FAQs
What are the Better Teaching Partnership materials?
What are the main areas for improvement highlighted by inspection reports?
How do the materials work alongside other national materials?
What do the Tools for managers consist of?
What training modules are in the Tools for Staff Development?
How do the Better Teaching Partnership materials support the self-improvement process?
Who has used the Better Teaching Partnership materials?
What do people say about the Better Teaching Partnership materials?
What do the Tools for Teachers consist of?
What has been the impact of the Better Teaching Partnership so far?
What are the Better Teaching Partnership materials?
This suite of materials, consisting of Tools for Managers, Tools for Staff Development and Tools for Teachers has been developed through the work of the Better Teaching Partnership. This programme focuses on providing advice and support to post-16 organisations working in the areas of literacy, language and numeracy. Our materials have a sharp focus on improving teaching and learning in literacy, language and numeracy, and they are designed to address the issues most commonly raised by Ofsted inspectors in their reports on literacy, language and numeracy provision.
The Tools for managers enable staff who manage, coordinate, or quality assure literacy, language numeracy provision in large or small organisations to audit their provision against detailed criteria drawn from the Common Inspection Framework. The materials and tools in this publication also help you to take a consistent approach to the observation of teaching and learning and plan effective actions to address identified areas of weakness.
The Tools for staff development consist of a series of CPD materials designed to improve classroom practice in the areas most commonly criticised by Ofsted inspectors in their reports on literacy, language and numeracy provision. There are five publications in the series, each full of activities and ideas which are grounded in theory but at the same time are very practical and sharply focused. Feedback from our partners in the Better Teaching Partnership shows that they can have an immediate impact in the classroom.
The Tools for teachers are designed to help teachers put into practice in their classrooms the principles communicated in the CPD materials. The first of these, a set of interactive Spelling Posters with guidelines for effective use in the classroom is already available and others are in development.
What are the main areas for improvement highlighted by inspection reports?
The following aspects have been identified as areas for improvement in the majority of inspection reports where organisations have only achieved a Grade 3 or 4 for their literacy, language or numeracy provision:
- too narrow a range of teaching and learning activities
- over-reliance on completion of worksheets as the main focus of the lesson
- insufficient challenge in lessons
- insufficient account taken of individual needs and the personal experiences of learners in planning teaching
- too few opportunities for interaction and for reflection on what has been learned
- poor and imprecise target setting
- Individual Learning Plans which are used as little more than audit documents, are often vague, and set insufficiently precise targets.
The OfSTED HMCI Annual Report for 2004/05 also identified weaknesses in:
- Matching resources to the needs of learners
- The skills necessary for classroom management
How do the materials work alongside other national materials?
These materials are entirely complementary to other materials and programmes developed to support the Skills for Life strategy and improve quality. Each module of CPD materials focuses on certain criteria from the Common Inspection Framework and on developing aspects of teaching and learning practice in the light of these criteria. You can use the materials within your own organisations to improve teaching and learning in the classroom. You can devise the most appropriate training delivery to suit your own local circumstances. Each section of the training has a specific, sharp focus so that teachers receiving the training can immediately apply it to their practice.
Ideally you should start by using the audit tools related to each module, which have been collected together in Tools for Managers, to review your current provision against the CIF criteria in order to identify the areas of teaching and learning that need the most attention. The results of this audit will help in planning the training, and making sure that the areas most in need of improvement are targeted. Any action points raised by the module audit can then be cross referenced back to existing action plans to ensure that the additional areas that have been identified are shown in formal action planning documents, such as the SAR and the post inspection action plan.
After the training module has been delivered, the audit tool can be used again, to assess how practice has moved forward as a result of the training. This process helps you to gain concrete evidence of improvement in teaching and learning, in a way that links directly to the questions inspectors will be asking at AAVs or full inspections.
What do the Tools for managers consist of?
The Tools for managers publication contains all the module audits in printed form and on CD-ROM, together with teaching and learning observation checklists and additional documents to help develop consistent practice across literacy, language and numeracy programmes. This publication will be particularly useful for anyone who is responsible for making judgements about teaching and learning and improving quality, including quality managers, programme managers, curriculum area managers and staff development teams.
What training modules are in the Tools for Staff Development?
The full Better Teaching Partnership Programme suite consists of 5 modules of staff development materials. Each module is divided into two, broken down further into bite-sized sections. to allow for flexible delivery.
The modules are:
Module 1: Challenge and Inspiration,
Unit 1: Challenge and Inspiration
Section 1: Challenge and Inspiration.
Section 2: Identifying Common Needs.
Section 3: Starting to Plan Lessons and Write Learning Objectives.
Section 4: Introducing Learning Styles.
Section 5: Teacher Expectation.
Unit 2: Differentiation - Meeting the Needs of All Learners
Section 1: What is differentiation?
Section 2: The Challenges and Benefits of Differentiation.
Section 3: Implications for Lesson Planning.
Module 2: Assessment for Learning,
Unit 1: Assessment for Learning
Section 1: Assessment.
Section 2: Assessment for Learning: Unpicking Formative Assessment.
Section 3: Writing Individual Learning Objectives, Success Criteria and Learning Outcomes
Section 4: Day-to-day Assessment.
Section 5: Questioning Strategies.
Section 6: Day-to-day Learner Self Review
Unit 2: Diagnostic Marking and Feedback
Section 1: Diagnostic Feedback - What Is It?
Section 2: Oral Feedback.
Section 3: Written Feedback.
Section 4: Modelling, Scaffolding and Independent Construction.
Section 5: Developing Self and Peer Assessment.
Section 6: Marking and Feedback Policies.
Module 3: Managing the Learning Environment
Unit 1: Managing learning environment and selecting resources
Section 1: Creating an effective learning environment
Section 2: Comparing and evaluating resources
Section 3: Creating resources and maintaining quality control
Section 4: Using multi-media and ICT resources in teaching and learning
Section 5: Putting it all together with learning resources
Section 6: Developing a resources strategy
Unit 2: Working with Learning Supporters and Co-workers
Section 1: Working with learning supporters and co-workers
Section 2: Effective planning and liaison for working with learning supporters and co-workers
Module 4: Teaching and Learning Approaches
Unit 1: Developing effective and independent learners
Section 1: Working with adult learners
Section 2:Learner-Centredness
Section 3: Using ‘learning styles’ approaches to developing effective learners
Section 4: Thinking skills in literacy, language and numeracy teaching
Unit 2: Teaching approaches for literacy, language and numeracy group and individual work
Section 1: Group dynamics and effective group working
Section 2: Starters and plenaries
Section 3: Developing speaking and listening/communication in interactive teaching
Section 4: Making learning enjoyable: teaching activities to promote learning and motivation.
Module 5: Integrating Literacy, Language and Numeracy Skills in a Range of Contexts,
Unit 1: Approaches to the development and delivery of integrated LLN teaching and learning
Section 1: Approaches to integrating LLN teaching and learning into other programmes
Section 2: Undertaking a LLN audit
Section 3: Integrated lesson planning
Unit 2: Practical teaching strategies for integrated LLN programmes
Section 1:Developing speaking and listening/communication skills for learning and personal development
Section 2: Developing reading skills for learning and vocational/community participation
Section 3: Developing writing skills for learning and vocational/community participation
Section 4: Developing numeracy skills for learning and vocational/community participation
Each module of materials contains everything needed to prepare and deliver the CPD sessions, including:
- PowerPoint presentation on CD-ROM
- trainer notes
- handouts
- materials for training activities
- teaching and learning observation checklists
- lesson planning prompts for teachers
Module 1 also includes seven sets of learner profiles and ILPs which can be printed from the CD-ROM, for use in the training activities. These profiles and ILPs cover wide range of settings in which literacy, language and numeracy programmes are delivered to allow you to select the most appropriate for your context or programmes. These include:
- literacy workshop
- discrete numeracy group
- discrete community literacy group
- ESOL
- work-based learning
- adults with learning difficulties and/or disabilities
- vocational learning support: catering
How do the Better Teaching Partnership materials support the self-improvement process?
The process outlined above provides concrete evidence that a robust, analytical approach is being taken to self-assessment and self-improvement. The audit tools are easy to use, and automatically generate clear graphs and charts that identify areas of strength and weakness across literacy, language and numeracy provision in all contexts.
Who has used the Better Teaching Partnership materials?
Since these materials were developed they have been used by further education colleges, specialist colleges, adult and community education providers, work-based training providers (including E2E providers), prison education departments and voluntary organisations. They have been designed to be appropriate to any context in which literacy, language or numeracy are taught to adults and young people.
What do people say about the Better Teaching Partnership materials?
Organisations that have used the Better Teaching Partnership staff development materials have commented as follows:
About the training materials-
- Fantastic resources which are needed within the whole of my organisation. Such a shame they have not been available before now.
- Resources extremely useful. (Training Organisation)
- Extremely useful materials of a very high quality. (F. E. College)
- Useful resources. Easy to disseminate to other members of staff. (F. E. College)
About the audit tools –
- The analytical nature of the audit flagged up areas for improvement that I had not even considered to be lacking before (HMP)
- …a really good starting point when working with a new Skills for Life team in a restructured department. They helped to focus on strengths and weaknesses in the areas that the new department would be covering – not just discrete basic skills but cross-college literacy and numeracy in the vocational areas as well as learning support. They linked into the key actions identified in the Self Assessment Report so we knew we were on the right track! (FE College)
About the content of the modules-
- Materials are of an exceptionally high quality and have been invaluable in the delivery of Skills for Life teacher training (FE College)
- Very helpful on assessment and oral feedback (F. E. College)
- Really helpful - the focus on planning and differentiation is spot on and will be very helpful to us. (Specialist College)
What do the Tools for Teachers consist of?
Spelling posters:
This set of 11 interactive laminated classroom posters, designed for use with adults and young people, will help learners to adopt a systematic approach to improving their spelling. With an accompanying leaflet of guidelines for teachers, the posters focus on different ways of breaking up words to make them easier to learn. A Look/Say/Cover/Write/Check practice grid is also provided in the pack.
What has been the impact of the Better Teaching Partnership so far?
As at October 2007, 44 of the organisations who have been introduced to all five module of the Better Teaching Partnership have been re - inspected, of which 43 (98%) have improved - with 65% receiving a Grade 3 and 35% receiving a grade 2 .
Organisations that are still preparing for re-inspection have found that the audit tool and observation checklists help them to evaluate their work more consistently, and provide concrete evidence to support their evaluation, which is invaluable in preparing for re-inspection. Several organisations have tightened up their quality assurance processes as a result, while others have found that the materials have provided a ready-made professional development programme for them to follow with their staff, which has begun to impact positively on classroom practice.
All these materials can be ordered direct from our distributors, Prolog or via the BTP Resources page. They are available at a discount for members of the Better Teaching Partnership.
