PROFESSIONALISM AS A FACTOR OF PRODUCTIVITY IN TEACHING AND LEARNING PROCESS: CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS

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PROFESSIONALISM AS A FACTOR OF PRODUCTIVITY IN TEACHING AND LEARNING PROCESS: CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the study

If there’s one place where learning should take place, it’s in schools. But despite the time teachers dedicate to educating their students, many fear there are too few quality training opportunities for staff.

A lack of regulation surrounding professional development is partly at fault, according to David Weston, chief executive of the Teacher Development Trust. “Any person off the street can say, ‘I’m going to train teachers’ – there are no rules stopping this, which is a bit odd because the government insists that only certain people can do initial teacher training.”

There are also very few rules dictating how much time schools should dedicate to developing staff skills.

“Nationwide, the picture is mixed. Maintained schools are required to have at least five days a year spent on training. Although essentially, schools can do whatever they want with this time – it’s often taken up with meetings or admin work. And academies are exempt altogether.”

While the Labour government was very prescriptive, instructing teachers how they should teach national strategies, the coalition has taken the opposite approach.

“It’s pulled the rug out from under headteachers. Labour’s prescriptiveness became embedded and people now expect the government to standardise things and tell teachers what to do. But the opposite is happening – Gove has taken all guidance away.”

The lack of nationwide strategy means professional development is now being delivered in a variety of ways, with no fixed pot of money determining how much schools should invest in continuing professional development (CPD), says Weston. Average figures from a year and a half ago suggest that schools in England spent around £180m on staff development, which equates to around £15 per student. But this figure varies wildly across the country, with some forking out far more on CPD, while others spend next to nothing.

Conscious that external courses don’t always provide value for money, many schools are now turning to in-house training to develop staff skills.

This trend is a welcome one, says Ian Bauckham, vice president of The Association of School and College Leaders. “There’s a much better understanding now that professional development isn’t just about going out on courses provided by external companies, it’s about developing someone’s skills and deepening their knowledge – and that’s something that’s best done within schools.”

Taking teachers out of school to attend a day-long course is expensive. The programme might cost as much as £400, while supply staff for the day could cost around £200. Spending such large sums of money – when there is no guarantee that the course is high quality and no follow-up session to consolidate teachers’ development – is foolish, says Bauckham.

“Teachers have a huge amount of expertise – sharing that is a very effective way of learning. In my own school we’ve got people who are trained Ofsted inspectors, so on one of the courses we’re running this year they teach others how to observe, judge a lesson and give feedback.”

“If teachers want to go off and apply for jobs elsewhere they can say they’ve been trained in observing lessons, which is invaluable.”

But regardless of where training is taking place, career development programmes are only effective if they are research-based and easy for teachers to apply in their classroom.

There’s a danger that by making training internal, senior members of staff give whole-school sessions that adopt a one-size-fits-no-one approach, says Philippa Cordingley, chief executive of the Centre for the use of Research & Evidence in Education (CUREE).

“If training is undifferentiated and departments aren’t allowed enough time to contextualise information for specific groups of pupils, then it’s unlikely to have an impact on teaching practices.

“One way to conquer this,” says Cordingly, “is by encouraging teachers to have a particular pupil or group of pupils in mind throughout a session and then to have reflective time to think of ways to help these specific pupils.”

Senior leaders can run lots of different small group sessions by working collaboratively with other local schools on training days.

“A team of CPD champions prepare by finding out what the priorities are for their colleagues. Then, by holding a market-place day for a network of schools, the team act like hosts at a party, showing people how they could find what’s most relevant to them.”

The move towards academisation and away from local authority control, makes it much harder for schools to share ideas, though a new crop of teaching schools, some of which specialise in CPD, have provided opportunities for teachers to hone their skills.

By joining a teaching school alliance, staff are able to watch other schools’ ideas in action. “They allow schools to work together, but they also enable them to engage with research through universities. Because alliances are academically rigorous, they provide an environment in which teachers feel comfortable experimenting with learning techniques,” adds Alison Peacock, head of Wroxham School, which became a teaching school in July 2011.

At the moment, many teachers are too anxious about exam results and performance targets to try new teaching methods, says Peacock. While she admits that randomly experimenting on children would be reckless, she adds: “Schools do need teachers who are confident enough to ask big questions about what they’re doing and who will pursue things in different ways.”

1.2 Statement of the problem

There have been previous researches on this subject. This work gives further research and explanations into the concept of professionalism as a factor of productivity in teaching and learning process. I highlights the challenges and profers ameliorable ways

1.3 Objectives of the study

1. To understand the impact of professionalism in teaching and learning process

2. To understand the relationship between professionalism and teaching and learning process

1.4 Research questions

1. What is the impact of professionalism in teaching and learning process?

2. What is the relationship between professionalism and teaching and learning process?

1.5 Research hypothesis

H0: There is no relationship between professionalism and teaching and learning process

H1: There is a relationship between professionalism and teaching and learning process

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