Improving retention of science teachers

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Discover what’s being done to keep science teachers doing what they do best

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Keep teachers covered: strong and consistent leadership, especially in behaviour management, is a key factor in teacher retention

A lot of research effort has been devoted to why teachers leave the profession: workload, autonomy, support, pay and recognition are all factors influencing their decisions. Against a backdrop of declining teacher retention, policymakers in England and the devolved nations are developing strategies to try to retain more teachers in the profession – and for longer. Two approaches are tackling workload and supporting early career teachers.

Former chemistry teacher Alissa Owen explored retention for her master’s in education policy. She found ‘strong and consistent leadership’ from the top, especially in behaviour management, to be a key factor. But issues of workload and student behaviour ‘were just the start of the discussion. What it actually boiled down to was a perceived lack of trust and not having the autonomy to do what teachers have been trained and are skilled to do,’ she says.

‘Teachers don’t actually mind doing the things that make an impact, but it’s when you’re bogged down and your time is spent doing things like making trackers for students rather than what’s actually having an impact in the classroom, that teachers feel frustrated and resentful.’

A study by the National Foundation for Education Research found that, compared to similar professionals, teachers have less control over their tasks, pace of work, hours and professional development goals; and that the level of autonomy does not improve for teachers with more than five years of classroom experience. Also, giving teachers more say in their professional development goals heightens the intention to stay in teaching.

A study published by the National Foundation for Education Research found that, compared to similar professionals, teachers have less control over their tasks, pace of work, hours and professional development goals; and that the level of autonomy does not improve for teachers with more than five years of classroom experience. Also, giving teachers more say in their professional development goals heightens the intention to stay in teaching.

Retention key: respect

Louise Hussein’s enjoyment of teaching was overshadowed when she felt her professionalism was undermined. Box-ticking exercises and a lack of support from school leaders in her attempts to address behaviour management left her feeling she was ‘fighting a losing battle all day long’.

‘Quite often people didn’t think about an individual teacher and what their journey through the school is throughout the day,’ she says. ‘Not having that sight of what your staff are doing all day long, I think is a mistake, because you don’t pick up on where the issues are.’

‘I don’t think it’s the workload itself,’ she says. ‘You don’t get into teaching thinking this is going to be easy, you know there’s going to be a big workload, but it’s whether that feels respected and worthwhile.’

Six years into her teaching career and now in a new school, Louise feels ‘more valued as a teacher and as a professional, and the students pick up on that as well’. Being able to teach only within her specialism also makes a big difference.

‘I really love working with young people. Every day is different; every lesson is different,’ she says. ‘It’s constantly evolving – you have to think on your feet.’

Enthuse teachers with subject-specific CPD

From her conversations with a mix of early career, established and former teachers, Alissa found that the most important type of continuing professional development is subject specific. ‘This is where a lot of schools – especially those that are really struggling – tend to go wrong, because they tend to have generic CPD on behaviour management or marking, for example. What you need to do is upskill teachers in their confidence and efficacy in their subject and ability to deliver that.’ In turn, this impacts on student engagement in lessons and, subsequently, how fulfilled a teacher might feel, she adds. Indeed, research commissioned by Wellcome found that CPD delivered by the National STEM learning network had a positive impact on teacher retention in the sciences.

‘A lot of professional learning is very generic and teachers just don’t get a chance to think about how it applies to their specific subject and how they deliver it in their classroom,’ says Colin McGill, lecturer in education at Edinburgh Napier University. He’s now developing a year-long CPD programme for chemistry teachers in Scotland, initially intended to help with retention of early career teachers – but has found that many experienced teachers also want to take part.

From her conversations with a mix of early career, established and former teachers, Alissa found that the most important type of continuing professional development is subject specific. ‘This is where a lot of schools – especially those that are really struggling – tend to go wrong, because they tend to have generic CPD on behaviour management or marking [for example]. What you need to do is upskill teachers in their confidence and efficacy in their subject and ability to deliver that.’ In turn, this impacts on student engagement in lessons and, subsequently, how fulfilled a teacher might feel, she adds. Indeed, research commissioned by Wellcome (bit.ly/3jgaYk7) found that CPD delivered by the National STEM learning network had a positive impact on teacher retention in the sciences.

‘A lot of professional learning is very generic and teachers just don’t get a chance to think [about] how [it applies] to their specific subject [and how] they deliver it in their classroom,’ says Colin McGill, lecturer in education at Edinburgh Napier University. He’s now developing a year-long CPD programme for chemistry teachers in Scotland, initially intended to help with retention of early career teachers – but has found that many experienced teachers also want to take part.

It’s how the management support you with a difficult class that makes the difference, not the fact that you’ve got the difficult class

As a small team of four, he and his colleagues get to know student teachers well, and that has encouraged them to seek support even beyond their training. Colin suggests that extending mentoring after the probationary year, perhaps even as long as into the first five years of a career could also have an impact. Otherwise, ‘it’s sink or swim after probation’.

There’s little optimism that the pandemic has improved teacher retention, but Alex Manning and her colleagues at King’s College London are exploring how schools can support early career teachers whose training was disrupted. ‘During the pandemic, it’s been a big eye-opener for teachers to see how well their schools do or don’t support them.’ The findings are by no means all negative: many trainees saw the positive contribution they and their school could make to young people, as well as being able to develop a wider range of approaches to their teaching.

Retention key: collaboration

‘It’s an amazing feeling when students build knowledge or skills from your input,’ says Ian Stewart, a chemistry teacher for over 20 years. He still admits to ‘a few flurries where I’ve thought: “that’s it, I’ve had enough”.’ Sometimes a new policy initiative will be hard to adapt to: ‘I think teachers struggle with that, because they feel like [they’re] trying to tick a box instead of teaching the subject.’ He’s been able to ride those out by getting involved in projects outside the classroom. He found the pandemic ‘triggered quite a lot of collaboration outside of school’, putting him in contact with teachers from other areas and coordinating resources. ‘So that reignited a lot of professionalism and engagement for me. It’s also great when you’re able to support other teachers.

Being a chemistry teacher sometimes means being a team of one or two – it can be quite isolating, so the new collaborations have enabled teachers to help each other where they were struggling with the same subject issues. ‘That’s quite healthy,’ he adds.

How to get more support and more autonomy?

Alex and KCL’s well-being team talk to trainees about personal values, and whether they find they can put them into practice in schools where they teach. ‘We talk a lot about what’s the issue and where’s the solution. If a teacher says “I like being in control of my own decisions and my own teaching” and yet they’re teaching in a school that’s very scheme-of-work focused, resources are written and [teachers] don’t have that autonomy … we talk about how to get that autonomy by talking to line managers about changing resources, all the way to making choices about the school they’re in.’

Being able to articulate a problem can also help teachers and schools, but Alex says, ‘too often the responsibility is on the teacher to solve the problem’, rather than the onus being on both teachers and their department or school leaders. She points out, ‘it’s how the management support you with a difficult class that makes the difference, not the fact that you’ve got the difficult class.’

When she and her colleagues looked at teachers’ responses to interventions to support well-being, they found that what had an impact was whether interventions had made structural changes to the working environment or ‘developed professional relationships that made [teachers] feel valued.’

When she and her colleagues looked at teachers’ responses to interventions to support well-being (bit.ly/3j8x87J), they found that what had an impact was whether interventions had made structural changes to the working environment or ‘developed professional relationships that made [teachers] feel valued.’

Solutions don’t have to be complex. Alissa reports that one teacher was freed up to take her own children to school because she wasn’t obliged to have a form class, and this was key to her retention. ‘It actually sends a much broader, powerful message to that individual that you are valued – you’re important.’

Strategies for recognising peaks and troughs during working hours, developed to help students, may also assist qualified teachers, suggests Alex. ‘We’re not trying to make everyone have their whole life as peaks – that’s unrealistic. But we don’t want massive lows and we want to see if we can shift some of those lows up.’ An example might be having something to look forward to after a particularly difficult class, so that it doesn’t dominate the rest of the working day.

Whatever strategies policymakers and schools put in place to keep teachers teaching, it seems communication will be key.