Teacher training, education or learning by doing in the UK

Abstract

To describe teacher education in the UK offers a peculiar challenge as the unitedness of the United Kingdom is not always apparent. The four countries which comprise the UK all have their own parliaments, their own laws and differing education systems. Nor is cross-border travel always easy for teachers because teaching qualifi cations accepted in one country are not always acceptable in another. Curriculum and assessment are not cut from the same cloth and there are differing assumptions as to age-related tasks and what are described in England as ‘Key Stages’ (7, 11, 14, 16 and 18). Structural differences play a signifi cant role in teacher education and professional development. Highly selective grammar schools and elitist independent schools (paradoxically named ‘public schools’) are an integral part of the English landscape together with a growing plethora of comprehensive secondary schools, Specialist Schools and Academies cheek by jowl with the long-standing tradition of church schools.