ipda News
* Tests without teaching for teachers? -- Read the comments of Cliff Jones
* Congratulations to Dr Jim O’Brien.
Jim has been awarded a Chair in Leadership and Professional Learning by the Court of Edinburgh University. ipda members send their congratulations to Jim on this recognition of his excellent academic achievement over the years.
* The new ‘Masters in Teaching and Learning’ -- comments from Cliff Jones
Too much time is spent making sense of government’s proposals for a masters degree in teaching and learning (MTL). We should be telling them what to do.
For me the MTL should:
1. allow the voices and values of professional educators to emerge from critical examination of experience, expertise, interests, concerns, policy and theory;
2. make critical use of different perspectives;
3. connect with the professional learning of everyone engaged in education;
4. encourage professional learning partnerships;
5. be subject to the same or similar critical evaluation as postgraduate professional development (PPD);
6. address the same or similar criteria as PPD;
7. question orthodoxies;
8. be well-funded and sustained;
9. inform policy and theory;
10. encourage academic, intellectual and professional curiosity.
What MTL should NOT do is to:
1. scapegoat professional educators for the inadequacies of policy;
2. become tied to sterile notions of target-setting;
3. establish any kind of centrally approved official masters programme;
4. strip out theory and critical questions;
5. pretend to be easy;
6. ignore what has been learned from PPD.
Government is obsessed with testing and league tables. To chase teachers and schools up the ladder it enforces particular types of teaching and uses inspection to shame all of those unable to be above average. The fault lines in policy have now reached ‘Emperor’s New Clothes’ status. But if, instead of listening to the voices of people pointing this out, government enrols teachers on a masters degree designed to make them see and appreciate the beauty of the new clothes we shall end up with a dumbed down profession. Let us hope not.
You might also like to look at the following.
M-level degrees: what can teachers expect?
The implications of making teaching a Master's-level profession
Partnerships for postgraduate professional development (PPD)
You will also find it useful to regularly consult the TDA website. It is not an easy one and changes but keep looking for PPD where you will find lots of sound evidence of the effectiveness of the programme; and also look for any latest news of MTL.
The website of the Universities Council for the Education of Teachers (UCET) gives access to its position paper on MTL. Recommended reading!
*Ipda seeks new professional contacts
Ipda members will be pleased to know that there are on-going discussions with a number of key professional organisations and associations, exploring ways in which our respective members may benefit from closer collaboration for example, in direct links to web sites or publicising each others events. One such association is the Further Education Research Association (FERA).