Richard Bruton
Question:86. Deputy Richard Bruton asked the Minister for Education if she has undertaken a recent review of the excellence of the delivery of in-service upskilling for teachers; and if she plans to reform. [29734/20]
View answerWednesday, 14 October 2020
Questions (86, 93)
Richard Bruton
Question:93. Deputy Richard Bruton asked the Minister for Education if she has undertaken a recent review of the excellence of the delivery of in-service upskilling for teachers; and if she plans to reform. [29735/20]
View answerWritten answers
I propose to take Questions Nos. 86 and 93 together.
My Department supports a wide variety of professional learning activities for teachers through the Teacher Education Support Services, Education Centres, Department agencies and other initiatives.
The Teacher Education Support Services provide Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for schools leaders and teachers on several key system developments including new Post-Primary subject specifications, Primary Curriculum Reform, increased remits for Health/Wellbeing/Child Protection and the Digital Strategy for Schools. These initiatives are overseen by Department Steering Groups and the design process for materials produced by the support services involves input from members of my Departments Inspectorate and relevant stakeholders such as the NCCA and the State Exams Commission.
In 2019, my Department commissioned a project to develop a research based framework for the evaluation of Teachers’ Professional Learning (TPL) and for the piloting of this framework in the area of TPL activities for student wellbeing.
The Educational Research Centre is carrying out this 3 year research project and my Department has established a Steering Committee to oversee the research. The Steering Committee is comprised of representatives from relevant sections of my Department, the teacher education support services, NEPS, NCSE, Education Support Centres Ireland, Educational Research Centre, Teaching Council, ETBI, HSE and SOLAS.
It is intended that the evaluation framework will facilitate a comprehensive evaluation of the impacts of teachers’ professional learning activities in order to ensure that this provision meets the needs of teachers, schools, students and my Department efficiently and effectively and to ensure the best use of available resources.
In the interim, the Teacher Education support services use a variety of research instruments to evaluate professional development provision. These instruments comprise a variety of quantitative and qualitative methods recognised in the field of teacher education.
An independent evaluation of the work of the Centre for School Leadership (CSL) is currently underway with the evaluation report due in Q4 2020. My Department is also working with Education Centres to implement Key Performance Indicators to monitor their performance in relation to the provision of CPD to teachers. The Summer Course Programmes are quality assured by the Inspectorate to ensure that they reflect curricular change and national priorities.
In recent months the demand for support has been unprecedented as the Support Services responded to the urgent and critical need to develop resources to meet the needs of schools during Covid-19 closures, particularly in the area of on-line teaching and learning.