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Linda Are: Trialling the Making a Difference Curriculum
What is Research?
| Research needs to facilitate our understandings of both what and how we teach. According to Marie Brennan research is "a strategic and educational intervention is inventing the field" (Researching in ACFE: A Troubled Task p.25). In this research report Linda Are confirms Brennan’s view of research considering it a valuable professional development activity which can promote awareness of the what and how of teaching in the field of adult education. |  |
Trialling the Making A Difference Curriculum
Linda’s report provides a useful review of one curriculum for pre-vocational educators and also gives the reader a ‘meta’ look at the research process itself. The curriculum she investigates is titled Making A Difference which presents a series of topics aimed at opening up the dialogue around aspects and issues in contemporary society. Two example topics within the curriculum are ‘The Media’ and ‘Work Now and in the Future’.
Possibilities Opened Up By the Research Process
Linda describes the Professional development possibilities facilitated through this activity as those which are supportive of teachers’ planning and practice. These include refining teaching strategies, accessing teaching resources and using assessment task exemplars. Possible connections between the Certificate in Preparatory Education (CPE) (a TAFE SA pre-vocational certificate) and Making A Difference are also made. Finally, Linda comments on the research process and how this worked for her as a sole researcher.
Reflective Practice and Research
Trialling the Making A Difference Curriculum offers an exemplar of reflective practice. Reflective practice is defined by Dewey as the quality of our reflections about our everyday teaching which "enables us to know what we are about when we act" (in Zeichner 1980-81, p.8). Research findings from this project allow the reader to consider the ‘why’ of research. One key question is foremost; ‘What is the value of research?’ Linda’s project offers the insight that one critical part of any research is the learning offered to the group or individual researcher.
Addendum: The materials Linda Are trialled are now available as a published set of three volumes:
- Making a Difference: Research Report
- Gender, Language and Power: A Trainer’s Guide
- Gender Language and Power: Learning Resources
Materials are available from Penoestra Publications penoestra@hotmail.com
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Jane Bennett: Integrating Language, Literacy and Numeracy Support in the Delivery of the Vehicle Industry Certificate
Workplace Training
Workplace training has increasingly incorporated the use of Workplace Training Packages as the key to industry training which is linked to productivity outcomes. Workplace Training Packages consist of competency standards for all areas of work within a particular industry. Language, literacy and numeracy competencies are integrated into industry standards.
LLN Integration into a Workplace Certificate
This report by Jane Bennett, Integrating language, literacy and numeracy support in the delivery of the Vehicle Industry Certificate is important in that it pre-empts the call for the integration of language, literacy and numeracy competencies into modular vocational training.
Collaborating Bodies
Jane’s report shows collaboration between the workplace training body, Onkaparinga Consultancy Service, and the vehicle manufacturing industry, Mitsubishi Motors Australia Limited in the use of a nationally accredited curriculum, the Vehicle Industry Certificate. The preamble to the report provides background information on Mitsubishi Motors Adelaide Ltd., the Vehicle Industry Certificate and the Onkaparinga Consultancy Unit.
Key Research Questions
The research was guided by two key questions posed to educators:
Which were the most successful strategies and methodologies you used in the VIC classes you conducted?
What were the most positive outcomes for employees?
The ensuing report captures a number of classroom ‘givens’. These include:
the need to provide activities to achieve success and increase confidence;
the need to provide relevance and
the need to provide opportunities for skill development.
Additional to this, participants in the research employed four strategies which played a major part in the success of the classes and the project as a whole. These were consultation, customisation, comprehensiveness and integration. Integration was described in broad terms of teaching content and methodology, and the management of teaching.
Research Outcomes
Outcomes from this process of integrated teaching were described in two categories, communication skills and confidence coupled with skills development applicable to the job and further training.
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Cherilyn Graham, Jaqueline Rovensky & Vanessa Trafford Walker: Literacy/Numeracy Needs of Disadvantaged and Isolated Groups in Inner-City Adelaide
Questions driving the research
This study is important in its focus on a marginal group in the Adelaide community and its attempt to ask meaningful questions about the role of literacy and numeracy in the lives of this group. Key questions driving the research included:
What are the effects of both long term unemployment and homelessness on people accessing the services of Byron Place Community Centre?
Do poor literacy and numeracy skills present as a major barrier to clients in their ability to re-enter the workforce or to join mainstream educational programs?
Are there specific barriers to broader personal growth for this group?
Given the value placed on work and education in the general community the researchers involved in this project considered these important questions to ask.
Project aims
The purpose of this project was to find out about the literacy levels of the target group. Byron Place Community Centre staff believe that poor literacy and numeracy skill are often a major barrier to clients who may wish to find employment and/or mainstream education.
The stated aims of the project were to:
gain knowledge of client literacy levels
raise awareness of literacy/numeracy programs in inner-city Adelaide
identify barriers affecting client access to and provision of education programs
measure client knowledge of and interest in existing programs
Methodology
Three inner-city agencies became sites for this research project. Respondents answered a questionnaire in one-to-one interviews.
Project Findings
The project concluded that while the literacy levels of people accessing inner-city agencies was low it is important for literacy and numeracy programs to provide learning that had ‘meaning and purpose’. Suggestions for ongoing discussion are contained in the conclusion of the report. They reveal gaps both in community perceptions and external structures for the provision of literacy/numeracy for disadvantaged and isolated groups in inner-city Adelaide.
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Cherilyn Graham, Jaqueline Rovensky & Vanessa Trafford Walker Report : Literacy/Numeracy Issues in Small, Production and Process Industries
Context
The research conducted by Cherilyn, Jacqueline and Vanessa was driven by a concern of the Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services ITAB (MERS ITAB) that small business do not have the same opportunities as larger businesses to access literacy and numeracy training for disadvantaged workers.
Main questions
The questions which these colleagues addressed sought to identify barriers to the implementation of literacy and numeracy programs both from the employers’ and from the employees’ point of view.
Methodology
The research involved a survey of employers and employees in three small engineering production businesses. This survey took the form of a questionnaire which was given to the three employers and a separate questionnaire given to the seventeen employees who agreed to participate from these three businesses.
Conclusions
The research team drew the following conclusions:
low levels of literacy and numeracy are of concern within the manufacturing and engineering industries;
the survey revealed strategies for improving these low levels to enable employees to undertake professional development or to adopt newly introduced competency standards;
one of the most significant barriers to literacy and numeracy training is the inability of both employers and employees to look beyond the day to day demands of their particular industries and to recognise the benefit of devoting time to literacy and numeracy training.
Recommendations
The research team recommend that a research program be undertaken under the auspices of the MERS ITAB and that a group of interested, small, production companies seek funding from appropriate government agencies to provide a flexible training program. This program should be timetabled to suit workers, be delivered at work sites, should cover units of competence specific to the Engineering Production Certificate and should ensure literacy, numeracy and computing support.
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Doug Purcell: Literacy Online Research Project 1997
Teaching technologies
Adult literacy educators have made use of the computer and other technologies as teaching tools for well over a decade. One example of this is computer applications with spelling programs. However the world wide web has introduced possibilities for teaching and learning which could never have been envisioned at the beginning of this decade. As an agent of delivery the World Wide Web is still in its infancy. There has been an exponential growth in the development of on-line courses and there is much research to be done in both the development of courses using this medium and in the way they are used by students.
Literacy On-line
The Literacy On-line Research Project is descriptive of the rationale and development of vocational preparation and women’s education modules from TAFE SA curricula.
Research Concerns
Researcher, Doug Purcell outlines the opportunities provided by the project as:
enabling an investigation of how staff and students were coping with teaching and learning in the on-line environment;
allowing developers to reflect on their materials development and the issues surrounding instructional design and delivery.
Two key issues are highlighted in the preamble to the project: extending access to HWS programs literacy, language and numeracy allowing a wider audience and the broadening of the skills base for students accessing their learning in this way.
Staff Development
Doug provides the insight that TAFE SA has a target of 50% enrolments for on-line courses by the year 2000 and that meeting this objective also provided exemplary professional development for vocational preparation staff.
Methodology
A survey of staff and students was conducted using questionnaires for the two groups. Both staff and students were asked to respond to questions relating to on-line teaching and learning.
Summary Remarks
This research project was able to provide an important baseline against which teachers can utilise different methods of online delivery.
The student responses were used as part of an action research process.
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Julia Williams: Are We on the Right Track?
Context
Julia’s research involves a survey of ACE funded community language and literacy programs in South Australia to determine the degree to which the policies, professional development and curriculum used in community language programs are appropriate for Non-English Speaking background learners.
Key Questions
This research activity asks in its title a key question ‘Are we on the right track?’ The research provides a broad view of the teaching and learning activities of the community sector. Sub headings in the report indicate the areas of investigation proposed by the researcher:
1. Goals of NESB students |
What do students want from their involvement in language, literacy and numeracy classes? |
2. Certificate in Preparatory Education |
What are the strengths and weaknesses of this curriculum document in this context? |
3. Professional Development |
What are the strengths and weaknesses of the tutor training course, Good Practice? |
4. The Dream |
How could you best meet the needs of your students? |
Are we on the right track? presents an insight into the concerns of the practitioners in the field of language, literacy and numeracy education in the community. Key concerns are detailed in the conclusion of the report.
Recommendations
The respondents in this research provided three key areas for improvement in the quality of service provided by community language and literacy programs. These were: Contact hours, resources and program promotion. Interestingly, this research provides a snapshot of these programs at a critical moment in their development.
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