The impact of group teaching on the acquisition of key skills to teach personal, social and health education

Purpose – The paper seeks to report the impact of a partnership training intervention on trainee teachers' confidence to teach Personal, Social and Health Education. Design/methodology/approach – This intervention required trainee teachers to work in 15 groups of four across subject disciplines. Each group was required to negotiate, plan and deliver their intended lesson on PSHE in a partnership school. The initiative was evaluated on a pre- and post-test basis by getting each trainee to complete a PSHE Key Skills Confidence Scale that consisted of 45 items, 25 pertaining to working together and 20 to communication. Findings – Results revealed a significant change in trainees' confidence in all of the key PSHE-related skills. Trainee teachers reported increased confidence in “agreeing what else could have been done to improve working relationships and methods”, “using role play strategies”, “reaching agreement on whether or not the activity fulfilled its objectives”, “considering strategies that will empower pupils to make informed choices about their health”, “determining pupils' attitudes and views of health and healthy living”; “ensuring that pupils received information about the factors which affect health”, “identifying factors that influenced the learning outcome”, and “encouraging pupils to be assertive and resist unwanted peer pressure and other influences”. Originality/value – It is recommended that all trainee teachers are assessed on their ability to deliver and evaluate PSHE lessons as part of the award of Qualified Teacher Status. Furthermore, it is essential that trainee teachers receive specific resistance/life skills training as part of their initial and continuing professional development.