Early career teachers need bespoke CPD support to tackle the “highly variable impact” that Covid has had on their teacher training and induction, according to a new report published today.
The study, carried out by King’s College London, sets out how the pandemic “significantly disrupted” those who trained between 2019 and 2021, with their experiences “largely dependent on their school placements, subject and personal circumstance”.
Its lead researcher has said that support is needed to ensure that new teachers who have gone through this disruption stay in the profession.
The report says that secondary school teachers who completed or started their training during the pandemic had “fewer opportunities to meet parents and take part in extracurricular activities, which limited their involvement in pastoral activities”.
However, researchers also found that school and university staff saw “resilience” in the trainees and early career teachers (ECTs) and some even said their experiences “could help produce even better teachers”.
Other positive impacts were a greater use of IT and “a heightened sense of a professional community”.
The study looked at evidence collected from more than 110 interviews with trainees, ECTs, university-based initial teacher education (ITE) staff, school-based mentors and school senior leaders.
Lead researcher Dr Simon Gibbons, director of teacher education at King’s College London, said the pandemic had “affected each new teacher in different ways” and so the “current generic approach fell short of what was needed”.
Dr Gibbons said: “It is crucial we provide more bespoke training that reflects the unique challenges and opportunities they faced, so we can support them to stay in teaching - especially seeing the dramatic shortage of teachers in the UK.”
Teacher training: the impact of Covid on early career teachers
Researchers found that the pandemic had “inevitably impacted” on the experience of trainees, with fewer chances to observe practice, develop behaviour management skills, experience high-stakes assessment preparation and undertake marking.
The trainees who began their training in September 2019 would have experienced a “normal” year until March 2020 when lockdowns were introduced and there was “a rapid and abrupt shift to trainees working completely online”.
The report outlines how those starting their training the year after would have had a very different experience, moving “between periods of in-school placement and online training” as Covid waves led to two national lockdowns - one of which meant schools closing to most pupils.
The report says the difference between the two cohorts is “important from a policy perspective” as those who began their training in the second year of the pandemic will be enrolled in the Early Career Framework (ECF).
It adds: “While those who trained in 2020-21 will be supported by the new Early Career Framework (ECF) for their first two years in the classroom, those who trained in 2019-20 and completed their first year in 2020-21 are not part of the ECF induction programme.”
It adds: “There remains no recommended provision to address the two years of sustained disruption that current ECTs have experienced.”
The report also notes that even within cohorts, there was variability in the training experience.
“Different schools responded to Covid-19 in different ways, including in their use of ‘bubbles’, the restriction of movement around the school site and their use of online teaching.
“In addition, the pandemic and associated responses also affected different subjects in different ways. Those subjects that make greater use of practical work (for example, science, art, drama and PE) and fieldwork (for example, geography) have had to adapt their teaching strategies more extensively.”
Dr Elizabeth Rushton, formerly of King’s College London and now an associate professor of education at the Institute of Education (IOE) at University College London, said that those individuals who had become teachers over the pandemic had “made an important contribution to the learning and lives of young people in their schools’ communities”.
Barriers to improvement
Researchers identified a number of barriers to improving support for ECTs that they think should “be addressed by policymakers”.
The report says that one barrier is that time and resources are needed to embed new initiatives after “rapid and extensive change to initial teacher education”, citing the new initial teacher training (ITT) core content framework, the ECF and the ITT market review.
Another barrier is what it describes as “colliding and contradictory policies”.
The report adds: “An unintended consequence of such rapid and extensive change has been the identification of contradictions and repetitions in the enactment of policies.
“For example, many ECTs and mentors have cited the unhelpful repetition between CCF (initial teacher training Core Content Framework) and ECF content, meaning that professional development for ECTs is failing to build on skills and knowledge that has already been acquired.”
The researchers also highlighted financial pressures as a barrier, with some ECTs making the decision not to teach after completing their training because of money.
The report adds that “although the recommendations from the project will help to address issues of teacher quality and retention, they can do little to address the financial pressures that can lead to ECTs leaving the profession prematurely”.
