Life After the RAE Research and Teacher Education.

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Life After the RAE Research and Teacher Education

Transcript of Life After the RAE Research and Teacher Education.

Page 1: Life After the RAE Research and Teacher Education.

Life After the RAE

Research and Teacher Education

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Education UOA – the good news

C 2000 individual entries81 institutions75% ‘international’One quarter had a quality profile in which

50% or more was internationally excellent or world leading

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The Good News

‘It is clear that the best departments can compete on equal terms with the strongest departments anywhere in the world…The high international standing of education in UK universities was strongly endorsed by the international members of the main panel’

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But…..Education – one of the largest social

sciences

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Excellent But….

Nearly 3000 people not entered at allMany of those institutions – even highly

successful ones – had a hidden and sometimes long tail.

Some very small entries - 30% of entries listed fewer than 10 category A staff – median number is 13

81 institutions entered – there are 97 ITE education in the UK

6 of those entered don’t do ITE therefore 22 HEIs that offer ITE not entered at all

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Variation of entry rates by institutions across different parts of the UK

Scotland – all but one ITE institution entered and overall numbers were large

Northern Ireland – 3 out of 4 ITE institutions entered

Wales – 6 entries out of 7 institutions but only 37 individuals

England – over 25% of ITE institutions not entered and early 20% of ITE in England goes on outside HEIs entirely .

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Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

6

11

6

8

3

7

2

6

2

1996 2001 20080

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

104

77

37

321

162

258

44 39 38

Numbers Submitted in Successive RAEs and Institutions Submitting

Wales

Scotland

N.Ireland

Year

No.

Subm

itte

d

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A further concern – research capacity

‘Of the 7,000 new students during the period, less than 4% were funded by OST/Research Council studentships….Given the significance of research council studentships for ensuring the long term future of the discipline the 4% figure is strikingly low’

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%age of academic and research staff with PhDs

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Education Psychology

Source HESA 2005/6

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Challenges and implications

The REF???????

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Challenges and implications

Maintaining a commitment to research based professional education.

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Challenges and implications

The key challenge for Teacher Education now and in the future is to answer the question: ‘What is the essential contribution of HE?’ Developing and maintaining a scholarly culture is essential.

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Topics and methods

‘Some more traditional areas were less strongly represented than previously e.g. … teacher education’

Why might that be the case? Panel noted a ‘broadening of

the field’o HE o Community and domestic

arenaso Applied linguisticso Some expansion of the

psychological fieldo Methodology – more

sophisticated quantitative analysis and increased use of longitudinal studies

o Evidence based systematic reviews.

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Explanations

The neo-liberal university

Coming together of human

capital theory +

economic rationalism

‘Driving these changes is a redefined internal economy in which under-funding drives a ‘pseudo-market’ in fee incomes, soft budget allocations for special purposes and contested earnings for new enrolments and research grants’ (Marginson 2007)

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Research funding is a highly sensitive market

£316 million in total – staggering £101K per head

£182 government – 57%Research councils £55 million 17% (including

TLRP’s £38m)

Government money is strongly policy drivenTeacher education itself, as I have argued

elsewhere, is no longer the key policy issue that it was for government funding

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Agendas have moved on

Can see evidence of the research economy in the neo-liberal university

From government Evidence based policy movement with its emphasis on

large scale data sets ECM

Other sources Applied linguistics ‘Foundation’ disciplines

A highly sensitive market

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Two worries arise from the dominance of government funding

‘The quality of the best government sponsored and targeted research was excellent - both rigorous and effective in informing policy and with enough funding to sustain large multi-disciplinary teams over many years. However, other areas suffered in quality through being too closely tied to shifting government and government agencies’ priorities, tight timescales, a focus on description rather than analysis and limited theorisation. This loosened the links with social science and sometimes involved over-simplistic assumptions about teaching and learning.’

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The other worry

Educational

research! We

don’t need that.

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Researching Teacher Education

No longer a significant funding priority for UK governments

But

Highest priority internationallyTony Blair’s biggest educational legacy

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Teachers Matter

‘All countries are seeking to improve their schools and to respond better to higher social and economic expectations. As the most significant and costly resource in schools, teachers are central to school improvement efforts. Improving the efficiency and equity of schooling depends, in large measure on ensuring that competent people want to work as teachers, their teaching is of high quality and that all students have access to high quality teaching’. (OECD 2005, 1)

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The McKinsey Report (2007) says:

Three things matter most:

1. Getting the right people to become teachers

2. Developing them into effective instructors

3. Ensuring that the system is able to deliver the best possible instruction for every child

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Getting the right people to be teachers

36,000 more teachers 10% increase in starting salaries TV campaign Entry requirements raised Diversification of routes GTP Teach First

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Developing them into effective instructors

Initial teacher training and early professional development are key:

Internationally a strong interest in increasing government control of the structure and content of ITE

‘All of the better school systems we studied had integrated the practicum into their training programs. Boston England, Finland and Japan went further in increasing the amount of intensive practical support to new teachers and in finding ways to ensure that the support they are given is effective’

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Ensuring that the system is able to deliver the best possible instruction for every child

The Strategies + Targets + Performance Related Pay

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Researching teacher education

The continuing agenda. 10 key questions for teacher

education in England

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Question 1What is the role of ITE in improving the quality

of teaching and learning in our schools?

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Question 2Is the teacher supply model fit for purpose?

Can it deal with:the impact of the economic downturn on

supply;hidden and suppressed shortages;implications of changing gender and age

structure within the profession;local pressures on school funding;impact of the collapse of the housing market

on job mobility?

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Question 3How do we get the right routes into teaching?

32 different routesDo they really bring different populations into

teaching?What is the right balance of different

populations entering the teaching profession?Is the quality the same for each route?Why do these routes have to be so separate –

why are SCITT and EBITT still set up ‘in opposition’ to HEI based routes?

And what, if anything, is the essential contribution of HE?

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Question 4Do we get the best quality intake into the profession?

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Is it time to abandon the BEd or dramatically increase its quality?

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Question 5What do we know about the current quality of

provision?

The vast majority of programmes are now rated by Ofsted/TDA as ‘good’ -

To what extent are courses different in terms of their aims, objectives, practices and outcomes?

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Question 6Is our quality control fit for purpose?

Can the current approach to quality control (standards, regulatory assessment frameworks, self assessment documents ) actually enhance quality beyond ‘good’?

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Question 7Is there a link between teacher education quality

and educational research?

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Question 8Who are our teacher educators?

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Question 9What makes for effective initial teacher education?

Research shows: (a) expertise is very closely bound up with

tacit thinking that in the normal course of events is not put into words; and

(b) expertise is highly personal and it is highly complex

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The contradiction

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The weakness of the professional knowledge base of teaching itself

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Question 10

How do we promote more innovation in the system?

What sorts of innovation might prove productive?