ATL

Teachers say degree grades don't give a good indication of who will be a good teacher - ATL

Degree grades are no indication of who will make a good teacher or lecturer, according to over 80 per cent of teachers and lecturers surveyed by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL).

These are the key findings in an ATL survey of 662 student teachers, teachers and lecturers, and school and college managers working in state and independent schools around the UK in March.

The majority of those working in education agreed that teachers and lecturers should have at least a 2:2 grade in their first degree.  Sixty-two per cent thought a 2:2 is necessary to teach secondary pupils, 66 per cent said it is needed to teach sixth form students, 58 per cent for further education students, however, this falls to 44 per cent for working with primary pupils. 

However, overwhelmingly education staff (83 per cent) said that the grade of a first degree does not give any indication of how good a teacher or lecturer someone will be.

A secondary school leader in Essex said:  "I have an MA and National Professional Qualification for Headship yet only a class 3 degree (spent too much time playing sport and growing up).  I am a successful senior leader.  Mr Gove would presumably now not let me enter the profession." 

A secondary teacher from South London said:  "Class of degree is no indication of quality of teaching.  I have met PhDs who are terrible teachers."

A secondary teacher from Sidcup in Kent said:  "The level of a first degree has absolutely no bearing on the potential quality of a teacher.  In 30 years teaching I have encountered many highly qualified individuals who have not idea how to communicate in a classroom situation."

A primary teacher in Cornwall said:  "I have found that teachers who found subjects difficult when they were young are often better teachers as they understand the difficulties children experience."

Staff are also deeply sceptical about the college or university at which students study making any difference to how good a teacher or lecturer a student will be, with 71 per cent saying it has no relevance.

A teacher from a school in Cheshire said:  "Snobbery over university education does not affect the quality of teaching. Some Oxbridge graduates I work with are not respected by their pupils as they do not have the necessary interpersonal skills."

Over three-quarters of education staff think those working with students of all ages, from nursery to further education, should have to have a recognised teacher training qualification.  It was rated as most important for those working with primary (95%), secondary pupils (94 per cent) and sixth form students (91 per cent).  Eighty-two per cent thought a recognised teaching qualification was necessary to teach further education students and 75 per cent said it was for working with nursery aged children.

A primary teacher in Buckinghamshire said:  "Allowing unqualified teachers to teach does not recognise the wide range of skills and underlying knowledge required to provide the best education for our pupils"

A teacher from an independent school in Cheshire said:  "It is important that the profession is suitably qualified.  I would not want to use a solicitor or doctor who was not qualified!" 

However, many teachers and lecturers said that they had learnt most about how to teach when they started working as a teacher.

A secondary teacher in Grimsby said:  "We have become fixated with qualifications rather than quality.  What really matters is whether someone can do the job well.  I am not advocating a free for all.  Experience matters.  It takes more than a year, and never stops.  The best teachers are always learning."

The key qualities and skills rated as most important in a good teacher were the ability to communicate (cited by 97%), patience (88%), subject knowledge (87%), and having a positive attitude (84%).

The skills rated highest as those which should be taught during teacher training were managing students' behaviour (93%), how to teach (91%), how to assess students' work (84%), and lesson planning (82%).

Over 60 per cent of those questioned thought the current qualified teacher status standards are adequate.  Those who expressed concerns about the standards were worried about a lack of consistency in assessing trainees, the amount of paper work in the current system, a tick box approach to some of the learning, and the lack of training in behaviour management and working with special educational needs students.

While the majority of staff thought the number of students training to teach should reflect the number of available teaching and lecturing jobs (61 per cent), over a fifth disagreed. 

Several pointed out the difficulty of accurately predicting the number of teaching jobs.  Anna Carter, a secondary teacher in London, said: "If we exactly follow demand we'll always be a year or two out of sync."

A primary teacher in Swindon said: "It varies from region to region, so I don't see how you could plan for this because people relocate."

Over 60 per cent of newly qualified teachers and lecturers said they had a permanent teaching job lined up when they finished training, and 18 per cent were offered a job by one of their teaching practice schools or colleges.  However, for 10 per cent it took up to six months to find a permanent teaching post, and for nine per cent it took longer than six months.

A primary school teacher in Lancashire said: "I had to apply for over 40 jobs, and only got three interviews from this even though I was in the Bolton and Manchester NQT pools."

A newly qualified secondary teacher in Dorset said:  "I think teacher training is tough enough and that the demands on teachers are enormous and the expectations of the profession outweigh the rewards. The present problem with so called 'falling standards' has nothing to do with teachers and everything to do with over assessment."

ATL general secretary, Dr Mary Bousted, said: "Teaching is a profession, career and vocation.  It is important that those entrusted with teaching our children are highly qualified and have the highest skills possible.  I am not surprised that the majority of teachers and lecturers think anyone going into teaching needs to have the minimum of a 2:2 subject degree.  But they, and I, are clear that what is most important is teaching skills – how good someone is at imparting knowledge and being able to inspire young people of all abilities to learn and want to learn.  It is no good being brilliant at maths if you can't explain how to do maths clearly.  We need a flexible system which ensures that potentially brilliant teachers are not excluded from teaching because they do not have a "right" class of degree."

ENDS

For details of the survey findings, please download this press release pdf. 

Notes to editors

1. The Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) is an independent, registered trade union and professional association, representing approximately 160,000 teachers, headteachers, lecturers and support staff in maintained and independent nurseries, schools, sixth form, tertiary and further education colleges in the United Kingdom.

2. ATL exists to help members, as their careers develop, through first rate research, advice, information and legal advice.

3. ATL is affiliated to the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU), European Trade Union Committee for Education (ETUCE) and Education International (EI). ATL is not affiliated to any political party and seeks to work constructively with all the main political parties.