Improving all the time: how we support new teachers to become professionals

IOE’s teacher education programmes explicitly recognise and capitalise on the distinct, yet complementary, contribution of all partners in supporting new teacher learning. Student teachers are provided with a comprehensive and rich education that is values-led, evidence-informed and grounded in strong, collaborative partnerships. The IOE is recognised as a leading centre for university-led initial teacher education in terms of scale, quality and innovation; our school partners make a vibrant and distinctive contribution to this success.

The IOE is committed to:

recognising, and capitalising on, the wealth of knowledge and diverse experiences of their student teachers and mentors
a collegial approach to partnership working, through which the expertise and affordances of each partner setting enrich student teachers’ learning and the partners themselves

Feedback from student teachers, their mentors, university tutors and the Primary Partnership Advisory Group feeds into evaluations and focus group meetings to identify strengths, as well as areas for further development, of the Primary PGCE programme.

A focus on professionalism

One such example focused on ‘professionalism’. Feedback revealed that professionalism needs to be learnt and student teachers need constructive feedback and space to make mistakes, as with any other aspect of becoming a teacher.

As a result, we shared this feedback with experienced mentors at a Partnership Development Day. The session was led by the Deputy Programme Lead, a Headteacher and two Lead Placement Mentors. The experienced mentors who attended this workshop had opportunities to discuss and suggest strategies for:

raising students’ awareness of school expectations with regard to professional conduct
promoting students’ sense of belonging as a member of staff in the school community
dealing with challenges

This collaboration led to:

amendments to the IOE Professional Studies programme to ensure that ‘professionalism’ was revisited prior to each period of school experience
fresh guidance on Supporting Student Teachers with Professionalism

The impact of these improvements will be evaluated at the end of the course when we will look at student teacher feedback.