Teaching Scotland’s Future

1. TEACHING SCOTLAND’S FUTURE ACTS Winter Conference 2011 _______ Teaching Scotland’s Future Graham Donaldson CB

2. TEACHING SCOTLAND’S FUTURE • School education is one of the most important policy areas for governments across the world. • Human capital in the form of a highly educated population is now accepted as a key determinant of economic success. • Evidence of relative performance internationally has become a key driver of policy. • That evidence suggests that the foundations of successful education lie in the quality of teachers and their leadership.

3. Key themes School education can realise the high aspirations Scotland has for its young people through supporting and strengthening, firstly, the quality of teaching, and secondly, the quality of leadership. Teaching should be recognised as both complex and challenging, requiring the highest standards of professional competence and commitment. Leadership is based on fundamental values and habits of mind which must be acquired and fostered from entry into the teaching profession. TEACHING SCOTLAND’S FUTURE

4. Key themes The imperatives which gave rise to Curriculum for Excellence still remain powerful and the future well being of Scotland is dependent in large measure on its potential being realised. That has profound and, as yet, not fully addressed implications for the teaching profession and its leadership. Career-long teacher education, which is currently too fragmented and often haphazard, should be at the heart of this process, with implications for its philosophy, quality, coherence, efficiency and impact. TEACHING SCOTLAND’S FUTURE

5. The Literature Review Other academic work Call for evidence Issue of the week series One-to-one meetings Stakeholder meetings (in Scotland and further afield) Teacher Survey Young Scot survey International meetings TEACHING SCOTLAND’S FUTURE The evidence base for the report

6. TEACHING SCOTLAND’S FUTURE Twenty-first Century Teacher This Review endorses the vision of teachers as increasingly expert practitioners whose professional practice and relationships are rooted in strong values, who take responsibility for their own development and who are developing their capacity both to use and contribute to the collective understanding of the teaching and learning process. It sees professional learning as an integral part of educational change, acting as an essential part of well planned and well researched innovation.

7. TEACHING SCOTLAND’S FUTURE Building on strength • Tradition and commitment • Strong teaching profession • McCrone • School improvement • Curriculum for Excellence

8. TEACHING SCOTLAND’S FUTURE Curriculum for Excellence • Broad, twenty-first century education • Raise standards • Underachievement – basic skills AND • A philosophy of governance and change

9. Intended outcomes (1) Reinvigoration of professionalism and a re-conceptualisation of teacher education to reflect this. More rigorous selection of students applying to enter teacher education allied to more relevant courses, more efficient use of time and more consistent assessment of students’ progress. A coherent approach to teacher education which is underpinned by a framework of standards which signpost the ways in which professional capacity should grow progressively across a career. TEACHING SCOTLAND’S FUTURE

10. Intended outcomes (2) Development of leadership qualities from the start of a career. A new concept of partnership among universities, local authorities, schools, national agencies and other services which embraces selection, course content and assessment, which sets practical experience in a much more reflective and inquiring culture and which makes optimum use of ICT for professional learning. Much more efficient use of existing contracts and structures. TEACHING SCOTLAND’S FUTURE

11. Intended outcomes (3) A culture within which policy, practice, theory and accountability are better aligned to serve the needs of learners. A national and local infrastructure which sets, promotes and evaluates teacher education in ways which relate both current practice and innovation to their beneficial impact on learning. TEACHING SCOTLAND’S FUTURE

12. Chartered Teachers Twenty-first century professionalism Masters profession Impact on learning Role models: values/practice/reflective/research Leaders / change agents / problem-solvers Teacher educator Contribution not status TEACHING SCOTLAND’S FUTURE

13. TEACHING SCOTLAND’S FUTURE “High quality people achieve high quality outcomes for young people.”

14. TEACHING SCOTLAND’S FUTURE “He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils: for time is the greatest innovator”. Francis Bacon (1561-1626)