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CHAPTER ONE: THE RESEARCH
Context, Aims and Objectives
1.1 Adult Literacy and Numeracy ( ALN) has been identified as an important policy area because ALN skills, knowledge and understanding make an important contribution to equipping everyone to fulfil their potential and ' increasing adult literacy and numeracy levels are also fundamental to improving Scotland's economy, health and wellbeing' (Learning Connections, 2005: 2). In 2001 the Scottish Executive set out its goals for developing ( ALN) provision over the succeeding three years in a report, Adult Literacy and Numeracy in Scotland (ALNIS). One recommendation was to provide additional funding, which was allocated to Local Authorities through ALN Partnerships that included FE Colleges, the voluntary sector and other providers, in order to improve opportunities for provision and recruitment of ALN learners. The ALNIS report recommended that this quality framework be implemented and emphasised the importance of using feedback from learners as a key way in which the quality of programmes should be judged. Other recommendations were that the quality of adult literacy and numeracy services should be improved across the country, and that the success of ALN learning should be judged by the impact that it has on the lives of the learners. In the light of these recommendations, a key way of judging the quality of learning and teaching and the outcomes of the learning was through eliciting the views of participating learners. This led to the commissioning of this research as part of the Scottish Executive's response to the ALNIS report.
1.2 In 2000 good practice guidelines ( Literacies in the Community, Edinburgh City Council/Scottish Executive) were published that provided a quality framework against which ALN Partnerships were asked to assess themselves. The guidelines provided benchmarks against which to assess the quality of teaching and learning and these have been used as the criteria for making judgements about the quality of programmes throughout the report. This approach meant that the research was using criteria that were recognised and tested in practice settings to judge the overall quality of programmes.
1.3 The overall aim of the research was to evaluate the Scottish Adult Literacy and Numeracy ( ALN) Strategy through a survey of a sample of literacy and numeracy learners and ALN tutors in a variety of geographical areas of Scotland. Specifically, the research had 2 objectives:
- Objective 1 was to provide an assessment of the quality of the programmes that learners had participated in.
- Objective 2 was to contribute to an understanding of the impact that participating in programmes had on individuals' lives and any wider social benefits.
1.4 The following research questions were derived from these 2 objectives:
- What are the barriers and pathways into learning for ALN learners?
- What are learners' and tutors' perceptions of the quality of the learning and support they have received?
- What are the outcomes and impact that learning (through the delivery of the ALN strategy) has on individual learners?
- What are the possible implications for wider social benefit and economic activity from such findings?
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