The Government's CPD strategy, launched in 2001, was a limited success, but a success nonetheless. The Best Practice Research Scholarships, Early Professional Development Pilot, teacher bursaries and sabbaticals, represented a genuine opportunity for many teachers to continue their learning and research in depth.
The 2001 Strategy represented, at long last, a hint of the original 1971 James Report's intention that, throughout their careers, teachers should have the time, space and funding to reflect, research and develop their practice. The NUT believes that James' original vision and commitment can still be learnt from and should still be a cornerstone of CPD policy.
The GTC(E) has argued consistently that professional development is both an entitlement and responsibility for all teachers. It has called on Government to provide adequate funding for all forms of CPD, as a means of improving both school and pupil performance.
"investment in teachers' professional development is an important investment in education."[14]
The NUT supports this view and would urge the Committee to adopt it in its final recommendations.
The NUT believes that the balance between national, local and individual CPD priorities could be addressed through imaginative partnerships between schools, local authorities and HEI or other CPD providers, including teachers' professional associations. The position of local authorities in teachers' CPD has declined in recent years, as authorities have moved from a 'provider' to a 'commissioner' role, even though they have an important part to play in terms of the co-ordination of provision between schools and ensuring parity of opportunity and access for teachers. Serious consideration of how local authorities' commitment to teachers' CPD and their capacity to deliver this could be strengthened is required, if all aspects of national CPD provision are to be improved.
(f). CPD must be high quality in order to be useful.
At the moment the market is very complex and fragmented. Schools receive lots of approaches from suppliers but it can be hard to make judgements about the quality of provision. The recently developed pilot National CPD Database organised by the TDA is a welcome step towards enabling schools and individuals to make informed choices, as all providers featured on the database must sign up to a Code Of Practice. This has been developed by the TDA to provide a set of minimum requirements for high-quality CPD and builds upon the previous DCSF guidance document 'Good Value CPD', so that schools know what to expect from providers and how to secure it.
The NUT would recommend that the Committee seeks information from the TDA about the independent evaluation which is being undertaken on the pilot database, in particular whether it is fulfilling its role in ensuring that teachers receive accurate information about what is provided and what is expected of participants as well as whether it has helped to stimulate more consistent high quality provision.
Much existing CPD provision consists of on-off events or short courses, of variable quality and relevance. Whilst these can have their place for specific topics or problem areas, they are unlikely to lead to the internalisation of new skills or approaches, which are vital if they are to become embedded in teachers' day-to-day practice. The value of sustained approaches to CPD are discussed later in this submission.
It is equally important that CPD courses should not focus solely on skills-based training. Evidence shows that teachers are particularly interested in and value professional development which is focused on practice, with a theoretical foundation, which gives a strong indication of the kinds of CPD activities which are sought by teachers and would indicate the limitations of an skills-audit approach to the identification of teachers' needs.
(g). CPD can empower teachers and boost confidence, leading to better quality teaching.
CPD recently has been dominated by top-down prescriptive training in response to Government initiatives. Teachers have been frequently told what is best for them and how they ought to do their job - this has demoralised many teachers and diminished their sense of professional judgement and control over their professional lives.
That is why the NUT's non-threatening and non-judgemental CPD programmes have been so well received by teachers and have made a real difference to their teaching and learning. Teachers need to have power and autonomy over the direction of their work and this now needs to be recognised and underpinned by changes in the attitudes of policy makers to CPD.
The enormous learning potential available to teachers through teacher exchanges, sabbaticals and scholarships, both at home and abroad, has barely been tapped. The Commonwealth Teacher Recruitment Protocol, for example, should be factored into a revised national professional development strategy. Engagement in international development benefits teachers themselves. Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) report, for example, that teacher volunteers return with their enthusiasm and motivation enhanced. A national professional development strategy should have at its core a range of opportunities for teachers to work in developing countries and projects which encourage knowledge, research and skills exchanges between schools in developed and developing countries.
(h). Learning and development does not stop once a teacher is qualified.
Teachers have to work at becoming and remaining a good teacher and therefore need to keep up-to-date with the latest developments in teaching and, increasingly, ICT. As such, teachers have an important part to play in the Government's lifelong learning strategy, as it is more likely that pupils will be encouraged to undertake lifelong learning if their teachers are also involved in it.
There is a growing expectation that teachers will reflect on their practice, absorb new research findings and participate in training and development courses. In this sense, receiving qualified teacher status no longer represents a career-long licence to practice within the profession. It is a licence that needs to be revalidated by continuous learning throughout each teacher's career. The resources to enable teachers to achieve this, however, have yet to be put in place:
"Nearly all of the teachers interviewed during this research expressed frustration at the limited opportunities they had to reflect on and develop their own practice, which they saw as a result of excessive workload. There was also dissatisfaction with an increasingly centralised, standardised system of training and guidance'[15]."
Although the Government has repeatedly stated that it sees professional development as having a higher profile and priority in its new reshaped framework for teacher appraisal and rewards and that it is essential for continuing the momentum towards higher standards and a 'world class' education system, many of the efforts to provide opportunities for professional development are being experienced by teachers as extra burdens or demands because of the nature of their existing work routines.
The experience of being a CPD provider has strengthened the NUT's awareness that if teachers' professional learning is recognised by teachers as being relevant to their classroom and teaching needs, it has more likelihood of enhancing their practice. This likelihood is increased if their professional learning includes opportunities to engage in critical discussion with other teachers and 'experts'; allows them to try out different strategies in their classrooms (within a 'culture' which does not regard trying new approaches as a sign of not knowing one's job); and then having an opportunity to reflect, review and refine strategies. Where this process can further be supported by a trusted coach, trained in the necessary skills of collaborative coaching, the impact can be further enhanced. This description of effective professional development processes matches well with the evidence which has recently culminated from research about effective CPD[16].
Teachers learn very effectively from other teachers. As part of many of the NUT's CPD programmes, participants have a 'follow-up' opportunity during which they share short presentations about an aspect of what they have tried out in their classrooms. Because these trials have taken place in real classrooms with real pupils/students, what they describe as having 'worked' has high credibility to other teachers. By the same token, the feedback which teachers receive following their presentations can be very significant too because the 'commentators' have the credibility of doing the same job in similar circumstances. Face-to-face opportunities for peer review and consultation are a very valuable element of CPD.
Online discussion can also make an effective contribution to professional learning.
94. The NUT's CPD programme also encourages participants in its CPD Programme to become tutors. This consolidates their own learning and provides a 'credible' input to other participants. For example, participants in the 'Getting Behaviour Right' seminars - for teachers in their first year of teaching (NQTs) - are invited to become associate tutors in the 'Start Right' seminars which are for teachers just qualifying and take place later in the same school year. The teachers just qualifying and about to take full responsibility for a class for the first time are very engaged by teachers/tutors who are just finishing their first 'induction' year.
95. Similarly, teachers who have participated in the Union's TEACHER2TEACHER CPD courses, where they have been introduced to and tried out peer coaching, are invited subsequently to act as co-tutors and lead the introduction of peer coaching to other teachers.
96. Such 'tutoring' opportunities provide a very effective way of encouraging teachers to reflect upon their own learning and experience and articulate it for other teachers to learn from.
97. There are a number of successful models for professional learning which emphasise those aspects of CPD which are associated with greater impact on practice in the classroom/school. Some of these are briefly described below.
i). Peer Coaching: Participating teachers, usually in a pairs, observe each other teaching and then give feedback. The vital element of this is that both participating teachers act as coach and coachee. It is most effective where the coachee identifies what aspects of his or her practice should be the focus of the observation. The skill of the coach in offering feedback, after observing this agreed aspect of practice, is to draw out from the coachee what he/she thought were the areas of improvement which need to be addressed. Together, coach and coachee then identify strategies for doing this. This process encourages a high level of engagement and readiness to learn in the coachee and provides the basis for an ongoing professional conversation. It is most effective when both participants experience being both coach and learner. The NUT's CPD programme, drawing on the experiences of teachers trying out peer coaching, provides an 'A to Z of Peer Coaching' with is widely available and used in the profession. An interesting outcome of peer coaching is that participants say that they learn just as much if not more by taking on the role of coach as they do when being coached.
ii). Best Practice Research Scholarships (BPRS): This very successful model of professional learning attracted Government funding and provided an opportunity for teachers to investigate an aspect of teaching and learning of their choice, analyse and reflect on that and produce a BPRS report. The crucial elements of this project were that teachers themselves identified the focus for their investigations and, under the BPRS scheme, were awarded funding to carry it out. NUT CPD programme extended this excellent opportunity by combining a group of BPRS teachers to allow them to have an 'expert' input about good practice in carrying out a classroom-based investigation and then a subsequent opportunity to review their investigation with peers in addition to producing individual BPRS reports.
iii). Learning Circles: In partnership with the
iv). Study Groups: In partnership with the
98. Each of the above models incorporates many of the features described previously and associated with effective CPD which has a positive and lasting impact on teachers' practice. Each provides a collaborative and sustained learning opportunity, combined with expert input. They all allow participating teachers to ensure that their learning is relevant to them because they choose the context or focus to which they apply it. The aim underpinning each approach is to maximise the personalisation and control over professional learning by participating teachers. The objective is to empower teachers and in doing so maximise their learning and the impact it has on their pupils/students.
99. The
introduction of accreditation to such learning opportunities adds a welcome
element of rigour and professional recognition to individual participant's
learning. In addition to the approaches
to accreditation described above, NUT's CPD Programme values highly the General
Teaching Council (
100. The
partnership projects with the
School Leaders
101. The National College of School Leadership (NCSL) offers a range of CPD programmes for aspiring and serving school leaders, including:
· the
National Professional Qualification for Headship (mandatory for all new
· Leadership Programme for Serving Headteachers;
· Leading from the Middle for groups of two to four middle leaders plus one leadership coach (school based);
· Future Leaders - Developing leaders for challenging urban schools;
· Equal Access to Promotion - programme targeted at black and minority ethnic teachers in middle management, to encourage more teachers from under-represented groups to aspire to and take on leadership roles within schools (joint programme with the NUT).
102. The NUT
had reservations about the proposals to make NPQH a compulsory requirement, as
it believes that a qualification alone will not necessarily guarantee high
quality entrants to
103. Since the NPQH was introduced in 1997, a significant proportion of those who gained the qualification did not go on to headship. In many cases, this was because the NPQH represented the best CPD available to them. The revised NPQH programme focuses specifically on preparing participants for their first head teacher post, by providing practical opportunities to take on aspects of the role. Whilst this is a welcome development, the CPD needs of those experienced teachers who do not aspire to headship must also continue to be met.
104. The NUT has expressed consistently a view that school leaders should, primarily, focus their energy and activity on being the lead professional/senior practitioner. Although the implementation of this role will be influenced by factors such as school size, the top priority for school leaders' CPD should be the improvement of teaching and learning and the development of staff. Such a view is endorsed by leading experts in the field of school improvement and leadership, for example:
"It requires more or less continuous investment in knowledge and skill, both because the knowledge base around instructional practice is constantly changing and because the population of actual and potential leaders is constantly depleting and replenishing itself. In this view, leadership is a knowledge based discipline".[17]
105. The NUT believes that the skills, understandings, knowledge and attitudes needed to fulfil such a role should be given priority in the education, training and professional development programmes available for school leadership.
106. It is important that professional development opportunities for school leaders should encourage participants to pursue topics which have direct relevance to them. The over-arching principle of such provision, as for all professional development activities, should be that it is based on and is responsive to the needs of individuals, with enough flexibility to ensure that it is relevant and useful to school leaders of all phases and types of schools.
107. Core activities should address explicitly school leaders' own priorities, such as inter-personal and communication skills, curriculum leadership and the involvement of staff in decision making. These are also the areas of deficiency identified by teachers in existing school leaders who are not well regarded by their staff. Priority should be given to the skills, understandings and attitudes which are needed for school leadership and there should not be undue attention to 'administrative' aspects of their work. Above all, professional development and training for school leaders must focus on those aspects of leadership which are valued, rather than on those which are easily measured.
108. 'People skills' associated with establishing professional relationships, meaningful consultation, effective communication, negotiating skills, delegation, motivating adults and inclusive decision making should be at the heart of all leadership programmes. It is most commonly the absence of such skills which teachers and other members of school communities highlight when they are asked why a certain person proved to be a poor manager or ineffective leader.
109. It is
important that training programmes for school leaders are perceived as
independent and do not become seen as a means simply to train school leaders to
implement national initiatives. Some
criticism has been levelled at the
110. The NUT believes that effective leadership is dependent on an ability to examine and evaluate all of the information available on the current operation of a school. Decisions need to be based on knowledge and experience which encompasses every section of the school community, including an understanding of the impact of external influences on the organisation. A school leader who combines sound education and political judgements would be able to read and evaluate accurately developments in the policies of the Government and its national agencies, the local authority and teacher, parent and governor organisations.
NUT Recommendations
· Each
teacher should receive a material entitlement to continuing professional
development. This entitlement should be
made available in two forms; through guaranteed time available during the timetabled
teaching day and through securing an individual funding entitlement at current
rates for all teachers and
· The
Government should relaunch an effective national strategy for continuing
professional development for teachers.
All teacher organisations in
· Any future strategy must focus on developing peer coaching and the ability of teachers with specific skills to train others. Guaranteed time during the school day should be introduced in order to enable teachers to share their practice with teachers in other schools.
· Teachers should have consistent access to updating on developments in their disciplines and subject areas, including professional development in the use of Information and Communications Technology.
· The role of Higher Education should be evaluated in terms of providing mentoring for those teachers who undertake research. Specific financial incentives should be given to Teacher Training partnerships and School Centred Initial Teacher Training Consortia in order to develop teams of trained research mentors whose responsibility would be to provide skilled and practical guidance to teacher researchers.
· A national professional development strategy should provide a range of opportunities for teachers to work in developing countries and in projects which encourage knowledge, research and skills exchanges between schools and developing countries.
· The professional development and international research capacity at the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) and at the Training and Development Agency (TDA) should be strengthened and integrated with the work of the Department for International Development (DfID).
· In the
context of the agreement reached recently by Commonwealth countries on a
teacher recruitment protocol, Government should make available through
Voluntary Service Overseas and the British Council a range of opportunities for
experienced teachers to work in developing countries for a year. The scholarship programme would include the
allocation of scholarships for professional development overseas with the
number of such scholarships determined by the number of schools in each local
authority area. The criteria for the
award of these scholarships would be based on the potential for CPD links to be
developed between schools in
· Expansion of the Union Learning Fund should provide not just the delivery of adult basic skills such as basic ICT literacy but professional development programmes including leading edge developments in teaching. Local authorities should be encouraged by the Government to establish CPD advisory committees including teacher organisations, Union Learning Representatives and schools to co-ordinate and publicise the supply of professional development.
· Every head teacher should be entitled to a sabbatical once every seven years
· Appropriate CPD opportunities should be developed by NCSL for those senior teachers who do not aspire to headship.
- the adequacy of current arrangements for tracking the impact of and spending on CPD provision.
111. The tracking of CPD's impact on standards is a central feature of national policy currently. The NUT believes, however, that there are significant practical problems associated with demonstrating subsequent improvements in pupil attainment as a result of CPD activities. Within the timescale of a CPD course, even an award-bearing course, it would be unrealistic to expect participants to produce robust, measurable evidence of improved standards. This principle therefore needs to be interpreted with reasonable latitude.
112. Inevitably, it is difficult to establish direct links between a particular CPD input and a measurable improvement in pupils'/students' outcomes. Establishing a parallel 'control' situation is almost always impossible. It is the cumulative effects of high quality professional learning within a culture which encourages continual improvement and development that has a positive impact over time on students' outcomes.
113. As the previously cited Director of CUREE, Philippa Cordingley, recently identified from research features of CPD which can make an impact more likely. These included:
· "specialist contributions to structure CPD and root if in evidence;
· peer support to embed specialist contributions in every day contexts, encourage experiments beyond the comfort zone, and enable teachers to interpret and refine programme goals in their own context;
· activities to structure dialogue that makes practice and beliefs explicit and so enables review and reflection; and
· activities to help teachers build on their own starting points."
('Sauce for the Goose', CUREE 2008)
114. The link between CPD and students' outcomes is fundamentally dependant on the teacher who has been involved in the original learning. The strength of this link is influenced by the teacher's own self-evaluation of the degree to which the learning focus has met their own aspirations for themselves and their students' learning. If the match is strong, they will feel more confident, empowered and in control of the strategies and new understandings that they have gained. Common sense suggests that if these key ingredients of effective teaching are significantly enhanced, then their use of the skills, knowledge and new experience they have gained will be passed on more effectively when they seek to apply it to their own pupils. So, the perceptions and evaluations of teachers themselves are a very important component of assessing the impact of Continuing Professional Development.
115. In addition, in order for the effect of professional development on pupil attainment to be demonstrated, schools need continuity of both staffing and pupil intake. If CPD's impact is only assessed by reference to this narrow measure of success, this is more likely to disadvantage those teachers who are most in need of professional development opportunities, in particular, teachers working in schools in challenging circumstances. Given the practical benefits of CPD to schools, it is important that national policy should not be diverted by a requirement that all CPD courses should provide measurable outcomes in terms of pupil performance, in order that all teachers, regardless of the school in which they work, should have access to such professional development opportunities.
116. The NUT is concerned about the School Teachers' Review Body (STRB) and Secretary of State's commitment to the idea that the impact or outcomes of CPD should be taken into account for pay purposes. The NUT has made clear its opposition to mechanistic links being made between performance management, professional development and pay progression. The NUT's opposition to this mechanistic link is based on its own experience of what works in good CPD. The term 'outcomes' implies measurement, yet it is hard, if not impossible, to measure, to use the Secretary of State's own criterion, the amount of 'incentivisation' that teachers receive from effective CPD. It may be, for example, that the effect of a particular programme is one where a teacher's confidence or commitment to remaining in the profession is enhanced.
117. While CPD should certainly be about enhancing teaching and learning, the term 'outcomes-based approach' should be dropped. Any evaluation of CPD should be on the basis of how much teachers themselves believe their CPD has contributed to teaching, learning and their professionalism.
118. There is strong evidence that high quality CPD is beneficial to schools and to individual teachers in a variety of ways, many of which are extremely important but difficult to quantify, such as improved teacher motivation, confidence and retention to the profession. The effect on teachers should therefore be the focus of any evaluation mechanisms, as this will led to improved teaching.
119. The 'reinvigorating' effect of award-bearing CPD on mid-career teachers could present a useful strand in a national strategy to retain more experienced teachers in the profession. As all types of teacher motivation are ultimately beneficial to the education system, it is essential that all are valued equally by the DCSF and that strategies aimed at boosting participation in CPD, whether award-bearing or otherwise, are targeted at different groups of teachers.
120. The NUT believes there is particular value in teachers from the same school attending professional development programmes. The 'multiplier effect' is found in much of the literature on school improvement, where the establishment of a 'critical mass' of teachers engaged in targeted professional development activities has been linked to the success of both dissemination and ownership of school improvement efforts throughout the school community. For this reason, it is important that a long-term view of the impact of CPD is supported by the Committee, as the shifts in school culture required to embed and sustain changed practices need considerable periods of time if they are not to be merely superficial.
121. Although CPD, particularly award-bearing courses, can aid teachers' career progression, the NUT would caution that impact should not be measured by participants' achievement of accredited qualifications, such as credits towards the new MTL. A wider view of its benefits to teachers should be taken, as a significant number of teachers participating in such activities wish primarily to improve their classroom practice or to boost their motivation by engaging in challenging intellectual activity. For these teachers, the acquisition of a formal qualification may be seen as a secondary consideration.
122. The current arrangements for tracking spending on CPD are far from clear, as there are no longer centrally-funded dedicated school budgets for CPD. A significant number of professional development activities have been affected by changes to funding mechanisms, such as the removal of ring-fencing at school level and little growth in the funding available to support central CPD initiatives. These include:
· the Professional Bursaries initiative, which was incorporated into the proposed early Professional Development programme in 2004, which in turn was discontinued in 2005;
· grant funding for the Best Practice Research Scholarships and Sabbaticals programmes ended in 2004; and
· the School Improvement Grant, which was used to fund many professional development activities and the induction of newly qualified teachers, ceased to be funded through the Standards Fund in 2003.
123. This is
in stark contrast to current funding arrangements for CPD in
· Professional
Development Bursary - up to £650 to be spent on a professional development
activity of the teacher's choice, including visits within and outside the
· Action Research Scholarship - up to £2,500 to undertake action research on an area relevant to the individual's or school's development.
· Teacher Sabbatical - up to £5,250 to enable a teacher to undertake a prolonged period of study or develop transferable skills in a different environment.
· Professional Development Network - up to £7,800 to enable a group of teachers to work together on a regular basis.
· Group Bursary - up to £3,900 to enable a group of teachers from within the same school to work together on a regular basis.
124. It was the Government's intention that in
125. As a result of the Government's short-sighted discontinuation of the Best Practice Research Scholarships, the NUT has invested in its own scholarship programmes for members, including on thinking skills. Each scholarship includes £2,000 in funding and direct support through seminars and electronic academic support worth a further £1,000.
126. Hidden costs associated with CPD, in particular cover costs and fees paid by teachers personally, would also need to be factored in to any calculation of overall spend on CPD. There has always been some expectation that teachers would make financial contributions towards their own CPD costs, particularly for award-bearing courses or those taking place out of school hours, such as at weekends and during school holidays. The NUT believes, however, that teachers' commitment to learning, their willingness to reflect on practice, their readiness to share with colleagues and the translation of their learning into improved teaching and learning should be the contributions expected by Government, as this benefits pupils, schools, the education service and wider society. It is essential, therefore, that central Government and employers fund CPD properly.
127. The NUT agreed strongly with the recommendation included in the STRB's special review of approaches to reducing teacher workload (paragraph 91), that funding should be made available to schools so that teachers were no longer required to pay to attend courses themselves and to pay for any associated cover costs. The NUT believes that any such funding should be ring-fenced, to ensure that it would be used for the purpose for which it was intended.
128. The lack of specific funding for leadership training can be extremely problematic and divisive in some schools, with conflicting priorities and a finite level of funding limiting access to provision for some potential participants, particularly in smaller schools. In order that school leaders are not put in the invidious position of choosing between their own and colleagues' professional development needs, for example, it is vital that dedicated funding for leadership programmes is provided.
129. There is also a need for funding for CPD to be stable, so that providers, local authorities and schools can plan for the future and invest in the necessary staff and other resources needed for high quality provision.
NUT Recommendations
· Government funded CPD opportunities such as the Best Practice Research Scholarships and Sabbatical programmes should be re-instated and expanded.
· Outcomes based approaches to assessing the impact of CPD should be replaced by evaluation mechanisms which focus on the effect of CPD on teachers' professional practice and attitudes.
CONCLUSION
130. Any national strategy for teachers' CPD must be matched by action and by funding, as teachers will judge it by its implementation. In particular, it must be a true entitlement, which meets the needs that they have identified for themselves and enables a high degree of ownership of it. If it is regarded as a burden, it will lead to teacher resentment and will not contribute to raising standards in schools. It is vital that teachers have a real choice in the nature of any training, where and when it takes place. It is equally vital that the Government created the conditions where teachers can be reflective and see learning, developing and improving as integral parts of their job.
January 2009
ANNEX
MEASURING QUALITY
the extent to which there is an evidence base for and shared sense of what makes for good quality teaching; and
Recommendations
· The Framework of Professional Standards should not be subject to frequent change, in order to facilitate its use by the profession.
· Teachers'
organisations and the General Teaching Council for
· Further research should be commissioned on effective pedagogy, which takes in to account the impact of school context and the extent to which teachers may exercise pedagogic autonomy.
the ways in which the quality of teaching can be measured.
Recommendations
· Professional development should not be linked, via the Professional Standards or other mechanisms, to teachers' pay.
· The limitations of the OFSTED 'snapshot' approach to assessing teaching quality should be acknowledged and more emphasis given in school accountability mechanisms to schools' self evaluation.
ENTRY INTO THE TEACHING PROFESSION
the characteristics of those who are most likely to be good teachers and the extent to which they are reflected in current entry requirements for ITT;
Recommendations
· Consideration should be given to standardising the ITT selection process, including candidates spending a period of time in schools prior to their interview by ITT providers.
· The academic requirements or ITT should be reviewed, including exploring the potential to incorporate the QTS Skills Tests into the entry requirements.
the appropriateness of the way in which trainee numbers and trainee quality are prioritised in the management of training places at national level;
Recommendation
· The Government should conduct an independent review of the management of ITT place allocation. Such a review would take into account the desirability of long-term planning for ITT providers; national and regional projected teacher vacancy rates; and the need to balance quality with quantity of candidates, particularly for secondary shortage subjects.
whether the current range of routes into teaching is effective in attracting and developing those with the qualifications, skills and attributes to become good teachers;
Recommendations
· While there is merit in the MTL being integrated into initial teacher training courses, induction and teachers' continuing professional development, it should not provide the only route to a Masters nor should it be imposed. Initial teacher training should be integrated within a national professional development strategy for teachers. The MTL must be properly funded and the facility provided to teachers taking Masters for sabbatical time in order to complete written assignments and engage in tutorials. In short, the MTL should be properly funded, be genuinely voluntary for teachers, and be available as an option to all teachers.
· The Government should explore whether Post Graduate Certificate of Education and employment-based ITT courses should become two year programmes. Such a proposal is dependent on all Initial Teacher Training (ITT) students receiving sufficient grant aid, including support for tuition fees.
· All schools where there are students involved in teacher training should have mentors with specific posts of responsibility.
· Variation in the type, quality and organisation of training and support experienced by employment-based ITT trainees should be investigated as a matter of urgency.
· B.Ed and PGCE trainees should have access to the same level of financial incentives and support.
the adequacy of current measures to improve the diversity of the teaching profession; and
Recommendations
· Further research evidence should be commissioned on the factors which contribute to the withdrawal of minority ethnic trainees from ITT courses.
· The administrative and initial assessment processes for overseas trained teachers seeking to gain QTS should be reviewed.
· Costs incurred by trainees as part of ITT school placements should be met centrally.
the extent to which existing ITT provision adequately prepares trainees for entry into the teaching profession, whether they intend to teach in primary schools, secondary schools, early years settings or further education settings.
Recommendations
· ITT should aim to equip newly qualified teachers with the skills and knowledge necessary in order to exercise professional judgement rather than focus overly on 'delivery' of the National Strategies.
· The QTS Standards should give more emphasis to aspects of primary teachers' day-to-day pastoral work and child development.
· Child-development studies should be at the centre of initial teacher training and teachers' continuing professional development.
· Secondary ITT should provide more opportunities for those wishing to teach vocational subjects.
CPD PROVISION
whether current CPD provision for new teachers, experienced teachers and head teachers supports and enhances their practice in school and, if so, to what extent; and
Recommendations
· Each
teacher should receive a material entitlement to continuing professional
development. This entitlement should be
made available in two forms; through guaranteed time available during the
timetabled teaching day and through securing an individual funding entitlement
at current rates for all teachers and
· The
Government should relaunch an effective national strategy for continuing
professional development for teachers.
All teacher organisations in
· Any future strategy must focus on developing peer coaching and the ability of teachers with specific skills to train others. Guaranteed time during the school day should be introduced in order to enable teachers to share their practice with teachers in other schools.
· Teachers should have consistent access to updating on developments in their disciplines and subject areas, including professional development in the use of Information and Communications Technology.
· The role of Higher Education should be evaluated in terms of providing mentoring for those teachers who undertake research. Specific financial incentives should be given to Teacher Training partnerships and School Centred Initial Teacher Training Consortia in order to develop teams of trained research mentors whose responsibility would be to provide skilled and practical guidance to teacher researchers.
· A national professional development strategy should provide a range of opportunities for teachers to work in developing countries and in projects which encourage knowledge, research and skills exchanges between schools and developing countries.
· The professional development and international research capacity at the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) and at the Training and Development Agency (TDA) should be strengthened and integrated with the work of the Department for International Development (DfID).
· In the
context of the agreement reached recently by Commonwealth countries on a
teacher recruitment protocol, Government should make available through
Voluntary Service Overseas and the British Council a range of opportunities for
experienced teachers to work in developing countries for a year. The scholarship programme would include the
allocation of scholarships for professional development overseas with the
number of such scholarships determined by the number of schools in each local
authority area. The criteria for the
award of these scholarships would be based on the potential for CPD links to be
developed between schools in
· Expansion of the Union Learning Fund should provide not just the delivery of adult basic skills such as basic ICT literacy but professional development programmes including leading edge developments in teaching. Local authorities should be encouraged by the Government to establish CPD advisory committees including teacher organisations, Union Learning Representatives and schools to co-ordinate and publicise the supply of professional development.
· Every head teacher should be entitled to a sabbatical once every seven years
· Appropriate CPD opportunities should be developed by NCSL for those senior teachers who do not aspire to headship.
the adequacy of current arrangements for tracking the impact of and spending on CPD provision.
Recommendations
· Government funded CPD opportunities such as the Best Practice Research Scholarships and Sabbatical programmes should be re-instated and expanded.
· Outcomes based approaches to assessing the impact of CPD should be replaced by evaluation mechanisms which focus on the effect of CPD on teachers' professional practice and attitudes.
[1] Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development, Knowledge
and Skills for Life - First Results from [2] E.g. Goldhaber, D, The Mystery of Good Teaching, [3] Research into Teacher Effectiveness: A Model of Teacher Effectiveness- Report by Hay McBer, Department for Education and Employment, June 2000
[4] Training and Development
Agency for Schools, Professional Standards for
Teachers in [5] Hansard, 30 Oct 2008 : Column 1318W [6] National Union of
Teachers, The
Graduate and Registered Teacher Programmes: National [7] OFSTED, An Employment-Based Route into Teaching 2003 - 06, HMI 2664, 2007 [8] e.g., Gariewal R., Experiences of Racism in Initial Teacher Training, 1999 [9] E.g. [10] Carrington, B. et al, Ethnicity and the Professional Socialisation of Teachers: Report to the Teacher Training Agency, Universities of Hertfordshire, Loughborough and Newcastle/TTA, 2001.
[11] Teacher Training Agency, Newly Qualified Teachers Survey, TTA, 2004 [12] Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Teachers Matter: Attracting, Developing and Retaining Effective Teachers, OECD, 2005 [13] DfES, Review Of The Award-Bearing Inset Scheme, 2003. [14] General
Teaching Council for [15] Horne M., Classroom Assistance: Why Teachers Must Transform Teaching, Demos, 2001. [16] Timperley et al, Teacher professional learning and development: Best Evidence Synthesis Iteration, 2007. [17]
Elmore, R.F., Leadership as the Practice of Improvement, OECD
International Conference on Perspectives on Leadership for Systematic
Improvement, [18] Welsh Assembly Government
/ General Teaching Council for [19] DfES, The Standards Fund 2003 - 04, DfES Circular LEA/0473/2002, 2002. |