Identifying and addressing the needs of art and design students at risk of underachievement in their incoming year of study

Abstract

Following the piloting of the ILP (Individual Learning Profile) in the previous academic year (2000/1), the project aimed to consolidate the mechanism for identifying needs and supporting students during their incoming year of study. Through refining the processes by which students at risk are identified and assisted, the intention was to empower individual students to recognise and build on their strengths, and enable weaknesses, or perceived weaknesses, to be addressed. The project also aimed to raise awareness of both students and staff to the importance of customized and timely learning support, designed to enable a greater number of students to reach their creative and academic potential. The school can cite numerous anecdotal examples of how targeted Learning Support has had a direct impact on the quality of the student learning experience. The project aimed systematically to test the hypothesis that there is a correlation between additional learning support and student retention.