Teaching as a Master’s profession

Some definitions

Confusingly, the initials PGCE stand for two different but related qualifications.

·  The Post Graduate Certificate of Education is at master’s level, or Level 7. Completion of this award carries credits towards a full master’s degree or the Masters in Teaching and Learning (MTL).

·  The Professional Graduate Certificate of Education is at bachelor’s or honours level (Level 6) – which, to add to the confusion, is the level of the former Post Graduate certificate. Teachers who qualified before 2007 will have gained a Post Graduate certificate but this will be at honour’s level.

Some context

The DCSF introduced the (MTL) in order to enhance the quality of teaching and so improve achievement in schools, as it explained in a document called ‘Being the best for our children’ (2008). The logic (challenged by some) was that having more highly-qualified teachers would lead to higher attainment.

Unlike existing MA or MEd programmes, the idea was that the MTL would be introduced to new entrants to the profession through Initial Teacher Training programmes, then gradually be developed to be available to established practitioners. The MTL is not yet available to all established teachers throughout the country, however, and its future is not certain, pending a decision from the DfE. You can find out more about the background and structure of the MTL using the links at the bottom of the page.

A key difference between the MTL and other Master’s programmes is that it is designed to be fundamentally practice-based: teachers are encouraged to enquire into and interrogate their practice and take part in action research. Schools work alongside universities to ensure that development of reflective practice in the classroom is combined with academic rigour, and trainees are properly supported.

Why bother?

There is little evidence so far that head teachers are actively choosing to employ those trainees following a postgraduate course over those taking the professional route. Head teachers I have spoken to want teachers who can teach engaging lessons and generally cut it in the classroom. However, there are a number of advantages to completing the master’s course if you can, including:

-  your thinking and reflecting skills can only be enhanced through post-graduate study, which will sharpen your practice;

-  it will enable you to focus on a particular interest: because the qualification is research-based, you will be able to work on something that actively engages your interest and have ownership of the study;

-  it is hard work, which shows your commitment to your professional development and your career.

If you already have a master’s degree, you may still be interested in completing the MTL: you will probably find the approach very different to the more academic nature of your first Master’s.

Going for Master’s

Some universities automatically enrol their PGCE trainees onto the master’s programme (with the option of defaulting to the honours programme if anyone looks as if they will not be able to succeed at master’s), while others run a Level 6 course and invite trainees to attend extra sessions if they would like to go for the higher qualification. Find out as soon as you can which route your university is offering.

English and Master’s

Doing a master’s is a great way to dig deeply into an aspect of teaching in which you are interested (and will give you plenty of ammunition to use at interview). Your university will have developed a programme for you to follow that will enable it to structure and assess your work. (Assessment is not necessarily solely by the traditional essay.) Whilst many will encourage whole-school topics for exploration, you may have the opportunity to investigate subject-specific topics too.

Areas that some of my English PGCE trainees have explored through their master’s study in recent years include:

-  how certain cohorts of learners (e.g. those with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities, the Gifted and Talented, those learning English as an Additional Language) can best be supported in a mixed-ability English classroom

-  the most effective approaches to Assessment for Learning in the classroom

-  ways to encourage boys to read and write for pleasure

-  the impact of Literacy Across the Curriculum initiatives

-  the impact of out-of-classroom learning.

The work was set in context and underpinned by critical reading, but it was the research that the trainees designed, carried out and reflected upon that made it gripping reading. If you get the chance, read some master’s submissions. They will interest you and inspire you, and give you some ideas for your own voyage of learning discovery.

And finally… is it master’s or masters?

To apostrophise or not to apostrophise? Type ‘Master’s in Teaching and Learning’ into a popular search engine and you get nearly 10,000,000 hits; type it in without the apostrophe and you get about 7,000,000. Whilst (to an English pedant) the good news is that the majority use the apostrophe accurately, the bad news is that the TDA have chosen to ditch the apostrophe - and they are running the show. That’s food for an English lesson in itself…

Find out more:

Training and Development Agency for Schools:

http://www.tda.gov.uk/teacher/masters-in-teaching-and-learning.aspx

DCSF: ‘Being the best for our children’:

http://publications.education.gov.uk/default.aspx?PageFunction=productdetails&PageMode=publications&ProductId=DCSF-00246-2008

Master’s degree characteristics (March 2010):

http://www.qaa.ac.uk/academicinfrastructure/benchmark/masters/MastersDegreeCharacteristics.pdf

This resource was downloaded from www.teachit.co.uk – The Training Ground Page 1 of 2