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Promoting Quality in Teacher Education

Covid19 PCET examples

Headlines

In service trainees less effected than pre-service ones as they are involved with online set up and delivery

Generally, recruit later in year so too early to identify all challenges. Recruitment/interview moving to online approach

Reduced evidence requirements re observations linked to assessed work

Provide action plan for trainees to take into first employment & hope to offer additional link tutor visits

Part time students are problematic and further guidance needed as cannot just give additional placement time next academic year.

Institution 1

We are on track to meet the full requirements of the programme bar a very small number due to the essential Face to Face nature of their teaching. The In service trainees are less affected than the pre service ones as online teaching a support is continuing. We are conducting observations using synchronous, asynchronous and viva approaches and these are well received by trainees. Therefore, whilst we have the option, we will not be implementing the 6/8 observations and 70% of teaching practice for a vast majority of our trainees. I have seen communications from other HEIs that are willing to drop down to 4/8 obs and 50% for practice. However, this does come with caveats on performance and progression etc. I personally find such a low figure unacceptable and we risk damaging our hard earned professional status and standing by saying the if you can demonstrate that you can successfully pass 4 observations and teach for 50 hours (about 3 weeks in FE) then that’s good enough. In reality it’s not that simplistic but it could be read like that. Moreover, for a vast majority of the in service trainees, they are continuing to teach albeit at a distance and online. Therefore, they should easily meet the practice requirements. For the pre service trainees (Sep 19 starts), they should, by this point in the programme be taking responsibility for the teaching and learning as well as a more central role within their placement organisations. Therefore, they should be taking on proportional amount of the teaching load. Indeed if I were Running a department with a trainee, I would be very grateful for more boots on the ground as it gives me more flexibility. Also, if a trainee was positively engaged, it can reflect well on their chances for future employment or at least give them something to put in job applications and CV. What isn’t helpful is the ‘safety net’ announcements as it creates the impression that trainees don’t have to bother with their final modules. This has to be carefully unpicked by the tutors which is time consuming and a distraction. However, trainees are now aware of how programme requirements differ from purely HEI programmes and professional qualifications. with regards to recruitment, we are currently at approximately the same numbers as last year. We always recruit later in the AY so it’s a bit too soon to say how we are affected. We have adjusted our interview and selection process to take account of the current situation. We now only have the interviews (tutor and subject specialist) the compliance requirements have not changed.

Institution 2

We identified those trainees who had got more than 50% of their placement complete with successful outcomes, demonstrating the trajectory to passing the course- For these trainees we have asked them to continue to work with their students wherever possible and gather evidence through their on-line learning forums for their evidence based assignments. We have reduced the requirements of evidence for the assignments in terms of number of observations.

For those students who weren't quite at that 50% point, we have assigned a link tutor. The students and link tutors are working together to ensure that wherever possible, the link tutor is joining the on-line learning sessions through google meet, google hangouts and google classroom to observe and comment on the intent, implementation and impact of the session. They are also contacting the students receiving the learning for feedback. This evidence will be used in the academic work that the students upload to their final documentation which will determine a pass or fail.

Institution 3

We plan to provide an action plan for all trainees to take with them to their first employed role and hope to be able to provide some additional link tutor visits and support during the first semester. The final group of students of which there are about 6 out of 57 (10%) don't have any opportunity to engage in online learning with their students and haven't got enough evidence thus far to pass the course, will be given a defer and return in September at no extra cost to them to complete their placement. There is a further group impacted and that is the pre-service year one trainees who are part time. There are more of this cohort who haven't successfully completed half or more of their placement and haven't got the opportunity to do so via on-line learning. As they are part time, it will be tricky for them to have a longer experience next year so guidance on how to manage this would be helpful.

Institution 4

At HEI level, we have undertaken a huge exercise in reviewing the assessment requirements for students who now have to adapt to a virtual way of working. The University of South Wales ceased face to face teaching on 22 March and we started delivery online the next day - my team have been outstanding with their dedication, commitment and sheer effort in getting to grips with the technology. I consulted with other Welsh HEIs around Teaching Practice, hours and observations and we have worked together to provide some consensus of what we are requesting as a revision. As Chair of the PcET sub group, I have kept in regular contact with colleagues across Wales to ensure that there has been a communication channel. We have a meeting scheduled for 23 April via Zoom so will have a more detailed overview then.

Institution 5

We think it will not have a major impact on completion as we had managed to do enough observations to be confident of confirming that trainees had met the standards. They had also done enough hours. Where we were not confident we will either do online observations of practice or extend the placement into the next academic year - we only expect to do that for one person. Recruitment is another story. It’s difficult enough to recruit but with the publicity about Universities (and by extension colleges) facing serious finance issues then that is likely to put people off. We have had very few applications this year and mostly those have been from internal candidates - support assistants wanting to move into teaching. We can interview online and our QTS colleagues have already started this.

Institution 6

We have 22 in the 19/20 cohort. We expect 19 to successfully complete on time and three to require further teaching hours from September in order to reach the required level of expertise required for entering the profession. As regards recruitment for 20/21, we are well ahead of this stage last year overall, but struggling with very low numbers for maths and English. The current situation has meant that our publicity for the new bursaries has been delayed, hence the lag in maths and English applications. We have been continuing with interviews via Skype from home. This has worked well so far and recruitment is continuing. We have 20 confirmed places for next year. This compares to 7 at this stage last year.

Institution 7

The feedback from my network is that trainees are responding well and we expect most of those who were on course to achieve, will achieve. It was useful to have the guidelines from the ETF and to be able to offer some sort of flexibility. In terms of next year, there are some applications and interviews are being carried out by video call. So far, the general feeling is that recruitment will be lower than last year but we feel it is too soon to tell.

Institution 8

Firstly looking at completion, we anticipate at xxx and across our collaborative partnership that this will be comparable to previous years. On in-service programmes, completing trainees have been able to easily meet the requirements suggested by the ETF in terms of the number of teaching hours completed (70% suggestion). This has been a little more problematic with pre-service trainees on one year programmes, but again the majority of trainees will meet the requirements. A very small number are likely to need to defer due to limited teaching hours and will complete in the next academic year. These trainees are aware and are supported by the university and placement.

Recruitment at present appears quite buoyant, especially for the pre-service provision. The number of applications and offers made is slightly ahead of the same point last year and my team have already held interviews online. The reintroduction of the bursary is helping with increased applications for English, Maths and SEND. To date bursary applications have been made for seven applicants and the outcomes have been shared promptly with us. In-service recruitment is slower as colleges are prioritising other areas (existing students) and some of the current uncertainty regarding funding and student enrolment as a result of COVID-19 for colleges is impacting upon plans for staffing for 2020-21.

Institution 9

We have implemented the 6/8 observations and working on the at least 70% teaching practice

stipulation. We have some full time PGCE who for individual and contextual reasons we were not expecting to be able to complete this year. That remains the case. We have different scenarios and an accommodated adjustment therefore in relation to in -service where students complete in two years.

Our part time PGCE (Graduate Teaching Assistants) Year Two are okay to complete this academic year having ongoing access to online teaching. The year ones of that course won't need to take up the adjustments offered.

The full time PGCE is the most affected as very few have retained access to teaching in the current climate. Most of them are well supported by the new guidance and we have adapted observations accordingly (i.e. while the university tutor still does observation six as a critical and now signing off point, the mentor is not expected to do observation five- that can be a peer arrangement or a university tutor).

The in-service route: the year twos will be supported to complete and most have access to teaching but do need the new adjustment we have put in place. For one or two the partner educator will support to access teaching in some guise, which might be (as with our full time PGCE) teaching to peers on more general topics.

Those who are in year one in-service have a little adaptation also to support them i.e. they can carry one of their four observations in to next year and we have set the minimum number of hours as 50.

Institution 10

In response to your question re recruitment, the numbers for the ITE (post-16) partnership are a mixed bag. Some colleges have a healthy recruitment for the new academic year, others less so.

It can be common in our partnership for application to the part-time programmes to peak later in the year and even over the summer break. We are anticipating a drop in numbers overall of around 25%. I think the great uncertainty of what teaching and teacher training will look like in September, if it does indeed recommence in September, is making applicants hesitant. Also, colleges are not able to make firm placements offers to pre-service applicants due to the same uncertainty. I’d be interested to learn what other partnerships and FE colleges are planning to do around this, e.g. delay the beginning of term to October or January, etc.

Partners reported some pre-service finalists have already secured employment for the new term in September. This employment is mix of permanent and temporary contracts. There has been a lot of email traffic from employment agencies looking to sign up finalists – more so than ever before I think.