VIEWS & OPINION
An international perspective to help UK teachers develop
Comment by Professor KATE REYNOLDS, Executive Dean of the Institute for Education (IfE) at Bath Spa University
UK deficit in STEM workforce needs improved science provision in primary schools
Comment by DAN SULLIVAN, founder and director of education at Empiribox
A lot has changed in the last eighteen months in the education sector, let alone in the last eighteen years. Those of us who have braced ourselves to absorb the waves of policy renewal and redirection have at times found it a bruising experience. But let’s be clear that any frustration comes from our desire to embrace change and refine our practices, not from a desire to resist and repel new ideas. Our teachers are bright people with bright minds. They thrive on helping
students learn and, perhaps just as importantly, they relish the opportunity to learn themselves. Personal development and the exchange of knowledge has always been at the core of the profession. It’s something Prime Ministers-past have been at pains to acknowledge, including a fresh-faced Tony Blair who, when launching the DfES International Strategy ‘Putting the World into World Class Education’, tried hard to emphasise the benefits of greater cross-border co-operation to both students and teachers, saying: ‘Our young people also benefit. They gain from the window on the world which contact with international students gives them. We can teach, but we can also learn from others’ In many ways, Blair’s initiative was the starting gun on the arms race we
have seen from an HE sector keen to acquire a greater proportion of the overseas market, particularly an influx of foreign students. As a result, our students now learn cheek to cheek with their overseas counterparts as I see each and every day at Bath Spa University. And yet the same cannot perhaps be said for a majority of our teachers, who I know first-hand would also relish the chance to learn from colleagues around the world, acquiring new skills and new perspectives. At the Institute for Education at Bath Spa, we are looking at ways we can
develop programmes for teachers and other education professionals which encompass the global world in which we live. Our developing international Master of Education (M.Ed.) is an attempt to equip practising teachers with an international and global perspective which would enable them to teach in countries other than England. The world has moved on since 1999 and yet much of the narrative around
Britain’s place in the post-Brexit world is still squarely on internationalism – it’s about new markets and not limiting who we can and should partner with. As part of this, we need to look beyond the narrow confines of trade and think creatively about how we can redesign and reimagine relationships with educational institutions around the world which will allow us to learn from their experiences. This could, and indeed perhaps should, include greater mobility of teaching labour. And it should include an unequivocal commitment to greater mobility of teaching innovation. Finally, we know that the sector faces undoubted recruitment challenges in
the future. Many of our education leaders overseas have faced down similar problems and overcome them. We should not ignore their experiences and instead actively embrace their solutions. Let’s seek out their insight and learn from the policy interventions their political leaders have made. We cannot prepare the next generation for the challenges of a global economy and help them become truly global citizens if we do not draw on experience gleaned from the teachers and the educational frameworks on offer in other nations.
22
www.education-today.co.uk
In January 2017, the Government’s Green Paper on ‘Building our Industrial Strategy’ stated that nearly 50% of businesses reported a shortage of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) graduates when recruiting. This fall in high quality scientists, engineers and technicians is also recognised in the latest skills shortage list, released by the Home Office in January 2018, where 47% of professions fell within the STEM sector. So how do we address this shortfall in high calibre UK scientists? I believe that the solution lies in the UK’s primary schools by
embedding a passion for science and instilling solid foundation skills in naturally curious pupils. Continuing to nurturing this interest throughout secondary and higher education levels will help the next generation of scientists to be confident when they join Britain’s workforce. Science lessons that regularly inspire pupils and give them hands on opportunities to test and explore their ideas can spark an enthusiasm for science long term. We should be encouraging them to problem solve and discover in a primary setting to ensure they have the requisite skills when moving into secondary school. This means not just thrilling children in schools about careers in
STEM but also giving them the skills required to pursue careers in these fields. To do this, the curriculum needs to be engaging and richly contextualise the uses of science, demonstrating how common dreams to become a doctor or nurse can become a reality. Widespread provision of stimulating lessons with hands-on experiments, I believe, will over time lead to a marked increase in the number of children electing to study science at a higher level. Central to this is the need for teachers to instil a clear
understanding of exactly what jobs in the science industry encompass, using appropriate language to describe the wealth of STEM-based employment opportunities. Careers advice should be a consistent part of the timetable to help pupils contextualise the relevance of each experiment they do or discovery they make in the classroom. This can begin even in a primary setting, where children may aspire to be astronauts or vets, by explaining how such roles involve problem solving and analysing information, all developed through a strong science education. I am particularly keen to see girls rise to the challenge of pursuing
a STEM based career as they move into higher and further education. In 2017, women accounted for just 23% of those in core STEM occupations in the UK, which can be seen as a direct link to the number of girls choosing to study maths and science at secondary school. 2017 data shows that only 12% of girls choose to study A Level maths and just 3.2% opted to study physics at a higher level. By empowering young women to recognise the wider variety of STEM careers available, and providing the tools to make these career aspirations achievable, these numbers are only going to rise. I would like to see the government address the workforce deficit
by looking closer to home, investing in schools and giving them the opportunity to deliver rich and contextualised science lessons, supported by a well-defined and consistent careers programme, in a bid to grow our very own next generation of science professionals.
April 2018
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52
