Preparation

All participants should note the expectation of a commitment of their own time to the preparation and follow-up to their TIPD Study Visit. The visits themselves are intense and tiring experiences, in most cases occupying the whole of a half-term break.

It is especially important to ensure that participants know exactly why they are undertaking the development activity, and what they expect to learn from it. Good planning is therefore crucial and participants will be expected to demonstrate good planning prior to the activity taking place. This will involve setting clear aims and objectives with proposed outcomes. It is also essential that the visits have a clear focus with the possibility to transfer the good practice observed overseas, to the teacher’s own classroom in the UK.

4-Week Group Report

An initial dissemination group report is required 4 weeks after the visit taking place, setting out how the learning outcomes from the visit will be implemented. Previous reports can be found on the DfES Teachernet website, www.teachernet.gov.uk/tipd.

This report must not be a description of the education services of the country visited, or a diary of events, but should cover the specific learning outcomes of the system studied on the visit. The report should be a useful source of information for teachers of the same subject / age groups, and should also set out how participating in the visit has added to the professional development, acquisition of new skills and teaching knowledge of those taking part, and will help raise pupil achievement.

Evaluation Questionnaire

An on-line evaluation questionnaire will also need to be completed by each individual group member at a date to be advised by the DfES. This will probably be approximately 4-6 weeks after the visit has taken place.

The key issue will be to assess what impact the professional development has had on classroom practice, and thus pupil achievement, and what evidence there is to demonstrate this. It also will cover such issues as the success of the visit’s organisation, and whether the visit has met expectations.

This report will not be posted on the Teachernet website, but will be used to assess the overall effectiveness of the programme. It will be managed by an external organisation, who will contact you with instructions of how to fill in the questionnaire.

NB: Please note that participants will need their allocated participant number (Unique Identification Number) to complete this questionnaire, which will be listed on all correspondence prior to the visit.

Action Plan

It has always been an expectation that TIPD participants devise an action plan following their visits. These must now be submitted to the Programme Evaluator, details for which will be circulated once it is clear who will be collating this information.

These Action Plans can be submitted in the form they were originally produced, for example individual lesson plans, a school development plan, or a section of an LEA’s EDP implementation plan.

In the absence of any firm plans, notes from meetings, minutes etc, which show a visit has been discussed and where there are intentions to implement, can also be forwarded.

Case Studies

For 2004-2006 the external Programme Evaluator will also undertake a small number of case studies and interviews with people involved with the programme (such as participants and their headteachers, programme providers and co-ordinators). The purpose of the case studies will be to highlight good practice at all levels of the project.

Any information provided will be dealt with in strictest confidence. The reports will be issue-based and will not identify individuals, their schools or organisations.