Does Masters level work make better teachers? Does Masters level work give teachers the capacity to be better? Clare Brooks IOE GTE 2009.

Questions we have been asking

Other considerations

• Notions of professionalism?– Sachs “Activist Profession”

• Notions of scholarship?

• Judgements of professional practice

What do teachers think?

• 2007/8• Nearly 50% of our cohort applied to continue

MA in Geog Ed study in their NQT year.

Our cohort

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Survey of PGCE students at start of course:

Their fears of Masters level work

• Workload … (27%)• Time … (18%)

• Too Challenging … (10%)

• Irrelevant … (8%)

Who have you sought advice from:

• Most likely to be supportive:FriendsFamilyPartnerHE tutor

• Most likely to be unsupportiveSchool colleagues

But evidence from former MA students …

• Majority receive promotion either during or after MA– “better informed”– “ask different questions”– “better able to make decisions”– “go beyond policy”

• Process is as important as content:

Evaluation

“I chose my topic early – I thought the most important dimension was “Place”. As I worked on the fieldwork tasks, I thought I was right but I realised it was more than “the place” – it was about thinking why that place was right I had to think about it more. Then when I started to prepare my assignment I realised that this was still to vague – what was it about the place that made it right for the fieldwork to work? Having such a tight timescale and the poster made me synthesise and collect my thoughts”

Pulling these random thoughts together

• Perception of a theory-practice divide: Masters work =“academic”

• Contribution is in “teacher thinking” rather than “teacher doing”

• Assessment emphasis is not necessarily practice

The CPD landscape• Technical Route:– Standards for QTS, Induction, Threshold,

LfM, NPQH

• Academic Route:– PGCE, MA (MTeach), PhD (EdD)

• Professional Accreditation:– Chartered Geographer (Teacher), GA’s

Quality Marks

• Exam courses/Inset/Local alternatives

Our vision of an MA in Geog Ed graduate

• to develop a personal response to the challenges they encounter in the field of geography education

• will be informed by relevant literature and research from both the disciplines of education and geography

• Be able to undertake an active and influential role in the geography education community

• Will be able to describe and articulate practice. • “The course aims to prepare the Geography Educators of

2020. In other words it takes a view (and asks participants to do likewise) on what kind of contribution geography can make to educating young people in the year 2020. “

Our approach with PGCE M level assignments

• Combination of:– Learning about classrooms/teaching/planning– Presentation/oratory skills– Teaching qualities (ie, responding to questions)– Mastery of the field– Judgement, evaluation and reflection

Questions

• What is the role for practice-based assessment in Masters level work?

• What is an appropriate relationship between academic and practice-based assessment?