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