Developing Independence through Literacies Learning
This is a report of 2 seminars (Glasgow, 18 November 2008 and Inverness, 19 November 2008) to consider the implications of research and development projects.
These seminars were the latest in a long series of events, discussions and projects seeking to improve the effectiveness of the learning opportunities provided for adults with learning difficulties. The report has been produced in the hope that readers will find useful practical ideas that will support the development of more effective learning opportunities for adults with learning difficulties.
Download the full report.
Background to Seminars
Two recent research and development projects have produced evidence that effective learning for adults with learning difficulties requires the involvement of 'significant others' in their network of care and support.
Learning Connections commissioned research that produced " Effective Learning for Adults with Learning Difficulties", available on Adult Literacies Online (ALO). Highland Adult Literacies Partnership funded a collaborative project led by Lead Scotland, with Adult Basic Education and the Workers Educational Association, to build a sustainable approach to literacies delivery in the Highland area for learners supported by care workers, raise awareness for cross-sector support and meet the challenge of identified gaps in learning. The report of the Lead project can also be found on ALO.
Both projects arose out of recurring concerns voiced by adult literacies practitioners across Scotland. A significant number of learners in community based adult literacies (ALN) programmes have been recognised as having a learning disability. Further Education colleges also provide literacies tuition for significant numbers of adults recognised as having a learning disability. People are defined as having learning difficulties if they have been labelled in this way by service providers. They might be in some form of care or supported living, in the parental home, in the community, in an institution or in transition between one and another. They will have been granted or appointed some form of formalised support.
Common characteristics of their engagement in literacies programmes are that learning is slow and progress is often limited, sometimes to the point where it may be described as 'skills maintenance'.
Literacies practitioners have been questioning for years,
- whether resources are being wasted
- whether learners' time is being wasted
- how literacies providers can target resources in an anti-discriminatory manner
- what needs to be changed in order for learners to progress in their literacies capabilities
- what arrangements might improve learning?
The research pursued ideas that had been tried to some extent by others. For years individual practitioners across Scotland have been creating good working relationships with carers and support workers. A number of training events have been run for care staff but most of these were connected to fragile practical arrangements: they were subject to disruption every time there was a change in staff or funding. Most of them went unrecorded so there was no evidence or evaluation to inform others. As a result very few areas had developed structural change to embed collaborative working between the learning and care sectors.
The research set out to trial the creation of collaborative working, to record the effect it had for the learner, tutor and carer and to identify the issues and challenges that had to be resolved. The aim was to create robust evidence that could inform the development of more effective teaching and learning that would actually enhance learners' ability to make choices and decisions and develop greater independence.
The training for carers sought to raise the awareness of carers, key workers and support workers about literacy and numeracy and how they impact on the lives of their service users. It created in effect one of the steps necessary to resolve some of the challenges to effective learning.
The findings of these projects complement each other: both demonstrated improvements in learning and capacity for independence that make a strong argument for significant changes in the way the literacies provision is organised and in the way care services realise their goal of enhancing independence.
In these two seminars, the discussion in workshops and plenary sessions produced a very varied list of ideas and comments.
Keynote Speech:
Challenges, approaches and outcomes
Viv Berkeley, Development Officer on the Health and Disability Equality Team of the National Institute for Adult and Continuing Education (NIACE).
Viv's work takes into account adult learners with learning difficulties and the issues surrounding them. She works across the teams at NIACE and is currently working with the Literacy, Language and Numeracy Team on the Skills for Life Quality Improvement Programme and with Mick Murray, Development Officer in the Community Team, on the Foundation Learning Tier. Full details of Viv's speech, presentation and additional reading.
Workshops:
Effective Learning for Adults with Learning Difficulties
Literacies - with Care
Plenary Session
In this session, participants were asked to reflect on what they had heard and discussed during the day then respond to four questions:
Between the two seminars, 42 people left their responses, most containing multiple points. Participants almost always mentioned more than one action or priority but the above links identify certain themes emerging from each question.
Conclusion
It has been remarkable to note the convergence of ideas from different backgrounds, disciplines, and professions towards the one conclusion: that learning must be grounded in learners' real life activities and interests if it is to support the development of independence. The research project that tested this out in the learning situation provided evidence that learners do not have to be stuck in a perpetual cycle of classes. The training project tested the conclusion by working with staff from the care sector and showed that engagement with learning actually supports the carer's role in promoting independence and that it is welcomed by them.
The seminars sought to bring together people from both care and learning sectors to explore how the conclusion might be made a reality in their own organisation; to share ideas on how challenges can be met, barriers removed. As one person remarked at one of the seminars - "We can go through brick walls".
It is clear that collaboration to link together care and learning provision for adults who have learning difficulties will have to develop at local level. Commitment to do that is a logical response to the realisations that
a) care services seek to enhance independence and
b) independence can only develop by learning and improving skills and gaining the confidence to use them
The Scottish strategy for adult literacies is committed to a learner-centred approach that seeks to support adult learners to gain useful skills, knowledge and understanding that will enable them to become self-directing lifelong learners. Learning providers have to be prepared - and sufficiently confident - to explain what contribution learning can make whilst being realistic about the limitations of any literacies learning programme. This involves being prepared to admit that literacies tutors may not always be the most suitable, the most able, or the most influential contributor to the learner's learning agenda. And it perhaps raises questions about whether the literacies intervention might need to be much more flexible than the traditional class, course, group or one-to-one arrangement. Might it, for example, take more the form of a mentoring role for other agents of learning?
Both learning and care are working towards the same goal of increased independence. When both sectors work together, the opportunities for real achievement are increased. When they don't, there is a much greater chance of wasting resources and worse, of wasting learners' time and effort.
Creating partnership working is not easy but it is the only way to achieve an effective learning and developmental process for learners/service users. It is not about extra work; it's about more effective work.