Broad Issues

The label of ‘broad issues’ does not signify an issue pertinent to all A level courses, but ones that are tangentially related to the educational landscape in the UK. While these are

unlikely to be solved, or could in any way be tackled through reforms to A level qualification, they were all highlighted by learned organisations in consultation responses, and letters to the Secretary of State. They are perceived by these organisations as barriers to the field, or areas that should be focused on, and while not suggested as areas that should be

prioritised, when including them in such communications the groups are signalling their importance. The three areas included here are those which consider the potential

ramifications to physics as a field if nothing is done to tackle them, making them crucial to Michael Gove’s suggestion that facilitating subjects, such as physics, were critical to the future demands and success of the nation.

4.6.1 Teachers

Subject specialist teachers are those who teach a subject in which they have a relevant degree. The importance of such teachers is recognised by the Department for Education, which states “research strongly suggests that subject knowledge as well as overall

attainment [of teachers] is a key determinant of success, especially in the sciences and mathematics” (Department for Education, 2010a)23_{. However, one third of teachers who}

teach a science subject do not have a degree in a relevant subject (Department for Education, 2011) and a study for the Gatsby Foundation found that 25% of secondary schools in England no longer had any specialist physics teachers, rising to 50% in inner- London schools (Smithers & Robinson, Physics in Schools III. Bucking the Trend, 2007). Despite a £7 million investment from the then Training and Development Agency to provide enhancement courses to those with related degrees, and £140 million to aid the

recruitment of physics and chemistry graduates and retain them through financial incentives, there is still “a severe shortage of physics teachers, a shortage of chemistry teachers and an under-recruitment of biology teachers” (ASE, et al., 2016).

23_{As mentioned in the introduction, the DfE cited the work of Smithers and Robinson (2005), Goldhaber}

and Brewer (1997) and Wilson et al (2001) to support this point. Once the educational reforms had been instigated however, the services of educational academics to support the educational reform process were no longer used.

The shortage of physics teachers has been at a significant level since at least the mid-90s, however while these initiatives have not reversed the problem, the group of scientific learned societies and the Association for Science Education believe that government should continue to act to promote teaching at a secondary level (Association for Science Education, et al., 2015). The disbanding of the TDA and transfer of bursaries for teacher training to individual subject societies, the establishment of a tiered bursary dependent on a graduate’s degree classification, and the educational reform process playing out in the media is, however, felt to be confusing and off-putting for potential trainees (Association for Science Education, et al., 2015). Despite the more varied routes into initial teacher

education, and no limit to the number of places that can be allocated funding for training physics teachers, there has been little change to the shortage of physics teachers, with the National Audit Office suggesting the complexity of the system could be a potential barrier (2016).

SCORE has concerns about the selection processes used in the current educational climate and are concerned that the variety of entry methods leads to a wider variety of candidates entering the teaching profession. They caution:

“It must not be assumed that highly qualified graduates, attracted through the bursary offers, will all have sufficient depth and breadth of school-level subject knowledge to become effective teachers without substantial further provision as part of their teacher training course.”

(SCORE, 2012d)

They believe that the ITE provider should be selected based on their subject knowledge using common and transparent standards (SCORE, 2014c) and that there is a strong case for lengthening teacher training courses to 18-24 months to match overseas teacher training programmes, as well as giving opportunity for knowledge and skill development (SCORE, 2012d). Alongside this they suggest that the criteria for judging ITEs should include subject specific elements and be carried out by inspectors with subject expertise so that inspections

can be more targeted regarding the skills expected of ‘good’ science teachers (SCORE, 2012d).

A further aspect noted by the Gatsby Foundation was that while the percentages of specialist physics teachers were lower in inner-London, they were higher in Yorkshire and Humberside, where only 10% of schools did not have a specialist physics teacher (Smithers & Robinson, Physics in Schools III. Bucking the Trend, 2007) raising the interesting, but challenging, effect of geography.

4.6.2 The availability of HE Physics

Only 36 out of 131 HEIs across England offer undergraduate courses in Physics, meaning that there are large areas where students, schools, and industry have no convenient access to a university physics department (Institute of Physics, 2012c). Due to rising living costs and concern regarding university funding, the proportion of students choosing to live at home while studying at university has increased (The Independent, 2017). While the government, universities, and learned organisations are seeking to increase the number of students from lower socio-economic classes, ethnic minorities, and women choosing to study STEM subjects, there is a greater chance that students within these groups choose to live at home during their studies, potentially cutting these students off from considering institutions further away from home (Institute of Physics, 2012c). Furthermore, while universities are not evenly distributed geographically, this is more so within practical subjects, especially physics.

The small number of university physics departments is primarily funding-related, as several departments either merged or closed between the early 1990s and 2006. These closures are attributed to a number of factors; increased competition between former polytechnics and established, research-led institutions; the ‘Research Assessment Exercise’ which harmed departments with a strong applied bias; and the combination of relatively static physics entrants and a decrease in funding per student during the 1990s (Institute of Physics, 2012c). While this latter point is historic, the IoP highlighted concerns to the DfE regarding student number controls for specific grade combinations, and institutions with differing fee levels in the period 2012-2014 would result in middle-ranked HEIs struggling to

offer laboratory-based subjects at a time when STEM courses should be expanding into those institutions (ibid).

The IoP feel that the combination of these factors makes it challenging to build strong links between university physics departments and local schools, in which they may be able to assist. One suggestion was that university lecturers may be trained to teach STEM subjects at school level, particularly those in physics and engineering, to provide some relief and capacity to schools where they need it (Institute of Physics, 2016b). However, it is not solely the link between university physics departments and local schools, but also a smaller

number of universities, generally those ‘middle-ranked’, that have education departments offering teacher training but no physics department, suggesting that links between

education researchers and science faculties are too often “completely separate entities on a campus” (Institute of Physics, 2016a).

4.6.3 Links between educationalists and science faculties

In their response to the government’s 2016 green paper on ‘Opportunities and Challenges for teachers, researchers and policy-makers in educational research’ the Institute of Physics highlight what they view to be “weak links” within HEIs between the education researchers, the subject specialists and the teacher trainers. Where institutions have teacher training carried out by those who are not active education researchers themselves they believe that there is potential that trainee teachers do not benefit from the most current research findings. However their primary concern is that the number of education researchers and teacher trainers linked to the relevant department within institutions results in a system where physics academics are not supporting trainee teachers nor benefiting from the pedagogic work being carried out on their own teaching (Institute of Physics, 2016a).

The IoP also note a decline in subject-specific research within Physics, such that much of the educational research published in the ASE’s ‘School Science Review’ and IoP’s ‘Physics

Education’ comes from teachers and physics academics rather than educational researchers. They do not criticise this, merely comment on it being an untapped resource that could benefit the teaching of STEM subjects and be of benefit when learned organisations participate in consultations and have their views sought regarding educational reforms.

Summary

These three aspects are all identified as problem areas that are outside the remit of A level reform but are all clearly linked to wider Physics education. A supply of well-qualified teachers often provided from areas of the country with university Physics departments results in a varied landscape. Confidence in an A level qualification so far has been related purely to topics that are taught and the preparedness of students to enter undergraduate level studies, yet there is a human element to this. This is not to say that a teacher must have a Physics degree in order to teach A level Physics, however it highlights a significant contrast in the discourse.

Where the Department for Education and Michael Gove are focused on providing STEM graduates and involving HE in qualification design, learned organisations like the Institute of Physics are looking to the long term supply of teachers, and how the Physics community might assist in an area that the DfE has not even recognised.