4.5 The college blocks in retrospect

The survey data collected from Cohort 2 during the revision period included questions relating to the residential periods at college and some of their views will be summarised here.

Looking back over their two and a half years of training, there was an overwhelming call for more time in college, and for more time to study all topics under the tutors’ guidance. This confirmed our observations in college that they found it difficult to study on their own. The clearest call was for more time on content in all the main subjects, with maths emerging as the subject they found most difficult. Only half said they had ‘learnt what they wanted’ from college, and only a quarter said they felt well-prepared to teach, with a large group indicating particular subjects which gave them problems in class. It seems the course has not given them the necessary grounding in their subject matter to teach it with confidence.

In spite of the long period in school, this group still felt they also needed more time on teaching methods. They seemed to rate quite highly the college-based Teaching Practice, in spite of its limitations; at least it enabled them to observe each other and discuss lessons with the guidance of an experienced supervisor. This strongly suggests that Cohort 2 had not been given adequate supervision and support in schools to help them improve their practical teaching, though this may be improving for later cohorts.

The survey confirmed that students did not, overall, rate the college teaching or their tutors particularly highly. In a data set where students tended to give very positive answers to everything, their comments sound relatively luke-warm: teaching is rated good or average rather than excellent, tutors are not seen as particularly caring or helpful, and some are thought to mark unfairly. However, the survey was administered when the students were under stress preparing for the final exam, which may well have biased their answers towards being critical of their tutors.