Current Issues in PCET

In this week's session, Group C explored various current issues affecting the sector. Natalie's group used the online mind mapping programme 'Mindmeister' to create a very visual representation of the potential impact that loss of the IfL could have.

Other groups explored the use of:

Glogster - the online multimedia poster generator
Live Binders - the online file management and presentation site
Wall Wisher - the virual 'cork board'

Some trainees preferred the use of Corkboard.me

PCET Conference 2011 - Inclusive Teaching and Learning

It was really pleasing to see trainees attending the 2011 PCET Conference which focused on inclusive teaching and learning. Dave Vizard provided the keynote address to trainees from both PCET and Secondary phases.

Providing a wealth of information and further reading, the session really helped to raise our awareness of specific learning differences and how this can impact on behaviour.

'Group C' PCET trainee Mary Artine commented about the day:

"I really enjoyed the afternoon programme where we explored practical strategies for supporting learners with special needs. It helped me to recognise the different strategies I could use in the classroom. I have a learner with Aspergers syndrome and the sessions really helped me to develop my inclusive approach with him."

For more information on the work of Dave Vizard and to register for a free copy of the book: "Behaviour Solutions: Ways to Manage Challenging Students", click here.

For information on 'Brain Break' activities and access to a free article, please click here.

**BREAKING NEWS** PCET Teachers to Teach in Schools

The long awaited Wolf Report on the review of vocational education has just been published. Michael Gove has accepted four of Professor Wolf's recommendations with immediate effect:

•To allow qualified further education lecturers to teach in school classrooms on the same basis as qualified school teachers.

•To clarify the rules on allowing industry professionals to teach in schools.

•To allow any vocational qualification offered by a regulated awarding body to be taken by 14-to19-year-olds.

•To allow established high-quality vocational qualifications that have not been accredited to be offered in schools and colleges in September 2011.

Michael Gove said he would now consider how best to implement Professor Wolf’s remaining recommendations.

More information from the Department for Education

Read the full Wolf Report here.

Read the IfL's response to the Wolf Report here.

Please add your comments this breaking news and the view of vocational education as reported by Wolf. Do you agree with the criticisms?

Inclusive Practice

One of the key priorities for all teachers, tutors and trainers in the Lifelong Learning Sector, is the ability to ensure their practice is inclusive and they meet the needs of all their learners.

The LLUK Professional Standards highlights that qualified teachers in the lifelong learning sector are required to value equality, diversity and inclusion in relation to learners, the workforce, and the community and must be commited to maintaining an inclusive, equitable and motivating learning environment. More specifically, tutors, trainers and teacher need to demonstrate knowledge of:

AK 3.1 Issues of equality, diversity and inclusion
BK 1.2 Ways to develop and manage behaviours which promote respect for and between others and create an equitable and inclusive learning environment
BK 5.2 Ways to ensure that resources used are inclusive, promote equality and support diversity
DK 1.1 How to plan appropriate, effective, coherent and inclusive learning programmes that promote equality and engage with diversity
EK 2.1 Issues of equality and diversity in assessment

What issues have you considered in the inclusion debate?

Useful weblinks:


Interfaith Calendar

Multiverse Resources

Sector Updates

A selection of updates from the sector this month.

IfL goes self financing

Following the government policy confirmation late 2010, IfL has to become self financing. Lecturers are being asked to pay £68 to retain their membership. What do you think? Please add a comment. More information here.

IfL taking more steps for QTLS status being recognised to teach in schools

IfL is continuing to work on parity of esteem between QTLS and QTS (Qualified Teacher Status). IfL has gained the support for QTLS being recognised for teaching in schools from Lord Boswell, Barry Sheerman MP and former chair of the Education Select Committee and Graham Stuart MP and the current chair of the Education Select Committee. IfL

We watch with interest to see if those with excellent vocational experience will be encouraged to share these skills in schools.

Click for further information.

Qualifications for FE teachers

LLUK is leading the review of learning and skills professional qualifications. The second phase of the review closed on Friday 11 February, 2011. Participants had the opportunity to review LLUK's detailed proposals for updating the qualifications. The proposals will now be amended in light of responses. Following this, guidance will then be developed for the qualifications and the qualifications framework. Click for more information.

LLUK will cease to operate after April 2011 following the review of QUANGO organisations by the current government.

Skills for life strategy – changes to ESOL funding

Significant changes are being proposed to the funding of ESOL, they include limiting public funding to people from ‘settled communities’, limit full free remission to people receiving ‘active benefits’, remove the ‘programme weighting factor’ which will lead to an increase in course fees, end funding for ESOL in the workplace. Are you concerned? What implications does this have for your own practice? Click for more information.

Education Bill

The Education Bill underwent its second reading in the House of Commons on Tuesday. The Bill contains some positive developments for FE including that students from ages 14 and 16 must be provided with ‘independent advice’ on career paths and training options (partly prompted by the very low levels of awareness in schools of apprenticeships), it prioritises funding for first apprenticeships for 16-24 year olds.

Preston Group Celebrate!

A wonderful picture which shows the delight of the Preston Group of having completed their CET1400/PET3600 PTLLS Module. We all enjoyed a superb selection of peer-teach topics from health eating to hair colouring and from energy saving to competition diving scoring!

Very well done to the Preston group and indeed all trainees who have completed their first professional module!

So what is the future for vocational education and training?

Vocational education is a major focus of the PCET course and many 'Lifelong Learning' programmes and qualifications such as many BTECs, NVQs and the 14-19 Diploma. These courses provide an alternative to the more tradition, academic routes of some GCSEs and A Levels and provide learners an opportunity to explore more work related, applied learning experiences. Given the recent changes in educational policy, what is the future for vocational education in the UK?

The much anticipated Wolf Review of 14-19 Vocational Education is due in Spring 2011. Professor Alison Wolf has been asked by Government to explore a number of issues, including:

- How can we improve the organisation of vocational education for 14-19 year olds?
- What is the appropriate target audience for a vocational education offer, and in particular from what age is it appropriate for young people to be engaging in vocational education?
- What principles should underpin content, structure and teaching methods?
- How can we improve progression from vocational education to positive destinations (such as work, Apprenticeships, FE, HE)?

The IfL has consulted members and prepared a response to be considered by Professor Wolf. The response draws together the key themes raised by the consultation process into the '4 Ps': parity of esteem; vocational pedagogy; progression and public and policymaker perception.

These 4 Ps highlight the view of many that vocational education (and its teachers, tutors and trainers) is not held in the same regard as its more 'academic counterpart'. Is this a specifically UK view? The percived value of vocational education in some other European countries is often much more highly regarded and valued. Teacher's TV have an interesting clip on vocational education in Germany.

The introduction of the 'English Bacc' and retrospective league tables published last week, will inevitably have a major impact on the offer of vocational qualifications which have explored in recent years in many schools. Does this spell the end of the 14 - 19 Diploma? What about BTECs? Edexcel have prepared a brief response to some schools questions here. Not forgetting the introduction of University Technical Colleges (see also video clip below).

What are your thoughts, concerns or worries about the future of UK vocational education and training? How will a shift in vocational programmes offered in schools? Should vocational courses have parity with academic ones?

New Year New Update!

Happy New Year wishes to all PCET blog readers. Apologies we haven't had a update in a little while but the pre-Christmas period one is particularly busy with teaching, assessments and observations.

The start of a new year might be a good time to dive into your reflective journals again and explore what changes you might consider making for the coming teaching year. Have you experienced, read or watched anything that has influenced your professional practice? Have you been able to recharge your batteries and fire up your enthusiasm for some outstanding experiential learning? (well it is only Jan 4th!).

It might also be a good time to review the latest round of changes and updates that are affecting our sector. The IfL publish a most useful round-up of the latest policy updates in their monthly publication 'Informed'. Some highlights below:

Government's new skills strategy launched

In a speech at the Association of Colleges (AoC) conference, business secretary Vince Cable and skills minister John Hayes launched the government's strategy for skills and reform of the further education (FE) and skills system

'Investing in Skills for Sustainable Growth' was also launched, outlining details of changes to funding, including the areas to be funded by government and where fees will be charged, as well as where loans will be available to individuals. IfL will provide members with a summary of the skills and investment papers, but we want to make sure that your questions are answered. Please send your questions to chiefexec@ifl.ac.uk

Read IfL's respsonse to the skills strategy

Schools White Paper: The Importance of Teaching

The Department for Education set out reforms for schools, including 14-19 education, in the schools White Paper, The Importance of Teaching, with further analysis in The Case for Change. View videos of the Pearson briefing on the White Paper and read the special policy watch. Toni Fazaeli, IfL's chief executive, will be sharing her views on the White Paper soon on FEnews.co.uk

Chief Inspector's Annual Report

The Chief Inspector of Education's Annual Report found good teaching and learning across FE and skills, although some improvements are needed. Read IfL's response to the Chief Inspector's report

Parliamentary questions

Minister John Hayes referred to QTLS, conferred by IfL, when asked how he will ensure that lectureships in further and higher education remains an attractive career choice for graduates.

Preston Ideas Harvest 17/11/10

Preston trainees brainstormed barriers to learning in tonight's session. Taking a photo is a great way to capture and store for future use!

The 'write' stuff...

Full-time students revisited good practice in academic writing this week and the issue of wider reading to inform assignments was discussed. While popular texts such as Petty, Gravels and Wallace provide an accessible introduction to PCET teaching issues, educational journals can be a particularly good source of current research and debate.

Two journals of particular interest are Research in Post-Compulsory Education and the Journal of Further and Higher Education. You can request a free online sample copy of both journals, published by Taylor and Francis, to explore what they have to offer (click each title to follow the link) and remember that both are available via the Edge Hill library catalogue if you want to explore more editions.

Happy reading...

PS - don't forget to check out 'RefWorks' the personal information and research manager that allows you to create your own online database of bibliographic information that can be organised and used when writing an essay or article. You have over 800 different output styles including Edge Hill Harvard (in-house output style) to choose from.

Spending Review

So the Government's Comprehensive Spending Review announcement last week certainly had significant implications for both further and higher education. One item announced that has sparked debate and questions from learners concerns the future of the Education Maintenance Allowance (or EMA) payments. Some learners continuing their education post-16 are entitled to a direct EMA payment of up to £30 per week depending on their household income. The funds were introduced to encourage participation in education post-school, to help with transport and resource costs.

For some, the money is essential in being able to access education provision, while for many others, the view is that EMA cash is often spent on fags, booze and mobile credit and encourages those with little intrinsic motivation for study to attend college.

What are your thoughts on the removal of EMA? Details are still patchy but the Spending Review removes Child Benefit from families with a higher rate taxpayer and replaces EMAs with locally managed discretionary funds to target support - so some may still possibly receive some additional funds. Check out the article in the TES from last week and watch the clip from this frustrated learner who posted his response on You Tube.

Gift of the gab?

So we had a discussion this week about reflective journals; their purpose, importance and format. It was of little surprise that so many trainees had yet to start recording their reflections of 'critical incidents' relating to their practice. With session plans to write, observations to prepare for, assignments to be submitted and reading (and referencing) to be completed, is it understandable that time for reflective practice slips down the list or priorities.

It is so important however to work 'smart' and make time to reflect. Reflection allows us to move forward, to develop, to improve our practice and become more effective and more efficient practitioners. It informs, shapes and moulds our practice and our approaches to teaching, learning, assessment and our own study.

But how to make time? We discussed finding the right method to capture reflections for you - a simple Word document; a traditional paper diary, an online blog; a voice recording into a mobile phone or voice recorder. Finding what works for you will help to improve the likelihood of regular reflective capture.

Some trainees were interested about the idea of voice-to-text methods - speaking your reflections which are the automatically converted into text to be saved and edited later. One method was the use of Gabcast to record to blog or email from a mobile phone. Unfortunately after 5 years of service, Gabcast announced today the closure of the service by the end of the year.

Alternative voice capture services include iPadio and Dragon Dictation - a great new and FREE app for the iPhone, iTouch or iPad which instantly coverts speech to text which can be texted or emailed. Dragon Dictate may be particularly useful for those with dyslexia or who find it more difficult to write or type quickly.

Check them out if this works for you...

Remember that smell?...

We talk a lot about multi-sensory approachs to teaching and learning but what about the sense of smell? An article in the TES this week reports on the use of 'memory oils' with special educational needs (SEN) students. Certain smells can cunjure up strong memories of days gone by but can it really help with learning recall?

Certain smells for different purposes are suggested. In his book 'Using Brain Power in the Classroom: Five Steps to Accelerate Learning', author Steve Garnett suggests a number of smells that can be used to improve pupil performance:

- Reduce stress - spiced apple, rose and chamomile

- Reduce anxiety - vanilla, neroli and lavender

- Relax - basil, cinnamon and citrus flowers

- Energise - peppermint, thyme and rosemary

- Relieve tiredness - woody scents, cedar and cypress

Would you use smell in the classroom and what would you use?!

- Avoiding the ‘needy student’ – coffee breath
- Get that worksheet done now – bacon sandwich
- Time to go home...

Do we care about Care?

Watched the BBC Panorama programme tonight about children and young people in care. It painted an emotional story about the lives of some young people currently in the care system, moving between Foyer, Hostel and foster home, key worker, support worker and social worker.

Since the tragic death of 'Baby P', the number of children taken into care has risen by 40%. Schools are now required to have an identified and trained 'Designated Teacher' to co-ordinate the sensitive and effective education journey for those in the care system. What are the responsibilities of colleges and other providers in the lifelong learning sector? Does your placement college have an identified process for the monitoring of young people in care? Do they complete Personal Education Plans (PEPs)? Would your approach to pastoral care be different for a young person living in the care system? How and why?

Further reading: Department for Education Guidance

ADHD - Genetic or environmental?

So research from Cardiff Univeristy, published in the Lancet this week, offered further evidence to suggest the link between ADHD (attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder) and a genetic anomaly in some children. The debate between genetic and environmental causes for the condition continue, as do the preferred measures for controlling the behaviour of those affected - medication or psychological intervention.

Having taught teenagers diagnosed as ADHD and ADD (attention-deficit without the hyperactive behaviour), one thing we can confirm is the need for teachers to carefully consider the implications of these conditions in their approach to whole group teaching. Classroom management and personalised learning take on a different perspective with learners who can struggle more than most to pay attention, sit still, concentrate on an extended task and work quietly independently.

The impact of medication (such as Ritalin) on young people can be profound. Recent medical advice has seemed to move away from the 'over prescription' of this powerful drug, although many users find it the only key to successful mainstream study. The debate for teachers around the use and misuse of these type of drugs is also a growing issue. If not prescribed, Ritalin is a class B drug in the UK, meaning possession can lead to a five-year prison sentence.

For more information on ADHD, check out the National Attention Deficit Disorder Information and Support Service