As regular readers of Engage will know, I have been carrying out a review of how we educate teachers. 

Firstly I’d like to thank you for all the comments, responses and suggestions during the engage workshop in September.  As well as to any readers who responded in other ways, perhaps through our survey of teachers. 

The wide variety of responses I received have certainly given me food for thought and helped to shape the review and my recommendations. 

So, what are those recommendations? Well the main findings centre around a few distinct themes; we need to improve the selection process for teaching qualifications – so more focus on literacy and numeracy and the use of approaches such as assessment centres. 

We need to have a fresh look at the teaching qualifications and what is taught – so more emphasis on academic knowledge in subjects. As was remarked upon in the Engage workshop – an inspiring teacher can foster and enthusiasm and interest for a subject – that is something I want to encourage. 

Another point that features in the engage discussion is around how strict a teacher is, or how good they are at bringing learning to life and making it fun – I am also recommending a greater focus on the inter-personal skills we want our teachers to have – alongside a clear focus on literacy and numeracy. 

My report also has a focus on joining up and strengthening ongoing training – for example that each teacher should have a ‘masters account’ opened so that relevant further study can lead to further qualifications. I believe this will encourage and motivate teachers to continue their own learning journey.

You can, of course, read the whole report  which is aimed at building on the existing strengths of our teachers and ensuring that our teachers are consistently among the very best in the world.

Graham Donaldson, former Chief Executive of HMIE and leader of the Review of Teacher Education in Scotland