Setting

Managing Inspector: T Nasta HMI

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Managing Inspector: T Nasta HMI

Inspection reports are available on the Ofsted web site (www.ofsted.gov.uk).

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BACKGROUND

1. This inspection was carried out in accordance with the Framework for the inspection of initial training of further education teachers and the guidance in the Handbook for the Inspection of initial training of further education teachers, both published in September 2004.

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BACKGROUND

2. The University of Huddersfield works in partnership with over 30 colleges, in the north of England to provide ITT courses for FE teachers and other trainers from the post-compulsory sector, leading to the University’s PGCE and Cert. Ed. qualifications. Both are endorsed qualifications and satisfy the Secretary of State’s requirements for further education (FE) teachers. Two training routes are available. A full-time pre-service course, on which there are 250 trainees and a part-time in- service route, on which there are over 1,800 trainees.

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BACKGROUND

3. The pre-service course lasts for one academic year. Full-time pre-service trainees spend a total of 18 weeks on two work placements at a partner college. During the first placement of 11 weeks, trainees spend 3 days a week at the college and the rest of their time at the University. During the second placement of 7 weeks, trainees spend all the working week at the college. The in-service course normally lasts for two academic years. However, trainees following National Awarding Body qualifications are able to transfer onto the second year of the course with exemption from 50 out of the 60 credits of the first year of the programme. There is also provision for the accreditation of prior experiential learning.

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BACKGROUND

4. All the in-service modules are taught and assessed by college staff, subject to the University’s QA procedures. The main teaching input on the pre-service courses is by University staff, from the Department of Post-Compulsory Education and Training (PCET). However, the assessment of pre-service trainees’ teaching practice is normally shared between assessors from the colleges and the University together with mentors. In some instances this assessment is undertaken primarily by the University (together with the trainees’ mentors). The University also runs collaborative pre-service courses at four colleges for trainees from the colleges’ catchments areas. University tutors share the teaching of these programmes equally with college trainers.

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THE INSPECTION

5. The inspection was carried out in two phases by Her Majesty’s Inspectors (HMI), supported by a full-time inspector from the Adult Learning Inspectorate and specialist additional inspectors. Pre-service provision at the University and in- service provision at five colleges and at the University was evaluated as part of the inspection. Inspectors focussed on the quality of training and management and quality assurance procedures during the first phase, which took place in November 2004. During the second phase, inspectors concentrated upon evaluating the achievements of FE trainees through observing their teaching and gathering evidence of their progress during the course. Phase 2 of the inspection was completed in June 2005.

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A EFFECTIVENESS OF PROVISION

6. The overall quality of provision is good (grade 2). Both in-service and pre- service trainees demonstrate well-developed skills of lesson planning and draw effectively on their prior occupational and life experience to enliven their teaching. With very few exceptions trainees gain in confidence and competence over the course. However, insufficient attention is given to differentiation to meet the needs of the range of students in their classes. Trainers benefit from an extensive programme of research and professional development. Trainees benefit from very skilled teaching and assessment by the teacher-educators. The standard of mentoring, particularly for in-service trainees is too variable and this is often reflected in trainees’ inadequate skills in adapting their teaching approach to the more theoretical aspects of their subjects. Comprehensive and self-critical management and QA procedures have enabled the University to develop and improve its

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A EFFECTIVENESS OF PROVISION

provision. The high level of commitment and involvement of colleges and the University to The Consortium for Post-Compulsory Education and Training (CPCET) benefits trainees, who have access to the expertise and resources of a large and successful partnership.

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KEY STRENGTHS

7. Inspectors identified the following strengths:

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KEY STRENGTHS

• high calibre of trainees recruited onto the courses and the good progress they make

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KEY STRENGTHS

• emphasis upon practical teaching skills in the content and assessment of the modules

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KEY STRENGTHS

• high standard of training sessions provided by the teacher-educators on the in-service and pre-service courses

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KEY STRENGTHS

• development of subject-specific skills for in-service trainees through the summer school and the on-line initiatives

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KEY STRENGTHS

• comprehensive procedures for assessing trainees’ teaching and in-course assignments

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KEY STRENGTHS

• self-critical and comprehensive procedures for developing and quality assuring the training programmes

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KEY STRENGTHS

• clarity and openness of the procedures for allocation of resources across the partnership.

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AREAS FOR ATTENTION

• insufficient attention given by trainees to differentiating their teaching to meet the range of students that they teach

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AREAS FOR ATTENTION

• reliance on local and often voluntary systems of mentor support that do not enable consistency in the development of subject-specific teaching skills

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AREAS FOR ATTENTION

• the use of new individual Learning Plan (ILP) documentation for trainees to use in monitoring and recording their progress, which was being piloted during 2004-2005, showed insufficient coherence.

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AREAS FOR ATTENTION

Further information on strengths and areas for attention is contained in the substantial sections of the report that follow.

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B ACHIEVEMENTS OF TRAINEES

9. High expectations of students and success in adapting to working in FE are features demonstrated by almost all trainees. Most enter teaching as a second career and often have been students within colleges themselves as part of their own training and education. They empathise well with their students and draw skilfully upon their own vocational experience to enliven learning. For example, a trainee with 16 years of experience within the legal system was able to bring legal concepts to life by using examples she had encountered during her previous career, working in court. Students that they encounter are treated with respect and consideration. In-service trainees are often already responsible for tutoring and managing aspects of the courses that they teach and are able to participate fully in the corporate life of their college. However, those employed on a part-time basis rarely enjoy the breadth of opportunity to develop wider professional skills.

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B ACHIEVEMENTS OF TRAINEES

10. Good skills of critical evaluation and reflective practice are demonstrated by trainees at the end of the courses. In the early stages of their training, many trainees’ evaluations of their own teaching were uncritical and overly descriptive. By the end, trainees’ files demonstrated good progress in that they showed high levels of confidence and a more analytical approach to evaluating the success of different methods of teaching.

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B ACHIEVEMENTS OF TRAINEES

11. Trainees plan their lessons well with clear aims and objectives. Most are confident in integrating ICT into their teaching. They develop good skills in using questions to stimulate debate and check students’ understanding. Most are keen to put into practice the advice that they have received from their trainers about actively involving their students through discussion and class exercises. A few trainees produce lesson plans that are too brief and almost all of those observed gave insufficient attention to differentiating their teaching to meet the full range of students’ abilities and needs. A minority of weaker trainees tended to confuse learning outcomes with lists of topics to be covered. 12. Initiative is demonstrated by trainees in employing different methods of teaching and learning. They are successful in their use of group work and in using active learning techniques such as investigation and research. Where required

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B ACHIEVEMENTS OF TRAINEES

trainees work successfully with other staff such as technicians and learning support assistants. For example, during an English lesson for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) students were grouped by the trainee according to level and given activities that they were challenging yet achievable. The Learning Support assistant was well- briefed by the trainee so that sufficient time was given for monitoring the progress of the different student groups.

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B ACHIEVEMENTS OF TRAINEES

13. Most trainees promote equal opportunities through their approach to teaching and learning. Their own experience as past students in FE often gives them great sympathy with the difficulties that their students experience. For example, a dedicated and enthusiastic trainee with extensive experience of working in theatrical costume and make-up had developed an additional course for students studying at entry level. She had also attracted many male students to a curriculum area where female students often predominate.

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B ACHIEVEMENTS OF TRAINEES

14. The importance of responding to identified needs for supporting individual students is recognised by trainees. Most have a good knowledge of the central support services at their college and make good use of information provided to them on the particular needs and abilities of their students. However, trainees’ competence in helping students gain access to support and providing them with suitable induction and progression guidance is too dependent on their employment status and their role and responsibilities within the college. A few in-service trainees, often those working on hourly paid contracts, have too little opportunity to develop their skills or demonstrate their competence in a sufficiently broad range of further education contexts.

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B ACHIEVEMENTS OF TRAINEES

15. Trainees make good progress and develop their confidence and competence over the duration of the course. However, the quality of some teaching, and most significantly, that associated with in-service trainees, is constrained by insufficient routine access to subject-specialist support. There is, however, a Subject Specialist Summer School at the University in July at the end of Year 1 (see 17 below).

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C QUALITY OF TRAINING

16. The content of the courses easily meet the Further Education National Training Organisation (FENTO) standards and the minimum core curriculum. There is a strong emphasis upon the progressive development of teaching skills based upon self-critical review and linking theory with practice. For example the emphasis in the first module ‘Planning and Designing for Learning’ is upon equipping trainees with the abilities to ‘plan effectively and prepare teaching and learning materials’ Later modules place more stress on evaluation and synthesis. For example the module, ‘Further Professional Practice’ refers to ‘using evaluation and reflective practice to enhance own teaching’. There is also a greater emphasis upon theory in later modules, for example the module, ‘Curriculum and Organisation’ focuses upon analysing the organisational and curriculum contexts in which post-compulsory teaching takes place.

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C QUALITY OF TRAINING

17. On both the in and pre-service course, the attention given to subject-specific teaching skills has been increased, so that trainees have extensive opportunity to develop specialist skills. On the pre-service course, trainees spend about a third of their taught time in cognate subject groups. A specialist summer school for in- service trainees designed to enable them to develop their skills of teaching a specialist subject is a long-established feature of the in-service courses. It entails a four-day programme at the university and brings together trainees from the same or closely-related curriculum areas. The course is being re-modelled to exploit the greater opportunities for trainees to maintain contact with each other through electronic means of communication. The Consortium with the University, is leading a major project collaborating with three other higher education institutions concerned

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C QUALITY OF TRAINING

with developing on-line subject communities for in-service trainees across the country.

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C QUALITY OF TRAINING

18. The quality of training sessions is good. Trainers at both the colleges and the university act as exemplary role models in the skills that they exhibit in planning, teaching and assessing sessions. Good use is made of self- and peer-evaluation; trainees benefited from evaluating their own, and each others’ work, within a supportive environment. The great majority of trainees engage enthusiastically with the training. There is a clear demarcation of responsibilities outlined in the Network and Consortium Handbook, so that tutors from the university and colleges are clear about their roles. Tutors that are new to teaching on the courses are well supported and have to be approved by the University and are required to attend a training programme, before they are allowed to assess trainees.

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C QUALITY OF TRAINING

19. On the pre-service route the assessment of trainees’ prior learning and experience and individual needs is very thorough and helpful and is conducted by tutors at the beginning of the course. The work of the academic skills tutor in providing tailored support for individual trainees is a notable strength. Tutors maintain regular contact with trainees whilst on work-based experience, and monitor their progress. Whilst the University publishes clear guidelines on the types and levels of support that trainees should expect on placement, the actual support that a minority of trainees received did not reflect these expectations. In the best practice observed trainees benefited from well-organised induction and professional development programmes where staff with responsibility for college-wide functions such as quality assurance and student guidance contributed to coherent work-based training. In the weaker placements a few trainees were insufficiently supervised, or

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C QUALITY OF TRAINING

were exposed to subject mentors whose own teaching practice was flawed.

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C QUALITY OF TRAINING

20. On the in-service route, trainees benefit from dedicated and helpful support from the teacher-training teams. Much progress is being achieved in linking together ITT and wider aspects of staff induction and professional development. Almost all trainees are clear about what they need to do to complete an endorsed qualification, for example what teaching practice they are required to undertake. In response to changing national requirements, the University introduced Individual Learning Plans (ILPs) designed to bring together the different elements of guidance such as initial assessment and periodic review. In practice the ILP system has proved to be cumbersome to operate for both trainers and trainees. Inspectors found that the different elements of student guidance, for example support to improve literacy and study skills, tutorials and mentoring, did not provide a coherent process for monitoring the progress of trainees. The University is fully aware of this issue and is

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C QUALITY OF TRAINING

planning to refine the system in 2005-06.

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C QUALITY OF TRAINING

21. Comprehensive and well-designed procedures are employed to assess both teaching and written assignments. Tutors have a good understanding of their roles. Well-designed formative assessment, for example the imaginative use of teaching practice files, enables trainees to critically evaluate and improve their practice. Both the University and the Consortium are responding vigorously to the national issues raised by the 2003 Ofsted Survey inspection. A new approach to subject mentoring is being piloted and subject-specific teaching observations, one out of three undertaken each year, have been introduced. A comprehensive mentoring handbook helpfully provides guidance to mentors on how to assist trainees with individual modules. There is a clear attempt to link more effectively trainees experience on the course with their experience in the workplace.

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C QUALITY OF TRAINING

22. The introduction of mentoring is beginning to have a positive impact on the quality of provision. However, the mentoring system is still predominantly based upon voluntary support from teachers that share the same specialist area as trainees. The actual support that trainees receive is too variable and dependant upon the good will of often busy staff. In some case, trainees were being mentored by their line managers rather than more experienced teachers in their own specialist area.

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D MANAGEMENT AND QUALITY ASSURANCE OF PROVISION

23. Thorough selection procedures are in place. Promotional materials set out clearly the structure of the course and the requirements for entry. The calibre of trainees recruited onto the courses is high. All pre-service candidates are interviewed and carefully counselled about the intensive demands of the course. In- service teachers, employed on a full-time or fractional basis also benefit from well- designed selection procedures. Links between the ITT teams and college human resources departments are good. Procedures for assessing trainees’ needs for literacy, numeracy or ICT support are well-designed on the pre-service courses and follow-up support to address their needs is good. However, the quality of follow-up support is too variable on the in-service programmes.

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D MANAGEMENT AND QUALITY ASSURANCE OF PROVISION

24. The delivery of the courses is well managed by the University. Documentation on how to teach and assess each module is clear and comprehensive. At monthly meetings centre managers from the partners, together with their University and Consortium colleagues, consider teaching and assessment strategies. There is much good curriculum material on the Consortium web-site for tutors and trainees, for example material on differentiation. This is maintained using ‘Blackboard’ software. During the inspection however, inspectors noted that some college tutors were experiencing difficulties with accessing the materials. 25. Leadership both of the Consortium and of the University’s PCET Network is excellent. The Consortium is established as an independent identity with its own Director and Deputy Director and clear procedures for allocating resources between the University and the colleges. Fairness and openness characterise its operation.

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D MANAGEMENT AND QUALITY ASSURANCE OF PROVISION

A comprehensive Network and Consortium Handbook outlines the rights and responsibilities of all members and processes for management, quality assurance and resource allocation. The high level of commitment of all members is illustrated by regular and well-attended meetings that include not only the teacher-trainers, but also HR managers from the colleges and staff responsible for library and information systems. Each college has a centre manager who works closely with a liaison tutor from the University.

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D MANAGEMENT AND QUALITY ASSURANCE OF PROVISION

26. Resources across the partnership are generally good. The large volume of enrolments creates economies of scale that enable partnership-wide developments to be sustained such as the University’s summer school for specialist trainees and the substantial programme of staff development and research. The Consortium is also making a significant contribution to national developments, for example a recent evaluation of a subject mentoring pilot, funded by the Department for Education and Skills. There is also an annual Consortium conference for tutors to consider current research findings and national initiatives in post-compulsory education and training, together with a programme of other Consortium led development events.

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D MANAGEMENT AND QUALITY ASSURANCE OF PROVISION

27. The University’s quality assurance procedures are robust. They include procedures for validation, approval, re-approval and annual evaluation of all the courses. Issues raised through feedback from trainees and external examiners are dealt with systematically. All Cert. Ed. and PGCE courses are subject to a thorough process of triennial review. Consortium members have been willing to undertake a number of self-critical thematic reports on areas perceived to be problematic. For example, in 2004 the Consortium commissioned a detailed analysis of retention and achievement rates. This highlighted that the retention rate of in-service students was too low in some colleges and identified that many trainees did not benefit sufficiently from adequate workplace support. Data for 2004-05 supplied by the University indicates that retention on the pre-service courses is high and that retention levels

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D MANAGEMENT AND QUALITY ASSURANCE OF PROVISION

are improving on the in-service course. Reasons why in-service trainees leave the course continue to be monitored.

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D MANAGEMENT AND QUALITY ASSURANCE OF PROVISION

28. The University’s monitoring of assessment is an area of great strength. Given the size and geographical spread of the colleges, the tasks of internal moderation are assigned to six sub-regions. Each is chaired by a University liaison officer. All follow a common format for double marking and for checking the assessment of teaching practice observations. In 2003-04, 32 colleges were involved in this process. Some 311 individual assignments and a good sample of lesson observations were moderated. The response to issues identified by external examiners is rapid.

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D MANAGEMENT AND QUALITY ASSURANCE OF PROVISION

29. The Consortium has conducted a thorough analysis of data on the backgrounds of trainees to supplement the information held by each college. In common with FE more generally, female teachers are over-represented and those from ethnic minority groups are generally under-represented. The University and the Consortium recognise that more positive action needs to be taken to increase the proportions of ethnic minority and other under-represented groups across the partnership.

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