Five things we’ve learned about Intensive Training and Practice

Since 2022, Proxima has supported universities and school-based providers in every region of England to design and deliver Intensive Training and Practice (ITaP). Here’s what we’ve learned so far.

1. There is no single right way to design and deliver ITaP

The providers we work with differ on nearly every dimension – from small SCITTs serving coastal communities to large universities and national providers with multiple hubs. The ITaP units they have developed reflect this variation.

For example, one provider takes their entire cohort to observe a series of lessons in a single school on the same day, something that would be impossible for a larger provider. Conversely, large providers are often able to split their cohort into subject groups for a significant portion of each ITaP unit – a choice not available to some smaller providers.

We have seen incredible results when providers design ITaP units that harness their strengths, while thinking creatively about how to overcome any challenges they might face.

2. An effective ITaP unit is more than the sum of its parts

A common feature of every successful ITaP we have seen is coherence: individual elements combine to create a set of activities that is more than the sum of its parts.

Providers have achieved this coherence in different ways, including using consistent terminology, providing observation guides and mentor briefings, and introducing frameworks that help trainees connect theory and practice.

We have developed a concept map for each unit on our platform designed to assist in this process, and it’s been wonderful to hear how our partners have used them to support their trainees.

3. Trainees benefit from multiple opportunities for practice and feedback

A second common feature – and the clue is in the ITaP title – is practice. The most effective ITaP units we have seen include multiple, varied opportunities for practice and feedback, consistent with a wealth of evidence regarding the benefits of rehearsal and reflective practice.

Often, these opportunities are sequenced in a way that enables trainees to practise decision-making – for example, by prompting them to make and justify pedagogical choices – and then to practise enacting specific teaching strategies, with scaffolded support.

We have been fascinated to see how teacher educators combine the use of approximations of practice on Proxima with other forms of practice, such as instructional coaching or team teaching, to help trainees bridge the theory-practice gap.

4. Ensuring trainees get multiple opportunities for practice and feedback is challenging

Although ITaP has only formally been required within initial teacher training from September 2024, almost all the providers we support piloted it in advance – in some cases as early as 2022.

The most common challenge we heard about during these early pilots was the practical difficulty of ensuring trainees receive multiple opportunities for practice. Logistically, it is simpler to discuss or observe teaching than it is to create focused opportunities for practice, particularly if the responsibility for organising practice is not placed solely on mentors and placement schools.

Many of the providers we began working with in 2022 and 2023 expressed the same view: the practice element of ITaP is the hardest to get right.

5. There is no unique pedagogy of ITaP

Although the ITaP label and organisational mechanism are new, the pedagogical elements underpinning an effective ITaP unit – theory, representations and approximations of practice, and opportunities for rehearsal and reflection – are not.

For most providers we work with, answers to the question “What is different about ITaP?” typically talk about the space to focus on a single aspect of teaching, the deliberate links between activities, or the multiple opportunities for practice, rather than suggesting that any individual element is pedagogically unique. This clarity is useful if it helps avoid a situation where providers feel compelled to withhold activities that would benefit trainees in other parts of their programmes in order to make ITaP pedagogically distinct.

Avoiding an artificial split between ITaP and wider training also means that ideas piloted in ITaP can spark further innovation across the programmes they sit within. As just one example of this process, we have been excited to see providers begin to explore the use of approximations beyond ITaP, including within professional behaviours and safeguarding training, and to support mentors.

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To share more about how providers are using Proxima to support ITaP, we are hosting two free webinars on February 26th and 27th 2025. Click here to register for either event.