Teachers lack social skills for big classes, conference hears

New teachers lack the social skills needed to cope with large classrooms of children, partly because they are chosen for teacher training courses on their academic achievements alone.

Speaking at the Irish Primary Principals’ Network (IPPN) conference, director Sean Cottrell said academic ability was just one factor, and that interpersonal skills were vital as well.

He also warned that new teachers were not being fully prepared by the training colleges to deal with parents and pupils with behavioural problems or special education needs.

“Principals report that newly qualified teachers are well prepared to teach most aspects of the revised primary curriculum.

“However, they also state that they have difficulty communicating effectively with parents, teaching children with special educational needs, and addressing challenging behaviour.”

While they are satisfied with the ability of recent graduates to teach the curriculum, the IPPN wants the training colleges to focus more on the skills needed to deal with the complexity of the modern classroom.

One in five of almost 600 members told a survey that teachers in training were poorly supported by course providers in developing their own personal skills and knowledge for the job, and less than one in three felt they were well supported.

Mr Cottrell suggested that the main teacher training degree should be extended from three to four years. The change was part of Government policy to improve teacher education, but was largely focused on improving literacy and numeracy teaching.

Education Minister Ruairi Quinn said he would consider whether teacher training colleges should return to including interviews to select students instead of just using Leaving Certificate grades, but only if he was given evidence to support the need for change.