TEACHING: THE LEARNING PROFESSION
Speech by Gary Brace, Chief Executive, General Teaching Council for Wales at UWIC School of Education dinner, 17 April 2008
Introduction
Minister, Chairman, Vice-Chancellor, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for the invitation to give tonight’s address. I am honoured and privileged to have been asked.
We have much to be proud of in terms of the developing picture of teacher professionalism in Wales and you at UWIC’s School of Education have contributed and continue to contribute greatly to the direction it is taking.
Of course it’s only 8 years ago that the notion of someone from the professional body for teaching giving an address such as this was unthinkable. A lot of water has past under that bridge, and, whilst there is still one union that seems to voice their opposition to almost everything the Council does (mind you that same union seems to oppose everything anyone does - so we are in good company!), the reality is that the Council has long since established itself, and, alongside its regulatory and operational functions, I believe that in a short space of time the GTC has provided national leadership in taking forward teaching as a profession in Wales.
I hope you will forgive me if from time to time I refer to ‘the work of the Council’ and ‘the development of the profession’ interchangeably. Certainly the development of the profession in the interests of pupils and the public is its raison d’etre, and, more often than not, this is the natural ‘mind set’ of Council when approaching its work. To quote one of the twin aims of the Council in the Act of Parliament which established, it is natural for us to think of “improving the standards of teaching and the quality of learning”. I have always thought that the Council did things on behalf of the profession rather than to the profession. Certainly some of what I say about the direction the profession is taking is what we as a Council have already recommended or is our view of how the world should be.
It is my contention that we are in the midst of a massive culture change in the profession which has the following characteristics:
Professional expectations as was
But of course it’s not that long ago that the achievement of Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) was end of story - at least in terms of national policy and local practice. Certainly as a new teacher myself in the mid 70’s, I thought I was more or less the finished article when I received my letter from the DES. My arrogance was probably reinforced by having received a distinction in teaching practice during my PGCE year and having been described as “outstanding student of the year” for which I was mercilessly ribbed by one staff colleague for years. I had worked out a teaching approach that worked for me and that I was content with, but as to whether it could have been further improved, there is no doubt. The point is that I had not been prepared in my PGCE year to expect a career of lifelong learning and development myself. And neither was there an expectation and certainly no dialogue in the school that I needed to be continuously supported and developed – although I was allowed to go on INSET days. The professional development culture was alien. It’s true that I had a ‘probationary’ year - but for me this was an experience in name only – my letter saying that I had passed at the end of year was presumably based on the single unannounced visit from the LEA adviser who I never met before or saw again. My experience was not unique, but, thankfully, neither was it common as there were others who were properly supported in other LEAs. And the shocking thing is that this is the way the professional structure for teaching remained until the late 90’s and early parts of this century. In fact even the probationary year disappeared in the 90’s.
Apart from the inevitable conclusion that it was only the initial teaching qualification that was important, the idea that there we might have post-qualification standards or expectations of teachers at different stages of teaching was viewed with suspicion for a variety of reasons. Presumably, the ‘better’ teachers (or more forceful ones or ones who played the system) would ‘come to the top’ by some form of natural selection and become heads of department, senior teachers and headteachers. Any external intervention would simply mean placing hurdles to the progression of good teachers. We simply ignored the fact that a good teacher might be a completely useless manager or leader of other teachers.
Plenty of ‘INSET’ existed of course and there was some excellent provision on the part of HEIs particularly in the 70’s and early 80’s and particularly in secondary – I’m thinking of training and development linked to the Schools Council projects, some pre-GCSE syllabus development and the HMI short and long courses. But the notion of professional development linked to post-qualification national standards has taken a long time to start to enter the consciousness. Even when it did in the mid 90’s, national standards such as for SENCOs and subject leaders were non-statutory.
Professional expectations now
I am pleased to say that we have moved a very long way in recent years.
The first new expectation which we have had of teachers post-QTS is statutory induction. Introduced by the Assembly Government in Wales in 2003, we now expect all new teachers to show that they can do the job in practice for a year. They have to demonstrate that the end of induction standards are met, but, just as important, are the support systems put in place to help new teachers do so and embark on a career of lifelong learning – a guaranteed mentor in the school and funded support for their professional development and for them to meet with their mentor during the year. But the existence of this standard is a radical step. We have moved the important goalpost beyond QTS by saying to teachers that unless you pass the induction standard, your qualification is insufficient to let you continue in a post in a publicly funded school.
To emphasise the support element further, we in Wales have a unique element in the UK of guaranteed funded professional development for new teachers in the second and third years of their careers. More about this later.
At the other end of the scale, for our school leaders the Assembly Government introduced an extensive National Headship Development Programme with the National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH) as the centrepiece qualification. This has been mandatory for all new headteachers since 2005. What pleases me about the national standards for headship that underpin the NPQH in Wales is that the head is described as the ’lead practitioner’. It emphasises the central role of the headteacher in leading teaching and learning. The head is also required to be a registered teacher, further emphasising that leading learning is the core role. The idea of an executive head without a teaching qualification is simply not possible in Wales and long may it remain so. And, just in case there was a danger of heads falling into the same trap as arrogant NQTs who thought they had finished learning once they qualified, professional learning doesn’t stop with NPQH either - support continues with the induction programme for new headteachers in their first post.
It is plain to see where the gap is. The vast majority of teachers are neither at the start of their careers or aspiring to headship. We identified the need to set out some professional expectations for highly skilled classroom practitioners and middle leaders to form the basis of quality assured professional development programmes. We set these expectations out in professionally led ‘Chartered Teacher standards’ which focus on ‘professional knowledge and understanding’, ‘professional skills in practice’ and ‘professional commitment’. Although still at the start of a pilot phase, we are getting some very positive reports from the early Chartered Teacher modules. Four pilot modules have been completed or are under way and the accrediaation or portfolio route. A further six pilot modules will commence in the this financial year. For example, UWIC ‘s module “Improving Practice through Action Research” seems to hit the nail on the head - a focus on pedagogy and the need for teachers to constantly evaluate the impact of their teaching. We need to learn from the evaluation of the pilot ( and if it is not known now, the evaluation is going to be led by David Egan at UWIC’s new Institute for Applied Educational Research) and we need to ensure that Chartered Teacher when, as I hope, Council takes the decision to mainstream it, genuinely does make a major contribution to helping teachers continue to develop professionally.
And our Chartered Teacher is a Wales solution – there is no parallel in England and it differs in two fundamental respects from the Scottish Chartered Teacher scheme – it is not linked to pay and it caters for both classroom practitioners and middle leaders.
So these three post-qualification standards are some of the external drivers of continuing professional learning.
What is missing from this – apart from the Chartered Teacher programme - is the profession’s ownership of the expectations. Whilst running the risk of being accused of empire building, wouldn’t it be a radical, but not ridiculous step, if the profession through its professional body, rather than Government, were to be made responsible for standards and the quality assurance of provision? After all, we don’t bat an eyelid that professional bodies for doctors, nurses, accountants, engineers and many others should prescribe the standards and accredit the initial and the continuing education programmes for their professions. Yet for some reason it is different in teaching – apart from in Scotland, (where next year we are going to see a radical departure with GTCS breaking free entirely from government controls and acting as a fully independent professional body). It is professional expertise not government policy that should be responsible for setting out the professional expectations.
A changing reality of practice
But it’s not just the professional expectations and structure of support that is changing. Parallel with this, there are real changes in the practice of teachers and the way teachers think. The days of the classroom empire in which teacher was Caesar and which barbarian hordes (other teachers in the school!) invaded the classroom borders have gone or are going to a large degree. One only has to look at the impact of the teaching assistant in the classroom or the approach taken in the Foundation Phase to see how teachers now think of themselves as managers of a wider range of human resources in the classroom. Teachers are opening up their classrooms to observation by their colleagues – albeit many reluctantly at first, for fear of being shown to be lacking in subject knowledge or classroom management technique or teaching skills. But teachers are increasingly coming to view themselves as experts in the field of their ‘unique subject knowledge’ i.e. that ‘unique subject knowledge’ of teaching and what works to motivate children to learn and to continue developing. We should be very pleased indeed with this as it contributes to professional self-confidence and enables the sharing of practice.
As a GTC, we have been encouraging shared practice. For example, this last year we set aside 7% of the individually focussed CPD funding programme that we administer on behalf of the Assembly Government for teachers to disseminate their professional learning experiences. Some of these have been events which have involved working with LEAs, HEIs and other organisations to provide a platform for teachers who have developed their own practice through the professional development funding, in order to share their learning with other colleagues. This, in turn, has encouraged attendees at the nine events we‘ve jointly organised to try similar things out themselves or to be motivated to dip their toe into the CPD pond. Our plan is for some pan-Wales fertilisation of professional learning to take place in the course of our current operational year. The GTC will be holding a single national event centred around a common professional theme – at which teachers will be able to share their professional learning across LEA boundaries.
Let me give you a few examples of the way we can see real changes actually taking place in teachers’ approach to their development and learning.
Firstly our new teachers. As a School of Education, you will know all about these of course. Mal Davies, headteacher of Willows High School here in Cardiff and Chair of the GTCW says that in recent years the young teachers he has seen in his school are the best ever. Their enthusiasm, preparedness and commitment is second to none. This bodes well for the future. And, of course, with a statutory Induction year followed by an entitlement to 2 years of Early Professional Development, they are coming in with the expectation that their professional learning has only just begun. They have expectations of being supported and to have opportunities throughout their professional careers that will develop their own professional and career ambitions.
We now have just under 5000 teachers who have been supported to meet the statutory induction standards since it was introduced in 2003. If all of these were still teaching, it would mean that already about 15% of our teachers would have had a supported start to their careers. This will be increasing at the rate of about 1000 teachers per year.
An induction year teacher referring to her professional development activities said that they “have helped me develop my skills within the classroom and realise what I need to work on. This, in turn, has improved my confidence and has made me keen to keep on developing my teaching.” One secondary teacher of Welsh in his third year of teaching said this when asked about the value of his early professional development experience “EPD has made me realise that I will be forever learning, changing and developing for the better in the interests of our children’s education.” Another third year secondary history teacher commented on the facility for teachers, “to stand back and reflect on their teaching practice. Teaching is a hectic profession and the opportunity to be removed from that environment for a while enables you to take stock and develop strategies for moving forward”.
The induction and EPD support systems also enhance the role of the school based mentor by strengthening school based professional learning cultures. We have also tried to reflect the important function of mentoring in the Chartered Teacher standards, for example, Chartered Teachers “will take a lead in advising and assisting colleagues to create and sustain a positive climate for learning”.
Secondly, more experienced teachers have benefited since 2001 from the individually focused funding programme administered by the GTC on behalf of the Welsh Assembly Government. Over 25,000 funding opportunities have been taken up so far - 5,800 in the last year alone. And being in control of your professional learning and being given the funds to facilitate it, is clearly addictive. In the 2006-07 year, just under 50% of the teachers who applied for funding had applied at least one before in the previous four years.
Let me give you some examples of how individual needs informed by professional dialogue in performance management lead to a variety of types of activity. We have seen areas of activity increase and decrease over the years to reflect teachers’ familiarity or otherwise with certain issues. Not surprisingly, assessment featured strongly in recent years, so the examples I’m going to mention now are taken from this field.
A secondary English co-ordinator in North Wales developed her skills in assessment of reading using former ACCAC KS2 Optional Assessment Materials. This led to a further developed departmental moderation and a portfolio and improved standardisation across the primary/ secondary transition.
A number of teachers in North Wales primary schools developed strategies for formative assessment though observation of good practice in schools and at the same time giving a raised profile for key skills. This also drew on findings from neuroscience in a programme they call ‘mind friendly’ learning.
One infant teacher with responsibility for leading ‘assessment for learning’ observed practice and shared practice/strategies and lesson ideas and was better equipped to play her part in assisting other teachers to incorporate AfL in their planning.
A network of primary assistant headteachers again developed formative assessment techniques such as effective questioning, children generating success criteria and self evaluation, discussed and trialled these approaches.
Thirdly, the school as a learning community. We know that a school is not just a place where pupils learn, but a whole learning community for teachers, the wider staff, as well as a potential centre of learning for the geographical community in which it is located. A few examples will illustrate the impact of schools which are in themselves networks of effective practice.
Three ICT teachers from a Vale of Glamorgan secondary school created a school based network to develop their understanding of the Diploma in Digital Applications (equivalent to 4 GCSE’s). They were particularly concerned to develop their own understanding of the demands of the higher grade boundaries so that their pupils could improve. Four teachers in the same school developed creative approaches to MFL teaching through using Interactive Whiteboard. This led to greater sophistication in the use of the technology and helped with underachieving boys.
The headteacher and three teachers attended from a Cardiff secondary school attended an international thinking skills conference in Sweden and were able to engage directly with the likes of Eduard de Bono and Guy Claxton. The conference helped the senior team identify outstanding practice and enabled them to work collaboratively with their colleagues back at the school to further develop their already well-honed approaches to thinking and learning.
Four middle leaders from a Cardiff primary school in a socio-economically deprived area developed their middle leader skills through course attendance and action research. They have improved their understanding of leadership styles, distributed leadership in practice and implemented their learning in schools.
What else needs to happen?
More needs to be done to bring about the circumstances where we can say that we truly have a coherent, progressive and quality assured system of CPD in Wales. There are some other building blocks which will assist in bringing about a learning profession.
The GTCW has set these issues out in three major sets of advice on creating a Professional Development Framework for Teachers.
Firstly, we need to learn from the Chartered Teacher pilot, mainstream it and use it as the cornerstone for improving classroom practice and middle leadership in schools. HEIs have embraced this enthusiastically. We need to do more to get full buy-in from LEAs.
Secondly, we need to move to a coherent system of accreditation within the HE framework that parallels the key professional steps from QTS through to headship. With Masters credits now being awarded for some PGCE courses and in the context of the recent statement in England about moving to a ‘Masters level profession’, my personal prediction is that Chartered Teacher ought to and will relate to Masters Level and that we will conclude in time that NPQH should relate to doctoral level.
Thirdly, we desperately need to review all the standards as a piece to ensure that there is coherence and progression. GTCW is going to lead a piece of work on this year in order to advise the Assembly.
Fourthly, we need to assist teacher in the process of reflection and recording through a web-based portfolio. In the absence of any response from the Assembly Government to our advice on this last autumn, we are in the early stages of discussing a possible format with other partners.
Lastly, we need to raise the quality of CPD provision through a Code of Practice for providers and a Register of accredited providers with the courses they offer.
Conclusion
We all know that there is a professional pride which emanates from being at the top of one’s game and constantly re-assessing, re-evaluating one’s work in order to strive for constant improvement. It is my personal desire to bring about the circumstances which allows that attitude and culture to prevail in teaching – in my view these are a coherent and progressive professional framework which assists in recognising the highly skilled teacher and allows him or her to develop; good funding for CPD; and quality assured provision. I certainly have no truck with one union’s argument that all CPD should be paid for and should be considered to be additional to the normal work of the teacher. To quote one union officer “I don’t know where all this CPD is going to stop”! That’s the whole point, the ‘C’ in ‘CPD’ means it doesn’t. It is goes with the territory of being a professional rather than a technician.
Only by maintaining the balance between the rightful ‘top down’ priorities of schools and governments and the ‘bottom up’ drive from teachers to improve their professional practice will we maintain the cultural change that it is taking place.
But we must continue to provide opportunities for teachers to develop as individuals and not to revert to a funding system in which professional development is only a thing ‘done to teachers’ rather than something over which they have some control and ownership.
The culture shift that I have been describing is in progress now but it is not yet uniform across schools and across the profession. We just need a little more joined-up policy at central and local level and a little less defensiveness about roles and powers at local level before the dam is burst and the river becomes an unstoppable torrent.
Thank you.
