Retaining physics teachers

Survey on physics teacher retention

The Institute of Physics is working with the University of Chester to find out more about the factors affecting the retention of physics teachers. Anyone who is currently in the first five years of physics teaching is eligible for this confidential and anonymous survey; to recognise the time needed (15-20 minutes), respondents will be able to choose between a £15 Amazon voucher and us making a donation to Education Support.

Opening soon.

Resources and guidance

• The IOP holds a large number of teacher resources on our dedicated teacher website IOPSpark. 
• The Association for Science Education (ASE) publication Teaching Secondary Physics, Third Edition features a number of chapters by IOP staff and coaches. This excellent book is a must have for science departments and teachers of physics. This is widely available, including from the ASE.
• The Isaac Physics website is a platform that allows teachers to set tasks, which are self-marking, from a large bank of questions.
• We would recommend reading the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) evidence-based guidance Teacher Feedback to Improve Pupil Learning.

Teacher shortages and retention

• ASE Science Teacher SOS provides support and guidance for those thinking of leaving science teaching.
• The ASE’s RISE (Retention Initiative for Science Education) project is an initiative aimed at tackling long-standing issues around science teacher retention.
• The Gatsby Charitable Foundation have produced a set of evidence-based principles to increase the quantity and quality of science teachers.
• The Gatsby Charitable Foundation have also produced a helpful infographic focusing specifically on the shortage of physics teachers: View the infographic. 
• Further information regarding science teacher shortage can be found on the Gatsby Charitable Foundation website.
   

Retraining

Subject Knowledge for Physics Teachers (SKPT), run by the Ogden Trust, is a programme of modules to build the skills of teachers without a strong physics background to teach physics.  

Matched timetables

Over the last four years the IOP, working with EEF and University College London, have been running the KEEP Teaching project, a randomised controlled trial investigating the impact of matched timetables on teacher satisfaction and retention. 
Find out more about the KEEP Teaching project.

In addition, the KEEP project was developed from the following sources:

• Improving Science Teacher Retention: do National STEM Learning Network professional development courses keep science teachers in the classroom? Allen and Sims (2017) Education Datalab  
• Teacher Labour Market in England: Annual Report 2019, Worth and Van den Brande (2019) NFER  
• Government Response to the Workload Challenge, Department for Education (2015)
• The Price of Misalignment, Donaldson and Johnson (2010) EEPA 
• Eliminating unnecessary workload around planning and teaching resources, Greenhalgh et al (2016) Independent Teacher Workload Review Group