This is BLOG 4 of the Director’s Opinion series, originally published on LinkedIn.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been writing about the future of teacher training in the COVID epidemic. I’ve considered the need for virtual training for the many extra people who have signed up for teacher training and how remote coaching can help those further along in their careers.
This article looks at the vital impact these two changes could make to countries around the world.
While people are aware of the impact that bringing education to areas of the world that have not enjoyed full education (such as the UN Millenium Development Goal to ‘achieve universal primary education’) there is less consideration of the impact of ever-better education. But consider this evidence from the UK, “Higher levels of education are associated with a wide range of positive outcomes – including better health and wellbeing, higher social trust, greater political interest, lower political cynicism, and less hostile attitudes towards immigrants” (Evidence Briefing, ESRC, July 2014).
In order to encourage and enable people to access any education or aspire to higher levels, we need high quality and well-trained teachers – not a ‘revolving door’ of ever-younger teachers who leave within a few years of joining the profession. There are too many stories shared every day on social media of teachers of all ages considering leaving teaching, handing in their notice, and articles in serious teaching publications asking if it is acceptable to crying after a lesson.
The challenges of the COVID pandemic are exacerbating this, and negative ‘word of mouth’ experiences could mean the recent boost to teacher recruitment is short-lived.
Sympathetic and proactive support for all teachers is vital in these times – having an experienced mentor who can share your lessons and support you but will not judge you, and access to a wide range of real lessons that show the truth of teaching before entering a classroom both have huge potential to reassure and re-engage trainee teachers.
Please get in touch if you would like to explore these issues and experience the latest in-classroom video technology!
Read more about our work with Hereford Academy in the UK and the Doon School in India
