INDRODUCTION It can be very challenging for an adult returning into further education as many will not have been in a learning environment for some time. There will be many different personalities and learning styles within the group of learners and each learner will bring different skills, experiences and knowledge into the classroom. It is the teacher’s responsibility to make teaching and learning effective and they will need to know the learner as much as possible. A teacher is responsible for meeting the needs of different individuals or different groups of students who are learning together at any time. It is essential that a teacher must find a method of differentiating between learners in order to personalise learning to individual needs. This can be done by introducing a number of Initial and diagnostic assessments at the start of the students learning.

It is an essential part of the learners needs to carry out assessments and was recognised as far back as 1904 when Alfred Binet, a French psychologist, developed the first intelligence test, which was to spark of the interest in individual variations. Since 1904 there have been many different tools developed to define the differences in learning styles (http://www.ehow.com/about_5381758_history-learning-styles).

A) Identify a range of initial and diagnostic assessment tools:
Initial and diagnostic assessments should involve a range of different styles and approaches, as each assessment will enable you to learn more about your student skills and identify their individual needs. There are a number of initial diagnostic assessments that a teacher can use to get to know their learner i.e. talking to the learner during an initial interview, paper based and computer based assessment, learning styles questionnaire and a VAK learning styles assessment. Two specific diagnostic assessment tools