Scotland’s teaching watchdog is calling for clarity over which body is responsible for the strategic leadership of teacher professional learning.
It says the current landscape is “unnecessarily confusing” and fails to capitalise on what can be offered by the ”regional improvement collaboratives”, universities, the third sector and “teacher and lecturer experts”.
The General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) makes the call in its submission to the Muir review, which is considering the replacement of the Scottish Qualifications Authority and reform of inspection and curriculum development Education Scotland.
It says in particular that “the variation in the support provision for probationers and early career teachers can be too great” and that there should be “a strategy for the continuum of learning from ITE [initial teacher education] across early career”.
It also says that “accomplished and expert teachers” need to have their professional learning needs better met, and that their knowledge and skills should be “harnessed at school, local and national level”. There should be “access to and encouragement of master’s-level learning needs... supported by the development of effective learning pathways and funding”.
The GTCS hits out at the idea that any issues with new teachers and their readiness to teach lead to accusations that there must have been “an element of missing learning in their ITE”.
The submission says “initial teacher education is indeed that - initial” and that “there requires to be a strategic framework of a continuum of teacher learning from ITE, through probation and into early career”.
This year - following the school closures forced by Covid - some teachers who were on the teacher induction scheme last year have received extra support and the GTCS suggests that this could be built upon.
It also advises that the new role of lead teacher - introduced in August - “could be a perfect opportunity for leading the support and development of beginning teachers”.
However, like a number of other organisations who have shared their views with the review - including the Scottish Qualifications Authority - it says there needs to be “a fundamental rethink of teaching commitments to consider the time and space needed for such teacher learning”.
The GTCS submission states: “The current national strategic leadership of professional learning for teachers is unnecessarily confusing and requires to be streamlined. This reform is an opportunity to address this issue and provide greater clarity and consistency to teachers, lecturers, leaders and the system.”
It adds: “Issues related to competition and overlap of provision require to be addressed alongside clarity as to where strategic leadership rests for the professionalism of teachers and college lecturers. GTC Scotland believes that greater strength in professionalism (and therefore trust) can be led by aligning this strategic responsibility with Professional Standards [for Scotland’s Teachers]. It is through teacher and lecturer professionalism that experiences and outcomes for learners will be addressed and trust in education will grow.”
The GTCS also calls for “teaching quality (through qualification) [to be] invested in college in the same way as it has been in schools”.
It says that college lecturers should “have an entitlement and requirement to a foundational teaching qualification in the first two years of their employment”.
You can read the GTCS submission in full here.
