5B: What is ‘success’ in leadership and management?

One local council has taken a long-term proactive approach to tackling the issue of poor basic skills in the borough. Research commissioned by the Basic Skills Agency in 1996 and 1997 placed the east London borough fourth from bottom in the UK for literacy and second from bottom in numeracy. Taken together, these were the worst figures in London. It was estimated that approximately one-third of adults had very poor literacy or numeracy skills, and adults in the region held the least number of higher education qualifications in the country.

Funded directly from council reserves, the Adult Basic Skills Initiative was launched at the same time as the Skills for Life strategy in March 2001. A management group was established, incorporating representatives from all council departments as well as key strategic partners.

External consultants were commissioned to carry out an audit of the borough’s existing provision across all sectors. A subsequent consultancy provided a programme audit and a Whole-Borough Framework for Action was written. A team of adult literacy, numeracy and ESOL specialists was set up within the Community Inspection and Advisory service. Its brief was to establish quality benchmarks and to provide the necessary capacity for teaching literacy, numeracy and language skills. A teacher training group was also set up to link providers across all sectors.

The curriculum materials that are being developed exemplify the borough’s pedagogy of interactive whole-group teaching, which follows the example set by the national adult core curricula training. Providing adult basic skills teachers with materials and training that will support the new qualifications, standards and infrastructure of Skills for Life is a key aim. Partners in the process have been an important feature, not least because they have helped bring in additional funding through successful joint bids for European Social Funding and Neighbourhood Renewal Funding.

Five of the borough’s UK Online centres will become additional adult college venues, making the aim of providing venues ‘just a pram-push away’ more of a reality. Two centres located in libraries have opened for business. Venues use online and CD-based learning materials from learndirect and CTAD. All the venues will have integral teaching spaces to accommodate group and one-to-one teaching. They will be equipped with modern audio-visual and interactive technology, including electronic screens, ceiling-mounted projectors, hi-fi, DVD and video. Staff are being trained in the use of the new technology.

All of this is intended to help the council meet its objective of meeting and exceeding the national targets for participation and achievement set for 2007. This council intends to banish the gremlins from their east London borough forever!

E-partnerships

A consortium of 22 colleges provided training for basic skills teachers in IT skills. The course is called Online for the Future. The aim of the course is to help teachers use IT to enhance and extend their teaching skills. An electronic discussion board is an integral part of the course and all of the tasks involve a discussion element where participants are expected to exchange and share ideas and experiences. In particular, they are encouraged to explore and reflect on the practicalities of how these ideas could be implemented in their own teaching environment.

Course outcomes include the establishment of a web forum for practitioners to exchange ideas and best practice, the creation of a web discussion board for basic skills learners and the development of electronic worksheets and other ICT learning resources.

Information on the course is at: www.baselineuk.com

The following case study is taken from Reflect, the magazine of NRDC Issue 1 October 2004.

Cathy Clarkson describes how she as used Web Quest at Entry Level 1 and Level 2.

‘Web Quest is “an inquiry-oriented activity which some or all of the information that learners interact with comes from resources on the Internet” [1]. It has revitalised how I use the Internet in the classroom.

‘My second year of teaching a Level 2 [Computer Assisted Language Learning] class gave me a first opportunity to run an intervention study using Web Quest. Before this I had used the Internet with the students for obtaining information, but had had to spend time teaching learners how to use search engines efficiently. Even Level 2 students found this difficult, especially when the more obvious key words wouldn't reveal useful sites. A lot of time was spent 'surfing' rather than focusing on the task.

‘Last year I used Web Quest in two more successful intervention studies, one with a Level 2 ESOL group and one with an Entry Level 1 ESOL class. A Web Quest reduces unproductive 'surfing' time in the classroom as the sites are provided by the tutor. As a result it becomes an excellent tool that utilises the positive aspects of the internet (a wealth of real-world material) whilst removing one of the more negative aspects (a seemingly endless amount of unstructured, uncatalogued material).’

International food

Cathy continues, ‘I was very impressed by the success of the CALL intervention. It took the form of three different kinds of Internet-based tasks, culminating in a Web Quest built using the AClearn toolkit [2] titled 'international food' [3]. The task was to research a topic on international food, prepare a PowerPoint presentation and present it to an invited audience. The students were introduced to the topic by their class tutor, using the Web Quest displayed on a SmartBoard. When I walked into the CALL classroom the next day I found all nine students in various stages of logging on, viewing the Web Quest and organising their group tasks and roles. This was a far cry from the usual start to class, which saw students straggling in with tales of missed buses, sick children and dogs eating the homework.

‘By break-time, each group had produced a short account of their topic, initial research results and individual roles. The presentations the students gave were amazing. They gave three of the students the confidence to volunteer to talk at the Dewsbury College Staff Conference, where they talked in front of 250 teachers about how the use of ILT had improved their English.’

Online shopping at Entry Level 1

‘I was so delighted with the success of the Level 2 intervention that I decided to investigate the potential with an Entry Level 1 (E1) group. As soon as I started researching sites I became concerned. Suitable sites for E1 learners are few and far between. Trying to think of a suitable task for them incorporating the four skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening also proved difficult. I had to think carefully about the ICT skills, English skills and the different nature and structure of the session. How would the students deal with sessions that were not led by the teacher?

‘During the first three weeks of Internet-based classes, the students navigated the given sites and interacted with the information. They presented information to the class, firstly from written notes (here they were nervous, spoke quietly into their paper, and one student just refused to come to the front), and then from a PowerPoint presentation. They became more confident when working in pairs and groups and I was feeling more confident about standing back and not supporting immediately, giving them time to figure it out for themselves.

‘A Web Quest was built titled 'online shopping' [4]. Each group was given a set of photos from which they were to make up the characters in a family. This family had inherited a house and an amount of money. The task was to research the given sites on the Web Quest and present to the class how each family spent the money.

‘The results were remarkable. For two whole lessons I was able to make comprehensive observation notes and chat to the bilingual support worker as the students needed minimal support in their groups. When it came to giving the presentations, each student in each group spoke clearly, audibly, facing the front, and looking confident.

Enjoyment

‘I would definitely recommend Web Quest. The time spent in preparing your first Web Quest is rewarded by having an excellent resource which can be used again and again, providing an environment for students to take control of their own learning and work collaboratively and communicatively, even at Entry 1. Think carefully about the task and have three or four preparation classes so that lack of technical skills doesn't hinder the learning, then enjoy a motivated, enthused group of people learning from and with each other.’

References

[1] Dodge, B. (1997) Some Thoughts About Web Quests, San Diego State University at: http://edweb.sdsu.edu/courses/edtec59 6/about_WebQuests.html (accessed 16 August 2004)

[2] http://aclresources.net/webquests/

[3] www.aclresources.net/pitman/index.html

[4] www.aclresources.net/inroads/index.html

In March 1999, the Basic Skills Agency (BSA) and the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) undertook the management of a project to loan 1,500 laptop computers and associated equipment to local education services and voluntary and community organisations.

The intention of the initiative was to provide organisations with modern computer equipment that could contribute to widening participation, including learning in basic skills. Many of the organisations taking part found that the laptops provided an added incentive for attracting and retaining basic skills learners. Learners became familiar with learning again through the use of the laptops, which they perceived as non-threatening. By the time basic skills sessions were suggested, the learners themselves were aware of how poor literacy and numeracy skills had prevented them from fully accessing the work they had been doing previously. In a number of cases, teachers said that the learners themselves initiated the need for basic skills learning because they were unable to make full use of the ICT resources.

An evaluation of this initiative is available from NIACE Publications.