The Open University's Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) is the largest provider of postgraduate initial teacher training (pre-service teacher credentialing program) using Supported Open Learning methods in the UK and Europe. The PGCE programme began in 1994 to provide access for those who, for personal, professional, financial or geographical reasons, had been unable to undertake preservice teacher training by conventional routes. The development of the programme was supported by a 2.4 million pound grant by the UK government.

The OU PGCE is an 18-month part-time programme operating nationally in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland with two primary lines (age range 5-11 year), specializing in early and later years, and seven secondary lines (age range 11-18 years) in English, Mathematics, Science, Design and Technology, Modern Foreign Languages (French), History, and Music. The intake of trainee teachers each year is approximately 1000. The course leads to an academic university award, the Postgraduate Certificate of Education, and a professional qualification, Qualified Teacher Status (QTS), conferred by the UK government.

The OU PGCE is characterized by:

• Supported Open Learning through extensive multi-media teaching materials
• School-based partnership—local to the trainee—which operates as a site for teaching, support and assessment
• An explicit framework of outcome assessment standards incorporating subject and professional knowledge, teaching competences and professional qualities
• A portfolio model of formative and summative assessment that integrates theory and classroom practice
• A network of support via local tutors, regional seminars and workshops
• A regional and national e-mail and e-conference system for information, teaching and support
• National availability
• Part-time, asynchronous study

These features contribute to a programme with distinctive differences in structure and operation when compared to conventional initial teacher training (ITT) routes, and have enabled the OU PGCE to make a major contribution to teacher education in the UK context. Its successful record in attracting mature, second career, ethnic minority, and disabled groups to the teaching profession has enhanced teacher diversity and made a significant contribution to teacher recruitment and retention in a decade of teacher supply crisis in the UK. It has worked in partnership with a significant proportion of schools and trained school staff to undertake a professional development role transferable to other school-based staff development and, thereby, made a contribution to school improvement. Ratings by schools and alumni of the effectiveness of the programme and the performance of its Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs) have been very positive, particularly in the area of professional commitment and competences in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). It has also provided high quality resources for the UK ITT sector as a whole.

The success of the programme is evident from the extent of international interest in this model of teacher education, resulting in collaborative projects in Europe, Africa and the US. The OU PGCE model has been successfully adapted to provide professional development for pre-service and in-service teachers in a number of different contexts where there is a need for a distance-learning and school-based solution to teacher education issues, most commonly teacher quality and teacher recruitment. Most recently, working with CSU on the development of Cal-State Teach, a state-wide teacher credentialing program for emergency licensed teachers.

The programme design enables the trainee teacher to carry out part-time supported self-study at home and progressive blocks of full-time school experience in local partner schools.

Course content and materials

All PGCE subject and phase course lines have a common framework to ensure integration of study material, school experience and assessment. The extensive range of multi-media material provides major teaching and training elements. The course materials have been designed to:

• Ensure consistency and quality of teaching across all lines
• Provide training and education that explicitly supports the development of the assessment outcome standards and provides a strong basis for further professional development
• Provide access to extensive library resources
• Provide access, through AV, to a range of school contexts and effective teaching models integrate school-based and study elements of the course; ensure continuity and progression at each stage of the course
• Integrate teaching and assessment elements
• Allow the trainee teacher to develop responsibility for their own professional learning in terms of planning, managing, subject knowledge auditing and self-assessment

The partnership model

The OU PGCE Programme forms a partnership with a local school to provide training, assessment and support for the trainee teacher. It is a genuine partnership in that the school has a role and responsibilities in all aspects of the course. The school as the critical site for teaching and assessment for teacher education is a key principle of this model.

Teaching and assessment model

The teaching model is a framework of interconnecting support comprising course materials, the partner school teaching staff, OU regional academic staff, and trainee teacher self-help groups. Roles and responsibilities are explicit and follow a structured framework to ensure a coherent learning experience for the trainee teacher.

The OU Supported Open Learning model provides face-to-face tutor support in regionally based groups through subject-specific seminars/workshops and tutorials, and an extensive network of computer conferencing at tutorial, regional and national level.

The OU PGCE assessment strategy is based on end-of-course demonstration of assessment outcome standards organized under subject knowledge, teaching competences and professional qualities headings through submission of a prescribed professional development portfolio. The assessment model incorporates the UK government regulations for initial teacher training. The assessment strategy is characterized by:

• Explicit assessment outcome standards incorporating professional qualities and teaching competences used by all involved in assessment
• Formative assessment at each stage and summative assessment linked to assessment outcome standards
• Prescribed assessment activities at each stage that integrate theory and classroom practice and ensure appropriate evidence is produced against assessment outcome standards
• Explicit assessment roles for school staff, university staff and trainee teachers (self-assessment) that allows triangulation of evidence against the assessment outcome standards
• Regular feedback for trainee teachers on progress towards assessment outcome standards at each stage and additional support for trainees who fail to make progress at each stage of the course
• A profiling system to identify strengths and weaknesses for ongoing professional development external review of assessment procedures by independent examiners appointed by the university

Quality assurance

QA systems are in place for all aspects of the course: admissions; partnership; course structure; teaching; assessment; and employment estimations. Parallel systems are in place to monitor quality in both the university and school-based elements of the programme and inform future developments.

There are a number of principles that underpin the range of QA systems in place for the OU PGCE:

• The importance of quality input
• A prescribed common framework
• All elements are interconnected
• Comprehensive monitoring - both to check on quality of provision and inform
• Future development
• Procedures for responding to 'unsatisfactory' elements
• Extensive databases to support individual tracking of trainee teachers
• Inter-regional, inter-subject, comparisons

Institutional Mission and Content

The Open University has been widely hailed as the most important innovation in higher education in the UK of the last quarter-century. Since its foundation in 1969, it has become the largest university in the UK, teaching over 200,000 people every year. It is ranked in the top 15 of all UK universities.

Teaching is by means Supported Open Learning via specially-produced textbooks and assessment materials, broadcasts on national TV and radio, audio-visual components, computer technology, home experiment kits and other media. Personal tuition is provided through a network of local study centres, and many courses also have short residential schools. Courses are prepared by teams of academic staff, educational technologists, BBC producers, editors and designers, and external consultants. OU courses are intended mainly for adults studying part-time in their own homes or places of work.

The Open University's mission is:

• Open as to people
• Open as to places
• Open as to methods
• Open as to ideas

The School of Education presents a wide range of courses leading to undergraduate (BA and BSc) and postgraduate awards (Advanced Diploma, Certificate in Professional Development, MA in Education and Doctorate in Education). Since 1994, the School has presented a range of Professional Qualifications including the Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE), National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH), and Specialist Teacher Assistant Certificate (STAC). In 1999 it became the largest provider of teacher in-service training in Information and Communications Technologies.

In broad terms, the School of Education offers the widest range of subjects, academic level, and qualifications for the education profession within the UK and has given study opportunities to over 100,000 teachers since 1971; currently has over 14,000 student registrations annually. The SOE also provides opportunities for teachers to train and update wherever they may work and reside; has the largest Masters in Education programme; is one of the largest initial teacher training providers through the PGCE; gained a 4 rating in both the Research Assessment Exercises.

Ann Shelton-Mayes,
Director, Postgraduate Certificate in Education Programme
Open University, School of Education
Milton Keynes MK7 6AA
United Kingdom
E-mail: A.Shelton@open.ac.uk

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