Supporting_Literacy_and_Numeracy_Across_the_Curriculum

Module 3: SUPPORTING LITERACY AND NUMERACY ACROSS THE CURRICULUM Produce an essay that reflects on the study you have undertaken and presents a clear and critical evaluation of appropriate theory and practice. Learning outcomes: Demonstrate an awareness of the Adult Literacy and Numeracy Core Curriculum and background to the Skills for Life Agenda. Identify a range of innovative and creative ways of engaging learners with literacy and numeracy Demonstrate understanding of the socio-economic and personal factors that can create barriers to learning, especially related to literacy and numeracy In 1999 Sir Claus Moser published a groundbreaking report A Fresh Start which identified that 7 million adults in England and Wales could not read at a level expected of an 11-year old. His research suggested that, due to their lack of basic literacy and numeracy skills, millions of adults were being excluded from social and economic opportunities. These skills have been defined by the Basics Skills Agency as: “The ability to read, write and speak in English/Welsh and to use mathematics at a level necessary to function and progress at work and in society in general.” (Basic Skills Agency, 2007) In response to the Moser report the government developed its Skills for Life policy (2001) which identified the particular groups disadvantaged by lack of these skills: the unemployed; prisoners and those supervised in the community; public sector, low-skilled and young adult workers. Other groups at risk of exclusion include those with specific learning difficulties and speakers of English as a second language. Skills for Life also stated that poor literacy, language and numeracy skills cost the UK in excess of £10 billion a year. According to employers, business, in an increasingly knowledge-based global economy, is lost or cannot be generated due to the poor language and literacy skills of employees. Literacy skills for speakers of other languages are essential not only to their employment but also to social integration. The Information Centre about Asylum and Refugees in the UK at City University College (2007) states that inadequate English language and communication skills were considered the most important obstacles for employers when considering applications from refugees and asylum seekers who otherwise have appropriate skills and experience. The Adult ESOL core curriculum aims to provide a basis from which to devise and assess learning for this target group. Learners will of course be at different levels – some may already speak and write other languages and can use transferable skills from their own language such as lexis, phonology and knowledge of grammar, others may br illiterate in their other language. As with other adult literacy learners, in order to support them effectively, it is essential that colleges ensure that potential learners receive diagnostic and initial assessment, guidance and support from specialist or tutorial staff as necessary and that an individual learning plan is devised which is shared across teachers in all subject areas. I believe that proficiency in literacy and numeracy should not just be seen as learning a set of skills such as spelling and handwriting, multiplication and addition, which can be taught and practised - but more about gaining the skills which are critical to social integration and that allow individuals to manage their personal circumstances independently. However, while it may be recognised as an advantage, it must be remembered that improving literacy and numeracy skills is not often the main concern of adults targeted by the Skills for Life policy. For example, a Home Office report (1997) about offenders under probation supervision recommended that literacy intervention became an integral part of the individual’s rehabilitation process. However, most probation officers interviewed for the report sited repeat offending, addiction, debt, homelessness and domestic problems as the critical issues affecting offenders in their care and that time to address literacy skills came much later and was then only associated with gaining employment. Practical issues such as locality of venue, childcare provision, low-income and disability all have an impact on an individual’s motivation to engage in learning. Other barriers such as language, culture, or mental health problems will also deter adults from continuing with their education even when they have the skills at a level “necessary to function and progress”. If adults have failed to acquire appropriate literacy and numeracy skills at school they often face further barriers to accessing learning as adults. A disability or specific learning difficulty may have had an impact on language learning and skill development and therefore on the adult’s ability to gain independence or employment. Physical disabilities, sensory impairments and cognitive difficulties should not exclude adults from learning opportunities and organisations must provide support for them. The Adult Literacy, Numeracy, and ESOL Core Curricula - together with the Pre-entry Framework and Access For All documents to support inclusion of learners with learning difficulties and disabilities - have helped to formalise and standardise the provision and assessment of levels of basic skills and have impacted all areas of post-16 education. Literacy and numeracy support can be effective at all levels from Foundation through to Degree and there is a responsibility for all teaching staff in the sector to address, not only their learners’ but their own levels of literacy and numeracy skills. If learners do not have the literacy or numeracy skills needed to access materials required to attain the vocational qualification, they will drop out or become demotivated. Teachers should be aware of the diversity of the difficulties adults encounter with literacy and numeracy and endeavour to accommodate them in their teaching methods. For example, learners with dyslexia, dyspraxia, Asperger’s syndrome and attention disorders may well have the appropriate qualifications to attend a FE course but can display processing difficulties which are sometimes dismissed as laziness or disinterest in the subject: being easily distracted, showing understanding but inaccuracy in calculations and an inability to organise their study successfully. Learners may misread instructions, have difficulty retaining information and have poor proofreading skills. When writing, spelling may seem erratic with poorly constructed handwriting or they may show inaccuracies when copying or poor note-taking skills. By being aware of these issues, teachers can take steps to help, for example, by explaining tasks clearly and unambiguously or by working with a learner to help them develop strategies for reinforcing and structuring their study. Most importantly learners should be encouraged to ask for help and take responsibility for their own learning. At our college there is a comprehensive support system for learners provided by the Inclusive Learning Support Team (see Appendix 1). For example, a person with impaired hearing or sight may be provided with a reader/note-taker or assistive technology. A dyslexic learner can see a specialist tutor who will help with time management, planning and writing assignments and spelling strategies, someone with mental health issues can be referred to a counsellor. It is too often assumed that because a learner is following a course in FE or even HE they have a minimum standard of literacy and numeracy – there may in fact be gaps that are holding back progression. At this level learning is based around the application of, rather than the acquisition of basic numeracy, literacy and language skills and this is the difference between Skills for Life and Key Skills. It is argued that embedding is the most successful way of addressing learners’ Key Skills requirements. Support and development of these skills are encouraged to be incorporated into the subject area and are also offered as stand alone Key Skills sessions. In a report into good practise in apprenticeships from the National Reseaerch and Development Centre (2004), a key finding was that learners or employees who have A-C English and Maths GCSEs benefited from literacy and numeracy support in completing their programme of study or in furthering their career. Other key findings were that learners improve their literacy, numeracy and other key skills when the whole organisation believes key skills are an essential underpinning for learning vocational skills and technical knowledge. The report also stated that all the staff associated with the programme - vocational teachers as well as specialist basic and key skills staff, need to work as a team on literacy and numeracy. Finally, when employers were actively involved and supported learners' attendance, this had a crucial impact on learners’ motivation and engagement and on vocational teachers' commitment to literacy, numeracy and other key skills. Some teachers of vocational subjects have initially found it difficult to quantify, plan for and assess key skills within their classes. However, as shown in our PGCE class where we were given the task to investigate opportunities to embed numeracy in subject areas as diverse as music and set building through to social care and animal care, it was evident that through creative thinking and development of our own numeracy skills, this can be quite easily achieved. As new teachers we have a responsibility to include this approach in our lesson planning and support others in our department to experiment and share good practise. There is now training available (literacy, numeracy and ESOL specialists) for professional development and the DfES has produced high quality teaching resources to support the embedding of literacy and numeracy in vocational subject areas such as catering, construction and social care. For example, while researching this assignment, I was able to download DfES resources to support NVQ Level 1 Decorative Finishing and Industrial Painting Occupations which clearly outline opportunities for learners to practise a range of numeracy skills such as determining quantities of material by working out straightforward areas of brick and block work, estimating and rounding up quantities of bricks and blocks to keeping to a schedule and calculating time and wages. (See Appendix 2). In the Construction School, I have observed several Key Skills classes. The learning, assessments and subsequent assignments are developed to reflect the subject area and include CV and letter writing, report writing, presentation and database design. During informal chat, the learners usually acknowledge the relevance of the learning to their core subject and to the improvement of their own key skills. Reaching people outside FE colleges who need help with basic literacy and numeracy can be a delicate matter. Adults without the skills to confidently carry out tasks we may need to perform daily, such as calculating change, reading instructions, measuring out quantities or writing a shopping list will have often found strategies to cope; perhaps relying on others or simply avoiding situations where they need to use these skills and therefore would not respond to an offer of an explicit Basic Skills course. Embedding literacy and numeracy within other subjects has again been seen as a successful method of addressing this. Helen Casey, associate director at the National Research and Development Centre for Adult Literacy and Numeracy wrote: “Embedded approaches work well with learners who would otherwise be reluctant to do anything about improving their literacy, language or numeracy. This is not to say that the literacy and numeracy work should be hidden, but that it should be directly linked to the learners' main motivation.” (The Guardian, 15 March 2005): A course may be about IT, aromatherapy, childcare or cooking but at the same time, basic skills are being embedded into the learning, observed and addressed, and hopefully learners are offered and accept help as appropriate. I agree that it is important to make the learning of literacy and numeracy explicit to the learners and always relevant to their own life or subject area but it needs to be introduced carefully. Embedding literacy and numeracy teaching in these kinds of situations can sometimes backfire, people may feel unhappy that literacy and numeracy are a core element of the course content and not understand its relevance to the subject, on the other hand, others may not enrol if literacy and numeracy are obvious components for fear of the need to read and write will highlight their lack of skills in a group setting. Where this works well is when the tutor can seamlessly assess and address literacy and numeracy. For example, in a cooking sesssion: “To make sure the cake rises it is essential that we get the right proportions of raising agent to flour. To understand this better lets look at….. “ followed by a practical activity, would be a more appropriate way to embed numeracy than: “Today we are going to work on ratios.” As part of a process to merge basic skills and key skills the definition of the acquisition of numeracy and literacy skills has recently been further refined by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), as functional skills: “Those core elements of English, maths and ICT that provide an individual with the essential knowledge, skills and understanding that will enable them to operate confidently, effectively and independently in life and at work. Individuals of whatever age who possess these skills will be able to participate and progress in education, training and employment as well as develop and secure the broader range of aptitudes, attitudes and behaviours that will enable them to make a positive contribution to the communities in which they live and work.” (QCA, 2005) And there are now major initiatives to improve English and maths skills in compulsory education with English, Maths and ICT functional skills having a set of qualifications in their own right which will also underpin and support other qualifications such as GCSEs. For the future, this push in the school sector may well reduce the number of adults going on to education and employment and struggling through lack of skills but it is important that we continue to stay aware of the barriers and difficulties adult learners face and to support literacy and numeracy across the curriculum at all levels. References Department for Education and Employment (1999) A Fresh Start - Improving Literacy and Numeracy. Report of a working group (chaired by Sir Claus Moser). DfEE. Basic Skills Agency (2007): www.basic-skills.co.uk (accessed 20.02.07) Department for Education and Skills (2001a) Skills for Life: The National Strategy for Improving Adult Literacy and Numeracy Skills. DfES. Information Centre about Asylum and Refugees in the UK [online] available from: www.icar.org.uk Davis, G. et al, 1997, Addressing the literacy needs of offenders under probation supervision, Home Office Research study No. 169, London: HMSO Cranmer, S., Kersh, N., Evans, K., Jupp, T., Casey, H. & Sagan, O. (2004). Putting good practice into practice: literacy, numeracy and key skills within apprenticeships An evaluation of the LSDA development project. London: NRDC. Available from: www.nrdc.org.uk/uploads/documents/doc_640.pdf. Appendix Appendix 1 Inclusive Learning Support Team Literature (CCN) Appendix 2 DfES resources to support NVQ Level 1 Decorative Finishing and Industrial Painting Occupations available from http://www.dfes.gov.uk/readwriteplus/embeddedlearning/ General bibliography Basic Skills Agency (2001a) Adult Literacy Core Curriculum. BSA. Basic Skills Agency (2001b) Adult Numeracy Core Curriculum. BSA. Basic Skills Agency (2001c) Adult ESOL Core Curriculum. BSA. Learning and Skills Development Agency (2002b) Access for All. LSDA Department for Education and Employment (2000) Freedom to Learn: Basic Skills for Learners with Learning Difficulties and/or Disabilities. DfEE. Learning and Skills Development Agency (2002a) Adult Pre-Entry Curriculum Framework for Literacy and Numeracy. LSDA. Learning and Skills Development Agency (2002b) Access for All. LSDA The Literacy Trust: www.literacytrust.org.uk