Radical changes to teacher training are on the horizon
Radical changes in teacher education have begun. Here Angela Jardine, chairwoman of the Education Workforce Council (EWC), sets out landmark changes to how Wales will prepare its new teachers in the future
The Education Workforce Council has opened new arrangements where programmes of initial teacher education (ITE) in Wales must first be assessed as being fit for purpose against stringent new criteria set by the Welsh Government.
This change has been brought about under new legal powers given to the EWC by the Welsh Government in response to Professor John Furlong’s report entitled Teaching Tomorrow’s Teachers.
The requirement for the EWC as a professional, regulatory body to accredit ITE programmes and ensure they remain up to standard will be a new concept in Wales. However, for teaching in other countries and in other professions such as medicine, law and social work, this has long been the case.
The EWC will assess proposed programmes through a newly established Accreditation Board. The public appointments process is under way to select the first chair and deputies of the new board, with the rest of the board being appointed by the summer.
Programme providers must submit their proposed programmes to the EWC by December 1 this year and the board will complete its assessments and announce by the end of June 2018 the programmes that will run from September 2019 in Wales.
Once new programmes are under way, Estyn will inspect them annually to ensure they remain professionally appropriate, and then report to the EWC and the Cabinet Secretary.
Central to the new vision for initial teacher education in Wales is that universities and small groups of lead schools will work in far closer collaboration than in the past to deliver teacher education through a “true partnership”.
They will be expected to plan programmes together and be jointly accountable for their success.
This model is driven by evidence from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and others, which shows that the very best examples of teacher education internationally are based on a dual form of learning – in which some dimensions of teaching can only be learned experientially during teaching practice, while other forms of learning are intellectually based in a university context.
Professor Furlong had made clear that for schools to meet the task of providing systematic and structured training opportunities in relation to all areas of the teacher education curriculum, they will need the necessary resources and have to ensure their staff receive the right profession development.
If the primary task of universities is to give student teachers access to professional knowledge that is not normally available in schools, their education faculties will need to have the staffing structures, staff development strategies and “scholarly culture” that will ensure that all of their teacher educators are equipped to make these contributions.
These are important changes for how we prepare new teachers in Wales. As Kirsty Williams has rightfully stated, she wants teaching to be a first choice profession so that we can attract the very best – but for that to happen, we must get our initial teacher education offer right.