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CHAPTER TWELVE: CONCLUSION
12.1 In this concluding chapter the findings from both the learners' and the tutors' surveys are used to answer the four research questions.
What are the barriers and pathways into learning for ALN learners?
12.2 Research shows ( e.g.OECD and Statistics Canada, 2000; Murray, 2003) that adults with low literacy and numeracy skills do not necessarily seek tuition. This analysis of the pathways learners had taken and the barriers they had encountered provides a way of understanding how barriers could be broken down for those that have not yet participated. Learners were mainly motivated to start their programmes by self-improvement and wanting to develop their reading, writing and maths skills (41%) with the next highest category being employment related reasons (24%), to get into, progress in work or access training programmes. Other research ( e.g. McGivney, 2001; Schuller et al, 2004) has suggested that participation in ALN learning is often in response to life changing events such as the loss of a partner, new employment, children starting school but this only applied to 7% of our sample.
12.3 The barriers to participation cited by learners were mainly to do with their perceptions of the stigma attached to being an ALN learner (27%), followed by a concern about their ability to cope with learning (25%). They were also concerned that it might be like school (12%) as many of this group of learners had found school a fairly unhappy experience where they saw themselves as failing to learn. These findings generally reflect the literature in that the most significant barriers reported were related to attitudes and feelings rather than institutional barriers to do with the cost, location etc of the provision (Crowther et al., 2001; McGivney, 2001; Scottish Executive, 2001).
12.4 Learners were most likely to be encouraged to enrol on their programmes by friends and family and self-encouragement. Official people were the next most common source so this implies that the networks of spotters and referrers (see Scottish Executive, 2001) put in place by ALN Partnerships were working to some extent. Once learners had taken the next step and decided to enrol in provision then it was important that this process was easy and they met friendly, approachable and knowledgeable people and this was the case for the overwhelming majority of the respondents.
12.5 So it appears that the most important barrier to be removed is the stigma attached to being a literacy/numeracy learner and the clearest pathway into learning is better publicity both locally and nationally. This implies publicity about ALN should be directed at changing the negative public image of ALN learners and making it more positive. A key emphasis should be on how people can improve their own skills and in so doing become more capable and self-confident.
What are learners' and tutors' perceptions of the quality of learning and support?
12.6 The guidelines 'Literacies in the Community' ( LIC Pack, 2000) have been used to provide the framework against which to assess the quality of learners' and tutors' experiences through asking learners and tutors participating in programmes their views of the quality of the learning, teaching and the curriculum and both the extent and quality of the guidance and support they received.
12.7 Good practice in relation to learning, teaching and the curriculum is to provide flexible and relevant learning options that are responsive to learners' needs and wants and develop their knowledge, skills and understanding ( LIC pack, 2000: 13-14). As has been seen, learners were overwhelmingly positive about all aspects of their learning programmes with a more than 90% satisfaction rate on most aspects of their experience.
12.8 These included:
- The learning environment including the timing and location of the course, the cost, the facilities (crèche transport, café, rooms) and the learning resources that were available.
- The factors that contributed to a good experience of teaching and learning including what was learnt and the way it was learnt, the tutor, the pace of the learning and the number of hours of tuition available each week.
- The social nature of the learning including the other students and the social opportunities to meet other people.
12.9 However, there were slight increases in negativity between the two rounds of interviews with learners in FE settings less likely to enjoy their programmes, female learners less likely to find staff encouraging, older learners more likely to be dissatisfied with their tutors and younger ones more dissatisfied with the feedback they received.
12.10 Literacy and numeracy learners are not likely to report dissatisfactions because they do not usually have experience of other provision with which to compare their current experience (see Beder, 1999) so further probing was undertaken to see what were the negative aspects of their learning and teaching. After probing, less than 10% of learners expressed concerns about aspects of the course organisation in terms of its inflexibility, number of learners, or content. These concerns seemed to stem from the lack of resources to provide a fully flexible learning and teaching environment.
12.11 Tutors were generally as positive as learners about the differences that the ALN Strategy had made to who, what and how they taught. They, however, did express some dissatisfaction with levels of staffing, pay for part-time staff and the staff development provided for part-time and volunteer staff. In some cases teaching accommodation was poor and this situation seems to be continuing as HMIe report ' in [some Local Authorities] accommodation, space was often severely restricted and in some cases the learning environment was bleak and uncomfortable' ( HMIe, 2005: 11). Tutors had some concerns about having satisfactory levels of staff to respond to perceived 'need' and to having sufficient staff to provide for a range of learning contexts. These concerns echo those of the learners in relation to providing a fully flexible and responsive service.
12.12 In general perceptions of the quality of teaching, learning and the curriculum from both learners and tutors are high but there is still some room for improvement in providing greater responsiveness and flexibility in provision.
12.13 The area of guidance and support was the one that provided a less than satisfactory quality experience for learners. The quality framework suggests that guidance should be pro-active so that learners are able to reflect on their learning, make informed decisions and plan for progression. The key way of identifying learning needs and building an individual curriculum is through the Individual Learning Plan ( ILP) but many learners were unaware of having an ILP at entry, during their programmes and on exit. Learners studying in FE Colleges were the least likely to have a review of their ILP during their course and this may be explained by the arrangements for setting targets and reviewing progress that are in place. The HMIe report on adult literacy and numeracy in Scotland reported that:
[In FE Colleges] most tutors met learners twice or three times to discuss their learning plans, which are continuously updated and reviewed [but] the plans were in almost all cases kept centrally by college staff rather than by learners themselves ( HMIe, 2005: 14).
12.14 This means that learners were less likely to be aware of the ILPs if they only saw the plans at meetings with tutors and did not track their own progress regularly.
12.15 So learners were very positive about the quality of the teaching and learning they received and tutors were positive about the impact of the ALN strategy on who, what and how they taught. However, guidance and support needs to be improved particularly by ensuring that the ILP, which is at the heart of the learner-centred curriculum, is used appropriately at all stages of the learning process.
What are the outcomes and impact that learning has on individual learners?
12.16 There have been a range of outcomes documented in this report that have impacted on individual learners but the dominant one is increased self-confidence. Increased self-confidence and esteem is probably the most universal and widely documented 'soft' outcome of learning as an adult ( e.g. McGivney, 2001; Schuller et al, 2004). Findings from this study illustrate in depth a range of other research specifically in literacy learning that shows that 'participation in adult literacy has a positive impact on learners' self-image' (Beder, 1999). The respondents reported that increased self confidence was experienced as a growth in abilities, feeling better about one-self generally and feeling better about oneself in relation to others - fellow learners, contemporaries and friends, members of the family. This finding confirms other research (see Gallagher and Crossan, 2000; Tett, 2000) about the importance of self-confidence in enabling ALN learners to actively engage in a range of activities.
12.17 The analysis shows that increased self-confidence acts as a key to opening up a wide range of other changes. Learners' responses suggest that this confidence can be separated into 3 distinct groupings; the confidence to learn, the confidence in learning, and the confidence in life that develops through learning.
12.18 This growth in self-confidence as a result of an increased ability to learn, leads learners to seek better jobs or gain wage increases. A high proportion of respondents talked about how positive experiences of learning built up confidence to apply for new jobs or progress in their existing job. There has also been a positive impact on learners' perceptions of their future employment prospects and earnings. Moreover, self-confidence was seen as more important than qualifications in learners' own perceptions. Those who had failed in school gained confidence particularly from successful learning that they had not previously experienced. More respondents were taking part in full-time education and fewer were unemployed as learning gave them the confidence to take more control of their lives. They felt empowered to take advantage of opportunities, they were more relaxed with strangers, said what they thought and took on more active roles in their communities. Self-confidence and esteem developed through learning also appeared to have positive effects upon psychological health. Learners were more able to look outwards, to have something to get up for in the morning through generating a sense of purpose and a future to aspire towards. This potentially meant that they were able to cope more effectively with ill-health and other types of adversity (see Hammond, 2004: 56), and as indicated in Chapter 10, this appears to be having a positive impact on their overall levels of social capital.
What are the possible implications for the wider social benefit and economic activity from such findings?
12.19 There is an extensive research literature that demonstrates the link between low literacy and numeracy skills and economic and social status. Adults with low literacy and numeracy skills are more likely to be unemployed, living on low incomes, experiencing poor health and early morbidity (Bynner and Parsons, 2001; Chisman and Campbell, 1990; Hammond, 2004; Raudenbush and Kasim, 2003; Schuller et al., 2004; Willms, 2003). There is also a strong relationship between educational inequality, income inequality and lack of social cohesion in terms of societal trust and community safety at least when observed cross-nationally (Green and Preston, 2001; Green et al. 2003). Given these negative indicators any positive changes in outcomes for learners as a result of ALN participation will contribute to wider social and economic benefits.
12.20 Firstly, as the result of their participation in ALN, learners were more likely to increase their contact with local people and go out regularly, therefore indicating an increase in trust and more engagement in their local communities. Research has shown ( e.g. Baron et al, 2000) that membership of networks (inside as well as outside the workplace) and the ability to mobilise social capital provides access to employment opportunities and enhances people's ability to do the job effectively. Therefore enhancing social capital through engagement in learning can increase economic and social activity leading to wider benefits for the individual, their community and society. This is particularly important in communities where people generally lack aspirations because it is extremely difficult for an individual living in such locations to behave differently. In other words, the effect of education in raising people's sights is experienced more widely as a positive influence on the cultural norms that encourage others to do the same (see Schuller et al., 2004: 191).
12.21 The research has indicated that on the whole, the learners had quite high levels of social capital at the start of their learning, and it was hypothesised that its 'dark side' could have been operating in their lives, because many of them were located in areas where engagement in structured learning was not part of the norms of their networks, and they came to their learning, tentative, apprehensive and with quite negative senses of themselves as learners. The quantitative and qualitative evidence from the second round of interviews indicates that after their engagement with learning, these learners were, on the whole, feeling and behaving differently. Their confidence had increased, their learner identity had grown and their levels of social capital had risen, however its operational dynamics seem to have altered. Learning appears to have reduced the impact of its 'dark side' and to have opened up a range of possibilities that were hitherto blocked for them, which in turn enabled them to accrue greater social and economic capital.
12.22 Learning and its benefits are dynamic in the sense that benefits gained in one domain such as education impact on functioning in other domains, such as family and community (see Bynner and Hammond, 2004: 161). Of particular note in this research has been the impact on family relationships, especially with children, reported on by learners. Many parents detailed the variety of ways in which their participation in ALN had helped them to do a better job as a parent. The benefits included more confidence in their own ability as a parent; an improved capacity to communicate with their children; greater understanding or patience; more practical skills, for example in being able to use a computer. Angela Basset-Grundy has suggested that parental and children's learning impacts in the following ways:
- Valuing - as a result of their own participation in learning, parents came to give more value to their children's educational achievement
- Supporting - parents were more able to offer support to their children, directly in their studies or indirectly by involvement in their school
- Role-modelling - parents become model learners for their children
- Reciprocating - children helped their parents, giving them motivation for or support in their learning
- Enjoying - children and parents learnt together as a highly enjoyable joint activity (Basset-Grundy, 2004: 85)
12.23 A significant body of research indicates that when parents participate in their children's education, the result is an increase in student achievement and an improvement in student's attitudes to education ( e.g. McMillan and Leslie, 1998; Wolfendale and Topping, 1996). This means that the positive changes our respondents reported in their attitudes to education and family life are likely to result in benefits for the wider family and community as well as the individual concerned.
12.24 In reporting on learners' views, this research has shown that learning brings about transformation in people's lives through the growth in ability to mobilise positive social capital, changes in learner identity, and the consequential growth in confidence to act. Learning also enabled individuals and the communities they were part of to ' sustain what they are doing through preventing decay or collapse or consolidating a positive state of stability' (Schuller et al, 2004: 25). The sustaining aspect of learning was particularly apparent in respondents who had mental health problems who were able to take more control over their own lives and engage in ordinary activities such as getting up in the morning that for others would be seen as unproblematic.
12.25 These findings illustrate the impact that participation in ALN has on wider social and economic activity in participants' personal, family, work, public and educational lives. It also shows the importance of providing the highest quality teaching and learning to enable this group of people to sustain and progress in their learning. Research ( e.g. McGivney, 2001; Tett, 2000) shows that adults who have returned to learning after an unsuccessful school career are more vulnerable to failure at this stage than other, previously successful, returnees. It is vital, therefore, that the Scottish Executive's commitment to 'Closing the Gap' between the disadvantaged and advantaged is carried through in providing an adult literacy and numeracy strategy that is world class. This research, by providing an evaluation of the current strategy based on learners' views, makes an important contribution to this process. Recommendations for further improvement are contained in the next chapter.
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