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Meeting the aspirations of future learners
By Tom Hamilton, Director of Educational Policy
GTC Scotland fully supports the current review of Teacher Education being undertaken by Graham Donaldson and Council members have met with him as well as contributing a written response which can be found on our website.
Finance is currently an issue, but the Council would concur with Mr Donaldson's sentiments and stress that the many qualities of the current teacher education system must be maintained if Scotland's ongoing aspirations for learners are to be met.
Literacy and numeracy are clearly significant issues for education, and are also subjected to close scrutiny by the press.
The Government's Entry Memorandum for Courses of Initial Teacher Education already demands qualifications in these areas from applicants for teaching. So the issue may, in fact, be one of lack of confidence rather than lack of knowledge and universities do endeavour to deal with this complex matter within initial teacher education.
International research suggests that the best education systems have teachers who are well qualified, are innovative and autonomous with good levels of self-efficacy and resilience. International research also suggests that the education system itself has to be supportive of its teachers, offering them opportunities to develop subject and pedagogic skills within a collegial ethos.
Scotland clearly has some of these elements already in place and the General Teaching Council for Scotland will be fully supportive of future developments which allow our strong foundation to be built upon to improve outcomes for all learners in Scotland.