‘The process of improving or developing, or of getting nearer to achieving or completing something; the process of developing gradually from one stage or state to another’ (Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries).
To enable learner progress, schools need to:
- understand all learners’ current situations and support them by using information to plan future steps;
- develop the ‘capability to meet learner needs and increase curriculum relevance, helping learners to gain competences’ for future life, studies and employment
- be flexible to ‘adapt pedagogical strategies and provide support’ – to increase ‘access to appropriate learning opportunities’ and develop learners’ knowledge and skills.
‘Schools should be clear about what progress might look like for all learners, particularly when it does not lead to traditional recognition’, e.g. through examinations. Progress may be shown (for example, by learners with more complex support needs) by ‘increased responses, improved communication and social skills, reduced need for support, less reliance on routines, reduction in challenging behaviour, transfer of learning between different situations or increased self-advocacy’ (European Agency, 2015e, pp. 12–13).