Teaching Scotland’s Future

Building on Graham Donaldson’s review of teacher education

Sean Stronach

Scottish Government

Teaching Scotland’s Future: overview of process

• February 2010: Graham Donaldson commences review.

• January 2011: Teaching Scotland’s Future published.

• March 2011: Scottish Government response.

• 2011 - ?: practical planning, embedding and evaluation of change.

Teaching Scotland’s Future:what is driving the change?

International:• Foundations of successful education lie in the quality of

education professionals and their leadership.• Focus on school education policy in the context of

increased importance of international comparisons.National:• Imperatives of Curriculum for Excellence: improving

standards and addressing equity.• Long-standing focus on enhanced teacher

professionalism since at least ‘Teaching Profession for the 21st Century’ (2001).

Teaching Scotland’s Future:premises for change

• Teaching as complex and challenging.

• Leadership necessary from entry to the profession.

• Coherent, career-long approach, with improved partnership working.

• Rigorous selection; more relevant learning; to higher standards; with more efficient use of time and resources.

Teaching Scotland’s Future:taking it forward

• Scottish Government accepted all recommendations, in full, in part or in principle.

• National Partnership Group to take forward many of the main recommendations.

Teaching Scotland’s Future:key work strands

Overarching:

• Higher priority in policy-making (recommendation 1).

• ‘new and strengthened models of partnership’ (recommendation 15).

Teaching Scotland’s Future:key work strands

Selection:

• Develop proposals for improving selection to ITE courses and maintain an overview of work to assess and, where necessary, support development of literacy and numeracy skills of entrants (recommendations 4 & 5).

Teaching Scotland’s Future:key work strands

The early phase:• Planning initial teacher education and induction as one

overall experience (10, 25 & 29).• Proposals on the nature of degrees: including the

phasing out of the traditional BEd degree and further development of part-time and distance learning (9 & 11).

• Develop clear expectations about those areas of greatest difficulty for teachers, where the early phase should focus more directly (12, 13 & 14).

• Proposals for how evaluation of the effectiveness and impact of programmes in the early phase of teacher professional learning can be improved (22).

Teaching Scotland’s Future:key work strands

Career-long professional learning:• Building greater accreditation and Masters-level credit

into continuing professional development (44).• Clear expectations of areas where enhanced focus is

needed within continuing professional development (42).• Shift balance of professional learning to more

collaborative, sustained approaches, centred on self-evaluation and outcomes for children (33).

• Improved impact from mentoring across the teacher education system (27 & 28).

Teaching Scotland’s Future:key work strands

Professional learning for leadership:

• Develop educational leadership pathway, including consideration of development opportunities for experienced headteachers (46, 47, 48 and 49).

• Recommendations on role a virtual college of school leadership could play (50).

National partnership group:next steps.

• National Partnership Group to confirm detailed plan for taking work forward, with timescales, to Ministers after the summer.

• Continue to develop communication: www.npgteachereducation.gov.uk

Teaching Scotland’s Future

Building on Graham Donaldson’s review of teacher education