Improving pedagogy in vocational teaching Kevin Orr, Pam Hanley, Jonathan Hepworth and Ron Thompson

Improving Teacher Education in Vocational Science, Engineering and Technology Funded by Gatsby Charitable Foundation Three-year project led by Huddersfield Three partner universities, focused on their networks of colleges Three interrelated elements to the project: Research and development of an intervention Implementation Evaluation and dissemination

So… Explanation of our project Explanation of the problems of recruitment, for our project and for the sector.

…all icing and no cake?

Our definition of pedagogy Pedagogy describes how teachers explain the decisions they make in relation to a particular curriculum or body of knowledge and in relation to a particular group of students. It is not ‘just what teachers do’. It has to be articulated.

Pedagogical Content Knowledge Occupational identity Within pedagogy Recontextualisation Pedagogical Content Knowledge Occupational identity We started from abstraction to inform a way of thinking or decision-making

Other issues and dilemmas What subjects do we define as vocational SET? An intervention big enough to make a difference but small enough not to demand too much time… What form should the intervention take? How many participants will we need?* How will we evaluate the effect of the intervention, if any?

Evaluation Too few participants for a randomised control trial (even if we wanted one) Comparison with a control group? Participants’ self-reported increased confidence is a poor proxy for anything. Observations? Return to our definition and operationalisation of pedagogy

Evaluation Evaluation of the intervention's impact is based on questionnaires and interviews before and after the implementation. Analysis of the language used by the participants will allow us to make inference about influence on their decision-making. We also report on other relevant factors including support in the workplace, previous experience and level of education.

Participants 1540 trainees between the four universities in 2014-15 (including full-time) (Zaidi et al 2017). We identified a very small population of SET trainee teachers, around 50. So, we are diversifying our intervention to reach more participants. But why so few possible and actual participants?

Annual median pay for college teachers is £32,000 and the average is £30,288, much below the average pay of £37,400 for school teachers.  The FE workforce has been declining over time at an average rate of around 3% per year. Between 2011-12 and 2014-15, the full-time equivalent employees in FE Colleges fell by 12,300 FTEs. It is again increasing. (ETF, 2017, 2-3).

ITE in 2014-15 (Zaidi et al, 2017) Over 40,500 learners studying ITE courses: a decline of around 22% since 2013/14 and of 33% since 2011/12. Total of 4110 trainees with recorded degrees studied prior to their Cert. Ed or PGCE course. Of these 220 (5%) from engineering, technology and computer science. 830 from creative arts and design; 500 social sciences  

Early findings from our research on engineering recruitment Research funded by Education and Training Foundation (ETF) Responses from 24 of 50 largest colleges by turnover. There is still student demand for SET courses. Recruitment of teachers is difficult nationally. New applicants are required to do Cert. Ed/PGCE courses. There is a lot of effort put into the recruitment and retention of staff

“In all the time I have been here, so two years and four months, there are always vacancies and they are always desperate for people.” “We are having to do out of the box solutions where we will offer qualifications and offer to help people to train on the job and things like that.” “…it is to do with the fact that people can earn more in industry than they can in teaching.” HR manager (Northern town)

“At the moment, we’re advertising for a plumber “At the moment, we’re advertising for a plumber. It’s just gone back out to re-advertise for the third time, and I’ve got one applicant, and it’s the guy who actually left us to go to another college, and now he wants to come back.” Head of engineering and construction (Northern city)

“We started Saturday college, where we approach industry, and we get people in, and we get them teaching on Saturday college, and we sponsor them through their teaching qualification, to try and ‘grow our own’. We work with local industry to see if any of them will come in and help teach, and we’ll send people out to them; you know, try and do an exchange – but it is difficult when the skills that we’re after are so rare, and once people are signed with an agency, we can’t get them.” (HR Manager, west of England)

“so they will come and they will stay in [the town] for the week and get boarding …then we have to pay the agency a higher rate of pay to compensate for the fact that they are having to be in a B&B or hotel or something.” HR Manager (East of England town)

Agencies “I will get more than 100 emails every month, from agencies with CVs, many of which are the people that I would be considering, totally unsolicited. Hi [name of participant], I hope you are well, here is a CV. And phone calls, four or five or six a day, totally unsolicited.” Head of engineering (Northern town)

Conclusions Subject-specialist pedagogy is a weak element in ITE for vocational and technical teachers Our intervention might go some way to address that weakness. Our problem with recruiting participants reflects a serious national problem.

“College principals have told us that recruiting technical education teachers with well-developed pedagogical skills, mastery of their field, and up-to-date industry experience can be a significant challenge in the competitive labour market.” Sainsbury Report (2016, 66)

…all icing and no cake?