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Case study: Creating new learning opportunities with multiple placements

Sue Cronin

Job title: Senior lecturer in education

ITT provider: Liverpool Hope University

Publication Date:

About this case study

Multiple placements create new learning opportunities. Sue Cronin, Senior Lecturer in Education at Liverpool Hope University, believes multiple placements are helping to build capacity and raise standards.

Sue says:

"I see paired placements as helping us build the quality of our provision. More students can benefit from the opportunity to work with our best schools, and we can focus on building the capacity of those schools."

"Initially, I was concerned that less solo teaching might impact on quality. But I’m happy that our trainees are just as strong. We give them all exit grades at the end of the course and I can see that the trainees involved in paired placements are more than holding their own."

"Multiple placements create new learning opportunities. In one school, we had four maths students at the same time. They were able to take on a whole year group themselves and organise a maths talent competition. A single trainee couldn’t have done that. That’s a big selling point for us when we go out to schools to talk to them about paired placements."

"We’re now trialling a model where we have three students in the same school coaching each other. Yes, they do less teaching, but they do far more observation and feedback. We’re still tweaking the model but I think it has a lot of potential, especially for maths where schools are sometimes reluctant to let trainees spend too much time with pupils. It will free up schools to make innovative use of their trainees."