Achieving your Diploma in Education and Training

Jim Gould, Jodi Roffey-Barentsen

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781526447838
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Adult Education

This book supports the Level 5 Diploma in Education and Training for anyone training to teach in the further education and skills sector. Full of informed practical guidance and supported by meaningful links to theory and educational research, it covers all mandatory units included in the diploma and has been carefully designed to be your indispensable guide to successfully achieving the qualification.

Thought-provoking activities in every chapter highlight key points and show how you can apply them in practice allowing you to enhance your teaching skills. This book clearly communicates what underpins high-quality teaching and empowers you to succeed as a teacher of learners in the further education and skills sector.

New to this edition:

· Reflective activities in every chapter encouraging you to engage critically with key concepts

· New coverage of employability offering pragmatic guidance for succeeding in the workplace

· Content updated to reflect current policy directions within the sector

· Links to further reading throughout highlighting key literature on each major topic

1 Education and Training: The Teacher’s Role and Responsibilities

This chapter sets the scene for those who are working, or are intending to work, within Education and Training. It looks at what teachers actually do and what is expected of them by examining the different aspects of the teaching role, the associated responsibilities and boundaries of practice. Issues of diversity, inclusion, differentiation and equality figure largely in this mix and the different terms are defined and their implications for practice explained. Ways of setting ground rules which contribute to an inclusive approach to teaching are explored before the chapter finishes with a discussion of the importance of functional skills and the part that teachers play in supporting the needs of learners in this respect.

When you have completed this chapter you will be able to:

• categorise the different roles fulfilled by the teacher in the Further Education and Skills sector and give examples of these roles
• describe the specific responsibilities associated with the teaching role
• define the following terms: diversity, inclusion, differentiation, equality
• state the different aspects of diversity exhibited by learners within Education and Training
• recognise that different learners have different preferences in learning style
• list different strategies employed in providing a differentiated learning environment
• identify different aspects of equality and how these impact on practice
• evaluate different approaches to the setting of ground rules, identifying which would be appropriate within your own teaching context
• define the terms ‘minimum core’ and ‘functional skills’
• describe what is meant by the term ‘embedding functional skills’
• identify when employability skills are embedded within the session
• differentiate between activities that fall within and outside of the role of the teacher.

Teaching in Education and Training

Teaching qualifications within the Further Education and Skills sector have undergone several changes in the last few years. The Level 5 Diploma in Education and Training was introduced in 2013 replacing the previous Diploma in Teaching in the Lifelong Learning Sector (DTLLS), as a consequence of the findings of the 2012 Lingfield report (BIS, 2012) into professionalisation within the sector. The new diploma is part of a suite of qualifications (including the Level 3 Award and the Level 4 Certificate in Education and Training) introduced with the intention of simplifying the overall qualification structure and bringing it into line with the Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF). The diploma is built up by combining a number of units. These are divided into two groups. Group A contains a number of mandatory units at Levels 4 and 5, which will be taken by everyone who is enrolled for the diploma. They are:

• Teaching, learning and assessment in education and training (20 credits, Level 4)
• Developing teaching, learning and assessment in education and training (20 credits, Level 5)
• Theories, principles and models in education and training (20 credits, Level 5)
• Wider professional practice and development in education and training (15 credits, Level 5)

The remaining 45 credits at Levels 4 and 5 required to complete the diploma are taken from a list of optional units contained in Group B.

Although there is some overlap with various optional units, the chapters in this book primarily address the requirements of the mandatory units. The ‘fit’ between chapters and units can be found in the mapping document in Appendix 1 at the end of the book.

Role of the teacher in education and training

When we think about a ‘role’, we consider the duties or activities we associate with a given job or position. If you take on the role of a lorry driver, for instance, your role is to drive a lorry. If you are a dancer, you dance; if you are a cleaner, you clean. Logically then, if you are a teacher, you teach. Is this the full story of the role of the teacher though? Certainly, teaching will constitute a large proportion of what you do, but unlike the other examples above, being a teacher involves much more than the ‘core’ role that the name of the occupation suggests.

Activity 1.1

Take a moment to reflect on everything that you do in a working day. Keep a brief log for a week of all the activities in which you engage during your working day to get an idea of the scope of the job that you are doing. For example:

• Monday
• 9.00 Answer emails – two course enquiries.……………..

Activity 1.1 illustrates that although it is reasonable to assume that passing on knowledge or skills to learners is the main activity in which teachers are involved, a good proportion of the working day is spent on other pursuits. Your analysis of your daily work pattern will have identified a number of sub-roles, many of which will appear in Figure 1.1. The initial impression given by the results of this exercise is that the list is scarily long and one is tempted to wonder how we can possibly fulfil all of these functions within the hours allocated – but somehow we do!

An analysis of the overall role that we fulfil helps in coming to a conscious recognition of all that we do. This recognition can help us in managing and organising our time. For this purpose, it can be helpful to consider the various roles as falling into discrete categories. For example:

Figure 1.1 Roles of the teacher

Teaching-Related Roles

Writing schemes of work and session plans; preparing resources; preparing and delivering teaching sessions; marking work; giving feedback to learners; acting as an internal verifier; taking part in course development.

Administrative Roles

Writing reports; marking registers; keeping learners’ records; implementing quality procedures; corresponding with parents, employers and examining bodies.

Institutional Roles

Attending parents’/open evenings; preparing prospectus entries; dealing with course enquiries; acting as a mentor to new colleagues; attending meetings; providing data.

Pastoral Roles

Acting as a personal tutor; chasing absences; dealing with lateness or discipline problems.

Once identified, the various sub-roles can be prioritised, enabling them to be more effectively and efficiently managed. Tensions can still arise, however, as various roles compete for our time and difficult decisions often have to be made. A further complication arises in that considerations of what constitutes a priority can depend on the viewpoint taken. Others may put pressure on us to engage in what we consider to be less important tasks at the expense of what we see as more important tasks. Your view and your line manager’s view, for instance, may differ as to whether thorough preparation of tomorrow’s teaching session is more important than completing those employer feedback forms that have been lying around for some time now. If both have to be completed for the next day and there is only sufficient time to tackle one properly, which will it be?

An awareness of all that is asked of us also means that we are better able to identify which aspects of our role we feel uncertain about so we can plan our CPD opportunities accordingly. Whilst we may feel reasonably confident in the performance of the main duties we have to carry out, we sometimes have to take on a role with which we feel less comfortable. You may have been asked to take on a tutoring role, although you feel you do not have the necessary experience or preparation, especially if having to teach aspects of social and personal education are included in this. This could be raised as a developmental issue at appraisal or you could enquire at an earlier stage about the possibilities of shadowing a more experienced colleague who was in this role.

Reflective task 1.1

Take a moment to consider the different sub-roles that you are expected to fulfil during your everyday working life. Which of these do you consider to be your core ‘professional roles’? Can you identify any tensions between any of these roles – if so, how can you resolve these?

Responsibilities

As we have seen, a lorry driver has a narrower and more easily definable role than a teacher. Within that narrower role, however, there are a number of responsibilities. There is an expectation that the lorry will be driven in a safe manner showing due respect for other road users and with regard to any speed restrictions that might apply. The lorry driver will be expected to keep up to date with relevant legislation, such as the number of hours that can be spent driving in a 24-hour time period; to check the roadworthiness of their vehicle and ensure that it is securely loaded before venturing onto the road. Lorry drivers are not unique in this respect, and, over and above the defining of tasks or duties associated with the specific role to be filled, all jobs are accompanied by an associated set of responsibilities. As well as carrying out all of the duties associated with the teaching role we are to fulfil, there is also an expectation that we do a ‘proper job’, subscribing to what is considered ‘good practice’, carrying out the role in a professional manner. But what exactly does this mean?

For a start, we are expected, like our lorry driver, to be aware of and keep up to date with the various bits of legislation that apply to our role.

Activity 1.2

Whilst some legislation is at least in part subject-related, there is a considerable body of legislation that applies within the Further...