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Chapter One – An introduction to the study - Page 12
Figure 1.1 – Trajectories of student performance
The diagram is intended to illustrate how students must usually all be at least at the
vertical line on the left, which represents the course pre-requirements (that students be
qualified and experienced to a certain level in a mental health discipline, which could
include psychotherapy). It also illustrates how they must also progress to an extent that
they are deemed to have reached the position represented by the line on the right.
The horizontal lines represent a range of trajectories. The top line represents a student
who comes from some way back, but who just makes it to the line of course
expectation. The second stands for a student who is well ahead of basic requirements
when the course starts, and who continues to hold that degree of accomplishment
throughout, so that they end up well in advance of the minimum outcome expected to
enable successful graduation. The third line stands for the model (and probably modal)
student, who is roughly where they might be expected to be at start and finish. The
fourth line represents the case of a student who, like the first student starts from a long