Teacher MOTs

[GREED]

Labour would launch 'teacher MOTs' BBC News - Labour plan for teacher licences to 'update skills'

 

Forgetting how ridiculous this is in the first place, given the huge additional work this.would impose on teachers (and that we are always wanting to also recruit those in from industry not just straight from uni individuals with less life and employment experience)....

 

... what MOT style jokes can we throw around?

[Dos_Box]

Wow! How much taxpayers money would that swallow to setup and administer? At least with a car MoT you have to pay for it yourself.

[GREED]

Don't discount that either just yet. I believe that is the case in the US which this model mimics. Another cost to the overall teacher training experience.

 

There is also a much more involved portfolio (similar to CPD here) as part of the recertification process.

 

I'm thinking Microsoft style certification...

[free780]

With question s that dont have the correct real world answer. Questions based on out of date information.

Confusing questions meant to trick you.

[GREED]

Indeed.

 

Q. When is it not appropriate to slap the annoying student at the back of the class.

 

A....

[twin--turbo]

Nurses have to pay the NMC to be registerd to work and have to complete CPD. Don't see why teachers can't do the same.

 

Rob

[ozydave]

Don't necessarily see this as a bad thing , take on board the extra work and cost but they are dealing with young minds, teaching them to become the leaders etc of this country and world.

The heads and SLT should also be licensed to become managers. An outstanding teacher does not necessarily make a great leader

[GREED]

My personal belief is this is a double money making path, not just with the cost for re licencing, but forcing the educational pathway as a result (PGCE or equivilant), further increasing revenue via universities.

 

A poignant reminder to me who once considered such a route to be put off at the high cost AND being full time ergo not earning while training... making it out of reach to most unless you consider this at the start of your career ie when most go to uni and have little financial responsibility. Hence the sense in the likes of academies being able to employ suitable individuals from industry with life experiences, industry knowledge and a different perspective.

 

Slightly off topic I know... mini rant over

 

BTW this does not reflect on teachers or on the ground education at all, I have massive respect and admiration for teachers and school staff in general!

[laserblazer]

Nurses have to pay the NMC to be registerd to work and have to complete CPD. Don't see why teachers can't do the same.

 

Rob

 

That should give us a few quiet days in school, whilst the are on strike. The thing is @twin--turbo I know what goes on in my school but not yours and vice versa. I feel the government hasn't a clue what goes on in any school. If they go ahead with an MOT thing it will be like a getting design engineers to carry out car MOTs. They wouldn't care that the brakes were faulty but would fail it because the drag coefficient was too high.

 

Teachers do need a lot of on-going training but I don't think somebody in their ivory tower in Whitehall is best qualified to say how it should be done.

[bodminman]

I'm for this sort of thing tbh but obviously that depends on how it is implemented.

 

Teachers need to be on top of their game at all times and I'm afraid there are too many coasters out there (1 teacher coasting is too many in my opinion) that need to be dealt with.

 

My wife has just become Deputy Head of a small primary which has 5 teachers, 2 of these are huge coasters. Prior to her taking this job the school was inspected and it barely scraped a satisfactory. The areas of concern from a teaching perspective were areas of the school these two teachers operate in. So the OH has thrown in a few new whole school initiatives and has been mentoring these two teachers to try and help them up their game.

 

This week they had a staff meeting to look at the school data to see how the new initiatives were performing. There were big improvements across the school apart from the classes where these two teachers operate.

 

So in the staff meeting it had to be spelled out to all the staff that if the levels of teaching do not improve for the whole school then there is a chance that the school could end up in special measures and/or some of them may end up being put on capability!

 

What happens yesterday, the day after the meeting? One of the coasters calls in sick, the other calls the chair of Governors to say that she's been threatened with capability! Shocking attitude!

 

Both teachers are at the tops of their pay scales and are coasting. So if there was some sort of MOT that would heel pro ensure that teachers are teaching to at least a good standard then I'm all for it!

Edited January 11, 2014 by bodminman

[plexer]

Was just reading that article and first thought was how many "state" schools will there be in the future?

 

Ben

[GREED]

The problem isn't licencing. It is being able to easily get rid of under performing teachers... and let's face it this isn't just restricted to schools or education.

[Ephelyon]

I think it's an interesting proposal without commenting for or against, so much of it being circumstantial and down to quality of implementation as others have said.

 

What do we think might happen if the same approach were applied to school associate staff, with the relevant professional body imposing a similar scheme? Not all associate staff job roles would require it, but how would licensing by the BCS affect us, assuming of course that it was linked to CPD so as not to become a stick to beat us with?

[Garacesh]

I'm with @Ephelyon on this one.. It's certainly interesting and could be very beneficial to both the teaching profession and the education of students. However, it could also become something very volatile and abusable.

 

What kind of 'skill updates' would be required? If the teachers were being updated on new teaching methods, emerging technology and classroom management, I'm 100% all for it, however I will acknowledge the fact that this kind of training should already be undertaken by schools off their own back, so to speak. We see constant complaints about 'backwards' teachers not updating their methods to keep with the current times and, as a technician in a school, I've witnessed firsthand how some (and I stress, only some) teachers seemingly refuse to use the new technology we bring them because they either don't want to, or they don't understand it. Either way, this needs to be addressed urgently, else we're wasting a lot of money on technology that serves only to gather dust.

 

However, because this 'MOT' would become mandatory, there is every possibility that it could become just as 'backwards'. How will the training staff be sourced? My guess is companies would 'sponsor' the training and send their own marketing/demonstration teams in to display the software to Teachers (it would certainly be the ultimate avenue of exposure) and this may well end up being beneficial to every party - the software companies can demonstrate their software to the Teachers and if they feel it's valuable then they come to us and ask for it (rather than us all being bombarded with sales calls), but if that were the case then the funds shouldn't be sourced from taxation. But if the government doesn't allow this, they will have to employ their own permanent training staff. Who are they? How do we know that they are kept up-to-date and know what they're talking about? Or are we going to end up with a council of money-wasters favouring software from under-the-table 'sponsors'?

 

Although the "devil would be in the detail", the NUT said it could potentially be a positive development.

[Ephelyon]

I would imagine it could be provided and/or regulated by the Teaching Agency as this is a body that already exists and has formal responsibility for the training of teachers, among many other things. When it was the TDA it used to have the same responsibility for associate staff training as well, but now of course it doesn't as that was not considered part of its "pertinent work".

[pcstru]

Both teachers are at the tops of their pay scales and are coasting. So if there was some sort of MOT that would heel pro ensure that teachers are teaching to at least a good standard then I'm all for it!

An MOT only shows that a car is fit for purpose, it doesn't tell you how well or badly it is being driven.

 

IMO it's not necessarily a bad idea. We all know there are teachers who qualified in 1970 and now struggle with technology (not all, but there are some). On the other hand, teachers are regularly observed both by their managers, the head and externally by Ofsted. They are scrutinised on results and they need to be able to show their charges are making progress. It's possible that a teacher could be demonstrating exceptional progress of their students and yet fail and 'MOT'. That might just show poor implementation but, if an MOT simply confirms what the other data tells us, what is the point.

[GREED]

When I was a trainer for apprentices I had to be registered with IfL and had to pay (my company at the time decided they would not pay despite it being part of my job... less said there the bettwe). For that I had to submit CPD records each year. I got no direct benefit, didn't do any direct training or skills improvement, and it was clear it was very easy to say you did CPD hours without technically doing any... not that I am saying I did or any of my colleagues did of course.

 

There are so so many questions around how this will work...

[witch]

A good school does all this anyway - maybe regulation might be a way of making sure they all do but with OFSTED the way it is, any school that doesn't keep on top of each and every teacher's training and competency is going to end up failing.

As I am sure @bodminman 's wife will tell us, the next step would be to work with each teacher individually on their skills and competencies, with targets etc for improvement. This could involve training, mentoring, CPD, or anything and will be closely monitored.

 

Any school that does not do this will fail. Maybe some are doing it because they haven't had OFSTED for a while but when they do, the axe will fall.