Issues in teacher education

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Issues in teacher education

• Professionalism and
• quality assurance

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My focus

• How do we build professionalism in teaching?
• How do we ensure quality in teaching and teacher
  education?
• The professionalization of teaching at the
  various sites where teachers learn to teach.
• How can we make quality teaching and student
  learning the heart or professionalism and how can
  we develop and ensure this professionalism over
  time?

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How do we learn to teach and refine the craft?

• Initial teacher education programme during
  student teaching
• On the Job - The first years of teaching. the
  school as employer
• Quality assurance the structures that ensure
  quality and professionalism

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The teacher education programme

• 4 pillars of Content, Methods, Theory or
  Education courses and Student teaching

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What should student teachers learn that will link
to later learning at other stages of a career?
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Skills tools to study teaching

• Habits and skills necessary for the ongoing study
  of teaching in the company of colleagues.
• Collaboration with other teachers needed to
  learn demands and possibilities of teaching
• Skills of question posing, observation,
  documentation, interpretation and analysis.

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Skills tools to study teaching (cont)

• Disposition and desire to question and improve.
• The norms of professional discourse such as
  respecting evidence and other perspectives, the
  vocabulary of teaching, and ways of conversing
  about teaching.

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The site for Student teaching

• Student teachers learn habits, attitudes and
  dispositions that can last a long time.
• We must provide the appropriate learning
  environment in the school where teachers learn
  the practice of teaching.
• having a classroom designed for such learning,
• a teacher who provides guidance and direction,
  who can be a good model,
• opportunity to discuss, think, and talk about
  teaching, subject matter, teaching and bases for
  action

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The site for Student teaching (cont)

• The proper school culture
• Focus on high expectations
• Learning on the part of teachers and students
• At present we have situations where the young
  teacher is discouraged from trying out new ideas
  from being conscientious, from using teaching
  methods and materials from college

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Needed!

• More collaboration and co-ordination among the
  various stakeholders in teacher education the
  colleges, the schools and the Ministry of
  Education which oversees policy with respect to
  learning the practice of teaching.

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The first years on the job

• The paradox and difficulties of learning during
  the first years
• Doing and learning
• Performing and creating meaning in students
• Uncertainty about outcomes
• Workload overload and stress
• Students who do not learn

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What we know can happen

• First year teachers given the most difficult
  class or the class with many students having
  learning or behaviour problems.
• Student teacher or the beginning teacher gets the
  message that newfangled ideas from the college
  do not work or will only tire you out.
• Culture of leave alone and work alone, of
  politeness, and a disinclination to confront
  differences and incompetence.

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What we know can happen (cont)

• The culture of the school works against reform
  minded teaching and improvement
• This does not build professionalism.
• The culture of the school how to change it must
  be addressed if we want to enhance
  professionalism and teacher quality.

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Supervision and support at the school site are
critical
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Possible approaches

• Different models for providing new teacher
  support. E.g. mentoring
• Well planned programmes of induction made a
  difference to teaching quality and to teacher
  retention.
• The research. Teachers who experienced a good
  induction programme with competent mentors, and
  who understood their role were less likely to
  leave teaching after 3 years and were more likely
  to express satisfaction with teaching.

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Maintaining quality

• But to maintain professionalism and ensure
  quality, we must in addition, consider the ways
  in which quality and professionalism can be
  structured into the profession.
• The question is How can we make quality teaching
  and student learning the heart or professionalism
  and how can we develop and ensure this
  professionalism over time?

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What we must insist on

• So if we want to professionalize teaching and
  maintain standards of quality, these two
  conditions for teacher learning must exist
• conditions for the student teacher to learn and
  pick up good habits and dispositions and the
  tools to study teaching,
• conditions for good mentoring of newly qualified
  teachers.

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The result

• If we achieve these basic conditions on which to
  build our profession, we will go a long way in
  achieving quality as well as professionalism
• We will set the stage for the professionalization
  of teaching

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Maintaining quality

• This question has become more urgent as we move
  toward a graduate teaching force.
• Greater emphasis and scrutiny on the colleges as
  institutions of higher learning,
• Greater scrutiny on the profession to maintain
  standards of teaching and the standards of degree
  granting institutions.
• Quality assurance and accreditation have
  therefore become issues of increasing salience.

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How should this be done?

• How can we make quality teaching and student
  learning the heart or professionalism and how can
  we develop and ensure this professionalism over
  time?

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Needed a system of

• Validation and Quality assurance
• Ongoing developmental support
• Accreditation

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What is quality assurance?

• In essence, quality assurance is about ensuring
  that standards are specific and met consistently
  for a product or service (Ellis, 1995, 3).
• It describes all the systems, resources and
  information that colleges and universities use to
  maintain and improve standards and quality.
• Quality assurance is essential if a profession
  wants to ensure the quality of its product - in
  this case student learning - and that members
  in this case teachers - adhere to professional
  standards.

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What we now have

• The University College of Jamaica (UCJ)
  established to register all public and private
  higher education institutions
• Has assumed role of accrediting tertiary and
  higher education institutions that offer general
  degrees.
• Accreditation of professional programmes in
  medicine, nursing, engineering and
  teaching/teacher education - has so far been
  carried out by special bodies.

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Teacher education

• Accreditation, validation and quality assurance
  in teacher education have been carried out by the
  JBTE/UWI for the Diploma programme in the
  colleges.
• The JBTE has carried out this function in a
  developmentally supportive way with ongoing
  support and colleagueship with colleges.

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Teacher education (cont)

• An arrangement of having a specific agency for
  quality assurance for professional bodies is
  similar to what exists in the UK.
• A Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) responsible for
  ensuring quality in academic programmes, but
  special regulatory agencies established to
  regulate professions such as medicine,teaching.
• The provision of support in a developmental
  manner is similar to what CNAA provided to
  colleges of education as they moved to University
  status.

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QA and programmes

• The need for developmental support, validation
  and accreditation for the purpose of quality
  assurance will not lessen as the colleges become
  degree granting.
• Upgrading to degree level makes this work even
  more critical.
• Need to accredit programmes and courses
• Need to accredit the professional aspects of the
  programme.

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QA and Institutions

• Need to examine and scrutinize institutional
  structures and arrangements for the delivery of
  such programmes
• Need to examine structures and processes for
  student development and for continuing
  professional development of teacher educators

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What criteria?

• There must be a consensus on the criteria for
  quality initial teacher preparation
• Mechanism for developing, communicating and
  enforcing those standards
• Criteria must include those related to the
  academic programme, the professional programme
  and the institutional structures.

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Criteria related to the professional aspects

• Teaching is one of the most influential
  professions in society.
• Professional preparation has to take into account
  (in addition to others)
• the role of the professional in a society,
• conditions under which learning about such
  practice takes place
• the relationship between the college and the
  schools where teacher candidates learn about
  practice.
• These must be important considerations in any
  quality assurance and accreditation process.

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What we know about quality teacher education

• A common clear vision of good teaching apparent
  in course work and field experiences
• Well defined standards of practice
• Extended clinical experiences spread over the
  entire programme
• Strong relationships among college and school
  staff
• Extensive use of case study methods, teacher
  research, and portfolios.
• Opportunities to develop the skills to learn
  about teaching and to learn from teaching over
  time.

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What we know about quality assurance in teacher
education

• Teacher preparation is not like general academic
  programmes,
• Cannot be accredited by agencies that do
  generic accreditation.
• The special role of those who know, examine and
  can develop those standards must be acknowledged.
  
• The special role of the profession of teachers
  must also be acknowledged.

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What we can learn

• We in Jamaica can learn from the experience of
  other countries which have initiated
  accreditation and quality assurance at the
  tertiary level and in teacher education.

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Models

• The CNAA (Council for National Academic Awards)
  model of accreditation.
• Created to address issue of validation and
  accreditation of courses and programmes in the
  NUS institutions in 1960s
• Their experience shows the value of partnership
  and colleagueship, and ongoing developmental
  support prior to accreditation.

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Models (cont)

• The TDA (Teacher Development Agency) in the UK
  works with colleges in providing front-end
  development work to colleges of education before
  they present themselves for accreditation.

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Models (cont)

• The Ontario College of Teachers is is committed
  to maintaining the high quality of Ontarios
  teachers
• Works with colleges and Universities on an
  ongoing basis (not only when accreditation status
  has be to obtained) to ensure that standards in
  teacher education are maintained.

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The special-ness of professional education

• Teaching and teacher education are not like
  general academic programmes at the tertiary
  level.
• CARICOM recognizes that professions like teaching
  require special arrangements
• CARICOM has mandated Caribbean countries to
  establish a national mechanism for quality
  assurance and accreditation for the four
  professions Nursing, Medicine, Engineering and
  Teaching.
• Medicine developed regional accreditation body.

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Special-ness of teaching

• Teachers must recognize what is involved and what
  is critical for the development of the profession
  at this time.
• We need to have a vision of the profession that
  regulates itself and that insists on standards
  and quality in both the conduct of professionals
  and in the teacher education programme.

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Special-ness of teaching

• We must have a vision of our profession.
• We must recognize that generic accreditation
  agencies cannot provide us with the support and
  learning opportunities needed at this critical
  time in our development.

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What is needed

• Two sets of standards
• One set that focuses on the teaching profession
• develops and enforces standards in teaching to
  regulate the profession more autonomous and
  with a public voice.
• develops criteria for professional development
  for teachers and the conditions at the school for
  teachers and student teachers to learn and
  improve their craft.
• Includes a framework for partnerships with the
  major stakeholders in teacher education. Teachers
  must play a part in the education of future
  teachers. JTA can play a part.

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What is needed (cont)

• The second set is a quality assurance mechanism
  for the preparation of teachers that recognizes
  the special nature of professional practice and
  the criteria for a good teacher education.
• At this critical stage of the development of the
  teachers colleges we need development and ongoing
  support, not an agency that carries out generic
  audits and summative evaluations for the purpose
  of accreditation.
• The accreditation models that involves
  partnership and colleagueship are strong
  possibilities to consider.

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• As we move forward to a graduate teaching force,
  we as teachers need to
• be informed,
• be aware of the stakes involved
• have a public voice and
• safeguard the interests of the profession.

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Thank You