The essential skills of language, literacy and numeracy are necessary for achievement and future employment of the learners. Towards the latter part of the twentieth century, progress in tackling literacy and numeracy underachievement in schools was being achieved. However, too many adults in England were unable to utilise the opportunities of the knowledge-based economy. The legacy of skills needs and poor quality provision left millions of adults in England, and their families, disadvantaged. On an average, poor literacy and numeracy skills in adults results in earnings of £50,000 less over their working lives and are more likely to have health related issues.
The mission to reduce the number of adults with language, literacy and numeracy difficulties from one in five to one in ten resulted in the adoption of the Skills for Life strategy nationally in 2001. Subsequently, the Leitch Review recommended that the UK commit to becoming a world leader in skills by 2020 with a basic skills objective "for 95% of adults to achieve the basic skills of functional literacy and numeracy" by 2020. It emphasises shared responsibility between employers, individuals and the government; focuses on economically valuable and demand-led skills and maintain the ability to adapt and respond to future market needs.
To implement the above, the strategy Success for All was begun to develop good quality colleges and providers. It covers all post-16 providers including colleges, work-based learning providers, adult and community learning, prisons, probation and school sixth forms.
In 2003, the 21st Century Skills strategy programme was introduced and it provides free training in the workplace in basic skills and level 2. The Wolf Report in 2011 conducted a review of vocational education and concluded that many of England’s 14-19 year olds do not progress into either secure employment or higher education and training. Its recommendations were: learner’s programme of study should provide for labour market and educational progress; provide critical information for young people to make life-determining decisions with regards to vocational course, qualification or institution.
Role of Teachers
The development of language and literacy skills in learners requires teachers to be aware of potential barriers including personal factors such as age and disability; social factors such as family responsibilities, unemployment, socioeconomic status and cultural factors such as attitudes, ethnicity and motivation.
Teachers should be aware of literacy research in this field and have explicit knowledge about the minimum core four elements, namely: literacy- (reading, writing, spelling, grammar); language- (speaking, listening, discussion); numeracy-(calculations, interpretations, evaluations, measurements) and information and communication technology (ICT)- (online applications, e-mails , e-learning programs, interactive whiteboard and/or VLE).
The skills goals should be included in learners’ individual learning plans and teachers should develop inclusive approaches to develop learners’ skills within the context of their own area of specialism or workplace. In order to achieve this effectively, teachers have to work together as a team with specialist teachers and support staff.
Theories of learning and teaching
Behaviourist theory
The basis of this approach is that learners respond to external stimuli. The teacher provides the stimulus with the expectation that the learner reacts to and gains knowledge or experience. The behaviourist approach believes that constant repetition and reinforcement of a task combined with feedback from the facilitator results in good learning.
This approach should have precise behavioural objectives at the start and then ensure that the objectives are met by providing the right opportunities. Gagné (1985) suggested that learning takes place in a hierarchical way. He said that learning at one level is possible; however this is dependent on achievement of learning objectives at a previous level.
Social Learning Theory
Everybody has observation skills and people learn by observing others. This approach emphasises on learning with other people, through interpersonal interactions, one to one or as a team member. However, every individual has a mind of his / her own and tend to be selective about what / who they choose to copy. It is therefore crucial to follow and demonstrate best practice and pick up on mistakes quickly.
Cognitive Approach
In contrast to behaviour theory, in this approach the role of the active mind in processing learning opportunities and developing is at the core. Dewey (1938) believed that learning involves 'learning to think'. Learning can only occur if students play an interactive role and actively participate in classroom activities. Learning should be meaningful to each learner, and critical reflection of the information provided is paramount.
Humanistic Approach
Diversity in organisations and in society is a reflection of this ideology. Active learning is at the core of this approach to learning. The learner should have the freedom to develop his/her own methodology of learning and this also provides a sense of ownership for one’s own learning. For new learning to take place effectively, the learner depends on past experiences for processing information.
Part 1.b
Rationale
The lesson plan is based on simultaneous equations for GCSE maths with learners in the age group of 14-16 year old.
Adult Literacy theories
These represent certain ideas that try to explain the methodology that adults use to learn literacy skills.
1) Functional: This is probably one of the fundamental theories that refer to the ability to read and write to complete routine mundane daily tasks at home and the workplace. Skills learnt by this method lay the foundation for higher-level functions.
2) Cognitivism: This theory is based on the premise that humans process the information that they receive rather than merely respond to it. The behavioural changes are suggestive of the learners’ thought process.
3) Freirean: This approach is based on the work of Brazilian educator Paulo Freire. He described literacy as a medium to raise critical consciousness, mass social movements and eventual overthrow of oppressive regimes. Freire’s social justice theory is a critical literacy approach wherein learners are stimulated to critically analyse information, develop a deeper understanding and are motivated to act upon it for the greater good. The values and beliefs of the writer or speaker have a strong bearing on the information conveyed to the learners. Hence, it is important for adults to develop the skills for critical thinking and appraisal. This stimulates the adult learners to dig deeper, gain insight and avoid manipulation by writers and speakers.
Adult Numeracy Theories
There are three key theories:
1) Behaviourist: This approach is a standard model in routine teaching. The teacher provides mathematical knowledge in the form of a problem (the stimulus), which the learner assimilates, analyses and then generates a solution for (the response). Adherence to set principles results in the correct answer, which can then be easily assessed by examinations and tests.
2) Constructivist: In this theory, learners actively construct mathematical knowledge with new information and experiences. These usually follow either Piaget, that look into the learners’ methodology of mathematical comprehension through important developmental milestones, or Vygotsky, who saw learning as a social medium, wherein teachers provide the framework for learners to build upon and progress onto higher levels of development.
3) Sociocultural: Sociocultural theories of adult numeracy tag onto Vygotsky’s approach. The numeracy learning and teaching is influenced by different social and cultural factors. All individuals are members of a society and the practices of individuals are representative of those groups or organisations. Adult learners generally have diverse positive and negative, social as well as cultural experiences. They belong to a variety of social and cultural structures, that influence and inform their learning and development. Skills learnt by this method promote greater understanding and contribute to social justice movements.
Methods to embed literacy within the (Mathematics) lesson plan
In the Common Core Standards, emphasis is placed on the ability to critically read and write because the standardised tests require students to interpret and communicate mathematical concepts effectively. Mraz et al (2010) elude to that fact, “Adolescents entering the adult world in the 21st century will read and write more than at any other time in human history. They will need advanced levels of literacy to perform their jobs, run their households, act as citizens, and conduct their personal lives”. Students in mathematics should have the ability to use textual information to comprehend and provide solutions to problems. Therefore it is important to teach various literacy strategies in the mathematics classroom. Some of the strategies are:
1) Discussion led literacy development
• Elicit the meaning of key words and its relevance within the context, to stimulate the thought process about what is read by asking questions and seeking answers within the text (metacognition). For example, meaning of the words equation, simultaneous and elimination in the lesson plan.
• Giving students adequate resources to present their work in the form of an organized presentation or encourage them to step up in front of the group to explain their solutions to a given problem.
• Explain the origin of some of the key words like coefficients
• Discussion about the veracity of theorems and statements
2) Emphasise the spelling of key mathematical terms correctly such as
• Phonetic pronunciation of p-a-r-a-l-l-e-l-o-g-r-a-m
• Split up the words into syllables like cir-cum-fer-ence
• When as word is initially introduced, encourage the use of the look-say-cover-write-check system
• Identification of words within words e.g., words tan and us in simultaneous to help students remember spellings
3) Encourage the practice of sequential writing in mathematical language-
• Depict real life scenarios in mathematical language. For example, the number of states in USA is equal to 50 can be written as s=50, where ‘s’ denotes the total number of states of USA.
• Promote the notion that sequential writing of equations helps in problem solving.
Numeracy is already embedded within the field of mathematics such as addition, subtraction,