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Memorandum submitted by the Russell Group
Summary
· Russell Group universities make a significant contribution to ITT provision, accounting for seven of the top ten rated institutions.
· In particular, Russell Group universities make an important contribution to teacher training in shortage strategic areas such as sciences, maths and modern languages.
· Russell Group universities are also actively involved in Teach First and the Higher Education Access Programme for Schools.
· World-class educational research carried out at Russell Group universities helps both to inform their own ITT provision and influence educational policy and practice more widely.
1. The Russell Group is pleased to make a short submission to the Committee's inquiry into initial teacher training (ITT). Our submission focuses on two points raised by the Committee about the delivery of ITT: the role of higher education institutions in the provision of ITT and the role of educational research in informing ITT provision.
The role of higher education institutions in relation to ITT and the extent to which they make a distinctive contribution to provision
2. Despite making up only 11 per cent of institutions offering the postgraduate certificate in education (PGCE), Russell Group universities educate over 5,800 post-graduate students and almost 1,800 undergraduate students in teacher training.[1]
3. Russell Group
universities have some of the top rated education programmes in the
4. Twelve Russell Group universities offer ITT; they are: o The o The o The o King's College London o The o The o The o The o The o The o The o The
5. Russell Group universities admit high-achieving teacher trainees, the vast majority of whom enter into teaching posts following qualification; o In 2007-07, 90 per cent of all final year teacher trainees in Russell Group universities achieved qualified teacher status (QTS) in 2006-07. Of these, 89 per cent are now in a teaching post. In total, 94 per cent of trainees from Russell Group universities are in or seeking a teaching posts.[3]
6. Russell Group universities are also making an important contribution towards teacher training in shortage subject areas: o A third of all newly qualified science teachers known to be in teaching posts six months after gaining qualified teachers' status graduated from Russell Group universities[4]. o Russell Group universities educate 42 per cent of students taking biology, chemistry and maths and a third of students training for modern foreign languages.
7. Four Russell
Group universities - the Universities of Cambridge,
8. Russell Group universities are actively involved in Teach First programmes, which place university graduates into state school classroom. 73 per cent of participants in Teach First are from Russell Group universities. The success of the Teach First programme can be found in Ofsted's 2008 assessment which found that half of the 2006 cohort achieved the teacher qualification at an outstanding (the highest) level, while some "were judged by inspectors to be amongst the most exceptional trainees produced by any teacher training route." Participants "have a markedly beneficial impact on the schools involved."[5]
9. In
particular, Russell Group universities are closely involved in the Teach First
Higher Education Access Programme for Schools (HEAPS) which is aimed at improving
public progression from Teach First schools to research-intensive universities. Around 60 Ambassadors, who are alumni of
Teach First, are being trained to act as mentors. The programme will include a number of events
to broaden pupil awareness of higher education, the flagship being a
residential course at the
The role of educational research in informing ITT provision
10. As leading research-intensive institutions, Russell Group universities conduct world-class educational research, including research into primary and secondary education, learning and teaching, and teacher training. Over half of educational research activity in Russell Group universities was rated as 3* (internationally excellent) or 4* (world leading) in the 2008 RAE.
11. Russell Group universities' Schools of Education are able to undertake research into their own ITT provision which aims to enhance and improve provision, as well as educational research aimed at developing pedagogy, policy and practice in teacher training and teacher development more broadly, which helps to inform national policy initiatives or specific schemes to improve teacher training. Many projects are funded by organisations such as the Teacher Development Agency or educational trusts
12. ITT provision in Russell Group universities benefits from its co-location with leading-edge research. Trainees have access to high-quality, research-informed teaching[6] and gain from the recognised benefits of research-led learning[7], in particular developing valuable transferable skills. These include analytical and critical thinking skills; problem solving skills, including approaching new challenges from different perspectives and in new and innovative ways; and the ability to cope with new knowledge - particularly important for teachers' continuing professional development in the classroom.
13. Some examples of educational research projects at Russell Group universities include the following:
Primary education
The http://www.primaryreview.org.uk/
Teacher training in shortage subjects
Current research projects by the University of Birmingham's School of Education include the Physical Sciences Enhancement Project (PhySEP), funded by the Science Enhancement Programme and the Gatsby Charitable Trust. The project was developed to "develop PGCE science student teachers' knowledge, understanding and pedagogic skills in the teaching and learning of physical sciences through extended and enhanced mentoring" with a view to improving recruitment and retention of teachers. http://www.education.bham.ac.uk/research/projects1/physep/index.shtml
The http://www.bris.ac.uk/education/research/projects/project?arg_budget_code=RK6736
Retention
King's College London's Centre for Public Policy Research in the Department for Education and Professional Studies has recently completed a TDA-funded research project investigating why minority ethnic trainee teachers withdraw from ITT courses which aimed to enable providers of initial teacher training to recruit and retain sufficient numbers of trainees from minority ethnic groups. The findings and recommendations have been published by the TDA in a report.[1] King's has also undertaken the Leverhulme Numeracy Research Programme (1997-2002)[1] and related Nuffield Projects (2001-02 and 2002-03), the largest ever national programmes in primary mathematics which covered many aspects of teaching and learning, and the "Helping science teachers" study on behalf of the Council for Science and Technology. http://www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/sspp/education/research/projects/minority.html http://www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/sspp/education/research/projects/leverhulme.html http://www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/sspp/education/research/projects/sciteach.html
ITT provision, support for trainees, and teacher development
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/ecls/research/project/1923 http://www.ncl.ac.uk/ecls/research/project/2587
The
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