InTuition Issue 18 Autumn 2014
The journal for professional teachers and trainers in the further education and skills sector
FE research shines UK college teachers shortlisted for major European award News p5 Welcoming your feedback on this edition – see page 3
Admin and a lack of resources frustrate FE professionals, survey finds
Teacher, trainer, tutor, lecturer – which are you and does it matter?
When teaching becomes indoctrination – and how to guard against it
News p4
Feature p12
CPD Matters p16
Help! My brain is full! Geoff Petty p30
www.ifl.ac.uk www.et-foundation.co.uk
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Welcome
www.ifl.ac.uk
Contents
IfL’s philosophy and values will continue to thrive
News 4 Foundation’s maths support
Since the announcement in the summer that IfL was to close and that its legacy should be passed to the Education and Training
Foundation, we have been heartened by the warm words of support from so many of you. During the online broadcast on the future of IfL’s legacy on 11 September (available to view at www.ifl.ac.uk), Dr Jean Kelly, IfL’s chief executive, pointed out that while this announcement has been sad news for some, the disappearance of the IfL is not going to change the everyday practice and the good work of teachers and trainers. The philosophy and values will continue through the recognition of effective professional development, the status of QTLS and the sense of ownership that so many teachers and trainers now take of their professional identity. That is
Give us your feedback on our latest issue
the IfL legacy. As we have said many times over the past few years, we believe it is vital that teachers and trainers take the opportunity to influence the formation of your future
For more information, visit www.ifl.ac.uk and www.et-foundation.co.uk. Or follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter
practitioner body. The Foundation will consult with members professional membership. Please do take the opportunity to have your say. While this is your last edition of InTuition from IfL, it will Foundation takes on the IfL legacy in the coming weeks, you will continue to receive access to membership benefits, including InTuition, and support. You can find details of how to stay in touch with the Foundation on page 4. You can InTuition by emailing communications@etfoundation.co.uk Thank you for your continued support. Only with your contribution will the IfL legacy continue to have a positive impact for practitioners, and for teaching and learning, for many years to come. On behalf of the whole IfL team, I wish you all the best for the future.
Marie Ashton Managing Editor
EDITORIAL
Opinion Lord Young Joe Vinson
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Interview Jan Hodges OBE
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Feature Professional identity
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CPD Matters Critical thinking Parental involvement ACRES’ improvement
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Research Teacher enquiry
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InPractice Teaching mathematics
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InSight 26 ‘Traditional’ versus ‘progressive’
Managing Editor: Marie Ashton Editor CPD Matters: Jean Kelly Editorial support: Michelle Charles Publishing and Editorial Adviser: Alan Thomson www.ifl .ac.uk
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Geoff Petty Cognitive overload
30
Books
32
Forum Pedagogue column
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Noticeboard
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Editorial board
also continue to let us know your thoughts on this edition of
communications@ etfoundation.co.uk InTuition , Institute for Learning, 49 – 51 East Road, London N1 6AH
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in the coming months on what you would like to see from your
not be your last InTuition. As the Education and Training
Contacts
Letters Your views and input
John Gannon, independent teacher/ trainer; Dr Maggie Gregson, University of Sunderland; Rajinder Mann OBE, chief executive Network for Black Professionals; Professor Ann Hodgson, Institute of Education; Ian Nash, Nash & Jones Partnership; Gemma Painter, City & Guilds; Marion Plant OBE, North Warwickshire and Hinckley College and South Leicestershire College; James Noble Rogers, Universities’ Council for the Education of Teachers; Geoffrey Stanton, Educational Consultant; Sheila Thorpe, Chichester College; Bobby Singh Upple, director of EMFEC; John Webber, Sussex Downs College; Tom Wilson, Unionlearn
rate for four issues: £50 (UK); £60 (rest of the world). IfL is a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee. Registered in England and Wales No. 4346361. The views expressed in this publication are
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not necessarily those of IfL, Education and Training Foundation or members of the editorial board. Registered offi ce: First Floor, 49 – 51 East Road, London N1 6AH Published: October 2014 ISSN: 2050-8950
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News
www.ifl.ac.uk
Foundation offers maths support The Education and Training Foundation prepares to launch a new maths exhibition website to support those teaching the subject in further education Further resources are to be made available to support those teaching maths in further education as the latest figures reveal a lack of higherlevel qualifications among younger practitioners. A maths exhibition site, pulling together a range of teaching resources and information, is to be launched soon by the Education and Training Foundation. Additionally, bursaries and incentives worth up to £30,000 per person are available to encourage highcalibre graduates to teach maths in FE. A range of training programmes are also due to be announced to support people teaching GCSE maths. The need for improved support was highlighted in a report, released by the Foundation in September, on the qualifications of English and mathematics teachers. It says that one in three FE
SHUTTERSTOCK
By staff reporters
Member information IfL closes on 31 October and members who have renewed membership until 31 March 2015 will become part of the Education and Training Foundation’s professional membership, receiving access to continuing professional development opportunities and benefits to support them in their professional practice. For all membership enquiries, please email practitioners@ etfoundation.co.uk or call Freephone 0800 093 9111. To contact InTuition, email communications@ etfoundation.co.uk
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maths teachers over 55 has a maths degree, or another degree with significant maths content, compared to 10 per cent of colleagues under 34. Almost three quarters of those aged 34 and younger teaching maths, at any level, in FE have a GCSE maths qualification or lower with 43 per cent of maths teachers saying they lacked confidence in teaching all elements of GCSE higher-level mathematics. Helen Pettifor, the Foundation’s director of professional standards and workforce development, said: “If we are serious about improving our performance in this vitally important subject, then the FE and skills sector is where we should concentrate our efforts. “FE provides a great opportunity for young people
from A levels to higher-level vocational training and it is vital that it also steps up to provide the level of maths this country needs.” Analysts at the Foundation, which published the data as part of a major exercise to collect and collate data on all aspects of the FE workforce, say further research is required to understand why the agequalifications disparity exists but say it may have something to do with the career paths of those teaching in FE. Some people joining FE to teach maths may have moved from the graduate schools sector later in their careers. Or they may have moved, as older workers, from professions that required them to hold a maths or maths-related degree. Those entering FE teaching at a younger age may come
from jobs that did not require a maths degree or they were in the process of working towards higher-level maths qualifications. Other data, based on the Staff Individualised Record (SIR) for 2012-13, were released by the Foundation along with the maths and English data and they reveal that 62 per cent of teaching staff were working part-time compared with 45 per cent of administrative and professional staff in FE, 26 per cent of managers and 11 per cent of senior managers. Pay has remained virtually unchanged since 2010 with the median salary of teachers and trainers falling between £29,000 and £29,999. This compares with a median for all FE staff of between £23,000 and £23,999. The average pay of full-time qualified teachers in schools stands at around £38,000. For details on all the staffing data, visit www.et-foundation. co.uk/supporting/research/ fe-workforce-data-reports For details on the forthcoming maths exhibition site and for access to other resources, visit www. excellencegateway.org.uk • See also Training, page 29
New round of professional teaching status awards announced IfL and the Education and Training Foundation are pleased to announce that the professional formation process resulting in the conferral of Associate Teacher Learning and Skills (ATLS) or Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills (QTLS) status is set to continue. Those wishing to apply for the summer 2015 cycle (meaning conferral of ATLS or QTLS by 31 August 2015) should confirm their intention to do so between 1 and 31 of December 2014. Applications must be submitted by 30 June. REfLECT+, IfL’s online workbook for members, will run as normal allowing those applying for ATLS and QTLS to compile their evidence and submit it for review. To access REfLECT+, please continue to use the login button on the IfL home page www.ifl.ac.uk as this page will continue to be available for the foreseeable future.
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Two FE teachers are heading to Cyprus in November hoping that their work on functional skills will land them the title of ‘Best European practitioner research project’. Paul Roberts and Michael Smith (pictured), who both teach functional skills at Barking and Dagenham College, are on the shortlist for the 2014 Best Research & Practice Project Award run by the European Association for Practitioner Research on Improving Learning at its conference in Nicosia from 25 to 28 November. Their project explored ways to develop more holistic and creative approaches to the initial assessment of GSCE English students to encourage deeper engagement with the subject. The award is made to teachers and trainers who carry out research to address
TOM HOWARD PHOTOGRAPHY
Functional skills teachers fly the flag for practice-based research
real needs in education and training and which improves learning outcomes. Paul said: “We’ve developed and are currently piloting a new initial assessment model with some of our students to determine if there’s a more effective way of capturing their prior knowledge and setting their trajectory of learning. If this trial is successful, we hope to implement it college-wide.”
Encouraged by their curriculum manager Tinyan Akin-Omayajowo, their project gained support from the Education and Training Foundation’s national Research Development Fellowship (RDF) programme, run jointly with the University of Sunderland Centre for Excellence in Teacher Training (Suncett). Michael said: “One of the lessons from this process
is that small-scale research can still yield invaluable results. Small-scale research allows for the piloting of reformed practice that can be rigorously appraised and modified before it is integrated into a larger community.” The 2014-15 RDF programme is already underway, supported by Suncett. Successful applicants are due to be announced soon and will receive bursaries of £1,000 to cover costs including travel to events. Participants will also have the chance to share and discuss their projects at the Foundation’s annual research conference to be held in London on 7 July 2015. www.et-foundation.co.uk/ supporting/research/ practitioner-research-support
IfL survey uncovers what gets teachers out of bed IfL’s final membership survey paints a picture of a largely confident teaching profession dedicated to its learners but frustrated by a lack of resources for teaching and learning. Asked what excited them about their jobs IfL members said it was the passion for their subject and the success of their learners that got them out of bed in the morning. Respondents said that vocational education was viewed more positively now than in the past and that, as teachers, they had a strong professional identity despite the deregulation of the teaching in FE in 2013. Half of respondents were aware of the Professional Standards for Teachers and Trainers in Education and Training, introduced by the Education and Training
Foundation in May this year. They intend to use the professional standards as a framework to reflect on their own practice, plan their professional development and to embed in teacher training. Concerns over administrative duties, over learners’ progress and thinking up creative lesson
ideas were things that kept members awake at night. Other frustrations included poor internal communications, and a lack of resources. Responses revealed high levels of confidence among respondents in their competence across a broad range of areas including assessment and behaviour management. However, responses suggested teachers were, in general, less confident using performance data and learning technologies with many calling for more support and training in these and other areas. Two out of five noted that their employer’s professional development budget had decreased. Overwhelmingly, respondents disagreed with the government’s decision last
year to deregulate teaching and 96 per cent said that learners had a right to know whether the person teaching them was qualified as a teacher or not. When asked what members would do as minister for further education and skills, answers included: reintroducing professional recognition for FE teachers; realistic funding for over25s; ensuring better progression from school to FE; and reviewing the pay and conditions of FE teachers. More than 1,200 members, of whom 90 per cent were teachers and trainers, responded to this summer’s IfL survey. A third taught in FE colleges, 20 per cent in adult and community learning and 13 per cent were working in independent training providers.
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News & Views
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When I left my last further education college as a teacher educator more than 15 years ago to enter the national FE arena one of my colleagues wrote in my leaving card: “Go make a difference.” That phrase has been with me ever since. At the time we both knew what he meant. We wanted to see more teachers and trainers – like the outstanding ones we had observed – who were perceptive, innovative and entranced with teaching and learning and committed to getting better at both. We wanted to see less of those who saw teaching as something they did in a particular set way, separate from learning, both their own and their students’. Making a difference would enable more teachers to shift from the latter to the former. As my involvement with the FE sector and IfL comes to an end, I have to consider whether a sustainable difference has been made. I believe a shift has occurred. This has come about through the development of the concept of dual professionalism, through IfL’s findings about efficient and effective continuing
professional development (CPD) and the impact of these findings on individuals and their organisations, through the development and implementation of QTLS and through the introduction to the sector of REfLECT. These have been the significant tools in shifting our understanding of what it means to be a professional in the 21st century and that the practice of professionalism is a collective activity. The most significant shift came from what our membership told us about CPD that really works for them and has impact on their students learning. Sharing these findings gave the membership the permission, as the expert, to take responsibility for their own professional learning and that of colleagues and to recognise the power of learning as a collective activity. It also gave their organisations new ways to organise CPD and has transformed approaches in many FE institutions. Many regret the loss of IfL but we are working hard with our partners at the Education and Training Foundation
IFL
• IfL closes on 31 October, but its legacy lives on, says Sue Crowley
to ensure that further education’s professional legacy lives on. Our stewardship is over and it is time to pass on the torch of professionalism in the hope that it will soon shine more brightly than ever. Sue Crowley is chair of IfL’s elected governing body and is editor of the book Challenging Professional Learning (Routledge)
Taking on the legacy of IfL is a huge privilege for the Education and Training Foundation. It is also a tremendous opportunity for our profession. It’s sad to be saying goodbye to an organisation that has proudly carried the torch of professionalism over the past 12 years. But it’s also a perfectly natural development for the Foundation, focused as we are on the same priorities that have always driven IfL: professionalism, status and quality. We exist, quite simply, to support further education and training professionals in this country to be the best they possibly can be. Answering questions with IfL’s chief executive Jean Kelly as part of last month’s joint webcast for members, what struck me was how important professional status is to members: it underpins your professional identity, informs your career planning and is integral to your effectiveness as teachers and trainers. Also evident was your desire to ensure the new professional body that replaces IfL does not throw the baby out with the bath water by jettisoning the services and resources you have come to know and love. Rest assured, the Foundation shares all your concerns; that’s why we
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FE WEEK / ELLIS O’BRIEN
• Taking on the legacy of IfL is a privilege, says David Russell
won’t be making any hasty changes. All the great CPD resources will remain and transfer to the Foundation, enhancing the wealth of resources we already host via the Excellence Gateway and Foundation Online Learning. In addition, I can offer 100 per cent reassurance on two key points: we will keep REfLECT, and QTLS is here to stay. A new QTLS application window opens on 1 December, incidentally. Under the Foundation’s stewardship, the IfL legacy will not only live on, but develop and expand in exciting and innovative ways. I want individual professional membership of the Foundation to be a rewarding choice that opens doors to exciting and supportive professional development resources and opportunities.
I want QTLS to be a challenging, highvalue, high-status professional formation route that practitioners will be proud to achieve. It must be also be relevant to all education professionals, be they college lecturers, work-based learning assessors or adult educators. The Foundation exists for all of us. Over the months, as we develop our offer, we will consult widely with current, past and prospective members about what you would like the redesigned professional membership service to look like. Please ensure your voice is heard by sending your thoughts and questions to practitioners@etfoundation.co.uk. As IfL members you have shown serious commitment to your own professional development and to the strength and status of the profession. The passing of the torch to the Foundation is the beginning of an exciting and – I hope – extremely rewarding new phase in the development of our marvellous, diverse and vitally important sector. We are here to support you to do what is probably the best job in the world. David Russell is chief executive of the Education and Training Foundation
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• Letters
NVQ isn’t a course, of course Nick Stokes (‘The real life of an assessor’, Issue 17) highlights some of the problem of assessing NVQs. An NVQ is a competency qualification, not a course. This has to be imparted to employer and employee alike. An NVQ cannot and must not be assessed away from the workplace as it an assessment of the work being done. The case of nearly retired workers is interesting – if the assessor puts the case forward of a competencybased qualification and reiterates the legal requirements for an employer to have measurably competent people in the workplace, the problem goes away. Also, there should be no ‘studying’ for an NVQ. The only criteria are time on the task and being competent to the standard set down by the awarding organisation. Adrian Crummay
A question of balance The letter ‘Hidden agenda in gender’ (Issue 17) was interesting. Equality should be striven towards in all areas, but aren’t we reinforcing the gender imbalance by making such a song and dance when someone steps outside of the supposed comfort zone of their gender? Clearly, trailblazers are important, but if we treat things like more women going into engineering as a shock then aren’t we unwittingly bolstering the unspoken notion that women don’t actually belong in such a place? Which, of course, is untrue. Richard Kirk
News in brief Professional development Teachers, trainers and managers can access a range of free online professional development courses through a new learning portal. Foundation Online Learning has been created by the Education and Training Foundation to allow easy access to a number of courses that will count towards your professional development. To register and access courses, visit www. foundationonline.org.uk VET conference The challenges of strengthening vocational education and training in England will be explored in the second annual VET Conference on 13-14 November in Birmingham. The conference, held as part of the Skills Show running at the NEC in Birmingham from 13-15 November, takes a review of education and training internationally by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) as one of its starting points. The review found that: “England has too little vocational provision at postsecondary level in comparison with many other countries and relative to potential demand.” Registrations for the conference, which is supported by Find a Future, The Education and Training Foundation and the UK Commission for Employment and Skills, can be made at www.theskillsshow.com/ conference Free webinars A series of free webinars designed to support further education governors in their roles will run over the next few months. The Association of Colleges has organised the webinars as part of the Education and Training
Foundation’s governance development programme. The webinars, which started in July this year, are held in the evenings or on Saturdays and will focus on areas such as equality and diversity, international projects and market data. For more information, visit www.et-foundation.co.uk/ events/aoc-webinarprogramme
Learning online Resources for teachers and managers of students with special educational needs and disabilities have been packaged together in an easily accessed and navigated site. The SEND exhibition site pulls together a wide range of resources found on the Excellence Gateway and available from partner organisations like The Association of National Specialist Colleges (Natspec). http://send. excellencegateway.org.uk Have your say A series of FE and training consultations are being launched covering issues such as equality and diversity, governance and higher apprenticeships. The strategic consultations are the latest in a series commissioned by the Education and Training Foundation, which will feed the outcomes into its future programmes to support teaching and improve learner outcomes. For details and the results of earlier consultations, visit www.et-foundation.co.uk/ our-priorities/strategicconsultations
Manager mentoring Further education leaders can join a new online peermentoring service that aims to bring senior managers together to share experience, knowledge and develop their professional networks. The Leadership Register, developed on by the Institute of Education, University of London, for the Education and Training Foundation, matches members with potential mentors and these relationships are developed to include key objectives, a timescale and practical arrangements for the mentoring arrangement. An evaluation stage completes the process. For details, visit bit.ly/ Leadership_Register Free guide The first in a series of planned guides for teachers and trainers working in further education and training is available from UKFEchat. Getting off to a good start, is edited by InTuition writer Sarah Simons, the founder of UKFEchat, and contains more than 20 articles covering a range of topics including: ‘What is a successful interview’ and ‘Listening to the learner voice’. The 90-page publication is available in several electronic formats and is sponsored by City & Guilds. www.ukfechat.com
Send us your views Email us at communications @etfoundation.co.uk or tweet us at twitter.com/ IfL_Members #IfL_InTuition or @E_T_Foundation. Please note that letters may be edited for publication.
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Opinion Enterprise for all: enabling entrepreneurs to thrive By Lord Young Fast-changing world calls for more training in the skills required to run small businesses
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When a young person leaves college they should be ready and able to work for themselves. But we could go even further. I have discussed with the StartUp Loans Company the possibility that individual colleges could be able to provide a Start-Up loan and mentoring to any of their students who would like to work for themselves. I hope that
colleges take up this suggestion and use their Enterprise Society where they exist. But there is one further change that I hope will help to promote entrepreneurial colleges. In a few weeks’ time we will publish the first of an annual series of reports detailing, on an anonymous basis, 10-year earnings
GETTY
Few could have guessed the huge changes in our way of life that would be brought about by the internet. We all now accept that social media has changed the way that our young interact, that Twitter has changed the way many get news, and the effect that the web is having on our high street. Changes in business have been just as profound. We now live in an economy in which more than 95 per cent of firms in the country employ fewer than 10 people, where employment is growing month by month but self-employment is growing even faster. Yet despite all this change I’m not sure that the world of education and training has managed to keep pace. Today, more young people leave school to go to further education colleges than continue to the sixth form. Recent surveys have shown that the majority of those at 18 now either have an ambition to work for themselves, or a realisation that at some time they will have to, even if they’re not sure how to go about it. We have developed excellent vocational education in trades and yet we do not teach our students how to make a living from that trade. Many who have learned trades such as carpentry, hairdressing, plastering and many others work as freelancers or as subcontractors. Our students need to be equipped, not only with the skills to carry out their craft, but also how to calculate a cash flow, invoice a customer and do all the things required for self-employment or setting up a small firm. That is why I proposed in my latest paper Enterprise for all that all vocational level 3 courses should include a business start-up module and I am delighted that both Pearson and City and Guilds are moving to embed enterprise in their qualifications.
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Opinion of every course of all colleges. This will help young people to make up their mind whether to go to university or their local college. It will show how well the students do in the years after college and how many from each college go on to freelance or to set up their own business. It will also show which colleges provide the skills most in demand by the market. Finally, there is one area where the colleges can play a greater role, for there is a real shortage of computer skills, not theoretical skills, but the dayto-day demands of small- and mediumsized enterprises for web design, mobile apps and the other requirements so necessary for business today. It is a great opportunity for colleges and I hope they take it.
Lord Young is the Prime Minister’s enterprise advisor
Listen to the students By Joe Vinson The Learner Satisfaction Survey can only be of any use if its results are used to improve things The National Union of Students (NUS) believes that the views and the experiences of students should be central to college quality and improvement. There is no feedback more valuable than that provided by students themselves. This is why the Learner Satisfaction Survey (LSS) is so important. It gives students the opportunity to give honest feedback about their learning experience. As part of Further Education Public Information Framework and FE Choices, it not only continues to give students a voice, but also aims to inform their choice. The profile of the survey continues to develop and colleges and other providers are now placing more emphasis on it so they can generate higher response rates and improve satisfaction. NUS recognises that there is no single model and that every college has the freedom to shape its approach depending on its students and other local factors. Thankfully, student satisfaction in FE is high and continuing to rise, but we need to ensure that this continues. It’s why NUS is particularly concerned about the government’s unhelpful decision to revoke the regulations which meant that people teaching in FE had to have, or be working towards, a recognised teaching qualification. One of the primary functions of further education is to train people in their chosen profession and to continue to aid them throughout the progression of their career, supporting them with industry-recognised qualifications. It’s important that teachers and trainers have an understanding of the subject or industry they are teaching, but it’s vital they have an understanding of how to actually teach. FE supports so many different types of student, those with different backgrounds, different levels of ability and different needs. To have someone at the front of a workshop or classroom with no quantifiable or standardised way of supporting a diverse group of students is a
disservice to the students, the college and the community they serve. We’re a sector that supports five million students, training people in areas right across the workforce but unfortunately it is starting to look like another example of this government’s preference for the academic route, hammering another wedge between those who are in a position to choose their educational route and those who are not. Ultimately, it is students who will suffer if FE providers employ teaching staff on lower wages, with limited experience and minimal support to develop the skills it takes to be a really great teacher. I want professional teachers and trainers to stay at the heart of FE. I want to see their professional status remain, and I want them given the recognition and support they deserve because great and skilled teachers are what makes achieving and supported students. It’s also imperative that the learner voice continues to be listened to and considered seriously. The lowest scoring categories on the LSS are about whether or not students feel that their views are listened to and acted upon. Feedback is only worth something if it is used to improve things. While strategies on how to take this into account and drive up quality will differ from college to college, one common theme that should be included is college participation within the Learner Satisfaction Survey. Student governors should insist that the survey is mentioned alongside other student feedback mechanisms so that students have the opportunity to voice their opinions in an independently conducted survey. NUS is consulting with students to develop a new resource to help colleges and students’ unions to develop learner involvement strategies. We will ensure this resource is dynamic, and relevant to all colleges. Joe Vinson is vice-president (FE) of NUS
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Interview
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At the cutting Edge One question that preoccupies Jan Hodges when it comes to education is: ‘What works?’ She remains deeply sceptical of claims made for the superiority of other countries over the UK in terms of vocational education and training until those who trumpet such ‘reforms’ can ‘prove it’. There’s little doubt that the UK has been fixated for too long on academic study to the detriment of technical, practical and vocational education and training, says Hodges, chief executive of the Edge Foundation since 2011. “We are tackling that, but you cannot hope to transfer practices from one place to another without a lot of work and a lot of evidence,” she says. That is precisely why Edge, celebrating its 10th anniversary, ran a parallel conference on practical educational research last year at The Skills Show in Birmingham and plans to make it a fixture. The Skills Show is the UK’s largest skills and careers event and Edge is primary sponsor. Both the show and the practical research events are, to her mind, key drivers for much-needed ‘evidence-based policy’. “We hear so much about other countries. High performance is held up as a justification for change and we are left feeling wanting; but if we are going to make changes, we need to ensure such judgments are correct.” Moreover, the evidence for good policy may well turn out to be homegrown and on display at the Skills Show and in showcase studies for VQ Day, an event created by Edge to celebrate the success of learners who choose vocational qualifications over traditional A levels and GCSEs. The Edge Foundation was created in 2004 to raise the status of practical and vocational learning. “It has not been a smooth progression but there is now considerable cross-party political support for high-quality vocational training, the expansion of apprenticeships
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and for new pathways from 14 in FE colleges and in new institutions such as University Technical Colleges, studio schools and more recently career colleges. There are also new moves for high-quality vocational qualifications.” During our interview there is a note of frustration in Hodges’ voice suggesting that, as a nation, we have stalled or taken a step backwards particularly in the decades-old battle for an over-arching qualification at 18 to bridge the vocationalacademic divide and the creation of a truly effective careers service, as schools still have an overbearing influence on career choices. “Teachers have a tendency to promote higher education as a better end for young people and fail to see vocational education as relevant for anyone of any ability, particularly high flyers. “We need better information, advice and guidance for young people. Youth unemployment remains a real concern, despite the slight upturn, and graduate unemployment graphically illustrates the issue,” she says. Huge expansion in numbers graduating had done little to tackle skills shortages and the constant mismatch between skills supply and demand. “For example, too few people know that if you take a law degree your chance of finishing up doing a law job is extremely low, with 65 new graduates chasing every job. “We need some form of brokerage between employers, young people and teachers – some sort of service in the middle. The Association of Colleges proposes learning-for-careers hubs linked to local enterprise partnerships and, I agree, there is a need for something like that to bring parties together.” Indeed, further education has a vital role to play, she says, again with a little frustration that it is clearly not fully appreciated as a sector. The Edge manifesto in advance of the general election calls on the government “to protect FE from cuts”.
EDGE FOUNDATION
Jan Hodges, CEO of the Edge Foundation, argues the case for evidence-based policy in further education. By Ian Nash
“The problem for FE,” says Hodges, “is that it is still not clearly understood in the way schools and universities are. FE colleges have a huge role to play but it’s still a challenge to make them more visible and better understood by students, parents and teachers.” Hodges is passionate about FE. After taking a degree in English and French at Sussex University and teaching English as a foreign language in Switzerland, before returning to England in the late 1970s, she did a PGCE at Avery Hill (now Greenwich University) and taught in secondary schools. “I enjoyed school teaching but my career really took off when I went into FE where I spent 23 years before joining Edge. I really love FE; it is an empowering sector to be a part of,” she says. After a range of jobs, from lecturer and department leader to head of business development and European coordinator, she was appointed principal at South East Essex College of Arts and Technology in 2002, which later merged with Thurrock and Basildon College to form South Essex College of Further and Higher Education. “Then I was ready to move on, so when I saw the Edge job, it seemed a good fit.” Hodges makes a plea for the sector to hold onto its ‘FE’ status and resist the
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JAN HODGES PEN PROFILE Education: BA (Hons) French and English, University of Sussex PGCE, Avery Hill College MA in Education, Open University MBA, Open University Business School Career Secondary school teacher in Kent and Essex FE teacher / head of department / principal, South East Essex College OBE in Queen’s Birthday Honours 2013 for services to further and higher education Extra curricular Travel, reading, running and walking. Jan is also a magistrate.
encroachment of the Europeanised Vocational Education and Training (VET). Like many of the claims over international vocational standards, she would want proof of the value of change. “I don’t think the term FE is outmoded and we should not succumb to the fashion of VET. At Edge, we talk of
technical, practical and vocational learning and think this captures the essence of the FE college where much of it goes on. I would not favour a change but would work at trying to ensure that FE is better understood.” The skills challenge also demands a high-quality FE teaching force with its own dedicated professional body, says Hodges. She insists that this has to be rooted in the idea of a ‘dual profession’, with the recruitment of high-calibre staff from industry and the protection of professional standards. “We need people from industry to become teachers and pass on their skills and they need to be properly trained.” Similarly, teachers in colleges need constantly to move out to industry and keep their knowledge and skills in line with latest industry practice. “I totally support professional standards. I am proud to be in this sector and I feel real ownership of those standards. It is important for people in FE to have a professional body. It should be a voluntary organisation that teachers can join or not. I don’t think you can force people. It would be good if the Education and Training Foundation agreed to take the lead, work with people in the sector
and draw on their willingness to create what is needed.” In its first 10 years Edge has launched a huge array of initiatives such as VQ Day, the Careers College Trust and the £1m Innovation and Development Fund. “VQ day was launched by Edge to get FE its day in the sun. There’s a lot of attention on people with A levels and GCSEs and we weren’t looking at those who do vocational qualifications. “It provides an important platform for schools, FE colleges, providers and employers to showcase success and show people the great career opportunities it can lead on to.” Again, she insists that it is in such arenas that the evidence will be found for initiatives to rebuild the nation’s skills base. “We find exemples of best practice and centres of excellence for years to come. We write case studies and profiles to showcase them. I have been involved on the judging panel for three years and seen the difference it makes. These young people have gone on to form their own businesses, hire apprentices, then return to their old colleges to talk to students and inspire the next generation.” Changes have been a long time coming but they are heading in the right direction, Hodges insists. Looking to the next 10 years, the current government has made clear its intentions. Of Labour’s policies, she is “cautious” about the proposed Institutes of Technical Education and wants more evidence to show it is more than a relabeling exercise. “A name change doesn’t automatically lead to a change of status,” she says. But she reckons the proposed technical degrees have something. “While you could argue that such opportunities already exist in HNCs, HNDs and foundation degrees, the scope to brand them better and increase the numbers learning in the UK would be of big benefit.” For Edge, three priorities have yet to be realised: “We want more 14-19 schools and colleges, curriculum breadth with a baccalaureate certificate at 18 giving academic and vocational parity and an entitlement to properly funded face-to-face careers information, advice and guidance.” Hodges hopes, however, that we won’t have to wait 10 years for these reforms. Ian Nash is an education journalist and author who co-owns Nash & Jones Partnership Media Consultancy
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Hands up if you’re a lecturer
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Not long after I’d started to teach at my local further education college I was standing in the playground of my son’s school, chatting with other parents. One of them asked if I work. “Yes, I do,” I boasted. I felt my shoulders move back as I grew a little taller. “I’m a lecturer.” I could tell she was impressed. “Which university do you work at?” she asked. As I explained that I’m a lecturer at an FE college, I saw her desperately attempt to disguise her confusion. I began to shrink. It would be easy to dismiss this early exchange that cemented my perception of my own professional identity as an unfortunate encounter with a Hyacinth Bucket type. It wasn’t. The lady in question whom I have got to know in the years since, is a lovely, kind, gentle person. She just didn’t know what FE is. Since that day, I have referred to myself as a teacher in FE or a college teacher. I don’t want to see confusion and I definitely don’t want to see disappointment when I answer the question “What do you do?” To find out whether that exchange was just an accidental dent to my ego or a common experience for those in FE, I spoke to someone who solely teaches FE practitioners: Sasha Pleasance, a teacher training lecturer at South Devon College. She says: “These words teacher, trainer and lecturer are imbued with meaning. It’s quite subtle but I think it has a huge impact on how we see ourselves. I certainly feel that the general public’s attitude to FE has an impact on people who work within it and that contributes to the sometimes fragile sense of identity we have as professionals.” I’m proud to work in FE. I have the privilege of working in a world where those who feel they have few options available to them are welcomed and embraced as readily as those who have the world at their feet. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of that? But does that very diversity contribute to
Sarah Simons describes herself as ‘a teacher in further education’, but is that the most appropriate term? Job titles all have connotations – so should we have one fixed term, or just pick the one that most suits our teaching style?
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Students seem to prefer to refer to us as lecturers… It highlights the idea that our students are there through choice
the occasionally confused definition of what we do as education professionals in the post-16 arena? Sasha says: “FE is linked intrinsically to government policy and is therefore pivotal in economic imperatives and social inclusion. It’s almost because we have this vast range of roles and titles, that it is hard to form a solid sense of shared professional identity which we can communicate to the outside world.” You are what your diary says you are To the outside world I’m an FE teacher, but in college I’m a lecturer, though I have never given a lecture in my life. My manager is also a lecturer unless she’s having a one-to-one session with a student, addressing targets or pastoral issues, then she’s a tutor. When she’s delivering CPD to the rest of us in a formal setting she’s a trainer, but if we’re discussing how we can improve our practice individually, she’s a coach. For many practitioners in the FE and skills sector, what we do depends on our diaries and we often assume a different role (and corresponding job title) on the way to the next meeting. If one organisation could clear up this confusing name game, it should be the Education and Training Foundation, the ‘single body to set professional standards and codes of behaviour, and develop qualifications’. The Foundation unites education professionals from across the work-based learning, continuing adult education and FE college domains. Surely their definition is the one to note? According to The Staff Individualised Record data, published by the Foundation in September 2014, 48 per cent of the FE workforce is made up of ‘teaching staff’. The report defines this role as ‘where the occupational category is recorded as either ‘trainer’ or ‘lecturer/tutor’. ‘ Interestingly, in the Foundation’s survey of work-based learning providers, teaching staff fall within the category of ‘professionals’, which includes ‘teaching and training staff such as assessors,
trainers, tutors and advisors’. This group is similarly described as ‘professionals’ for the Community Learning and Skills Workforce data report. Rather than cement our definition, these surveys have offered a wider range of titles. So am I teacher, trainer, lecturer, tutor, assessor, advisor or simply a professional? Are we academic educators? The sectors traditionally sitting either side of FE are clear about how their educators are termed. In schools there are teachers and in universities there are lecturers. Many people in a teaching role in FE comfortably refer to themselves as lecturers, so does that suggest that the sector has more affinity with higher education? FE offers a higher level of study and recruits those for whom school is but a distant memory, but… we also work with 14 year olds. Students seem to prefer to refer to us as lecturers. It suggests a different educational stage and highlights the idea that our students are there through choice rather than statutory regulation. However, very few of us actually lecture. Does the academic seniority of the word lecturer suggest a higher level of expertise within the FE and skills workforce? Many practitioners continue to work in their specialist field and therefore are doubly bound to keep their practice highly relevant. But, unlike universities, FE employers rarely ringfence a number of hours for staff to pursue academic research with a view to publication. Does that mean that our closest neighbour is the school teacher? Our hours are generally longer but our classes are usually smaller. And there is another significant disparity. The Foundation’s workforce data reveals that average pay for full-time FE teachers is £29,647. This is lower than the average salary for a full-time qualified teacher across English schools, £38,100. This is as baffling as it is unjust. A clearer difference is our working
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environment. With so many educators in the further education sector stationed in the workplace rather than in an educational establishment, are we more readily defined when we’re working in those circumstances? Are we technical trainers? The title ‘trainer’ is most commonly associated with technical educators based in the workplace. The word ‘training’ implies a competency-based model, an acquisition of specific technical skills. This prescriptive transfer of instruction doesn’t sit comfortably with the idea of education as a collaborative practice, based on intrinsic curiosity. Hilary Read, director of Readon Publications, works predominantly in the work-based sector, teaching trainers and assessors. Though she is a champion of the work-based route, she believes that being entrenched in industry can occasionally foster an insular view with regards to teaching and learning. She says: “I don’t think people always look outside their industries or think more broadly. If you don’t think about what’s happening in the wider education sector or what your role is, if you’ve come up through the vocational ranks, then you believe that you’re an assessor. “We’re getting there but (education professionals in work-based learning) definitely wouldn’t call themselves teachers or lecturers. It would be assessors or trainers. Not even workplace coaches.” Hilary suggests that although there isn’t an historical focus on a culture of teaching and learning, continuous professional development, nor reflective practice in work-based training, there is some exceptionally good practice going on. She says: “The good ones coach people on a one-to-one basis but often instinctively, rather than with an eye on any formal pedagogy.” If we agree that the notion of ‘training’ is reductive in the multi-faceted role of the educator, regardless of the type of provision, then it seems ironic that the teaching of teachers has arrived late to this idea. Sasha Pleasance says: “The language has changed a lot. When I came on board we were called ‘initial teacher training’ but then about a year ago due to Ofsted and associated changes in semantics, we became ‘initial teacher education’.” Does it matter? It is entirely up to the individual to describe themselves however they
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THE MOST COMMONLY-USED TERM? Many FE sector reports keep it simple by referring to ‘teacher’ and/or ‘trainer’: Equipping our Teachers for the Future: Reforming Initial Teacher Training for the Learning and Skills Sector (2004), which introduced mandatory teacher training for all FE teachers and trainers, said: “Our reforms embrace teacher training across the whole of the learning and skills sector. These individuals may not always be called teachers, but anyone with a teaching role needs training that fits that role.” The Commission on Adult Vocation Teaching and Learning (CAVTL) report, It’s About Work (2013), included the following in an appendix section headed ‘Other slippery language’: “We use the term ‘vocational teachers and trainers’ to include a range of ‘teaching’ roles including teachers, trainers, lecturers, tutors, assessors, mentors, coaches, and workplace supervisors.” Further Education Workforce Data for England: Analysis of the 2012-2013 Staff Individualised Record (SIR) Data (2014): “A number of variables required some manipulation to obtain categories consistent with the 2013 report: specifically, we define as a teacher or a teaching contract a record where the occupational category is recorded as either ‘trainer’ or ‘lecturer/tutor’.
see fit in the world outside of their organisation and perceived implications of status related to that job title may vary greatly. What does matter within the workplace are the contractual implications associated with some roles. Colleges and work-based learning providers are not tied to a suite of titles and are free to come up with a variety of (sometimes confusing) labels. But it is this inconsistency of titles across organisations that can reduce the clarity of employment terms, conditions and pay scale. Andrew Harden, head of further education for the University and College Union (UCU), explains: “It’s almost like an off-the-shelf trick that gets pulled in some colleges. There’s an annual restructure and redundancy exercise and together with that there’s also a proposal for ‘new roles’. “On some occasions these are slimmed down roles that don’t involve the full breadth of tasks associated with being a main-grade lecturer. But in other cases they are very similar, if not the same as a main-grade lecturer, just a different name and, in theory, different terms and conditions, and a different salary. It’s a phenomenon that we’re quite familiar with and in these constrained funding times I think it’s a phenomenon that’s on the rise.” Last year’s controversial decision by the government – highly contested by IfL and its members – to no longer require teachers in FE to have a teaching qualification muddies the water further.
According to the UCU’s recommended salary scales for England, an unqualified lecturer on the lowest pay scale (point 15) could be paid £18,818 per year. A qualified lecturer’s lowest pay point on the pay scale (point 23) is £23,712. There are concerns that this change in legislation offers a potential opportunity for financial cuts within organisations, driving providers with perhaps less integrity to calculate methods to manage existing staff on to lower-paid contracts, or to actively recruit unqualified teachers. While there is anecdotal evidence that this has taken place in some organisations, it hasn’t as yet become the norm. Andrew says: “I don’t think we’ve seen a wholesale dropping of the requirement, as most colleges have it written into their contract of employment. The fear still remains that some less scrupulous colleges may start to engage unqualified people into some of these roles.” The fact that FE providers can stand as autonomous organisations gives them the freedom to determine their own destiny and offers an unparalleled opportunity for diversity. Whether teacher, tutor, trainer, lecturer, assessor or any of the variety of titles we hold as education professionals, so long as we are in united in a singular purpose – to empower learners to reach their chosen destination and provide the tools for them to do so – then really… what’s in a name? Sarah Simons is a writer and lecturer and runs ukfechat.com
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CPDMatters Promoting ideas to teachers and trainers in the further education and skills sector
An exploration of professional learning Dr Jean Kelly Chief executive Over the many months I have been writing this column I have been struck by the fact that no matter how tight the time constraints are for teaching and training, so many members have sent in thought pieces to InTuition that show beyond any doubt how much their thinking and practice relies on rigorous continuing professional development. In this final column, I am astounded again by the exploration and interrogation of professional learning that turns the spotlight on what is easy to take for granted.
The CPD Matters section offers readers a selection of scholarly and accessible articles, aimed at supporting and enhancing professional knowledge and practice. Articles are not refereed.
Julian Ayers reminds us that critical thinking is a high-level skill and requires a pedagogy that goes beyond lip service to a theory of student-centred learning and becomes the real deal. Judith Darnell asks us some searching questions on the role of the teacher/ trainer with younger learners. She also makes us think twice about the centrality and primacy of the learner with her digest of research into the impact of parental involvement. And whatever your views about the context for Helen Stockton’s own learning as a manager, it provides, as she says, a powerful endorsement of a coaching culture that supports ‘self-reflecting practitioners’. Self-reflection, continuing professional development, deep rather than surface learning – have these all become outmoded clichés of education? From what I have read I don’t think so and it has been my pleasure and privilege to have seen sound evidence to the contrary – CPD really does matter.
Career development There are a range of free online courses available to support you in your teaching practice at www.foundationonline.org.uk and a bank of useful resources available at www.excellencegateway.org.uk
If you would like to contribute to or ask a question for a future edition of CPD Matters, please email communications@etfoundation.co.uk InTuition
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In praise of critical thinking By Julian Ayres The benefit of a critical thinking approach to education is that by allowing for a student-centred-approach to learning, moving away from rote-learning teachercentred style of pedagogy, we can ensure that students are motivated to learn and achieve Critical thinking is a process, a ‘skilled activity of thought’ (Mulnix 2013, p471), with its central goals being to allow students and learners to think in more depth, allowing them to make more individualised choices with regard to the solving of a problem or resolution of an issue (Lampert, 2006). Pithers and Soden (2000, p240) refer to the work of Kuhn who states: “Thinking as argument was variably implicated in the beliefs that people hold, the judgements they make and the conclusions they arrive at and as such was at the heart of all everyday tasks.” I would argue, however, that improvements are required within classroom delivery to help boost opportunities for learners to learn and for the education and work systems to best develop their students and employees more in line with a criticalthinking approach. Pithers and Soden (2000, p238), referring to the work of Harvey et al, note that many workplaces and graduate schemes specifically advertise for critical thinking skills, with them requesting ‘curious, critical, analytic, reflective thinkers and problem solvers
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who are quick to learn, as well those that are flexible and able to add value to their organisation’. Pithers & Soden (2000, p246) also state that there is evidence of students entering higher education with an underdeveloped ability to think critically. In my opinion, this further highlights the importance of vocational and apprentice-based learning schemes, in which critical thinking skills are a key requirement for learners and therefore highly applicable to the workplace context. Fisher (2003) argues that although the traditional methods of teaching – the technical side of education – have been efficient and successful, there has been less success in developing phronesis, the higher order thinking skills that allow for inference, deduction, analysis and evaluation. To help counter this decline, national curriculum guidelines now place a growing emphasis on the importance of developing thinking in education (Fisher, 2003). I would argue that instead of purely focusing on educational change in secondary schools and further education (FE)
settings, it would be more benefi cial for students if we were to analyse the use of critical thinking and developing thinking skills in primary schools. As Vygotsky (1978, p79) states: “The problems encountered in the analysis of teaching cannot be resolved or even formulated without addressing the relation between learning and development in school-age children.” Therefore, by giving children the educational context suitable for this development, we will be giving them the opportunity to develop the essential thinking and ‘deep learning’ skills required for critical thinking (Scott, 2011, p195). The community of inquiry The concept of a ‘community of inquiry’ is used by teachers and educators to describe the process of allowing children and students to talk freely between one another, in which they can then demonstrate an ability to think, argue and reason in a collaborative and effective manner (Costello, 2010, p2). The use of language collaboration, according to the works of Vygotsky, allows for children to then function at an intellectually higher level, allowing them to develop reasoning, self-esteem and moral judgement (Fisher, 2003, p28). The use of a community of inquiry allows for children to work collaboratively rather than ‘single-handedly’ to solve a problem, an element key for workplace development as it allows for them to develop and build an atmosphere of co-operation, instead of one that is based purely on competition, limiting children’s chances to feel free to give their own opinions (Elbers, 2003, p78). Indoctrination If we are, then, wishing to develop effective critical thinking skills in young people and work within a community of inquiry, it is essential that we allow them to make their own choices and as such it is an aesthetic and creative
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“The current classroom is predominately seen as one that is based on the idea of ‘banking education’ in which students are seen as receptacles of information, for the narrator, teacher, to fill with information”
approach to learning that can help with the development of these skills (Lampert, 2006). However, as Young (1984, p224) discusses, there are teaching methods, indoctrinatory, that do not allow for a learner’s own rational assessment and as such, do not allow for ‘symmetrical’ classrooms. Costello and Morehouse (2012, p4) refer to the works of Freire, who states that classrooms are regarded as asymmetrical when the tutor ‘narrates’ the topic, with their task being to ‘fill’ the students with the contents and for them to learn by ‘rote learning’. Instead, as Mulnix (2013, p468) states: “If critical thinking is a possession of certain skills, then as with other skills, it cannot be learned through formulaic following of procedural rules, instead it must be practised.” Proficiency in a skill will then help to allow students to become more confi dent in that area and I would argue from my experience that rote-learning does not allow for these real-life scenarios. Instead, this manner of teaching and learning has shown to detract students from engaging in an active manner with the subject. As noted by Mulnix (2013, p476), referring to the works of Van Gelder, effective critical thinking is not about learning the techniques, but instead more about engaging and actively using it, thus leading themselves to learn. The difficulty with this, however, is that, as Roychoudhury and Rice (2013, p2199) argue, teaching in schools and universities is grounded on the assumption that a teacher’s knowledge needs to be transferred via the model of lectures and presentations, which then overlooks the epistemic variations in learners. This method of indoctrinatory learning is one that limits the opportunity for creative and critical development of a student’s views, opinions and ideas
(Thiessen, 1985). When classes or moral education are taught in the format of, what Fisher (2000, p73) describes as ‘a ‘Do as I tell you’ approach’, it does not allow for learners to develop for themselves their own set of personal values. Though it may provide the necessary social rules, boundaries and education, they are being indoctrinated into a set of prescribed adult values (Fisher, 2000), contrary to the benefits of a critical thinking approach. Thiessen (1985, p234) refers to the work of Green, who describes indoctrination as the teaching in the classroom that does not allow for an evidence based approach to learning, instead pupils learn via a ‘non-evidential style of belief’, with teaching being too closely focused on what is taught, rather than how it is taught. Thiessen (1985, p234), in reference to Green, states that when, in teaching, we are concerned simply to lead another person to a correct answer, but are correspondingly concerned that they arrive at that answer on the basis of our own good reasons, as opposed to discussing with students their own opinions and beliefs, then we are indoctrinating. A critical thinking approach to classroom delivery, is one that will then help engage students in the classroom, from a constructive perspective. Students acquire new knowledge most effectively when teachers facilitate their learning by helping them to investigate, thus allowing them to become autonomous and ‘self-propelled’, leading to students continuing to use these techniques to learn, well after the completion of formal schooling (Scott, 2011, p193). The current classroom however is predominately seen as one that is based on the idea of ‘banking education’ in which students are seen as
receptacles of information, for the narrator, teacher, to fill with information. This situation then is one that can be seen as leading to the resistance of dialogue (Costello & Morehouse, 2012, p5) and will only lead to the continuation of the dominant pattern of learning in which the tutor controls the process of inquiry towards a single viewpoint (Young 1984, p224). This then being in contrast to what Baines et al (2007, p666) state is required in classrooms, in which they argue that there needs to be a responsibility shift in the classroom from teacher to students. Willis (2011, p401) argues that for students to adopt an autonomous way of working that is valued by teachers, it is important that they find an affiliation with the overall learning goals of the classroom. Once this has been discovered by the learner, it would ultimately then allow them to understand the teacher’s practices and help them to develop a better understanding of the topic. In my own study, a maths problem was given to two separate classes, with the learners working in groups to plan how they would solve it. Using their own knowledge, the two groups solved the problem, but via two completely different methods. The difficulty with implementing such a system within secondary schools however, is that as Grossman et al (2009, pp273-274) state, there is now a greater emphasis on teachers developing subject-specific knowledge, obscuring the importance of other aspects of teaching including creating instructional activities and relational work to develop classroom communities. As Petty (2004, p43) argues: “Motivation is a prerequisite for effective learning and the greatest challenge that many teachers face is to make their students want to learn… If you know how to
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motivate students, you can hugely increase their learning rate.” Tips for the classroom • Allow learners to develop their opinions and encourage their views in the classroom. • Ask students to help explain their methods to you and allow for a different approach to your classes. • Try not to force your own views and beliefs on learners. • Working in groups allows for learners to share their ideas – encourage group discussion and the sharing of ideas. • Find out what your learners want to develop – how can you make the learning ‘transferable’?
References • Baines, E., Blatchford, P. and Chowne, A. (2007), ‘Improving the Effectiveness of Collaborative Group Work in Primary Schools: Effects on Science Attainment’, British Educational Research Journal, Vol. 33, No. 5, pp.663-680. • Costello, P.J.M. (2010), ‘Developing communities of inquiry in the UK: retrospect and prospect’, Analytic Teaching and Philosophical Praxis (USA), Vol. 30, No. 2, pp. 1-20. • Costello, P.J.M. and Morehouse, R. (2012), ‘Liberation Philosophy and the development of communities of inquiry: a critical evaluation’, Analytic Teaching and Philosophical Praxis, Vol. 33, No. 2, pp. 1-15. • Fisher, R. (2003), Teaching Thinking: Philosophical Enquiry in the Classroom. Second Edition. London. Continuum. • Grossman, P., Hammerness, K. and McDonald, M. (2009), ‘Redefining teaching, re-imagining teacher education’, Teachers and Teaching: theory and practice, Vol.15, No.2, pp.273-289.
• Scott, S. (2011), ‘Contemplating a Constructivist Stance for Active Learning within Music Education’, Arts Education Policy Review, Vol.112, No. 4, pp.191-198. • Thiessen, E.T. (1985), ‘Indoctrination and Education’, Canadian Journal of Education, Vol. 10, No. 3, pp. 229-249. • Vygotsky, L. (1978), Interaction between learning and development. From: Mind and Society (pp.79-91). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press Reprinted in: Gauvin, M & Cole, M. (1997), Readings on the Development of Children. Second Edition. New York. W.H. Freeman and Company. • Willis, J. (2011), ‘Affiliation, autonomy and Assessment for Learning’, Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, Vol. 18, No. 4, pp. 399-415. • Young, R.E. (1984), ‘Teaching Equals Indoctrination: The Dominant Epistemic Practices of Our Schools’, British Journal of Educational Studies, Vol. 32, No. 3, pp. 220-238.
• Lampert, N. (2006), ‘Enhancing Critical Thinking with Aesthetic Critical, and Creative Inquiry’, Art Education, Vol.59, No.5, pp.46-50. • Mulnix, J.W. (2012), ‘Thinking Critically about Critical Thinking’, Educational Philosophy and Theory, Vol. 44, No. 5, pp. 464-479. • Petty, G. (2004) Teaching Today. Third Edition. Cheltenham. Nelson Thornes. • Pithers, R.T. and Soden, R. (2000), ‘Critical Thinking in education: a review’, Educational Research, Vol. 42, No. 3, pp.237-249.
Julian Ayres Julian is a trainer mentor at ITEC, part of the Lifelong Learning Department of Wrexham County Borough Council
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• Roychoudhury, A. and Rice,D. (2013), ‘Preservice Secondary Science Teachers’ Teaching and Relfections During a Teacher Education Program’, International Journal of Science Education, Vol.35, No.13, pp.2198-2225.
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Parental involvement: an enhancer or an inhibitor?
with the college) have any effect on students’ attainment? • Is there a correlation between parental involvement and value added (achievement)?
By Judith Darnell
Students were questioned about support offered at home and from these answers the learners received a ‘parent score’. The more a parent was involved, the higher the score. These ‘parent scores’ were then mapped against the learners’ grades at the end of the year (be it first or second year). These grades were converted into their ‘BTEC points score’ so as to be quantified for the purposes of seeking correlation.
What role does the home environment play in terms of academic success? And does parental involvement still have an effect in further education? Ask any teacher to describe the factors that are likely to contribute to a student’s success in education and you would be provided with a barrage of answers from genetic inheritance, effective teaching strategies and resources, influential teachers, and privileged families who can afford the luxuries of private schooling. Undoubtedly, many of these contributing factors may not be the result of direct teaching but possibly the child’s home background or caregiver support and encouragement. It has been widely suggested that parental involvement has a direct impact on student success (Jeynes, 2007; LaRocque et al, 2011). Tickle (2009), wrote in The Guardian: “It doesn’t take a PhD to realise that the more that parents are involved with their child’s education, the better will be the end result...” Furthermore, Epstein (2007) argued that (regardless of ability/age) parents who were involved in their child’s education generated ‘successful’ students. NicholsSolomon (2001) went as far as to suggest that there is a universal agreement that parental involvement guarantees the production of highly attaining students. Initially, you may not question these ideas. Surely a direct link seems obvious. But is the relationship so straightforward? Do children with interested and supportive parents out-perform others who do not
have these benefits? What constitutes ‘effective parental involvement’ and how might this influence teachers’ perceptions of what is important for their students’ success? The age of the child surely has a part to play. Certainly with younger children, research points to a direct correlation between parental involvement and subsequent attainment. However, in colleges and universities, when learners are almost adults themselves, do the benefits of parental involvement become less significant? What implications does this have for FE and HE teachers? The study Research conducted at Bedford College with a group of post-16 students suggests that a correlation does exist between parental involvement and student attainment, but it is a little more complicated than might first be anticipated. The cohort of students questioned about their parents’ involvement were all studying on the health and social care level 3 extended diploma and consisted of individuals in the first and second year of their programme of study. Research questions included: • Does parental/carer involvement (in terms of frequency and quality at home) have any effect on students’ attainment? • Does parental/carer involvement (in terms of the frequency and level of contact
A similar system quantified the different types of support offered. First, let us clarify the meanings of the following phrases in the context of this research project: “Parental/Carer Involvement”: This term refers to (a) the frequency and quality of parental involvement offered in the home and (b) the frequency and level of communication the parent has with the teachers/tutors at college. Frequency was measured using a scale of ‘never’, ‘rarely’, ‘occasionally’, ‘often’ and ‘very frequently’. Level was measured by asking students to rate the involvement on a scale between ‘none’ and ‘very high level’. Quality was measured in terms of the type of support offered and asked students to pick out things their parents help with. Students were asked to determine whether their involvement was ‘active’, ‘passive’ or ‘non-existent’. ‘Active involvement’ was characterised by parents whose approach was typified by the following behaviours: sitting down with students to ensure they completed their work, pestering students to meet deadlines, demanding to proof-read certain items and appearing to be inflexible to the students’ needs and wishes. ‘Passive involvement’ was concerned with a more gentle nurturing approach where parents would offer help and encouragement and allow students space,
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“It appears that the optimum results for students can be achieved through gentle encouragement, respect for the learner, offering help and allowing students space, time and resources to work independently and providing help when asked”
time and resources to work independently and would provide help when asked. ‘Non-existent’ approaches suggested that parents appeared to have no interest in the academic work of their children. Information was collected by the use of questionnaires and follow-up interviews that were analysed thematically to enable conclusions to be extrapolated. The statistical analysis programme IBM SPSS (version 20) was used to facilitate three-way analysis of variance as well as determine whether the trends found were statistically significant. Findings No statistical significance was found between the level of ‘overall’ parental involvement (active, passive and none) and overall student attainment or achievement. Age did not appear to affect either the amount of help offered by parents or the subsequent attainment of students between 16 and 23 years. This contrasts with the perception that parental involvement is essential in maximising attainment of students, as reported by a wealth of literature. However, this research sought to categorise type of support in order to establish its impact, if any, on subsequent success. There were findings to suggest that those students who received ‘passive’ help (categorised by parental encouragement, allowing students time and space to study) attained two grades higher (on average) than those students who received ‘active’ help, making passive support the optimum level in terms of student attainment. Students who claimed to receive ‘no support’ attained, on average, one grade higher than students with ‘active support’. We do not know whether the students who received ‘active support’ were receiving it because they needed it and requested it, or whether they did not seek it and it was forced upon them. However, the fact that students who had active help from parents achieved less than those whose parents had no involvement at
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all is a particularly interesting revelation. As one successful student put it: “I don’t believe I would attain higher grades if my mum was involved because I work to the standards that I want to meet my goals in life, not for my parents.” Others showed a clear desire for independence: “I don’t think I’d get it (the work) done unless I was independent. I’m doing it for me”. Another, showing appreciation for the difference between school and post-16 education, said: “I think if they (parents) were too involved, it would feel like I was still in school.” Implications This research project has revealed that most students are striving for independence and to be ‘trusted’ to complete their work in a way that suits them as individual learners. Learners hope to be respected while completing their studies, with many claiming that they want to be treated as adults and do not wish studying at college to be like being ‘at school’. Indeed, parents forcing students to study hard may well be counterproductive and lead to the opposite effect. It appears the optimum results can be achieved through gentle encouragement, respect for the learner, offering help and allowing students space, time and resources to work independently and providing help when asked. So, if you are a parent, this research may provide an insight to student attitudes and responses in terms of learning and development for your own children’s achievement. However, as a teacher or lecturer, what does this mean for you? I feel it has implications in many areas. The following questions should be considered: • Should parents’ evenings be a feature of further education or should lecturers concentrate their efforts and time into detailed marking, planning and all the other tasks needed to sustain busy educational establishments? • Would time be better spent meeting with the students instead of their parents?
• Should reports be sent to all parents or just those who request them? • Alternatively, should reports be sent to parents at all? Might it be better to direct reports straight to students? Often, when students between the ages of 16 and 18 encounter problems, be it behaviour issues, missed deadlines or bad attitudes, the parents are contacted and asked to attend a meeting with their child. This research suggests that, just possibly, it may be more appropriate that students be dealt with as individuals, as the person at the centre of their education, as learners in their own right.
References • Epstein, J. (2007) Connections count: Improving family and community involvement in secondary schools in Principal Leadership, Vol. 8, no. 2, pp16-22. • Jeynes, WH. (2007) The relation between parental involvement and urban secondary school student academic achievement: a meta-analysis in Urban Education 42 (1) 82-110 • LaRocque, M., Kleiman, I. and Darling, SM. (2011) Parental involvement: the missing link in school achievement in Preventing School Failure, Vol. 55, Issue 3, pp115-122 • Nichols-Solomon, R. (2001) Barriers to serious parent involvement in The Education Digest, Vol. 66, Issue 5, pp33-37 • Tickle, L. (2009) Meet the parents: why are so many mums and dads reluctant to get involved with their child’s secondary school? The Guardian: Available at: www.guardian. co.uk/education/2009/apr/07/parentssecondary-schools (accessed on 10/08/12)
Judith Darnell Judith is a lecturer in level-three health and social care, childcare and a degree programme in educational practice at Bedford College.
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ACRES ploughs all its resources into improvement By Helen Stockton When the Adult College for Rural East Sussex was graded ‘Requires improvement’ by Ofsted in 2013, it led to a series of reforms that covered recruitment, training and staff development A grade ‘3’ in our 2013 Ofsted inspection was not good news for our organisation. We are the Adult College for Rural East Sussex (ACRES), a college formed from the merging of adult education provision at a number of local community colleges. We had previously received two similar grades – although they denoted ‘satisfactory’ at the time – and a further grade at that level would place us in serious difficulty as a small adult and community learning (ACL) provider. All educational sectors face particular challenges in order to meet the requirements of their quality framework, and ACRES is no exception. In order to obtain the coveted ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ from Ofsted, the following were identified as particular challenges: • recruiting and retaining good tutors, particularly when for many, teaching was not their primary or only employment; • ensuring all staff had suitable teaching qualifications; • providing accessible training and networking opportunities for a geographically disparate workforce with variable working hours and often other occupational demands; • effectively developing and performance managing tutors engaged on short contracts;
• motivating and rewarding tutors in receipt of only modest remuneration and with little security of employment; • providing suitable specialist accommodation, equipment, resources and reliable access to information and learning technologies with appropriate training, at a college that does not have exclusive access to any bespoke teaching accommodation; and • raising the profile of adult education and responding to challenges raised by changes in funding. Nothing to it then! The first step, restructuring the management team, had taken place prior to the previous inspection, but had yet to have a significant impact. The adult learning manager, Christine Jervis, who heads ACRES, determined that the organisational restructure had to respond to the new common inspection framework and focus clearly on improving the quality of teaching, learning and assessment. The aim was to steer away from managing in curriculum areas, replacing this with a structure that focused on the specific areas for improvement. A programme development team and a quality, learning
and development team were created to concentrate on raising the standard of the teaching and learning experience across the whole provision, through timely and supportive interventions. Hugh Hennebry, chair of the ACRES’ board, said that a management team “full of drive and ambition” would push the process forward. The restructuring of the management team was supported with a greater autonomy in the use of specific budgets, giving staff more freedom to target resources quickly and appropriately to support identified improvements. The organisation also took full advantage of the help offered by the Ofsted support and challenge programme, which delivered on both counts with a realistic understanding of the constraints and possibilities of our organisation. This provided additional clarity and valuable encouragement during our intensive self-improvement process. The start of that process meant going back to the beginning with better recruitment. This was the challenge of the programme development team. Danielle Lloyd, one of the programme development managers, describes how it was improved: “We made the selection procedures more rigorous by introducing a micro-teach and using competencybased interview questions. We also included a short presentation on the nature of the work so that successful candidates could be in no doubt as to what teaching in this sector entailed.” Once recruited, the learning and development team provides new staff with a thorough, one-day induction that informs a tone of organisational expectation. A sound infrastructure including appropriate venues, equipment, training and administration, ensures that tutors are properly supported on the move forwards. Practitioners with excellent subject specific knowledge, but no teaching
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“Motivation and reward are channelled through targeted and training opportunities negotiated with staff and the development of staff through inclusion in the peer-observation programmes”
qualifications, are still employed, but all teaching staff are expected to complete the Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector course within a year, and for some inexperienced tutors, before commencing teaching. The course is offered ‘in-house’ to ensure its quality and accessibility, and is offered free to all current or prospective tutors. Helen D’Silva, the quality, learning and development manager, was clear that one of the contributory factors to success was realising that a ‘sheep dip’ or one-sizefits-all approach to training does not work for such a varied workforce. Ensuring effective training with measurable outcomes, in terms of the benefit to students, was a real challenge. It starts at recruitment, with the programme development team identifying potential training needs and communicating this to the learning development team, who consolidate this knowledge at induction. Mentoring, in many cases, starts before teaching, and class visits in the first two or three weeks of a course for our new tutors, ensure that training interventions are carefully planned, targeted and matched to the work-life pattern of recipients. The use of a newly created virtual learning environment benefits learners and makes blended training solutions a reality. Another significant challenge that Hugh Hennerbry identified was changing the way ACRES monitored the quality of teaching and learning and radically changing the way we transformed this through staff development. As the quality, learning and development managers identified, this translated into: “A significantly hastened performancemanagement cycle with new tutors potentially receiving the whole cycle of development and assessment, including a formal graded observation of teaching and learning, within the duration of a 10-week course.” This speeding up of the process requires a significant commitment from Helen and
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her colleague, learning and development manager, Kate Jessel, but there is a significant benefit in terms of tutor performance and, more importantly, on the quality of the learning experience. Previously, performance management of tutors had lingered on, in some cases over several academic years, which prolonged the negative effect of underperforming tutors on the quality of the provision for students. Truncating the process meant that this was no longer the case. Motivation and reward are channelled through targeted and training opportunities negotiated with staff and the development of staff through inclusion in the peer-observation programmes. We also use able tutors as mentors or as champions in specific skills and we encourage recognition of excellence by students, colleagues and line managers. The standard of the accommodation was improved through careful inspection and a better risk assessment audit of all venues, with equipment purchased, catalogued and updated and tutors offered focused training on specific skills, as well as more general training on subjects such as using the VLE.
Adult Learners’ Week Awards are being considered for the future. We also need to support tutors in our transition from a mentoring to a coaching culture. We need to be an organisation that has vision and the confidence to encourage, support and celebrate selfreflecting practitioners, with autonomy and accountability at all levels. ACL offers a unique and valuable learning experience. Yet it is arguably the Cinderella of the further education world, an analogy that also captures its transformative nature for many of its students. Quality frameworks are an enduring and necessary part of any public sector endeavour, therefore the challenge to all ACL providers is clear: they need to live up to the framework by which they are measured and to deliver what is the ultimate goal for all of us involved in the sector: an outstanding teaching and learning experience that actively involves students in making excellent progress on their personal learning journeys.
So has it worked? Yes. We’ve seen a rise of 12 per cent in the number of teaching and learning sessions graded internally as either ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ with 100 per cent of our existing tutors reaching these grades as we enter the new academic year. Ofsted recently delivered a robust grade ‘two’ judgement on our provision, and the future is now about how quickly we can reach a grade ‘one’. There are still some areas for improvement in teaching and learning and these have been articulated and addressed in a new learning and development strategy for the next three years. We need to get better at publicly celebrating and rewarding our tutors who deliver at the highest levels, and a series of staff awards, along the lines of the
Helen Stockton Helen is a programme development and marketing manager for ACRES. She also teaches creative writing for the college and is the author of Teaching Creative Writing.
www.et-foundation.co.uk
ResearchDigest Teacher enquiry key to learning By Philippa Cordingley and Anne Groll Teachers in East Midlands colleges found they had a common problem. How could they motivate their students to do the written work essential to their success and do the additional independent work that would get them the higher grades? So, they set out to investigate the motivational effect of competition. More than 100 students were involved in a range of subjects/vocations including engineering and hairdressing. The lecturers surveyed the students in advance and tried out a variety of competitive and non–completive approaches. They also monitored results and found some significant gains from introducing competitions into their teaching methods. This is one of many excellent examples of practitioners finding out which approaches work for different learners in their classes and workshops. Discovering why things work differently for both similar and dissimilar groups of students makes for professional learning conversations that matter. The new Professional Standards for Teachers and
Trainers in Education and Training highlight the role of research, evidence and theory in making judgements about teaching and learning. Large-scale evidence about how teachers learn tells us that it is evidence-informed professional learning not evidence-based practice that is effective. Prescription doesn’t work. Research informed, workbased professional learning such as the example above might usefully be called teacher enquiry, rather than research. This is an expansion of the familiar ‘plan, do, review’ cycle, starting with clarity about what students’ learning
will look like if we succeed and what we want to get there. The research about effective professional learning for teachers also tells us that we can’t do this effectively alone. The key to using evidence well is opening ourselves up to other people’s perspectives on what we do and how our students respond. Sharing the risks involved in reviewing this kind of evidence builds trust and deepens commitment to persisting until we have something exciting but challenging properly nailed. Through building enquiry into daily working lives, teachers can shape learner experiences directly in their
Research on professional learning: • www.curee.co.uk • bit.ly/BERA_RSA_report • bit.ly/BERA_paper5_cpd Teacher friendly research: • eric.ed.gov/ • ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/ • www.itslifejimbutnotasweknowit.org.uk/index.html • www.curee.co.uk/block-content/route-maps-sample Examples of teacher enquiry: • repository.excellencegateway.org.uk/fedora/objects/importpdf:2192/datastreams/PDF/content). • www.curee.co.uk/files/publication/[site-timestamp]/ Anne%20Venables.pdf • www.ntrp.org.uk
own classroom. But we need to challenge each other with the confidence of trusted and informed professionals. The new standards are telling us it’s time to move forward if our FE and skills system is to compete with the best in the world. Australia, for example, came to the use-of-research party later than the UK, but now it is firmly built into their world class support for professional standards (bit.ly/Aus_standards) For further practical ideas you can read more in the full article available at: www. curee.co.uk/node/3149 Download the professional standards www.et-foundation. co.uk/supporting/supportpractitioners/professionalstandards-review
Philippa Cordingley is chief executive of Curee. She is an internationally acknowledged expert in using evidence to develop education policy and practice to enhance teaching and learning.@PhilippaCcuree Anne Groll is senior researchinformed practice manager at Curee, leading on rresearch, evaluation and researchsearchuse projects.
Broken information activity – a great way to teach ‘dry’ or theoretical topics Small groups of students are given information about a topic that is broken down into headings and presented on several separate cards, which learners share so that each has roughly the same number. Each group then has to complete a task that requires them to make sense of the information – for example: ‘summarise the key functions of the endocrine system and how this has an impact on massage.’ The summary task has to be highly challenging and it works best if students have to create a visual representation of their work for example, a picture, poster or cartoon.
At the end of the activity, consider getting the students to explain their learning to each other and peer evaluate the quality of each other’s understanding. The benefits include: all students participating as they all have information to share; visible learning as students transform the information provided into a different format; the use and development of skills such as analysis, prioritisation, team work and communication; you don’t have to ‘present’ the information and are free to challenge and support as needed. Jackie Rossa is managing director of Learning Central UK and author of The Perfect FE Lesson (see book reviews page 32).
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Mathematics: don’t go round in circles When his daughter was struggling with her school’s maths ‘merry-go-round’, it made Peter Lyon think about how to innovate and use technology in teaching the subject in FE
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the need to develop mathematical resilience in learners: among other things, encouraging them to experiment and understand that it is sometimes difficult, but that issues can be overcome with support and persistence. The paper suggested that one role of a teacher is to ‘encourage pupils to experiment with ICT’. It put me in mind of Malcolm Swan’s eight key principles of good maths teaching3; specifically, the use of technology in appropriate ways. There are many good resources on the internet and lots of free online tools to harness their power. Put these together and you have the beginnings of a maths course that makes use of both blended and flipped learning. Half the battle is to cultivate the learners’ natural curiosity and interest in the subject. Giving the learner a chance to do this outside the classroom has to be a good thing, as long as it is backed up by solid support from the teacher.
Online tools As a starting point, you could try the online tool blendspace. It is essentially a platform where you can link ‘tiles’ to most forms of multimedia, whether worksheets, video clips, presentations or websites. The first time I used it was as a central hub that could be given as a weblink to the trainees on my Additional Diploma in Teaching Maths course. I have also used blendspace to create individual ‘spaces’ for training sessions I’ve led4. This allows me to give the participants a simple weblink at the end of the session where they can download materials and the presentation. I encourage my trainees to build up a bank of blendspaces for each maths topic they teach, which their learners can access through its URL. The benefits for both teacher and student are clear: you build up a body of multimedia-incorporated lessons that can be used repeatedly, encouraging
SCIENCE & SOCIETY
I was having breakfast with my sevenyear-old daughter one morning before school, when I noticed a dark cloud form across her face as she stared into her Coco Pops. “What’s up, Ellie?” I asked. After some coaxing she confided in me. “It’s something we are doing on the maths merry-go-round that I just don’t understand,” she replied. The merry-go-round took place once a week and involved some of the children from each class going to other classes to try out the maths that they were doing on that particular week. She told me that she had been starting to dread it. This week, she was having difficulty working out how much change she would get from various purchases. From personal experience I understand only too well that one of the major causes of ‘maths anxiety’ is that feeling of being totally lost: you naturally think that everyone else around you has absolutely no problem with the maths. The classroom could be full of children not understanding and, for one reason or another, not willing to put their hand up to admit it. This, I feel, is one of the worst things that can happen in a class because there is a critical moment where time and effort has to be given to support struggling learners. This episode got me thinking about the types of learners we are often faced with in further education. How can we be more supportive of learning outside the classroom? A recent article in The Guardian1 suggested that FE is lagging behind in terms of the skills and competencies in Stem subjects – science, technology, engineering and mathematics – which are so sought after by leading industries. It said we need to encourage learners to be flexible and entrepreneurial by innovating and embracing new technology. In their recent conference paper2, Johnston-Wilder and Lee talk about
inclusion, engagement and dynamic learning; and your learners get a permanent record of your lessons that they can access and turn to when they feel the need to look again at something. It can also help learners who, for one reason or another, have not managed to get to your class. You could even turn it on its head and get your students to start creating their own spaces on maths topics. My daughter has started doing just that.
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RESOURCES Report on teaching and raising attainment in maths and English teaching carried out by the Centre for the Use of Research and Evidence in Education (Curee), with the East Midlands Centre for Excellence in Teacher Training (Emcett): bit.ly/Maths_English A downloadable poster setting out the timeline for the implementation of the new maths and English language GCSEs is available from the Education and Training Foundation: bit.ly/ET_Maths_English The Education and Training Foundation offers support for teachers of STEM subjects. For information please call Imke Djouadj on 020 3740 8280 or email imke. djouadj@etfoundation.co.uk The Excellence Gateway, now run by the Education and Training Foundation, offers a wealth of resources on maths and other STEM subjects. A special maths exhibition site, pulling together a range of resources from the Excellence Gateway is due to be released soon. www.excellencegateway.org.uk
trip like my daughter, or gaining a more in-depth understanding of circle theorem, we should all encourage, within ourselves, a natural curiosity and a desire to know more. Peter Lyon is a teacher trainer at Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College. He runs the Additional Diploma in Teaching Numeracy/Maths. Follow him on Twitter: @numeracyman It isn’t a chore for her as she’s doing something creative and fun – and her subtraction has improved dramatically. Recently, there has been a push to improve the skills of FE maths teachers so that they are ready to take on GCSE maths teaching. I was involved in running one of the excellent Maths Enhancement Programmes delivered by the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics in partnership with the Centres of Excellence in Teacher
Training (CETTS) and the Education and Training Foundation. The six-day course gave participants the chance to try out some great collaborative maths resources and, importantly, to begin on the journey of developing their own maths skills. It is clear to me, having run the course, that the maths resilience that JohnstonWilder and Lee talk about is something that all teachers need to develop. Be it working out the change from a shopping
1
Medhat, S., 2014, STEM Skills; colleges are
failing to meet industry needs, The Guardian, 2 July (tinyurl.com/stemguardianarticle) 2
Johnston-Wilder, Sue and Lee, Clare (2010).
Developing mathematical resilience. In: BERA Annual Conference 2010, 1-4 September 2010, University of Warwick. 3
Swan M., Improving Learning in Mathematics:
challenges and strategies. 2005, Department for Education and Skills Standards Unit with BDP Media Ltd. 4
See my blendspace at tinyurl.com/uwadtm
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Too much baggage? Is a traditional approach to teaching more effective than a progressive approach? Or does the problem lie in the labels themselves? Alan Thomson investigates
7 myths
SHUTTERSTOCK
Wh wou at Goo ld Saygle ?
Traditiona forever
Recent years have seen renewed interest in traditional teaching methods with proponents arguing that ‘progressive’, learner-centred teaching methods have impoverished the education of millions by depriving them of the hard facts and critical mass of information they need to properly underpin further learning. The problem with progressive approaches, former education secretary Michael Gove told a meeting of the Policy Exchange in September 2013 (as reported in the Daily Telegraph), is the belief – commonly held across the educational establishment, he said – that “education should not be an activity in which the teacher imparts knowledge to the child but a pursuit by the child of what it finds interesting.” To illustrate his point, Mr Gove said he had found school pupils studying the Battle of Hastings by re-enacting it on a field with softballs, while others made Plasticine models to represent Hitler’s main aims as Führer. Two recently published books have chimed with Mr Gove’s championing of so-called traditional teaching methods. One is Daisy Christodoulou’s recent and much-discussed book Seven Myths About Education. The other is Authority and the Teacher by William H Kitchen, which is reviewed on page 33 of this issue of InTuition.
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In the introduction to her book, Ms Christodoulou, research and development manager at academies charity ARK Schools, says that much of what teachers are taught about education is wrong. Ms Christodoulou encapsulates this in her seven myths (ideas that are presented to trainee teachers as facts, but which hold back teachers, learners and education, she says): • Facts prevent understanding; • Teacher-led instruction is passive; • The 21st century changes everything fundamentally; • You can always just look it up; • We should teach transferable skills; • Projects and activities are the best way to learn; and • Teaching knowledge is indoctrination. In the introduction to his book, Mr Kitchen, a qualified teacher and a doctoral researcher at Queen’s University
Belfast, says: “Any education without knowledge transmission is not an education at all.” Mr Kitchen argues that the transmission of knowledge requires submission to the authority of the teacher, as the resident expert whose primary task is to dispense that knowledge. Should teachers and teacher educators be concerned, even alarmed, by the traditionalists’ argument that progressive approaches to education – usually understood to have gained traction in UK education since the 1960s – are detrimental to learning? “Actually, I don’t think I have ever heard teacher educators refer to progressive or traditional other than to discuss what these terms might mean,” says Dr Denise Robinson, director of the Huddersfield University Distributed Centre for Excellence in Teacher Training. “In terms of further education teacher training and professional development,
‘TRADITIONAL’ VERSUS ‘PROGRESSIVE’ Traditional Teacher is the authority Teacher delivers knowledge Student receives knowledge Emphasis on rote learning Focus on testing and grades
Progressive Teacher is a facilitator of learning Students gather information from a range of sources Students have a say in what they learn Learning activities are flexible Formative assessment
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we would turn the question around and ask: ‘What is best for the students to learn?’ The answers then become related to effective teaching and learning. “I would, for example, say that even rote-learning may have a place in teaching/learning – as long as we can show that it leads to effective learning.” Geoff Petty, author of Teaching Today and Evidence-based Teaching and an InTuition columnist, agrees: “Some traditional methods work if they are done in a slightly non-traditional way, like students writing their own notes – done with a pair-check and a teacher-check including inclusive whole class questioning methods to improve the notes. “But most traditional methods do not work as well as alternatives. I mean, would you insist on traditional dentistry, as practised by dentists in the 1940s, over modern dentistry?” That is not to say all progressive methods work well, says Petty, citing Professor John Hattie, director of the Melbourne Education Research Institute at the University of Melbourne and author of hugely influential Visible Learning for Teachers. Hattie, whose work is based on 800 meta-analyses of approaches shown to raise achievement in school children, is critical of unguided discovery and the use of problem-based learning, especially
early in a topic when students are just starting to form their concepts, says Petty. Traditionalists may agree with Professor Hattie on this point, claiming that progressive teaching and learning approaches place too much emphasis on self-directed inquiry as though each of us is innately equipped – with minimal input from a teacher – to source, learn, synthesise and use information and knowledge effectively. As Jodi Roffey-Barentsen notes in her book review on page 33, Kitchen argues that such unguided, inquiry-led learning leads to a type of Meno paradox in which the learner does not know what it is they are meant to be looking for and does not know when they have found what it is they were looking for. In his stimulating book Why Do I Need a Teacher When I’ve got Google? (see review on page 32), Ian Gilbert offers an answer to the provocative question he poses around teaching and information and it goes something like this. If the role of a teacher is relaying information and facts readily available elsewhere, not least online, then the answer to the question ‘do I need a teacher when I’ve got Google?’ is ‘no’. If the role of a teacher is to help people learn and want to learn, to know where to find knowledge, to recognise good knowledge from bad and what to do with that knowledge, then the answer to the question is definitely ‘yes’. For progressives, the element of critical thinking – interrogating and reflecting upon the available information – is crucial to effective learning and it is this, and not facts alone, that underpins learning. Some teachers like Julian Ayres, a trainer mentor at Wrexham County Borough Council who writes on page 16 of this issue, believe that there is too little critical thinking going on because our approach to education is still, largely, traditional and learners are treated as receptacles of information. “It is key to an effective classroom that we allow students to find the answer out, learn from their own mistakes and realise where they went wrong so they can reflect, review and self-evaluate for future work,” he says. In practice, few teachers – even those we remember from our own schooling
who, in all probability, favoured chalk and talk – will deliver fact-packed lessons without also encouraging learners to employ some degree of critical thinking around that information and also to think creatively about its uses. Dr Robinson says: “The lessons I remember from my childhood (in the 1950s) were the ones where we were given a teacher-centred introduction and then expected to do a ‘project’.” As IfL has highlighted in its many studies, including its annual reviews of continuing professional development, the vast majority of teachers and trainers devote considerable time and thought to exploring, developing, adapting and reflecting upon the ways in which their teaching supports effective learning and achievement. As in any other professional group, teachers’ approaches to challenges will be varied and adaptive. To label these dynamic processes as either ‘traditional’ or ‘progressive’ hardly seems to do them justice. Alan Thomson is publishing and editorial advisor to IfL
Further reading Christodoulou, D. (2013) Seven Myths About Education. Routledge. Reader offer: 20 per cent off this title when ordered via www.routledge. com using code INT14. Valid until 31 December 2014. Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and Education. Touchstone (Simon & Schuster) Hattie, J (2011). Visible Learning for Teachers: Maximising Impact on Learning. Routledge Kelly, J (2013), IfL review of CPD: Making professional learning work. Institute for Learning. Kitchen, W H. (2014). Authority and the Teacher. Bloomsbury. See page 35 for review and reader offer. Petty, G (2009). Evidence-based Teaching. Nelson Thornes (Oxford University Press) Petty, G (2009). Teaching Today. Nelson Thornes (Oxford University Press)
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A partnership between:
Professional and Technical Skills for the Future The National VET Conference at The Skills Show, the NEC Birmingham Thursday 13 to Friday 14 November 2014 :LWK UHQHZHG EXVLQHVV FRQÂżGHQFH DQG VWURQJHU JURZWK LQ WKH 8. HFRQRP\ VNLOOV SDUWLFXODUO\ KLJKHU OHYHO SURIHVVLRQDO DQG WHFKQLFDO VNLOOV DUH NH\ WR VXVWDLQLQJ JURZWK DQG ZLGHU SURVSHULW\ 7KLV 1RYHPEHU WKH VHFRQG 9(7 &RQIHUHQFH DW 7KH 6NLOOV 6KRZ ZLOO SURYLGH D IRUXP IRU GLDORJXH DQG DFWLRQ WR VWUHQJWKHQ WKH 8. 9(7 V\VWHP /HDUQLQJ IURP WKH 2(&'ÂśV UHYLHZ RI 9(7 DFURVV 17 countries, the conference will focus on how to build professional and technical skills for the future, and encourage learning from current SUDFWLFH ERWK DW KRPH DQG DEURDG
“ England has too little vocational provision at postsecondary level in comparison with many other countries, and relative to potential demand � _ (OECD)
This year’s conference will: ‡ +HDU IURP 2(&' H[SHUWV DV WKH\ ODXQFK WKHLU ³6NLOOV %H\RQG 6FKRRO´ V\QWKHVLV UHSRUW ZKLFK comSDUHV WKH SRVWVHFRQGDU\ 9(7 V\VWHPV DFURVV FRXQWULHV ‡ 2SHQ XS D V\VWHPDWLF GLDORJXH DERXW KRZ WR EXLOG SURIHVVLRQDO WHFKQLFDO VNLOOV IRU WKH IXWXUH DFURVV WKH 8. 9(7 V\VWHP ‡ ([SORUH ¿UVW KDQG KRZ WKH 9(7 V\VWHP RSHUDWHV DFURVV (QJODQG 6FRWODQG :DOHV DQG 1RUWKHUQ ,UHODQG DQG ORRN LQWHUQDWLRQDOO\ DW WKH H[SHULHQFHV RI $XVWULD 6ZHGHQ DQG WKH 86$ WRJHWKHU ZLWK D SHUVSHFWLYH RQ WKH ,PSDFW RI GLJLWDO WHFKQRORJ\ IURP &LW\ *XLOGV
7KH FRQIHUHQFH ZLOO EH KHOG RYHU WZR GD\V ZLWK WKH PDLQ SOHQDULHV WDNLQJ SODFH RQ GD\ RQH DQG D VHPLQDU SURJUDPPH LQFOXGLQJ RSSRUWXQLWLHV WR YLVLW 7KH 6NLOOV 6KRZ RQ GD\ WZR 'HOHJDWHV FDQ RSW WR DWWHQG WKH main conference on the 13 November DQG RU MRLQ WKH VHPLQDU SURJUDPPH RQ WKH 14 November
Register www.theskillsshow.com/conference
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Training
www.et-foundation.co.uk
Unlocking the Gateway to professional treasures the Education and Training Foundation, had the vision to make this vast collection of quality content accessible to practitioners – more of a digital library than a website – and making it home to the output of the many projects commissioned by the Foundation. The task, when I started work on this last January, was how to keep what was best and well-used from the Gateway and to make visible the treasure of material that was rarely found by users. We have made great progress but much work remains before we can launch fully. A new front end to our library which emphasises search and browse has been developed but cannot be released until we have cleaned up the tagging of resources. Our latest innovation is the concept of ‘Exhibition’ sites. We needed a way to highlight new resources around a particular theme which would enable us to draw
By Europe Singh The Excellence Gateway has for many years been the first port of call for staff in the education and training sector looking for such things as definitive guidance on policy, case studies on how providers have addressed difficult challenges and quality assured learning resources. Over the years, new research and practitioner-led resources from a range of bodies, including the Centre for Excellence in Leadership, Quality Improvement Agency and Learning and Skills Improvement Service, have found a home on the Gateway. Unfortunately, while donations enriched the Gateway, they also turned it into a labyrinth whose nuggets of gold were increasingly difficult to find. Helen Pettifor, director of professional standards and workforce development at
upon legacy material from the Gateway. These mini sites would be time-limited but showcase the richness of the new library. The first of these sites is now live and brings together the best material on the Gateway with new resources around quality assuring non-accredited provision for learners with learning difficulties and/ or disabilities. A second Exhibition site around maths is under development. We have come a long way and are now in the final furlong. We are convinced that we are close to creating an invaluable digital library of resources to serve the sector in its mission to develop excellent learning provision. Watch this space. Europe Singh is an expert in learning technologies and is advising the Foundation on its digital estate www.excellencegateway.org.uk
The Further Education Learning Technology Action Group (Feltag) report in March this year challenged further education to embrace and develop the potential of new and emerging technologies to improve teaching and learning, reports Dawn Buzzard. Staff across FE have told the Education and Training Foundation that they want more support around the use of learning technologies. In response, the Foundation has launched two programmes. These are designed to get behind staff at all levels and support their ambitions to use learning technologies to deliver high-quality outcomes for learners and employers. The programmes will contribute directly to the Feltag recommendation on developing the capability and capacity of FE and skills providers. Following the publication of the Department of Business Innovation and Skills’ response to Feltag in June, the Foundation is pleased to be leading on this theme. The first programme, EdTech Assess, includes a self-assessment tool developed by Coralesce, which will allow providers to track their progress on the use of technology and help them create robust improvement plans. It also aims to guide organisations to resources and services
JULIAN CORNISH-TRESTRAIL
Programmes aid learning technologies
that can help them achieve their aims. The second is a £1 million programme called Learning Futures, which will be delivered through sector-led action research projects. Learning Futures will establish a community of practice open to the whole sector. Those joining the community can watch the projects develop, contribute by collaborating, share learning and resources and can join in the programme’s webinar series. To register an interest in Learning Futures visit www.lfutures.co.uk
Both projects have produced baseline reports, which can be accessed at www.coralesce.com/research-reports As the projects progress we will share the results with the sector through the project websites and the Foundation’s own site at www.et-foundation.co.uk If you have a query about the Foundation’s learning technologies programmes, please email enquiries@etfoundation.co.uk Dawn Buzzard is learning technologies adviser at the Foundation
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Geoff Petty
www.ifl.ac.uk
Help! My brain’s full How to avoid ‘cognitive overload’ When we learn something very new, we tussle with different aspects of the topic in our ‘working memory’. Unfortunately, our working memory is small. It can only store about seven bits of information at a time and can only work on four of these at the most. So it is easy for a teacher to overload working memories while students are trying to conceptualise something for the first time. This is a problem for all teachers, but there is an easy fix. Let’s take maths as an example. The usual two-step approach to teaching maths is to show students on the board how to solve the type of maths being studied. The teacher does a few examples, explaining the process, then asks students to
do similar problems by themselves. William Carroll saw a weakness in this two-step approach. When students are working on the maths problems alone they are trying to do two things at once: understand the mathematical process, and apply this process. For many students this double task swamps the working memory and there is ‘cognitive overload’. Carroll developed a ‘three-step’ approach. After the teacher has explained ‘how to do them’ on the board, the students are given ‘worked examples’, very similar to those just explained by the teacher. These are problems, with the solutions fully and correctly worked out, for the students to study. A useful activity here is to get students in pairs to study a couple of different
People can store around seven bits of information
Working memory
worked examples each, and then to explain their different examples to each other. Note that they have to explain them, not just read the solutions out. It’s best to show students varied worked examples of the skill you are teaching. The more varied the examples, the easier it will be for students to adapt what they learn to different contexts. Why are worked examples or ‘models of good practice’ useful? In Carroll’s three-step approach, students first hear the teacher explain the mathematical process to gain the basic knowledge of the approach. Then, the peer-explaining requires that each student understands this process. Only then do students have to apply the process by doing problems on their own. Carroll found students learned well in less time with the three-step approach, even though there was an extra step. Also, they made very few errors in the ‘apply’ phase, and they found the learning easier than with the two-step approach. It’s not surprising studying worked examples works well. We learn very naturally from ‘concrete’ to ‘abstract’ and we also learn very naturally by imitation. All very well, but I’m not a maths teacher If you don’t teach maths, you will still have problems with cognitive overload and can still teach with models of good practice or worked examples. Suppose your students are not very good at: • critically analysing a poem; • evaluating a marketing plan; • punctuating a sentence; • writing an ‘if-then’ loop in a computer programme; or • justifying an historical argument.
While we can store around seven bits of information, we can only work on four of those bits at a time – and often less
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In all these cases you can find a ‘worked example’, ‘model of good practice’ or
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Psychologists warn that common teaching methods often overload students’ working memory. Fortunately, this can be fixed, says Geoff Petty. Geoff is the author of Teaching Today and Evidenced Based Teaching, and has trained staff in more than 300 colleges and schools. Geoff is a patron of IfL.
‘exemplar’ to help your students understand better ‘how to do it’. ‘Peer explaining’ is only one thing you can do with models of good practice. There are other activities to try, but it is often best to use peer explaining before trying the following: • Completing a model of good practice ‘I’ve put the full stops in this paragraph for you, but I want you to put the commas in.’ (The next model for completion has all the commas and students must provide the full stops.) ‘This computer programme has the last few lines missing. Study the programme then complete it to make it work.’ ‘This analysis of our poem needs a section on the poet’s intentions. Read the analysis then add the missing section.’ • Improving an imperfect model ‘Here is an evaluation done by a student last year. She got a merit. Improve it to distinction standard.’ ‘Here is a paragraph punctuated by a student last year. Explain what’s wrong with the punctuation and improve it.’ • Annotating a model ‘Have a look at this assignment. Mark with arrows where each of the five assessment criteria is met.’ ‘At the end of each line of this computer programme, write an explanation in ordinary English describing what the line does.’ • Assessing an imperfect model ‘Here are three justifications for the same historical argument done by students last year. Please mark these using the mark scheme provided.’ ‘Here are three marketing plans for our Red Lion Inn. Working in groups, put them in order of effectiveness, and explain your ranking.’
Usual twostep approach
Students do some on their own
Carroll’s threestep approach
Students do some on their own
Peer explaining
Teacher shows how on the board
• Peer explaining ‘Here are two correctly punctuated paragraphs. In pairs, study one each, then explain each punctuation mark in your paragraph to your partner.’ ‘Have a look at this well-justified historical argument. How does the writer justify her views? What use does she make of primary and secondary historical sources?’ It is important to recognise that working memory overload occurs most often when students learn a new concept or process. Once they have an initial understanding, you can stretch them with challenging tasks. Indeed, you must finish a topic with challenging tasks to get high-quality learning.
Teacher shows how on the board
FURTHER READING Chapter 16, ‘The impact of cognitive load’ in Visible Learning and the Science of How we Learn, John Hattie and Gregory Yates (2014) Carroll, W.M. (1992). The use of worked examples in teaching algebra. Apr. 1992. (search online for the title plus ‘ED353130’) If you are a maths teacher have a look at: bit.ly/Hotmath_whitepaper Petty, G. (2009) Evidence-based teaching, Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes
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Books
www.ifl.ac.uk
• Editor’s pick
A concise and clear overview of inclusion in further education Excerpt: Inclusion in Further Education Chapter 4, Reflections (p51) New teachers should keep the following in mind when planning their teaching: • Learning is a social activity and most students thrive when they learn co-operatively; • Social learning helps students to ‘make meaning’ of new knowledge; • The role the teacher adopts in communication with students is critical in establishing their relationship with students; • Understanding students’ motivation is key to supporting their learning; and • Developing group work can be a difficult process, but it is one that facilitates learning.
Inclusion in Further Education By Lydia Spenceley. Critical Publishing: paperback 978-1-9096-8205-4 This book aims both to introduce and broaden further education trainee teachers in their understanding and application of ‘inclusion’ in the context of FE teaching. It could be used to benefit both individual practitioners – by giving them a concise and clear overview of the many aspects of a phenomenon that has suffered various nomenclatures over the years – as well as continuing professional development (CPD) sessions for groups of practitioners.
• Other new
publications The Perfect Further Education Lesson By Jackie Rossa. Independent Thinking Press (an imprint of Crown House Publishing Ltd): hardback 978-1-7813-5125-3 Teachers tend to be blessed with a healthy scepticism and so Jackie Rossa’s new book is nothing if not ambitious in claiming to help practitioners deliver the perfect lesson. 32
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The author is an experienced teacher/teacher educator who has written books and papers on inclusion and teacher education. As I read the book, I reflected on its various uses and applications, in addition to FE teacher education. There are a number of criticalthinking activities and case studies that could form a focus for CPD. Some chapters could contribute directly to professional knowledge and understanding; the chapters on ‘Politics and policy’ and ‘NEET and knots’ I found particularly useful for this purpose – giving a fairly comprehensive overview of recent policies as they affect FE, and the history of youth unemployment since the 1940s.
The chapter ‘Special students’ provides a useful example of how to incorporate theoretical approaches to practice. It facilitates a concise and accessible description of Bourdieu’s and Foucault’s work, set within the context of education. The ‘Distraction of dyslexia’ chapter is excellent in its identity of differences as opposed to disability. While explaining how society rewards those who can read and write, it underlines how dyslexia, as a complex (and often hidden) condition, can be identified and supported in the FE context. Essentially, it demonstrates that, perceiving dyslexia as a difference rather than the deeply negative term ‘disability’, can promote learning and boost self-
confidence in learners. It is a well-written book and clearly has a number of applications.
Still Rossa, who is managing director of Learning Central UK, has produced a little ninevolt battery of a book that packs a punch. It is compact (smaller than A5 format and only 176 pages) and it speed-dates teachers with an impressive range of practical ideas complete with mini case studies, tips and checklists. There are books that will stretch you more but that’s missing the point. And, at just under £10, this little book makes a strong case for itself.
Reader offer
published second edition of his provocative book. No pressure then. But Gilbert makes no apologies: “You chose to become a teacher,” and he takes no prisoners. “Powerful forces are at play that are not the friend of a state-owned, state-run education system run by qualified and properly remunerated educational professionals,” he writes. Gilbert’s book is an insightful, often unsettling, frequently humorous and essentially optimistic analysis
To claim your 20 per cent discount on this title visit www.crownhouse.co.uk and use promotional code Tuition2 when prompted. Valid until 31 December 2014.
Why Do I Need a Teacher When I’ve Got Google? By Ian Gilbert. Routledge: paperback 978-0-4157-0959-0 “The future of the world is in your hands,” writes Gilbert at the start of the recently
Denise Robinson is the PCET Consortium Director at Huddersfield University and has authored papers on FE (particularly college HE and teacher education) as well as co-editing a new book, Learning, Teaching and Development, due out November 2014, published by Sage.
Reader offer To order this book and claim a 20 per cent discount on the recommended retail price, please call 01752 202 301 quoting code IFE01. Offer is valid until 31 December 2014.
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Is this an authoritative voice on ‘the demise of education’? Excerpt: Authority and the Teacher (p147, abridged) “Teaching, therefore, is the process of setting the pupil on a journey towards embracing his or her knowledge inheritance. And the person who begins – and, indeed, ultimately rubber-stamps – this process is the teacher. The teaching process requires an authoritative teacher, who can lead and direct the pupil under his or her charge through the initiation process successfully. There is no better candidate for the job than the teacher; indeed, the teacher is the only one who can deliver successful teaching. To reject the authority of the teacher, as the agent of a successful teaching process, is therefore to reject the very essence of teaching itself.”
Authority and the Teacher By William H Kitchen. Bloomsbury: paperback 978-1-4725-2428-7 From the start of the book, Kitchen makes his position clear; he argues in favour of authoritative education, which results in a near dismissal of more progressive, childcentred approaches, as advocated since the 1960s and 1970s. Although Kitchen alludes to the work of Rousseau and Carl Rogers, his is not a balanced view, nor does it purport to be. In part one of the book he refers extensively to the writings of Furedi (Wasted: Why Education Isn’t Educating) and Bantock (Freedom and Authority in Education), whose
of a changing world and educators’ roles in shaping it for the better.
Reader offer There is a 20 per cent discount on this book when ordered from www.routledge. com using the code INT14. Valid until 31 December 2014.
Achieving your Diploma in Education and Training By Jim Gould and Jodi Roffey-Barentsen Sage Publishing: paperback
publications are contributing to the pro-authority argument within educational and sociological discourse. Kitchen comes across as passionate and warns that: “If we continue to undermine the authority of the teacher in his or her classroom and to undermine his or her position as a master in his or her subject, we will arrive at an entire generation of children who lack humility and guidance, and who will be misinformed and lost.” The next strand of the progressive ideology that Kitchen seeks to undermine is the ‘anti-knowledge campaign’. He argues that in a world in which knowledge is valueless, the teacher’s role quickly becomes the role of a facilitator, favouring discovery methods, rather
978-1-4462-8702-6 One of the first textbooks published to support trainees studying for the new Level 5 Diploma in Education Training qualification, it covers all the mandatory qualification units plus has a useful section on career development. Activities in every chapter draw out key points so you can apply them to your own practice.
Reader offer There is 20 per off this title and free postage and
than instruction or teacherled activities. Inquiry-led learning, according to Kitchen, results in the ‘Meno paradox’ in which inquiry is impossible, as one does not know what it is one needs to know, nor does one know when one has found what one was looking for. The teacher, in his view, should be an authority figure, whose role it is to guide and direct learning and learners. Part two of the book offers the argument for authoritative education, mainly based on the work of Polanyi and his ‘fiduciary framework’; Wittgenstein, including his ‘rule-following argument’; and Oakeshott’s definition of knowledge as ‘information accompanied by judgement’. Kitchen concludes that: “Teaching and learning packaging when ordering on www.sagepub.co.uk Enter discount code UK14RE10 at checkout. Valid until 31 December 2014.
Teaching and Supporting Adult Learners By Jackie Scruton and Belinda Ferguson. Critical Publishing: paperback 978-1-9096-8216-0 Scruton and Ferguson’s book is a practical and admirably no-nonsense guide to
need authority; knowledge development depends on authority. And, as a consequence, education rests on authority. Therefore the demise of authority results in the demise of education”. These are strong words, convincing to those with similar views. To others they are thought provoking at least. Jodi Roffey-Barentsen is a senior lecturer in education studies at the University of East London
Reader offer A 25 per cent discount is available to all readers who order this book from www.bloomsbury.com Use the code AUTHORITY14 at the checkout. Offer is valid until 31 December 2014.
teaching adults that is aimed both at student teachers and experienced practitioners. A notable feature of the book is its chapter of case studies that the authors suggest reading first in order to get a feel for the characters and their situations.
Reader offer To order this book and claim a 20 per cent discount on the RRP please call 01752 202301 quoting code TSAL01. Valid until 31 December 2014. InTuition
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www.ifl.ac.uk
Forum
A space for members to air their opinions. They do not necessarily reflect the views of IfL or the Education and Training Foundation
Pedagogue Are U-turns the way forward? When I wandered out of school for the last time at the age of 14 years and 49 weeks (best not to ask) pondering what a waste of nearly 10 years of my life it had been, my thoughts turned to: ‘What the heck am I going to do now?’ With the wisdom of age I know that if some politician had decreed I would have to do a U-turn and walk straight back in because my literacy and numeracy were not up to scratch I would have never followed a meaningful vocational path
that had led me to where I am now. I was therefore thrilled to see the U-turn that made the GCSE an end requirement of Trailblazer Apprenticeships, not an entry specification. Our sector’s teachers have a proud history of welcoming all, nurturing and changing lives. The political will needs to focus on knocking down barriers to education not putting more in place and maybe this is just a tiny hint that somebody has knocked some heads together in Whitehall. My turning point came when I walked
into the local technical college. Tristram Hunt has announced that a Labour government would introduce Institutes of Technical Education; sometimes the wheel turns very slowly. My college didn’t have a flashy glass-fronted reception, landscaped gardens or mission statements all over the walls. What it did have was a magnificent group of dedicated, inspirational teachers working in leaky prefabricated huts with broken windows. Forget the window dressing; concentrate on what really matters – people! Pedagogue is an IfL member
Strictly online
SHUTTERSTOCK
On 28 September, The Guardian published an article by Professor Sa’ad Medhat, chief executive of NEF: The Innovation Institute. Professor Medhat wrote that many FE courses fail to meet industry expectations and teachers often lack industry exposure. Here are some of the comments it attracted*.
Teachers running schools? Surely, only in America The teacher-led school movement in the United States is tiny, but interest is growing as job satisfaction slumps among teachers. Figures suggest that fewer than two out of five teachers in the US would say they are ‘very satisfied’ in the job (I know, that many eh? Only joking) with many blaming their dissatisfaction on changes in their working practices as a result of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. The act increased the amount of testing and measurement of results across public schooling (sounds familiar). But a few dozen schools are fighting back by putting teachers in charge and, in some cases, doing away with the role of principal, so that all important decisions relating to teaching and learning, the hiring of staff, budgeting and so on are taken after discussion and voting among the teachers. It works wonders for job satisfaction and it seems to work for the students too. But honestly, what are they thinking? Before they know it, teachers will be trusted as professionals and left to get on with the job of educating. Surely, it’s only a matter of time before the movement spreads over here and into further education and training. America has given us many good things over the years (most modern music genres, the word ‘OK’, Modern Family…) but teachers actually in charge of teaching and learning? Hmm, wouldn’t that be something? Submitted by Ivana Payrise (not her real name)
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MikeMP Unlike countries with a flourishing technical education sector, decision-making in Britain is flooded by those who have gone through the least industry-aware parts of the university system. Alice38 It is no good providing wishy-washy, half-baked pseudo-academic courses for non-academics… we need to train more trades people – joiners, plumbers, plasterers, bricklayers, hairdressers and florists. caedmons After 1992 and the scrapping of national pay and conditions of service, many FE colleges no longer attracted teaching staff with recent, relevant, industrial/commercial experience. Snicket Senior managers are incentivised to put on courses that are the flavour of the month. Hairdressers and plumbers and incentivised to make staff redundant when their funding is cut. lcdoyle Where is the reference to the extensive work being undertaken with employers as part of the apprenticeship reform? I’m not suggesting FE is perfect but it is a very one-dimensional piece. gregmf “It’s no surprise major employers have set up their own training academies.” This is said as if it’s a problem! This is what should happen. For too long they have wanted a free ride from the taxpayer. Thewookieisdown A very good article about a topic that gets little coverage. When you make a service subject to national control and funding, you inevitably impose national funding rules on the system, but those rules make institutions play the system, and create inflexibility. *Comments have been abbreviated. You can read the full article at bit.ly/Prof_Medhat
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NoticeBoard Calendar OCTOBER
23
31
13-15
Association of College’s student support conference (see article below)
IfL closes and its assets and activities transfer to Education and Training Foundation
The Skills Show Association of Colleges including the National annual conference VET Conference (see article below) www.theskillsshow.com
NOVEMBER
18-20
21-22
24
3
3
Learning in a Changing World conference at Institute for Education www.ioe.ac.uk/ newsEvents/86864. html
Inclusive Assessment in Practice Conference, Plymouth University. Details at bit.ly/1rxG32g
Association of Colleges SEND conference (see article below)
Government issues its autumn statement
28
9-10
19 – 21
Association of Colleges teaching, learning and assessment conference (see article below)
JISC Digital Conference (see below)
The Education Show, NEC Birmingham
JANUARY
Register for the AoC annual conference The AoC’s annual conference and exhibition will be held at the ICC Birmingham from 18 to 20 November. Keynote speakers include shadow education secretary Tristram Hunt and the conference will also see the awarding of Student of the Year. Registration closes at 5pm on 13 November. To register go to http:// aocconference2014.co.uk/ register-now
Find solutions at the Jisc Digital Festival The second annual Jisc Digital Festival will be held on 9 and 10 March 2015. It promises the opportunity to discuss practical solutions and ideas to improve teaching and learning through technology. For details go to www.jisc. ac.uk/events/jisc-digitalfestival-2015-09-mar-2015
Sudent support Career guidance, financial support, learner engagement and special educational needs
DECEMBER
MARCH
and learners. For more details visit www.aelpevents. org.uk/ehome/index. php?eventid=99562&
CONTACT DETAILS IfL closes on 31 October and members who have renewed their membership until 31 March 2015 will become part of the Education and Training Foundation’s professional membership and will continue to receive access to continuing professional development opportunities and benefits.
Conference on teaching, learning and assessment Teachers and trainers are among further education staff invited to attend the Association of College’s Teaching, Learning and Assessment Conference in London on 28 January, 2015. The conference aims to explore the new techniques and tools available to enhance learning as well as to help delegates share good practice. For details please visit www.aoc-create.co.uk/event/ tla2015/#overview
For all membership inquiries contact: practitioners@ etfoundation.co.uk or call the Freephone number 0800 093 9111 and disabilities are some of the areas that will be discussed at the Association of College’s student support conference in London on 23 October, 2014. For more information and to register visit www.aoccreate.co.uk/event/student support2014/#overview
Free seminars and workshops for governors Free seminars and workshops to support new and existing further education governors and clerks in their roles are being run across the country over the coming months. A list of events, run by the Association of Colleges and funded by the Education and
Training Foundation, and booking information can be found by going to www.aoc. co.uk/term/governance For access to a series of governance-related webinars go to www.aoc.co.uk/ funding-and-corporateservices/governance/ governance-library/ webinar-programme
SEND conference
Digital marketing workshop The Association of Employment and Learning Providers is running a workshop on 2 December in Swindon. It will look at the range of free digital marketing tools that can be used to engage employers
This AOC conference will look at the implications of the Children and Families Act for teachers working with learners with learning difficulties and/or disabilities. It will be held in London on 3 December. For details go to www.aoc-create.co.uk/event/ aocsen2014/#overview
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Thank you to all our members As the first professional body for teachers and trainers in FE and skills, IfL has achieved a great deal and has had a positive impact on the professional status of practitioners, thanks to your contribution.
Dr Jean Kelly
Thank you to all our members for your support over the last
Chief Executive
12 years. We hope that with your continued support the IfL legacy will continue, through the Education and Training Foundation, to have a positive impact for practitioners, and for teaching and learning, for many years to come.
Farewell and best wishes Elaine Battson
The IfL staff team - October, 2014
Director of Finance
Marie Ashton
Brian Bastiampillai
Michelle Charles
Shane Chowen
Head of Marketing and Communications
Data and Information Co-ordinator
Marketing and Communications Co-ordinator
Policy Officer (Communications and Research)
Sue Colquhoun
Rachel Cooke
Lucy Davies
Grace Gomez
Head of Professional Status and Recognition
Policy Officer (Performance and Planning)
Head of Membership and Information
Membership Services Co-ordinator
Jan Leatherland
Angela Norman
Stephen Rich
Stephanie Wray
CPD Programme Manager
Finance Services Co-ordinator
CPD Programme Co-ordinator
Executive Team PA
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