twice during the course, with a comment from the
learner and the teacher, provides strong evidence.
Some tutors are blending product evidence and
student reflections online e.g. using blogs, Moodle,
Pinterest. Others are using Turning Point – an evoting system.
students have succeeded if they have achieved the
learning outcomes/goals that they have set
themselves during the course. The IRL has a space
for them to reflect on this, but again there must be
some discussion and feedback if they are to do this
meaningfully.
If students are doing regular homework and you are
commenting on it, remember to keep a record of
your comments, or copies of the coursework.
There should also be some celebration of their
success. It may be you finish with an exhibition, a
student presentation, a performance or a final
exercise that pulls together all that has been done on
the course. Make sure learners get feedback from
you and/or their colleagues on their achievement.
Stage 5: Summative assessment and celebration— have learning outcomes been achieved?
How do you and your students know whether the
learning outcomes have been achieved and their
goals have been met? On a non accredited course,
Whatever we do, its important that students go
away with a sense of what outcomes they have
conquered and where to go next.
Examples of group and individual
blogs from the Fine Art course at
City Lit
Teaching and
learning newsletter
Issue no 6 April 2015
RARPA and you…
The Stages of RARPA.
Recognising and Recording Progress and
Achievement in adult learning
RARPA is in 5 stages – all of which are quite
logical.
History
In the noughties, the government changed the way
it funded Further and Adult Education. Instead of
funding being mainly based on student
enrolments, it shifted to being based primarily on
numbers who achieved ... i.e. payment by results!
The City Lit offers around 5000 non-accredited
courses every year. The difficulty for City Lit, and
all providers of non-accredited adult learning, was
how to show their learners achieved. The only way
of doing so was by formally assessing students –
which ironically would destroy the very thing we
were trying to fund.
In an attempt to find a way to show the multiple
gains of non-accredited adult learning, a group of
adult educationalists developed a framework
called RARPA to demonstrate that adult learning
did indeed result in learning – but without the
need for formal assessment.
This newsletter has been written by Wendy Moss, Teaching and Learning, City Lit with thanks to Visual Arts, Languages, Health
and Lifestyle and Humanities Depts. Have you devised effective activities or record keeping systems for RARPA?
Email them to Wendy.Moss@citylit.ac.uk and we can share them with other teachers. We will acknowledge your contribution.
Adult learning has multiple outcomes such as
confidence, work-related skills, team work skills,
better health and creativity. However, RARPA is
only designed to evidence achievement against the
specific learning outcomes of a course. Students
don’t have to achieve all the published learning
outcomes to count as a ‘success’. However they
should achieve the ones that they have set
themselves during the course.
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1 Learners are clear about the aims and
outcomes of the course.
2 Learners are ‘initially assessed’ so the tutor
understands their starting points, level and
motivation and can adapt their teaching
accordingly.
3 They have challenging individual objectives/
goals which are renegotiated and reviewed
during the course.
4 Their progress is monitored and recorded and
they receive constructive feedback so they know
how they can improve (formative assessment).
5 They recognise which outcomes they have
achieved at the end of the course and their
success is celebrated (summative assessment)
Evidencing the RARPA stages
In order for us to evidence to ourselves, to
students, to managers and to Ofsted that all our
students are learning , some sort of record of the 5
stages of RARPA has to be produced.
Although compulsory for adult providers, RARPA
records are not now directly linked to funding.
RARPA’s principle purpose, therefore, is to support
learning and teaching.
Messy RARPA is a simple way of remembering this
recording does not have to be perfect. It can be
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handwritten notes, collections of post it notes,
flipchart sheets, or photos of work with scribbled
comments.
Below are some ideas on how we can meet each
stage of RARPA. There are multiple examples
available on the City Lit website and many of these
will be listed in the insert to this newsletter.
Stage 1: Are the students clear about the aims
and outcomes of the course?
Make sure you add flesh to the course outcomes
by discussing these at the start of the course. If
the students haven’t studied the subject before,
the learning outcomes may seem meaningless
without your input. Also give students a course
programme so they can see what they are doing
week by week (you can add that this may be
changed if necessary) and keep this in your course
file.
Stage 2: Initial assessment
The City Lit Individual Record of Learning (IRL) can
evidence all stages of RARPA including initial
assessment. It is for learners to complete and will
be provided for you for all courses of 9 hours or
more. However, it is not sufficient in itself and
won’t be very useful to you or your learners if it is
not integrated into classroom activities.
A useful way of carrying out meaningful initial
assessment is through a simple icebreaker where
you ask students to share their previous
experience and motivations with you and each
other. You can take your own notes, or ask
students to work in pairs, each person recording
motivations and goals for their partner.
Alternatively, ask learners to write additional notes
about their goals and motivations on post it notes
which can be attached to the IRLs.
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You do not have to do everything on the first day.
You could email the form to students to complete
before session 2, once you have been through the
learning outcomes and initial assessment activities
in class.
programme compared to last time? These
students may need an Individual Learning Plan on
which they record their own specific targets.
Examples of Individual Learning Plans are on the
website.
Some subject areas need specialist initial
assessment and use a specialist form. There is no
need to use two systems! Use your specialist
forms and not the IRL – but make sure you also
carry out the review and final stages that the IRL
includes.
In many subjects, it can be very useful to give
students examples of SMART (specific measurable,
appropriate and realistic) learning goals so they
can select one that suits them. (e.g. conduct basic
conversations when I travel to x; design a website
for my business; use some key assertiveness
strategies at work with my boss; use BSL for
everyday conversation with my deaf relative)
Stage 3: Setting and reviewing challenging individual objectives/goals
Reviewing learning goals
During initial assessment, give students a chance
to reflect on what their motivations and interests
are and identify their learning goals.
Stage 4: Recognising and recording progress.
This stage is the one teachers most commonly
term ‘RARPA’ and can cause the most difficulty as
it involves recordkeeping and evidence.
The key questions which underpin this stage are:

Do my students know what they have achieved
so far, and what they need now to do to
improve and/or develop further?
 Have I got evidence of this progress?
Typically records will be a set of notes in chart
form, with students’ names down one axis and
learning outcomes along the other axis. The tutor
writes in comments or uses a key. If you use a key
think carefully—it must indicate the degree of
progress in a meaningful way for your subject.
Recording challenging individual objectives is very
important for returning students to the same
programme. What more can they achieve on this
How is RARPA impacting on your teaching?
Handwritten additions to lesson plans and
schemes of work, or notes relating to individuals on lesson plans, are a great way of
doing this.
There are ideas for ways to enable students to
review their learning goals in the insert and on the
City Lit website.
We need to devise a system that is both quick to
use and also useful to us for planning lessons. City
Lit does not prescribe any one system as what
works best will depend on the subject area.
However the records must be about individual
learning against course outcomes – not about
learners’ states of mind, or attitude, in a session.
Many students will simply want to achieve the
listed learning outcomes. However, they may be
more interested in some rather than others. They
may have different longer term goals e.g. they are
using the course for work related, travel, or family
reasons, or they want to go on to an accredited
course. Make sure they record these goals on the
IRL and take them into account in your planning.
Having great records of students’ starting
points and progress is only half the RARPA
story. We also need to show that this has
impacted on our planning and teaching.
need to do to improve. So set at least one review
point (more on longer courses).
Mid course review form devised by Languages Dept.
During the course, all learners should have a
chance to review their progress against the
learning outcomes and to renegotiate their
learning goals. It is very common for students to
become clearer about what they want to achieve
as a course progresses. They should also have a
better insight into their strengths and what they
The best systems, however, include evidence from
learners as well as, or instead of, the tutor.
Students’ commentaries on their work, journals, or
post it note reviews from the ends of sessions are
some examples.
In some subjects teachers find it useful to keep
product evidence. However, a series of photos of
students’ work with no commentary is not much
use to demonstrate progress. Photos kept once or
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Peer feedback/group crits
Encourage peer assessment of an activity, product or performance (in pairs, as below, or as a group).


agree questions to think about in feedback. eg “What do you like about the composition of this painting?
Teach a feedback technique: e.g. ‘Two Stars and a Wish’
Give students a form for one or all of them to complete to give to their peer. Stage the questions to make
sure the feedback is constructive. e.g. What did you like best (stars)? What suggestion would you make
(wish)? With names and a date, keep the forms as RARPA evidence.
20 Ways of Recognising and Recording
Achievement (RARPA)
Examples of those marked
below can be found on the City Lit website www.citylit.ac.uk/Staff Resources along with other examples.
Whole class progress records (Stages 2-5)
17
Tutorial records/notes from feedback
When you have a one-to-one with a student, take notes—or ask them to take notes in a notebook. If the
students bring their notebooks to the class each week, there is no need for you to have a copy.
Summative assessment (Stage 5)
18
Design a tracking chart with students’ names down one axis and learning outcomes each week/sections of
the course along the top. Write notes on how students have progressed towards the outcome in that
session, or group of sessions, and any adjustments you might want to make – e.g. extension or catch up
activities for individual students. If you do this on a computer, you can copy and paste these notes into your
lesson plan for the next session/s
2
Use a rating scale
For short courses you can use a rating scale instead of writing notes. Make sure you think carefully about
this scale according to your subject so the rating is meaningful. You need to consider key assessment
criteria. E.g. for fitness this might relate to a students’ fitness, flexibility, heart rate etc. There is an example
of a tailor made rating scale on the City Lit website.
Student final presentations with peer feedback
Learners present their work to group/ put up on wall and receive
feedback - a learner buddy is allocated to each learner to write up what was said and give it to the
presenter.
20
Use a simple chart
Outcomes Star
Use the outcomes star template on the website. Each point is a
learning outcome and students rate their achievement for each
outcome 1– 5.
19
1
3
Keep a notebook with a page for each student
This is a simple system of keeping notes of progress. Allocate a page per student in a notebook and date the
entries. Write brief notes each week or every 2/3 weeks on each student’s progress against learning
outcomes. Note what this implies for your next lesson/s.
Write yourself a letter
Ask students to write themselves a letter on the last day of the course and address an envelope. Ask them
to list their action plans for the future, or what they would like to remember from the course, or where they
want to be in their career. Keep the letter and remember to post it to them 6 months later.
Initial assessment - learner centred (Stages 2-3)
4
Devise an initial assessment form
Use a simple form alongside the IRL to find out more about your students’ starting points. If you wish you
can also include a diagnostic test or quiz. There are some examples on the website.
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5
Use post it notes
11
Endless variations of this. Ask learners to record what they want to achieve,
their learning goals, what they want to get out of the course. Post it notes
come in all sizes and shapes and colours. Display them; add them to your
paper evidence. Make sure you get students to put their names and the
date on them.
6
3 things I have learned and one question
At the end of a session, ask students to record 3
things they have learned and a question they have.
They can put these on post it notes and you can
display them. Then gather everyone round to
review them. Or simply ask them to give them to
you and use them to plan your next session.
Students interview each other
Ask students to interview each other about any of the above. They can record the interview on the
Individual Record of Learning .
12
Online tools that are useful for uploading images, blogging and
sharing:
Facebook
Blogger
WordPress
Pinterest
www.facebook.com
www.blogger.com
www.wordpress.com
https://uk.pinterest.com/
City Lit now has access to the Google Apps for Education Suite.
For a personal account, training and advice, contact e-learning:
e-learning@citylit.ac.uk
Self assessment mid course review
Formative (ongoing) assessment - learner centred (Stages 3-4)
This is a simple chart where you list the learning outcomes so far and ask students to rate their learning
against each outcome. Outcomes must be SMART to enable them to do this (specific and measurable,
realistic). Students are then asked to set themselves goals as a result of the review.
7
13
Mark a target to show how near the ‘bull’s eye’ you are for a learning outcome
Ask students to show on a target how far they feel they have achieved the learning outcomes by marking a
target with an x. Or ask them where they are at the start of the session and where they have moved to by
the end. There are several examples on the website.
8
Traffic Lights/Smiley Faces/Rating Scale
Students evaluate methods, topic or their understanding using traffic lights, smiley faces or a rating scale.
Examples are on the website.
9
The Jelly Baby Tree
The tree has numerous figures expressing different responses and
emotional expressions. Ask students to evaluate how they feel
about their learning, for the session or the course by circling an
appropriate figure and then discussing ‘why’ with a partner. If they
sign and date it, it’s RARPA evidence.
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Ask students to keep a blog with examples of their work. There are examples from Fine Art on the back of
this newsletter, and on the website. There are many sites you can use e.g. Moodle, Google, WordPress,
Pinterest, Facebook..
14
Students write a journal/or a review
Ask students to complete a reflection on the highlights of a session, or a summary of their learning that day
as a journal or blog. Or ask them simply to write freely on a piece of paper for 5 minutes on their learning in
that or a previous session. With their name and date this is RARPA evidence.
Students set a quiz
Ask students in pairs or groups to set questions for a quiz. Choose a
selection to create a quiz for the whole class.
10
Class blog
15 ‘Ask the audience’ - use Turning Point
(e-voting handsets) to set questions
E-voting tools are available from media resources. They
are simple to use and allow you to ask a whole class
various types of questions. Students’ responses appear
anonymously on a PowerPoint slide. You can set a closedquestion quiz, or set more testing questions with no
definitive answers which can promote discussion. The
results can be kept as RARPA records.
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