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Chesterfield College - Case Study for the Individual Learning Plan

 

Background to the Project

Currently the Chesterfield College employs approximately 300 permanent teaching staff with a further 300 on its register of hourly paid lecturers. We are committed to a fully trained teaching workforce and 88% of permanent staff are teacher trained. However, we recruit many teachers for shortage areas; some of these teachers are not fully qualified and are in training. Most members of staff who are undergoing teacher training find the process of balancing their teaching commitments and their teacher-training course a challenging one. Many also find difficulty in managing the academic demands of their course.

 

Introduction to the Project

 

Key idea
"The Initial Teacher Training (ITT) research project at Chesterfield College set out to implement an Individual Learning Plan (ILP) which is managed by the learner and which contributes to the update of a Continuous Professional Development Record that informs the trainee’s wider professional development needs. "

 

Aims

The purpose of the project was to use an ILP with learners in order to:

 

• enhance their learning experience
• identify support needs and development opportunities for teacher trainees by establishing and recording the results of initial assessment procedures
• use the ILP to inform the college’s professional development records so as to enable a coherent development strategy for trainees to be devised which is congruent with their teacher training targets
• provide teacher trainees with additional channels of communication and feedback through the development of a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE).

 

The project was enabled by a minor restructuring within the college, which brought together Quality Management, Staff/Professional Development and Teaching Training within one area entitled Performance and Standards Unit.

 

Objectives

 

The objectives of the project were to:

• implement tools and techniques for the initial assessment of teacher trainees
• design an ILP which can be managed by the learner but which will update a Professional Development Record held by the college’s Performance and Standards Unit
• design systems to record the results of initial assessment, prior learning, support and development needs, and update the Professional Development Record
• design a policy and the necessary procedures for the transfer of information from the ILP to a Professional Development Record held within the college’s Performance and Standards Unit
• develop the college intranet and other electronic means to give learners access to course information, a bulletin board, their Professional Development Record, links to other websites and to the College Staff Development and Training Programme
• establish a focus group from the teacher trainees to inform and evaluate the ILP and other initiatives.