Recently, teacher recruitment and retention has been the focus of the government and a step taken to support recruitment was the abolishing of the skills tests. Initial teacher training providers became responsible for assessing trainees' mathematicsrather than having it externally assessed. The purpose of this literature review is to synthesise…

This paper examines how one higher education institute (HEI) in the Northwest of England has devised and developed an innovative Master of Arts (MA) in Education practice with a curriculum designed to meet the needs of newly and recently qualified teachers. The research considers that in the early stages of initial teacher education (ITE),…

Current figures suggest one in every hundred UK children and adults are autistic. The Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Code of Practice (2015) places a statutory duty on local authorities to incorporate learners with SEND, including autism, in mainstream educational settings. This thought piece explores how although policy reforms…

As a teacher educator, feedback from students is important to ensure there is time for my own reflection to inform and develop my practice and curriculum design within formal expectations of initial teacher education. This paper considers the perceptions and expectations of a sample of student teachers, situated in a Higher Education Institution…

The purpose of this grounded approach study is to provide answers to the research question 'what aspect(s) of schooling could newly qualified teachers contribute to, and why?' Via emails, 22 newly qualified teachers (NQTs) from 10 countries provided answers to the research question. The analysis of the data revealed that NQTs thought…

Some teacher educators use numerical grades when assessing teaching competencies. In this situation, statistical analysis can be used to monitor consistency and look for correlations between assessment outcomes across teacher training partnerships and at different stages in training. Another approach is to calculate effect size metrics. These do…

This research was conducted in response to the exit survey of a cohort of Primary PGCE trainee teachers at a UK University in a predominantly White area who indicated low confidence in teaching children from Black, Asian and other minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds at the end of their course. The research aimed to find out why trainee teachers…

This article describes a small-scale qualitative study focusing on Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs) during their first year of teaching. The study aimed to find out how Initial Teacher Education (ITE) providers can best support NQTs by looking at barriers that NQTs face, their perceptions of the support they need, and how these findings could be…

This question - 'What are the characteristics of a professional teacher educator?' - was simply sent out as a survey to all teacher educators who engage with the Teacher Education Advancement Network (TEAN). The aim was to give respondents the opportunity to comment from their own perspectives, whatever they were, thus adding their voices to our…

Schools and Initial Teacher Training/Education providers have joint responsibility for developing trainee subject knowledge. Due to the current curriculum and training emphasis placed upon the importance of subject knowledge, the relationship between it and overall teaching grades is of interest when monitoring trainee assessment data collated…

This paper explores the meaning of practice in relation to learning to teach. There are many different definitions of practice and it is intended that by reflecting on these teacher educators can come some way to defining what practice means for beginning teachers and in their programmes. Differing definitions of practice in relation to learning…

This paper documents the evolution of attempts to codify and standardise teachers' work in England with particular attention to how this phenomenon has impacted the Initial Teacher Education (ITE) sector. In recent decades the teaching profession in England has undergone various iterations of competency criteria, culminating with the current…