Initial discussion and assessment

Adult Literacy and Numeracy (ALN) Curriculum Framework for Scotlandpart2

Part Two: Practice

3. Individual Learning Planning

3.2 Initial discussion and assessment

The first stage in developing an Individual Learning Plan is the initial pre-course discussion and assessment process. As well as providing information about available learning opportunities, options, approaches and practical details, these interviews allow for an exploration of learners' current literacy and numeracy practices across private, family, community and working life, and present self-defined capabilities.  This process of self-assessment can be aided by sample texts or tasks, although these need to be relevant to the practices and contexts of the learner and need to be introduced sensitively, if at all at this stage, to avoid raising anxiety.  Learners are also encouraged to discuss their learning goals and aspirations and, if possible, to begin to break these down into the short and longer term.

Many potential learners need support in identifying learning goals and information generally about what is involved in being a learner before they join a group (e.g. talking to other learners, using worksheets/exercises, working at home between each session, etc). This support can be given by providing short induction courses which offer potential learners the opportunity to demonstrate their commitment to learning, to explore their expectations of adult learning, to consider the rights and responsibilities of tutors and learners and to learn about study skills.

An urban literacy and numeracy programme encourages new learners to attend a four-week induction course with the following learning outcomes:
  • participate in their literacy/numeracy group with confidence
  • plan and record their learning in their literacy/numeracy group
  • make choices about a how to go about their learning
  • discuss their plans and progress with their tutor
  • consider joining other literacy/numeracy short courses as well as their regular group.
A group tutor reported that "anyone joining the group who's done the induction course fits in much more quickly than other learners - they're much better prepared and I don't have to try to cover all the bits of learn-to-learn individually with them. They come to the group with a good idea of what they want to work on, and also tend to find it much easier to pick up record-keeping and evaluation and to see the point of it straight away."
 

An initial meeting may be used to reassure the learners, gather information and identify longer-term goals, and this information can be used to place the learner in the most appropriate provision. An example of some of the questions that might be asked to elicit information at this stage is illustrated in the box below. (NB: an interviewer would choose questions as appropriate from this selection.)

Introductory questions
  •  What kind of information do you need to understand?
  •  When do you come across reading, writing or numbers at the moment?
  •  What kinds of situations and people are involved?
  • What do you want to change about using writing, reading or numbers in these situations?
  • What do you hope to do in the future?
Talking about the learner's present literacy practices
  • How do you feel about reading?
  • What sorts of things do you read at the moment?
  • Do you read with other people?
  • Do you read easily?
  • What do you do if something is difficult to read?
  • How easy do you find it to get ideas down on paper?
  • How do you feel about writing?
  • What sorts of things do you write at the moment?
  • Do you write with other people?
  • Do you write quite easily?
  • What do you do if you have something difficult to write?
Talking about numeracy
  • How do you feel about numbers?
  •  What sorts of things do you use numbers or maths for at the moment?
  • What do you do if some number work is difficult?
 Information about previous learning experiences
  • How did you feel about school?
  • Did you get any certificates there or later?
  • Have you done any learning recently? At work/ training/on the computer/night classes?
  • How did you feel about that?
  • Was there anything that you particularly enjoyed or found effective?

This sort of information is of vital interest to the partnership and to the tutor and thus needs to be recorded on some personal record sheet and kept confidentially with other records about the learner. It is probably not necessary to include it on the ILP, since this is information already well known to the learner, but this baseline information about the learner may be used at future reviews.

If there appears to be a discrepancy between what a potential learner can actually do with literacy and numeracy and their general abilities, it might be useful to ask some initial informal questions to explore the possibility of specific learning difficulties (see Appendix 3).

Initial assessment ? community based provision
 
In one area the development worker for literacy and numeracy has an initial discussion with the learner about her or his learning experience, current uses of literacy and numeracy and goals - both short- and long-term. This information, along with the learner?s availability, is used to place the learner in a group.
 
At the learner's first session, the development worker meets her/him and they join the group at coffee time, when introductions are made and the new learner can get some idea of what other learners are working on. The first part of the session will have been spent working together as a group. During the rest of the session the learner carries out simple assessment tasks with the development worker, and a starting point is identified for future work. The tutor may also be involved in this assessment, and joins the learner and development worker to discuss what the learner would like to start working on.
 
The advantages of this model are:
  • the learner is attending his/her first session with someone already familiar
  • it removes for the learner the anxiety of finding the right room and introducing her/himself to an unknown tutor
  • the tutor has time to spend with the new learner, having ensured that the other learners in the group have work to carry on with from the first part of the session.
 
<< Section 3.1 : Section 3.3 >>