Geographical Association

Students on geography ITE courses may bring with them varying degrees of prior knowledge, skills and experience of teaching. Is it possible to assess this experience at the start of a PGCE course and use the information gained to design for the student an individualised course into teaching?

• Meeting flexible needs
• The structure of the OU course: how it facilitates flexibility
• Differentiating the Standards for QTS
• The Needs Analysis process at the Open University
• Conclusion and References

Flexible PGCE programmes were offered to 'meet... individual needs and circumstances' (TTA, 2001) for students who have particular circumstances, e.g. those who:

• Need to fit the course around a job
• Need to spread the course out over a number of years
• Have had some experience of teaching, such as working in support roles in schools or teaching overseas, but without having gained Qualified Teacher Status

There are a number of flexible PGCE courses in operation in England, each of which varies in terms of the lengths of the programme, the timing of the start and end of the course, the number of modules which are studied, and the length of the school based training. All have in common, however, a Needs Analysis process which takes place at the start of the course, assesses individual needs and leads to the creation of an individualised training plan (ITP) that matches the needs of the student.

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The flexible ITE course at the Open University (OU) has been developed as a student-centred, online, distance-learning course providing an individually tailored programme for PGCE students in a number of secondary subject areas, including geography. It provides flexibility in the following ways:

• The programme is of variable length
• Students can complete the course at a rate of their own choosing within the overall three year limit
  There is a choice of six start points and three finish points a year
• Before starting the course all students need to go through a Needs Analysis procedure
• Students can start the course at Level 1, Level 2 or Level 3 according to individual needs (see Table 1)

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At each level students are supported by a range of integrated online and other materials, including:

Module study guides - there are six self-study guides at each level of the course, covering the themes:

• geography subject area
• pupils' learning
• planning
• teaching
• assessment
• the professional role

They provide information and activities to help students develop the knowledge, understanding and skills they need for teaching.

School experience guides which direct students through a series of school based activities.

At the end of each level, students draw on their module study and school experiences to complete and submit assessment tasks which they present to their personal tutor as a portfolio for assessment and feedback.

The module study, school experience activities and assessment tasks are integrated with each other and are linked at each level to the criteria for the award of PGCE and to the professional (Q) standards for QTS in England (TDA, 2007). To match the levelled structure of the course, the professional (Q) standards have been broken down into progressive steps that describe the achievement that might be expected to be demonstrated by a student at the end of each level of the course.

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Table 2 shows how the standards are levelled, using professional standards Q1 as an example. It would be expected that students would have achieved the full standards by the time they reached the end of level 3, the final part of the course. At levels 1 and 2 students would be working towards the full standards so that by the end of each of these levels, the student would be expected to have achieved part of the standard, as can be seen in Table 2.

All the standards for QTS have been levelled in a similar way and are presented in a document 'Three levels of standards' for use by students, mentors and tutors throughout the course.

Table 2 and other examples of levelled standards related to Professional Knowledge and Understanding and Professional Skills can be downloaded here.

All students are expected to have achieved the full standards by the end of the course, i.e. by the end of Level 3. At Levels 1 and 2 students are working progressively toward the standards.

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The needs analysis process at the OU is completed before the student embarks on study of any levels of the course (information on levels is provided in the section on the Structure of the OU PGCE course).

During the process, the students complete audits followed by a short period working in school supported by a school based mentor. The audits and school based activities are evaluated by the student's personal tutor in consultation with the school-based mentor.

An individual training plan (ITP) is negotiated to suit the particular situation of the student. For example, the plan may recommend that the student follows the whole course or may allow exemptions from some module study, school based training and assessment or it may recommend that the student is exempt from all training and can undertake assessment only. The ITP is a working document. It is reviewed and revised throughout the course.

The Needs Analysis process described above is divided into a series of six steps, all except one of which are completed online.

Figure 2

Step 1: Questionnaire

Students complete and send a brief online questionnaire introducing themselves to their personal tutor. (Fig 2)

Step 2: What level am I?

Step 2 provides an opportunity for students to audit their prior knowledge and experience against the QTS professional (Q) standards. Students are asked to choose the level of the course that best describes their current abilities. (Fig 3)

Figure 3

They then explore the professional standards for the level, decide which standards they are able to meet and provide evidence accordingly.

For example, if students felt that their experience working in schools enabled them to meet the outcomes for level 1 (plan, teach, assess and evaluate single lessons), and could meet the professional attributes group of standards (Q 1-9) at level 1 (as set out in the 3 levels of standards document), they might submit a testimonial from a head teacher as part of the support for that claim.

If a student felt that they could meet the outcomes for level 3 (plan, teach, assess and evaluate extended sequences of lessons) and could meet the professional skills group of standards at level 3, i.e. the full standards (Q22-33), they might submit lesson plans and evaluations and examples of pupils assessed work as part of the support for that claim.

Figure 4

Step 3: Audits of knowledge of key issues

This step provides an opportunity for students to audit their knowledge and understanding of the key issues covered in each of the study modules.

For example, the first module for level 1, module 1A (Fig 4) relates to geography as a school subject. There are five key issues covered in his module. They are:

• Comparing personal subject knowledge to school geography
• Why teach geography?
• What geography do we teach?
• Geography and the National curriculum
• The future of geography in schools

Students are asked to indicate the strength of their knowledge and understanding of each key issue in all modules, providing supporting notes where appropriate.

Figure 5

Some students will have only limited knowledge and understanding of the content explored in the modules, others may have an understanding of the content in selected areas but not in others. There may be students who have a good understanding of all the areas covered in the modules (Fig 5). For example a student might note that their work in school has enabled them to become familiar with the geography that is taught in schools (key issue 1 in Module 1A above). Other students may be secure in, and be able to give evidence of, their understanding of planning issues (the C strand of modules) or assessment issues (the E strand of modules).

Step 4: Audits of geography subject knowledge and skills in literacy, numeracy and ICT

Students then complete audits of their geography subject knowledge and of their skills in numeracy, literacy and ICT and send these electronically to their personal tutor.

Figure 6

The tutor considers the audits and negotiates with each student a provisional route through the course. For instance the student might record in the audits that he/she has no appropriate prior experience that can be credited, in which case the tutor would provisionally recommend that the student studies all three levels of the whole course.

At the other extreme, the student might have substantial experience of teaching and may already appear to meet all of the standards. In this case the tutor may provisionally recommend that the student needs no further training and should work towards the assessment only procedure. The range of options through the course can be summarised:

Route 1 - The student follows the whole course (levels 1, 2 and 3)
Route 2 - The student starts the courses at level 2 and then completes level 3
Route 3 - The students completes level 3 only
Route 4 - The student needs no further training and completes an 8 week assessment in school only

As well as recommending the level at which the student will start the course, the tutor will use the information in the module study audit to recommend any additional module study that might be required.

Step 5: Two weeks in school

This step provides the student with the opportunity to demonstrate and expand on the information provided in the audits. The student is supported in school by a school-based mentor and is visited by the personal tutor. A school placement guide sets out school-based activities appropriate to the recommended route.

For instance, the school placement guide for Route 1 contains activities that help the student begin to engage with the literature and introduces the student to the school environment through observations of teachers and pupils. On the other hand the school placement guide for Route 4 provides opportunities for students to demonstrate their ability to meet the standards, their knowledge and understanding of the material covered in the modules, the level of their subject knowledge and their skills in literacy, numeracy and ICT.

The tutor and mentor both make reports on the student's level of achievement during the school placement.

Step 6: Developing an individual training plan

The students complete assessment tasks specific to the route taken to enable them to draw together the information they provided in the audits and gained from carrying out the activities of the school placement. Students submit this information as a portfolio to their tutor.

The tutor assesses the portfolio and confirms or changes the recommended route through the course. At this point an online individual training plan is created for the student showing the route, any additional modules that need to be studied and targets to be met during the next stage of the course.

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The Needs Analysis model at the OU is a collaborative process involving the student, tutor and mentor. It has to be detailed and rigorous so that it can test the strength of the claims being made for exemption of parts of all of the module study, school based training and assessment. Yet it has to provide a supportive environment for students who are unfamiliar with teaching and do not wish to claim any exemptions. It must enable these students to begin to reflect on the nature of teaching and start to think about their priorities for their professional development.

The implementation of the Needs Analysis is not without its challenges. For instance it is based largely on qualitative rather than quantitative data. This provides rich detail that 'conveys the complexities and uniqueness of the experiences of different individual' (Tutty and Rothery, 2001, p.165) but this can sometimes make it more difficult to categorise, in a consistent way, what the best action is for an individual student.

We are not suggesting that this model is necessarily one that should be adopted, but the principle of conducting a Needs Analysis is well worth considering for all or parts of an ITE course where students have a range of prior experience and would benefit from targeted support to identify and address specific gaps in their knowledge, understanding or skills.

Thanks to the Open University for permission to use screen grabs from their website in this Orientation Piece.

TTA (2001) Designing training to meet individual needs, London: TTA.
Wisker, G. (2003) 'Carrying out a needs analysis: from intuition to rigour' In Kahn, P. & Baume, D. (Eds) A Guide to Staff and Educational Development, London: Kogan Page.
Tutty, L. & Rothery, M. (2001) 'Needs Assessments' In B Thyer (Ed) The handbook of social work research methods, Thousand Oaks CA: Sage.
TDA (2007) Professional standards for qualified teacher status, London: TDA.

The Open University - internal course development papers

Course materials (available to students, mentors and tutors on the Open University ITE course website)

PGCE Handbook
Needs Analysis Placement Guide Route 1
Needs Analysis Placement Guide Route 2
Needs Analysis Placement Guide Route 3
Needs Analysis Placement Guide Route 4

Needs Analysis assessment Guide Route 1
Needs Analysis assessment Guide Route 2
Needs Analysis assessment Guide Route 3
Needs Analysis assessment Guide Route 4


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(Updated 12.08.09)