Allan Soares

Sharing Roles and Responsibilities in Initial Teacher Training: Perceptions of some key players

This paper examines perceptions of roles and responsibilities in primary and secondary initial teacher education following a sustained period of increase in the involvement of schools. The paper reports findings from a survey of higher education staff, school-based mentors and student teachers, which sought information about their perceptions of roles and responsibilities. A postal survey was followed up by telephone interviews. We found broad levels of agreement between all three partners in the training process and across primary and secondary phases. We found no evidence of a wish on the part of schools to assume greater responsibility for training student teachers. All three parties involved in the survey were able to articulate clearly areas of student professional development where they see complementary roles for school and higher education.

Mentors’ Use of Dialogue within a Secondary Initial Teacher Education Partnership

ABSTRACT This paper analyses conversations between mentors and students, recorded during a major placement on a 1 year secondary Postgraduate Certificate in Education course. Analysis of dialogue between eight mentors and 15 students confirms the complexity of the mentor role which others have described. The importance attached to particular roles seems to vary from one mentor to another and this may lead to a mismatch between the needs of individual students and what the mentor offers. Scrutiny of the nature of the interactions, based on discourse analysis, indicates significant differences between mentors. An extension of the range of roles which mentors are able to play together with the capacity to vary style of interaction may help to maximise the potential for student learning within the mentoring context.

Partnership in Initial Teacher Training: After the Shotgun Wedding.

Abstract This paper focusses on the institution of a partnership between one higher education institution (HEI) and several schools. The qualitative data reported here were collected from semi‐structured interviews with students, mentors and tutors. This study provides insights into how the partnership worked out in practice by highlighting contradictions and conflicts in these newly defined roles. Using the respondents’ accounts, the reconfiguration of relationships emerging in the partnership are explored. The academic division of labour and the traditions of initial teacher training in which authority and responsibility resided with the tutors in HEIs have circumscribed the formation of partnerships. In broader terms, the technical powers given to the mentors have been limited by the ways in which the partnership has been introduced. Despite the collaboration implied by the partnership, it appears in this initial year that it has reinforced the hierarchical relations and constituted a clearer demarcati...

The Role of Higher Education in the Initial Training of Secondary School Teachers: The views of the key participants

This paper discusses the role of higher education (HE) in postgraduate secondary initial teacher training in England. Views about the role of higher education were sought from student teachers, school-based mentors and HE tutors through a postal questionnaire and telephone interviews. The main reasons advanced for the continued involvement of HE fell into three categories. One suggested that it is easier for schools if HE takes responsibility for administrative arrangements. The second related to the breadth of perspective which enabled HE to take an overview ensuring greater consistency of quality and standards. The third identified a distinctive expertise within HE, particularly related to research and familiarity with the latest thinking. We suggest that, while the first two do not constitute particularly strong grounds for the retention of a role for HE, the third does, especially in the context of the current drive towards teaching as a research-based profession.

Are We Producing Teaching Technicians or Science Educators? The Consequences of Differential Demands on Trainee Science Teachers.

Abstract This paper discusses the background knowledge requirements for successful science educators in secondary schools. This discussion is illustrated by a short study in which science and non science PGCE students were asked about their background qualifications, what they were required to teach in their school placements and their confidence in doing so. The science students claimed that around 50% of their teaching was in topics outside their main subject area and reported difficulty and low confidence teaching these topics. This was compared with the experience of non‐science students and discussed in the light of current poor recruitment to both science studies and science teaching.

Learning in and for cross‐school working

In this study we report some of the outcomes of a study of professional learning that took place in cross school partnerships as they worked towards promoting creativity in schools. The methodology developed by Engeström and his colleagues at The Centre for Developmental Work Research in Helsinki was adopted. This form of intervention involves the preparation and facilitation of workshops in which the underlying structural contradictions that are in play in emergent activities are highlighted and articulated in such a way that participants may engage with what may otherwise remain hidden and unexamined tensions. This approach is based on the writings of the early 20th‐century Russian school of social scientists—Vygotsky, Luria and Leontiev. A principal claim is that the development of creativity requires tools and contexts for such innovatory forms of practice. This study suggests that this claim is a partial representation of the development of creative activity.

Student Perceptions of a Secondary Postgraduate Certificate in Education Course

ABSTRACT Recent proposals by the British government to radically reform initial teacher education have generated responses from both higher education and schools. The views of student teachers concerning their levels of satisfaction with current training have not been widely reported. This paper redresses the balance by collecting information from 122 Postgraduate Certificate of Education students who trained at the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom, in 1989 and 1990. Their responses are analysed in the context of the proposals for secondary courses which have moved from a recommendation that 80% should be school‐based to one which requires students to spend 24 out of 36 weeks in school. There is also reflection upon the arguments for reform put forward by various right wing institutions and individuals.

Mentors' written lesson appraisals: the impact of different mentoring regimes on the content of written lesson appraisals and the match with pre‐service teachers' perceptions of content

Written lesson appraisals (WLAs) by mentors (n = 30) of pre‐service teachers experiencing two different mentoring regimes in an English university teacher education programme were selected for analysis. The WLAs were analysed for their length and content using professional knowledge categories derived from pre‐service teacher perceptions of the content of WLAs. The professional knowledge categories were ‘topic‐specific pedagogy’, ‘class management’ and ‘generic issues’. Statistically significant differences were found in the length of WLAs written by mentors from the two mentoring regimes and in the content of all professional knowledge categories. Pre‐service teacher perceptions of content are similar to the actual content of the WLAs but the degree of emphasis was different. Implications for the training and continuing professional development of mentors, pre‐service teachers and others who receive or provide WLAs are identified.

Induction: the experiences of newly qualified science teachers

This research focused on the induction year entitlement in England, with particular reference to timetable, formal assessment meetings, lesson observations and provision of an induction tutor and a named external contact. Pooled data from a postal questionnaire, with a 60% response rate (n = 92), were analysed from three consecutive cohorts of newly qualified science teachers (2003–2006). Focus group interviews and telephone interviews with 20 newly qualified teachers and 20 induction tutors were also used to collect data. The majority of the sample of newly qualified teachers received the main entitlements in their induction year but serious concerns persist for a significant minority. Implications for the induction of all newly qualified teachers, irrespective of their subject area, school and policy‐makers, are identified.

Pre‐service Teachers’ Subject Knowledge of and Attitudes about Radioactivity and Ionising Radiation

This study focussed on secondary school (11–18 years) pre‐service teachers’ (n = 73) knowledge of and attitudes towards risks associated with alpha, beta, and gamma radiations. A multi‐method approach was used with physics, chemistry, biology, and history graduates undertaking the one‐year initial teacher training, Post Graduate Certificate in Education course at a university in central England. A novel research tool, involving interviews about real concrete contexts and first‐hand data collection with radioactive sources, was employed to gain insights into a sub‐set of the sample (n = 12) of pre‐service teachers’ subject knowledge of and attitudes towards risk. The subject knowledge of all the pre‐service teachers was also measured using a Certainty of Response Index instrument; multiple‐choice questions with associated confidence indicators. Although the physicists displayed the higher levels of knowledge, they also demonstrated limitations in their knowledge and held misconceptions such as irradiation being confused with contamination. Physics graduates hold more rational attitudes and a greater willingness to accept risk while the attitudes of graduates in the other subject disciplines are more disparate. These findings raise questions about the extent to which pre‐service science and history teachers have the knowledge necessary to teach this topic. The article concludes with discussion of the implications these findings have for initial teacher training, continuing professional development needs for teachers already in the profession, and curriculum developers.