Teaching and Learning in Further Education

Diversity and change

Prue Huddleston, Lorna Unwin

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781136253720
• Edition: 4
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Teaching and Learning in Further Education is established as an authoritative, wide-ranging introductory text for those training to work in the further education, post-compulsory education and lifelong learning sectors. It offers an easy to read picture of the practitioner's everyday working life, a thorough historical account of the FE context and excellent advice on how to improve practice and enhance professional development. Essential topics covered include:

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• Key theorists

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• Teaching strategies

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• Assessment issues

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• The diverse curriculum

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• The nature of the student body

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• Blended learning and virtual learning

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• E-assessment and personal records of achievement

The fourth edition will be significantly updated in light of the latest research into teaching and learning, as well as extensive changes in the field including: Revision to the professional standards for teachers, tutors and trainers in the lifelong learning sector; increased provision of HE in FE; the introduction of functional skills and the 14-19 Diploma and the shifting nature of vocational qualifications.

Illustrated throughout by case studies and vignettes, and supported by reflective actitities and references to well respected research and literature, Teaching and Learning in Further Education is an essential text to be used throughout an FE tutor's journey from trainee to qualified lecturer.

Part I

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Further education in context

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Chapter 1

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Where will I teach?

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Nature and scope of further education

This chapter describes the shape and scope of the complex and shifting landscape of further education (FE) in the UK. Part of the chapter presents a historical review of the structural changes imposed on FE by central govern- ment over the past 30 or so years. Teaching and learning are situated activities that are profoundly affected by the contexts in which they occur. At the same time, teachers and learners also shape and change the contexts in which they work and study. This chapter is intended to help you gain a better under- standing of the nature of the context in which you teach in terms of how your college is being affected by internal and external pressures and the role colleges play in a broader educational landscape. In writing a book of this nature, we are faced with the challenge of trying to keep up to date with educational change in the UK, and particularly in England where government ministers seem to have an almost pathological desire to invent as many new policies as possible during their (often) very short term in office (see Fuller and Unwin, 2011). In the five years since we wrote the third edition of this book, the FE landscape has been changing, and we know that in the time that passes before someone reads this new edition, there will have been new policies invented and some agencies may have come and gone. Furthermore, the UK is currently dealing with the aftermath of the economic crisis that began in 2008. As a result, the coalition government, elected in May 2010, is admin- istering a programme of substantial cuts to the public sector, including education. We want to stress, however, that while FE teachers work in a dynamic context, much of what they do still involves the age-old process of helping people to learn and achieve their ambitions.

FE colleges are now very much in the limelight in terms of public policy, having spent many years off the educational radar, unlike universities and schools, which have been much more successful in making sure both government and the general public understand the value of their activities. Of course, achieving greater visibility is not necessarily a good thing, particularly if colleges are expected, on the one hand, to play a major role in improving the nation’s skills levels to help the UK get its economy back on track, while, on the other hand, providing a home for thousands of 14–18 year olds who the schools cannot or are disinclined to teach. Policymakers continue to believe that increasing the stocks of qualifications (which act as a proxy for skills) in the UK will benefit the economy (for critiques of this view and its impact on education, see, inter alia, Felstead et al., 2009; Coffield et al., 2008; Wolf et al., 2006; Wolf, 2002).

This book uses the term ‘FE’ to encompass colleges that provide education and training for learners from the age of 14 upwards. The lower age limit has dropped to 14 since 2002 when the then Department for Education and Skills (DfES) in England introduced the Increased Flexibility Programme (IFP) for 14–16 year olds. The IFP enabled school pupils to spend up to three days in a college so that they could access vocational learning opportunities (see Chapters 2 and 3 for more details). This raises issues related to teaching and learning in colleges, which we will examine in more detail throughout the book (see Orr, 2010; Lumby, 2007). The vast majority of students in FE colleges are still, however, over the age of 16, and colleges are the biggest providers of post-16 education in the UK.

A range of different types of institutions are designated as colleges. At the time of writing, there are 411 colleges in the UK. In England, there are 222 general further education (GFE) and tertiary colleges, 94 sixth-form colleges, 10 specialised designated colleges (mainly for adults and some with residential facilities), 16 land-based colleges, and 3 art, design and performing arts colleges. In Wales, there are 19 GFE colleges and 1 sixth-form college, while Scotland has 43 GFE colleges and Northern Ireland has 6 ‘super colleges’ formed from the merger of 16 colleges over the past 5 years. These colleges form part of a complex landscape of public, private and voluntary education and training in the UK. The Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) in England has some 600 members, including 50 FE colleges, spanning private, not-for-profit and ‘third sector’ organisations, while in Scotland, the Scottish Training Federation has some 100 members. In 2009, it was estimated that there were 12,300 private training providers in the UK, a figure that included organisations using the title ‘college’ (Simpson, 2009).

In the early 2000s in England and Wales, under the previous Labour government, the term, ‘learning and skills sector’ (LSS) emerged to incorporate all post-compulsory education and training, not including higher education in universities. The coalition government is now using the term ‘further education and skills sector’ in England. This shift in terminology may suggest a desire to distinguish colleges from other types of providers. Similarly, in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, government websites make distinct references to FE colleges. Language is important here because, as we will see in Chapter 4, the labels that policymakers choose reflect their views on the purpose and status of education and training.

The figures quoted above for the numbers of colleges are subject to change because, much more so than in the case of schools and universities, colleges are subject to mergers and even closures. For example, in England, the current total number of 345 colleges has dropped from a figure of 429 in 2000, largely as result of mergers. The Scottish government has decided to bring its colleges within a regional structure to achieve economies of scale and to encourage much greater cooperation between institutions (Scottish Government, 2011). In 2011, there were some 3.3 million students in colleges in England and 347,336 in Scotland. In Wales, the figure is around 240,000 and for Northern Ireland, just under 90,000. The majority of FE students across the UK are over the age of 19 and studying part-time, but the full-time 16–19-year-old students outnumber those of the same age group found in schools.

Some FE colleges in England use the title ‘tertiary college’. This was originally given to institutions providing both vocational and academic courses for the 16–19 age group, thus combining the functions of a further education college and a sixth-form college in areas where schools did not offer sixth- form (post-compulsory) provision. The existence of different types of college in England has been the subject of debate over many years, and their respective levels of achievement in terms of student outcomes and retention rates are regularly compared (see Simmons, 2009). The main debate tends to focus on whether 16–19-year-old full-time students following academic courses are better served by studying in schools, sixth-form colleges and tertiary colleges as opposed to general FE colleges. Sixth-form colleges focus mainly on 16–19 year olds studying A levels, though increasingly they also offer vocational courses, and in some areas they compete with both schools and other colleges for students.

Perry (2005: 1) has argued that ‘colleges exist in a local infrastructure that is rarely designed, but more often the consequence of historical and organ- isational factors’. Some of the oldest of the FE colleges have their roots in the Mechanics’ Institutes of the early nineteenth century, which were established to debate and provide courses related to the advancements in science. Mechanics’ Institutes were established in Glasgow and London in 1823, with the latter eventually becoming Birbeck College in 1907 and subsequently part of the University of London. In the late nineteenth century, there was considerable concern that Britain was falling behind other industrialised countries such as Germany, France and the US. In 1890, the tax on beer and spirits was raised and the extra revenue, known as ‘whisky money’, was given to local councils to make arrangements for technical education (Bailey, 1983). As a result, colleges began to be established. For example, Huddersfield Technical College began as the Huddersfield Mechanics’ Institute in the 1840s and became a technical college in 1896, whereas Lowestoft College, the most easterly college in Britain, traces its origins to evening art classes held in 1874, while courses in navigation for fishermen began in 1923. As Green and Lucas (1999: 11) note, the growth of the FE sector was 'part of the formation of the modern state in the late nineteenth century, reflecting one of the many aspects of a voluntarist relationship between education, training and the state' (see also Bailey, 2002).

The 1960s and 1970s saw a considerable expansion in the FE sector, not just within the area of technical and vocational education but also in the development of professional and academic courses. Some of these were on a full-time basis, often for those students who were looking for an alternative to education provided in the school sixth form. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, worldwide economic recession led to a sharp rise in the number of young people in the UK who could not find jobs. The Labour and Conservative governments of the day sought to alleviate youth unemployment by introducing a series of youth training and work experience schemes (see Unwin, 1997, 2010). Parallel programmes were also introduced for unemployed adults. Many colleges became involved in these schemes by providing off-the-job training and/or by acting as 'managing agents' working with local employers to give young people work placements.

FE colleges have worked hard to demonstrate an 'inclusive' approach. That is, they have provided mainly non-selective education for everyone who wished to benefit from extended education or vocational training. Most colleges also provide courses for young people and adults with learning difficulties and/ or with disabilities. The 1996 Tomlinson Report (Inclusive LRaming) a major impact on colleges as it turned on its head the existing attitude to provision for learners with difficulties, including disabilities: 'Put simply, we want to avoid a viewpoint which locates the difficulty or deficit with the student and focus instead on the capacity of the education institution to understand and respond to the individual learner's requirement' (Tomlinson, 1996: 4). The 1998 Beattie Committee on inclusiveness in Scotland followed Tomlinson's lead. In 2002, the Disability Discrimination Act was extended to educational institutions, placing a duty on them not to discriminate against disabled learners and, where necessary, to provide them with personal support (for a report of a staff development initiative in Scottish colleges to support teachers in developing a more inclusive approach, see Doughty and Allan, 2008).

Selection does exist in parts of the sector. For example, sixth-form colleges are much more likely to specify entry qualifications for academic courses than GFE colleges. Colleges are multifaceted organisations, on the one hand providing for the needs of their local community, and on the other hand for a growing regional, national and, in some cases, international student clientele. In her 1997 seminal report on FE, Helena Kennedy declared that 'Defining further education exhaustively would be God's own challenge because it is such a large and fertile section of the education world' (Kennedy, 1997: 1). Felstead and Unwin (2001: 107), in an analysis of further education funding, argued that colleges in England were trying to fulfil four key aims:

• • to respond to the government’s economic agenda to improve basic and intermediate skill levels of young people and adults and increase their participation in education and training;
• • to fulfil their role as the main provider of sub-degree post-compulsory education and training at local level;
• • to continue to provide a wide-ranging curriculum that bridges the vocational/non-vocational divide; and
• • to continue being a ‘second-chance saloon’ for young people and adults who want to return to learning.

In addition, the majority of colleges in the UK are increasingly engaged in higher education (HE) provision, often in partnership with local universities. Many of these students are studying for Higher National Certificates (HNCs) and Higher National Diplomas (HNDs), and, in England, for Foundation Degrees. Some colleges are also providing full honours degree programmes. Gallacher (2006: 45) argues that the substantial presence of HE in FE in Scotland has enhanced the status of FE colleges, which are now ‘clearly viewed as key institutions in widening access, promoting social inclusion and providing opportunities for lifelong learning’. Field (2004), however, has agreed that deep inequalities still persist for adults who try to enter the more prestigious universities in Scotland via the FE route.

Despite the increasing closeness of the FE/HE interface, however, Parry (2005: 11) argues that, in England, ‘higher education has still to be widely recognised and accepted as a normal or necessary activity in colleges’. These developments pose challenging questions about the nature of student and teacher identity, about the potential place of research in an FE teacher’s portfolio and, ultimately, about the extent to which the traditional status boundaries between FE and HE will dissolve (see Pike and Harrison, 2011; Wilson and Wilson, 2011; Bathmaker and Thomas, 2009; Griffiths and Lloyd, 2009).

Since 2001, colleges in England, Wales and Northern Ireland have worked closely with higher education institutions (HEIs) and employers to introduce Foundation Degrees (see Chapter 3 for more details). Scotland is not delivering Foundation Degrees, preferring to stick with the existing HNCs and HNDs that have been available for many years in the UK, and have a high satisfaction rating with both students and, crucially, employers.

In August 2011, two GFE colleges in the North East of England (New College Durham and the Newcastle Colleges Group) were given the powers to award Foundation Degrees in their own right. The proposal to allow colleges this right was first aired in the Further Education and Training Bill in 2007. At that time, Universities UK, the membership organisation representing the majority of UK universities, warned that, by giving colleges degree-awarding powers, the ‘UK HE brand’ would be diminished, and the House of Lords blocked the proposal at the second reading of the bill. Others, however, including the Association of Colleges (AoC) in England, have argued that colleges have proved they can deliver good quality higher education and that they can respond more quickly to employer needs. Parry (2005: 14) has argued that in the light of the expansion of higher education, the concept of further education has ‘become increasingly redundant’ and that it should be abandoned ‘in favour of an open system of colleges and universities’. The current coalition government has since declared its desire to allow more providers (public and private sector) into the higher education market and to expand the proportion of ‘HE in FE’ (DBIS, 2011a).

Since 1993, colleges in England have experienced a number of major changes to the way in which they are funded and their relationship with central government. Until April 1993, FE colleges were under the control of their local education authority (LEA) from whom they received the bulk of their funding (the rest coming from central government and other agencies). The 1988 Education Reform Act had given colleges and schools the power to manage their own budgets, thus beginning to loosen the control of the LEAs. In 1991, the White Paper Education and Training for the 21st Century announced that colleges were to be given the ‘freedom’ they needed to play a ‘central part in providing more high-quality opportunities’ and to enable them to ‘respon...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of figures
• Preface
• List of abbreviations
• Part I Further Education in Context
• Part II Teaching and Learning
• Part III Professional Development
• References
• Further reading
• Index