Updated: Mar 2000 | Assessment - Classroom Approaches | IEPs

Individual Education Programs (IEPs)

In seeking to identify the problem, most would agree that the current difficulties in learning should serve as the focus for investigation. Docknell, J. & McShane, J., Children's Learning Difficulties: Cognitive Approach (1992) p.181.

An intervention program attempts to identify why a student is not achieving certain aspects of his or her personal, social or cognitive development.

The intervention program will frequently result in the development of an individual education program, and a successful IEP will contain elements associated with:

	analysis of the student's strengths, to plan how to address the identified learning difficulty. A range of assessment methods, such as observation, standardised tests, checklists, progress maps or psychological tests, may be used.
	setting of long- and short-term goals. Long-term goals tend to be associated with such skills as effective learning strategies, coping with challenge, self control and independence in learning and problem solving. Short-term goals are more concerned with the specific skills and knowledge of individual learning areas. Goals should be explicit for the student and may remain consistent throughout an IEP
	planning of teaching sessions that move, in small sequential steps, the student's learning from one lesson to the next. They are developed around outcomes that include criteria for success.
	outlining outcomes for a planned teaching session in very specific terms, with the criteria for success being clearly understood by the student. The criteria can be productively accompanied by some method for the student to visually record successful achievement.
	using teaching strategies that focus on the student. Students who have difficulties with some of their learning often develop a 'learned hopelessness' approach to any task. Teaching strategies must assist them to become responsible for their learning and encounter and practise new learning in a variety of ways. They may need encouragement to become involved in understanding goals for learning and recognising success.
	evaluating the teaching and the learning from the perspectives of both the teacher and the student. Planning of appropriate learning opportunities for IEPs often requires communication and collaboration among a range of people - teachers, parents, specialists, therapists and, not least, the students themselves.