InTuition, issue 22

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InTuition Issue 22 | Winter 2015

The journal for professional teachers and trainers in the further education and training sector

Building the future

The Skills Show captivates students with its training opportunities News p4

Welcoming your feedback on this edition – see page 3

Do dual professionals need another string to their bow?

Feature p12

Bloomsbury deal gives SET members access to world-class research Reaearch p16

SEND reforms: a look at provision one year on InSight p24

Better late than never: my conversion to diagnostic questioning Geoff Petty p30

Supporting you to deliver maths and English

Some of the support we have developed so far includes: • Exhibition sites for maths and English, which include a range of tools and resources, on our Excellence Gateway site – www.excellencegateway.org.uk • A free self-evaluation tool to identify current maths skills and teaching approaches, with a similar tool for English coming later this year.

• Strategic approaches include training for governors and senior leaders; a ‘Health Check’ and Strategic Guides.

• Maths and English Pipelines, to support teachers and trainers in a range of settings to help drive up the standards of teaching and learning in maths and English from entry levels to GCSE and beyond.

• Online modules for improving personal maths and English skills and teaching approaches including Level 5 modules.

Find out more by looking for maths, and/or English, in the A-Z on our website www.etfoundation.co.uk

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Welcome ‘For the sector, by the sector’ is our ethos

Give us your feedback on our latest issue For more information, visit set.et-foundation.co.uk Or follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter

Contents

As the end of the calendar year approaches, members and colleagues will be taking stock of their achievements over the past 12 months and, no doubt, some of the challenges that have been faced.

It’s been just over a year since we inherited the IfL’s legacy membership body, and about seven months since we relaunched as the Society for Education and Training (SET). I am delighted with the progress we’ve made in supporting our members during this time.

One of the Society’s most rewarding activities is to confer Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills status. And I’m pleased to report that member demand for QTLS has rarely been higher, as our recent impact study reveals (see news p4).

Our members are at the heart of everything we do – from governance to delivery – and it is only by listening to you that we can continue to improve and offer the support and resources you want – where, when and how you want them delivered.

Membership is growing, with more than 13,000 practitioners and staff across the sector having joined or rejoined SET since March.

I believe much of this is down to the quality and targeted nature of the support we offer – much of it jointly with the Education and Training Foundation and our sector partners.

Whether it is through our new CPD workshops – look out for more of these in the New Year (see p35) – or our website, through which members have access to growing amounts of information, webinars and research content, increasing numbers of practitioners are engaging with and helping to support their professional Society.

More than 300 members are signed up to our online communities and we hope many more will join in the coming year, making this a powerful, sector-owned, self-sustaining professional network. For the sector, by the sector, has become something of a mantra for all working in FE and the Society embraces that ethos wholeheartedly.

The coming months will be busy as, with your continued support, we deliver more support, resources, events, opportunities and benefit to you and your career. In the meantime, from me, the Society and QTLS team and all at InTuition, we wish you a happy and restful festive season. If you have any feedback on this edition, please email member.communications@etfoundation.co.uk

Tim Weiss Director of strategy, quality and research

InTuition contacts EDITORIAL member.communications@ etfoundation.co.uk The Society for Education and Training, 157-197 Buckingham Palace Road, London SW1W 9SP. Editor: Alan Thomson alan@createpublishing.uk.com PUBLISHING InTuition is produced and published on behalf of The Society for Education and Training by Create Publishing Ltd, Anerley Business Centre, Anerley Road, London SE20 8BD Printed by: PCP Ltd, Telford Advertising: Alan Thomson 020 8676 5608

SUBSCRIPTIONS InTuition is sent to all members of The Society for Education and Training and is available on subscription to non-members.

For non-member subscriptions enquiries, or to purchase single copies telephone 0844 815 3202 or email member.communications@ etfoundation.co.uk. Annual subscription rate for four issues: £50 (UK); £60 (rest of the world).

CORPORATE The Society for Education and Training is the membership service of The Education and Training Foundation. The Foundation is a registered charity (charity number 1153859) and a company limited by guarantee (company number 08540597). www.et-foundation.co.uk The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the Education and Training Foundation, the Society for Education and Training or members of the editorial board.

News 4 Your views on the QTLS process Area Reviews: help is at hand Skills Show displays ‘wow’ factor News 6 Ear to the Ground Policy watch News in brief Opinion 8 Shakira Martin Lee Weatherly People 10 Professor Gert Biesta Jerry Nightingale Feature 12 Alan Thomson reports on our professional identity Practitioners 15 Me and my tutor: Josh Ellis Research 16 Lawrence Nixon introduces a research exclusive Samantha Broadhead Michael Smith, Paul Roberts and Agnieszka Malisz Research digest 20 Scaling learner performance InPractice 22 Redbridge College Apprenticeships InSight 24 SEND reforms Assistive technology Leading learning 26 FE’s competitive spirit Citizen Maths Resources 29 A wealth of CPD resources is now online Geoff Petty 30 Geoff discovers ‘the genius of diagnostic questioning’ Books 32 What if everything you knew about education was wrong?

Teaching in Further Education: The Inside Story Forum 34 Pedagogue My Story Strictly Online Noticeboard 35 Round-up of the professional development events coming up in January and February

InTuition Issue 22 | Winter 2015 3

News

News Your views on the QTLS process Impact survey reveals eight out 10 practitioners feel QTLS has improved their teaching and the Society is looking to make the process even better

By Tricia Odell

Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills (QTLS) continues to be popular our members, with around 1,500 practitioners achieving this status yearly and a record 1,600 registrations this September and October.

Earlier in the year we conducted an impact study to find out what practitioners and key stakeholders considered to be the strengths of professional formation, as well as how it could be developed in the future.

We were delighted to find 80 per cent of practitioners who had recently achieved QTLS considered the process had improved their teaching practice and 84 per cent felt the process had increased their confidence in their practice.

Practitioners also told us there was still room for improvement and half of applicants felt they

needed more support throughout the process, for example through observations and feedback.

In response, we launched a QTLS forum (see link, below), an online discussion area for members who are undertaking professional formation. We are also planning the development of an introductory online mentoring programme that will be free to supporters.

Taking action Others thought that the Society for Education and Training needed to increase awareness among employers about the benefits of QTLS and its parity with Qualified Teacher Status (QTS), particularly in schools .

We have begun to address this with new guidance for head teachers on our website.

Around 30 per cent of applicants told us they had

difficulty using Reflect, so we are currently undertaking a technical review of Reflect to identify the how we can address this.

Some applicants thought there should be more explicit references to the 2014 professional standards and so from September, the updated online workbook provides opportunities for practitioners to show how they are developing their skills and knowledge with respect to these standards.

Some members told us that our website guidance for potential applicants could be clearer. We have clarified the eligibility criteria and the revised criteria are applicable to those registering for professional formation from 1 December.

Everyone who completes professional formation is invited to complete an online survey, to inform future developments.

Members are also invited to blog about their experiences, for example Anzoumana Gbane’s recent account of his professional formation.

We have also completed the second consultation phase with SET Fellows, professional formation reviewers and moderators, as well as key stakeholders, to inform the second phase of enhancements that will be introduced from winter 2015/16. Keep an eye on the SET website for further news.

We will also publish case studies from the Foundation’s Premium Graduates who are undertaking professional formation which will illustrate the benefit of mentoring.

Following a recent visit to the University of Derby, we are also launching some YouTube clips featuring teachers with QTLS talking about the benefits that

Skills Show displays the ‘wow’ factor Skills showcase events don’t get much bigger than The Skills Show which again proved that further education and training is not only a hugely popular option for young people but also comes with added ‘wow’ factor.

More than 20,000 young people and their teachers, parents and guardians attended the opening day of the show held at Birmingham’s NEC in November. More than 78,000 attended the event overall.

Cars, computer simulations, crime-scene reconstructions, outlandish stage make-up exhibitions and even a military helicopter showcased the vast range of careers opportunities available to young visitors.

One of the highlights was watching more than 670 talented

young people taking part in the finals of 58 WorldSkills UK Skills competitions, with successful entrants later named in Squad UK to train towards selection for WorldSkills Abu Dhabi 2017.

Held every two years, the

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WorldSkills international competition sees around 1,000 young people aged 18 to 25 from around the world compete for medals in more than 40 different skills.

WorldSkills Abu Dhabi takes place 14-19 October, 2017.

Dr Neil Bentley, chief executive of Find a Future, which manages the Skills Show and the UK’s entry into WorldSkills, congratulated squad members, training managers and tutors.

“By competing in the WorldSkills Competition, the UK shares best practice in apprenticeships, FE and skills with countries around the world, raising standards on a global scale,” he said.

Embedding competition in teaching and learning p26

L-R: Visiting judge Niall Morris from Cork Institute of Technology; David Russell, lecturer at Northern Regional College and training manager for the Mechatronics Competition; competitors Samuel Hillier and Tom Revell. The apprentices, from Toyota, were both selected for Squad UK.

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Impact study bit.ly/SET_QTLS_Impact Communities of practice bit.ly/SET_CoP Professional standards bit.ly/ETF_Prof_standards Premium Graduates Scheme bit.ly/ETF_Premium_grad_ scheme Anzoumana Gbane’s QTLS blog bit.ly/SET_AG_QTLS gaining this status has had on their careers.

Tricia Odell is programme manager, QTLS, for the Society for Education and Training set.et-foundation. co.uk/professionalism/ communities

Next opportunity to register for QTLS If you are interested in registering for QTLS, don’t forget that the next registration window opens on 1 December and closes on 29 January.

Area Reviews: help is at hand The Education and Training Foundation is offering a wide range of support to further education leaders and practitioners throughout the Area Review process.

The reviews, part of a major process of reform for further education and skills training aimed at raising productivity and economic growth, present practical and educational challenges to FE and training providers and their staff.

Reviews are expected to recommend a smaller number of larger, more collaborative and more specialised further education provision across England. The reviews will be carried out in waves starting every three months until December 2016. The last reviews are due to complete by March 2017.

The Foundation’s support includes: A National Leadership Summit in February 2016 to gather transferable learning from early wave Area Review participants, prepare for post-AR success, and draw expertise from beyond the sector to help current and aspiring leaders in their decision-making and personal development.

Our Excellence in Leadership Management and Governance prospectus at www.elmag.org.uk/index.php provides multiple continuing professional development opportunities for leaders and senior staff to strengthen knowledge and skill in key areas relevant to Area Reviews

and transformational change.

Earlier this year, the Foundation commissioned two projects to support education and training sector leaders as they develop new ways of working. The project reports are available, with a summary of learning from both projects, at: www.etfoundation.co.uk/ areareviews The Governance Development Programme to support stronger leadership and governance is delivered in partnership with the Association of Colleges. www.etfoundation. co.uk/supporting/ supportgovernors www.aoc.co.uk/term/ governance A standardised data dashboard, with benchmarks relating to area, type of provider and national averages, will be produced for all colleges subject to an Area Review within 10 days of the provider submitting and signing off their staff individualised record (SIR) data. Each college will also receive a report on the economic impact of higher education in FE for all colleges with higher education provision.

Support for practitioners, leaders and governors in technology for learning including curriculum re-design and individual practitioner support with embedding technology in the classroom.

You can find new resources at: lfutures.co.uk Research on teaching practice and the impact of mergers or other changes

on leadership and teaching standards/activity. This work will be shared across the sector both through publication and dissemination at events in the coming year.

Support for wider stakeholders (local enterprise partnerships, local authorities and employers) to aid in understanding the workforce, organisational data and broader educational matters on a bespoke basis. This includes continuing collaboration with the National Union of Students.

The new Future Apprenticeships programme will show how to grow successful apprenticeship delivery, and what systems, processes or resources may need to be in place.

Effective peer support networks for practitioners.

Covering: outstanding teaching learning and assessment programmes; new professional exchanges for teaching and middle management staff; promotion of the Professional Standards.

The Society for Education and Training is working with its 13,000+ members to further build resilience for teaching staff, and to share effective practice amongst peers.

During the later phases of the Reviews and leading to implementation, the Foundation will share resources and guidance on sector-wide benchmarking of quality and efficiencies, working with partners such as the AoC; and we will develop guidance and support on local outcome agreements.

InTuition Issue 22 | Winter 2015 5

Views & News

Views Ear to the ground Claire Mitchell Feeding back on our first wave of CPD events November has been a whirl of activity for the Society for Education and Training team, having now run our first five continuing professional development (CPD) events.

My personal highlight has been meeting our members and hearing about their work: everyone from industry-based trainers in aviation to tutors working in adult and community settings.

I wanted to share a couple of takeaways with you: the Professional Standards sessions stimulated lively discussion of shared experience, values and the importance of aspiration for learners and the professionals who work with them.

My top IT bite was having the mystery of QR codes solved for me by Tim Strickland, chief executive of FE Sussex, at our event in Crawley. Using these as part of a flipped learning approach is an excellent way for learners to access pre-session materials easily via YouTube or teacher-generated videos.

While the particular examples we saw dealt with health and safety for agricultural

equipment, the methodology could equally be applied in other areas. Perhaps this could be something for development at future SET events?

We are now planning our next set of exclusive CPD events for members.

These will be held during February and March 2016. Events will be held in

Nottingham, Manchester, London, Bristol and Sunderland.

The themes for the next series will focus on supporting our members in their work delivering apprenticeships and specifically transitioning to the new apprenticeship standards. The events will also cover embedding English and maths for all practitioners with a particular reference to apprenticeship delivery.

Looking further ahead to the summer, members have told us that being able to support learners with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) is of interest.

Members are also interested in being able to manage challenging behaviour in order to enhance their learning environment.

Further details about the programme and location of these events will be available in spring 2016. We look forward to meeting members at our future events.

Claire Mitchell is head of new business for programmes and services at the Education and Training Foundation

Policy watch Shane Chowen It could have been worse: the verdict on the spending review The sector breathed a sigh of relief on 25 November when the chancellor of the exchequer delivered the spending review that many expected would decimate publicly funded adult learning.

Thanks, at least in part, to the lobbying efforts of sector practitioners and leaders, Mr Osborne instead announced cash-terms protection for adult skills budgets for the rest of the parliament. In detail, this means £1.5 billion for adult skills per year until 2020.

While this is welcome, colleges and providers must still find savings and efficiencies as costs like pensions and national insurance increase.

The government has also committed to efficiencies and savings in sector, worth £360 million, from ‘non-participation’ budgets and cited the UK Commission for Employment and Skills as an example.

Another major announcement, although less unexpected, was the expansion of student loans in further education. We’ve had loans for learners to cover tuition costs for those aged 24 and over for level 3 and 4 courses for two years now and they haven’t been a resounding success.

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Now these loans will be available for learners aged 19+, and for level 3 to 6 courses, more and different learning opportunities will need to be offered.

Funding for 16-19 year-olds will enjoy some protection over the parliament, but the government has only committed to maintaining the ‘base rate’ of 16-19 funding and this is only one of five elements of the funding formula that can be changed.

There was even better news, some might argue, for sixth form colleges, as the chancellor has announced that

they will soon be able to convert to academy status to avoid a loop-hole in the law that requires them to pay VAT on certain transactions.

There are question marks around whether or not this will, or should, exempt sixth form colleges from the post-16 area reviews, but potential savings of an average of £330,000 a year might be too hard to resist.

And, finally, following a consultation over the summer, the chancellor was able to reveal more detail about the proposed employers’ apprenticeship levy. From April 2017, companies with a pay bill of more than £3 million will pay a new tax at 0.5 per cent of their payroll costs to fund apprenticeships.

The government expects to raise £3 billion a year by 2019, which will be double what is spent currently on apprenticeships. Companies will be issued with a digital voucher with which they can purchase training for apprentices at a greater value than they have paid in the levy.

Shane Chowen is head of policy and public affairs at NIACE

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News in brief Functional Skills The Education and Training Foundation has begun work on the biggest reform of maths, English and IT functional skills in a generation.

Following the Foundationcommissioned report Making Maths and English Work for All, the government tasked the Foundation with reforming functional skills (FS) to deliver a more robust qualification that is valued by learners and better aligned with employers’ needs.

Additionally, the reform programme aims to: improve attendance in maths and English learning; raise maths and English standards for work and life; improve FS completion rates; improve and expand the use of IT in FS teaching to reflect work and everyday life; and support 1619 year-olds’ progress to GCSE. The review’s first phase will involve a wide-ranging consultation resulting in a report by the end of August 2016. There will be opportunities for SET members to be involved in the Functional Skills consultation.

If you are interested in being involved, keep an eye out for further details on the SET website and in your monthly e-newsletter, InTuition extra.

Beacon awards Congratulations to colleges across England rewarded for their outstanding provision in the 2015 Beacon Awards.

Thirteen colleges were presented with awards at the Association of Colleges’ (AOC) conference in Birmingham in November.

The winners were: Exeter College, OCR Award for Innovation in FE; Weston College, CoLRiC Award for the Effective Integration of Libraries/LRCs in Curriculum Delivery; Rotherham College of Arts and Technology, Edge Award for Practical Teaching and Practical Learning; South Eastern Regional College, Jisc Award for the

Effective Use of Technology in FE; Leicester College, Microlink and Charitable Trust Award for Students with Learning Difficulties and/ or Disabilities; Bridgwater College, VTCT Award for Sport in the Curriculum; City of Wolverhampton College, Association of Colleges Award for Outstanding Leadership of Improvement; Reading College, City & Guilds Award for Staff Development; Abingdon and Witney College, AQA Award for the Development of Transferable Skills; City of Wolverhampton College, Association of Colleges Award for College Engagement with Employers; Barking and Dagenham College, Gateway Qualifications Award for Widening Participation in Learning; City College Plymouth, Pearson Award for the Promotion and Delivery of Successful Apprenticeships; Weston College, UCAS Progress Award for Careers Education and Guidance.

FETL Fellows’ research A series of reports on leadership in further education and training are now available free online.

The reports were produced as part of the Further Education Trust for Leadership’s inaugural fellowship programme and examine a range of issues including: fostering a creative culture; risk types and attitudes in sixth form college leaders; the challenges of leadership in third sector learning and skills providers.

Fellows were drawn from a range of different providers. The 2016 FETL fellowship process is underway already.

Reports are available at: www.fetl.org.uk/blog/the2015-fetl-fellows-research Outstanding teaching Well done to staff at Central College Nottingham and

Employer Academies have been set up by Derby College

apprenticeship interview with the companies at the end of their course.

They are: Atlas Building and Groundworks Academy; Cricket Derbyshire Hospitality Academy; Cricket Derbyshire Sports Academy; Derby Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust; Derby Telegraph Media Sales Academy; epm:technology Advanced Composites Academy; Hodgkinson Brickwork Academy; Huub Marketing and Product Development Academy; iBox Web and Programme Development Academy; The Finesse Collection Professional Cookery Academy; risual Microsoft Academy; and MBS Construction Skills Academy.

Burton and South Derbyshire College (BSDC) which have received awards for their outstanding teaching.

As part of an ongoing project involving colleges and training providers across the East Midlands, the colleges earned Outstanding Teaching, Learning and Assessment (OTLA) Awards funded by the Education and Training Foundation and delivered in partnership by FE support charity emfec.

There were three regional OTLA projects aimed at supporting providers in improving teaching and learning through collaboration and shared approaches.

Other recipients of OTLA Awards are: Bromley College; ELATT Connected Learning; Lambeth Adult Learning Services; Derbyshire Adult Community Education Service (DACES); Lincoln College, Kent Association of Training Organisations; Thurrock Adult Community College and Profile Development and Training.

Employer academies Twelve academies aimed at producing work-ready youngsters and addressing skills shortages in key industries in Derby have been launched.

The Employer Academies have been set up by Derby College in partnership with employers. All academy members will be offered a job or

Learning and Work Institute Lifelong learning champion NIACE has approved a merger with the Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion and will become the Learning and Work Institute on 1 January 2016.

The new institute will campaign and produce research on ways to achieve a fairer society in which learning and work helps people realise their ambitions and potential throughout life.

NIACE was founded in 1921 as the British Institute of Adult Education.

Read NIACE’s 2014-15 Impact Report at bit.ly/1ksV4C4

InTuition Issue 22 | Winter 2015 7

Views

Opinion Review is nothing to celebrate

George Osborne’s spending review announcement for further education came as a surprise to many – having been braced for cuts of up to 40 per cent, the 17 per cent cut almost makes it seem like the government has done us a favour.

For me, this is nothing to celebrate. This further cut shows the lack of respect and understanding that the government has for the sector, its students and its staff, particularly in adult education and skills.

It is vitally important we don’t become complacent as a sector and that we continue to make the case for more money to be put into adult education, training and FE. People should have the opportunity to learn and train throughout their lives, and the resources should be in place to support them into higher education or employment.

The extension of learner loans to those aged 19 and over appears to provide better access to education. But it shifts responsibility for funding onto the shoulders of second-chance learners and normalises debt for young people and many underprivileged and marginalised groups such as women, black and minority ethnic students, parents, carers, disabled people and LGBT. There was also a missed opportunity to invest in more effective and impactful information, advice and guidance (IAG) that highlights the opportunities available in our FE and training sectors, including the five new national colleges specialising in digital skills, high speed rail, nuclear power, onshore gas and oil and creative industries.

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NUS

While the spending review’s lack of bite took many by surprise, Shakira Martin insists that the sector has to continue the fight for greater investment

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The Treasury has announced that there will be a £360m saving from support budgets for 19+ learners. And with the Area Reviews underway across FE we can assume the government wants to see further savings on staffing costs: in teaching and support services, and due to a squeeze on services and course delivery, including potential campus closures.

Allowing sixth form colleges to become academies should have a positive financial impact as they will no longer have to pay VAT, which swallows a large chunk of money that could be spent in the classroom.

Mr Osborne mentioned three million new apprenticeships by 2019-20 and, while this wasn’t news, NUS welcomes the expansion of provision, even if three million seems like a rather large and arbitrary number.

To reach their target, businesses and organisations will need to create 1,500 new apprentice places every day. We need to make sure that quality and access are at the heart of all apprentice provision, with adequate time spent learning both on and off the job. Colleges should play a major role in apprentice delivery and apprentices should be able to access financial support.

The proposed apprenticeship levy will be set at 0.5 per cent for large businesses.

This should raise around £3 billion a year to support organisations to take on more apprentices with big businesses footing the bill for training costs.

Currently, the majority of apprentice places go to the over-25s, with businesses using government money to train staff on poverty apprentice wages rather than creating the opportunities for young people in industry that are sorely needed.

We propose that organisations employing apprentices should use some of the funds they are allocated through the apprentice levy to top up the apprentice minimum wage of £3.30 an hour to the national minimum wage so these apprentices can cover their basic living costs.

As the skills minister Nick Boles MP said at the Association of Colleges conference in November, an apprenticeship is basically a job. NUS couldn’t agree more, and that’s why we think they should be paid properly.

Shakira Martin is NUS Vice President Further Education and a member of the Education and Training Foundation’s board of trustees.

Listen to business on qualifications The ‘shifting sands’ of government policy have led to a focus on funding outcomes rather than the needs of employers and employees, argues Lee Weatherly The purpose and focus of education and training providers changes with the shifting sands of government policy. Yet the one constant is that education and training ought to meet the needs of employers and their employees. Irrespective of government machinations, employers always need trained, capable people to grow their businesses and increase profitability.

Too often, providers have focused on delivering qualifications and shoe-horning every opportunity into the most likely qualification framework. Rigid systems emerge where learners are effectively processed to achieve funding outcomes.

Employers often comment that providers sell them qualification outcomes. However, few, if any, jobs exist that are wholly related to a notional educational level. People’s employment evolves constantly and most employees carry out a range of roles and duties at different levels.

Successful employers are on a continuous journey to stretch employee capabilities and capacity to reduce costs, increase productivity, innovate and introduce new ways of working, including new advanced technology.

But the high levels of performance required by industry to compete are not always reflected by equivalent levels of delivery by the education and training system. This can leave the learner facing a journey in which the destination is moving away from them faster than the speed they are travelling.

One of the biggest issues is that government initiatives tend to drive high-volume education and training solutions that encourage providers to deliver generalist outcomes. The system leads to a cost-driven strategy and a race to the lowest price point for education and training. Employers, however, often need to differentiate themselves from the competition by providing specialist and premium solutions which often generate

very particular skill needs.

The good news is that the evidence suggests that employers will pay for education and training which meets their strategic business requirements and improves their business performance.

It is questionable, however, whether generalist level 2 qualifications have much alignment with the needs of many specialist employers. Employers are unlikely to pay for them meaning, surely, that the state must continue to foot that particular bill.

To meet the demand for high level specialist education and training, providers must align their brand, ethos and capacities with the specialisation agenda. This may result in a growth in the number of national, specialist providers and greater specialisation generally across further education and training.

The on-going Area Reviews may lead to fewer generalist providers and more specialist provision. The current apprenticeship reforms also seek to give employers more say in the design of apprenticeship standards which suggests many providers will have to offer more bespoke provision than they have to date.

But this is only half the story. Providers have a critical role to play in enabling employers to make sense of education and training by acting as technical translators who can turn business strategies and goals into education, training and assessment solutions.

The decision facing providers is whether they continue down the path of trying to sell unitised qualifications to employers, or whether they develop closer partnerships with employers to offer innovative, deliverable and rapidly evolving solutions.

We needn’t abandon our current qualifications. But, as a sector, we must start from the employer’s strategic business need and not the qualification.

Lee Weatherly is CEO at Midland Group Training Services

InTuition Issue 22 | Winter 2015 9

People

The trouble with good intentions…

Just what is it that elicits such criticism from some quarters towards Professor Gert Biesta’s views? He is, after all, a charming and instantly likeable individual with the calm assuredness of a man who appears quietly confident that he has got it right.

As professor of education at Brunel University, Biesta’s work focuses on the theory and philosophy of education. He places the teacher at the heart of education and mourns the “disappearance of teaching” in the face of a seemingly slavish adherence to a learner-centred approach. He believes both have a part to play.

I ask Biesta why he thinks he polarises opinion among teachers and academics: a hostility all the more puzzling when you consider that one of his central ideas is the revival of the role of the teacher as, well, a teacher.

Biesta looks perplexed.

“I am surprised by some of the negative reactions. Some people see the idea of the teacher as a facilitator as a progressive position. But it is not as progressive as it looks. It’s not that simple,” he says.

However, he does acknowledge that some perceive his approach to be, in his words, “a conservative ideal”. They see his stance as backward-looking, autocratic and didactic (a ‘dirty word’ in education).

Biesta believes the word ‘progressive’ is a big part of the problem and that it hampers teachers’ ability to reflect on their practice.

“The teacher as facilitator comes out of good ideas and good intentions of putting students at the centre. This is not always a good idea when we need to challenge our students,” he says.

He suggests that in our efforts to develop a student-centred learning, “we have gone to the other extreme”.

The teacher’s ability to draw on their knowledge, training and experience and reflect on their practice has, as Biesta puts it, “been talked down by policy makers and agenda setters”.

“Measurable learning outcomes undervalue the complexity of the work of the teacher,” he says. “Education has to 10 Issue 22 | Winter 2015 InTuition

work across three domains of purpose.”

The domains of purpose he refers to are ‘qualification’ (knowledge and skills), ‘socialisation’ (traditions and practices) and ‘subjectification’ (the formation of the person). The space for teacher judgement when it comes to addressing these domains is, he argues, being threatened by recent developments in educational policy.

Political interference in the classroom and the marginalisation of a teacher’s autonomy and decision making are twin issues that Biesta is keen to address.

“It may be nice to say to a student ‘I’m here to help you’ and see that as being progressive but it is not liberating,” he says.

“If it’s only about giving the students what they want, how can we expect to challenge them intellectually? We need to make sure they encounter things that they would not encounter themselves. We need to ask them: ‘Have you thought about this?’

This is progressive.”

He also criticises what he describes as the compulsion of some to make education ‘entertaining’.

“Sometimes there is a place for that,” he admits, “but what it is not doing is challenging them.”

He also condemns what he calls the

Biesta’s key ideas • Education should not be a risk-averse interaction.

• The move in education to make teachers mere facilitators of learning fails to make a clear distinction between “learning from” and “being taught by”.

• Students need to be recast so as not to be seen as a consumer.

• The language of learning has become politicised and has led to learning being forced upon individuals.

• An evidence-based education focuses too much on facts.

Joke Biesta-Krulder

To some, Professor Gert Biesta represents a regressive strand of thinking in education. To others, he champions teachers in the face of political interference. Peter Rook asks the professor what all the fuss is about

“pseudo-discussion around the short attention span of learners”, which leads to practitioners playing safe because “they encounter resistance” when other methods are adopted.

Biesta says he was sceptical of the “movement towards the student as a customer” and the idea of schools and colleges becoming like “shops serving what their customers want” rather than what they need.

He believes he is “giving a language” to a type of approach which runs contrary to the language of ‘facilitating learning’ and ‘learning environments’.

I suggest that part of the antipathy to his approach could be that the teacher as a facilitator role can make lesson preparation a little less stressful.

Biesta replies simply: “It is harder work for the teacher.”

And perhaps it is harder to prepare a lesson in which we, as the teachers, impart knowledge to students rather than acting as ‘facilitator’ for their learning – although Biesta’s response may be of little comfort to hard-pressed teachers.

Yet, if one focuses on Biesta’s stance against political meddling in education, then surely the teaching community has a powerful ally in its struggle with bureaucracy.

Peter Rook is a freelance journalist and journalism lecturer at University Centre Peterborough, part of Peterborough Regional College

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Cinderella shines at the ball Jerry Nightingale may claim to work in ‘further education’s poor second cousin’, but offender learning was thrust firmly into the spotlight when he picked up a Gold Pearson Teaching Award that made him FE Lecturer of the Year. Alan Thomson reports Jerry says that three quarters of Channings Wood’s inmates are educated to level 1 or below. Nationally, only 53 per cent of the prison population has any qualifications at all. At the same time, almost half of all offenders reoffend within a year of release, rising to two thirds of under 18s.

“Essentially, this is about trying to get the guys back on the straight and narrow,” Jerry says.

“I’ve worked out that if something I do helps one guy stay out of the criminal justice system for just one year after his release then that pays for my wages and all the course certification fees, resources, bike spares and equipment for 18 months.

“Education and training is essential in reducing reoffending and colleagues in the Offenders’ Learning and Skills Service are striving for this up and down the country, day in day out.”

Jerry is the first to admit that teaching in a secure environment has its challenges, due mainly to the overriding security requirements.

“If I want to use something in the classroom – perhaps a resource I’ve downloaded to disk – it has to be security vetted and that takes time,” he says.

“But you work within those constraints.

I try to be fluid as a teacher, ensuring I teach in a way that suits each learner.

“You have to be able to judge people: to get into their head to be able to understand what will help them understand and switch them on to learning.

“If something doesn’t work you instantly have to be able to present it in three different ways. You need to be able to seize every opportunity in the classroom.

“And, with all due respect to my colleagues, you don’t get normal sorts of people teaching in offender learning.”

Jerry has certainly earned the respect of his colleagues and learners alike.

Pearson judges spent a day at Channings Wood speaking to a number of Jerry’s students and colleagues before observing one of his lessons.

“The award is lovely and no one can take that away from me,” Jerry says.

“But what was really humbling was having a judge come to me afterwards nearly in tears and tell me some of the amazing things my guys said about me. Even ones I had to put on report!”

Alan Thomson is editor of InTuition

Pearson

If further education is education’s Cinderella sector, then offender learning is FE’s poor second cousin, says Jerry Nightingale.

Not that you would ever cast Jerry as anyone’s poor relation having recently become the first offender learning teacher to be named FE Lecturer of the Year and receive a Gold Pearson Teaching Award.

“I describe receiving the award as being very pleasantly surreal and humbling,” Jerry says.

“But I don’t do anything differently to anyone else here and I could put six colleagues in my place as an award winner without batting an eyelid.

“We are quietly getting on with things behind fences and bars: taking education’s failures and on a daily basis trying to get them to re-engage.

“I might be loud and happy to tell anyone that cares to listen about the amazing things we do but overall I don’t think many people really know what we do.”

Jerry has taught at HMP Channings Wood, in Devon, for 12 years and currently delivers an EAL Cycle Maintenance level 2 qualification to inmates. Like many FE teachers Jerry previously enjoyed a varied career.

“I spent 10 years driving lorries and before that farming and before that antique and metal repairs – I could go on,” he says.

“But I’ve always had a talent for mechanical things. I was fixing my uncles’ racing bikes when I was a boy – and now I teach eight learners at a time on the six-week courses.

“You’re usually dealing with people whose last experience of education was bad and sometimes horrendous. This course is about getting them back on the first rung of the learning ladder.

“It’s practical but maths and English are embedded in the course. We incorporate help with maths and English into what we’re doing so that it’s presented as simply what people do.

“If you were to offer most of the guys lessons in things like English grammar or trigonometry straight off they’d run a mile.”

InTuition Issue 22 | Winter 2015 11

Illustration: Cameron Law

Feature

Most professionals do not also practise a second profession. Lawyers, for instance, are not often also architects, while engineers usually stick to engineering.

In education, professional identities also tend towards the unitary: school teachers are teachers by profession and are unlikely to also describe themselves as mathematicians, historians or linguists – even when their knowledge and academic qualifications warrant it.

Many university teachers tend to adopt the singular professional meta-tag of academic, while others prefer to anchor their professional identity in their subject so they are economists, mathematicians, scientists and so forth. Few also describe themselves as professional teachers, although there are signs this is changing.

Vocational education is different – and possibly unique – in that professional identity and practice as a qualified teacher, lecturer or trainer in an occupational subject area is dependent upon also being professionally qualified in a trade or profession.

It is, for example, pretty much impossible – and certainly not recommended – to teach people about heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems without also being a professionally qualified HVAC engineer.

Equally, a qualified HVAC engineer does not an FE teacher make.

As the Commission on Adult Vocational Teaching and Learning (CAVTL) said in its 2013 report It’s about work: “The best vocational teachers and learners have dual identities, as occupational specialists and pedagogical experts.”

There is little doubt that further education has embraced dual professionalism in recent years as its core model for professional practice and development.

Practitioners, supported by FE employers and professional bodies like the Society for Education and Training, gain Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills (QTLS) status through professional formation and engage in continuing professional development (CPD) that embraces pedagogic and vocational reflection and updating.

Specific schemes, such as Teach Too, which is delivered by the Association of Employment and Learning Providers and UCL Institute of Education on behalf of the Education and Training Foundation, focus on building education-industry links to help teachers and trainers keep up to speed with the latest developments in industry.

It all fits nicely with the 2014 Professional Standards for Teachers and Trainers in Education and Training, which say: “Teachers and trainers are ‘dual professionals’; they are both subject and/ or vocational specialists and experts in teaching and learning. They are 12 Issue 22 | Winter 2015 InTuition

You’re once, twice, three times a professional Dual professionalism has come to define those teaching in further education. But does the twin-track model do full justice to the complex process of teaching in a diverse and fast-changing sector? Alan Thomson reports

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committed to maintaining and developing their expertise in both aspects of their role to ensure the best outcomes for their learners.”

But while the language of professional practice and development in FE is couched in terms of dual professionalism, it is worth remembering that the standards actually outline a triple or multiple professionalism.

The third section in the standards outlines professional skills which are neither strictly pedagogic nor vocational/subject focused.

They include: ● plan and deliver effective learning programmes for diverse groups or individuals in a safe and inclusive environment; ● promote the benefits of technology and support learners in its use; and ● contribute to organisational development and quality improvement through collaboration with others.

The Professional Standards build upon the former Institute for Learning’s 2009 Guidelines for your CPD, which modelled a tripartite professionalism and carried a third strand called ‘policy and local context’.

This recognised the influence of factors, such as organisational priorities, inspection, policy initiatives and external networks, on the professional practice and development of FE teachers and trainers.

So it seems that, while dual professionalism is the accepted model for FE professional practice and development, underlying it is a broader concept of a triple or multiple professionalism.

Many believe it is time to adopt an expanded model of professionalism in order to fully reflect the professional roles of FE teachers and trainers now and in the future.

Jim Crawley, a senior lecturer in education studies, at Bath Spa University, and author of In at the deep end: a

survival guide for teachers in postcompulsory education, says: “The idea of triple professionalism is now gaining purchase among leading practitioners and researchers.

“In addition to vocational and pedagogic expertise, triple professionalism introduces a third strand which acknowledges the roles of teachers, trainers and managers in the business of further education and training.

“And while ‘business’ may mean working with local employers, it involves far more such as collaborating with local authorities, local enterprise partnerships, social services, housing departments, other FE providers, higher education and schools – the list is long.”

Sue Webster, a lecturer in postcompulsory education at Plymouth University, has researched and written about professional development in the FE sector, specifically in relation InTuition Issue 22 | Winter 2015 13

Feature

to teacher educators.

“There is nothing wrong with the term dual professionalism as long as you do not over simplify it. How you teach is grounded in where you are teaching, what you are teaching and who you are teaching,” says Webster.

“If qualified people from industry join FE they realise they may have to get a teaching qualification, but they may not realise how much of the job is not actually with your learners which can come as a surprise.

“Perhaps the model could be redrawn so that dual professionalism sits within a broader definition of professionalism. It may also be a good time to look again at a code of conduct as part of a wider professionalism.”

Many teachers have no problem with a broader definition of professionalism, often linking it to the need to provide practical support to learners.

Faye Power, a lecturer at Leeds College of Art, says: “My lecturing role feeds directly in to my own creative practice.

Likewise, the knowledge and experiences I gain through producing my own work and doing my MA feeds into my teaching and learners.

“But FE is preparing students for further progression whether that is into employment or HE, so as teachers in this sector we must also be experts in this area, whether that is in making links with HE or with employers.

“My students come to me with questions around work or further study, so it is crucial I have an understanding of the needs and requirements of those other sectors.”

But some in the sector are advising caution in the pursuit of an expanded definition of what constitutes a professional teacher or trainer in FE. Neil Barnes, head of teacher training and development at Colchester Institute, acknowledges the reality of a triple or multiple professionalism in FE, but he is concerned that an overly elastic definition of teaching professionalism risks undermining the core features of dual professionals, namely that they are trained both as teachers and industry or subject experts.

Barnes estimates that a full-time teacher in a mid-sized college currently spends about 40 per cent of their time teaching their subject or vocation. Around 20 per 14 Issue 22 | Winter 2015 InTuition

cent is spent liaising with internal departments, 15 per cent teaching functional skills or group tutorial/ periphery subject and between 15 and 20 per cent on paperwork and administration, work placements, employer liaison and similar activities.

“The shift to expand professionalism is a paradox as, in practice, it can mean expanding your knowledge of peripheral concepts while watering down the time you have to teach your subject specialism for which you were originally hired,” Barnes says.

“I believe there is a risk of detracting from our core business of teaching to the best of our abilities, which is the reason most of us entered the profession. Paperwork and external pressures/influences are also the most cited reason for new and existing teachers leaving the profession.”

CAVTL certainly recognised the need for proper support in developing a robust professionalism in FE teaching, saying: “This ‘dual professionalism’ has long been recognised, but evidence to the commission has shown that it takes time for teachers and trainers to realise their dual identities. Dual professionals are not born, they need support to develop.”

The need to support teachers and trainers in their professional development has surely never been greater as FE undergoes significant refocusing – some would say revalidation – of its priorities, processes and structures in order to align it more closely with employer requirements through apprenticeship growth and the ongoing Area Reviews.

The direction of travel suggests greater collaboration between FE providers and far closer engagement with employers and other local agencies and stakeholders – developments which will require FE staff to engage more often in work that falls into that third strand of professional skills outlined in the 2014 Professional Standards.

Ann Hodgson, professor of postcompulsory education at the UCL Institute of Education and co-director of the Centre for Post-14 Research and Innovation, favours a broader definition of professionalism that better fits a more networked FE sector, something that she and IoE colleague Ken Spours presaged in the work they did around local learning ecologies.

“It was examining dual professionalism in relation to our ideas around local learning ecologies that made us realise that professionals had to work across a number of boundaries,” Hodgson says.

“Triple professionalism is a big ask and initially we were thinking about managers and senior managers. But teachers might want to think about how they work with not only employers in their sector but also about working with local authority housing departments, health and social services.

“I think it is right to say that professional activity relating to a third strand of professionalism should not be seen as interfering with the core aspects of dual professionalism.

“However, triple professionalism is a recognition of the more complex world in which learners and teachers operate. Some may see such activity as outside their role as teachers but many others are already engaging in such professional activities on a regular basis.”

It remains to be seen how the third strand of professionalism evolves and what it encapsulates. It is to be hoped that any expanded professionalism serves to make FE teachers and trainers more effective, innovative and resilient – qualities further education and the profession will surely need in the years ahead.

Alan Thomson is editor of InTuition Pedagogue, page 34

References

CAVTL report: It’s about work bit.ly/1R4pwPK 2014 Professional Standards for Teachers and Trainers in Education and Training - England www.et-foundation. co.uk/supporting/support-practitioners/ professional-standards IfL’s Guidelines for Your Continuing Professional Development bit.ly/1T0oRgJ Exley S & Ovenden-Hope T (2013).

Preparing a Pathway of Professional Development for Teacher Educators in the Lifelong Learning Sector. Teacher Education Advancement Network Journal, 5 (2): 4-18 Hodgson, A., & Spours, K. (2013).

Improving opportunities for 14-19 year olds: building strongly collaborative local learning systems [IOE Research Briefing N°3] Hodgson, A., & Spours, K. (2009).

Collaborative local learning ecologies: reflections on the governance of lifelong learning in England. Leicester: National Institute of Adult Continuing Education

Practitioners

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SET online support sees further growth

istock

Evolving website will go from strength to strength with introduction of customised member dashboard

As membership numbers increase and word spreads about SET’s support for practitioners in the post-16 education and training system, the provision on the SET website continues to develop and grow.

After the re-launch in May this year we have had more than 60,000 users visit the site with more than 700,000 page views and this is increasing steadily week by week.

Users are visiting to find out more about SET membership and professional formation leading to Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills (QTLS), to join and renew their membership and to read online content on our key themes, which so far have covered English and maths and professional standards.

There are also blogs and articles on a range of issues including WorldSkills competitions, functional skills and learning technologies.

The SET website is the place where members can register set.et-foundation.co.uk

for our popular webinars and access on-demand versions of previous webinars. There is also the latest Information about our face-to-face regional continuing professional development (CPD) events and booking details, as well as selected material and resources showcased at the events for those members who were unable to attend in person.

The SET forums, home to our communities of practice, can be accessed via the site and we now have more than 250 members registered. We have recently run a practitioner research Q&A session and the QTLS forum has provided additional support and answers to questions raised in our October QTLS webinar.

Developments, planned for the next few months, include a customised member dashboard for members, a new tool for all members to keep track of their CPD and personal development plans. We will also be offering a range of news feeds via our home page as well as more research content alongside new articles and blogs.

Me&my

tutor

Exeter college apprentice Josh Ellis is a WorldSkills gold medal winner and was the 2015 VQ Day Learner of the Year.

Josh and his tutor Chris Bennett talk about what motivates them Josh: When I started my apprenticeship, I didn’t expect to win any awards. I certainly didn’t expect to win Plumbing World Skills UK. Throughout my apprenticeship at Exeter College, my tutor, Chris, has been a significant part of my success. He has provided constant encouragement and support, pushing me out of my comfort zone to achieve the best results. Chris’s enthusiasm for plumbing has made lessons relaxed and enjoyable while extending my knowledge at the same time.

I have a good relationship with Chris and feel this is important as I have spent a lot of time working with him.

He is approachable, friendly and has a great sense of humour which has meant the other students and I have a brilliant working relationship with him.

Chris: I instil in my learners the need to have a good work ethic, be personable and produce quality work in order to be the best they can be in what is a competitive industry.

Josh is an excellent example of this mindset.

He produces work of a high standard consistently and is hardworking, well-mannered, dedicated and modest.

In short, he is a credit to the industry.

What inspires me as a teacher is knowing I have the opportunity to potentially change a student’s future. I am in the privileged position of being able to pass on my knowledge and experience and equip them with skills for the workplace.

Learning is ongoing in the plumbing industry and I continue to work in industry, as well as attending building sites and manufacturer events, to remain current.

I still see myself as ‘a plumber who teaches’, which the learners appreciate and can relate to, but I also learned a lot from completing my Certificate in Education.

InTuition Issue 22 | Winter 2015 15

Research exclusive

“To be genuinely thoughtful, we must be willing to sustain and protract that state of doubt which is the stimulus to thorough inquiry” John Dewey The twin extracts on these pages are reproduced exclusively for SET members from Readings for Reflective Teaching in Further, Adult and Vocational Education as a taster for further articles in a special research supplement to be enclosed with February’s InTuition.

They are introduced by the University of Sunderland’s Lawrence Nixon, co-editor of the book Lawrence Nixon writes: John Dewey, (1916, 1933) asks teachers to consider the ways in which we think about teaching. He argues that when things don’t go well in the classroom, or when we don’t feel good about what’s happening, we’re forced to think and reflect about what is going on.

Dewey reminds us that our previous experiences are crucial to how we frame the problem and recognise a solution.

Having relevant experience of dealing with similar issues can make it easier to come up with good answers. However, past experience can also encourage us to ‘jump to conclusions’.

When no solution is ready to hand, Dewey warns us that thinking will involve working with uncertainty and being prepared to consider a number of possible solutions…

The writings of John Dewey have been an enormous influence on educational thinking. Indeed, his distinction of ‘routinised’ and ‘reflective’ teaching is fundamental to the conception of professional development through reflection.

The origin of thinking is some perplexity, confusion, or doubt. Thinking is not a case of spontaneous combustion; it does not occur just on ‘general principles’. There is something that occasions and evokes it.

General appeals to a child (or to a grownup) to think, irrespective of the existence in his own experience of some difficulty that troubles him and disturbs his equilibrium, are as futile as advice to lift himself by his boot-straps.

Given a difficulty, the next step is suggestion of some way out – the formation of some tentative plan or project, the entertaining of some theory that will 16 Issue 22 | Winter 2015 InTuition

account for the peculiarities in question, the consideration of some solution for the problem. The data at hand cannot supply the solution; they can only suggest it. What, then, are the sources of the suggestion?

Clearly, past experience and a fund of relevant knowledge at one’s command.

To be genuinely thoughtful, we must be willing to sustain and protract that state of doubt which is the stimulus to thorough inquiry.

If the person has had some acquaintance with similar situations, if he has dealt with material of the same sort before, suggestions more or less apt and helpful will arise. But unless there has been some analogous experience, confusion remains mere confusion. Even when a child (or grown-up) has a problem, it is wholly futile to urge him to ‘think’ when he has no prior experiences that involve some of the same conditions.

● perplexity, confusion, doubt, due to the fact that one is implicated in an incomplete situation whose full character is not yet determined;

There may, however, be a state of perplexity and also previous experience out of which suggestions emerge, and yet thinking need not be reflective. For the person may not be sufficiently critical about the ideas that occur to him. He may jump at a conclusion without weighing the grounds on which it rests; he may forego or unduly shorten the act of hinting, inquiring; he may take the first ‘answer’, or solution, that comes to him because of mental sloth, torpor, impatience to get something settled.

One can think reflectively only when one is willing to endure suspense and to undergo the trouble of searching. To many persons both suspense of judgement and intellectual search are disagreeable; they want to get them ended as soon as possible. They cultivate an over-positive and dogmatic habit of mind, or feel perhaps that a condition of doubt will be regarded as evidence of mental inferiority.

It is at the point where examination and test enter into investigation that the difference between reflective thought and bad thinking comes in.

The general features of a reflective experience are:

● a conjectural anticipation – a tentative interpretation of the given elements, attributing to them a tendency to effect certain consequences; ● a careful survey (examination, inspection, exploration, analysis) of all attainable consideration which will define and clarify the problem in hand; ● a consequent elaboration of the tentative hypothesis to make it more precise and more consistent, because squaring with a wider range of facts; ● taking one stand upon the projected hypothesis as a plan of action which is applied to the existing state of affairs; doing something overtly to bring about the anticipated result, and thereby testing the hypothesis.

It is the extent and accuracy of steps three and four which mark off a distinctive reflective experience from one on the trial and error plane. They make thinking itself into an experience. Nevertheless, we never get wholly beyond the trial and error situation. Our most elaborate and rationally consistent thought has to be tried in the world and thereby tried out.

And since it can never take into account all the connections, it can never cover with perfect accuracy all the consequences.

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“It is not enough that teachers’ work should be studied. They need to study it themselves” Lawrence Stenhouse Lawrence Nixon writes: Lawrence Stenhouse (1975) points out that teachers are uniquely placed to systematically investigate what happens in the context of their classrooms, change their practice and assess the impact of that change. He notes, sustainable improvements can only happen if teachers are prepared to change their minds about ‘what works.’

He identifies three important features of good quality, teacher-centred research: teachers systematically question their own practice; they have knowledge of research skills and the confidence to use these to investigate their practice; they have access to relevant research that can be tested out in practice…

Yet a thoughtful survey of conditions is so careful, and the guessing at results so controlled, that we have a right to mark off the reflective experience from the grosser trial and error forms of action.

The article is reproduced from Readings for Reflective Teaching in Further, Adult and Vocational Education, which is the companion volume to Reflective Teaching in Further, Adult and Vocational Education 4th edition. Both are published by Bloomsbury.

In turn, the article is edited from: Dewey, J. (1933) How We Think: A Restatement of the Relation of Reflective Thinking to the Educative Process. Chicago: Henry Regnery, 15–16; and Dewey, J. (1916) Democracy and Education. New York: Free Press, 176–7

MEMBER OFFER To claim a 20 per cent discount on Bloomsbury publishing’s Reflective Teaching in Further, Adult and Vocational Education, the sister title to Readings for Reflective Teaching in Further, Adult and Vocational Education, please order at www. bloomsbury.com using code FAVE20.

Valid until 31 January 2016.

Lawrence Stenhouse led the Humanities Project during the late 1960s – curriculum development work that revolutionised thinking about professional development. One of his central concerns was to encourage teachers as ‘researchers’ of their own practice, thereby extending their professionalism.

All well-founded curriculum research and development, whether the work of an individual teacher, of a school, of a group working in a teachers’ centre or of a group working within the co-ordinating framework of a national project, is based on the study of classrooms. It thus rests on the work of teachers.

It is not enough that teachers’ work should be studied: they need to study it themselves.

My theme is the role of the teachers as researchers in their own teaching situation.

What does this conception of curriculum development imply for them?

The critical characteristics of that extended professionalism which is essential for wellfounded curriculum research and development seem to me to be: ● the commitment to systematic questioning of one’s own teaching as a basis for development; ● the commitment and the skills to study one’s own teaching;

● the concern to question and to test theory in practice.

To these may be added as highly desirable, though perhaps not essential, a readiness to allow other teachers to observe one’s work directly or through recordings – and to discuss it on an open and honest basis.

In short, the outstanding characteristics of the extended professional is a capacity for autonomous professional self-development through systematic self-study, through the study of the work of other teachers and through the testing of ideas by classroom research procedures.

It is important to make the point that teachers in this situation are concerned to understand better their own classroom.

Consequently, they are not faced with the problems of generalising beyond his or her own experience. In this context, theory is simply a systematic structuring of his or her understanding of such work.

Each classroom should not be an island.

Teachers working in such a tradition need to communicate with one another. They should report their work. Thus a common vocabulary of concepts and a syntax of theory need to be developed. Where that language proves inadequate, teachers would need to propose new concepts and new theory.

The first level of generalisation is thus the development of a general theoretical language. In this, professional research workers should be able to help.

If teachers report their own work in such a tradition, case studies will accumulate, just as they do in medicine. Professional research workers will have to master this material and scrutinise it for general trends.

It is out of this synthetic task that general propositional theory can be developed.

The article above is abridged from chapter 3.3 Readings for Reflective Teaching in Further, Adult and Vocational Education.

Edited from: Stenhouse, L. (1975) An Introduction to Curriculum Research and Development. London: Heinemann, 143–57.

InTuition Issue 22 | Winter 2015 17

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Five years on: the impact of practitioner research in a small specialist institution

By Samantha Broadhead How did Access to HE learners fare on an undergraduate art and design degree? A high number of withdrawals within the first year of the degree indicated changes were needed In 2010 a colleague and I took part in a Research Development Fellowship (RDF) delivered by the University of Sunderland Centre for Excellence in Teacher Training (Suncett).

Our project aimed to evaluate how well post-Access to HE learners achieved on undergraduate art and design degree programmes after they had progressed internally within a specialist art college.

These mature learners came from diverse backgrounds and often had unconventional educational histories.

The aim of the Access to HE Diploma in art and design was to help mature learners achieve a level three qualification and to help them prepare a portfolio of work that would enable them to enter a creative degree programme.

The learners studied subjects such as visual studies, contextual studies, studio practice and workshops (photography, digital media, ceramics, printmaking and textiles). The studio critique was an important means of giving learners formative feedback on their work.

Judgements about the effectiveness of the Access to HE Diploma were based on undergraduate statistical data about retention and achievement and also learner feedback collected from focus groups and individual interviews.

Although they reported that they felt well-prepared by their Access to HE course, the number of withdrawals during the first year of the degree indicated that this may not be the case and some participants reported that they felt isolated (Broadhead and Garland, 2012).

The recommendations for improving the first-year learning experience were: improving the rigour of studio critiques in the access course; developing strategies for joint practice development (JPD) (Fielding et al, 2005) between access tutors 18 Issue 22 | Winter 2015 InTuition

and higher education staff and facilitating a college social group aimed at mature learners that reflected their interests.

The impact on teaching of this small research study was quickly established.

First, my colleague and I set up a JPD project in 2011 with a sympathetic programme leader in higher education who shared some of our values about inclusive arts education.

Access tutors observed HE sessions where learners presented work and received feedback in the studio critiques. Through discussion and critical reflection, strategies for improving Access to HE delivery were identified based on a JPD approach.

The access tutors then put into action ideas around the structuring studio critiques so that the learners took more ownership of their learning (Broadhead, 2012). The learner feedback was captured by a seminar event supported by the Higher Education Academy (HEA) where they talked about the impact the project had had on their creative practice.

Changes in practice outside the Access to HE programme area also happened over time. In 2013 a progression and widening participation manager was employed by the college and the progression team instigated a range of interventions designed to make mature learners feel more included within the art college environment. These included a pre-Access to HE summer school, mock interviews with portfolio advice and a mature learners’ peer mentoring group.

Two points seem particularly important.

First, changes in practice take time: some can be immediate while others take more time to develop. Practice-based researchers may need patience when waiting for their work to have an impact.

Second, it was partnering with people who

shared similar values that led to successfully developing practices.

Searching for the right collaborators who are prepared to change in response to research findings is an important part of a research project and again this may take time to do.

Previously delivered by Suncett in partnership with LSIS, this programme now forms part of the LSIS legacy continued by The Education and Training Foundation.

References • Broadhead, S. (2012) ‘Using action-research evidence to change art studio critiques’ in Inside Evidence bulletin issue 13 Summer 2012 pp29-30 found at http://repository. excellencegateway.org.uk/fedora/objects/ eg:2216/datastreams/DOC/content • Broadhead, S. and Garland S. (2012) ‘The art of surviving and thriving: how well are access students prepared for their degrees in art and design?’ in Networks, Issue 17: April 2012, University of Brighton found at http://arts.brighton.ac.uk/projects/ networks/issue-17-april-2012 • Broadhead, S., Gamble, J., Marekova, Z. and Binless, S. (2013) ‘Working together to improve FE to HE progression for Access students, scholarship and pedagogy’: Working with students to develop undergraduate research in Art & Design: The Higher Education Academy Discipline Workshop and Seminar Series Research found at http://slideplayer.com/ slide/801167/ • Fielding, M. et al. (2005) Factors influencing the transfer of good practice Nottingham: DfES Publications. This can be found on the Excellence Gateway: http://repository.excellencegateway. org.uk/fedora/objects/import-pdf:2084/ datastreams/PDF/content

Samantha Broadhead is head of research and programme leader for the MA in Creative Practice at Leeds College of Art

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College research club drives improvements in initial assessment

By Michael Smith (left), Paul Roberts and Agnieszka Malisz A clear need for an alternative means of assessment in terms of students’ writing abilities led to the formation of the Language Learning Assessment Methodologies Association (Llama) With our prior research (see InTuition issue 19) suggesting the current systems of English initial and diagnostic assessment were not as effective as we hoped them to be, there was a clear need for an alternative means of assessment.

Moreover, with the new focus on GCSE English in the post-16 sector we knew how important it was to get a comprehensive account of our students’ writing abilities rather than a snapshot judgement based at a broad level.

Paul and I set about developing a writingbased assessment that our students could complete when first enrolling at college.

In January 2015 we were lucky enough to be joined by Agnieszka from our college’s Digital Learning team and a language teacher, who had become interested in our research and having a negative experience of a computer-based English test herself.

We formalised our collaboration through the creation of a research club, what we’ve come to call Llama (Language Learning Assessment Methodologies Association).

We agreed to meet every Friday to discuss findings and to work on designing and testing the new written assessment.

How, for example, would we make sure that students took the assessment seriously? What would engage them?

And how would we go about marking all of this incoming student work in a standardised manner at the start of term?

We began to search for possible solutions and, first, looked at the existing alternatives to the current assessment.

But we felt that the majority were focused around bland, predetermined, multiple choice questions.

Then we stumbled across an Australian language assessment that was using visual

stimulus that students based a piece of writing on. It was an exciting discovery.

We found that having new students create a piece of writing based on stimulus images gave us a better indication of their core English skills. Why ask a student to identify what a pronoun is (as the current systems did) when they can use these correctly when writing?

Our quest for multimodality led us to begin development on our own visual stimulus, complete with YouTube videos, .gif files and images. BDC students are currently working with us to realise this ambition as part of a commissioned in-house collaboration.

The challenge of how to mark the assessments persisted. That was until we remembered a demonstration of a free writing marking tool being showcased

by Lieve De Wachter, of the University of Leuven, we saw at the European Association for Practitioner Research on Improving Learning (EAPRIL) conference in November 2014. We were fortunate enough to get early access to the pilot and have found it to be really useful as a first step when marking free writing.

We’ve spent the past few months disseminating our work to other colleges and have found that, above all, there is a huge interest in an alternative means for initial and diagnostic assessment of English. Whether that alternative is Llama or not remains to be seen.

We have taken to blogging about our progress, and should you be interested in seeing what we’ve been up to recently feel free to drop by at: http://llamalearning. blogspot.co.uk/

References • Allen, L. K., Crossley, S. A., Snow, E. L. and McNamara, D. S. (2014) ‘L2 Writing Practice: Game Enjoyment as a Key to Engagement’, Language Learning & Technology, 18(2), pp. 124-150.

• Jalkanen, J. and Vaarala, H. (2013) ‘Digital Texts for Learning Finnish: Shared Resources and Emerging Practices’, Language Learning & Technology, 17(1), pp.

107-124.

• Lan, Y-J., Sung, Y-T., Cheng, Ch-Ch. and Chang, K-E. (2015) ‘Computer-Supported Cooperative Prewriting for Enhancing Young EFL Learners’ Writing Performance’, Language Learning & Technology, 19(2), pp.134-155.

• Todd, R. W. (2014) ‘Support Adaptive Testing: The effects of scaffolds in computer-based tests’, CALL-EJ, 15(1), pp. 1-20.

• Yandell, J. (2008) ‘Embodied readings: Exploring the multimodal social semiotic resources of the English classroom’, English Teaching: Practice and Critique, 7(1), pp.36-56.t

Michael Smith is maths and English coordinator at Barking and Dagenham College, Paul Roberts is curriculum team leader and Agnieszka Malisz is a learning technologist. Michael and Paul’s original research was supported in 2013-14 by the ETF Research Development Fellowship (RDF) Programme.

InTuition Issue 22 | Winter 2015 19

ResearchDigest

A wealth of research material presented at the inaugural Education and Training Foundation Research Conference is now available online and free to all further education practitioners.

Video presentations from the conference, held in July at the Mary Ward Centre, London, showcase work undertaken by practitioners across the FE and training sector as part of the Foundation’s practitioner research programmes.

The presentations are in broad categories, including: technology; professional development; maths and ESOL; curriculum; professionalism and offender learning. There are a number of presentations in each category with links to additional resources.

Sheila Kearney, the Foundation’s head of research, said the videos offered a wonderful insight into the Foundation’s practitionerled research programmes, designed to support “research for the sector, by the sector”.

• Places on the 2015-16 Research Development Fellowship (RDF) Programme and the Exploratory Research in Maths and English Programme have now been allocated. This year, SET awarded personal bursaries to 11 of the successful applicants who were members.

Presentations from this year’s research conference are at: bit.ly/ETF_practitioner_ led_AR

Measure learner performance on a scale of one to 10 Can scaling from the OSKAR framework have an impact on student progress? By Andrew Stork and Ben Walker In our research, we sought to address the difficulty many students have in expressing how they feel they are progressing and were particularly interested in a tool from within solutionfocused coaching – scaling.

This is where a student is asked to rate their wellbeing and performance on a scale from one to 10.

Our research question was ‘how does the use of scaling from the OSKAR (outcome, scaling, know-how and resources, affirm and action and review) framework impact upon student progress and emotional wellbeing?’

Test groups involved full-time 16-18 year-old students across a range of vocational subject areas and levels. Seven were ‘experimental’ groups and seven were control groups where scaling was not used.

One-to-one conversations were undertaken by the personal tutors over a 12-week period and quantitative data was gathered from questionnaires completed by students at the beginning, middle and end of this period.

Qualitative data was gathered from focus groups carried out by us with all research groups.

The statistical analysis of questionnaires showed no

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Research conference workshops now online

significant difference between the scaling and non-scaling groups in terms of students’ perception of their performance and wellbeing.

The thematic analysis from the focus groups showed some students felt that scaling in oneto-one conversations helped to clarify their priorities, made it easier to assess their on-going progress and helped others (personal tutors and teachers) to take action on their behalf.

Students generally found

Practice tips The research suggests the following good-practice tips • Schedule regular one-to-one conversations with students about their progress.

• In conversations, take a coaching approach which is open and non-directive.

• Use a tool such as scaling so students can express how they feel they are progressing.

• Don’t forget the importance of using SMART targets alongside this approach.

• Scaling also makes it easier for teachers and tutors to take action on learners’ behalf.

The research suggests the following benefits to your students and your organisation • Students are more likely to open up about barriers to learning and to find ways to overcome them.

• Positive emotions are elicited in students such as increased motivation, feeling more relaxed and open, and reduced feelings of inferiority.

• Students’ attendance, behaviour and time-keeping can be positively affected.

• Students find it easier to articulate and assess their progress, to see ways they can improve by moving up the scale through improvements (particularly if used alongside SMART targets) and for others to take action on their behalf.

20 Issue 22 | Winter 2015 InTuition

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ELMAG portal leads the way

it easier to articulate current progress and self-evaluate their performance through a number than through description.

Some students said that scaling helped to improve their confidence and motivation.

Other students questioned the reliability of the scale because feelings change daily and that there may be a temptation to make up numbers because they didn’t want to admit weakness.

Some felt scaling has less meaning if they are doing well.

However, perhaps the most significant finding of the research was the overwhelmingly positive response of students to their experience of one-to-ones with their personal tutors.

Many had no experience of this type of meeting before and said that they felt better appreciated and motivated.

One-to-ones made them feel more comfortable and relaxed which meant they could be open and honest in what felt like a two-way conversation with open-minded tutors.

The content of one-to-ones helped students to identify areas

READER OFFER Andrew and Ben’s book Becoming an Outstanding Personal Tutor: Supporting Learners through Personal Tutoring and Coaching is available at criticalpublishing. com and SET members are eligible for a 20 per cent discount until 31 March 2016.

Use code BOPT2015.. for development and agree SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timerelated) targets. Some students said that their attendance, behaviour and time-keeping also improved as a result.

Andrew’s and Ben’s research was supported in 2014-15 by the ETF Research Development Fellowship (RDF) Programme.

Andrew Stork and Ben Walker share responsibility for the personal tutoring, coaching and support of students on full-time 16-18 courses at The Sheffield College, City Campus. www.andrewstork.co.uk www.benwwalker.co.uk

Research, resources, a reflective practice tool and a network of peers and potential mentors are all available through the Excellence in Leadership, Management and Governance (ELMAG) portal.

The portal is a one-stop-shop for managers, leaders and governors and practitioners seeking to take their first steps on to the management and leadership ladder.

The resources section allows users to access resources in a range of areas including: learning technology; maths and English delivery and leading in local areas.

Each month there are spotlight resources – this month’s being the government’s Area Reviews. There is also a link to the Excellence Gateway where further resources are available.

A wide range of management, leadership and governance courses can be accessed via the course finder facility. Users can browse by keyword and theme and there is a special section for those courses subsidised by the Education and Training Foundation. It is also possible to

apply for a programme bursary.

The leadership reflection tool can help users identify their development needs.

The tool is based on a model from the Leadership Conversation Project which was commissioned by the Foundation and run by a range of bodies including the 157 Group, the Association of Employment and Learning Providers and NIACE. There are now more than 450 members of the ELMAG network which allows managers and leaders to seek and offer support to colleagues in other parts of the sector through informal conversations, joining one of the discussion forums, or setting up your own mentoring arrangements.

The ELMAG portal was commissioned by the Education and Training Foundation and developed

by UCL Institute of Education in partnership with Tintisha Technologies. www.elmag.org.uk

EXCELLENCE GATEWAY This month’s featured research and resources on the Excellence Gateway include: the influencing factors of good practice; South Leicestershire College: career progression development; talent management report; Bromley Cluster: and the value of partnership working.

They are a tiny fraction of the research and resources available through the gateway which allows you to browse by theme, subject, audience, sector, resource type and subject level.

The Excellence Gateway is free and open to all.

Have a look around at www.excellencegateway.org.uk

InTuition Issue 22 | Winter 2015 21

InPractice

Real-world insights

InTuition columnist Geoff Petty speaks to Redbridge students

While many education and training providers simulate workplace environments and give learners work experience, Redbridge College has gone a step further in preparing its students for employment by remodelling entire courses as businesses.

The college, in north-east London, has set up a number of learning companies in which students work with real clients whose business they have won. The projects or jobs lead the delivery and determine the order in which the curriculum is covered.

Dan Pearson, Redbridge’s deputy principal, introduced the learning company model, which he had developed in his

previous role at North Kent College and which has much in common with the Learning Company model developed by the Gazelle Group of providers. His first learning company at Redbridge was Blue Orange, specialising in graphic design and creative media production.

“What has long frustrated me is seeing course units delivered in isolation,” says Pearson. “It’s almost teaching by numbers and learners risk losing the ability to make links and to synergise what they are learning.

“We have lecturers who are experienced in the industry and the learning company capitalises on that. Effectively it is an

Redbridge College

Redbridge College is taking work experience to the next level by setting up companies and taking commissions from real clients in a twist on the apprenticeship model

Apprenticeships Law firm targets non-graduates Global law firm Mayer Brown is challenging stereotypes of the legal profession by becoming the first City practice to employ and train non-graduate apprentice lawyers.

Legal apprentices Rosie Ahmadi, a former pupil at Southgate Secondary School, Hertfordshire, and David Elikwu, a former student at St Mary Magdalene Academy, London, started in September and will train with Mayer Brown for six years to qualify as solicitors.

Their apprenticeship comprises a four-year part-time LLB (Hons) course with the University of Law followed by a two-year Legal Practice Course (LPC) and Professional Skills Course (PSC).

Rosie and David will be mentored and supported throughout their apprenticeship by Mayer Brown, the University of Law and an external mentor from Aspiring Solicitors, a body promoting diversity in the legal profession.

Danielle White, Mayer Brown’s graduate recruitment and development manager, said: “Initially, we were looking to recruit

22 Issue 22 | Winter 2015 InTuition

one apprentice in this pilot year but the calibre was so high we ended up taking two, Rosie and David.

“This is a really positive step and it is something we are keen to develop as it fits with the firm’s global values of giving those from non-traditional backgrounds, who are under-represented in the legal industry, access to the profession.”

Mayer Brown will pay apprentices £18,000 a-year during their four-year degree with the University of Law. Upon graduation they will move on to the firm’s standard training contract pay scale alongside other graduate trainees as they work towards completion of their LPC and PSC courses.

“We hope it will attract people who cannot afford to go to university or perhaps do not want to. It is a significant investment from our side and from the individuals because we are asking them to commit to six years with us,” says White.

Chris White (no relation), founder of Aspiring Solicitors, is working with Mayer Brown to provide an external mentoring point for the apprentices.

“Aspiring Solicitors works closely with law firms, banks and other organisations and I am seeing both our founding and affiliated members increasingly move towards apprenticeship solutions,” he says.

“I don’t think anybody is pretending that the legal profession is the most diverse and that’s a result of years and years of old boy networks. The profession recognises that this is wrong.

“Apprenticeships are a brilliant opportunity for organisations to diversify their talent pool and it allows companies to nurture individuals in the culture and ethos of their organisations from an early stage which engenders loyalty.

“I am sure legal apprenticeships, like the ones at Mayer Brown, will be successful as long as firms are committed to supporting them professionally with mentors and ideally offering support to the mentors.”

Mayer Brown was a member of the employer trailblazer group that helped develop the new level 7 solicitors’ apprenticeship standard to come into effect in 2017.

https://set.et-foundation.co.uk

apprenticeship model. Our students are young artists coming to work at Blue Orange. They are planning to work in that field so why not get them learning the way they will be working.”

Lecturers are creative directors and artistic designers and there is support from facilitator grade staff. The way the course is taught and assessed is determined by the work they bring in.

“Even though we are not charging for our work, I initially thought we would have to simulate the work with our industry partners. But we have been inundated with commissions,” Pearson says.

“It makes planning the curriculum something of a challenge because our young designers might be working on one type of project involving a certain set of skills and not others. The lecturer ensures they cover any outstanding elements of the curriculum in the next project they work on.”

Assessment processes have been adapted to fit the company approach. For example, blogs are used to allow students

to post and critique each other’s work.

Lecturers provide feedback.

The approach is bearing fruit with student attainment up and, just as importantly, a significant improvement in employability skills and behaviours as well as the embedding of business savvy attitudes and approaches to learning.

Pearson is keen to roll the model out across the college and is currently nurturing new companies: Red Tech in ICT; Box Production in media and music; and Out of the Box in theatre. He is also investigating the potential to start a science learning company based around a working laboratory.

“In certain areas, this collaboration between education and employment is relatively rare. The learning company is a model that can be rolled out to almost any vocational area,” he says.

For more information contact Dan at DPearson@redbridge-college.ac.uk

But the legal profession isn’t the first to seek out apprentices…

Accountancy Routes into accountancy are not and never have been the preserve of university graduates. Despite this, growth in the number of graduate entrants in recent years has prompted the profession to redouble its efforts to attract non-graduate recruits and those from lower income backgrounds.

Helen Garvey, director of business development at the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), says: “We know that there are many people who just cannot afford university or do not want to go and so accountancy could be missing out on this pool of talent.

“As an institute we have been doing a lot ourselves, and with employers and others, to get the message out that the doors to accountancy are open to everyone.”

The ICAEW Certificate in Finance Accounting and Business (CFAB) offers a route to chartered accountant for a wide range of people. There are no formal academic entry requirements and the course can be studied on its own or as part of an apprenticeship.

The ICAEW works closely with many of the biggest employers including KPMG, which offers its KPMG360 apprenticeship programme, and PwC, which runs a school

and college leaver apprenticeship programme.

All three organisations were members of the employers’ trailblazer group that developed the new apprenticeship standards for professional accountant.

Healthcare Health Education England (HEE), the public body with oversight of education and training in the NHS in England, is working on standards for a new nursing apprenticeship as part of a trailblazer group.

If approved, the apprenticeship would provide a valuable route into nursing which became a graduate-entry profession in 2013, potentially broadening the appeal of nursing at a time of staff shortages in some areas.

The NHS registered more than 14,600 apprenticeship starts in England last year in areas such as healthcare support, pharmacy and ambulance services.

A spokesperson for HEE said: “There are more than 80 different apprenticeships that can be used in the NHS and available opportunities continue to grow. NHS trusts are reporting the positive impact that apprenticeships are having.

“There are trailblazer groups working on an adult nursing apprenticeship using the existing degree as validated by the Nursing

and Midwifery Council and new health standards being developed at Levels 2-4.”

While there are no explicit plans to offer apprenticeship routes to becoming a doctor, the HEE is “continuing to explore further roles, including those in a clinical setting”.

Creative and cultural Creative and cultural skills encompass not only traditional arts industries such as music and theatre but many fast growing digital enterprises too.

And, while employers in creative and cultural sectors have been historically slow to embrace apprenticeships, things are changing. Pauline Tambling, chief executive of Creative & Cultural Skills (CCS), says: “We are seeing some enlightened employers taking more responsibility for engaging with skills.

“Some realise that not all jobs are graduate jobs, and require sound on-the-job training as well as knowledge and skills, so apprenticeships are gaining a foothold.”

CCS’s Creative Employment Programme has helped more than 900 employers to take their first apprentices, particularly in technical, venue operations and community arts. The organisation is encouraging employers in the sector to create 50,000 new jobs for young people by 2016.

InTuition Issue 22 | Winter 2015 23

InSight

Cracking the code for SEND students FE providers should be working hard to ensure they understand the SEND reforms, are compliant with the processes and are supporting their students It’s just over a year since significant reforms to the system for special educational needs and disability (SEND) introduced important changes for post-16 providers in England, including a new framework for improving outcomes for young people with SEND. There is now a national SEN framework that applies to further education providers, with regard to the SEND Code of Practice.

Providers must use their best endeavours to identify the special educational needs of young people and then make the provision required to meet them.

The code expects providers to take a cyclical approach to assessing need, planning and providing support, and reviewing and evaluating that support so that it can be adjusted where necessary.

At a wider level, providers are now engaged in much closer working with their local authorities, which are required to publish information about special educational provision in post-16 institutions including work-based and charitable providers.

The local offer enables providers to deliver a range of study programmes and wider support for young people with SEND, and allows them to better reflect on how an improved offer could be developed.

Early planning is a further benefit offered

Key steps for providers To maximise the opportunities afforded by the revised system, providers need to put into place several steps, including: • A clear audit and description of what they provide for learners with SEND and how they plan to widen their offer; • Co-operating with the local authority on publishing information for the local offer; • Working closely with local secondary and special schools to plan more effectively for potential new students; • Leading annual reviews of young people with education, health and care plans and ensuring these follow personcentred principles and practices, and focus on outcomes; • Embracing co-production and valuing the active contributions of young people and their families; • Helping young people to access SEND advice, information and also support services; • Attending annual reviews of prospective students; and • Keeping an eye on the next stage for the young person and helping them move in a direction that genuinely prepares them for adulthood.

Oaklands College

By Jane Carr

To read this online, including a bonus case study from Oaklands College, please go to: set.et-foundation.co.uk/ publications/intuition

by the new system. For those with education, health and care plans (EHCP), the annual review at the age of 14 is required to focus on preparing for adulthood, including employment, independent living and participation in society.

Another improved opportunity is wider access to supported internship programmes for 16- to 24-year-olds with an EHCP who need extra support to move into employment.

Providers should be considering developing more supported internship programmes, in partnership with local employers.

As the changes bed in, the governing body, leadership team and all staff within FE providers, should be working to both understand the SEND reforms, to comply

The power of assistive technology

By John Mitchell

At Royal College Manchester (RCM) we work with students with multi-sensory impairment, profound and multiple learning difficulties and those with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and associated challenging behaviour.

To further support students, RCM employs Matt Daly, an assistive technologist. The college piloted the role after becoming part of the Jisc-funded Disseminating Assistive Roles and Technology (DART 2) project run

by Beaumont College, National Star College and Henshaws College in 2013.

Matt’s work has greatly improved communication, independence and life 24 Issue 22 | Winter 2015 InTuition

opportunities for many learners as noted in our 2013 ‘outstanding’ Ofsted judgement.

Matt’s role is to find innovative and often bespoke solutions to support students.

During initial assessment, he will make recommendations on assistive technologies, software and support.

The role requires creativity and Matt often adapts everyday technology. For example, Matthew has ASD, severe learning difficulties, is non-verbal and has a hearing impairment. He also has a fondness for a particular fast food chain and would often ask staff to place orders for him.

Matt worked with Matthew and the team

to create a communication system on the iPad which allowed him to order his own sandwich – a huge achievement for him.

Matthew saw the benefit of using this system in a range of other situations.

Matt also worked with Nicholas to help him choose his lunch using an iPad. Matt designed a custom ‘key-guard’ with tactile markings which fitted over the screen. When pressed to select a meal, the iPad gave auditory feedback. The key-guard was made using a 3D printer, which has been used to produce other bespoke items for students, such as an angled cup holder, which allows a student to put down her cup safely.

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Personal pathways lead to learner progress

By Rhona Sapsford

with the processes and to support all students with SEND (including those without learning difficulty assessments or EHCPs).

Jane Carr is team leader, FE implementation and workforce, 0-25 Special Educational Needs and Disability unit. jane.carr@education.gsi.gov.uk The government’s quick guide to the SEND code of practice is a good place to find out more. It can be viewed at: bit.ly/FE_SEND_guide Further information and advice on supported internship programmes can be viewed at: bit.ly/Internship_pdf

Another student is enjoying Matt’s adaptation of the technology that powers contactless payments to play her favourite music by selecting picture cards and holding them near a reader. Having an assistive technologist allows for innovative practice customises technology to improve learner development and independence in a variety of ways beyond the technical.

John Mitchell is data support manager and teacher at Royal College Manchester DART 2 information: http://dart.beaumontcollege.ac.uk Ofsted report and case studies: http://seashelltrust.org.uk/college/ourofsted-report

In 2013 the discrete SEND provision at Bromley College of Further and Higher Education underwent a dramatic transformation.

The facilities were transformed so they became fully accessible to a wider range of learners, including those with complex needs and those with physical disabilities. The new offering was named the Nido Volans Centre and we also took the opportunity to redesign our curriculum in order to meet the requirements of the Children and Families Act with the associated Code of Practice.

Having worked in close partnership with our local authority piloting the new education, health and care plans (EHCPs), we threw out the concept of courses for our severe and complex learners.

Instead, we introduced personal progression pathways, which involved creating personalised timetables for approximately 70 learners with severe and complex needs. This personalised approach ensures that students progress towards the long term outcomes highlighted in their EHCPs. Learners choose from a range of subjects that collectively develop independence, social and employability skills. Options include independent living, maths

and English, ICT, media, gardening, manufacturing, travel training, personal and social development, catering and work experience.

We also introduced speech and language, and occupational therapy for the learners in 2014. This means that all learners, whether they are verbal or nonverbal communicators or have physical disabilities, can fully access their timetable and their curriculum. Learners are fully supported with technology.

Staff team members have received targeted training both during and outside working hours to support them in meeting the needs of our diverse group of learners. This includes Makaton signing, behaviours that challenge, manual handling and training in the administering of emergency medication.

We are constantly striving for ways to improve our provision for our learners and this year we introduced TEACCH – a structured and visually aided approach to delivering a programme for learners with complex autism – for five learners. Parents have already reported a positive impact on their children.

Rhona Sapsford is learning manager at the Nido Volans Centre

Supported internships unlock the door to employment

By Jon Clugston Jake Hay first arrived at Hereward College in September 2013 from the Oxfordshire area, as a residential student. He spent two years here studying for Level 3 Business/ IT qualifications, as well as developing his independence skills.

In 2015, Jake began to consider what he wanted to do after college and he decided he wanted to enter the world of work as well as moving into the Coventry area to live independently.

Over the summer in 2015, Jake looked at a number of properties in the Coventry area with the support of the college, his family and his social worker. He has now found a property that is suitable for his needs and is living independently with some support from personal assistants.

At the same time, Jake was looking for

opportunities to enter the world of work and applied for a supported internship position at the University Hospital. He will now spend a full academic year at the hospital with the support of Hereward College job coaches.

Jake will have the opportunity to work for an extended period in three different hospital departments with the aim of finding full-time employment in the hospital in September 2016.

Supported internships are being offered with a number of different employers through Hereward and other educational providers and are proving to be a very successful way for young people with disabilities to gain paid employment.

Jon Clugston is vice-principal for student independent and progression at Hereward College

InTuition Issue 22 | Winter 2015 25

Worldskills

Leading Learning

Competitive spirit spurs FE students to greater heights WorldSkills may only run every two years but the impact of the competition and the competitive ethos that underpins it are changing teaching and learning strategies, reports Alan Thomson It can be argued, with some justification, that the trouble with competition is that it is great for the winners but distracting and potentially damaging for everyone else.

However, thanks to WorldSkills – the biennial global skills competition – many further education providers and teachers are revisiting competition as part of their teaching and learning strategies.

Nigel Leigh, principal of Stephenson College, says: “We take a corporate approach to skills competitions.

“If you don’t have this embedded support for competition then you may find that individual teachers are keen to use competition as part of their teaching but they will be isolated and may lack support.”

Like most providers, Stephenson creates a template upon which teachers 26 Issue 22 | Winter 2015 InTuition

and trainers base their schemes of work.

The Stephenson template includes approaches to skills competitions which teachers are expected to build into their schemes of work.

“We want to add to the ways in which we engage with learners,” says Leigh.

“The ways individual teachers and trainers include competition in class are not prescribed. It is down to their professional judgement and interpretation.”

Competitive elements can be built into everyday teaching sessions, institution-wide and regional events and – ultimately – form part of preparations for national WorldSkills heats leading to the international finals.

There are many benefits, says Leigh, including the use of competitive elements to provide additional stretch for learners

and the use of competitions as another vehicle for feedback and peer assessment.

For Leigh, competitions also empower young learners to take pride in themselves as craftspeople, not just students seeking to gain a vocation qualification. And winning is certainly not everything.

“I liken the situation to that of an iceberg. The top eighth - the highly visible bit – are the WorldSkills competitors.

What we are more interested in is the seven eighths under the water and what competition can do for them.”

Stephenson College collaborated with other providers in the East Midlands and, from next year, Team East Midlands will encourage teachers and learners from across the regions to take part in competitions at all levels.

Louise Hemmings, deputy faculty head for creative services at Stephenson, says: “Traditionally, teachers would tend to look at competitions as end-of-year events, a bit of fun. But, by embedding competition in our teaching, we are helping to shift the whole teaching and learning culture in relation to competition.

“Of course competition has to be introduced in a way that does not demotivate any students. You have to make sure the way you use competitions is such that it allows everyone to take part if they want to.

“It also helps with continuing professional development for staff members. Competitions help keep teachers up to speed with the latest

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Checklist Checklist for running competition activity • Set the brief - which should give competitors a broad understanding of how the competition will be run and be based on the requirements of the learner’s job role.

• Marking Scheme - the activity should be broken down into specific markable criteria which should be shared with the learners beforehand.

• Competition logistics – ensure you have the relevant insurance cover, a risk assessment has been completed and learners have been supported in their preparation.

• Showcase your learning – competitions are excellent opportunities to showcase the talents of learners so promote and invite stakeholders along.

Useful resources at www.findafuture.org.uk developments in their industry – it is a way to update yourself professionally.

North Warwickshire and Hinckley College is another provider embracing the competitive legacy of WorldSkills.

Laurel Penrose, the college’s principal, says: “It is based in our teaching and learning strategy, so a strand of that is about competition and it is the main focus of stretch and challenge.

“Competition is used as part of the local teaching and development strategy. We share information in staff training days.

Plus, those who have gone on to be trainers for WorldSkills bring back their experiences and ideas and share them with colleagues.

“Also linked with competition is that line of sight to employability, learning to work as part of a team working under pressure, thinking laterally and problem solving.”

The college’s unique contribution to skills competitions has been the development of competitions for SEND provision in collaboration with Derwen College in Shropshire. The last event saw 130 learners take part from 12 different colleges.

“We were the first college to initiate a national competition in SEND,” says Penrose.

“It helps build confidence in learners and it also encourages staff to use aspects of competition in their teaching method.”

The college is keen to develop new areas for competition to the UK’s WorldSkills coordinating body, Find a Future. The latest is health and social care. Ideas for the competitive elements were developed with students and staff involved. Many ideas that emerge during this process are embedded into the curriculum delivery at North Warwickshire and Hinckley.

Power to the people with Citizen Maths

By Seb Schmoller

About 10 million adults in Britain have gone through the education system without gaining confidence in maths at level 2, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s 2013 Survey of Adult Skills has said.

However, even if learners reach this standard, it doesn’t necessarily make them fluent in applying mathematical principles to everyday life and work.

Citizen Maths exists to overcome this challenge. It is a free, open online course with a focus on the immediate relevance of maths to the problems people face in work and life.

The course has been developed by Calderdale College, with the UCL Institute of Education, and OCR. It is funded by the charitable trust awardng body Ufi. The course currently covers three powerful ideas in maths: proportion, uncertainty and representation, with pattern and measuring to come in 2016.

Learning about each idea is supported by a mix of short video tutorials, practical exercises and quizzes.

The powerful ideas and the situations in which they are shown have been selected

in consultation with maths teachers.

Citizen Maths is likely to be of use to: • self-motivated adults who want to develop their grasp of maths at level 2; • colleges and other learning providers who want to give enrolled learners an additional or alternative route to improving their maths; • teachers who want to review different approaches to teaching and learning maths; • parents who want to be better able to help their children with their maths, or even with Scratch, when this is being used within the computer science curriculum.

Seb Schmoller is director of Citizen Maths and former chief executive of the Association for Learning Technology

References

2013 Survey of Adult Skills: www.oecd.org/site/piaac/publications.htm The learning experience is shown from a learner’s point of view in a four-minute screencast at www.citizenmaths. com/#how-does-it-work To find out more about Citizen Maths, go to www.citizenmaths.com

Citizen Maths in action Idea

Powerful because In action through… it underpins…

Proportion

Fractions

Mixing – proportions of ingredients in a recipe

Percentage

Sharing – mortgage payments in a shared house

Decimals

Comparing – multi-buy offers in a supermarket

Ratios

Trading off – liquid height in different-sized containers

Probability

Making decisions – value of insurance, risk comparisons

Risk

Judging – meaning of cancer-screening results

Odds

Gaming – appreciating odds in roulette, dice and the Grand National

Large and small scale effects

Modelling – weather prediction uncertainty, based in part on what’s gone on before

Uncertainty

Representation Data

Analysing – polling data and sample sizes

Graphics

Interpreting charts – to see how your household income relates to UK population

Distributions

Inferring – conclusions from graphs and charts

Sampling and bias

Comparing – the average battery life on different mobile phones

InTuition Issue 22 | Winter 2015 27

Only £19.99 excluding VAT

online training programmes for SET members SET has teamed up with award-winning learning provider EduCare, to offer an online training package of CPD and Duty of Care programmes at a special discounted price for SET members.

The package comprises a range of online learning programmes on essential duty of care topics including: • Safeguarding vulnerable young people and adults • the SEND code of practice • Equality and diversity • Health and safety and more….

Every programme has its own downloadable personalised certificate and they are all written or endorsed by subject experts including Family Lives, Bullying UK, UK Youth and YMCA training.

This package is offered to members at a vastly reduced cost of only £19.99 excluding VAT. Whether as an introduction, or a refresher, these programmes are a useful and convenient way to contribute to your CPD. Visit the CPD Resources section of the SET website to find out more and take up this offer - https://set.et-foundation.co.uk

Resources

https://set.et-foundation.co.uk

Teacher Industrial Partners’ Scheme

Wealth of new CPD resources online A wealth of interactive and practical resources to support continuing professional development (CPD) are available online at Learning Futures (see link, below).

Reports are available detailing the outcomes from 17 projects commissioned by the Learning Futures programme.

The programme, which has been commissioned and funded by the Education and Training Foundation, aims to develop the capacity of education and training staff to use learning technologies effectively to improve outcomes for learners and employers.

Resources cover a range of topics and settings. Reports come in pdf format and contain links, videos and professional development resources and modules. http://lfutures.co.uk/

The reports include: • An investigation of the power of professional networks from Abingdon and Witney College; • Digital assets for performing engineering operations from Furness College; • Monitoring and tracking students online working from Lewisham and Southwark College; • Developing staff with technology-enabled learning at New College Swindon; • Video learning for engineering apprentices from training and consultancy company PETA Ltd (pictured above); • Creating flexible CPD for tutors to embed learning technology from the Workers’ Educational Association.

Each project comes with the key contact details allowing practitioners to raise questions or exchange information.

Prevent reminder Don’t forget the Education and Training Foundation has made a range of free anti-extremism Prevent awareness training modules available online.

The course takes under an hour to complete and each module includes case studies in a range of provider settings.

The aim is to give those completing the modules an up-to-date understanding of how the Prevent duty applies in an FE and training context and people’s responsibilities relating to it.

The modules are free to use an can be found at www.foundationonline.org.uk A full range of Prevent duty support is available at www.preventforfeandtraining.org.uk

Bursaries are available to send further education STEM teachers and tutors on industry secondments.

The Teacher Industrial Partners’ Scheme (TIPS), run by the National Science Learning Centre, the National STEM Centre and funded by Project ENTHUSE, offers bursaries of £900 and £1,550 to colleges and other state-funded providers Project ENTHUSE supports teachers and trainers in their continuing professional development and was set up on 2008 with £27 million funding from government, the Wellcome Trust and a number of large businesses. It received a further £22 million in 2013-14.

Teachers of science, technology, engineering, maths and computing can apply to attend placements with local employers followed by a package of face to face and online CPD. TIPS participants will spend a week or two in work placements designed to help practitioners update their vocational knowledge and skills, and gain insights into current industry practice and standards.

Teachers can choose from a range of companies, grouped by region to help searching, including BP, Crossrail, Ford, IBM, QinetiQ, Caterpillar and Thames Water.

Placements can also lead to longer term links with industry that can open doors to work experience opportunities for students and further collaborations to improve learners’ employment prospects. They also provide teachers with valuable points of contact in industry.

Placements are designed to deliver an immersive professional development experience including opportunities to interview employees from a range of roles and to gain first-hand experience of real life STEM projects.

Further support is offered by the National Science Learning Centre through its package of online professional development plus two days of face-to-face CPD hosted at the centre, based in York.

For more information on the scheme and how to apply visit http://slcs.ac.uk/tips

InTuition Issue 22 | Winter 2015 29

Geoff Petty

The best teaching method? Finding faults and fixing them with diagnostic questions Diagnostic questions find errors and omissions in students’ learning while you teach. In short, it’s genius, says Geoff Petty.

Geoff is author of Teaching Today and Evidence Based Teaching and has trained staff in more than 300 colleges and schools.

It is always painful to come across a teaching method far too late, especially one that would have made my life – and my students’ lives – so much easier. All I can do is sigh and pass it on.

Have you ever taught something beautifully (in your opinion) only to find that, when you mark your students’ work, they just didn’t get it? Well, let me save you that pain. Here is a genius teaching method that can be adapted to almost any teaching situation – it’s called ‘diagnostic questions’. It finds errors and omissions in students’ learning while you are teaching a topic and fixes them. It’s ‘real time’ formative assessment - and pretty painless too.

I’ll explain the method with an example from maths, although this teaching method works for any subject. A teacher has just taught students how to calculate the area of rectangles and squares. She puts the following statements up on a screen and begins by asking students which of these are true and which are false. The students knew at the beginning of the lesson that this would happen.

Which are true and which are false?

1. Area is length x height for a rectangle.

2. Two metres x two metres is ‘two square metres’.

3. For a square, area is twice the length of one side.

4. Area is measured in units of length, such as centimetres or metres.

5. For a rectangle, the area is always a bigger number than its perimeter.

30 Issue 22 | Winter 2015 InTuition

6. A rea is the two-dimensional space occupied by a shape, in square units You will notice that the cunning teacher has included some common misconceptions in these statements, for example statement number two. There are six statements here and the chances of a student guessing them all correctly is one in 64 – so not very likely.

Here is the procedure she uses with these true/false statements. a) The students work alone to decide which statements are true and which are false. b) Students discuss their answers with a peer, especially differences of opinion. c) When the peer discussion is over, the teacher takes each statement in turn and asks students to display their thinking by putting their hands up but with their thumbs up if they agree with the statement and their thumbs down if they disagree. The students all display their thumbs at the same time. d) The teacher scans the thumbs and uses this feedback on student learning to: • skip to the next statement if all students have it correct; • create class discussion if there is disagreement, for example: “Paul, why do you think number two is correct?”

“Mohammed, why don’t you agree with Paul?” and so on; and • reteach if there is still confusion, then move on to the next statement.

Dylan Wiliam, Emeritus Professor of Educational Assessment at University College London, describes this method

https://set.et-foundation.co.uk

The Quality Learning Cycle This diagram summarises why the best teaching methods work so well.

See Petty, G. (2009) Evidence Based Teaching, 2nd Ed, Nelson Thornes. in his excellent books on embedded formative assessment, but I first heard of it from Harvard University physics professor Eric Mazur. His students were exceptionally bright and hard working, yet he was dismayed to find how many students completed his course harbouring major misconceptions. He was determined to do something about it, so he adopted this method, using electronic clickers for students to display their answers.

After some years perfecting this method he has now doubled the rate at which his students learn. There are some excellent videos of Mazur’s lectures on the web. He trawls students’ work for misconceptions and puts the most common ones in his diagnostic questions.

Set a challenging task

Purpose of the lesson

The task has a clear purpose and clear success criteria. It requires the learner to create their own understanding, linked to what they already know – this is called their ‘construct’.

Aims, objectives and other intentions.

This construct will have errors and omissions.

Prior learning

New learning

Which figure of speech is being used here, if any?

1. He is as cunning as a fox.

2. The stars in the sky winked down at him.

3. She froze with fear.

4. Let’s get the job done.

5. She has a bubbly personality.

6. This is killing me.

Students display their answers using one finger for metaphor, a thumb for simile, a fist for personification and so on, or they use

The learner expresses their understanding of their work on the task. ‘Work’ means their verbal or written answer to a question, their graphic organiser, how they sort cards and so on.

If the task is challenging and well-designed it will reveal the misconceptions and other errors in the student’s construct.

An adaptable method

It’s not just maths and physics where diagnostic questions can be used, of course.

Imagine an English teacher explaining figures of speech such as personification, hyperbole, simile, and metaphor. (Even if you have forgotten what all these mean, you will still understand what follows.)

The teacher puts some phrases on the screen and students must decide which figure of speech is being used, if any. As ever, it helps if the teacher knows of some common misunderstandings or confusions, and puts examples of these in their list. It also helps if there are some non-examples in the list. For example, number four does not use a figure of speech at all. To know what a new concept is, you must also know what it is not, so non-examples can be helpful.

The work shows the level of understanding

So the work is a window into the student’s understanding.

Improvement

Feedback

The student, perhaps with the help of peers and/or the teacher, can now improve their construct.

The work gives feedback

The teacher can respond to errors and omissions in the understanding of the class, and individuals.

• to peers: “He thinks ‘mammal’ means ‘human being’.”

Students improve their constructs.

cards labelled ‘A’; ‘B’ etc. Alternatively, they can use their mini whiteboards if they have them. Other than this the procedure is the same as for the maths example.

Why does this teaching method work so well? Look at the diagram of the Quality Learning Cycle (above), which I have mentioned in other articles. When people learn they make links between neurons (brain cells). The new learning (red in the diagram), is connected to prior learning (black). This new learning encodes the student’s version of what you have explained. It is called the student’s

• to the student doing it: “I don’t understand this percentage bit.”

• to the teacher: “Quite a few students don’t understand the concept of sensitivity.”

construct for ‘metaphor’, or ‘area’.

This construct will have errors and omissions in it because the student made it, not you. If you are not convinced, at the end of one of your lessons, ask your students to write down what they have just learned on a piece of paper. Collect these in – and read them. You will be astounded at how your perfect explanations have been garbled and corrupted.

Remember that the Quality Learning Cycle can be used to analyse any teaching method to see if it provides the feedback and fixing that students need.

InTuition Issue 22 | Winter 2015 31

Books

Editor’s pick

Thought-provoking suggestions informed by psychology Excerpt: What if everything you knew about education was wrong?

So is there a point to group work? (Pages 77-78) We’ve all encountered pupils who struggle to answer questions and come up with ideas. We know that simply getting them to discuss some possibilities with the student sitting next to them can be sufficient to jolly them along. Maybe they haven’t become more creative and maybe this just gives them less of an excuse for doing nothing. The point of collaboration is that it opens us up to the ideas of others. But so does reading books.

Feel free to have your students work in groups if you must, but don’t pretend there is sufficient evidence out there to support your preferences being foisted on others.

What if everything you knew about education was wrong?

By David Didau Crown House Publishing: hardback 978-1-8459-0963-5 The provocative title explains very clearly the premise of the book.

David Didau asks us to question widely held assumptions about education to both repudiate our long-held beliefs but also, potentially, to reconfirm them.

The approach is similar in tone to many of the discussions on his blog The Learning Spy. The book begins by presenting a number of arguments from the

Other New Publications Learning Teaching from Experience: Multiple Perspectives and International Contexts Edited by Viv Ellis and Janet Orchard Bloomsbury: paperback 978-1-4742-4823-5

field of psychology as to why we need to challenge ‘givens’.

He explores, for example, how evidence put forward about learner achievement, the ideal class size or the impact of assessment, are potentially flawed and that important and wide ranging political and educational decisions are therefore often made on the basis of unreliable evidence.

The main part of the book is spent addressing themes central to educational practice today.

A key area is the notion that learning is measurable – Didau postulates that much of it is not.

Therefore, activities that seek to measure learning are not valid.

Classroom practices are equally open to dispute.

According to Didau we need to question current views on areas such as the teacher’s responsibility for behaviour, the overblown belief in the importance of group work This book unpacks fundamental issues of teacher identity, practice and development and, in so doing, helps to define what professionalism means for educators.

With governments pushing for more teacher training ‘on the job’, it is a very timely – and therefore politically aware – book that offers a detailed exploration of what and how teachers learn from experience and how far this contributes to

32 Issue 22 | Winter 2015 InTuition

(see extract), and the idea that learners should be cognitively comfortable in our lessons.

When a book asks us to question everything, then it is important that it presents compelling evidence for that questioning and Didau draws on a range of sources.

He provides thought-provoking suggestions, informed by psychology, as to how we can take those practices and improve on them. He addresses, for example, ways of improving memory and retention in learners, making our feedback more effective, motivating learners and also using classroom observation as a positive tool.

All of this allows the book to be more inspirational. We might be discouraged by the fact that everything we believed in is potentially false, but we now have ways to move forward.

The examples used and some of the language (pupil,

school), suggest a secondary context, but the points are fully recognisable for the FE world.

The book would be a valuable discussion tool for teacher education and a potential revitaliser for teachers who have been in the profession for longer.

It would be good to think that it might also be read by a policy maker or two, but that might be an aspiration too far.

their ongoing development as professional educators.

The focus is on school teaching largely but don’t let that put you off as the matters discussed apply just as well to further education practitioners.

A Complete Guide to the Level 4 Certificate in Education and Training (2nd edition)

MEMBER OFFER To claim a 20 per cent off this title order from www.bloomsbury.com using code LTFE20. Offer is valid until 31 January 2016.

Jo-Ann Delaney is faculty director of Post Compulsory Education and Training Phase at Canterbury Christ Church University

MEMBER OFFER There is a 20 per cent discount on the RRP for this title for SET members when ordering from www.crownhouse.co.uk and using discount code Whatif. The offer is valid until 31 January 2016.

By Lynn Machin, Duncan Hindmarch, Sandra Murray and Tina Richardson Critical Publishing: paperback 978-1-9103-9109-9 The Complete Guide is a useful text book for trainee further education teachers covering all

https://set.et-foundation.co.uk

Editor’s pick

FE insights make this book familiar, useful and enjoyable Excerpt: Teaching in Further Education: The Inside Story Showing what you can do (page 112) Jenni is anxious about undergoing observation and reads through her old observation checklist.

It includes: • Show you are enthusiastic; • Ensure you have clear objectives and that learners know these; • Make sure outcomes are achievable in the time and appropriate; • Use learners’ names; • Have clear opportunities to assess learners against objective and give feedback; and • Don’t over use resources and have a back-up plan in case the technology fails.

Teaching in Further Education: The Inside Story

By Susan Wallace Critical Publishing: paperback 978-1-9096-8273-3

This is a book that encourages practitioners to look at all areas of their own practice.

Each chapter focuses on a different aspect of teaching, including assessment, inclusion, equality and diversity, working with learners of different ages (including adult learners) and lesson observations.

It also looks at topics such as making the most of a mentor, working with difficult colleagues and being a subject specialist. the mandatory units and with useful additional information on reflective practice, professional development and study skills.

This new edition includes a useful section on the Professional Standards for Teaching and Learning (released by the Education and Training Foundation in 2014), supplemented by a helpful appendix which matches each of the 20 professional standards with relevant chapters.

Unusually, the different aspects and topics are brought to life and made accessible through the imaginative use of narrative and are told through the experiences of a fictitious trainee, a newly qualified teacher and a more experienced teacher.

These fictionalised scenarios, while exaggerated, are based on actual events and may feel familiar to the reader.

Each chapter or ‘story’ is introduced with ‘chapter aims’, encouraging readers to reflect on their own practice. For example, story two (‘Assessing learner needs and assessing learning’), will, among other things, help you to reflect on the importance of clear and constructive feedback, which is an area of particular area interest for me.

The chapters are split into two parts. The first is the

MEMBER OFFER A 20 per cent discount is available when ordering from 01752 202 301. Quote code L4C2015. Valid until 30 January 2016.

The Changing Face of Special Educational Needs (2nd edition)

By Alison Ekins Routledge: paperback 978-1-1387-9782-6

story featuring our fictional practitioners and the second introduces the reader to a series of tasks called ‘critical thinking activities’.

Some of these activities encourage the reader to relate the events and scenarios about which they have just read to their own situations and experiences. Other tasks are more practical and offer exercises designed to help the reader consolidate what they have learned.

In her introduction, the author Susan Wallace says that her book is: “a book of stories; it is also a guidebook and reflective reader on professional practice in further education” and this sums it up perfectly.

It is an accessible book that can be read in full or dipped in and out of depending on topics of interest. Further reading at the end of the book The face of special needs education has changed significantly in the wake of the Children and Families Act 2014 and the introduction of the SEND Code of Practice and the new national framework for special educational needs.

This book, although aimed squarely at school teachers, has been updated to include the latest legislative changes, which apply equally to further

is catalogued by chapter and usefully signposts the reader to in-depth books covering specific topics and issues covered in the stories.

There are a lot of books that reflect on the experiences of teachers and trainee teachers within the schools sector but to read one that is entirely FE-centric was not only very easy to relate to and useful, but it was also enjoyable.

Faye Power is a lecturer in art and design at Leeds College of Art

MEMBER OFFER There is a 20 per cent discount on the RRP for this title for SET members.

Call 01752 202 301 quoting code TIFE15. Valid until 31 January 2016.

education providers and practitioners.

Packed with practical information and activities, it will offer much to FE practitioners and managers.

MEMBER OFFER A 20 per cent discount is available on this title when ordering from www.routledge.com using code SEN15. The offer is valid until 31 January 2016.

InTuition Issue 22 | Winter 2015 33

Forum

A space for practitioners to air their views. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the Society for Education and Training

PEDAGOGUE Let’s nail our colours to the mast Experienced teachers know that we are multi-faceted professionals – we cannot do our job effectively without being so – and I find it interesting that the notion of dual professionalism is rapidly morphing into triple and multiple professionalisms.

Regardless of our poor-cousin status within education, there is a group of knights and dames in shining armour standing steadfastly at our side, jumping to our defence and slaying daft ideas by the score.

This group includes Professors Ann

Hodgson and Ken Spours from the IoE, Professor Bill Lucas from Winchester and, of course, the one in the super-duper shiny suit Professor Frank Coffield, to name but a few, and not forgetting the Society for Education and Training in maintaining recognition of professional status through QTLS. All are contributing to the debate on professionalism. Ann and Ken have produced some excellent stuff on triple and democratic professionalism, Bill has identified the issues with dual professionalism and potential problems in

moving forward and Frank is instrumental in Tutor Voices. Additionally, former IfL president Bea Groves has written movingly about where it all previously went askew.

My problem is that I agree with everything they are saying, but which way should we go? Dual, triple, multiple? Can’t nail my flag to any one mast so to speak.

Time for a banner (I had to Google the collective noun) of our knights and dames to have a damn good root through all these ideas and produce a single model of modern professionalism of which we can all be proud.

My story

Strictly online

When Cat Treanor started her motor vehicle apprenticeship at Derby College she never imagined that she would one day return to teach her former tutors.

“It was so great to return to the college and be able to contribute to the motor vehicle department,” Cat says.

“I brought along homemade pink cupcakes as a thank you and also to ease any pressure I might be feeling!”

Cat trains motor vehicle tutors and assessors in the use of the automotive e-learning platform from Electude. Last year she visited 25 colleges around the country and trained dozens of staff.

“I thought I would be a mechanic for the rest of my working life,” Cat says.

“I never dreamed I would work for an international company like Electude, travelling to the USA, Spain and the Netherlands.”

Like many young people Cat found an apprenticeship suited her style of learning and her plans for employment.

“I’m a practical learner and at school I struggled in exams and writing long essays,” Cat says.

“My tutors at Derby College opened up doors I did not know were available to me. I am very grateful to the staff at Derby, especially my course leader Mathew Curtis.”

Cat, who was the only female motor vehicle apprentice at Derby at the time (there are now eight), went on to do work experience at VW in Germany and she was recognised in the Institute of the Motor Industry outstanding achievers awards.

“I don’t believe women are guided in the right way and they aren’t made aware of the many different career directions you can take with an engineering qualification,” she says.

“I would like to use the position I have been given to support colleges in getting young women into automotive engineering.”

Debate has intensified around the government’s plan for 3 million more apprenticeships, as an FE Week investigation revealed some FE colleges commit a tiny proportion of their adult skills budgets to apprenticeship provision…*

Cat Treanor is a business development manager for Electude UK

34 Issue 22 | Winter 2015 InTuition

A. P. Prentice Just out of interest (FE Week) what do the same figures show for local authorities?

Subcontractor Funding is not directed to training providers who are on the ground but held with colleges that are clearly not spending the money where they should be. another training provider Maybe some colleges just aren’t the answer for the delivery of world class apprenticeships. Work-based learning, in my view, fits better with industry-specialist training groups, independent providers and other consortia approaches.

Colin Gallacher Unfortunately, a significant minority still regard apprenticeships as a useful funding stream but devote little or no interest in identifying the benefits of resourcing their own WBL to match the need of employers and learners.

Steve Hewitt Contrary to most government claims there isn’t an infinite, immediate supply of learners and employers clamouring to do apprenticeships, so colleges can’t just snap their fingers and start delivering them.

Karen The focus has been on a small number of colleges with low % of apprenticeships with no mention of the college’s delivering very well - such as my own with 72% and circa £5.5m and 1,100 employers per annum. * Some comments have been abridged.

Full story and comments at bit.ly/1OIhkFk

https://set.et-foundation.co.uk

NoticeBoard CALENDAR

JANUARY

26

1

7-28

19

The Learning and Work Institute formed (see news p7)

AELP Delivering new Apprenticeship Standards workshops (see below)

AoC Teaching learning NIACE Embedding AoC Capital and and assessment Equality and Diversity Estates conference conference into the Curriculum and exhibition event (see below)

26

26-27

NUS Women in AoC Sport in the AoC Financial Leadership conference Curriculum conference Management in the (see below) Current Climate events

Member events

A number of exclusive professional development events will be held for SET members between the last week in January and the end of February 2016.

Events will be held in Nottingham, Manchester, London, Bristol and Sunderland and will focus on supporting members in their work delivering apprenticeships and specifically transitioning to the new apprenticeship standards.

The events will also cover embedding English and maths for all practitioners with a particular reference to apprenticeship delivery.

Further details will be available at bit.ly/SET_ courses_events

CPD highlights

It can be difficult to find the time to attend face-to-face professional development events – but help is at hand.

David Powell and Tim Strickland will be presenting highlights in a new SET webinar from their recent SET continuing professional development sessions on embedding the 2014 Professional Standards and using IT to support curriculum delivery.

Future webinars include a look at autism in January and apprenticeships in February.

To listen to David and Tim’s webinar go to bit.ly/SET_ webinars

19

21

11 FEBRUARY

NIACE e-learning tools for English and Maths teaching workshop

and effective ways to deliver teaching, learning and assessment. Among the topics covered will be the new common inspection framework and how to embed key Ofsted criteria in teaching and learning. www.aoc-create.co.uk/ event/teachinglearning andassessment

Online learning Don’t forget to visit Foundation Online Learning for all your professional development and updating needs.

The site offers resources in maths and English, support for Prevent duties, equality and diversity, the Professional Standards, material for those new to the sector, for governors and for leaders.

Registering is straight forward and once logged in you can select the categories in which you are interested. www.foundationonline.org.uk

Apprenticeship support

Information, resources, a community of practice and podcasts are just some of the resources available for those engaged in delivering and developing apprenticeships.

All resources are available Apprenticeships Staff Support Programme (ASSP) website.

Equivalent resources are on the Traineeship Staff Support Programme (TSSP) site.

ASSP and TSSP were funded by the Education and Training Foundation and delivered by the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) in conjunction with partner bodies in further education. www.apprenticeship-staffsupport.co.uk www.traineeship-staffsupport.co.uk

Women leaders

The National Union of Students’ Women in Leadership Conference will be held on 26 January in Sheffield.

Despite there being more women than men studying in

E&D workshop

education, there are relatively few women leaders in the student movement.

The keynote speaker is feminist writer Laura Bates the founder of The Everyday Sexism Project For details email events@ nus.org.uk

New professorship

Martin Doel, the chief executive of the Association of Colleges, has been appointed to The Further Education Trust for Leadership’s (FETL’s) Professorship for FE and Skills at the UCL Institute of Education. Martin will take up the chair on 1 April 2016 on a part-time basis, moving to full-time in September 2016.

TLA conference

Teachers, trainers and managers are among those expected to attend the Association of Colleges’ Teaching, Learning and Assessment Conference on 19 January.

The London conference seeks to highlight innovative

NIACE’s one-day course aims to enable participants to develop an understanding of what equality and diversity actually mean by dispelling myths surrounding the topic.

A key feature of the programme will be the importance of embedding equality and diversity into the delivery of a curriculum. The course, held on 19 January in London, is designed for vocational tutors, assessors and support tutors. www.niace.org.uk/our-events/all

Apprenticeship workshops A series of workshops in January will give practitioners the chance to learn about and discuss the new apprenticeship standards and the transition from the existing frameworks.

The one-day Future Apprenticeships: Delivering New Apprenticeship Standards Workshops run from 7 to 28 January and will be held in locations around England.

For details visit bit.ly/AELP_ apprenticeships

InTuition Issue 22 | Winter 2015 35

Supporting state funded colleges across the UK with access to high impact professional development.

Project ENTHUSE is a unique partnership of government, charities and employers that have come together to bring about inspired STEM teaching, through the continuing professional development (CPD) of teachers, technicians and support staff across the UK. Project ENTHUSE CPD activities are held at the National STEM Learning Centre and offer: • world-class subject specific face-to-face residential CPD to inspire STEM educators • CPD lead by world-class experts in STEM education • access to over 9,000 online and 25,000 physical STEM teaching resources • generous Project ENTHUSE financial bursaries • onsite business class accommodation and catering

www.stem.org.uk ENTHUSE AWARDS Bursaries available to all state funded schools and colleges in the UK to support participation in professional development through the National Science Learning Centre and partners in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.

■ www.stem.org.uk/enthuse

INTENSIVE ENTHUSE AWARDS £5,000 bursaries to support in-school, consultant led professional development for state schools and colleges in England that have not participated in Project ENTHUSE supported professional development in the last five years.

■ www.stem.org.uk/intensive-enthuse

TEACHER INDUSTRIAL PARTNERS’ SCHEME TEACHER ACADEMIC PLACEMENT SCHEME To ensure that your students are informed for the next academic or industrial phase of their lives, it is crucial that teachers keep up-to-date with both modern career options and routes into academia. Being part of the Teacher Industrial Partners’ Scheme or the Teacher Academic Placement Scheme provides the perfect opportunity for STEM teachers to step out of the classroom and experience the world of industry or a cutting edge biochemistry department. The skills learned from the scheme will enable teachers to better advise students, create partnership links with industry or a university and support the contextualised teaching of the STEM curriculum.

Placements happen throughout the year with universities and employers across the country. To support with the cost of your teacher leaving the classroom, a generous bursary is available to state funded schools, academies and colleges.

■ www.stem.org.uk/tips ■ www.stem.org.uk/taps

The ENTHUSE Partners are the Wellcome Trust, the Department for Education, BAE Systems, Biochemical Society, BP, Institution of Engineering and Technology, Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Rolls-Royce and the Royal Society of Chemistry.