Insights from a former unqualified teacher, now training on the Exeter PGCE

Shortly after I published my last post Fear and Loathing in Education, my classmate (and soon-to-be colleague) Neil let me know he had taught in the private sector as an unqualified teacher before coming onto the PGCE. I asked him if he could share his insights into this matter on my blog.

I have reproduced these insights below. The copy is unabridged and has been subjected to no editorial interference - the words are Neil's only, and I urge you to pay close attention to what he has to say.

Ian O'Neal 

*

Great response Ian! I was really infuriated when I read the Guardian article because it’s based on so many wrong assumptions which you've done a great job of addressing. I did want to add my personal perspective though.

After university I went straight into a job teaching English in a private school without any teaching qualification. I would say I was a successful teacher; my pupils seemed to enjoy the lessons, they made great academic progress and achieved excellent results at GCSE and A level. I could easily have carried on as an unqualified teacher for the rest of my career.

However, I made the decision to return to university to do the PGCE course and after two months I can honestly say that it was one of the best decisions I have ever made. Every teacher wants to be the best teacher they can possibly be for their pupils and I can already see that the PGCE is going to make me a far better teacher than I could ever have become if I had remained purely in the classroom trying to work things out as I went along, even though I was doing a good job. The main reasons for this are:

 1) Being a good teacher is about continually learning and improving. As we've seen time and time again on the course, the most effective learning takes place in a social context between learners rather than with an individual in isolation. This goes for teachers as well as for pupils. The PGCE course gives you that fertile social learning context where you can learn from tutors who have years of experience of teaching, researching and teaching teachers. You also learn loads from the other students on the course who bring new perspectives and fresh ideas. You can't help but broaden your teaching skills and knowledge in a way that is just not possible when you are in the classroom on your own.

2) When I worked as a teacher, much of what I did in the classroom was based on an intuitive understanding of what might work best. Most of the time this worked but I still had no concrete evidence as to why one approach might work better than another. The PGCE has given me evidence based in research as to what works best and more importantly, why it works. This means I can plan and make informed decisions in the classroom knowing what is needed in particular contexts. I am no longer limited to guesswork and I have a clearer rationale to justify why I might do something in a particular way. One thing that angered me about the article was the complete lack of understanding that good teaching is informed by research and good research is informed by teaching. You cannot separate the two in the way that the writer of the article envisages.

3) Life in school is exceptionally busy and time-consuming and it is very rare you get the opportunity to have more experienced teachers giving you input and it is a constant battle to find time for the kind of deep reflection on your teaching practices that are essential to growing as a teacher. The PGCE builds teacher input into the course and also forces you while giving you the necessary time to constantly reflect on and evaluate your teaching: what went well in that lesson? What would I do differently next time to improve the learning of the pupils? I feel that this emphasis on reflective teaching is one of the most vital aspects of the PGCE course as this is where teachers grow and improve the most. However, the article seemed to assume that PGCE students never even go near a classroom during their time on the course, let alone get the opportunity to reflect on their skills and development.

I cannot imagine a single unqualified teacher, however naturally brilliant they might be, who would not greatly benefit and improve as a teacher by doing a PGCE. The PGCE prepares you and gives you the foundation needed to fulfil your potential as a teacher over a lifetime of learning and reflection in a way that going straight into working as a teacher cannot. You could argue that a PGCE is just a piece of paper that allows you to teach in state schools but it's not the qualification itself that matters but the process you go through as a teacher to get that qualification. From my own experience I would say that to deny yourself the opportunity to go through that process is to limit yourself as a teacher and deprive all your future pupils the chance to be taught by the best teacher you could have become.