Improving Equity and Attainment: through the development of research, evaluative and reflective skills in Early Career Teachers

The Scottish Attainment Challenge (SAC) is one of the key educational initiatives currently being implemented in Scotland. It was announced by the First Minister at the launch of the national SAC Project in Dundee in February 2015. The Scottish Government website indicates that the Scottish Attainment Challenge (SAC) is “about achieving equity in educational outcomes” (Scottish Government, 2015) and proposes that: “equity can be achieved by ensuring every child has the same opportunity to succeed, with a particular focus on closing the poverty-related attainment gap” (ibid.). This report forms part of an eight-university project jointly promoted by the Scottish Government (SG) and the Committee of Deans of Education (CoDE) in Scotland to research how, and how well, universities are developing pedagogies to support pre-service and early career teachers in reducing the attainment gap in literacy, numeracy and health & wellbeing (HWB). This project has involved ITE, ECT and PGT students, along with members of staff, in understanding and researching how teaching, and thus learning, may be improved to ensure that the impact of equity-related issues – e.g. deprivation, poverty, illness and the pressures upon young carers –on teaching, learning and attainment is minimised. The project also has a practice-based focus on equipping teacher students at all levels to employ their improved skills to address equity-related issues within their school and classroom and to support them in developing more effective interventions to address the issues identified.