Partnership working in Scotland: the evolution of a new model of Early Phase teacher education
Moyra Boland
• Mergers of Colleges of Education with universities (around the turn of the millennium)
• Economic factors (student numbers, prices, staffing levels fluctuated, cost of conventional assessments)
Context
Catalysts
• Rapid and deepening engagement of some staff with international teacher education research• Policy context – need to improve the quality of School Experience placements
Olwen Mcnamara, Peter Gilroy, Anne Edwards, Donald McIntyre, Hazel Hagger, Ian Menter, Christine Forde, Marilyn Cochran-Smith, Linda Darling Hammond, Kenneth Zeichner, Judyth Sachs, Helen Timperley, Sharon Feiman-Nemser, Bob Lingard...
Research Influences: inter alia
• Philosophical influence• Based on a high view of teacher
professionalism• Hannah Arendt The Human Condition• “Plato opens a gulf between the two modes of action, archein
and prattein (“beginning” and “achieving”), which according to Greek understanding were interconnected....Plato was the first to introduce the division between those who know and do not act and those who act and do not know, instead of the old articulation of action into beginning and achieving, so that knowing what to do and doing it became two altogether different performances.” (1958; 1998 pp.222-223)
Technicist construction of teacher Progressive construction of teacher
Teachers receive knowledge Teachers generate knowledge
Teachers implement policy Teachers engage in policy-making processes
Teachers are largely passive in the policy space and active in the classroom
Teachers are active in both spaces
Teachers have reducing autonomy Teachers have autonomy generated by and justified by their practice
Classrooms confine teachers Teachers discuss learning and teaching issues together
Teachers ‘deliver’ learning Teachers give informed quality teaching
Leadership is hierarchical Leadership is distributed
Teachers are disempowered Teachers are empowered
Policy Imperative: Teaching Scotland’s Future (2011)“Seventy-eight per cent of respondents to our online
survey (n=2381) indicated that the support they received from the school during placements was 'very effective or 'effective'. Fifty-one per cent said that the support from their university was 'very effective' or 'effective', but 20% said support from the university was 'very ineffective' or 'ineffective'.
We need to find ways of encouraging and assuring a more consistently high quality of placements within initial teacher education.” (p.43)
• Necessitates partnership: could not do this on our own–Glasgow City Council–2 secondary schools–11 primary schools–29 student volunteers–2 x 0.5 university tutors (interviewed by GCC and UG)
• Imperatives of collaboration and communication
learn
ing
co ordination
communication
feedback
support support
Clinical Model2012
Key features of the model
• University staff committed to working in school clusters for placement duration supervising 27 students FTE
• Seminars• Learning rounds• Joint assessment
Changing student experience
• Structured learning experiences in school• Dual sites of learning – blending of theory and
practice across both sites• Primary and secondary students working together
in clusters • Robust assessment – no mixed messages
Changing roles of teachers
• Equal partners• Complementary roles• Affirmed as curricular experts• Re-engagement with professional knowledge and
understanding• Career-long teacher learning
Changing roles of university tutors
• Changing professional identity• Theoretically-informed pedagogical experts• Focussed on enabling clinical reasoning in teacher
candidates• Facilitating joint assessment – combines the day-to-
day classroom expert with the tutor who knows about teacher candidate development
The
The Future
• Career-long professional learning linking to professional standards
• Government funding• Masters-level profession• Better outcomes for children in Scotland