Individual agendas within a common programme

One of the great challenges in teacher education is how to meet the needs of individuals within the framework of a common programme for the group. We know that the development of trainees is an idiosyncratic and individual business. We know that what they bring with them to the programme – their existing beliefs, skills, experiences – will have a profound influence on what they take from the programme. We know that they will have their own agendas for learning to teach: what they feel is important, what they want to learn. But, as with classroom teaching, we spend much of the time working with them in groups, especially in the context of the university.

However, despite the inevitable tensions here, there are strategies that we can adopt that will help address their individual needs within the programme designed for all.

1. We can legitimise their ideas and views in our sessions, encouraging them to express them and make ours equally open to question, challenge and justification.
2. We can leave elements of the programme flexible and responsive to their interests and concerns. Even though it is hard to fit everything in, planned space for them is crucial.
3. We can adjust the common programme as the year unfolds to ensure that specific emphases reflect their developing and changing needs.
4. We can create time (or steal it from scheduled group time) for individual conversations with our trainees.
5. Perhaps most of all, we can talk with mentors – the people who will work with them on a much more individual basis – about how they can best serve trainees’ individual needs.