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What matters to you?
What is learner success?
Learner success is what every provider of learning is aiming for.
There are several measures of success. These range from those defined by the Common Inspection Framework — by which our provision as a whole is externally evaluated — to the unique learning goals and ambitions of each individual learner — their formal learning as well as their personal goals and interests. The challenge is to provide a high quality learning experience that meets the established quality standards while satisfying your learners’ personalised learning goals.
- they are motivated to learn and are able to learn what they want to learn and have some control over the time, location and means of learning
- they are actively involved in the learning process and are offered a variety of stimulating learning opportunities
- there is a recognition of the way in which they, as individuals, learn best
- they have access to high quality teaching, training and facilitation
- they have access to high quality resources
- they are clear about what they have to do and what opportunities open up for them at each stage of their learning
- they are achieving their learning goals and can see how they are progressing
- they have access to appropriate assessment before, during and on completion of their chosen learning options
- they are challenged and encouraged to take responsibility for developing their own learning
- they have opportunities to share and discuss their learning with peers
- appropriate support is there for them when they need it — including determining future learning goals.
How does NTLCP contribute towards learner success?
The National Teaching and Learning Change Programme is a unique and powerful way for organisations in the further education system to transform teaching, training and learning. Whether you are from a further education college, a sixth-form college, a school with sixth form, an adult learning provider, a work-based learning provider, a prison or young offender organisation, the combination of the three enablers offers you a rich resource to draw upon in your quest for learner success.
High quality resources
All the NTLCP teaching and learning resources are of the highest standards, based on sound pedagogical principles and have been quality-assured for equality and diversity. The accompanying resources and guides explain the rationale behind the resources and suggest ways of using and adapting them. Developed and supported by subject specific experts these resources are transforming approaches to teaching, training and learning.
The Professional Training Programme for Subject Learning Coaches and the very creative teaching and learning resources have brought freshness to our view of teaching, training and learning. The resources are exciting and an excellent vehicle to show good practice. They are a starting block for practitioners to explore what, and how, they teach.
Sheelagh Salter, Director of Organisational
Development, South Cheshire College
Sharing best practice
The subject coaching networks are opportunities for sharing best practice and for working collaboratively to develop new resources as well as to practise coaching skills. Practitioners attending the subject coaching networks have come away with many new resources, far more than any one practitioner could create. And by sharing and discussing these together as ‘critical friends’, Coaches are raising the quality as well as the quantity.
Too many professionals lock themselves in their own community. The Professional Training Programme opens up the doors and gives everyone the opportunity to enhance their teaching, training and learning.
Wendy Graveling, Business Subject Learning Coach, HMP Morton Hall
Improving standards
The aim of the Professional Training Programme for Subject Learning Coaches is to embed excellence in teaching and learning. It’s doing this by improving the standards across the further education system and by modernising and upgrading the sector’s workforce. Motivation for both learners and colleagues is being enhanced by putting the teaching and learning resources into context, developing coaching skills and reflecting and disseminating effective practice. Thus the Professional Training Programme is motivating both practitioner and learner. In addition, the programme promotes action research and problem solving approaches to learning which also increases the relevance and focus for both groups. Using coaching techniques rather than more directive methods reinforces the active learning element and encourages the learner to take more responsibility and control of their own learning, making it more personal and more powerful as a result.
The professional training for Subject Learning Coaches has focused everybody on good teaching, training and learning and developed an ethos of high standards. It’s made the whole College, from senior managers to lecturers, much more aware of improvement and sharing good practice. The mentor support system is a vital part of that.
Amanda Mosek, Head of Department, Social and Personal Care, Chesterfield College
Throughout the programme, Subject Learning Coaches address common themes such as differentiation and the personalisation of learning. Promoting active approaches stimulates learners to learn more and to retain more knowledge. Evidence so far indicates a positive response from learners exposed to these approaches and improvements for learners becoming more focused and more highly motivated.
The programme places a strong emphasis on action research and on getting practitioners to evaluate the impact of their own teaching or training approaches. This makes Subject Learning Coaches more aware of how their learners are tackling the learning opportunities. Involving the learners more closely makes sense: not only are practitioners better informed of the impact of their practice but the increased dialogue between learner and practitioner reinforces the partnership involved in learning and raises learners awareness of their own role in the learning process.
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What Subject Learning Coaches have said…
Subject Learning Coaches have made some profound observations on the improvement in their practice as a result of their participation in the programme:
Looking at their own behaviours, what motivates them and how they relate to others
I’m now a much better listener, and I have got better at collaborating with people in meetings rather than telling them what to do. I make lots more opportunities for active learning and spend less time lecturing to my classes
Subject Learning Coach
Exploring how best to share the knowledge and skills they’ve gained with their colleagues throughout the organisation.
The programme has made me more aware of the needs of others — learners and colleagues — and more considerate of their goals
Subject Learning Coach
Looking in detail at what makes good learning — both generally and also within their own subject specialism.
I’m now structuring my lessons in a way that makes them more interesting and I’m using activities that take into account different styles of learning. Learners are achieving a higher exam success rate and are clearly more engaged
Subject Learning Coach
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What Subject Learning Coaches are doing…
At West Cheshire College, Subject Learning Coach Anthony Trigg has transformed the delivery of programmes of learning for Plumbing Services. Involved in NTLCP from the start, Tony says he’s benefited enormously from his involvement in it. Not only has he found the coaching resources invaluable for his own personal development, but being involved in the subject coaching networks has enabled him to draw on a bank of high quality resources which he has shared widely with colleagues back at college.
Using templates himself and then making these available to others, he has been able to show colleagues how easy it is to create high quality resources quickly and cheaply. He feels that as a direct result of the programme, the college’s Plumbing Services training sessions are now better structured, more differentiation is possible and learners are getting more out of the sessions. The improvement in learner success is evident, pass rates for one group have risen from 62% to 90% in one year. And learners who had previously not succeeded at all are now beginning to achieve their learning ambitions.
Says Anthony:
The programme came at just the right time for me, new to teaching and with a brand new course with no resource packs. NTLCP has provided an energy and dynamism that aligned perfectly with my own ethos.
Anthony Trigg
Dennis McGeachie, Subject Learning Coach at Hollesley Bay Prison, has taken the ideas from NTLCP and transformed his approach to training — creating an environment which motivates trainees to succeed.
Dennis highlights the benefits of the subject coaching networks:
Anyone can have a good idea, no matter what part of the sector they come from. So you go along to the networks and it’s like an interactive library. It facilitates the sharing of ideas and you leave with thoughts on which ones you’re going to implement and what improvements you can make for your organisation. How motivating is that?
Dennis McGeachie
Read the full case study to find out just how the trainees at Hollesley Bay Prison have benefited from Dennis’s involvement in NTLCP.
Some simple ways that you can use NTLCP to support learner success
1. Get everyone using NTLCP resources
Make the NTLCP teaching and learning resources available to all your staff. Many organisations are putting the materials on their virtual learning environments and making the templates for activities easy to download and use.
2. Involve your learners
Encourage your staff to involve their learners in the learning processes, in developing resources and in learning by experience rather than just telling or showing them. Yes, they’ll make mistakes — but the learning will be more powerful and longer lasting as a result of this active approach. Discuss the activities with the learners and involve them in the evaluation processes too. Not only will that mean more accurate and focused feedback for practitioners: it will also give the learners a greater sense of their own role in the learning processes and encourage them to reflect on how they learn best.
3. Exploit the programme
Make it possible for your nominated Subject Learning Coaches to attend the Professional Training Programme and the subject coaching networks. And create opportunities for them to share with their colleagues the knowledge they have gained.
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