Presentation by Brian Hudson and Teresa Moran

1. Quality Assurance and Teacher Education in
Scotland
Brian Hudson and Teresa Moran
Friday 27th August 2010
Symposium on Quality Culture in Teacher Education
ECER 2010, University of Helsinki

2. QA Context
Central role of the university or degree awarding institution
accredited by the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS)
which was established in 1965.
In order to meet the Standard for Initial Teacher Education,
programmes must … develop in student teachers the flexibility to
play a positive part in new educational developments, such as A
Curriculum for Excellence, by encouraging a disposition for
professional enquiry.
A time of a national inquiry into the future of Teacher Education in
Scotland led by the former Chief Inspector of Schools and of
uncertainty about the future with regard to numbers of places on
initial teacher education courses.

3. On Quality Culture
… move away from a mechanistic to a holistic and cultural view of
quality in education … involving an emerging understanding that
quality development calls for the development of an organisational
culture based on shared values, necessary competencies and new
professionalism (Ehlers, 2009)
A main problem which is addressed is that even though sometimes
effective organisational processes have been implemented, the
educational quality (e.g. answering the question “what is good
learning?”) is still lagging behind, and teaching strategies of
educators or learning strategies of students have not been
improved. (Ehlers, 2009, p 344)

4. Research Questions
What kinds of QA methods are used at a national level and what
kinds of consequences do they have on objectives, contents and
structures of teacher education, resources, and effectiveness?
What kinds of QA methods are used at a HE institutional level and
what kinds of consequences do they have on teacher education
curriculum, organizational culture, resource allocation and
infrastructure, teachers’ professional development and their
competencies.
How do national and institutional QA methods ensure teacher
competence in certain critical areas such as active and
collaborative learning and knowledge creation, ICT pedagogical
applications, and inclusive education.
How are QA methods applied to the continuum of teacher
education as life-long learning?

5. Approach and Methods
The study is being carried out within the framework of
“communicative evaluation” (Niemi and Kemmis, 1999) involving
three central functions of revelation, anticipation and building
communication and partnership
Specific methods of data collection for this paper include:
national and institutional documents and policy papers;
initial responses from Deans of Education and policy
stakeholders to a questionnaire;
the response to the review of teacher education in Scotland by
Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE, 2010) and also that of the
General Teaching Council of Scotland (GTCS, 2010b).

6. QA methods at a national level
Particular strengths of the QA methods in Scotland are the relative
consistency of approach and consistency of standards based on
having agreed the Memorandum on Entry Requirements for
Courses of Initial Teacher Education in Scotland; the Guidelines for
Initial Teacher Education Courses in Scotland; the Standards for
Initial Teacher Education, Full Registration, Chartered Teacher and
Headship combined with the GTCS accreditation mechanisms and
framework of rules, policies, protocols, codes of practice and codes
of conduct (GTCS, 2010a).
Areas for development – beginning to develop “better overall
coherence of provision” (Policy Stakeholder) across ITE, Induction
and CPD; “reducing the burden of accreditation mechanisms” (PS)
and for closer working between GTCS with senior management
level of universities to ensure adequate resources for ITE
programmes (Dean).

7. QA methods at an institutional level - areas for
improvement
Consistency of approach
“On the whole I feel that the procedures at institutional level within this
institution work well. There is clearly an appreciation of the importance
of vocational training and that is valued. With experience of examining
programmes for other universities I am not convinced this is always the
case.” (Dean)
Commitment to ITE
“Concerns over … the commitment to ITE of individual universities; the
balance of commitment in some universities between research and
teaching and the staffing levels in some universities” (GTCS, 2010b)
Partnership
“Partnerships between universities, local authorities and schools still
need to improve.” (Policy stakeholder)
“Concerns over … the strength of some ITE partnerships” (GTCS,
2010b)

8. How do national and institutional QA methods
ensure teacher competence?
“Achievement is patchy in some of these areas. Better overall
coherence and more explicit expectations would be of benefit.”
(Policy Stakeholder)
“Until recently it would have been difficult to see this other than in
relation to individual programmes. The work of the STEC Inclusion
group in developing the National Framework for Inclusion saw the
team engaging in a process whereby all universities worked
collaboratively to achieve the aim of furthering the understanding of
teacher educators as well as teachers in the area of inclusion.”
(Dean)
“Standards are not set in stone and Scotland has been fortunate that
consensual approaches have been agreed across the various
interest groups and stakeholders.” (Policy Stakeholder)

9. How are QA methods applied to the continuum
of teacher education? Areas for improvement
“Clearer understanding of the complementary roles of universities
and schools.” (Policy Stakeholder)
“It would be good to see Universities provide a programme of CPD
which looks at short non-award bearing courses as well as award
bearing programmes.” (Dean)
“The place of universities in providing/supporting ongoing
professional development for teachers needs to be further
developed.” (Policy Stakeholder)

10. Areas for development in relation to EU agenda
on Improving Teacher Quality
Areas of agreement on the need for improvement included:
levels of student and teacher mobility,
support for teachers throughout their career in the form of CPD,
QA systems for CPD,
training and support for school leaders
resources for TE
Other issues raised included those relating to subject knowledge,
Masters level entry qualifications and the balance between research
and teaching in higher education.

11. Key Issues identified by the Royal Society of
Edinburgh
The RSE recommends an extension of the role of GTCS to a College of
Teachers and national leadership, by teachers for teachers, in all three
aspects of teacher education.
It is important that TE’s three elements … emphasise educational
leadership which is essential to education and its reform.
Priority should be given to the need for TE to be keeping pace with
changing needs of communities and looking forward to new ways of
learning and teaching.
It is important that partnership is addressed.
It is essential that research and evaluation of high quality is undertaken in
order to generate much more fundamental understanding of the linkage
between teacher education, curricular effectiveness and the broad range of
achievements of pupils.

12. References
CEC (2007) Communication from the Commission of the European
Communities to the Council and the European Parliament. Improving the
Quality of Teacher Education. COM(2007) 392 final. Brussels, 3.8.2007.
CEC (2008) Conclusions of the Council and of the Representatives of the
Governments of the Member States, meeting within the Council of 21
November 2008 on preparing young people for the 21st century: an agenda
for European cooperation on schools (OJ 2008/C 319/08)
3 CEC (2009) Conclusions of the Council and of the Representatives of the
Governments of the Member States, meeting within the Council of 26
November 2009 on the professional development of teachers and school
leaders (OJ 2009/C 302/04)
Ehlers, U. D. (2009) Understanding quality culture, Quality Assurance in
Education, Vol. 17, 4, pp. 343 – 363.

13. References
GTCS (2010a) Standards and Regulations, General Teaching Council Scotland
[WWW document archive] URL
http://www.gtcs.org.uk/Publications/StandardsandRegulations/StandardsandRegulati
ons.aspx (Visited on 14 August 2010)
GTCS (2010b) Review of Teacher Education in Scotland - GTC Scotland response,
July 2010. [WWW document] URL http://www.gtcs.org.uk/News/review-of-teacher-
education-gtc-scotland-response.aspx (Visited on 14 August 2010)
Niemi, H. and Kemmis, S. (1999) Communicative evaluation: evaluation at the
crossroads, Lifelong Learning in Europe (LLinE), Vol. IV, No.1, 55–64.
Review of Teacher Education in Scotland (2010) [WWW site] URL
http://www.reviewofteachereducationinscotland.org.uk/ (Visited on 14 August 2010)
RSE (2010) GRAHAM DONALDSON’S REVIEW OF TEACHER EDUCATION IN
SCOTLAND: a response from the RSE Education Committee to the call for evidence,
The Royal Society of Edinburgh, Advice Paper (10-07), June 2010. [WWW
document] URL http://www.royalsoced.org.uk/govt_responses/2010/AD10_07.pdf
(Visited on 14 August 2010)