National Teaching and Learning
Change Programme
Improving teaching and learning in Adult Learning

Themes | Planning learning and reviewing progress | What is a learning plan? | Making it work

Themes

• Introduction
• Assessment
• Improving teaching and learning
• Planning learning and reviewing progress
  • Getting personal
  • What the process looks like
  • Identifying personal learning goals
  • What is a learning plan?
    • Making it work
    • Who needs a plan?
    • What does a learning plan look like?
    • Your anxieties addressed
  • Reviewing progress: why it's important
  • Celebrating achievement
• E-learning and e-assessment

Making it work

Drawing up a learning plan should be an empowering experience for the learner. Together you should agree specific learning objectives and strategies for working towards them. This is a key part of personalising learning and gives learners a strong voice and sense of purpose.

To be useful objectives need to be:

• specific and clearly expressed
• realistic
• suitably challenging and purposeful
• achievable within an agreed timeframe; and
• lead to outcomes that can demonstrate to the learner what they have achieved.

You and the learner need to discuss the different learning strategies that will work best for them.

If you are a Subject Learning Coach you will be able to explore teaching and learning strategies in your subject coaching networks and share your experiences with your colleagues.

When you and the learner are clear about the objectives and the means of achieving them, agree deadlines for achieving the targets. This will instil a sense of purpose into your teaching and their learning.

Learning plans should be live planning and reviewing mechanisms. Decide with the learner how you will maintain them.