Quality Assurance and Teacher Education in

Scotland

Brian Hudson and Teresa Moran

Friday 27th August 2010

Symposium on Quality Culture in Teacher Education

ECER 2010, University of Helsinki

QA Context

� Central role of the university or degree awarding institution accredited by the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) which was established in 1965.

� In order to meet the Standard for Initial Teacher Education, programmes must … develop in student teachers the flexibility to play a positive part in new educational developments, such as A Curriculum for Excellence, by encouraging a disposition for professional enquiry.

� A time of a national inquiry into the future of Teacher Education in Scotland led by the former Chief Inspector of Schools and of uncertainty about the future with regard to numbers of places oninitial teacher education courses.

On Quality Culture

� … move away from a mechanistic to a holistic and cultural view ofquality in education … involving an emerging understanding that quality development calls for the development of an organisationalculture based on shared values, necessary competencies and new professionalism (Ehlers, 2009)

� A main problem which is addressed is that even though sometimes effective organisational processes have been implemented, the educational quality (e.g. answering the question “what is good learning?”) is still lagging behind, and teaching strategies of educators or learning strategies of students have not been improved. (Ehlers, 2009, p 344)

Research Questions

� What kinds of QA methods are used at a national level and what kinds of consequences do they have on objectives, contents and structures of teacher education, resources, and effectiveness?

� What kinds of QA methods are used at a HE institutional level and what kinds of consequences do they have on teacher education curriculum, organizational culture, resource allocation and infrastructure, teachers’ professional development and their competencies.

� How do national and institutional QA methods ensure teacher competence in certain critical areas such as active and collaborative learning and knowledge creation, ICT pedagogical applications, and inclusive education.

� How are QA methods applied to the continuum of teacher education as life-long learning?

Approach and Methods

� The study is being carried out within the framework of “communicative evaluation” (Niemi and Kemmis, 1999) involving three central functions of revelation, anticipation and building communication and partnership

� Specific methods of data collection for this paper include:

� national and institutional documents and policy papers;

� initial responses from Deans of Education and policy stakeholders to a questionnaire;

� the response to the review of teacher education in Scotland by Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE, 2010) and also that of the General Teaching Council of Scotland (GTCS, 2010b).

QA methods at a national level

� Particular strengths of the QA methods in Scotland are the relative consistency of approach and consistency of standards based on having agreed the Memorandum on Entry Requirements for Courses of Initial Teacher Education in Scotland; the Guidelines for Initial Teacher Education Courses in Scotland; the Standards forInitial Teacher Education, Full Registration, Chartered Teacher and Headship combined with the GTCS accreditation mechanisms and framework of rules, policies, protocols, codes of practice and codes of conduct (GTCS, 2010a).

� Areas for development – beginning to develop “better overall coherence of provision” (Policy Stakeholder) across ITE, Induction and CPD; “reducing the burden of accreditation mechanisms” (PS) and for closer working between GTCS with senior management level of universities to ensure adequate resources for ITE programmes (Dean).

QA methods at an institutional level - areas for

improvement

� Consistency of approach� “On the whole I feel that the procedures at institutional level within this

institution work well. There is clearly an appreciation of the importance of vocational training and that is valued. With experience of examining programmes for other universities I am not convinced this is always the case.” (Dean)

� Commitment to ITE� “Concerns over … the commitment to ITE of individual universities; the

balance of commitment in some universities between research and teaching and the staffing levels in some universities” (GTCS, 2010b)

� Partnership � “Partnerships between universities, local authorities and schools still

need to improve.” (Policy stakeholder)

� “Concerns over … the strength of some ITE partnerships” (GTCS, 2010b)

How do national and institutional QA methods

ensure teacher competence?

� “Achievement is patchy in some of these areas. Better overall coherence and more explicit expectations would be of benefit.”(Policy Stakeholder)

� “Until recently it would have been difficult to see this other than in relation to individual programmes. The work of the STEC Inclusion group in developing the National Framework for Inclusion saw theteam engaging in a process whereby all universities worked collaboratively to achieve the aim of furthering the understanding of teacher educators as well as teachers in the area of inclusion.”(Dean)

� “Standards are not set in stone and Scotland has been fortunate that consensual approaches have been agreed across the various interest groups and stakeholders.” (Policy Stakeholder)

How are QA methods applied to the continuum

of teacher education? Areas for improvement

� “Clearer understanding of the complementary roles of universitiesand schools.” (Policy Stakeholder)

� “It would be good to see Universities provide a programme of CPD which looks at short non-award bearing courses as well as award bearing programmes.” (Dean)

� “The place of universities in providing/supporting ongoing professional development for teachers needs to be further developed.” (Policy Stakeholder)

Areas for development in relation to EU agenda

on Improving Teacher Quality

� Areas of agreement on the need for improvement included:

� levels of student and teacher mobility,

� support for teachers throughout their career in the form of CPD,

� QA systems for CPD,

� training and support for school leaders

� resources for TE

� Other issues raised included those relating to subject knowledge, Masters level entry qualifications and the balance between research and teaching in higher education.

Key Issues identified by the Royal Society of

Edinburgh

� The RSE recommends an extension of the role of GTCS to a College of Teachers and national leadership, by teachers for teachers, in all three aspects of teacher education.

� It is important that TE’s three elements … emphasise educational leadership which is essential to education and its reform.

� Priority should be given to the need for TE to be keeping pace with changing needs of communities and looking forward to new ways oflearning and teaching.

� It is important that partnership is addressed.

� It is essential that research and evaluation of high quality is undertaken in order to generate much more fundamental understanding of the linkage between teacher education, curricular effectiveness and the broad range of achievements of pupils.

References

� CEC (2007) Communication from the Commission of the European Communities to the Council and the European Parliament. Improving the Quality of Teacher Education. COM(2007) 392 final. Brussels, 3.8.2007.

� CEC (2008) Conclusions of the Council and of the Representatives of the Governments of the Member States, meeting within the Council of 21 November 2008 on preparing young people for the 21st century: an agenda for European cooperation on schools (OJ 2008/C 319/08)

� 3 CEC (2009) Conclusions of the Council and of the Representatives of the Governments of the Member States, meeting within the Council of 26 November 2009 on the professional development of teachers and school leaders (OJ 2009/C 302/04)

� Ehlers, U. D. (2009) Understanding quality culture, Quality Assurance in Education, Vol. 17, 4, pp. 343 – 363.

References

� GTCS (2010a) Standards and Regulations, General Teaching Council Scotland [WWW document archive] URL http://www.gtcs.org.uk/Publications/StandardsandRegulations/StandardsandRegulations.aspx (Visited on 14 August 2010)

� GTCS (2010b) Review of Teacher Education in Scotland - GTC Scotland response, July 2010. [WWW document] URL http://www.gtcs.org.uk/News/review-of-teacher-education-gtc-scotland-response.aspx (Visited on 14 August 2010)

� Niemi, H. and Kemmis, S. (1999) Communicative evaluation: evaluation at the crossroads, Lifelong Learning in Europe (LLinE), Vol. IV, No.1, 55–64.

� Review of Teacher Education in Scotland (2010) [WWW site] URL http://www.reviewofteachereducationinscotland.org.uk/ (Visited on 14 August 2010)

� RSE (2010) GRAHAM DONALDSON’S REVIEW OF TEACHER EDUCATION IN SCOTLAND: a response from the RSE Education Committee to the call for evidence, The Royal Society of Edinburgh, Advice Paper (10-07), June 2010. [WWW document] URL http://www.royalsoced.org.uk/govt_responses/2010/AD10_07.pdf(Visited on 14 August 2010)