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Tag: retention
Retention Done Well
We talk to Doug Simon, who takes issue with the assertion that CPD is not C, P or D for Physics teachers.
Having heard from Mark Whalley last episode about some of the gotchas that schools can fall victim to when trying to hang on to their (physics) teachers, we hear this week from Doug who reports some of the positive things they do to support their science teachers and keep them teaching.
First up, though, Thomas and Robin talked electricity as that is what they both had been doing this week.
Thomas had demonstrated a bit of uncertainty that GCSE students can get their heads around: the meters sometimes lie! See below…
Thomas’ three ammeters and three voltmeters reading randomly This is a nice way to introduce a discussion on precision and accuracy in measurement.
Robin had been investigating LDRs and Thermistors and trying to avoid the pitfalls he has hit in the past – either it takes waaaay too long, or it causes cognitive overload with all the fussy details: digital multimeters on the ohm setting, light meters (probably for the first time), multiple experiments, different scale settings with different units, new circuit symbol (ohm-meter anyone?). Doing both together might seem odd, but if you emphasise that both experiments are effectively looking at the same thing – an energy transfer changing resistance – students can see parallels. You only have to set the DMM up once, and I always explain that it is doing what they did recently: measuring voltage and current at the same time and working out R for them – they like that. There are better ways to teach this, sure, but this is ‘quick and dirty’ if you are short on time (and we always seem to be!). See the thermistor practical in the links section – thank you Mrs Cook! I hope you are still teaching physics.
… and talking of still teaching, back to Doug who gives us practical advice on how science teachers can be nurtured and recognised. Some highlights:
- a specific period per week to support planning & teaching
- commitment to the subject in department meetings (not exam admin, other initiatives, safeguarding etc.). Meetings are used for discussion / CPD
- CPD for teachers in meetings based around answering tough questions / misconceptions and ways topics have been taught.
- Ensuring a common language in maths. Where skills are common (e.g. rearranging equations) can you provide physics-based maths exercises to your maths colleagues?
- 6 periods per fortnight for KS4 science.
- specialist physics technicians whose CPD is also worthy of investment.
Doug’s school has had success in holding on to their teachers – it can be done! Why not reach out to a school doing good things and keeping science teachers? Culture can make a real difference and Doug’s school has shown how positive culture can help a school keep its teachers.
Thanks to Doug for getting in touch. Do let us know if you have anything to share with the physics teaching community. It was great for us to be in contact with Clare Harvey from the Ogden Trust this week (we’ll hear from her on the podcasts soon). the Ogden Trust do great work supporting physics teachers and we will be hearing about their work and how they can help support your practice.
Links
Join in!
Please share ideas or successes – or indeed questions by messaging us on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/physicstp.bsky.social . You can also message us via our website contact form on every page of the web site at the.physicsteachingpodcast.com, or email using the address given in the podcast (if we remember). We are moving away from X but can be found there as @physicstp.
Music
- Season 7: Physics Is Our Business by Miracles of Modern Science.
- Seasons 5 and 6: Crescents by Ketsa.
- Seasons 3 and 4: Disco Sheik by Podington Bear.
- Seasons 1 and 2: One legged equilibrist polka by Circus Homunculus.
- Occasionally we also use Cantina Rag by Jackson F. Smith.
The music is used under the Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License
Retention
After a break that was longer than we had planned due to bike accidents and ridiculous workloads, we are back and raring to go. Although physics teachers raring to go is the problem we discuss this week* with Friend of the Podcast, Senior Lecturer and physics teacher retention guru, Mark Whalley.
Thomas drops the bombshell that he is taking an extended sabbatical from teaching**. Before he fell off his bike (again) and broke three ribs (again) we had planned to speak to Mark about this and it was a pleasure to finally catch up.
Mark has run projects for the IOP around retention (see the link below to “Keep Teaching”) and we ask him the question: what is in a school’s power to prevent Physics Teachers from leaving the profession?
As a school leader what can you do? Well Mark has a few tips
- Respect teachers’ professionalism: minimise the menial admin istrative tasks they have to carry out.
- Avoid CPD that is none of those things. Allow physics teachers time to explore their professional practice. It is more challenging for them in isolation.
- Recognise the extra burden on physics teachers in small departments (often only 1!) and allow extra time for them to support physics teaching in the school (e.g. for non-specialist colleagues).
- Timetable sympathetically. Nothing annoys scarce physics teachers more than spending large chunks of their time teaching other subjects.
Robin suggests the radical step of breaking the universal pay agreement for shortage subjects… what do you think? Would a pay scale for shortage subjects work, or be more trouble than it’s worth? Share your thoughts on X (Twitter).
With the management challenges facing schools, this issue is lower on the list of SLT priorities than it should be, but perhaps we can change a few things to raise the issue. Mark’s helped us to suggest a few low cost things that perhaps we CAN do.
*I know – we haven’t lost ANY of our slickness…
** He wants to fall off his bike in more exotic locations.
Links
- KEEP Teaching episode with Mark
- EEF Keep Teaching Project
- STEM Learning: Missing Physics Teachers
- Physics teacher shortage Infographic (Gatsby Foundation)
- Effect of retention bonuses on physics teacher attrition
- 2020 Policy briefing on science teacher retention from the Royal Society
Join in!
Please share ideas or successes – or indeed questions by messaging us on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/physicstp.bsky.social . You can also message us via our website contact form on every page of the web site at the.physicsteachingpodcast.com, or email using the address given in the podcast (if we remember). We are moving away from X but can be found there as @physicstp.
Music
- Season 7: Physics Is Our Business by Miracles of Modern Science.
- Seasons 5 and 6: Crescents by Ketsa.
- Seasons 3 and 4: Disco Sheik by Podington Bear.
- Seasons 1 and 2: One legged equilibrist polka by Circus Homunculus.
- Occasionally we also use Cantina Rag by Jackson F. Smith.
The music is used under the Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License