7407_Unit_1

Assess Learners’ Needs In order to assess learners’ needs it is necessary to identify the nature of the group. This includes their previous experience, ages, ethnicity and any special needs. Within this assignment, I shall identify a group of six students, describe, and analyse the initial assessment required to ascertain their previous learning and experience. This will include an analysis of how, why and where the results can be used in order to inform the learning programme. The group of students’ chosen are female and ranges from young adult to middle aged. They are all white, one is Russian and they have been assessed at level one or level two of the National Numeracy Curriculum. The introduction to mathematics course is delivered on a Tuesday evening, 7.30 – 9.30, in a local high school. Most students’ live locally however a few travel from far enough away to be subject to public transport schedules and stoppages. Moreover, most of the students’ have children and have childminding issues to contend with before leaving for the class. Having a group with all females may help students to relate to each other and have an understanding of their life experience although some of the younger students may not have had quite as much life experience. Although it could be argued that having a mixture of male and female students’ could create an environment that would promote understanding of different ideas and life experiences. Moreover having different cultures within the class would widen students’ knowledge and understanding of different views and experience hence broadening their personal experiences. The environment could also become a barrier as students could feel that they are going back to school. This issue would be addressed during the initial lesson to ensure that students realise that their learning goals are in their control rather than the teachers. Hence showing students that although the class is held in a school it is not the same as school life as a teenager. An evening class can be ideal for students that work or are unable to attend during the day due to other commitments. However, after a long day at work or with the children students may be tired and not necessarily be able to concentrate well in order to learn effectively. The fact also that the class is divided into level one and level two students can cause students anxiety. However learners being able to recognise levels is vital in order to progress and achieve goals within their aspirations. This is something that students are made aware of and encouraged to be aware that all students are different, bring different strengths and skills and are working towards different goals. The barriers discussed above may be linked to the well-known theory of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. The theory identifies five needs, physical, safety and shelter, love and belonging, self esteem and self-actualisation which need to be considered when a tutor is helping ‘students feel good about themselves’ (Reece & Walker, 2003 p. 78) and to ensure the environment is conductive to learning. Within the class the initial lesson is based around getting to know the students by means of completing initial assessments, learning styles questionnaires, checklists, learning agreement and negotiating individual learning goals (Appendix A, B, C &D respectively). Initial assessment is a ‘formative’, rather than ‘summative’, form of assessment. (Reece & Walker 2003, p315) To distinguish between the two Reece and Walker suggests that formative assessment will ‘help in both teaching and learning’ (p315) and summative assessment satisfies ‘the needs of society’.(p315) The intention of the assessment is to discover as much as possible about how best to create a teaching situation where each student will be able to learn. The initial mathematics assessment has been compiled by another teacher within the college and has been used by the tutor of this class. The questions link to the National Adult Numeracy Curriculum and can be helpful in finding an initial level. It is also used to find areas of expertise and areas of need and to help students to recognise these. However, this type of initial assessment can be very time consuming and very fearful for the student. It may not take into consideration their learning styles or their particular area of mathematics that they may wish to improve. So the results of this assessment may be viewed as an indication rather than a definitive level: caution must be taken when using the results. Constructive feedback is given to the students during a one to one discussion. This is given as soon as possible to help the students and the tutor negotiate learning aims, outcomes and to motivate them. The learning styles questionnaire used was the Honey and Mumford 1992 version. By completing this questionnaire, students and teacher were able to find out individual preferred learning styles. This enabled the teacher to help plan the course by selecting different ‘learning methods appropriate for the individual and the group’ (Oxfordshire County Council undated, p21) to suit all learning styles. Arguably the lesson should not be based on one particular learning style, as this would not suit all learners. Moreover, it could be valuable for students to vary their learning styles and understanding of the way others learn: not all people learn in the same way. This sometimes give the students a reason for not having learnt at school and empowers them with the knowledge that it may not have been their fault that they did not learn. This can take away some of the initial barriers to learning maths. However, this particular questionnaire can be quite confusing for some students. It assumes that students’ literacy levels are adequate in order to understand and complete the questionnaire. It is also very lengthy and time consuming for some students. This questionnaire did cause the Russian student a number of problems with understanding the questions. However additional support was given to her to overcome this barrier. Hence, I feel that this document would not be suitable for all learners. There are of course many other versions of the questionnaire that may be more user friendly and accessible to all, practical methods can also be used to establish students learning styles. Which method used would be dependent on the particular group however more than one method should be available as tutors will not necessarily have any details of their students before the first lesson. The maths checklist is used to establish the learner’s reason for attending the course. It is a valuable question, which needs to be answered because the reason for attending may affect the motivation of the learner as ‘Motivation differs with age, culture and family background’ (Armitage et al 1999 p50). For instance if the only reason the learner is coming to the lesson is because they have been told to do so by someone, work, their parent etc, then their motivation may be low. The tutor may be able to help motivate them in other ways. For instance showing the learner, that maths can be fun and enjoyable and not like their previous experience of maths. In addition, by ensuring that learning goals are negotiated and reachable may show the learner that they are capable of progressing in a short time span hence increasing motivation. The students’ individual learning plan provides the tutor with a further insight from profiling the learner. It asks about their life, aspirations, previous knowledge, needs and anything that may affect their learning. Often students have ‘needs which can be complex, less tangible and even unknown to the student’ (Minton 1997, p105) Finding out about their lives helps the teacher to shape the course to include aspects of all learners’ lives within the programme. It shows students that the teacher has read the information and has used it to help personalise the course to their likes and hobbies. For example worksheets based around sport or television, depending on student preference. The student and teacher update this ongoing document, which details negotiated learning outcomes, at regular intervals in order to show progression. This can increase motivation and interest for students as they can actually see how they are progressing. Furthermore, it is the policy of Castle Point and Rochford College that all students complete and endorse a learning agreement. This document sets out the rights and responsibilities of the college, the teaching staff and the student. This provides everyone with a clear set of guidelines that need to be adhered to. This provides security for both staff and students. This particular course used all paper-based versions of all the documentation required by the college, this took no consideration of varying learning styles, disabilities or any students which are speakers of other languages. This could have been an instant barrier for many students who thought they were coming to a numeracy class rather than a literacy class. However, this could possibly be included in the course outline in order to prepare learners for their first lesson. Hence, in order to improve this system it is possible to have a number of different methods to ensure that they are accessible to all students. Moreover, some of the documentation, such as the learning styles questionnaire, could have been presented in a practical manner. This would encourage group bonding and ease the pressure of too much paper work whilst incorporating different learning styles. All students were informed of why the documentation was required, how it would be used and the implications of the data protection act in respect to student confidentiality. By providing the tutor with the above, it is possible to shape the course content to involve all students in some aspect. Students’ likes, hobbies, learning styles and any possible learning disabilities that may affect them are all taken into account when planning the learning programme. This includes the choice of resources, teaching style, learning style and any possible barriers. ‘All students have needs, and many are shy or reticent, so part of initial assessment is to encourage students to articulate their needs’ (Minton 1997, p105) It would be insensitive to provide handouts with pictures of Paris if your student has informed you of a bad experience they have experienced! In order to widen participation and promote an access for all environment I need to be aware of the diversity of all my students and incorporate their needs into their learning plan. Bibliography • Armitage et. Al., (1999) Teaching and Training in Post-Compulsory Education. Open University Press • Minton, D., (1997) Teaching Skills in Further and Adult Education, 2nd Ed. City & Guilds • Oxfordshire County Council., (Undated) ‘Securing Equal Opportunities in ACL: Guidelines for practice’, Niace, Undated. Retrieved: February 18,2004, from http://www.qualityacl.org.uk/files/qualityacl/equalopps.pdf • Reece, I. and Walker, S., (2003) Teaching, training and learning. A practical guide. Tyne and Wear: Business Education Publishers Limited.