In all, 81% of teachers in agricultural colleges* do not have an accredited teaching qualification, while 13% do, and 6% are currently completing a teaching course or qualification. This is according to a study of agricultural teachers in Irish agricultural colleges, conducted by Sinéad Flannery of Teagasc Kildalton.
The aim of Sinead’s study was to analyse agricultural teachers’ experience in their role as educators and identify possible improvements to better prepare them for their role.
“It’s like taking a photo,” says Frank Murphy the curriculum development and standards unit manager in Teagasc and a supervisor for the study. “We’re looking at where we are now,” says Frank.
This initial survey was completed to see what level of training is currently present among staff and to look towards putting a training programme in place that will meet the needs of future teachers.
Along with the aforementioned, the survey’s findings include:
• In all, 79% of teachers said they are willing to engage in teaching training; 21% say they aren’t.• Of those surveyed, 47% are unsatisfied overall with the teaching and learning in-service training; while 33% are satisfied overall and 20% don’t know. • In terms of teachers’ level of satisfaction with technical in-service training received, 61% are satisfied overall, 35% are unsatisfied overall and 4% don’t know. • 35% say teachers have received sufficient teaching training, while 65% have not. “A key finding of the study to date is that “current in-service training received by educators is focused on the technical content required, with a limited level of training on different teaching methodologies available for use,” said Frank. This points to a need to provide teachers with in-service training in teaching methodologies.
Teagasc says it was not at all surprised by Sinead’s findings. Indeed, the study was commissioned by Teagasc itself, via a Walsh Fellowship.
The study began in June of this year and saw Sinead survey 80 teachers across six agricultural colleges, who teach specifically in the area of agriculture (rather than horticulture or forestry).
Of those, 50 teachers responded to the survey and the teachers range from having 20 years, to six months of teaching experience.
The are several reasons, according to Teagasc, for why teaching staff in Teagasc colleges don’t have as much teacher training as may have been expected.
“If you went back maybe 10 years ago, a high proportion of staff at that point would have had an accredited teacher and learning cert or qualification. They would have gained those as part of their teaching duties,” says Tony Pettit who is head of education in Teagasc.
“But we’ve had a lot of turnover of staff in recent years – people moved into the advisory service from teaching, for example. So a lot of the people who would have received training in the past have moved on and would’ve retired.”
The number of temporary staff in Teagasc is also a factor. Teagasc took in 70 temporary education officers in the last two years on temporary contracts. Frank makes the point that it’s not practical for people on short-term contracts to go through a serious level of training.
Subject matter
It seems a priority for Teagasc when recruiting teaching staff is their area of expertise. “We want people coming in who have their technical knowledge and expertise in dairy, or beef, or it could be machinery, for example. When you get them in, you start building up their teaching and learning experience in other ways,” says Tony Pettit. “We do the teaching and learning post entry, rather than pre entry. Most staff come in with a Bachelor of Ag Science or equivalent – this is the standard qualification people have,” says Frank. “The idea that people would tend to be employed as experts in subject matter is very common in higher education and the further-education sector,” continues Frank.
He compares the situation to hiring for primary school teachers, for example. “Primary school is very structured: tight qualification, tight timetable. Our recruitment policy wouldn’t be massively out of line with Institutes of Technology.”
Frank notes that “it’s very important that once they come in that they receive training in teaching methodologies. It’s very important that there is a programme to support those. We’re in the process of looking at those at the moment.”
Another reason for why those with ag science degrees are preferred is because people move within Teagasc, so the organisation is looking for people with wide skills that can move into, for example, advisory.
Current training
There is currently a 10-day training programme for teachers within Teagasc. Three of those days are spend in WIT studying teaching methods. This is an accredited programme, where candidates come away with a certificate in teaching strategies, while the other seven days are spent on in-house training, but this training itself is non-accredited.
There are also five teaching staff in Teagasc currently doing an 18-month programme that is run in conjunction with WIT.
“We’re not going to offer that to those coming in on our two-year contract,” says Frank. “If someone retires in Teagasc, we can replace them, and where we have new people coming in on permanent contracts we encourage them to do a Level 9 on teaching methodologies.”
Tony Pettit notes that Teagasc has instituted its own independent whole college evaluation (WCE) in recent years. The Teagasc WCE process is led by the Inspectorate of the Department of Education and Skills (DES). Tony says: “The whole college evaluation process found that practical instruction teaching in Teagasc was very good to excellent, really. Agricultural colleges are really strong in that territory.”
Overall, Tony was not surprised by the findings of Sinéad Flannery’s survey: “The study would have anticipated the statistics in the sense that we knew that. Obviously, the next step for us is the important one: what is the best way for dealing with this in terms of teaching, giving the opportunities to our teachers to go on training programmes?
“It could be post-graduate; it could be shorter accredited programmes. But also we wouldn’t rule out informal trainings that they all run together – that teachers share their own experience in teaching and learning and innovation.”
Dr Karen Kaveney from the UCD School of Agriculture and Food Science in UCD is also a supervisor on this study.
*The agricultural colleges the survey findings discussed in this article relate to are; Gurteen, Ballyhaise, Clonakilty, Pallaskenry, Kildalton and Mountbellew. CL
In all, 81% of teachers in agricultural colleges* do not have an accredited teaching qualification, while 13% do, and 6% are currently completing a teaching course or qualification. This is according to a study of agricultural teachers in Irish agricultural colleges, conducted by Sinéad Flannery of Teagasc Kildalton.
The aim of Sinead’s study was to analyse agricultural teachers’ experience in their role as educators and identify possible improvements to better prepare them for their role.
“It’s like taking a photo,” says Frank Murphy the curriculum development and standards unit manager in Teagasc and a supervisor for the study. “We’re looking at where we are now,” says Frank.
This initial survey was completed to see what level of training is currently present among staff and to look towards putting a training programme in place that will meet the needs of future teachers.
Along with the aforementioned, the survey’s findings include:
• In all, 79% of teachers said they are willing to engage in teaching training; 21% say they aren’t.• Of those surveyed, 47% are unsatisfied overall with the teaching and learning in-service training; while 33% are satisfied overall and 20% don’t know. • In terms of teachers’ level of satisfaction with technical in-service training received, 61% are satisfied overall, 35% are unsatisfied overall and 4% don’t know. • 35% say teachers have received sufficient teaching training, while 65% have not. “A key finding of the study to date is that “current in-service training received by educators is focused on the technical content required, with a limited level of training on different teaching methodologies available for use,” said Frank. This points to a need to provide teachers with in-service training in teaching methodologies.
Teagasc says it was not at all surprised by Sinead’s findings. Indeed, the study was commissioned by Teagasc itself, via a Walsh Fellowship.
The study began in June of this year and saw Sinead survey 80 teachers across six agricultural colleges, who teach specifically in the area of agriculture (rather than horticulture or forestry).
Of those, 50 teachers responded to the survey and the teachers range from having 20 years, to six months of teaching experience.
The are several reasons, according to Teagasc, for why teaching staff in Teagasc colleges don’t have as much teacher training as may have been expected.
“If you went back maybe 10 years ago, a high proportion of staff at that point would have had an accredited teacher and learning cert or qualification. They would have gained those as part of their teaching duties,” says Tony Pettit who is head of education in Teagasc.
“But we’ve had a lot of turnover of staff in recent years – people moved into the advisory service from teaching, for example. So a lot of the people who would have received training in the past have moved on and would’ve retired.”
The number of temporary staff in Teagasc is also a factor. Teagasc took in 70 temporary education officers in the last two years on temporary contracts. Frank makes the point that it’s not practical for people on short-term contracts to go through a serious level of training.
Subject matter
It seems a priority for Teagasc when recruiting teaching staff is their area of expertise. “We want people coming in who have their technical knowledge and expertise in dairy, or beef, or it could be machinery, for example. When you get them in, you start building up their teaching and learning experience in other ways,” says Tony Pettit. “We do the teaching and learning post entry, rather than pre entry. Most staff come in with a Bachelor of Ag Science or equivalent – this is the standard qualification people have,” says Frank. “The idea that people would tend to be employed as experts in subject matter is very common in higher education and the further-education sector,” continues Frank.
He compares the situation to hiring for primary school teachers, for example. “Primary school is very structured: tight qualification, tight timetable. Our recruitment policy wouldn’t be massively out of line with Institutes of Technology.”
Frank notes that “it’s very important that once they come in that they receive training in teaching methodologies. It’s very important that there is a programme to support those. We’re in the process of looking at those at the moment.”
Another reason for why those with ag science degrees are preferred is because people move within Teagasc, so the organisation is looking for people with wide skills that can move into, for example, advisory.
Current training
There is currently a 10-day training programme for teachers within Teagasc. Three of those days are spend in WIT studying teaching methods. This is an accredited programme, where candidates come away with a certificate in teaching strategies, while the other seven days are spent on in-house training, but this training itself is non-accredited.
There are also five teaching staff in Teagasc currently doing an 18-month programme that is run in conjunction with WIT.
“We’re not going to offer that to those coming in on our two-year contract,” says Frank. “If someone retires in Teagasc, we can replace them, and where we have new people coming in on permanent contracts we encourage them to do a Level 9 on teaching methodologies.”
Tony Pettit notes that Teagasc has instituted its own independent whole college evaluation (WCE) in recent years. The Teagasc WCE process is led by the Inspectorate of the Department of Education and Skills (DES). Tony says: “The whole college evaluation process found that practical instruction teaching in Teagasc was very good to excellent, really. Agricultural colleges are really strong in that territory.”
Overall, Tony was not surprised by the findings of Sinéad Flannery’s survey: “The study would have anticipated the statistics in the sense that we knew that. Obviously, the next step for us is the important one: what is the best way for dealing with this in terms of teaching, giving the opportunities to our teachers to go on training programmes?
“It could be post-graduate; it could be shorter accredited programmes. But also we wouldn’t rule out informal trainings that they all run together – that teachers share their own experience in teaching and learning and innovation.”
Dr Karen Kaveney from the UCD School of Agriculture and Food Science in UCD is also a supervisor on this study.
*The agricultural colleges the survey findings discussed in this article relate to are; Gurteen, Ballyhaise, Clonakilty, Pallaskenry, Kildalton and Mountbellew. CL
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