Lee Davies

Further Education Teaching: the road to regulation (part 2)

Lee Davies — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 09:35:02 +0000

We pick up the story in November 2004, with the publication of Equipping our Teachers for the Future (EoT). The intent of EoT is well known so I will not rehearse it here, but in simple terms it set out the policy for reforming initial teacher training and the professional identity of further education teachers and trainers. Two significant features of EoT were the incorporation of further education providers in the widest possible sense, bring adult & community learning, work-based learning, etc in scope in line with the definition of a ‘learning and skills’ sector and limiting the reforms to new teachers from the introduction of regulations, proposed for September 2007.

EoT was of particular significance for me. Reading through the proposals and learning about IfL’s future role in the reform of FE teaching professionalism inspired me to apply for a job I stumbled across in the TES: Development Manager of the Institute for Learning. I attended an interview in London late in the spring of 2005; an interview chaired by someone who had been an inspiration to me as a NATFHE member and who had been the principal founder of the IfL, Derek Betts. No one was more shocked than me when I got the call a few days later (actually I think it may well of been the next day) and on the 1st August 2005 I turned up for my first day in what was essentially a large cupboard loaned to IfL by Lifelong Learning UK (LLUK). (more…)

Further Education Teaching: the road to regulation (part 1)

Lee Davies — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 12:14:38 +0000

The publication of Lord Lingfield’s ‘review of professionalism‘ made me think about how we ended up with the regulatory framework that is now being abandoned and the considerations that were made along the way. It’s a long story and, so far as I am aware, is not well documented anywhere. So mainly from memory, here is my reflection on the road to regulation ….. or at least the first part through to the intent to regulate in 2004 (more to follow).

One of the significant mistakes made by Lord Lingfield in the review of professionalism in further education (my analysis here) was that of confusing the role of IfL with the regulatory responsibilities IfL inherited by statute in 2007. In its press release immediately after the review was made public, IfL drew attention to this mistake on the part of Lord Lingfield. As the only person involved throughout the process of taking the policy intention of Equipping Our Teachers for the Future through to the drafting and laying of regulations before parliament, I thought it would be worthwhile reflecting on why we are where we are in terms of IfL and its regulatory role(s). (more…)

BIS Review of Professionalism: FE Teaching, a Profession in Crisis

Lee Davies — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 08:10:56 +0000

Fifteen years ago, as a member of the National Association for Further and Higher Education (NATFHE), I took part in a couple of surveys on the state of professionalism in further education. Along with two thirds of those participating in the survey, I pledged my support for a professional body for FE teachers and became increasingly interested in professional identity, particularly the work of Jocelyn Robson in describing the dual professional identity of FE teachers. Writing on dual professional identity in the Journal of Vocational Education and Training, Robson claimed:

To many outside education, FE teachers appear as an anomalous group, with an ambivalent status and an unclear identity…… The fact is that the FE teaching profession has made little progress over the last 100 years towards full professional status…… In moving from one occupational area (in industry or commerce) to another (education and training), most further education teachers retain strong allegiances to their first occupational identity…… This identity is what gives them credibility (as well as knowledge and skill) and it is therefore understandable that much value attaches to it.

They have experienced initial occupational or professional socialisation in one context, and are in the college precisely because this process has been successful and in order to socialise others (the students or trainees) to the same norms and practices…… The technical teacher appears to see him or herself chiefly as the engineer, the secretary, the welder, the fashion designer or the surveyor who happens to be teaching. The staff in such departments do not (either collectively or individually) consistently see themselves as educators…… Without it (teacher training), the more likely outcome is the persistence of the first occupational identity within the new vocational environment – exactly as we see it in most FE departments. (more…)

CIPHE President’s Address

Lee Davies — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 10:22:05 +0000

Ladies and gentlemen. Friends and honoured guests. A very warm welcome to each and every one of you and my sincerest thanks for making my year as President such an enjoyable one. On the subject of saying thanks, I would like to reserve my most special and heartfelt thanks to my wife Anne. It was never going to be easy balancing my presidential year with the demands of a young family, a growing brood of chickens, an ever challenging day job and all the other things life tends to throw at you. So thank you Anne, for being by my side when you have been able to and never grumbling when the demands of office have kept me away from home.

Thanks also to Pamela Taylor for such an interesting and thought provoking speech. Our industry places much faith in the WaterSafe Installer Scheme, having experienced a number of false dawns since the concept of a register of plumbers over a century ago. For reasons which will become apparent as I talk this evening, our industry has some great challenges ahead. Our customers, from individual householders through to international corporations, need and deserve to know that their plumbing and heating services are being provided by the highest calibre professionals and I wish Pamela and the water industry every success in this important initiative.

When I took up office at last year’s AGM, I told a story. It was a story about a young boy who set off on an exciting new adventure as a plumbing apprentice on a converted butcher’s bike bought for him by his oh-so-proud grandfather. I, of course, was that boy and I told you something of my early experiences of training to be a plumber and the impact those experiences made on me and my thinking. Thirty years on and that bike, like my granddad, is no longer with us. But, metaphorically at least, I imagine myself sat astride that magnificent machine as I continue the journey I started on it as a fresh-faced, innocent 16 year old. (more…)

My Professional Formation: stages 1 - 3

Lee Davies — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 12:35:00 +0000

After expressing my intent I received an email letting me know it had been received and that the professional formation webfolio template was now available within REfLECT. Indeed it was – just had to go to ‘My Pages’ on the IfL website, login and go to the REfLECT tab. Once in REfLECT I found the professional formation webfolio template on the ‘tools’ button.

Note: I still need to download the ‘declaration of suitability’ form, complete it and send it to IfL. At the moment this cannot be done within REfLECT as it needs a signature to confirm that the information is correct. Must remember to do this soon, otherwise it will delay the process.

It’s also a good time to be thinking about who will be supporting the application. Knowing the supporter’s membership number is useful, as this makes it really easy to look up in REfLECT. The supporter doesn’t get notification at this stage, mainly because the webfolio is still open for completion and it may be that circumstances change, so well worth dropping the person an email to let them know you have started the process and nominated them.

First big task is stage 3 of the webfolio template. Need evidence here of a teaching qualification, higher education qualification (if appropriate) and also evidence for the level 2 numeracy and literacy requirements – you need to scroll down to see these elements. Just a matter of scanning my Cert Ed certificate, MA (Education) certificate and also my O Level Maths and English certificates. Phew – I have all of those so scanned them and uploaded them – very easy.

If I didn’t have evidence for numeracy or literacy, the system offers me the opportunity to provide a narrative account of how I meet the standards (guidance on IfL website). This is probably best done as a word document which is then uploaded to the webfolio in much the same way as attaching a certificate. A thought came to me when thinking about this. Given the many Word file formats now, I think I will convert all documents to a PDF file format using one of the many free online conversion tools (PrimoPDF is good), as this will make it a lot easier for the reviewer and will also stop the accidental changes that can happen when working with live Word documents.

Don’t forget stage 3 is the time to say if you teach skills for life – you will need to choose the ‘I don’t teach skills for life’ option here, unless you have evidence that you meet the subject qualification requirements for skills for life.

That’s the first three stages completed – took about 20 minutes or so, including scanning the certificates. Now on to stage 4 – my ‘teaching biography’. Think this will be a little more difficult, I’ll post a link to it here when I’ve finished it.

My Professional Formation

Lee Davies — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 09:26:48 +0000

Well, I’ve only gone and done it!

A few days ago I spent the day with some brilliant teachers at Guernsey College looking at ‘professional formation’ and how to use REfLECT to build an eportfolio to support the application for Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills status (QTLS). I was so inspired by their enthusiasm for demonstrating how they use the knowledge and skills developed in teacher training in their practice that I immediately expressed my intent to start professional formation. So now the clock is ticking.

To be fair, it is something I have been meaning to do for some time. When we introduced IfL’s personal learning space and eportfolio, REfLECT, I used the webfolio tools to tell the story of my professional formation. The resulting web portfolio was very much the template for the eventual scaffolding that was created in REfLECT to support professional formation – so I am, in a small way, responsible for the engineering of the process. This means I have all of the evidence, well – much of it, and now need to take the time to order it and make sure I cover all of the criteria.

In discussing this with colleagues, they thought it would be a good idea for me to blog about my experiences. I hope that the resulting blog can become a resource for others undertaking professional formation for either QTLS or ATLS status. So it is now a case of ‘watch this space’ as I build my eportfolio and share the experience with you.

Wish me luck!!

What makes for a successful organisational social media strategy? Ask George!

Lee Davies — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 07:21:08 +0000

What makes for a successful organisational social media strategy? Well, as with almost everything organisations do well, it’s all about people. When it comes to Twitter, I follow a host of organisations I have some connection with or where I think there might be something that will interest me. To be honest, however, I probably click through to less than 10% of the published content. Why is this? Well, to be frank, personality bereft corporate communication bores me senseless. Take the following typical example (name and url changed to protect the guilty):

CorpComm Corporate Communications
CorpComm publish survey into the social media preferences of professionals working in corporate communications sector - http://bit.ly/qW!m1£

Totally devoid of any human interest. If it finds me in one of those rare ‘brain dead’ moments when I am between tasks and not thinking creatively I suppose, just suppose, I may find myself wondering about the ‘social media preferences of professionals working in corporate communications sector’. But in all likelihood it will probably pass me by. But what about:

George House CorpComm CEO
Ha! Just spilled my coffee. Bugger. All over our latest survey into the online habits of communication professionals! - http://bit.ly/qW!m1£

Now I’d probably follow George. (more…)

Facebook: accidental learning and the learning potential of new Facebook groups

Lee Davies — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 07:07:04 +0000

Last week I was taking a stroll through Facebook when number three son updated his status: ‘what is the Berlin crisis?’ Now, I nearly didn’t see this as it was sandwiched between umpteen Formspring comments, a couple of comments about ‘birds’ (he is fifteen and no ‘ornithologist’) and the regular abusive comments he and his friends seem to enjoy. Intrigued, I replied:

“most obvious would be the tension between the, then, USSR and America (well the West, but essentially the States) over Berlin, which ultimately led to the partition of the city through the construction of the Berlin wall.”

Turns out he is studying the Cold War as his final year history project before taking his GCSEs in the summer. What followed was a deep conversation, part in public on his wall involving some of his friends and part through direct messages, about this period of modern history, so real to me as I remember just how much the Cold War and acceleration of the nuclear capacity caused me anxiety when I was his age. We meandered through Berlin, Cuba and the Prague Spring and, as he had to set the Cold War in the context of current American foreign policy, discussed similarities between post WWII tensions between ‘East and West’ and the increase in tension between fundamental Christian doctrine and Islamic fundamentalism under the Bush administration. This went on for a good hour and involved lots of searching for good reference points to support the various arguments.
(more…)

We shall tweet on the beaches: why Churchill would have excelled in social spaces

Lee Davies — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 06:09:22 +0000

We all know that when it comes to social media content is king. We also know that when it comes getting your message out there the mystical 140 characters is the main consideration. We all want to write killer content that fits into a tweet or a Facebook status update, don’t we?

Well, it is true to a large degree, but the introduction of shortened urls of 10 – 12 characters allow us to link to other content. We just need to make sure that we throw out a nicely baited hook, a tweet of 120 – 130 characters that captures the mood of the piece and inspires the reader.

This is nothing new. Great writers and speakers have always had the ability to grab the attention of their audience with a few well chosen words. I think Winston Churchill is a prime example, with his reputation as a orator built around his ability to communicate with great brevity and wit. (more…)

Brilliant presentations: the art of storytelling

Lee Davies — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 07:59:45 +0000

What is a presentation? Sounds like such a daft question, doesn’t it. Let me tell you what it is not. It is not a PowerPoint slide set. Yet this is where most people start when confronted with the need to get a new set of messages across to an audience, as if ploughing through a dozen or so PPt slides will get the creative juices flowing. For me, this is the very essence of death by PowerPoint, not for the audience but for the presenter. PowerPoint is not and should never be your storyboard; it should only be the medium through which you share elements of your story with the audience.

Storyboard? Yes, that’s what I said. A presentation, at least in my eyes, is a story. A carefully crafted experience where I take an idea or a theme and bring it to life and where the most important medium is me, the storyteller. Everything else, from what I wear through to how I stand, is my theatre, my presentation. The challenge is in getting the story right, and you can’t do that through PowerPoint alone. My storyboard consists of post-it notes and a flat surface and is informed by the brief I have for the presentation – my own brief or from the conference/session organiser. (more…)