This document provides an executive summary of the Scottish Teachers for a New Era (STNE) pilot project, which aims to prepare teachers for the 21st century. The summary outlines that the project's strengths include its focus on learning in the early years and peer learning experiences. However, limitations in field experience structure and elective choices created some issues. Feedback was generally positive over time. Communication and clarifying placement goals remain areas for ongoing improvement, as well as monitoring subject knowledge. Partnership working has enhanced the program, and further development is still needed around communication strategies and elective selection.

1. Scottish Teachers for a New Era (STNE) is a collaborative six-year pilot project which
seeks to prepare ‘teachers for a new era’ able to face up to the challenges of knowledge
and learning in the twenty-first century. The programme’s aims include the creation of
an extended professional culture, the broadening of learning experiences, opportunities to
develop new and personal approaches to teaching and a broader conceptualisation of
pupil gains leading to improved teacher and pupil learning.
End of Phase 2. Executive Summary
2010
Programme and Placements
Perceptions about the strengths of the programme and some of the areas that needed to be further
developed were conducted over the four years through interviews with students, tutors on the programme,
teachers and Head Teachers.
• Areas of strength in the programme include the focus on learning in the first two years,
accompanied by peer working in the new field experience. Indications are that this produces very
reflective and deep thinking students. These experiences are also viewed positively by students,
teachers and tutors, although some teachers have difficulties in adapting to the new way of
working.
• A difficulty with the structure of the field experience is the limitation of the experience to only one
day, and the same day each week.
• The issue of first and second year electives across the wider University, which created some
confusion in the early development of the programme, has been addressed to some extent and
needs to be constantly monitored. Some of the issues related to conflict in timetabling with field
experience as well as clarity of the purpose of the electives.
• While there were mixed views about the new programme when it was first introduced, over time
feedback from teachers was mainly positive about the rationale for the programme, with a few
teachers expressing concerns about some specific elements, such as the traditional school
experience being replaced by serial days in the 1st and 2nd year.
• While positive about the rationale for the early field experiences, in years 1 and 2, many of the
teachers continued to express concern about the length and timing of these experiences. These
concerns were addressed as everyone involved became more familiar with the programme and it
became possible to reconcile some of the timetabling issues created by wider elective choice in the
first two years. This is being continuously monitored and further refinements are likely.

2. End of Phase 2. Executive Summary
Programme and Placements (cont.)
In order to familiarise teachers with the new STNE programme and the requirements of the students on
placement in all four years, CPD days were held for teachers hosting students.
• Teachers on the whole benefited from these CPD events although there is a continued need to
monitor what information is most appropriate to provide for the teachers at these events.
• The handbook provided for the students and teachers was useful but views were expressed that it
was too detailed in some respects and difficult to work through.
• Consideration should be given to examining the structure and content of the handbook to make it
easier for teachers to use.
• Further clarification upon goals regarding the new placements should also be pursued both at the
level of the partnership (see point below) and at the level of student-teacher relationship in the
classroom. In this regard, attending to pragmatic matters related to timing and structure of
placements is likely to have a positive impact on the development of the philosophy of the
programme.
Third and fourth year placements were more “traditional” in nature, being block periods in a school with
the expectations of the students seeming to be more in line with school experiences in previous
programmes.
• An on-going issue, which is constantly being re-visited and worked on, is the area of
communication which includes feedback to students as well as communication among programme
members and between the university and the schools. The involvement of so many stakeholders in
the programme makes communication a key element that needs to be the best it can be.
• To some extent communication is addressed through the development of effective partnership
structures, considered in the third section.
Students
With the caveat that, at the time of writing this report, this applies only to the first cohort passing through
the programme, the final year students can be classified as having a robust view about knowledge and
knowledge acquisition.
• These students hold very strong preferences for ‘constructivist’ pupil centred approaches to
teaching, a view that is aligned with the key messages, and ethos, that are found in the new STNE
programme, but were also a key element of the previous B.Ed programmes in recent years.
• There was a significant shift in student teachers’ overall epistemological belief, with participants
reporting a more sophisticated belief about knowledge and learning at the end of their fourth year
than they did in first year.

3. End of Phase 2. Executive Summary
Students (cont.)
While there is still the potential for much more research into students’ subject knowledge and the optimal
level of subject knowledge, as distinct from pedagogical and pedagogical content knowledge, required by
beginning teachers, some evidence has been obtained about this in relation to the first cohort of STNE
students.
• In general the students held a relatively high level of mathematical knowledge, although this was,
perhaps unsurprisingly, related to the qualification level held in mathematics on entry to the
programme.
• It was not possible to conduct any assessment of language, science or other disciplinary areas.
However, the students were confident with their own subject knowledge in literacy and English,
Health and Wellbeing, and Maths. They also felt confident to teach these subjects.
• Compared with these three subjects, the students appeared to be less confident with their own
subject knowledge in science and less confident to teach the subject.
• Overall the students’ levels of confidence to teach subjects appeared to be higher than their own
perceived confidence in knowledge about the subjects. This is perhaps related to the students’
perceptions of their own abilities to learn on the job and the focus on pedagogy and the teachers’
role in enabling children to learn independently, rather than as being transmitters of knowledge.
The relationship between these students’ confidence and self-efficacy in teaching and impact on student
achievement has not as yet been measured, but research reported in the literature provides evidence that
teacher efficacy predicts teachers' implementation of innovative programmes and student achievement.
Thus we can have some degree of confidence that the new STNE programme is making significant progress
on continual improvement in the design and implementation of initial teacher education, although there is
the need to have further monitoring of key disciplinary areas, such as mathematics, language and science.
Partnership
The STNE programme spans the complex landscape of ITE and early career professional learning, with a
view to providing a continuum of support for new teachers. Therefore, a key element in programme
development has been enhanced partnership working, building on existing strong links, with local
authorities and other important stakeholders, including representation from Head Teachers, GTCS,
professional associations such as the EIS and other universities offering ITE.. Such activities have included
the setting up of the working forum of the Promoting Partnership Team (PPT) and ongoing dialogue at the
ITE Partnership Forum meetings. In addition, there has been ongoing engagement with partners from local
authorities and schools in collaborative working groups for programme and course development.
As elaborated in the Report, some of the outcomes of the partnership working, underpinned by evidence
collected as part of the integrated research strand of the project, have included:
• the development, piloting and evaluation of a new Profile for Entry to the Teaching Profession;
• needs targeted induction year events;
• the development of a new MSc in Enhanced Professional Practice postgraduate degree programme;
and
• progress towards the development of a virtual resource and information hub for new teachers and
all personnel involved in their support.

4. End of Phase 2. Executive Summary
Further Work
While there are very clear signs of the very positive impact that the STNE initiative has had on students and local
authority partners, it is not surprising that in an initiative of this complexity there remain areas for continued
review, evaluation and development. While many of these arose in the early stages of STNE and have been
addressed to some extent, they require constant monitoring and adjustment. Perhaps one of the most formidable
of these is the issue of communication amongst all the stakeholders both in terms of dissemination of information
and in relation to participation and exchange of ideas. The Promoting Partnership Team has made significant
inroads in this area and CPD programmes for teachers have improved understanding of the aims of STNE, but
there still remains the need for continued consideration of innovative communication and participatory strategies
to allow for both inward and outward flow of information and ideas as well as the most appropriate form of CPD
for teachers, the needs of which are likely to change over time. Within the programme there remain logistical
difficulties in the provision of wider university electives, as well as the need for continued consideration of the
rationale for selection and purpose of electives. Since the inception of the STNE programme further
developments in the University’s own Curriculum Reform programme has provided additional opportunities for
engagement in wider university provision for Education students and some consideration needs to be given to the
best use of these for students to both broaden and deepen their experiences and knowledge.