IfL publishes report of 2009 membership survey

Friday 30 October 2009

The Institute for Learning (IfL) has published a report of its second annual membership survey, which ran from 31 July to 28 September 2009 and elicited responses from 8,256 members.

The survey found that members are satisfied with benefits offered by IfL, and more are aware of the range of benefits than they were in 2008. The majority of members (92 per cent) say the value of benefits is ‘fair’, ‘good’ or ‘excellent’, with 61 per cent rating them as good or excellent.

When asked what other benefits members wanted, the strongest support was from 58 per cent saying they wanted IfL to offer training workshops and courses. Professional development dominated the wish list for the website as well: 74 per cent said that they wanted hints and tips about continuing professional development (CPD), and other ideas mentioned included a CPD directory; relevant sector research; case studies; and a members’ research area. 

Whilst some members are using social networking, podcasts, webcasts, blogs and wikis for their professional development and to support teaching and learning, 38 per cent of respondents admitted that they were not confident in using new technologies. Members expressed interest in learning more about new technologies. 

Those who have been in contact with IfL are satisfied with the service they received; 77 per cent got a satisfactory response on the first or second contact and 83 per cent rated the response as ‘quite’ or ‘very’ satisfactory.

Members are keen to have a strong voice and for their views to be represented accurately on the national stage. Across eight different ways in which IfL can give voice to teachers’ and trainers’ views, support was strong, ranging from 75 per cent to 81 cent for each.

Toni Fazaeli, IfL's chief executive, said, "Listening and responding to members is at the heart of our work. The feedback from last year's survey helped determine our investment in time and resources to make improvements this year, and I was very encouraged to see such a high approval rating for our benefits this time. The fact that members favour benefits relating to their professional development over all others highlights their professionalism and their commitment to doing the best for their learners. 

"Members strongly support the many ways in which we seek to represent their collective voice, and we will continue working hard to ensure that we help practitioners inform policy, decision-making and policy implementation in ways that support their professionalism and status. 

"We are, however, concerned about the significant number of respondents who said they were not confident about using new technologies. IfL believes that modern teaching and training professionals need to be able to use new technologies with confidence in their teaching and training. We will work with partners, especially Becta and LSIS, to find ways to help members become more expert in using technology in their CPD to support teaching, training and learning."

Jane Williams, executive director FE and 14-19 at Becta, said, “We welcome IfL’s membership survey, which shows that FE and skills teachers and trainers are aware they need to increase their effective use of information and communication technologies (ICT) – something that is supported by our own Harnessing Technology Implementation Plan for the FE and skills sector.

"Developing the FE workforce is a key priority for Becta and we’re working closely with IfL and other organisations to ensure that CPD is available to FE teachers and trainers at initial teacher training and throughout their career, so that they can learn how to use technology effectively. This is something that is evidenced by the strong take-up of Becta’s Generator tool. Since it was launched in March, 80 per cent of colleges now use it to help identify where improvements in ICT use can be made.”

Notes

IfL Members' Views 2009 is available to download in PDF format

The responses represent over 4 cent of all members, and are broadly representative of the demographics of the overall membership, giving a statistically robust sample.

The survey was managed and analysed by the National Foundation for Educational Research, an independent research organisation.