Post-16 Teaching in UK Schools Offers a Fascinating Area for Research, Operating As It

Mentoring in an open learning context: a case study of post -16 teaching

John Butcher, Staff Tutor in Education, Open University, UK

The Open University, Foxcombe Hall, Boars Hill, Oxford, UK, OX1 5HR

Tel: (01865) 327000, Fax: (01865) 736288, e-mail: J.S.

Paper presented at the European Conference on Educational Research, Lahti, Finland 22-25 September 1999

Network 6: Open and Distance Education Symposium (Teaching as Learning in “Open Contexts”: “North” and “South” practices)

Abstract

This paper focuses upon open and distance learning initial teacher education in the secondary sector in the UK, and explores mentoring strategies associated with student teachers’ professional thinking and classroom practice through a case study of post-16 teaching. It draws upon ethnographic research on a sample group of mentors and student teachers halfway through a PGCE English course. The data are based on interviews with mentors and students on the second placement of three, and questionnaires to students at the end of the same practice. An analysis of the unrealistic expectations students have of post-16 teaching; how mentors challenge their students; the expectation students have of being challenged and the impact of effective mentoring are all considered. The conclusions have implications for partnerships in traditional ITT as well as ITT in a supported open learning context, and will also be a source of practical help for student teachers and mentors engaged in post-16 teaching.

This paper is not for quotation without the permission of the author

Post-16 teaching in UK schools offers a fascinating area for research, operating as it often does as a secret enclave adjacent to the highly researched compulsory schooling focus on 11-16 teaching and learning. While traditional sixth form provision of those Advanced (A’) levels necessary for standard university entrance continues to attract popular epithets like the “gold standard”, recent policy announcements by government (March, 1999) have signalled a shift in emphasis for school pupils in Year 12 towards a broader, mixed curriculum, which highlights a significant area of change for teachers. This is a partial and belated recognition of studies which have raised serious concerns:

Only between 40% and 50% of 16-18 year olds complete two years of post-compulsory education successfully...A levels ...have a narrowness which is out of key with modern requirements, and which contrasts sharply with the breadth and balance sought in the national curriculum....GNVQs are experiencing problems of implementation, and this generates uncertainty as to their rigour and appropriateness (National Commission on Education, 1995)

General National Vocational Qualifications (GNVQs) are offered by an increasing number of UK schools alongside A’ levels. Hence, the announced changes are important, because they demonstrate the fallacious, prevailing misconception of post-16 as a secure and static aspect of a new teacher’s role. There are huge implications for the guidance role post-16 teachers inevitably have, of providing ongoing up-to-date subject specific careers and HE advice and guidance. It would therefore be of interest to discover if mentors are skilled in training and developing new teachers through this phase. In Initial Teacher Training (ITT), attention to post-16 teaching does appear to be peripheral. Bloomer, (1997) comments that:

Studies of classroom life in post-16 education are vastly under-represented in the research literature...long standing preoccupation of university departments of education with teacher education and research in the compulsory sector .

This is a serious omission, since the most recent government policy in this area (DfEE, 1998) documents how the award of secondary QTS depends on demonstrating familiarity with:

post-16 examination syllabuses and courses, including vocational courses...understand, for their specialist subject, the framework of 14-19 qualifications and the routes of progression through it...understand the expected demands of pupils in relation to...post-16 courses...understand and know how to implement the assessment requirement of current qualifications for pupils aged 14-19

This confirms that it is considered of some importance for student teachers to gain insights into 16-19 teaching. It is indeed a non-compliance issue on OFSTED (Office for Standards in Education) inspection criteria if students on a 11-18 PGCE (Postgraduate Certificate in Education) course have not gained experience in teaching post-16 pupils. There is, however, no clear guidance on what that actually means. There is a limited recognition of the existence of different curriculum areas post-16 by placing particular emphases in the standards on key skills and ICT (Information and Communications Technology). However, it is not yet clear from research in this area if mentors are able to give these new areas any more than cursory treatment.

An analysis of the strategies mentors employ in their work with students gaining experience of post-16 teaching is likely to raise important questions since, as a result of changes introduced in key Circulars (DFE,9/92, DfEE,9/97 and DfEE,4/98), school-based mentors are required to support, train and assess students on initial teacher training courses in reaching prescribed standards. Given the enormous significance of the UK National Curriculum 11-16 at Key Stages 3 and 4, it is perhaps inevitable that most of the literature related to mentor strategies concentrates on effective mentoring with students learning to develop their teaching skills with pupils in the 11-16 age range. Focusing on the quality of mentor/mentee interaction in the context of post-16 teaching, I drew on my previous research on mentors on a distance learning PGCE, which highlighted the importance of challenge as a mentor strategy:

Not only was challenge perceived as an effective mentor strategy, but it clearly contributed to developing the student’s teaching skills (Burgess and Butcher, 1998).

If challenge is to be raised in its profile as a mentor strategy, it is important for those concerned with initial teacher training, (mentor, mentee, school and H.E institution) to have a clearer understanding of the need for challenge, the processes that challenge might involve, and the outcomes likely to be achieved (Burgess and Butcher, 1999).

My intention was to focus the developing argument about challenge on the post-16 training mentees receive in their partner schools. I asked whether mentors charged with training student teachers to a standard meriting the award of QTS (Qualified Teacher Status) are able to offer “challenge as well as support" (Open University, 1995, p.50). Focusing on the post-16 context, I intend to address the following questions: Do student teachers expect to be challenged? Do mentors challenge? What challenge strategies do mentors employ? Are these effective?

My research was on mentors and mentees working within the context of an open and distance learning PGCE (secondary 11-18). The student cohort consisted almost entirely of mature students, the majority of whom were women embarking on a change of career, or returning to education after domestic responsibilities. As is claimed in a relevant study (Powell, 1992):

Because nontraditional preservice teachers, those entering teaching later in life, are becoming a significant part of the preservice teacher population, there has emerged a pressing need for studies that explore the nature of this group.

I aimed to discover how mentors, working with these novice teachers who may have considerable expertise in other fields, articulated their knowledge base, the nature of the dialogue between mentor and student, and the part challenge played in moving a trainee from novice to expert (Open University, 1995). These mentors are required to be expert practitioners in their subjects, oriented to the learning needs of adults in acknowledging what their student brings to the classroom, and to be reflective articulators of the standards. I hoped to discover whether, within this multi-faceted role, mentors are willing and able to use challenge as a strategy to identify the standards, related to the context of post-16 teaching, which might require development.

My study aimed to illuminate the following conceptualisations: that the role itself is less important than the form of speech/discourse used; that mentoring interactions are constantly episode-centred; and that student input has an impact on the role. (Williams,1998). My understanding of mentoring is informed by a framework drawn from Maynard & Furlong, (1993) in which identifiable stages of professional growth, in this case moving a novice beyond the plateau of survival, can be linked to a strategy of challenge. This report envisages challenge as a strategy of active mentoring through these stages of professional growth, (Elliott & Calderhead, 1993). However, we are reminded, (Open University, 1995) of the multidimensionality of the mentoring role, and of the difficulties inherent in teachers not used to teaching adults in this way. As a consequence, the research question relates to mentoring with a focus on the under-reported ITT area of the post-16 curriculum, in terms of: need, process and outcomes.

A key idea underpinning this research is that the Daloz (1986) model, later adapted by Maynard and Furlong (1995) locates student growth as a teacher within a context of support and challenge. In tension with this prescription is the research which describes many mentoring relationships as supportive but lacking challenge, as exemplified by the comment:

There was little evidence of mentors encouraging students to think critically about their own actions...or of mentors challenging student preconceptions. The mentors were however, offering the students safe places for their trial and error learning

(Edwards & Collison, 1996),

This suggests student preconceptions and preexisting images of teaching will be slow to be replaced unless mentors choose to intervene. In post-16 teaching this is particularly important, since my previous and current research suggests the images new teachers have of post-16 teaching depends upon their own experience as learners many years previously, often in the context of being lectured at to get through content heavy traditional Advanced level syllabuses.

In those major studies where challenge has been endorsed as a legitimate strategy for mentors in school (Cameron-Jones & O’Hara, 1997; Elliott & Calderhead,1993; Martin,1996) an imbalance has been described between support and challenge as aspects of mentoring in ITT. Support seems to be omnipresent, whereas challenge appears notable by its absence. Much of the research seems to confirm the following charge: "Very few (mentors) openly challenged their novices ideas and images of teaching” (Elliott & Calderhead, 1993).

My research set out to engage with a reconceptualised model of mentoring, to discover if a discourse of challenge in which mentoring is a dynamic process tailored to the needs of the learner to go beyond competence is present and effective, when trainees are engaged with the post-16 curriculum. If my interest in the effectiveness (or otherwise) of mentoring strategies employed in the context of post-16 teaching is a valid one, one justification is because the existing body of knowledge neglects references to that particular issue. However, the works of Berliner (1994) and Elliott and Calderhead (1993) recognise the discomfort of challenge, and Maynard and Furlong (1993) provide a theoretical perspective on which to build. This conceptualisation of the active mentoring of students through stages of professional growth with the idea of challenge proving a final push on a developmental journey provided the context for my research, and the significance of linking post-16 mentoring to “challenge” is underlined in Martin (1996).

A key theme emerging from scrutiny of the literature is the neglected area of preparing novice teachers to teach post-16 pupils. Assumptions are made throughout the extensive recent literature on mentoring that work with 11-16 pupils is indistinguishable from the invisible demands of work with 16-19 pupils. It is alleged (Elliott, 1996):

Little work has been done specifically on teaching in post - compulsory education as a profession.

This seems a glaring omission, since Lucas (1996) has claimed the curriculum of the future requires a broader, more flexible professionalisation, with potential shifts in emphasis 14-19 (ie GNVQ in schools from KS4) requiring certain aspects of teaching and learning above others, and an urgent need for a “pedagogy of guidance” in teacher preparation. Bloomer (1997) asserts of post-16 teaching:

The teaching act must be defined in terms consistent with the kinds of learning activity ...a rejection of teaching as grounded essentially in a mastery of specialist subject knowledge. New definitions of teacher expertise and professionalism will focus much more tightly upon the knowledge, understanding and skills that are required to assist learners in finding and utilising their own new knowledge across subject boundaries and across the theoretical-practical divide.

Of course ideas around multidisciplinary flexibility, and applied knowledge run counter to the interpretation of subject specialism emerging in recent years from the TTA (Teacher Training Agency) circulars. However, the resultant marginalisation of any address to key and transferable skills leaves school-based teaching and learning post-16 prey to the fallacy that demands on such teachers are unchanging.

Bloomer also talks of the:

Relationship between curriculum planning and students’ experiences of learning (being) fundamentally weak...for post-16 education...Policy could be steered “by folk-lore”...Post-16 planners are...bereft of a significant history of classroom research...knowledge of the student experience is taken for granted...descriptors are used uncritically...(which) serves to reify "types"..Recently expanded body of work is concerned with vocational/transition to work...not general/academic

The limited attention given to this area is only partially compensated by the texts on policy in the 16-19 curriculum. The most often referenced in the range of literature consulted for this review (Macfarlane, 1993) provides themes for further research in the areas of pupil learning, but does not pursue the training needs of those teachers engaged in work with post-16 pupils. As he says of specialist teaching at this level:

The relationship between teacher and student...is that of expert and initiate...From the outset, the obvious teaching and learning strategy is for the teacher/trainer to inform and instruct, and for the student/trainee to listen....thereby maintaining or appearing to maintain, the need for a didactic approach...The formalities inherent in the didactic method facilitate order and discipline: the teacher is very much in control of proceedings...today...the relationship with the 16+ age group is particularly friendly and relaxed...nevertheless the standard teaching method is still largely didactic...This situation owes more to expediency than ideology...Strong forces militate against the use of methods designed to foster student independence. Teachers cite, in particular, overlarge classes, inadequate resources and insufficient time...Teachers of both academic and vocational courses complain constantly of overloading of syllabuses...

This getting through the syllabus is a high priority in a society that attaches so much importance to examination results. Unfortunately, a virtually unconsidered result of this “busyness culture of schools” (Bramald, 1995), is that post-16 teaching and learning is sidelined from any school-based discussion of pedagogy. A passive acceptance that outcomes, whether in the form of A level results or GNVQ retention and pass rates, are all important, leads to a seemingly immovable faith in teaching this phase as it has always been. Informed professional discussion about effective pedagogical approaches to post-16 teaching is lost in the information overloaded hubbub generated by content imperatives.

The importance of this area is highlighted as a significant theme because of the apparent disparity between existing teacher perceptions and self-beliefs about a set of behaviours in the post-16 classroom, and the description of those behaviours as analysed by researchers.

Recent work based in English classrooms (Hardman & Williams, 1998 and Hardman & Leat, 1998) describes a classroom discourse dominated by teacher talk and far removed from the perception teachers held of a seminar style dialogue of negotiated meanings. Assumptions that post-16, smaller groups of motivated students prompt different, discussion based teaching is rejected. The reliance on traditional models of teacher as expert transmitting a canon of wisdom in both literature and language classes belies the assumptions made by those same teachers about a democratic, discussion focussed pedagogy. It points to a perpetuation of an academic culture, resistant to change. It also illuminates the need for more research to provide data on which descriptions of what really goes on in post-16 classrooms are made explicit. Macfarlane (1993) has also suggested:

The non didactic approach to teaching - putting students at the centre of the learning process - creates a fluid and unpredictable teaching context. The teacher has to be prepared for all kinds of unforeseen situations, peripheral questions, individual interpretations and new applications of syllabus content...shifts the whole perspective of a subject from the past to the present, so that the teacher must always be right up to date. Didactic teaching enables one to make set - piece presentations...perfected through repetition over a number of years...The degree of adaptability required, however, in orchestrating a continually open - ended classroom situation calls for classroom and management skills of a special order...Assessment procedures exert one of the strongest influences on teaching methods, and A level examinations... have been a major factor in perpetuating the didactic method...Education...frequently stultifies in the post -16 sector.

A lack of attention to the particular demands of post-16 teaching within a course of Initial Teacher Training would appear to be damaging to the student, and unhelpful to the mentor charged with ensuring the novice teacher is competent to teach right across the 11-18 age range. This is particularly unfortunate, given the research literature which describes post-16 pupils encountering teaching methods which give little attention to the needs of the learner. For instance, work on post-16 teacher communication styles (Harkin & Davis, 1996 and Harkin, 1998) reveals a paucity of the kind of enabling, student centred discourse which teachers claim to value and believe they engage in. This research is also valuable because it suggests pupils are aware of the teacher centred approach they are being exposed to, and crave a more open, mature approach. Such affectivity would involve dialogue, not monologue. Significantly, reference is made to the link between perceived quality of teaching and retention rates on GNVQ courses.

Work on classroom discussion (Dillon, 1994) presents a relevant focus for considering the relative absence of non-didactic forms of post-16 teaching described in the literature:

Discussion is difficult. Far from coming naturally, it has to be learned...Discussion is time - consuming, kaleidoscopically unpredictable in process, and uncertain of outcome as much as unsure of success...teachers generally suffer from an almost poignant lack of experience with discussion...Rarely during the course of their own schooling have they participated in good discussions with model teachers...As a student teacher , they may not have received instruction, training and practice in leading classroom discussions