Propelling scientists into schools

The College’s redeveloped INSPIRE programme is breaking down barriers between school’s and universities.

Encouraging more students to study science in higher education and leading more post­doctoral research scientists (postdocs) into a career in teaching have been the aims of the Innovative Scheme for Postdoctorals in Research and Education (INSPIRE), which has been running at the College since 2002.

The scheme has enabled 12 postdocs to work towards qualified teacher status (PGCE) with their time split equally between laboratory research and school teaching over a three-year contract. The postdocs have also provided schools with extra-curricular INSPIRE activities such as science clubs, university-level training for sixth formers, careers advice, science conferences, and student visits to the College's research laboratories- all helping to renew the pupils' interest in science.

While the scheme has been successful, with half of the postdocs going on to teach after completing their training, there were some concerns over its format. For example, some postdocs felt their loyalties were divided as they could never spend more than 50 per cent of their time on either research or teaching and, because of the design of the scheme; it was expensive to run, which meant only a small number of trainees could apply.

In order to address these issues, over the last year the INSPIRE programme has been redeveloped and expanded.

New direction

The College has worked closely with Canterbury Christ Church University to design an intensive nine-month PGCE, which includes two months of INSPIRE activities. The revamped INSPIRE scheme is now specifically geared towards post­docs who want to become secondary school physics and chemistry teachers.

The scheme has attracted £500,000 of funding from the Foyle Foundation, £40,000 in funding from the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, as well as support from the Training and Development Agency and participating schools.

Dr Naheed Alizadeh is the INSPIRE Project Director and has been integral to the redevelopment of the scheme, with the support of Pro Rector Mary Ritter. Dr Alizadeh explains particular aspects of the scheme: "It is not a normal PGCE, it is tailor made for the needs of postdocs. It is unique as the postdocs are trained, not only in how to become teachers, but also in how to com­municate scientific ideas to school children and how to motivate both children and teachers. The idea is to bring the excitement of science back into teaching."

The new programme starts with a month's training at Imperial College run by tutors from Canterbury Christ Church University. This is followed by two place­ments at different schools, lasting three-and­-a-half months each. Some INSPIRE activities are integrated into the teacher training placements and some are delivered at the end of the placements with the postdocs working across all the schools involved in the programme.

Support network

One of the key features of the INSPIRE programme is that the postdocs benefit from a large support network. Within each of their school placements, the postdocs are assigned a teacher who acts as a mentor and sits at the back of the classroom and provides feedback after each class.

The postdocs also have a tutor from Canterbury Christchurch University whom they can contact for help throughout the programme and the University runs short training courses during the school holidays at Imperial to support the postdocs' progression.

While the postdocs are on the INSPIRE programme they are encour­aged to maintain their research links and to use the laboratory facilities at Imperial to prepare INSPIRE activities. To help support this aspect of the programme each postdoc is linked to a Principal Investigator, who is in charge of their research lab.

In addition to these support mecha­nisms, the College plans to hold work­shops giving the postdocs the chance to brainstorm ideas and to share their experiences with others on the scheme. Dr Alizadeh explains the purpose of these new workshops: "The workshops won't just be for the postdocs, they will also be for their school mentors who will get the opportunity to visit Imperial and find out about cutting edge research. The project aims not only to bring first class, first hand research into teaching, but also teaching into research, and to strengthen links between universities and schools."

To find out more about INSPIRE, visit: www.imperial.ac.uk/inspire.