The Early Career Framework (ECF) is a core induction programme developed by the UK Department for Education to guide Early Career Teachers (ECT) through the initial, formative years of their careers.
The ECF, initially published in early 2019, is funded by the DfE to the sum of £130m a year. The framework officially became a statutory requirement as of September 2021, meaning all ETC’s are now required to undertake a 2-year, ECF based induction programme.
In this blog, we’ll be looking at the ways in which video observation software such as VEO can help Early Career Teachers to make the most out of the ECF programme.
Supporting Mentor-Teacher Relationships
VEO’s emphasis on collaborative learning supports the Mentor’s relationship with the Early Career Teacher by giving a clear picture of practice and its development according to the framework over time.
The ability to tag key moments means that the Teacher’s development journey is personalised to their own strengths and areas for improvement while being informed by the criteria of the wider framework. This means that the ECF can influence change in practice via stronger mentor-teacher relationships and a clear, shared view on teaching and learning that can be taken to scale.
Emphasis on Improvement Through Observation
Within the Early Career Framework, it is stated that reflective practice, supported by observational feedback, is effective for supporting improvement. Furthermore, the unique, “small action steps” that structure the ECF, make the framework ideally poised for use with video observation software such as VEO.
Through VEO, mentors can view ECTs’ self-directed practice and tag specific instances of positive practice or areas for development.
Self-paced Reflection
The Early Career Framework is designed to replace the current teacher induction process, assessing an ECT throughout the first two years of their teaching career. As teaching is a hands-on, time-intensive profession, it can often be hard for ECTs to find time to reflect. VEO‘s mobile app allows ECTs to reflect at a time that’s best for them, whether it’s at home, in the break room or between classes.
Proven Effectiveness with New Teachers
VEO is already deeply rooted in teacher training applications, helping to create better teachers at Newcastle University, Imagine Schools, and the Ministry of Education in Singapore. VEO has been successful in increasing new teacher retention rates, developing key teaching skills, enabling remote teacher training and collaboration.
More recently, VEO has teamed up with Evidence Based Education to develop a custom tag set to accompany their Great Teaching Toolkit. The tagset allows teachers to take ownership of their professional learning and development by tagging and reflecting on self-recorded videos across 4 dimensions and 17 elements.
Want to learn more?
VEO gives teachers, trainers and other educational institutions a set of tools to help them train and retain their best teaching staff.
Get in touch to arrange a demo with one of our friendly team.
