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Careers Education School Attachment Project Diploma in Careers Guidance, College of Guidance Studies, Swanley Cole Davis The aim of the project The aim of the project was to look at the practice of action planning in the school (if any), examine any issues arising, and identify steps that could be taken to enhance practice. About the school The school was grant)maintained and located in a largely affluent area, however the intake also included a particularly disadvantaged housing estates. Students were, therefore, drawn from a variety of backgrounds. As the school held Technology Status, 30% of the intake had demonstrated an aptitude for science and technology. Further selection was based on aptitude in music (10%) and drama (5%), and those with a brother or sister in the school or parents teaching in the borough. Once these places had been allocated eligibility was governed by the distance prospective pupils' lived from the school. A definition of action planning Action planning may be defined as "..the process by which students review the present, set goals for the future and identify strategies by which the goals can be achieved" (MacDonald, p28, 1995). The process of action planning during which skills including planning, decision)making, target)setting and reviewing as well as qualities such as self)awareness, are fostered, is recognised to be the most valuable aspect of the exercise ) more so than the outcome (in terms of an action plan) (Squirrell, 1995). Good practice places students at the centre of the process: "It is a personal process in which pupils are the drivers rather than the passengers" (DfEE, p5. 1996). Examination of current practice and problems/issued identified Action planning was found to take place in the school. It occurred in patches, however, as a tool in certain circumstances as follows: On entering the VIth form students completed an action plan with the assistance of their tutor. During the sessions a series of pre)set questions was worked through relating to all areas of school life, both academic and non)academic, and goals and targets set. The Deputy Head of the VIth identified the primary aim of the service as preparation to complete an effective UCAS form. For example a student who could show no evidence of team)work might set the target of taking up a team sport. There were no formal review sessions until the start of the next year. Students on the one year VIth form course studying for a City and Guilds Combined Studies course had twice)termly action planning sessions, focusing on the planning and content of their work, where they could discuss their progress in detail, as well as any issues outside school. The students on this course were the less academically able students who had generally obtained a few low grade GCSEs, and they also tended to be from more disadvantaged backgrounds. The use of action planning was due to the enthusiasm for its benefits of their tutor (and teacher), who found it a very valuable tool to support his students both academically and in a pastoral sense. Although he acknowledged it was a time)consuming exercise, he considered that it was a saving overall, as students were applying the skills that had been overtly presented to them, and were thus developing independence and effectiveness. The students also appeared to view the process positively. The Pastoral Head of Year 10 advised that action planning was successfully used as a means of modifying the behaviour of students in specific circumstances. For example, when a particular student was consistently late for school and had failed to respond to initial measures, a meeting was arranged between the pastoral head of year, the student and his parents. As a result of their discussions an action plan was drawn up identifying targets to meet the overall goal of prompt attendance. Action planning was also witnessed as a compulsory part of the Advanced GNVQ courses in Business and Media. Students were required to action plan their tasks for the coming week. Students' reactions to it varied: some found it a genuinely useful exercise; for others it was a meaningless administrative chore. Although not formally labelled as action planning, elements of the process were present in the short self-assessments written by students for inclusion in their Records of Achievement (the school's version of the traditional report) that was sent to parents annually. They usually wrote a short paragraph describing their progress in each subject and identifying how it could be improved. This would be then shown to the teacher in class (often very quickly, in the midst of other tasks) who would comment, suggesting amendments if s/he felt it necessary. It is worth noting that nothing has been examined regarding the relationship between the National Record of Achievement and action planning, two areas that are compatible and usually closely related, and the further relationship between these two areas and careers action planning (as recommended in Better Choices). This piece has instead focused on a means of formalizing and practising the process of action planning, based on what was observed whilst in the school. Problems/Issues Identified and Recommended Course of Action The issues arising from the practice of action planning may be divided into two categories: operational and practice, although they are in fact closely interlinked. The key issue concerning practice appeared to be that students were not gaining maximum benefit from the action planning exercises as they were not explicitly made aware of the process and were thus unconscious of the wider implications of the tasks they were doing, particularly with regard to the self assessment sections of the school report and the VIth form entry action plans. The process of action planning was not presented overtly and students therefore encountered it as several closed, apparently unrelated activities. Squirrel recommends that students have "the rationale, process and outcomes of individual action planning clearly explained" (p103, 1995). Furthermore, she writes that when considering the benefits of the process and its potential for individual empowerment, ".... part of the empowering quality is that it should be an educative process. It should allow young people to develop such transferable competencies as time and personal management, the skills to collect information and decision making."
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