Impact on teachers
Improved teacher skills, knowledge, confidence and motivation
An important outcome for Digital Dialogue: Wales is to support teachers to better help their learners engage in democracy. We provide teachers with the knowledge, skills and confidence to deliver three preparatory workshops to their learners, and support the facilitation of the Dialogue.
The programme significantly improved the ability of teachers to deliver democratic education across all four metrics: Skills, Knowledge, Confidence and Motivation.
There was an average 30% point improvement across these indicators. We saw the biggest increase in teachers’ confidence (44%), demonstrating the programmes’ effectiveness in empowering teachers to feel comfortable delivering democratic education.
There was a smaller increase in motivation (13%), likely because motivation to deliver democratic education started so high (81%).
100% of teachers rated the teacher training we provided for the programme as good or very good, with teachers of all experience and knowledge levels saying it was useful.
% of teachers agreeing they have the skills, knowledge, confidence and motivation to encourage learners to engage in politics
Delivering non-partisan democratic education
Teacher confidence in delivering politically neutral content also saw a significant boost.
94% of all teachers felt confident delivering politically neutral content after participating in the programme, compared to 56% prior to the programme.
Teachers: I feel confident delivering politically-neutral content to learners (%)
Teachers: I feel confident delivering politically-neutral content to learners (%)
Supporting voter registration
While Digital Dialogue: Wales doesn’t directly support voter registration, we observed that it boosted teachers’ confidence in assisting learners with the voter registration process.
Following participation in the programme, 82% of teachers felt confident in “supporting learners to register to vote” , a 19% point increase.
This may indicate that the programme boosts teachers’ confidence to deliver democratic education more broadly or is supporting teachers to access other support from us and others.
Teachers: I feel confident supporting learners to register to vote (%)
Teachers: I feel confident supporting learners to register to vote (%)
Non-specialist teachers
Teachers who delivered the programme taught a range of different subjects. 65% were not politics or humanities specialists.
Subject specialism of teachers who delivered Digital Dialogue: Wales
Evidence suggests that the programme had a significant impact on non-specialist teachers’ ability to deliver democratic education. In particular, their knowledge increased by 46% points, and their confidence increased by 53% points over the course of the programme.
Non-specialist teachers also saw the biggest positive change to their confidence in delivering politically neutral content, with 92% of non-specialist teachers agreeing they had confidence after taking part in the programme, an increase of 46% points.
% of Non-Specialist Teachers agreeing They have the skills, knowledge, confidence and motivation to encourage learners to engage in politics
The programme also had positive impacts for more specialist teachers, but given their higher levels of knowledge, skills and confidence prior to participation, the changes were less significant. For example, their knowledge and confidence increased by 25% points.
What does this mean for the programme?
The programme benefits both specialist and non-specialist teachers, but in different ways.
For non-specialist teachers, the training and support provided enables them to confidently deliver the programme. This should also reassure other non-specialist teachers that they can deliver democratic education through Digital Dialogue: Wales.
Specialist teachers can also benefit from using the programme to further develop the democratic education they already facilitate.
