< Previous | Contents | Next >

Listening to Learners: Consultation with Learners about Adult Literacy Education in Scotland

6 Learning progress

Everyone's main purpose in coming to class is to make progress and learn. How that learning is recognised varies considerably. For many of the learners we talked with progress is tutor-defined or defined in terms of passing modules and getting certificates. For other learners, the key to progress is in the things they can do that they couldn't before.

a) Tutor-defined progress

Most of the ALN learners in the focus groups talked about the important role of their tutor in reviewing and affirming their progress. They wanted that feedback because they were not sure of their own ability to assess progress:

'It helps for somebody outside to give you an opinion of how you're doing.'

'Yes, [tutor] makes a point of telling you that you are making progress in case you don't see it yourself.' [Glasgow, ALN Learner]

These learners say they may under-estimate their own abilities, or not be sure whether they are really making progress, so the tutor's role in recognising their learning is important - 'being Scottish women we don't tend to give ourselves the pat on the back that we deserve.' [Lothian, ALN Learner]

At the same time, some say that they want their review with their tutor to be an individual one, not in front of the group. 'If you're actually getting told in front of a group of people that you aren't doing it right, it would actually go against somebody, that would put them on a downer.' [Glasgow, Other Adult Learner]

It seems likely that this desire for privacy would vary according to how close-knit a group is, and how comfortable learners are with each other. Most ALN learners did not say they wanted tutor reviews to be private, and this probably reflects their feeling of being comfortable in the group.

For learners in more structured programmes, progress is defined in terms of tests and modules passed, credit gained and certificates acquired. In one FE college programme, learners say:

'They take an assessment and if you pass it they tell you.'

'My tutor in one class has got a folder and she said you've just finished outcome one and two. I'm starting outcome three, started it on Monday and she said we'll get that finished before Easter.'

'I think you should get congratulated a bit more for the work you've put in because you're putting a lot of effort in just to hear one word, you've passed.' [Lothian, Other Adult Learners]

The need for some outside recognition of progress and the effort it has taken lies behind a desire of some learners to have a certificate to show. 'I think it's nice to have something at the end of the day, to be able to say I have done this... and your family are proud of you.' [Highlands, Other Adult Learner]

While most of the learners we talked to felt they were making progress, some talked about earlier classes they had taken where they did not feel they made progress.

'Coming here, we are trying to accommodate everybody in the class, but it doesn't happen everywhere else. They just seem to continue on with the same things, they don't seem to go anywhere. That's what I found with the other classes - when you finished something basically you just went back to the beginning and started all over again.' [Glasgow, Other Adult Learner]

b) Learner-defined progress

While some ALN learners depended on their tutors telling them they are making progress, defined in terms of acquisition of skills, other learners talked about progress in terms of application of skills in their everyday literacy practices. Some of the practical examples of things they can do now that they couldn't do earlier are:

• Write my postcode
• Write out forms and order from catalogues
• Write my address properly
• Read books
• Pick up a free newspaper on the bus and read it
• Write letters to a son who has just gone away to college, instead of picking up the phone
• Write a business letter on the computer
• Conversation (ESOL learners) - 'I can argue back and I can be funny. People laugh at my jokes.'
• Pass the driving test (another ESOL learner)
• Helping a son with his homework - 'Just now I'm helping him and I was doing the maths and that and I'm coming along with them so I can sort of help him out with that now, before I just used to sit there and go "don't know". I used the excuse, "Oh, they did it different when I was at school" and things like that. But now I'm sort of helping him along with it. That's how I know I'm improving myself.' [Glasgow, ALN Learner]
• Job-related skills including doing menus, writing orders, calculating volume in colouring and permanent wave.

Closely bound up with progress in terms of application of skills is increasing confidence. Some learners talked about going to shops on their own for the first time, because of the increased confidence the class had given them. Others talked about having the confidence to apply for jobs. Some learners who had gone through mental illness felt their course had helped them regain lost confidence:

'I found out about [the course] through my social worker and I see this like a stepping stone to going back to college. Coming out of a mental illness you lose a lot of confidence and I feel that my time here has been helping build my confidence back up to what it used to be.' [Aberdeen, Other Adult Learner]

For many people, building skills and confidence go together.

Because when you learn stuff you are getting to use it all the time and when you really need it, it's there. You're not so worried any more, your confidence is built up and you're more able to use the things that you have learned.' [Glasgow, Other Adult Learner]

This creates a positive spiral, in which learning progress boosts confidence, which increases the ability to use what has been learned and to learn more.

'It's helped me to stretch my imagination and also my outlook, and it's helped me to look further as regards anything really, jobs, situations, social, entertainment, anything. It's helped me branch out a little bit further, because beforehand I used to think that's no good, there's no chance, there's no point. But it doesn't really matter whether there's a chance or there isn't, I just go ahead and do it... I found at the start of each course I would look at it and think no way, I can't do this, and then at the end of the course I thought wow, I've done that. I think it's increased my confidence.' [Highlands, Other Adult Learner]

< Previous | Contents | Next >