A 'flexible' approach to initial teacher training: challenges to mentors and tutors

The progress of the first cohort of an innovatory 'flexible' postgraduate initial teacher training programme in the North-West of England was tracked over a two-year period. The programme itself was introduced by the British government at a time of teacher shortage, and was designed to attract people into teaching from other careers. Its essential quality was that it was sufficiently flexible to allow people to continue with a working career, care for children or keep up other family commitments whilst in training, which was not possible within the traditional full-time course. It is shown that the cohort profile is uniquely different from that of the traditional course. The trainees' learning style was distinctive. The correlation between learning style and teaching style is well documented in the literature and the ramifications for course content and structure are discussed. A Q methodology investigation of the trainees' perceptions of their course indicates that it has been a mainly successful innovation, but that there are significant issues that need attention from schooland university-based mentors.