Practitioners leading research - UCL Institute of Educationdera.ioe.ac.uk/22298/1/doc_3554.pdf · Practitioners leading research ... Suuand George, Gabi Rechnagel, Catherine Ruck

Practitioners leading researchCompiled and edited by Mary Hamilton, Paul Davies and Kathryn James

A report of action research projects from the

NRDC Practitioner-Led Research Initiative (PLRI)

Attracting new learners

Understanding purpose and perseverance in learners

How practitioners can engage in research

Creativity in the Skills for Life classroom

Resources to support practitioner research

Published by the National Research and DevelopmentCentre for Adult Literacy and Numeracy

This document is also available in pdf format fromNRDC's website, www.nrdc.org.uk.

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Extracts from this publication may be used or reproducedfor non-commercial, research, teaching or trainingpurposes on condition that the source is acknowledged.

NRDC is a consortium of partners led by the Institute ofEducation, University of London (see back cover for a listof members) and is part of the Bedford Group forLifecourse and Statistical Studies at the IoE.www.ioe.ac.uk/bedfordgroup

Design: info@ chapmandesign.netPrint: dsi colourworksCover photo: Photofusion

Round One Report

The first report from thePractitioner-Led ResearchInitiative is entitled: New ways ofengaging new learners: lessonsfrom round one of the practitioner-led research initiative.

Project team leaders: Phil Euesden, Hamid Patel, CherylDillon, Sue Pilbeam, Lynn Ireland,Sandi Wales and Anita Wilson

This is available from NRDC. See www.nrdc.org.uk for details

Acknowledgements 4

Preface 5

Part 1

The PLRI reports

Introduction 8

Summary of findings 12

Lessons learned from managing and supporting practitioner research 17

The experiences of practitioner researchers 20

Use and dissemination 24

Conclusions and issues for the future of practitioner involvement in NRDC 25

Part 2: Purpose and perseverance

PLRI summaries for Round Two

‘I Can’: demonstrating soft outcomes for

homeless and vulnerable adult learners

Broadway Homelessness and Support 28

What are the motivating and demotivating factors

that affect current adult numeracy learners?

City College Brighton and Hove 32

Extracurricular activities: added value or

wasted resources?

Exeter College 36

Learners’ experiences and perceptions

of the impact of residential education on

Skills for Life learning

Northern College for Residential Adult Education 40

Learner-centred practice: meeting the goals

and motivation of learners on Skills for Life

programmes

York College 44

ESOL and learner retention

City and Islington College 48

Part 3: Creativity in teaching and learning

PLRI summaries for Round Three

Learner-centred action research at Dewsbury

College

Dewsbury College 54

Weaving reading for pleasure into the

Skills for Life adult literacy curriculum

Essex 58

Stepping up – a peer-education project

for young homeless people

Sunderland YMCA Foyer 62

Spectrum: working to engage young offenders

Future Prospects and York College 66

Soft Currency: memory and money

The Soft Currency team 70

Part 4

Resources and appendices

Resources for practitioner research 76

Appendices

1: Statement of principles for practitionerinvolvement in NRDC activities 83

2: Guidelines for applying to NRDC’s inititative in literacy, numeracy and ESOL 84

3: Membership and terms of reference for theconsultative group 91

4: List of funded projects and titles: PLRI projects 2004-2006 92

5: NRDC discussion paper on the publicationsstrategy for practitioner research projects 95

6: Guidelines for the critical friend 97

7: Agenda for meeting with project research support people 98

8: Interim progress report 99

Practitioners leading researchA report of action research projects from the NRDC Practitioner-Led Research Initiative (PLRI)

Contents

3

Project Teams for Rounds Two and Three

Broadway Homelessness and Support

Harriet Cookson, Geraldine Hale, Bev Johnson,Catherine Menist and Becky Rice

City College Brighton and Hove

Alison Kelly, Sara Fletcher, Jenny O’Connor, JaneMacIntosh, Anna Smith, Debbie Hollis, Susi MaxwellStewart, Hillary Humphries, Jo Gull, Corina Fairmanand Maria Thomas

Exeter College

Fakira Asfaq, Suzanne Oyo, Saban Ozturk, CatherineRuck, Nrvan El Saied and David Wright

Northern College for Residential Adult Education

Sue Chattwood, Bronwen Ray, Suzanne Tomlinsonand Jill Westerman, Tony Jowitt, Jan Eldred, JeanGoodridge, Hayley Laurie

York College

Helen Kenwright with Julie Ainsworth, ShonaCuthbertson, Judith Gresty, Nick Haigh and LauraKent

City and Islington College

James McGoldrick, Sharon Turner and FrancesWeinreich with Melanie Cooke

Dewsbury College

Cathy Clarkson and Vasiliki Scurfield, Beth Babenko,Tina Boon, Frieda Marti-Collett, Anita McCarthy,David Pine, Janet Toker, Julia Vidal, Maria Kambouri,James Simpson

Essex

Sue Oakey, Maggie Evans, Dan Spacagna, June Turner

Sunderland YMCA Foyer

Sarah Rennie and Stephen McKinlay, MaggieGregson, Leesa Lee

Future Prospects and York College

Eamonn Addison, Andy Bucklee and Helen Kenwright

The Soft Currency Team

Alan Gorman, Professor Garth Allen, Jane Mace, BillGreenwell, David Wright, Caroline Denham, WendyHearn, Von Mathieson and Ronnie Plagerson, JanetCrocker, Suuand George, Gabi Rechnagel, CatherineRuck

Compiled and edited by

Mary Hamilton

Lancaster UniversityPaul Davies

Lancaster UniversityKathryn James

Lancaster University

Editorial support

Jenny Rhys

Report summarisingRose James

Copy-editorStephen York

Proofreader

Peer review

This report was peer reviewed.

The critical reviewers were:

Dr Chris Jude

Head of Lifelong Learning, London Borough ofIslingtonDr Chris Atkin

Associate Professor, University of NottinghamJenny Gardiner

Quality Improvement AgencyProfessor Yvonne Hillier

University of BrightonJudith Hinman

NRDCJay Derrick

BlueSky Learning LtdDr Juliet Merrifield

Principal, Friends Centre, BrightonUrsula Howard

NRDCSusan Henderson

DfES

Acknowledgements

Practitioners leading research

4

Engaging practitioners in research and encouragingreflective practice is central to NRDC's remit. ThePractitioner-Led Research Initiative (PLRI), whichran from 2004 to 2006, supported 17 groups ofliteracy, language and numeracy (LLN) practitionersin designing, developing and completing hands-onresearch and development projects. These projectsaddressed policy priorities in Skills for Life andimportant messages have emerged which will helpin the future development of the strategy. Thisreport summarises key findings and explores thelessons learnt from the process.

NRDC is committed to bringing together the in-depth knowledge that practitioners have from theirexperience and reflection on practice with rigorousresearch and development methods. Well-supported and resourced practitioner research isbest placed to develop practice because itencourages critical and reflective inquiry. It throwslight on, explores and challenges accepted practicesand received wisdom from the inside as well as theoutside. It provides the opportunity to recognise anduse practitioners’ knowledge, and to identify andpromote innovative practices, which mushroomconstantly in so many places. Practitioner researchalso develops the transferable skills needed tounderpin good practice and quality improvement.

NRDC has engaged practitioners in research inmany ways, involving teachers and others at allstages of the research process, from design to datagathering to analysis of findings on many largeempirical studies. We gain knowledge from manykinds of research, including small-scale actionresearch and development projects of the typerepresented by the PLRI, and by engagingpractitioners in developing better practice guidancebased on the evidence produced.

The PLRI has been central to building capacity inliteracy, numeracy and ESOL research and practice.As part of this project and others, NRDC has beenable to bring together policy-makers, practitionersand researchers in seminars, conferences, and alsothrough our research and practice-focusedmagazine reflect, to share knowledge, strengthennetworks and inform policy.

NRDC's work is part of a wider movement towardsdeveloping practitioners as researchers/developersand practitioner-led research. This movement isalive and well, but needs energy, commitment andpersistence to keep it going. The Learning andSkills Network (then LSDA) founded the Learningand Skills Research Network back in the 1990s, toengage practitioners across post-16 learning.Thanks to practitioners and researchers workingtogether it has now been revived. Those interestedin finding out more should contact Andrew Morris orYvonne Hillier, whose details are provided in theresources section of this report.1

In the literacy, language and numeracy field, RaPAL(Research and Practice in Adult Literacy) wasestablished in 1985 and is still going strong, withconferences, seminars and its own journal. In ESOL,NATECLA (National Association for Teaching Englishand other Community Languages to Adults) plays asimilar role, and the international numeracy group,ALM (Adults Learning Mathematics) offers aworldwide network, bringing post-16 maths andnumeracy researchers and practitioners together,with an annual conference providing thecornerstone of its activities.

We hope you find the reports in this publicationinformative and thought-provoking. The findingsfrom the research offer clear messages that chimewith those from larger empirical data. They areparticularly relevant in terms of reaching peoplewho have been turned off by formal learning; inshowing how to make numeracy an attractive optionfor learners; in demonstrating the positivepossibilities of creativity in the classroom alongsideformal curricula; in identifying approaches whichsupport progress and persistence … and muchmore.

NRDC will continue to work proactively to find newways to encourage practitioners to engage withresearch and development. Please contact us if youare interested and can find time in your busy livesfor this exciting, innovative and important work. ■

Ursula Howard

Director, NRDC

Practitioners leading research

Preface

5Preface

1 See page 102

Part1

Ph

oto

fus

ion

Introduction

Summary of findings

Lessons learned from managing and supporting practitioner research

The experiences of practitioner researchers

Use and dissemination

Conclusions and issues for the future of practitioner involvement in NRDC

8

12

17

20

24

25

The PLRI Reports

The initiative offered anopportunity for groups ofpractitioners to engage in hands-on research.

This report provides a detailed summary of thePractitioner-Led Research Initiative (PLRI)which ran for three years between 2004 and

2006. Each round funded up to six nine-monthprojects selected through an open competition (seeAppendix 4). The initiative offered an opportunity forgroups of practitioners to engage in hands-onresearch. Groups were invited to identify researchquestions, design and carry out projects withstructured support from the research community. Theinitiative was funded by the Department for Educationand Skills (DfES) as part of the National Research andDevelopment Centre for Adult Literacy and Numeracy(NRDC) and by the European Social Fund (ESF). It wascoordinated by a team at Lancaster University with thesupport of a national advisory group comprised ofrepresentatives from the field. This report outlines thereasons for the PLRI, the main findings that emergedfrom the research projects and the experiences ofthose who took part in it.

One of the underpinning strategies of NRDC is to‘build research capacity, reflective practice andcareer development through the systematicengagement of teachers and other practitioners inthe centre’ (NRDC, 2003: 13). The overall intentionof the PLRI is to publicise and support this strategyby drawing in a new constituency of beginningpractitioner researchers. The aims were explainedto applicants as being to:

• build research capacity in the field;• produce findings which will give new insights into

adult literacy, numeracy and ESOL;• embed the activities of NRDC in practice;• strengthen networks linking practice, research

and policy.

Drawing on a model of partnership working, theinitiative was intended to be of benefit topractitioners and their organisations in a number of

ways, providing an opportunity to put originalresearch ideas into practice, offering the chance tostep back and reflect on practice, and systematicallyto explore day-to-day issues arising from the SkillsFor Life policy.

Within the scope of a broad theme, practitionerswere invited to pose researchable questions thatwould be useful to them, their employinginstitutions and the local communities they serve.Ideally research topics would be related to existingactivities and issues that needed to be addressed byorganisations.

The theme for the three rounds

Each round had a clear theme. These were:

Round One ‘New ways of engaging new learners’Round Two‘Understanding purpose and perseverance –learners’ aspirations and commitment to learning’Round Three‘Creativity in teaching and learning’.

The themes were intentionally broad, offering scopefor groups to pose many different questions, whilstaddressing a key topical issue relevant to the Skillsfor Life strategy. It was important that applicantsrecognised that this initiative was for research, notfor activities that are purely development focused.Research was defined as a systematic documentingof activities, through collecting and recording newdata so as to develop an underpinning frameworkfor future development, producing information forfuture use, not simply a change in present provision.

How the PLRI worked

The bidding processApplications were invited from locally based‘research groups’ of between three and six

Introduction

8 Part 1: The PLRI Reports

practitioners based in any region of England.Collaborations between institutions were stronglyencouraged, including links with universities.However, the initiative stipulated that the leadapplicant must be directly involved withprogrammes delivering literacy, numeracy andESOL programmes in any organisational setting.Ideally, groups would be made up of practitionersbased in the same institution or within a local‘travel to learn’ area in order to minimisecommunication problems and allow for a localsupport group to develop.

Each group was required to include a designatedResearch Support Person (RSP) whose role wouldbe to support day-to-day project activities, arrangeand/or deliver research methods training and co-ordinate report writing. Groups were also expectedto link into existing local and regional networks(NRDC, ABSSU, LSDA (now LSN), NIACE and LocalLearning Partnerships) by setting up an advisorygroup for their project.

A budget of up to £10,000 was awarded to eachsuccessful project under specified headings. Half ofthis was paid at the start of the project and theremainder on completion of the project report.

Co-ordinating the initiative

Each round of the initiative was led by anoperational team of three: Mary Hamilton, AnitaWilson (Paul Davies for Round Three) and KathrynJames at Lancaster University, supported by anAdvisory Group made up of a broad range ofprofessionals in the field and representatives fromNRDC. (See Appendix 3 for a full list of members.)The operational team were responsible for day-to-day management of the initiative. The advisorygroup was responsible not only for monitoring theprogress of the initiative and the projects within it,but also for providing a group of critical readers who

assisted in the selection process by reading andshortlisting applications. The final selection panelwas also drawn from the advisory group with aremit to ensure as wide a range of institutionalsettings, specialisms and geographical locations aspossible. In addition, each project was allocated acritical friend, often drawn from the advisory groupor recommended by them, whose specific area ofexpertise was felt to be of particular value.Guidelines were drawn up for the role of academicadvisor (see Appendix 6). Applications to tender forthe first round of projects went out in the summerof 2003.

Links and networks

The projects were not undertaken in isolation. Atthe initial briefing day, teams were giveninformation about other practitioner-led researchinitiatives (Research in Practice in Adult Literacy(RaPAL) and a similar Canadian network in BritishColumbia – RiPAL, for example) and researchsupport personnel offered links to other relevantresearch and theoretical frameworks. Additionally,the teams were informed about a previous NRDCinitiative where teacher–researchers had beenattached to existing funded projects (see Ivanic,2004; Mellor et al., 2004; Tomlin et al., 2006). Teamswere also alerted to other research networks intheir area such as the Northwest Skills for LifeResearch forum.

It was hoped that teams might be able tocollaborate with one another, but demands of timeand the short duration of the projects meant that inthe event, the possibilities for this were limited. Anumber of projects were, however, linked to widerinitiatives and national support frameworks. Forexample, Blackburn and Darwen was linked to theEQUAL project and the Campaign for Learning. TheDerbyshire team had additional training supportfrom NIACE and the Somerset workplace project

Each project was allocated acritical friend whose specific area of expertise was felt to be of particular value.

9Part 1: The PLRI Reports

3

was linked to the Somerset Learning Partnership.The Essex project on reading for pleasure waslinked into a National Literacy Trust funded initiativecalled ‘The Vital Link’.

Project teams came together for interim meetingsat the halfway point in the research where ideaswere shared and progress noted. End of projectconferences provided the opportunity for teams topresent their findings to a large audience bydesigning interactive presentations andsummarising their findings by means of posters.

All projects were visited at least once by theircritical friend and/or a member of the Lancasterteam. Projects were given a template for writingtheir final report and were encouraged to submitdrafts to the Lancaster team for comment.

Despite the demanding timescale and the widegeographical spread it is impressive that teamsremained consistent. No group had to drop out.2

Everyone maintained a presence throughout the lifeof the projects. Almost every project wasrepresented at the interim meetings and all came tothe final conference. All delivered their reports ontime. Teams maintained contact both within theirpartnerships, with the co-ordinating team atLancaster, the critical friends that were appointedto them and to the research support teams that theyhad chosen to support them.

Links were made between the various roundprojects – for example one of the first roundprojects contributed to the briefing day for thesecond round and other teams offered to share theirexperiences of managing and fulfilling therequirements.

Making changes through practitioner-led research

One of the hopes for the projects reported here wasthat they would lead to change in the field and allprojects were asked to comment on the impacts oftheir work in their reports.

The wider literature reporting on experiences of

practitioner research from the UK and elsewheresuggests that it can be an effective way of engagingwith practitioners. For example a recent review ofthe US literature concludes that practitionerinvolvement is achieved more effectively throughactive engagement with research processes,collaboration and dialogue with researchers, ratherthan simple exposure to existing research findings.The evidence suggests that teachers need to talktogether about and reflect on research through localgroups and networks. The more sustained theinvolvement with research, the more fullypractitioners understand it (Bingham and Smith,2003: 10)

The evaluations of a recent similar initiative, theLSDA (now LSN) regional projects by Lin Norman,confirm these findings. They suggest that a numberof issues are important to the success ofpractitioner research projects: paid time forpractitioners to engage with the research activities;mentoring and advice in relation to research skills;strong central guidelines and a clear structure tothe projects; local peer support, effective projectmanagement and good communication between allpartners (Norman, 2001, 2002, 2003). Interest in thetopics of research needs to be high in order tosustain activity which is typically underpinned by alarge amount of ‘gift time’. The evaluations weregenerally positive in finding that the researchinvolvement strengthened regional collaborationsand partnerships, produced results with potentialpractical value and increased enthusiasm forresearch among the participants (see, for example,Ward and Edwards, 2002).

However, the findings from the LSDA’s programmeconcur with research in the US and in Australia thatit is easier to inspire individual change but morecomplex to impact on the field as a whole. ‘Change’can mean a variety of things, all of which can bevaluable to the field. Previous writers, such as DavidMiddlewood and his colleagues (Middlewood et al.1999), have distinguished between:

• changes of attitude, conceptualisation and

2 The only exception to this was the one project we lost at the commissioningstage because the proposed project director moved jobs and no-one in herorganisation could be found to replace her. Only five, instead of six projects werecommissioned, therefore, in Round Three.


understanding of the issues under study;• small-scale, specific and local embedding of

results; and• longer term organisational and culture change

impacting on policy and practice.

David Middlewood comments:In most cases researcher practitioners are not likely todisseminate their findings beyond their owninstitution. Research work intended to lead toinstitutional improvement usually originates from theidentified needs of that particular institution anddissemination may only be the first phase of theimplementation or embedding of change.(Middlewood et al., 1999: 167)

In other words, evidence in and of itself does notmake change. It is crucial how and whodisseminates this evidence, who feels it to beimportant and how it is understood to be relevant topractice. These are complicated processes that areunlikely to be affected by a single practitioner’sexperience of research. In organisational studies ofculture and change it is well known that the supportof ‘key change agents’ including seniormanagement is crucial to embedding the findings ofprojects. By working with groups of practitionersrather than individuals, and by encouraging teamsto identify topics of concern with their organisations,it was hoped that such embedding would be easier.

Why practitioner involvement is important

All social policy research now aims to involve usergroups and to improve the impact of research. Onevital strand is to build research capacity andawareness through engagement with the process ofresearch itself.

NRDC’s rationale for supporting practitionerinvolvement in its research programme is stated inits strategy document. One of the underpinningstrategies of NRDC is to ‘build research capacity,reflective practice and career development throughthe systematic engagement of teachers and otherpractitioners in the centre’ (NRDC, 2003: 13).Engagement of practitioners at all stages of the

Centre’s work is a particular focus of Programme 4(professional development) and Programme 5(content and infrastructure). The strategy documentemphasises that impact is viewed as an iterativeprocess occurring throughout the research cycle,not simply a matter of dissemination findings at theend (NRDC, 2003: 17).

Systematic engagement of learners, tutors andmanagers can make important contributions ateach of the common decision stages of the researchprocess: aims, methodologies, data collection,analysis, interpretation, dissemination. They aregoing to be the ones most affected by the outcomesof the research, and by the processes by which datais collected. In addition, learners, tutors andmanagers are likely to be well situated to collectand interpret many forms of data, since they arecolleagues and peers of those whose views arebeing sought.

Engaging practitioners in research will ensure thatthe work done is relevant and geared to the needsof adult learners, and that its value is recognised byteachers. It will increase the sense of ownership of,and commitment to, the research itself, and to anyteacher development and other policy and practiceproposals which are based on the research.

Involving tutors and managers in conducting theresearch will in itself be a form of professionaldevelopment for them. Wherever possiblepractitioner research activities will be creditedtoward recognised professional qualifications

The PLRI was designed to contribute both tocontinuing professional development and toembedding findings from the centre’s researchprojects in the field. PLRI places participants inresearch projects being carried out by the NRDCand aims to:

• Develop a highly trained pool of ABEprofessionals who will go on to support othertutors in further training and research activities.

• Facilitate the growth of teacher–researchers in

Impact is viewed as an iterativeprocess occurring throughoutthe research cycle, not simply amatter of dissemination findingsat the end.


3

the field and encourage a research-led agendafor the teaching of adult literacy, numeracy andESOL.

• Improve and extend dissemination of theresearch base in order to support practitionersmore fully in their work, and enable them todraw on this research in their practice.

An important aspect of this initiative is to engageproviding organisations in the programme, therebyincreasing their involvement in and awareness ofresearch activities, agendas and outcomes,providing essential infrastructures for supportincluding release from teaching to allowpractitioner researchers to carry out their work,becoming more active in disseminating and actingon research outcomes.

Outline of this report

Section 2 is a summary of findings from thestudies carried out under the umbrella of the PLRIare presented and in Section 3 we share ourexperiences of managing and supporting a majorPractitioner Research programme. Section 4summarises the experiences of the practitionerresearchers themselves and those of the researchsupport people who were there to help them.Section 5 outlines how the groups have and arecontinuing to communicate their findings andSection 6 presents the main conclusions from theinitiative and makes some recommendations aboutthe future for practitioner research. ■

Over the three years of the initiative the 17studies produced a substantial number offindings. To an extent a very large number of

these were consistent with the range of findingsprevalent in the research literature on adultlearning in general and on NRDC’s website inparticular, such as the important role confidenceand self-esteem play in successful learning.Consequently, the summary which follows paysparticular attention to those findings which were ofparticular interest to the practitioner researchgroups and to which they wanted audiences to paymost attention.

Round One – ‘New ways of engaging new

learners’

The Skills for Life strategy has undoubtedly raisedthe profile of basic or essential skills learning.However, the Round One reports showed there arestill major barriers to overcome in order to attractthose learners who have little tradition in signing upfor courses. On a positive note, they also presentedencouraging evidence to suggest these barriers canbe reduced. For example, in relation to workplacelearning, the authors from the Somerset LearningPartnership hoped their report would ‘provideencouragement to practitioners that success ispossible in what might otherwise have beenconsidered hopeless circumstances’. However,other authors explained that there is no simple,quick fix and that strategies to engage new learnersneed to be ongoing rather than short term.

The reports suggested that while the high profileSkills for Life programme support learnerengagement at national policy level, it is the practicaland persistent, day-to-day efforts of local providersand other advocates that is the key to attracting newlearners. And it is arguable that practitionerresearchers are best placed to shed light on theseefforts during research projects such as these.

Summary of findings


3

Findings - at a glance


Round One

• Major barriers still need to beovercome to attract learnerswho traditionally do not sign upfor courses. While thesebarriers can be reduced, there isno simple, quick fix.

• Strategies to engage newlearners need to be ongoingrather than short term.

• One of the keys to attractingnew learners is the practical andpersistent day-to-day efforts oflocal providers and otheradvocates.

• Simple, time-effective models ofengagement, such as one-hourtaster sessions, could be all thatis needed to engage or re-engage new learners.

• Trusted local brokers from thecommunity and voluntarysectors can play a useful role inmatching potential learners toprovision and convincing themthat they are ‘capable ofsucceeding’.

• Developing brokers could becrucial in opening up learningopportunities in specificsituations, such as theworkplace for example, whereline managers may find it hardto implement basic skillslearning in the face of thedemands of competingdeadlines.

• Engaging new learners can bemade easier if organisationscollaborate with one another.

• Effective training requires timeand resources. Staff need timeto develop the curriculum andtest-drive and evaluate differentmethodologies.

Round Two

• Being able to learn in a relaxedatmosphere, without thepressures and interruptions ofeveryday life, contributes tomaking learning a positiveexperience.

• ‘Softer’ gains, especially amongmore vulnerable members ofsociety, need to be valued asmuch as more measurableachievements.

• There can be a ‘ping-pong’effect between feelings andresults. Learning how to dosomething sometimes makesadults feel better aboutthemselves, and because of this,they may be prepared to learn alittle more.

• Taster sessions can enablelearners to see now usefulsomething like numeracy skillscould be, whereas previouslythey may not have seen the pointto such a course.

• Adults change as they learn: thereasons for starting a coursecan be different to the reasonsfor continuing with it.

• Effective teaching can be amajor factor in influencingadults to commit and perseverewith learning.

• Matching activities to learners’interests, goals and motivationalneeds was found to be a highlysuccessful teaching strategy.

• Extracurricular activities canenable learners to gain widerknowledge of how to deal withlife in general.

• A learner who can be shown thatprogress has been made in oneaspect of their life is more likelyto view the next learning targetpositively.

Round Three

• Enjoyment and pleasure can beassociated with successfullearning – it is not just aboutcommitment and perseverance.

• Linking reading for pleasureactivities to the NationalCurriculum is straightforward,especially when the support,expertise and resources of thelibrary service make it easy tofacilitate.

• There is sufficient flexibility inthe Skills for Life curriculum toallow creative learningexperiences that reflect theinterests and culture of youngpeople to match learningoutcomes and Skills for Lifeobjectives.

• The ‘reminiscence’ or sharingmemories approach to learningproved extremely popularamongst older learners – itpromoted an ‘enjoyable andrelaxed atmosphere’.

• Involving people in the design oftheir learning can be a veryeffective way of improvingmotivation and boosting levels ofenjoyment.

• Activities ‘with a real externalfocus, such as a campaignletter, can be a strongmotivation for improvingliteracy’. It is better to designlearning around what peoplevalue rather than that whichappears to have little immediateuse.

The six studies in Round One covered a range ofdifferent learning situations, both geographicallyand in terms of the agencies and types of learnerswho are involved. Whilst the authors made it clearthat customised strategies taking account of localcontexts were usually necessary, it was possible forthem to make some general comments.

The first is that although the need for more basicor essential skills training might be clearlyapparent to policy-makers, potential learners needto be helped to appreciate this. The SomersetLearning Partnership team showed that simple,time-effective models of engagement such as one-hour taster sessions, creatively marketed, might beall that is needed, whilst the authors from the Clickproject in Derbyshire suggested that trusted localbrokers from the community and voluntary sectorscan play a very useful role in matching potentiallearners to provision and convincing them they arecapable of succeeding at it and benefiting from it.For instance, they observe that learner confidenceis not just ‘a by-product of learning but also aprecondition to it’.

Developing brokers may be the key to opening uplearning opportunities in a specific situation. Forexample, line managers may not attach enoughvalue to work-based basic skills learning to protectit from the competing demands of deadlines in thecouncil depot or the hospital ward, as can be seenfrom the projects on health care assistants and thecouncil employees in Blackburn and Derbyshire.Operational demands come before training and, asthe NHS researchers state, this is part of theculture of the hospital wards and as such may takemany years to change. This was a conclusion thatwas supported by the Blackburn and Darwen study,which noted that since there was no evaluationframework against which managers can comparelearning outcomes against business objectivesbasic skills training would always be in avulnerable state.

A second message to come across is that engagingnew learners can be made easier if organisations

collaborate with one another. The South EastDerbyshire College study shows the value ofpartnership working between further educationand the community and voluntary sectors, and theEast Riding project concludes that an effective wayof staging training for classroom assistants,especially in more rural areas, is for schools towork together in clusters. Organisations ordepartments in organisations are oftenencouraged to compete against each other in thebelief that this will lead to increased efficiency,whereas collaboration may, in fact, be the wayforward.

Finally, the third message that can be taken fromthe projects might appear somewhat obvious butthat is not to diminish its importance. It is thateffective training requires time and resources. Forexample, the Sheffield College team have shownthe value that comes from combining a mixture oflearning techniques to deliver a blendedprogramme comprised of material taken from bothtraditional sources and from popular culture.However, the authors show that for this to happen,staff need time to develop the curriculum and tryout and evaluate different methodologies. Theconstraints brought about by limited trainingbudgets were mentioned in several of the studies,and although some organisations may be enticedby an initial offer of free training they were likely tostop once the free offer had ended. On a brighternote several of the studies show that short trainingprogrammes made up of little ‘bite-sized’ or one-hour sessions can be useful in re-engaging newlearners provided they are funded and accreditedappropriately.


A second message to come acrossis that engaging new learners canbe made easier if organisationscollaborate with one another.

Round Two – ‘Understanding purpose and

perseverance – learners’ aspirations and

commitment to learning’

The research studies were undertaken bypractitioners who had considerable experience ofteaching adults. The projects nonetheless providedthem with an opportunity to obtain a greaterunderstanding of the adult learning experience. Thisshows the value of looking at something from a newperspective – research rather than teaching. Forexample, the Northern College study whichanalyses the value of residential education notedthat whilst many factors were listed by the learnersas contributing to their positive experience ofresidential learning, there appeared to be oneoverriding factor. This was relaxation and being ableto learn without the pressures and interruptions ofeveryday life such as rushing for buses and gettinghome to meet children returning from school.

The authors from the Broadway study in Londonobserved how the homeless and vulnerable adultswith whom they worked experience a ‘”ping-pong”effect between feelings and results’. They noted howlearning how to do something made the adults feelbetter about themselves, and because of this theywere prepared to learn a little more. Consequently,it was vital that tutors in these classes, and also thefunders of the programmes, valued the ‘softer’gains made by learners as much as the moremeasurable achievements.

There was a similar ping-pong effect experienced bythe learners studied by researchers from Brightonand Hove College. These learners had beenreluctant to start a numeracy course because theycould not see the point of it. However, when offereda numeracy taster session as part of another coursethey decided to carry on with it because they couldnow see how useful it was. The authors noted thatadults change as they learn and the reasons forstarting a course can be different from the reasonsfor continuing with it.

Sometimes the value of research is to highlight theimportance of ‘taken for granted’ knowledge which

had somehow lost its significance or else was notwell-understood by policy-makers. The Round Twoprojects reminded some how effective teachingcould be a major factor influencing adults tocommit to and persevere with their learning. TheYork College team found that ‘the key to successwas matching the activities to learners’ interests,goals and motivational needs’ and that ‘no onetechnique will work equally well for all learners’.This research is a useful reminder to teachersalthough some might think that this is whatprofessional teachers should be doing as a matterof course, and it was this teacher professionalismthat was found by other researchers to play a keyrole in ensuring that learners were satisfied withtheir course and remained committed to it.Researchers from Islington College found thatlearner motivation was linked directly to the respectthe ESOL learners had for their teachers. As one ofthem said ‘You can only be happy to come everydayto class if you like your teacher.’

Whereas the previous studies highlighted theimportance of effective teaching practices,researchers in Exeter found that curriculum contentwas also important. Their study of ESOL learnersshowed how extracurricular activities such as tripsand visits were greatly valued and formed a key partof the overall curriculum content and were notsimply regarded as a nice-to-have extra. Not onlydid these activities enable learners to use theirnewly acquired language skills outside of theclassroom, but they made an important contributionin helping learners deal with such day-to-daychallenges as making appointments, discussingtreatments with doctors, etc. The researchersconcluded that people attended the ESOL classesnot only for the narrow purpose of learning a newlanguage but as a route into gaining widerknowledge of how to deal with life in general.

The theme of Round Two was ‘Understandingpurpose and perseverance – learners’ aspirationsand commitment to learning’. In all of the studies itwas apparent that commitment to learning waslinked, perhaps fairly obviously, to learners feeling


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they were getting something from it. To an extentthey were keen to make tangible gains such asqualifications, but researchers also highlighted therole played by the less tangible or ‘softer’ outcomes.The Broadway researchers were very keen to showthat although there might be a temptation forteachers to pay less attention to these softeroutcomes, often because they did not count towardsthe funding criteria, there were in fact importantreasons why they should be measured. This waspartly to do with assuring teachers that they weremaking progress with learners who had a lot ofdifficulties, but it was also to do with presentinglearners with clear evidence that the time they hadspent attending classes was bringing rewards. Asmentioned previously, a learner who can be shownthat progress has been made in one aspect of theirlife is more likely to view the next learning target ina more positive light. This was the ping-pong effectwhich was one of the chief findings made by theBroadway researchers, who developed ameasurement tool called ‘I Can’ and used it to‘capture evidence of change’.

Round Three – ‘Creativity in teaching and learning’

Round Three projects were designed under the titleof ‘Creativity in teaching and learning’ andapplications were received from those who wishedto study the less traditional and/or innovativeclassroom methods. By its very nature researchersin this round were attracted to creative ways ofgathering data such as web blogs and presentingsome of their findings through short computer-generated films.

One theme that clearly emerged during thesestudies was that enjoyment and pleasure wereassociated with successful learning and it was notjust about commitment and perseverance. Thestudy completed by literacy tutors and librarians inEssex showed that encouraging adults just to read

for pleasure could lead to substantial increases inknowledge and skills as well as in emotionaldevelopment and motivation. The learners who tookpart in this study reported wider vocabulary, greaterconfidence in expressing themselves in writing, andbeing better able to make informed choices aboutbooks and increased library membership.

Enjoyment and pleasure also featured in the ‘SoftCurrency’ study carried out by researchers at ExeterCouncil for Voluntary Service. The purpose of thiswas to determine what value there was in helpingolder members of the community develop moneymanagement skills (financial literacy) by sharingmemories of how they dealt with money matters atdifferent stages of their lives. The ‘reminiscenceapproach’ proved to be extremely popular amongstthese older learners, and they looked forward to thesessions where they could talk and learn aboutfinancial matters in an ‘enjoyable and relaxedatmosphere’.

Making learning fun was one of the themes toemerge from the study of the Spectrum Projectundertaken by researchers from Future Prospectsand York College. The Spectrum Project is aprogramme of activities designed for youngoffenders who lack the motivation to take part inmore traditional forms of learning. What emergedfrom the study was clear evidence that involvingpeople in the design of their learning was a veryeffective way of improving motivation and boostinglevels of enjoyment. In particular learnersappreciated being involved in ‘shaping the timing,activities and focus of sessions’. They also showed apreference for bite-sized activities to break up thetime they had to concentrate.

Involving learners in the design of their ownlearning was also a feature of the research carriedout by staff at Dewsbury College. Their study


One theme that clearly emergedduring these studies was thatenjoyment and pleasure wereassociated with successfullearning.

examined a learner-driven action research networkwithin the Skills for Life department at the College.The research team used diaries, meetings and webblogs to record the impact of the series of changesbeing made though various action research projectsin the department. Learners liked being involved inthis process and sharing in the development of‘risk-taking teaching’, especially since it was basedon new technology. One of the key findings from thisstudy was that tutors had to think of learners in adifferent way and they needed time to adjust to thisand work through this new type of relationship.However, tutors did eventually become comfortablewith this approach and at the end of the project itwas noted that they were looking forward to takingpart in a second wave of learner-driven actionresearch projects in the following academic year.

As with the York project, encouraging young peopleat risk to improve their literacy skills was also thefocus of a study designed by the research teambased at the City of Sunderland YMCA Foyer. Theyhad established a peer education project calledMAD4U (Making a Difference for You) part of whichconsisted of campaign activities for improvedresources for homeless and at risk young people.The literacy activities within MAD4U included letterwriting, lobbying, planning and script writing. Theyoung people were drawn particularly to thoseactivities which could be put to immediate use. Thisled the Sunderland researchers to conclude thatactivities ‘with a real external focus such as acampaign letter, act as a strong motivation forimproving literacy’. Their conclusion was that it wasbetter to design learning around what people valueand can do well rather than that which appears tohave little immediate use. ■

The PLRI presented staff at Lancaster with avaluable opportunity to put into practice existingideas of how to support practitioner

researchers and to learn new lessons as a result ofthis experience. These new lessons can be groupedinto three categories:

1. selection and launch;2. ongoing support;3. completion, report writing and dissemination.

Selection and launch

It was important to strike the right balance betweena selection and launch timetable which wasorganised tightly to make sure the application andselection of projects was as swift as possible but alsolong and flexible enough to give space for discussion,modification and to make sure the groups ofpractitioner researchers did not feel hurried along apath they were unsure about. The Round Onetimetable was considered to have been too tight, sothe Round Two and Three timetables werelengthened to make things more comfortable. As aresult of the Round One experience an applicationand selection protocol was established whichresulted in a more trouble-free selection process.

Applications were not quite as numerous as expectedand this may possibly be due to the process stillbeing a little too complicated. However, it did meanthose applications which were received were solid,well thought through and relatively easy to convertinto research projects which had the potential to beboth achievable and valuable.

The groups of practitioner researchers who wereselected were invited to a briefing day at Lancasterand this was a very important stage of the launch ofthe projects. Attendance at the briefing day wasmandatory although a couple of groups were unableto attend. The briefing day was important for three

Lessons learned from managingand supporting practitionerresearch


… it was better to designlearning around what peoplevalue and can do well ratherthan that which appears tohave little immediate use.

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main reasons. First, as a ‘getting to know each other’session: ensuring we were all comfortable workingtogether, clarifying expectations and establishingfirst name-term relationships was absolutelyessential. Second, to ensure the projects wereachievable. Although groups were given a significantlevel of resources and access to research support itwas nevertheless important to make sure they didnot get carried away with over-ambitious projectsboth in terms of technical feasibility and what theyhad time to do. In most cases this meant ensuringthat projects had a sharp focus and studied a fewissues in relative detail rather than trying to cover toomuch ground. We discussed timetables and the keysteps and phases that projects would go through.Finally, it was important to reinforce the idea thatprojects were predominantly for research rather thandevelopment and final reports needed to contain ananalysis of findings rather than simply descriptions ofactivities undertaken.

Ongoing support

The weeks immediately following the briefing dayproved to be a very significant period. During thistime there was the risk that groups would either driftdue to problems of converting research designs intoactual fieldwork or else go off in the wrong directionand hit obstacles. Whilst there were reasons why thesupport team at Lancaster needed to give groupsspace to establish their own working practices and toavoid over-interference in their projects, experienceshowed that it was better to make early contact withthe groups and to insist on a preliminary on-sitemeeting. Having said this, it was important to makesure these visits were not perceived by the groups asa burden or a ‘checking up’ exercise.

Much was learned about the nature of the ongoingsupport groups needed. It was important to identifythose aspects of the studies that groups could easilydo by themselves and those where they had lessexperience and may encounter difficulties. In termsof the latter, the two main areas of difficulty in thestart-up phase were: feeling under pressure toproduce a wonderful piece of ‘cutting-edge’ researchand planning to collect too much or too diverse a

range of data that would prove very difficult toanalyse within the resources and timescale available.

As well as consulting on-site, a variety of explicitresearch skills training sessions were offered, fromthe standard sessions of the LSDA toolkit3 to focusgroups and reminiscence training, and questionnairedesign. We offered access to a Lancaster UniversityPostgraduate Research Methods module by distancelearning, but this option was only taken up by twopeople. It proved not to be easy to synchronisemodule activities with the PLRI timetables, nor toproduce an individual report from a group project forassessment.

Although groups were provided with a standard set ofguidelines and support arrangements, for example,the research support people and other mentors, itwas also apparent that the situation was different foreach group. For example, some research peopleworked at the heart of the projects whilst othersoccupied a peripheral position. To some extent thisdepended on perceptions on whether the supportwas being given by a research ‘expert’ to a group ofresearch ‘enthusiasts’, or whether there was more ofa shared understanding of what each couldcontribute to this thing called practitioner research.The type and way in which research support shouldbe given to groups of practitioner researchers is stillopen to interpretation and debate, and much dependson the status attached to this type of research bothby full-time researchers and by practitionersthemselves.

Practitioner research groups varied in their views ofthe support they received from the various availablesources. Although it was important to be proactive inthe provision of support so that groups did not drift orflounder, there was a sense that on occasions someof the groups were surprised by the amount ofsupport that was on offer. There is the possibility thatthe groups who had less confidence found some ofthe support threatening as it might show up apparentweaknesses in their studies, whereas the moreconfident groups resented the suggestions madeabout how their projects might be improved.


3 http://almond.admin.nene.ac.uk:7777/pls/portal/docs/PAGE/EDUCATION/DOCSTORE/PRACTITIONERRESEARCH.PDF

Enabling the groups to talk openly about the progressthey had made and the obstacles they were facingwas extremely valuable, which is why the midpointmeetings held in venues such as the NorthernCollege were a key feature of the ongoing support.Midpoint meetings were used to renew enthusiasm,swap anecdotes and share successes and concerns.

During the first round, we held a one-day meetingbut for Rounds Two and Three we extended this to anovernight stay. This gave us more time together andmade a significant difference to the feel of the event.Rounds Two and Three received structured trainingon analysing data at these meetings and we deviseda simple pro forma where groups could indicate thestage of progress they had reached and indicate anydifficult issues they were facing (see Appendix 8).

The meetings thus served the dual purpose of botheasing the pressure on groups by being honest aboutthe troubles and mess research often runs into whilstalso boosting their self-esteem as practitionerresearchers by reminding them they were taking partin a very significant, national research initiative. Themidpoint meetings also helped groups feelcomfortable working together and presenting theirideas in public and so formed a useful rehearsal forthe more testing end of project dissemination eventsheld in front of much larger audiences. As a furtheraid in preparing for the project outputs, a templatefor writing the final report was also given to groupsat this point.

Completion, report writing and disseminationDuring the completion phase of the research projectsthe main job of the support team at LancasterUniversity was to encourage groups to send us draftsfor us to comment upon, whilst also ensuring theymaintained the prime responsibility for makingdecisions about what to put in their reports. Therewas a tendency for some groups to seek frequentadvice on relatively small matters which wasprobably due to lack of experience and/or lack ofconfidence. In most projects the research supportperson took a major responsibility for co-ordinatingthe writing.

In the majority of cases the support offered duringthe report writing stage mostly consisted of ‘pruning’,that is, suggesting that reports should be cut back tofocus on a smaller number of findings which couldbe supported by strong evidence. Inevitably thismeant discarding other findings which were morespeculative and whose weaknesses (in terms ofsupporting evidence) might diminish the impactmade by the report as a whole. Some of the groupstook little persuading that this might be a goodcourse of action but some were understandablyreluctant to lose any of their findings. What helped inthis situation was to ask groups to think back to themain reasons why they wished to do their research inthe first place and the type of findings which wouldbe useful to developing their practice.

Preparing for the major dissemination event whichwas held at the end of each round was a veryimportant part in the completion and writing up ofthe research reports. For this event groups neededto produce a summary poster about their study (forwhich a template was also provided) and prepare ashort presentation for the whole-event audienceand a more detailed one for a workshop. This gavethem a useful framework for gradually assemblingtheir ideas into a coherent whole.

In spite of the editing or ‘pruning’ advice given tothe groups there was still a tendency for them toproduce reports and sets of appendices which werefar larger than was needed. This was partly theresult of thinking ‘if in doubt include it’ but alsosince so much effort had been put in they wereunderstandably reluctant to lose anything. A positivesolution to this problem was to encourage groups tothink of other ways and places in which theirresearch experiences could be reported back.

We set a deadline for submission of the finalreports. These were read by the co-coordinatingteam and signed off. Sometimes additional changeswere requested at this point. Once the report weresigned off by Lancaster, they were sent to the NRDCand went through the normal quality process ofreview by critical readers. Comments were returned


Enabling the groups to talk openlyabout the progress they had madeand the obstacles they were facingwas extremely valuable.

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to projects to make further amendments and thenthe reports were cleared by the DfES Strategy Unitfor publication.

This extended process proved to be difficult tohandle for practitioner-researchers, and feltsomewhat at odds with the needs and expectationsof projects to circulate their findings quickly to localinterest groups.

There was considerable discussion about theappropriate format for publications (see theDiscussion paper in Appendix 5) and an over-burdenof expectations from all sides of what small-scaleresearch projects could achieve in comparison withthe bigger and more traditionally organisedresearch projects that formed most of NRDC’soutput. ■

Their research projects presented the groupswith many challenges, and writing up the finalreports was frequently done under the pressure

of rapidly approaching deadlines. Nevertheless, asthey described in their reports, the overwhelmingmajority of practitioner researchers thought that theoverall experience of taking part in the PLRI hadbeen a positive one. The very fact that their projectshad been chosen through a process of competitiveselection to feature in a national initiative made themfeel that what they were about to do was important.This feeling was reinforced because they knew theirfinished work would be published both in paper formand on NRDC’s website. They also appreciated thatthe level of support provided by NRDC, whichincluded briefing days at Lancaster University, on-site visits, midpoint residentials and disseminationconferences was testament to the importance otherswere attaching to their research All of this created asense of anticipation and the expectation they woulddeliver sets of findings and reports which wouldstand the test of public scrutiny.

On the other hand, the groups also commented onthe excitement, even fun, of having the opportunity towork on topics in partnership with full-timeresearchers and have the chance to have a look athow research is done from the inside. Some haddone research before as part of a degree course andnoted how the relationship they had with universitystaff during the course of the PLRI was different fromtheir previous research experiences. They felt moreof a part of a research community, and whilst thismeant having to live up to the pressures andexpectations of this standard of research it alsoenabled them to see at first hand the challenges thatresearch brings and how to deal with these. In someways the PLRI not only provided them with thetextbook rules but also the ongoing fixes and ‘tricksof the trade’ which are needed to complete aresearch project.


The experiences of practitioner researchers

The experiences reported by the practitionerresearchers can be grouped into four categories:

1. a fresh perspective;2. professional development;3. boost to status;4. the usefulness of the findings.

A fresh perspective

A frequent comment made by the groups was thattheir findings did not come as a surprise to them.They more or less ‘knew’ beforehand what washappening in their area of work, but the researchprovided them with a fresh perspective and enabledthem to feel more secure with their existingknowledge. This was partly because the researchfindings, which were the product of a more rigorousand analytical examination, were not at serious oddswith their previous views and partly because theyappreciated more fully how a given ‘fact’ or situationmight be interpreted differently depending on whichevidence was collected and the differing amounts ofimportance attached to the various pieces ofevidence.

In particular they had gained a better understandingof how issues associated with adult learning could beseen differently depending on whether one took apractitioner, research, or policy-making perspective.Some had begun the research hoping to find out whatthe facts were. They now knew that what they hadgained instead was a better understanding of whypeople can reach different conclusions about whatthe facts are and what they mean. Combining thepractitioner and research perspectives wouldhopefully help them argue their point moreconvincingly whilst also making them receptive toalternative interpretations. Their research had beenintellectually rewarding and a change from the day-to-day routine of their jobs.

Professional development

In some ways this is linked to the first point in thesense that the PLRI had enabled practitioners to usesome of the skills they had in a different context andto be more aware of the extent to which there was anoverlap between their occupational and researchskills. Many of the practitioner researchers hadenjoyed the challenge of taking a more deliberatelyanalytical examination of a situation, one that differedfrom the type of information collection usuallyassociated with their practitioner roles. Wearing the‘research hat’ they paid more attention to how theygathered data, being more conscious of the fact thatthe quality and significance of the data is likely tovary according to the care with which it is collected.They knew their findings were be subject to scrutinynot just by the supportive mentors with whom theyworked but also by more detached critical readers.This helped them ‘raise the game’ and provided thereason and motivation to develop a clear analysis andto avoid claiming too much for their findings.

In another respect, many also learned that a key skillin the research process is maintaining quality in asmany parts of the project as possible, even thoughthe enterprise as a whole might have not gone toplan. For example, what to do when time runs outand not all the data is in, or where a carefullydesigned sample turns into something far lessrepresentative? In particular, where is the cut-offpoint between a salvageable project and a deeplyflawed study?

Many of the projects encountered difficulties but theyknew they had to persevere and not give up. Somewere anxious that their projects had drifted awayfrom the original plans and were reassured to be toldthat this happens. The research groups valued thisinsight into the world of research, which partlydemystified the research process for them but alsoshowed that successful research requires skills and


Many of the practitionerresearchers had enjoyed thechallenge of taking a moredeliberately analytical examinationof a situation …

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judgement above the purely technical. All this meantthat they would be more confident when doingfurther research and they would read the researchdone by others with a more experienced eye.

Boost to status

A theme which emerged repeatedly fromconversations with the groups during the researchwas that whilst basic skills teaching had obtained amuch higher profile at a national level due to theSkills for Life initiative there is still a feelingprevalent amongst practitioners, especially thoseworking as part of a large organisation, that they stilloccupy a relatively low position. Therefore, groupswelcomed the fact that taking part in the PLRI hadboosted their status. There were two dimensions tothis: internal and external. Internally, status hadbeen improved because the research groups hadbecome more prominent to other staff. In order to dotheir studies it had been necessary for them to meetwith others to arrange the collection of data throughquestionnaires, interviews, observations, etc. In alarge college, for example, this could have meantworking with senior managers and staff in differentdepartments. The research studies were discussed atorganisation meetings and members of the researchgroup had more reason to get out and about and talkto others. They were asked about the project andcolleagues were curious to know how they obtainedthe funding and how the link with the NRDC worked.Finally, they wished to know when the findings wouldbe made public and what the implications might befor the organisation as a whole. PLRI had given manyof the research teams increased internal visibility.

For other research groups, especially those whoworked in smaller organisations, it was often theexternal value that was mentioned. They thoughtPLRI had given them ‘a voice’ and they were nowmore likely to be taken notice of by the outside world.For them the research had given them an opportunityto talk about a topic with the authority that comesfrom being able to support their views with evidenceand a high profile channel, NRDC, through which toshare their thoughts with others. They appreciatedthat their voice alone was only likely to make amodest impact, but at least they had been able to saysomething worthwhile and because of the publicationprocess they would forever be associated with theseremarks.

The usefulness of the findings

Most of the comments made by the practitionersreported so far have been to do with the process ofactually doing the research. Yet the purpose of thePLRI was not simply to provide practitioners withresearch experience, it was also to enable them toobtain research findings with which to work.Fortunately this proved to be the case, and theusefulness of these findings is the fourth categoryinto which practitioner researcher comments havebeen placed.

As was mentioned earlier, most of the findingsproduced by the research groups were not ground-breaking and more often than not served to confirmwhat practitioners believed was the case anyway.Nevertheless, these findings proved useful in anumber of ways. First, they threw additional light onthe adult learning process and so helped teachingstaff understand the learning experiences of adults ina broader context. Second, the experience ofproducing a set of findings meant that some of theresearch groups felt better able to contribute tointernal information management and decision-making processes because they had something newto contribute. Third, there was a direct link visible insome of the projects between the findings andsuggestions as to how the curriculum, methods ofrecord-keeping and assessment might be developed.This was in terms of both content and methods ofdelivery. Finally, many of the practitioner researchersbelieved they were now able to say something withthe authority of being able to back up their views withcarefully gathered research evidence. This allowedthem to comment on what worked well and so led tothe sharing and promotion of good practice. It alsohelped them to pinpoint those areas which neededfurther thought and development.

The Research Support people

In order to qualify for PLRI funding research groupsneeded to identify a Research Support Person (RSP)who would advise them on the day-to-day matters ofdoing research (Appendix 7). The RSP was expectedto have a higher degree, recent research experienceand either be a member of a research organisationsuch as a local university or have close links withone. The role of the RSP was anticipated as beingcrucial to the success of the various projects. As itturned out, their contribution was mixed, ranging


from those who were absolutely at the centre of theresearch to others who seemed to occupy a moreperipheral role and whose input was more limited.

A number of factors were responsible for thosesituations where the RSP played a central role.Probably the most important was identification withthe whole purpose and spirit of practitioner research.Several had been practitioners themselves beforemoving into research and academic teaching. Theircomments suggested they identified as much withthe philosophy and language of practice as they didwith full-time research. They believed in the intrinsicvalue of practitioner research.

Another reason for this close involvement was theprior relationships which existed between the RSPand at least some of the members of the researchgroup. This was more often than not the result ofjoint membership of local networks and other formsof collaboration. In one case the RSP had tutored oneof the practitioner researchers on a course at a localuniversity. In several cases, the RSP was already onthe spot as a member of the lead organisation,usually someone with a more general research anddevelopment role. Being seen as part of the teamwas an important factor. The practitioner researchersdid not want the academic supervisor type ofrelationship that some had experienced whilststudying for degree courses. They worked better witha flat rather than a hierarchical arrangement wheretheir input and perspective carried equal weight.After all most were highly experienced professionalswith considerable expertise in their field of practice.

The RSPs who felt they had a good relationship withtheir research groups did not have preconceivedideas about how the research should be done. Theytended to offer general rather than specific adviceand responded to requests. They tried to avoidsetting the agenda and providing frameworks and

schedules for the groups to follow. One said she wasjust there to ‘hold things together’ whilst anotheracted as a channel between the group and staff atLancaster University. Indeed it may have been thefact that since support and guidance was availablefrom Lancaster, RSPs became less concerned withgiving advice on specific technical matters and moreto do with offering general encouragement andkeeping spirits up. For example, by Round Three thearrangements for briefing the research groups,launching the projects and providing central advicewere so firmly in place and so clearly structured thatsome groups may have felt they knew what they weredoing and did not initiate contact with their namedRSP.

Whilst we know a fair amount about the reasons forthe productive relationships between some RSPs andtheir groups, we know less about those situationswhere the relationships were not so close. This ischiefly because we had little contact with the RSPsduring the course of the projects, during midpointreview meetings or at a specially arranged de-briefing day for RSPs. It is possible, but this may be alittle speculative, that names were put onapplications by some groups mainly to meet theapplication criterion and these groups managed to dotheir research with little contact with their RSP. It islikely that the factors which contributed to the closeinvolvement described above, that is, commitment topractitioner research, prior experience of workingtogether and the ability to work together ascolleagues rather than as ‘students’ and supervisorswere simply absent in these cases. ■


The research groups felt betterable to contribute to internalinformation management anddecision-making processesbecause they had something newto contribute.

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One reason why the practitioner research groupsshowed considerable perseverance andresilience in completing their reports was that

they were continually encouraged to think about howthey intended to use and disseminate their findingsat the end of their projects. For many, the fact thatothers were showing interest in their work andactually anticipated that their findings would be ofinterest to others was an important motivating factor.

The ways in which the findings from the threerounds were used and disseminated falls into twobroad categories – what they were required to doand what they were encouraged to do. As part of thePLRI contract groups were required to makepresentations at an end-of-round disseminationevent, design a summary poster and produce a finalreport which, after passing through critical readersand other editors, would eventually be published onNRDC’s website and in paper form too. This was amajor ‘carrot’ because they valued NRDCpublications and were frequent visitors to itswebsite. Furthermore, the fact their work was to beposted there alongside others who had more of atrack record in academic publishing was a realboost. And as with all researchers they wanted theirreports to be made public as soon as possible.

In addition to publishing their findings throughofficial NRDC channels, groups were encouraged touse and disseminate their findings in other ways.Most followed a similar pattern which can best bedescribed as a ‘rippling’ process, where thegreatest impact was made closest to where theyworked whilst other messages travelled outwardsto meet a wider audience. The extent to which theytook steps to have their findings ‘travel’ dependedon their sense of the worth of their findings, theirconfidence and their interest in developing a profilewithin the adult learning, literacy and basic skillscommunities.

At the centre of this ripple effect was the process ofgetting information to the colleagues with whomthey worked and who were naturally interested inthe implications of the findings for practice. Thiswas done through staff meetings, placingsummaries on local websites, etc. At the centrepeople were mainly interested in a few practicalsteps that could be taken in the short term, and

whilst these may seem modest when viewed fromoutside, they had far greater significance forinternal staff who perhaps felt constrained bytargets, budgets and so on and who had only limitedroom for manoeuvre.

The next circle moving outwards from the centrewere key decision makers in bodies such as LEAs,LSCs, area boards, etc. The aim here was toinfluence strategy, bring about more far-reachingchange, secure existing and attract new funding.Also located in this region were the local networksand forums made up of people from other agencies,and presentations were made to these. Somemembers of the research groups had other roles orhad moved to new jobs since completing theresearch, such as teacher training, and they tookthe findings and the overall experience of doingresearch with them.

Finally, several of the projects had the opportunityto disseminate their findings at an even greaterdistance from the centre where they worked.Publishing summaries of reports in journals suchas reflect and RaPAL was something a few hadalready achieved and which others hoped to do inthe future. Some had also made presentations oftheir findings at conferences. As well as RaPAL andthe Learning and Skills Regional Networkconferences, projects took part in workshops atNRDC-organised conferences and at a PractitionerResearch conference at Queens University inBelfast.

One feature that possibly distinguishes the use anddissemination of practitioner research findings fromthose of full-time researchers is that their findingstend to be written with a view to immediate use.This is apparent in at least two respects. First,many of the groups hoped to transform theirfindings into usable materials for teaching, INSET,assessment, induction and so forth. Second, thereis a tendency for them to highlight one or two keymessages which they thought might bring aboutchange. Their focus is generally narrower than thatof academic, full-time researchers and theirpractitioner experience means that most of therecommendations they make are rooted in theirday-to-day knowledge of how their organisationworks. ■



This final report marks the end of the NRDCPractitioner-Led Research Initiative. Clearly,the groups who have successfully participated

in this initiative have gained from it and the field hasgained from their involvement. They have begun tomake links with other existing networks and otherNRDC activities, and we are hopeful that the rippleeffects described above will continue, at least for awhile.

NRDC has commissioned a short impact project toassess the benefits that have accrued from theinitiative and the extent to which the PLRI has metits original objectives. These outcomes will bepresented in a separate short report.

One significant outcome of the PLRI is a tried andtested model of supporting practitioner researchgroups, through to delivery and communication ofthe findings. We have documented this in somedetail in this report so that it will be available toothers who might find funding to do similar thingsin the future. The object is to avoid reinventing thewheel. We offer what we have learned about the thekey importance of:

• A focused set of specification documents thatgive guidance about how to set up a viable projectgroup with the budget allowed (in our case£10,000).

• A structured process of support and monitoringthat helped groups deal with obstacles as theyarose and to meet deadlines, especiallycompleting the 5,000 report at the end of theproject.

• Ideas for ‘just-in-time’ research training thatseems to fit the needs of practitioner researchfor skill development dovetailed in with the day-to-day process and rhythms of doing small-scaleresearch.

We were not always successful in arranging goodquality, day-to-day, on the spot research support,however, and perhaps this depends on the steadybuilding of research capacity in the field so thatmore mentors emerge who have experienced bothresearch and practice and have a strongcommitment to merging the two. We have alsofailed to resolve the challenges of publication to ourown satisfaction. We are still searching for ways ofmeeting the demands of all the different audiencesfor the project findings. This will be the subject ofcontinuing debate.

Although this initiative is at an end, in theimmediate future NRDC will continue to supportpractitioner involvement in research by:

• Actively integrating existing practitionerresearchers into wider networks that can sustaintheir interests and involvement with researchnow that the specific focus of the PLRI no longerexists.

• Attending to the development of researchmentors who can broker between the worlds ofresearch, policy and practice.

• Developing appropriate and diverse publicationstrategies that enable circulation of practitionerresearch activities and findings.

• Publicising the added value practitioner researchbrings in complementing and grounding the moretraditional research activities of NRDC. ■

Conclusions and issues for thefuture of practitionerinvolvement in NRDC


People were mainly interested ina few practical steps that couldbe taken in the short term.

Part2Understanding purpose and perseverance – learners’ aspirations and commitment to learning

Ph

oto

fus

ion


‘I Can’: demonstrating soft outcomes for homeless and vulnerable adult learners


What are the motivating and demotivating factors that affect current adult numeracy learners?

Exeter College

Extracurricular activities: added value or wasted resources?

Northern College for Residential Adult Education

Learners’ experiences and perceptions of the impact of residential education on Skills for Life learning

York College

Learner-centred practice: meeting the goals and motivation of learners on Skills for Life programmes



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44

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Summary reports for Round Two

Introduction

This study looks at the challenging subject ofmeasuring ‘soft’ outcomes. As essential skillstutors working with vulnerable people, we seeinspiring achievements in confidence, motivationand learning but feel frustrated by the hardoutcomes, which are unrealistic for many people butare considered as the convincing evidence oflearning and form the basis of Skills for Lifeprovision.

The debate about funding soft outcomes centres onwhat they are and whether they can be measured.Here soft outcomes refers to subjective changesobserved by learners and tutors and evidencedthrough self-assessment and information onchanges in behaviour.

Background

Broadway is a charity working with more than 2,000homeless and vulnerable people every year across12 London boroughs. Our projects include streetoutreach, hostel and supported housingaccommodation and day centre services.Our learning team offers a range of informal andformal activities in one-to-one and group sessions:

preparation for the National Tests in literacy andnumeracy, help with independent living skills (e.g.pre-tenancy and sustaining tenancy training) andinformation and communications technology (ICT)training.

We believed that an ongoing approach to measuringsoft outcomes would motivate learners and tutors,and demonstrate the validity of our work to funders.We decided to design and evaluate a way ofsystematically recording, evidencing and evenmeasuring these soft outcomes in an actionresearch project.

Research questions

• What are the key soft outcomes of learning forhomeless and vulnerable adults?

• How can we measure these soft outcomes?• Can we link desired soft outcomes to the national

curricula for literacy, numeracy and English forSpeakers of Other Languages (ESOL)?

• Is it helpful to integrate the monitoring of softoutcomes into individual learning plans (ILPs)?

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‘I Can’: demonstrating softoutcomes for homeless andvulnerable adult learners


Harriet Cookson, Geraldine Hale, Catherine Menist and Becky Rice

28 Part 2: PLRI Summaries Round 2

Understanding purpose and perseverance

The research

The project was designed and delivered by themanager, the essential skills co-ordinator and atutor from Broadway’s learning team, and wassupported by Broadway’s research officer.

We conducted an initial consultation through threefocus groups, two with staff and one with clients.The design of the soft outcomes tool ‘I Can‘ drew onanalysis of existing materials, e.g. confidenceinventories and individual learning plans.

We recruited 15 clients, 10 of whom remainedthroughout the project:

• seven male, three female• average age at start of project: 43; age range 30

to 51• seven white British, one white other, one white

European (both ESOL) and one black andminority ethnic.

All the learners involved had mental health issues,past or present; five had a physical disability orhealth problem and four had substance misuseissues.

Tutors and clients reflected on the process usingnotes (tutors) and diaries and photo projects(learners). The research officer then carried out in-depth interviews and this data was used to validateand challenge the conclusions drawn from pilotingthe new approach.

Everyone in the project team shared in the dataanalysis and the manager did most of the reportwriting. The project’s methods and findings werethen disseminated and evaluated.

Method

The three stages in the project cycle were:

1. Development and piloting of the soft outcomespackage (the ‘I Can’ tool, the revised ILP and themapping tool)

2. Fieldwork using the package

3. Analysis and presentation of data from stages 1and 2.

We began by using the ‘Catching Confidence’ toolfrom the National Institute of Adult ContinuingEducation (NIACE). However, although the conceptwas excellent the format and wording wereunsuitable for our client group, so we developed ourown soft outcomes tool – ‘I Can’.

Findings

Learning outcomesThe most striking finding was that all the learnerson the project experienced improved communicationand reduced isolation. For example, four clients hadbeen receiving long-term, one-to-one support fromthe tutor. At first they all scored low in socialinteraction and felt unable to join a group session.By the end of the project, they were all working inpairs or small groups.

Most learners’ scores for reading and writing alsoincreased, especially in relation to the learningobjectives on their ILPs. Their levels were notformally reassessed but the ILPs and Records ofAchievement (RoAs) indicate concreteimprovements in skills.

There seemed to be a ping-pong effect, withincrease in confidence leading to improvement inskills and vice versa. One woman learner who couldbarely read the top 200 sight words on entry to theservice also genuinely believed she could not write.At the end of the project she had kept a diary andhad just finished reading her first adult library book.

The time allowed for learners to report back on theimpact of their learning also enabled tutors toidentify unintended or unexpected outcomes. Onetutor recorded that her learner said that she wasn’taware until she started reading how untidy her flatwas, but was now working on clearing it.For many of Broadway’s clients, these outcomes aremore realistic and motivating than hard outcomessuch as getting a job or going to college.

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29Part 2: PLRI Summaries Round 2

'I can': demonstrating soft outcomes for homeless and vulnerable learners

Most learners’ scores for readingand writing also increased,especially in relation to thelearning objectives on their ILPs.

OverallThe data show an almost sequential pattern thatmakes progression towards hard outcomes morelikely. For many socially excluded people learningjourneys are not linear, and a ‘snakes and ladders’analogy is more apt. Despite the striking ‘distancetravelled’ by all learners on the project, severalencountered ‘snakes’ during these four months: onewoman went through a ‘low’ period, one man foundout his hostel was closing and returned tosubstance misuse, and one had her benefits cut forbeing honest about her progress.

Appraisal of the soft outcomes package

‘I Can’The soft outcomes tool was the most popular part ofthe package with learners and tutors alike becauseof its simplicity and relevance.

Clients were motivated by the self-assessment andhow it displayed their confidence visually: the word‘amazed‘ occurred several times.

Tutors found it a useful diagnostic tool because itbreaks confidence down into clear indicators andidentifies areas of need that are not picked up ininitial interviews.

It acted as a bridge in the tutor–client relationship,increasing awareness of and providing a frameworkfor discussing sensitive issues.

Individual learning plansOur adapted ILP pro forma was simplified toencourage realistic goal-setting. Tutors worked withlearners to develop SMART – specific, measurable,achievable, relevant and timebound – targets, whichhelped to identify the steps for clients to progressand seemed to correlate well with desired learningoutcomes. The ILP goals were revisited in reviews.

Two clients were not given an ILP at first, aspaperwork can deter vulnerable learners. For otherclients the tutor wrote up the ILP, based on notestaken during discussion.

Where learners were introduced to the ILP laterthey were enthusiastic about it, but the use of ILPsstill needs further consultation. In interviews at theend of the project, respondents’ recall of the formwas lower than their recall of ‘I Can’.

Mapping soft outcomes to the core curriculumMapping soft outcome indicators to the curriculumdemonstrated the relevance to tutors and funders

by tracking interlinked personal and skillsachievements.

One RoA recorded evidence of the progress of a maleclient in working in a group; another cited ‘talking tothe receptionist and discussing things with her ontwo separate occasions’. Thus it was also a usefulmeans of formative and summative assessment.

OverallThe success of the ‘I Can’ package is due to theinteraction of the three component tools. Thisencouraged a cycle of reflection and learning forclient and tutor, reinforcing confidence and success,as well as recording challenges and areas forfurther work.

The package also works well with homeless andvulnerable clients at borderline Entry 3 to Level 1.With adaptation, it worked well for more vulnerablelearners and those at a lower level. Even clients whohad problems with forms were positive about ‘I Can’.

Conclusions

Soft outcomes and learning are inextricably linked:including soft outcomes in ILPs is a crucial way ofmotivating learners by showing the impact of theirlearning on their lives.

The ‘I Can’ package successfully evidences progressand shows the relevance of these outcomes forSkills for Life provision through linking outcomeswith the adult core curricula. It also helps withengaging homeless and vulnerable learners,building confidence and trust, individual learningplanning and developing skills.

This approach can attract funding for learning, whichis a starting point. Performance measurement needsto be about hard skills, knowledge and softoutcomes to enable learners to progress andachieve. It is vital to acknowledge the importance ofthe self-motivation and application of skills andknowledge that practitioners and learners value sogreatly.

The project was small scale and has some obviouslimitations: it also raises many further questions forfurther investigation.

Further research questions• Is ‘I Can’ transferable to other settings or would

all settings need context-specific tools?• What is the difference between what we are ‘able’

to do and what we are ‘confident’ to do?



• Can ‘I Can’ be used effectively with ESOL learnersbelow Entry Level 2?

• How could this model work in adult andcommunity learning without support workers?

• How useful would the tool be in capturing longer-term changes?

• How will our learners fare in the longer term?• Could the work linking soft outcomes to the

curricula be extended?

Dissemination

During the pilot we conducted workshops about theresearch at RaPAL (Research and Practice in AdultLiteracy) and LSRN (Learning and Skills ResearchNetwork) conferences.

We will continue to use and develop the packagewith new and existing learners. We are also bringingour findings from the project to an organisation-widegroup focusing on more general support planning,and to the ongoing development of Broadway’soutcomes framework. We plan to develop a resourceproviding guidance and advice on capturing softoutcomes to share with other organisations.

We believe there is a gap on Skills for Life teachertraining courses in dealing with vulnerable adultsand our ‘I Can’ package could be part of theircurriculum.

Being involved in action research

Tutor’s reflectionsThe structure offered by the ‘I Can’ package hasparadoxically afforded me greater freedom, whileallowing me to monitor my own and my clients’progress at the same time. As we do not work in aneducational establishment, this opportunity to sharegood practice and share our project was reallyhelpful and made me feel part of a greater whole.Research is now something I value: it gives credenceto what otherwise could be assumptions withoutfoundation.

Many of our clients who lack literacy, numeracy andESOL skills need one-to-one support before theycan move towards external learning opportunities.The cost of not addressing this must far outweighthe cost of providing appropriate funding for theseservices. If we manage to fuel the debate aboutgaining more appropriate funding, perhaps thisresearch could make a difference beyond Broadway.

Finally, the value of this research lies in the factthat it is practitioner-led. It has served to make mea more effective, reflective tutor. And I enjoyed it.

Project manager’s reflectionsSoft outcomes in the lives of our clients are whatenable them to progress, as our strapline says,‘from street to home’. We needed to develop aframework to capture them, and the Practitioner-led Research Initiative with the NRDC gave us thisopportunity.

One of the greatest benefits to the team has beenthe process of developing and piloting a new,context-specific tool through discussions with tutorsand learners about formative assessment. Theproject has built research capacity and encouragedreflective practice not only in the team, but alsowithin the organisation as a whole. It has increasedour awareness of clients’ potential as well as theirneed.

It has also enabled us to build up links with furthereducation and adult and community learningorganisations and networks such as RaPAL andNRDC.

The project was ambitious and it has been achallenge to deliver it within the timescale, but ithas enabled Broadway to prioritise a crucial pieceof work and helped us to understand anddemonstrate the impact of learning on clients’lives. ■


'I can': demonstrating soft outcomes for homeless and vulnerable learners

A full version of this report is available on the

publications page of the NRDC website:

www.nrdc.org.uk

What are the motivating anddemotivating factors that affectcurrent adult numeracylearners?


Alison Kelly, Sara Fletcher, JennyO’Connor, Jane MacIntosh, AnnaSmith, Debbie Hollis, Susi MaxwellStewart, Hillary Humphries, JoGull, Corina Fairman and MariaThomas

Introduction

In the current learning environment, which is drivenby ambitious government targets, there is a need toidentify and engage new groups of learners. Manyagencies have seen a rise in literacy and English forSpeakers of Other Languages (ESOL) provisionwithout a parallel rise in numeracy recruitment.This project sought to add to our knowledge ofpotential learners by investigating adult learners’perceptions and experiences of numeracy teachingand training.

Background

The project aimed to:

• review recent research• interview approximately 50 current adult learners• explore adult experiences of and attitudes to

numeracy learning• compare the findings of this research with other

relevant research• share its findings with providers in Brighton and

Hove• use the findings to plan future marketing and

delivery opportunities.

The research took place at City College Brighton and

mainly involved basic skills and key skills numeracylecturers who took part in both the design and thedata collection. The research team also worked withJobcentre Plus and the National Association for theCare and Resettlement of Offenders (NACRO), thecrime reduction charity.

A literature review suggested three main themes:

1. ‘Steering’ (as in some Return to Study, Pre Accessor Access courses or key skills as a mandatorypart of a vocational course) does not adverselyaffect motivation.

2. First contact with the college is crucial in helpinglearners overcome anxieties about returning tostudy.

3. Learners can become thoroughly engaged withpure or abstract areas of maths. This is importantnot just for how numeracy is taught but also forhow courses are marketed.

Research questions

• What are the motivating and demotivating factorsaffecting current adult numeracy learners’ desireto engage with and succeed on adult numeracycourses?

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Many agencies have seen a rise inliteracy and English for Speakersof Other Languages (ESOL)provision without a parallel rise innumeracy recruitment.

• To what extent can these factors be incorporatedinto elements of good practice to recruit, engageand motivate the reluctant numeracy learner?

• Would mandatory extended taster sessions havethe motivational force necessary to ‘sell’ numeracycourses to those who would not have otherwisechosen to study numeracy at this time?

Research design and data collection

First we interviewed 57 current learners, 24 takingkey skills as part of a vocational course and 33 onbasic skills courses, to discover what motivates orfails to motivate them.

Second, we designed a mandatory (or ‘incentivised’)taster session for six basic skills learners who wouldnot have chosen to study numeracy at this time.

We collected data about employment, gender, age,learning difficulty, race and language so thatcomparisons could be made if relevant.

The interview schedules were drafted, reviewed bypractitioners, piloted, revised and checked by anoutside expert. All the interviewers took part in atraining session.

The interviews were carried out in April and May andthe responses were used to inform the design of thetaster session at the end of May.

InterviewsPractitioners interviewed mainly their own learnersin breaks or at the end of teaching sessions, andlearners were given a lunch voucher for taking part.The interviews were structured with mainly openquestions but listed prompts to help learners ifnecessary. The schedules clearly indicated whichanswers were to open questions and which were inresponse to the prompts.

Taster sessionSix learners on basic skills literacy courses at CityCollege attended the session, with the incentives of a£5 Argos voucher and a £3 lunch voucher.The session was structured over two and a half

hours. It began with a welcome, followed by a talkfrom current numeracy learners. This was followedby a college tour, then a carousel of activities taking20 minutes each. At lunch the learners received thelunch vouchers and then took part in exit interviewswhere the Argos vouchers were given out.

The carousel contained the following four activities:

1. Producing a line graph to describe the learner’shistory of confidence in maths

2. Making boxes3. Data handling4. One-to-one interviews to take learner biographies,

based on the learners’ line graphs preparedearlier.

Findings

Learners were able to give multiple answers to thequestions: thus the numbers cited refer to numbersof responses rather than number of learnersresponding.

Interviews with current key skills learnersAll 24 key skill Application of Number learners wereon full-time vocational courses. All were aged under20, and most lived with their parents and did notwork. Only five were male.

Sixteen of them indicated that they would not havechosen to study maths if it had not been part of theircourse; 10 would have done and two made bothnegative and positive comments.

When asked how they now thought numeracy mighthelp them: 16 suggested practical life skills; 13confidence; and 11 managing money. Two did not feelthe course would help them and six mentionedfurther study. Fourteen learners suggested thatnumeracy should be compulsory in all courses.

The key skills learners compared their currentnumeracy classes favourably to their schoolexperiences, making 84 positive commentscompared to only two people who found it harder orunhelpful. They particularly liked the more relaxed


Motivating and demotivating factors that affect adult numeracy learners

3

atmosphere, the smaller classes and the differentteaching style, and recognised that their own ageand attitude were also factors.

However, six said they would not encourage anybodyelse to do numeracy, despite the fact that this was aclosed question. They also suggested that thecollege needs to make maths more fun.

Interviews with current basic skills learnersThirty-three basic skills numeracy learners wereinterviewed, ten of them male, eleven with children.Their ages were spread evenly between 20 and 50,with four people in their seventies. Seven wereworking full-time, 12 part-time, 2 were workingunpaid and 12 were not working. At the college halfwere working towards Level 1 and eight towardsLevel 2, with the rest at Entry Level.

Nearly two-thirds of the learners (21) gave interestin the subject/to gain knowledge as a reason forenrolling on the course, while other responsesmentioned working towards a qualification (5);gaining confidence (5) and helping children orgrandchildren (4).

Reasons given for staying on the course includedincreasing confidence or self-esteem (24), practicallife skills (17), work (13), further study (11), children(10), home finances (10) and gaining a qualification(7).

The learners preferred the basic numeracy class totheir maths classes at school because of the morerelaxed atmosphere (19); the teachers (13) andsmaller classes (12).

Reasons given for not doing the course soonerfocused on practical issues such as family and workcommitments. Six learners said they did not knowthe courses existed and half of the learners hadproblems getting started, most often because of lackof self-confidence (eight responses). When askedwhat they thought the college could do to encouragemore people to do the course, by far the largestresponse was advertising (19 responses). This

suggests that advertising needs both to informpeople about the course and encourage them todo it.

The taster sessionThe six learners in the taster session were alreadytaking part in basic skills literacy classes. Therewere three women and three men; ages rangingfrom 26 to 53. They had varying levels of numeracyconfidence and learning difficulties.

They all thought increased confidence withnumeracy would help with money and generalconfidence. Four were keen to use it for DIY and twothought it would help with job opportunities andhelping with homework.

This was a very small sample and unrepresentativeof the target population, but they all enjoyed thetaster session, particularly the activities. Four said adefinite ‘yes’ to doing a numeracy course, while theother two said they would like to complete theirliteracy courses first. As they were already at thecollege it was difficult to explore the importance of‘first contact’.

Taking learner biographies rather than using formaldiagnostic assessment or individual learning plans(ILPs) worked very well. Combining them with themaths history line graphs helped because:

• the graphs provided a visual representation oflearners’ confidence in maths over time and wasan unintimidating focus of attention forquestions

• all the learners immediately understood thefunction of the graph as a physical representationof information but were so focused on thepersonal aspect that they were surprised andpleased when it was pointed out to them that thiswas maths

• they could take their graphs to use at the one-to-one learner biography interview.

Three tutors planned the activities to show that basicskills and maths were about a broader range of

34



They particularly liked the morerelaxed atmosphere, the smallerclasses and the different teachingstyle, and recognised that theirown age and attitude were alsofactors.

topics than just ‘number’. The 'boxes' session, forexample, developed into a general discussion onpackaging and shopping habits in this country.The session also contained some covert sellingtechniques. For example, projecting the line graphsinto the future was a rhetorical device whereby theonly way the line could be drawn was going up and,when learners were asked what would make thathappen, ‘attending a course’ was the obvious answer.

The real test will be whether the learners enrol andstay on a basic skills numeracy course, and thatcannot be tracked within the remit of this project.

Conclusions

Interviews with current learnersOur data supports the argument that people’smotivation for enrolling on a numeracy course isdifferent from their motivation to engage with andsucceed on the course, but does not support theargument that functional maths provides only aminor incentive to continue to attend. Most of thekey skills learners said they would not have chosento study numeracy at this time, and most of thebasic skills learners gave ‘interest in the subject’ astheir reason for enrolling (i.e. a non-functionalreason). However, both key skills and basic skillslearners gave predominantly functional reasons fornumeracy helping them, contrasting with theirreasons (or lack of reasons) for choosing to do it inthe first place.

The taster sessionThere were two main reasons for the success of thesession.

1. Firstly, it created create a comfortable, fun andconfident learning environment that built onlearners’ previous successes while liberatingthem from their maths phobias.

2. Secondly, the session contained some covertselling techniques which had the effect notmerely of focusing the participants’ attention onthe positive effects of improved numeracy but,more broadly, of empowering them to take controlof their learning.

Dissemination

To support strategic planning of provision, the reportwill be disseminated within the College and to:

• Providers in Brighton and Hove through theLearning Partnership

• Providers pan-Sussex through the Skills for LifeDevelopment Centre

• The ‘Numeracy Matters’ forum• Jobcentre Plus, Brighton and Hove• NACRO.

The taster session will continue to be developed andused to attract potential learners, and the elementsof good practice will feed through to curriculumdevelopment and delivery.

Reflections on being involved in action research

The research experience provided excellentopportunities for practitioners to broaden theirawareness of policy and research issues and receivesome basic training in research methodology.

NRDC provided training sessions and forummeetings, with reviews and handouts coveringrelevant policy development, targets and recentresearch. This helped the practitioners to situatetheir professional experience within the widerdebate. The project was well supported throughestablished channels and through links with othersinvolved in research at the Institute of Education.

All the practitioners found interviewing learnersinteresting and worthwhile. They could see thepractical impact of the decisions they had made atthe design stage, and several suggested it would beworth doing at the beginning of a course.

At an institutional level, the project enabled thepractitioners to network with members of staff withwhom they would not normally have contact. Thishas opened up avenues for future development,particularly with teacher training in the college.■


Motivating and demotivating factors that affect adult numeracy learners



www.nrdc.org.uk

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Extracurricular activities: addedvalue or wasted resources?

Exeter College

Fakhira Asfaq, Suzanne Oyo,Saban Ozturk, Tat Ruck, Nrvan El Saied and David Wright

Introduction

Many teachers, volunteers and co-ordinatorsworking in English for Speakers of Other Languages(ESOL) feel that much of the work they are doing,beyond the delivery of English language learning inthe classroom, is undervalued. They experience littlesupport in terms of funding, resources orunderstanding of the contribution that such activitiesmake towards engagement and progression.

The practitioners involved in the community ESOLproject in Exeter have spent a great deal of time andeffort organising a range of extracurricular activitiesto supplement what happens in the ESOLclassroom. They put forward a research proposal tothe NRDC to take a closer look at the value of thiseffort. Given limited time and resources, how farshould ESOL providers and practitioners go insupporting extracurricular activities? Do suchactivities make a significant, perhaps even anessential, contribution to the delivery of ESOL andto the motivation of learners?

Background

The research proposal grew organically out of ourwork with the Community ESOL Project, a two-year

developmental partnership between Exeter Collegeand the Islamic Centre of the South West (IC),funded by the local Learning and Skills Council(LSC). Support networks and facilities for minorityethnic communities are still in their infancy overmuch of the south-west of England, with the resultthat there are many very isolated individuals andsmall groups who are not easy to reach.

Although most of the initial targets of thecommunity ESOL project related to getting newlearners enrolled in classes and buildingprogression routes onto mainstream courses, boththe local LSC and Exeter College supported theholistic approach taken by the project team. Asmuch time has gone into setting up activities andclasses with no qualification outcome as into settingup and running new ESOL classes.

Research questions

• Are added-value activities peripheral to thedelivery of Skills for Life and a potential waste ofresources, or are they fundamental to thesuccessful recruitment and progression of Skillsfor Life learners?



• How much do extracurricular activities contribute towards developing learners’ languageskills?

Research design

The main group of participants for this researchhas been ESOL learners from the women-onlyclasses run at the Islamic Centre of the SouthWest over the past two years. All of these learnershave participated, to varying degrees, in theextracurricular activities on offer and we wantedthem to reflect on what, if anything, they hadgained from the different activities they had beeninvolved in alongside the English classes.

It was important to the team that ESOL learnersshould be active researchers. The research teamtherefore comprised three learners from classesat the mosque, an ESOL tutor who regularlytaught both at the mosque and in college, and apart-time ESOL tutor at the college.

We carried out 16 interviews and ran two focusgroups, one with learners and one withvolunteers, teachers and project workers. As‘insiders’ who were familiar with the interviewees,we did not find it difficult to persuade people toget involved but we did worry about feeling tooclose to the material. As we learnt more from ourtraining sessions, however, we were reassuredand, as the research progressed and themesstarted to emerge strongly from the data itbecame less of a problem. However, we did findwe forgot to record things simply because wewere so used to them. At our residential weekendwe were strongly recommended to do moreimpromptu recording but by the time we got intothe habit, the research was nearly over.

Data collection

We started with a focus group for all the learnersfrom the women-only classes to make sure thateverybody knew what we were doing. We thenarranged a schedule of interviews to be carriedout by the ESOL learners in the research team,supported by interpreters where necessary.

We decided to give the interviews a chronologicalstructure: past, present and future.

• What were learners’ experiences of the Englishlanguage, of English language learning, ofEngland in the past (before joining in with classesand activities at the Islamic Centre)?

• How had those things changed in the present?• What hopes and plans – with work, education,

family – did they now have for the future?

We realised too that if we were going to describe theimpacts of involvement in extracurricular activities,we would have to tease apart the information byasking distinct questions about language learning, aswell as questions about social and personal impacts.

Data analysis

We analysed transcripts of the interviews andidentified four major themes:

1. Different ways of learning English2. Emotional factors3. Citizenship – knowledge and experience4. Wider gains.

We then went through the transcripts to identifyquotes relating to each of the themes. We also triedsome quantitative analysis techniques to see if anyclear patterns emerged, discounting any referencesthat were not directly related to language learning.For example: ‘My family I want them more better intheir life and study’ was not counted as it states ageneral aspiration.

Each word or phrase was then categorised bypositive/negative connotations in past, present orfuture according to context of use.

Findings

The relationship between extracurricular activitiesand learning EnglishWe found clear evidence that the provision of a rangeof extracurricular activities was a factor in encouraging learners to attend the ESOL classes atthe mosque.



It was important to the team thatESOL learners should be activeresearchers.

3

During our first focus group session we asked thelearners to rank what they enjoyed most aboutattending the classes. The top four answers were:embroidery club, photography classes, exercisesessions and visits. One participant hastened to addthat everyone liked the ESOL classes too, but it isinteresting that these were first suggestions. Anactively involved learner is more engaged with thelanguage they encounter and the multisensory inputhelps with deeper level processing and thus withmore effective long-term retention.

Another point made very effectively by an informantrelates to the type of language learning experiencethat extracurricular activities offer. Most language-teaching professionals would accept the importanceof facilitating opportunities for learners to practisewith all the language at their disposal, but much ofthe language on offer in the ESOL classroom is‘restricted’. At the extracurricular embroidery club,on the other hand, for example, the teacher ‘givesus new words’.

A volunteer tutor who had been involved with bothclassroom support and extracurricular activitiescommented: ‘Visits let learners use language in amore natural, broader way – the language we use inour everyday lives – due to lack of restrictions.’Another volunteer at this session talked aboutspecific skills developed such as expressingopinions or developing an argument.

This is not to suggest that ESOL classes should beabandoned, but it does show that learners value theextracurricular activities partly because of theirpositive impact on language learning.

Emotional factorsIt could be argued that these extracurricularactivities can be done by learners for themselves.However, this argument ignores the emotionalaspects of language learning.

A clear pattern that emerged in our interviews isthe contrast between our informants’ descriptionsof their emotional states before they enrolled with

the community ESOL project and their currentlevels of confidence and self-esteem.

References to anxiety and other negative emotionsin relation to arrival in the UK and language skillsoccur again and again in the interviews. Severalinformants link these negative emotions directly tolanguage skills and to their ability to develop theseskills.

CitizenshipIn recent years, in response to governmentinitiatives and the Crick Report, citizenship hasbecome a major issue and the subject of citizenshiphas been assimilated into the National Curriculumwith a suggestion that it should include a strongexperiential element. It is clear from our findingsthat a strong programme of extracurricularactivities can be an ideal way to provide some of thisexperience.

One learner who had been on a visit to Devon policeheadquarters and found herself at home andscared, remembered how the police had said thatpeople should not hesitate to phone them if theywere worried about something – that it was everycitizen’s right. She phoned the police, made herselfunderstood and a police car called round toreassure her. This simple account is evidence ofimprovements in communication with a publicservice organisation and of practical experienceleading to an increased ability to make use of publicservices.

Wider gainsThere are also benefits for the teachers and thedevelopment of their relationship with theirlearners. One project volunteer remarked that thevisits led to ‘a reduction in teacher control andincreased mutual respect’.

‘Wider gains’ include the widening of interests andhorizons: an extracurricular trip led one informantto enrol for a sign language course. They alsoinclude positive benefits for learners’ familymembers. Reporting on an informal reading group



Visits let learners uselanguage in a morenatural, broader way.

at the local library one interviewee said: ‘First time Ifind they have story sessions for children ... and nowOmar he have his library card.’

A volunteer tutor also observed that:‘Extracurricular activities at the mosque supportempowerment of women by giving themopportunities to socialise, express opinions, widenhorizons.’

Conclusions

The message from this research supports recentwork that shows literacy education not only as thediscrete delivery of reading and writing skills but associal practice. This perspective also focuses on theidea that our views of learning need to expand toincorporate what happens outside the classroom.

In the field of ESOL, with the additional issue ofactive citizenship, this perspective has even greaterresonance. It also reveals a gap between what ishappening in the ESOL classroom and the realneeds of the learners. Our findings demonstratethat extracurricular activities can make anenormous contribution towards satisfying thoseneglected needs by helping to build confidence andself-esteem, providing opportunities for real andunpressured engagement with local institutions andservices, and helping to develop support networksin the community. It is also clear that theseextracurricular activities have a direct impact onlanguage learning itself.

The irony is that the starting title for this research isitself misleading: these activities should be part ofthe curriculum; they are not adding value to ESOLprovision, they are ESOL provision.

We recommend that government organisations,funding bodies and ESOL providers look at ways ofoffering more support to extracurricular activities interms of both financial support and recognition.

Dissemination

Locally, these research findings will bedisseminated to ESOL providers (Exeter College,

Plymouth College, Open Doors) and to the regionalLSC.

Interested parties have formed a community group,the Olive Tree Association, which is applying forfunding to co-ordinate a year-long programme ofactivities among local minority ethnic communities,with the aim of promoting active citizenshiplearning. The findings of this research are beingused to provide evidence of potential outcomes forthe funding bids.

Two members of the team are now involved indelivering specialist Level 4 teacher trainingprogrammes for Plymouth University, whichprovides the opportunity to disseminate the findingsof this and other NRDC projects to practitioners.


For all of us, being involved in this research hasbeen a process of both personal and professionaldevelopment. For the ESOL learners in the team,taking responsibility for designing interviewquestions, for carrying out interviews and fortranscribing and translating has meant much morethan the opportunity to improve English skills. Moreimportantly, it has been an empowering experience:actually being paid to use our language skills andbeing listened to by people outside our community,by people from all over the country, has been a veryexciting opportunity. For the rest of the team, it hasbeen equally developmental – teaching us newskills, giving us the sense of having a voice andopening up networks of contacts all over thecountry. ■





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Introduction

The Northern College for Residential AdultEducation became involved in the second round ofNRDC Practitioner-led Research Initiative inLiteracy, Numeracy and English for Speakers ofOther Language (ESOL) to develop the delivery ofadult education for the learners’ benefit and,specifically, to investigate the impact of residentiallearning on Skills for Life learners. The College wasin a unique position to carry out this researchbecause residence is central to its delivery.

Background

The project aimed to:• Investigate the impact of residence on Skills for

Life learners’ commitment and progress, with thefocus on learners’ perceptions

• Explore how the intensity of a three-dayresidential course enhances learners’commitment

• Explore the potential impact of including aresidential element in non-residential provision.

It also aimed to raise the profile of Skills for Life atNorthern College in South Yorkshire, which isdedicated to the education and training of people

without formal qualifications, from disadvantagedbackgrounds, who want to return to learning. TheCollege offers a high level of support and haspioneered an innovative mix of full-time and part-time programmes from basic literacy and numeracyto higher education. Learners come from differentbackgrounds, are aged from 21 to over 70, and oftenhave families and dependants.

The college is linked to the Skills for LifeConsortium in South Yorkshire, the South YorkshireProfessional Development Network and LifelongLearning Partnerships, and is a partner of SheffieldHallam University.

It has recently been awarded Learning and SkillsBeacon status and received a grade 2 for itsFoundation Programme (Literacy and Numeracy) inthe 2003 Adult Learning Inspectorate (ALI)inspection.

The Skills for Life courses include speaking andwriting with confidence, reading skills, essay writingand numeracy. National Tests in literacy andnumeracy at Levels 1 and 2 are offered to alllearners.

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Learners’ experiences andperceptions of the impact ofresidential education on Skillsfor Life learning

Northern College for ResidentialAdult Education

Sue Chattwood, Bronwen Ray,Suzanne Tomlinson and JillWesterman



Research issue

The key issue in the research was learners’experiences and perceptions of the impact ofresidential education on Skills for Life learning.

Research design

The research ran from January to September 2005and moved through initial planning andimplementation of data collection, data analysis,report writing and dissemination of project findings.

The college principal provided the team with researchsupport, including advice and guidance at each stage,as did the NRDC.

Ethical issuesLearners who appeared in photographs completedconsent forms and learners’ names were not used inthe report. In fact, once the learners knew what theresearch was about, they were all keen to contribute.

Literature reviewA literature review was undertaken on the theme ofresidential learning, but little of it seemed to focus onthe benefits for learners, or learners’ perceptions orshort-term courses.

Data collection

Data collection involved:

• a questionnaire for 62 Skills for Life learners fromsix residential courses

• learners’ own accounts produced during twoCreative Writing residential courses, accredited atLevel 1 through the Open College Network

• two focus group discussions, each with eightlearners

• retention and achievement statistics.

The six residential courses represented 25 per cent ofthe 24 residential Skills for Life courses that randuring the data collection period. The 62 who filled inthe questionnaires represented 30 per cent of thetotal registered 198 learners. These figures thusrepresent a significant proportion of the total, and theresearch team believe that the research participants

are representative of the whole cohort.

Data collection began with a Creative Writingresidential course. Learners were encouraged toexpress in writing their ideas on studying in aresidential college and also given cameras to recordtheir experience. This course was repeated, withdifferent learners, towards the end of the datacollection.

Two focus groups were held, one at the beginning ofdata collection and one at the end. The first group wasused as a starting point to formulate thequestionnaire.

Two of the team attended training by NRDC onrunning a focus group and each held a focus group.

Data analysis

QuestionnairesData analysis began with a statistical investigation ofthe questionnaires. They were completed by 62learners: 19 men and 43 women (31 per cent men and69 per cent women). This reflected the programmeperformance indicators for the year, which were 38per cent men and 62 per cent women. Over half (58per cent) of the learners were aged under 55, whichreflected the programme’s overall year age of 52 percent under 50.

Seventy-six per cent of the learners had previouslyattended a residential course at Northern College butthe difference between those who had and those whohad not was not evident in their responses.

Respondents were asked how far they lived from thecollege: 62 per cent had travelled more than 6 miles,while 38 per cent had travelled less than 6 miles, yetstill decided to stay residentially at the College.

Once these statistical details were identified, theopen-ended written responses to the questions wereanalysed and grouped into seven key themes:

1. Intensity of experience2. Peer support


Impact of residential education on Skills for Life learning

The key issue in the researchwas learners’ experiences andperceptions of the impact ofresidential education on Skillsfor Life learning.

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3. Atmosphere4. Away from everyday life/pressures/routine5. Time6. Access to resources7. Transport/travel.

Focus groupsOnce the seven themes had been identified, thefocus group data was analysed to gain morequalitative data about learners’ perceptions. Thegroup facilitators were members of the researchteam and so they knew the participants in the focusgroups, which may or may not have had an impacton the responses.

The first group comprised learners who hadpreviously been on Skills for Life courses and hadprogressed onto the College Diploma. Therefore,while they had experience of short courses, theywere currently on a nine-month residential course.The second focus group comprised learnersselected from questionnaire respondents, who onlyhad the short-course experience.

One of the few differences between the two groupswas the confidence with which the participantscontributed. The first group were keen to sharetheir experiences while the second group neededmore encouragement. However, regardless ofthese differences, the results of the two focusgroup discussions were very similar.

Creative Writing coursesThe two Creative Writing short courses weredesigned to enable learners to express theirperceptions of residential learning through poems,journals, tabloid-news-style pieces and shortstories. This seemed particularly appropriate as theresearch was practitioner-led and the aim was toexplore learners’ perceptions. It also proved to be arich source of data.

Once all the data was assembled, coding thematerial began: the qualitative data wascategorised systematically and results andconclusions drawn.

Findings

QuestionnairesThe data suggested that learners valued the timeaway from home/everyday pressures: 92 per cent oflearners cited this as important. An acrostic poemwritten by one learner contained the phrase ‘time tothink’, and many other comments reflected similarfeelings.

As the seven themes became apparent during thequestionnaire analysis an overarching theme wasalso emerging, with learners repeatedly referring tothe idea that residence ‘allows them to relax’. Forexample, many learners felt that not having to travelto and from College every day allowed them to relax,because they were not worried about being late.

Focus groupsThe focus group data confirmed the seven themesand the overarching theme of ‘relaxation’ that hademerged from the questionnaires. Both groups feltthat residence at college gave them better access tofacilities. However, while the short-course learners(the second group) saw the College site as providingeasier access between living space and learningspace, the Diploma learners (the first group)described the distance between buildings as beingmore pronounced. The Diploma learners alsocommented on how being residential can result inintense relationships with other learners. Possiblyfor learners living for a long time at the College, itbecomes their ‘everyday’ environment, whereas forshort-course learners it is a break from the norm.

Comments about a ‘feeling of belonging’ in theresidential setting were echoed across both groups.

Residence, motivation and achievementThe project did not have the time to explore learners’motivations but the findings indicate possiblereasons, including a desire to achieve something –like completing a course.

Before doing the data collection, the team tried toidentify what it was about the residential experiencethat contributed to learners’ commitment and



Many learners felt that not havingto travel to and from College everyday allowed them to relax,because they were not worriedabout being late.

achievement. The Skills for Life programme figuresfor 2004/5 indicate a 97 per cent retention rate and92 per cent achievement rate compared to thesector average of 88 per cent and 81 per centrespectively. Although other factors are involved, itis reasonable to suggest that residence contributesto these rates.

Conclusions

We acknowledged at the start of this project that wewere starting from the premise that residence is apositive factor. There are negative aspects ofresidence, such as being away from family, sharingfacilities and possible animosity between learners,but none of the short-course questionnaires citedany of these disadvantages: the vast majority ofresponses were positive.

The research findings confirmed what we alreadythought, but also enabled us to to identify relaxationas the overarching experience of residence for alllearners.

To take this study forward, research into theresidential experience in other venues andsurroundings would be necessary. It would also beworth examining whether the relaxed atmosphere ischiefly important to Skills for Life learners, orwhether all adult learners might benefit.

During the focus group discussions, we tried toidentify exactly what was beneficial about theresidential experience. What emerged was that theseven factors are all important in different degreesfor different individuals. It could be seen as akaleidoscope – the pattern changes, but all thecolours are needed to make the pattern. Perhapswhat is special is that all learners can access themas far as they need to, to create their own effectivelearning pattern.

Dissemination

The findings from this project will be disseminatedthrough workshops at regional events, articles in aSkills for Life publication and on the NorthernCollege website, at an NRDC Practitioner-led

Research dissemination event and at in-house staffmeetings.

The main aim of the dissemination is to encouragenon-residential providers to consider including aresidential element in their course delivery.


This project has been a valuable experience for theteam, who were fairly new to the concept of actionresearch. It has promoted their reflective practiceand provided continuing professional developmentopportunities, with research training provided bothin-house and by NRDC.

The Skills for Life team had collective responsibilityfor this research, which has enhanced theirconfidence, while involving the learners in theproject has potentially been empowering for thesutdents.

The project has confirmed staff perceptions oflearners’ feelings about the impact of residence onlearners and enabled us to explore these in moredepth.

The team were inspired to plan and deliver two newCreative Writing courses that are now part of thegeneral course delivery, and will be developed andincluded in future Skills for Life programmes.

The project has benefited the whole college by:

• providing evidence for the argument forresidential learning

• giving the learners a voice in this argument• providing staff with the opportunity to develop

research skills• gaining national recognition for the work of the

college• bringing additional income into the college.

The team are now able to integrate research withtheir teaching and organisational activities and arelooking at other areas that might enhance theirSkills for Life teaching. ■


Impact of residential education on Skills for Life learning



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Introduction

This project was designed to find out whatmotivates learners to persist and succeed on Skillsfor Life programmes, and to develop and evaluatesome teaching strategies that address learnerneeds.

Background

York College currently provides for 80 per cent ofthe city's 16–18-year-old learners and a largeproportion of its adult learners, offering a range ofbasic skills provision. It has a dedicated andindependent Learning Development Unit (LDU) withexperience of practitioner research in an FE settingand of literacy and numeracy projects.

The LDU co-ordinated the research element of theproject and supported the four practitioner-researchers by providing advice, information andtraining and monthly meetings. The college's Skillsfor Life co-ordinator helped the practitioners todevelop approaches, techniques and materials andwas in daily contact. The team met formally twiceand also informally to discuss progress and ideas.

Research questions

• What motivates learners to take adult literacy andnumeracy programmes?

• What motivates them to continue with theprogrammes? What goals do they hope theirlearning will help them to achieve?

• What impact can specific teaching techniques haveupon learners' aspirations and motivation? Forexample, if learners persist with their studiesbecause of growing levels of confidence, canformative assessment techniques be used tosupport this?

The research

Four practitioners undertook action research projectsworking with learners on adult literacy and numeracycourses in college and in the workplace. They startedwith a training session on action research methodsand an in-depth workshop on gathering data fromlearners.

Each practitioner then devised their own researchplan tailored to their own learners, research goalsand teaching contexts. They also developed their owndata collection models using observation, interviews,

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Learner-centred practice:meeting the goals and motivationof learners on Skills for Lifeprogrammes

York College

Helen Kenwright with JulieAinsworth, Shona Cuthbertson,Judith Gresty, Nick Haigh andLaura Kent



If learners persist with theirstudies because of growing levelsof confidence, can formativeassessment techniques be used tosupport this?

focus groups and, in some cases, questionnaires.They began by investigating their learners’ currentmotivation and aspirations, then selected techniquesto develop their practice in the classroom. Theyevaluated and developed these techniques, usingfurther consultation with learners, observation andreflective practice.

Towards the end of the development and datacollection phase they received training in dataanalysis, using their ‘live‘ data, then completed theiranalysis and interpretations.

Each practitioner worked primarily with their ownlearners but also, where possible, observed eachother’s practice and compared outcomes andtechniques.

Practitioners were keen to avoid intimidating theirlearners. They did not record interviews on tape orvisibly take too many notes. They made interviewsvery informal, held group discussions as part ofnormal class activities, and were sensitive about howthey administered questionnaires.They also gainedexplicit informed consent for involvement in theproject from all participants.

The data collected was qualitative and consistedprimarily of interview transcripts and notes,observation records, practitioner diaries and coursedocumentation. The records kept for each learnerwere made anonymous and analysed alongsidesample schemes of work and relevant lesson plans.Because the practitioners knew the learners verywell, the LDU research team collected andinterrogated the outcomes to bring a more objectiveperspective to the analysis.

Every piece of evidence was used to test emergingfindings and, where there was a discrepancy, this wasused to alter outcomes or, at the very least, noted asan exception. Practitioners found this particularlyuseful because sometimes their research was soclosely interwoven with their teaching practice thatthey forgot that informal observation and dialoguewith learners were valid methods of data collection.

Once the data had been coded and interrogated, peertechniques were used to check interpretations, with asecondary analysis to reduce the influence ofindividual perspectives. Comparative techniques wereused to draw out similarities and differences betweenthe experiences of different groups of learners anddifferent practitioners.

Findings

What motivates learners?The learners on this project were largely motivated bythe drivers described in a MORI poll for the BasicSkills Agency in 2000. They wanted to:

• feel better about themselves and their skills• perform better in everyday tasks involving basic

skills• get a job• perform better at work• help their children with their learning.

They often had long-standing motivations andaspirations but were spurred into action by a recentevent, such as the arrival of grandchildren or losing ajob. Some motivations reflected the belief thatlearning was intrinsically useful; others were linked toexternal opportunities.

There were also several examples of learnersmotivating each other. Many of them had thought theywere alone in their lack of skills, and found it inspiringthat this was not so.

One practitioner found that as learners became awareof how they and their peers were learning, theyunderstood why tasks that seemed easy for oneperson could be difficult for another. Bydemonstrating that this was a matter of individualpreference and learning style rather than an indicatorof intelligence, she successfully motivated herlearners to keep trying and significantly raised theirconfidence.

Practitioners also noted other information, interestsand preferences, sometimes concerns or worries thathelped them to identify specific approaches to


Learner-centred practice

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teaching. The practitioner working with a group ofarmed-forces learners was aware of potentialresistance because it was a mandatory programme.She therefore began by inviting them to write downany positive or negative thoughts, so that she couldtake them into account and help the learnersrecognise, as the course progressed, how they wereovercoming their obstacles.

Learners from all the groups reported that theirlessons were relevant and interesting, although somewere not used to having their individual needs andinterests catered for and felt that they were beingoverindulged. The best response to this waspersistence and feedback, explaining the learningprocess, linking achievement to immediate andabstract motivations and demonstrating progressthrough formative assessment.

Teaching techniquesOnce the learners' motivations and goals had beenestablished, each practitioner developed techniquesto address these needs.

They carried out learning styles activities with theirlearners individually and in groups to help thelearners to reflect on their past experiences oflearning and their preferences and resistances. Theythen used the outcomes to create individual andgroup strategies for learning. This helped thelearners to take an active approach to their ownlearning.

In some cases learning and teaching styles wereadapted to address wider lifestyle issues. Forexample, for shift workers who had just completed along shift, the practitioner provided relaxed sessionswith a slow pace, using a higher than usual number ofgames and discussion sessions to keep them alertand engaged.

Formative assessmentRegular, targeted feedback helped learners to relatetheir learning to their immediate goal (e.g. obtaining aqualification) and their long-term aims. It needed toinclude acknowledgement of progress, identifying a

manageable area for improvement and clearguidelines on how to make that improvement.Provided that learners felt secure and had alreadymade progress, group work, peer teaching andassessment also encouraged mutual support.

ResourcesSpecially designed resources were also effective. Onepractitioner used colourful objects to demonstratedifficult points. Another used clothes pegs todemonstrate the use of apostrophes. Her learnerseach wrote a word, cut it out, then folded it to showthe contraction and held it together with a clothes pegon which a big apostrophe was drawn.

Individual mini whiteboards allowed learners toexperiment with different combinations of words andphrases and to build their confidence by using amedium that allowed easy deletion.

ComputersComputers were useful, both because they weremotivating in their own right and because devicessuch as spellchecks and the delete key werereassuring safety nets that protected learners fromfeeling embarrassed by their mistakes.

One practitioner worked with a learner who found thecomputer very helpful. She then gradually introducedother, paper-based, techniques, such as using adictionary, which the learner was able to do moreconfidently because they had the computer asbackup.

The researchThe research itself had a motivating effect. Itincreased learners’ awareness that they were notalone, that there were organisations and academicsworking to help them and learners like them, and thatwhat they were doing had an importance beyond theirown achievement.

The research process also allowed much moreconsultation and dialogue between practitioners andlearners than is usually possible, with opportunitiesfor reflection and development of practice.



The practitionersLearners responded not just to praise andencouragement, but to their teachers’ interest inthem, investment in time and energy, confidence inthem and their professional skills. Many learnersreported that this was the first time they had met atruly ‘inspiring‘ teacher, and that this was a keycontributor to their motivation and ultimate success.

Conclusions

There are many identifiable ways in which learningcan be designed to address learners' individual goalsand motivations. However, it was not particularactivities that guaranteed success but matching theactivities to learners’ interests, goals andmotivational needs, and reflecting on learners'feedback and reactions to tasks throughout theprogramme.

At the end of the study all the learners hadprogressed not only in learning and skills, but also intheir own motivation and hopes for the future.

The research findings will benefit not only the Skillsfor Life team, but colleagues throughout the collegelooking for new ways to differentiate their deliveryand meet learners’ needs more closely.

Dissemination

The evidence described in this report will bepresented to colleagues in the LDU Teaching andLearning Bulletin. The team plans to produce onebulletin about how to get to know learners and theirgoals and motivations, and another about designinginspiring activities tailored to specific learner needs.

The full version of this report will be adapted andincluded on the LDU website for internal and externalvisitors, and will include some of the resourcesdeveloped for other practitioners.


The practitioners involved in this project all felt thatthey and their learners had benefited significantly.The rigour and focus of the research process helped

them to concentrate more effectively, to prioritiseand to evaluate the outcomes of their work morethoroughly.

The two practitioners who had not done researchbefore found that it also helped to demystify theprocess and highlight the overlap between researchand learning activities. Learners echoed this andenjoyed taking part in activities that were helpingtheir own teachers to find out more about learning.NRDC publications and information offered a contextwithin which practitioners could locate and apply theirown work and also facilitated the sharing of goodpractice through the credibility the NRDC programmelent to practitioners’ work. The opportunity to networkwith colleagues from the other projects was valuableand we hope will continue.

However, the project also presented significantchallenges in terms of time and communication.Although funding was available for cover it was rarelypracticable and communication could be trickybecause all the practitioners are very busy and manywork off site. A project newsletter is planned to helpkeep colleagues and other project partners aware ofthe project.

Overall, the project has been a useful andenlightening experience, well supported by NRDC.The team would wholeheartedly recommend thisapproach to other colleagues considering involvementin such initiatives.

Further research questions

• How can we provide the time to find out whatmotivates individual learners, when we do not havethe focus and resources of a research project?

• How can we work effectively with diversemotivations among a group of learners?

• How can we track and adapt to changes in learnermotivation over time?

These issues are difficult to address outside a project,but need to be tackled if the findings of this projectare to be thoroughly embedded. ■



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Learner-centred practice

Introduction

Adult learners often begin an ESOL (English forSpeakers of Other Languages) course only to dropout after a couple of weeks for reasons beyond thecontrol of teachers and managers. But many othersstay. What helps them to carry on despite the manyobstacles they face?

This project used qualitative research methods toexplore teaching methods and teacher qualities thatmight contribute to high levels of learner retentionin part-time adult ESOL classes. It emphasisedgiving a voice to both learners and teachers.

Background

City and Islington is a large general furthereducation (GFE) college in the London Borough ofIslington, a part of London with much wealth andprosperity, but also significant poverty anddeprivation. Islington is described as the fourthmost deprived authority in London: the second mostdensely populated area attracts a significantnumber of refugees and asylum-seekers.

Research questions

• What are the methods that ESOL teachers canuse to promote learner retention?

• What teacher qualities are valued by learners andseem to positively affect retention?

• What guidelines can teachers follow forimproving retention in ESOL classes through thelearner–teacher relationship?

The research

The research team interviewed seven teachersemployed by the college, including one part-timer.All had consistently achieved high retention ratesand had taught ESOL from two to 20+ years. Fivewere from bilingual families or had themselveslearned English as an additional language.

The team devised an ethnographic interviewquestion frame rather than a more predeterminedquestion and answer-style interview processbecause it was keen to uncover the teachers’stories.

Each teacher suggested seven or eight ESOLlearners, who had ideally been in their class formore than one term, to take part in focus groups.

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James McGoldrick, Sharon Turnerand Frances Weinreich withMelanie Cooke



Adult learners often begin anESOL course only to drop outafter a couple of weeks forreasons beyond the control ofteachers and managers.

More than 50 learners then took part in sevengroups, some during the day and some during theevening. Most were Entry Level 3 adult learners as itwas felt they would be able to articulate their ideas.The learners were a variety of ages and spoke a widerange of languages.

The three main researchers from City and Islingtonknew all the participants, which meant that therewere good working relationships but the researchcould not be entirely unbiased.

Data analysis

Four main themes came up in the discussions:lessons, teachers, teaching and motivation andenjoyment. The focus group data was entered ontogrids that were analysed for the final report. Theresearchers then read transcriptions of their ‘own’interviews and noted any areas or themes that cameup more than once or could be related in some wayto the focus groups. These were discussed in aworkshop and an overall analysis was carried out.

Findings

What the learners saidESOL learners’ lives are complex. They arerestarting their lives in a new country, often asrefugees or asylum seekers, raising families andlooking for work, all in a second, third or fourthlanguage. Yet the learners in this study consistentlyattended classes even when faced with theseobstacles.

Goals and aspirationsFor a high proportion of learners the main reasonthey kept coming to ESOL classes was their ownmotivation: they believed that acquiring a high levelof English was essential for integration in the UK, aswell as for future economic success and personalfulfilment.

The teachersThe next most motivating factor for learners was theteacher, and they particularly valued the followingcharacteristics:

• Clear explanations: teachers who were patientand persevered using varied approaches until thelearners could understand.

• Professionalism: for example, correctinghomework promptly and being on time. Learnersalso mentioned having ‘enough information andskills for whatever they teach us’ and reinforcingother teachers’ reputations.

• Respect and problem resolution: the learnerswanted ‘friendly’, ‘soft’ control; to be spoken toand treated as equals by the teacher rather thanas children. Respect was a key issue for theselearners.

• Individual attention: the fourth most frequentlymentioned factor was the teacher’s ability to giveindividual attention in the classroom and, moreimportantly, in tutorials where learners could talkabout their personal lives rather than SMART(specific, measurable, achievable, realistic,timebound) targets or individual learning plans.

• Some learners also mentioned the value of thegroup, which might offer the opportunity to meetpeople from other nationalities, to make friendsor simply to practise using English.

Attitudes to lessonsEnjoyment and relevance were the key points here.Most of the learners from the focus groups becameanimated and excited as they explained what wenton in their lessons. For ESOL learners enjoyment isnot necessarily ‘having fun’ but a sense of ‘newness’which creates a desire to learn. They also neededthe lessons to be relevant to their everyday lives andto help them integrate into society at a deeper levelthan just the functional language in the Skills forLife material.

What the teachers saidThe teachers talked with enthusiasm about theirwork and the learners and all stated that they ‘loveteaching’. They presented themselves as caring,compassionate and fair people who treat theirlearners equally; some also mentioned empathywith their learners.



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The teacher’s roleThere seemed to be a range of approaches tofostering a successful working environment. Oneteacher described how she reduces the powerdivide between teacher and learners bydemonstrating that she herself has weaknesses;another talked of finding common interests.

The teachers were serious about their professionalduties, setting homework and marking it promptly,as well as taking on the considerable institutionaldemands of record-keeping and examinationpreparation. They also carried out a pastoral,supportive role for their learners, making time forchats and giving informal advice.

InductionThe teachers interviewed agreed the importance ofcourse induction as a time for establishing groundrules, setting the scene, negotiating targets andestablishing the tone for the whole year. Some alsobelieve it is important to show the value of being inthe class and ‘winning over’ the learners.

Teachers involved their learners in shaping thecourse and the learners noticed this andappreciated it.

PlanningThe teachers stressed the importance of carefullesson planning. Most checked that learners knewthe long-term goals of the course, as well as theobjectives for each lesson, and they all saw theimportance of group and pair work.

Formative assessment can play a motivating role:‘even things like half-term tests, they actually lookforward to that, if they’ve got a goal then they knowthey have to work hard’.

Teachers talking about learners

RelevanceTeachers agreed with learners that the work they doin class must be relevant. Some teachers make aconsiderable effort to stress to their groups theimpact that English language learning can have ontheir lives.

RespectLike the learners they emphasised the importanceof respect. Some teachers suggested learning tosay something in their learners’ mother tongues:one could say ‘good’ in 30 languages. They saw theprocess of teaching/learning English as a jointventure.

AchievementsLike the learners, teachers repeatedly commentedthat learners must feel they are learning andgetting somewhere with their English.

Learners’ livesTeachers viewed the tutorials as key to knowingsomething about learners’ lives and what may affecttheir attendance and learning. Some teachers alsotalked about boundaries to their involvement andneeding to decide when referrals to otherprofessionals would be appropriate.

EnjoymentThe teacher interviews gave the sense that theclassroom was not only a place for work, but alsofor enjoyment. Enjoyment was also implicit in theway that they expressed their passion for languagelearning and the value of their work.

Conclusions

The project confirmed that the teacher has animportant role in retention. The students in theproject perceived the quality of the teaching as thekey motivator for retention after their primarymotivator. They identified the crucial characteristicsof good teaching as: planning, transparency and aclear purpose, backed up by mutual respect and asupportive relationship established carefully andearly.

The ESOL teachers in the study demonstrated aremarkable ability to deal with the complex needsand demands of their ESOL learners. They not onlymanaged those needs but also taught a language.This involved employing a range of strategies tokeep their learners attending, includingentertaining, supporting, listening, protecting andadvising – as well as teaching.



Teachers involved their learners inshaping the course and thelearners noticed this andappreciated it.

Another key finding of this research was that adultESOL learners have strong opinions and need to beheard. Learners often returned to the issue ofrespect, stating this as central to theteacher–learner relationship.

However, the research also confirmed that even themost experienced teachers with a good track recordfind that their learners sometimes drop out. Thefluid nature of ESOL learners’ lives means this issometimes unavoidable. And dropout does notnecessarily imply a negative; learners sometimesleave because they have found jobs or moved on.

This project did not aim to deliver a new range ofstrategies for teachers: on the contrary, manyteachers are already doing what is required to keeplearners coming to class. However, learnersconsistently commented on areas of their teachers’teaching approach that they liked. It may be thatoften they were able to comment because theirteachers had made it very clear what they weredoing. Many teachers made a conscious effort toensure learners could see what they were doing,whether projecting their objectives onto thewhiteboard, or talking explicitly about class rulesand expectations. This transparency is alsoimportant to demonstrate that learning has takenplace. Learners need to feel this and teachers needto facilitate this understanding.

The first few weeks can be a crucial time forretention, a time to establish ground rules and ‘sell’the course to learners. It is also a time to set theclass up as a stable environment for learners (whenother parts of their lives may not be stable) and toencourage learners to take responsibility for this.

Retention is about more than just ‘learning’ in aquantifiable sense: learners are also being providedwith a sense of personal well-being and fulfilment,and a social forum for at least six or so hours aweek.

Dissemination

The research team has written a short piece for acollege newsletter and presented an in-houseworkshop at City and Islington College. The projecthas been posted on the DfES website. Locally, theresearch team plans to run further training eventsat the College and will talk about the project tosenior management. The team is also planning towrite an article for Language Issues.


The practitioner-led research has been anoverwhelmingly positive experience, but has alsoinvolved a steep learning curve.

The team has developed research skills that includedevising interview question frames, organisingresearch pilots, running ‘ethnographic-style’interviews, holding focus groups, analysing data andwriting the report.

They have grown into a tight, supportive, skill-sharing team and established links withresearchers at King’s College and LancasterUniversity. Meeting and training with the otherresearch teams taking part in the PLRI has alsobeen valuable.

Teachers and learners taking part in the projecthave felt empowered through their involvement –and enjoyed being given (to some extent) free rein toexpress their ideas and beliefs about ESOL. It hasalso been a wonderful opportunity for the researchteam to take some time out from the practice ofteaching and training to look at ESOL from a newperspective.

The team has learned a lot from the researchprocess and made some important contacts in theUK educational research field. The project hasencouraged us to focus on our own classroompractice, and reflect on how our methods areperceived by learners. City and Islington College hasbenefited by having three members of staff whohave been trained in research methods that couldbe applied to future in-house projects. ■





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Part3Creativity in teaching and learning

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Summary reports for Round Three

Dewsbury College

Learner-centered action research at Dewsbury College

Essex

Weaving reading for pleasure into the Skills for Life adult literacy curriculum


Stepping up - a peer-education project for young homeless people

Future Prospects and York College




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Introduction

This summary describes a learner-centred,practitioner-led action research project undertakenby the Skills for Life team at Dewsbury College inWest Yorkshire based around teaching and learningsupport for experienced tutors.

Background

The overall aim of the project was to instigate apractitioner-led action research network (ARN) in theSkills for Life department to support creativeinnovation in classrooms. The college has a goodmentoring system for new tutors, consisting mainlyof tutors of English for Speakers of Other Languages(ESOL) but also incorporating other Skills for Lifetutors. An evaluation of this system in 2005highlighted the value of peer support and cross-departmental links and the last inspection included across-college recommendation that peerobservations would help to strengthen teaching andlearning, but this had not happened in any formal orrecognised way.

Research questions

• How can an action research network support tutors

in continuing professional development?• How can the network support tutors in becoming

action researchers?• How can learners be actively, usefully and

centrally involved in action research projects?• How can action research affect practice?

Research design

Skills for Life tutors at Dewsbury College formed anaction research network. Tutors in the networkundertook small action research projects involvingtheir learners and arranged for their writtenreflections and comments to be used for the dataanalysis. They also took part in interviews at the endof the project. Data were collected during the firsttwo terms of the project, autumn 2005 and spring2006. The third term, summer 2006, allowed time fordata analysis and writing the report.

This project was innovative in two principal ways: itintegrated learners’ voices into the action researchand it employed new technology as a usefulcommunications tool.

Data collection

Tutor interviews provided data on tutors’ perceptions

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Learner-centred action researchat Dewsbury College

Dewsbury College

Cathy Clarkson and VasilikiScurfield


Creativity in teaching and learning

of their own ‘distance travelled’ and theirperceptions of the learners’ views on the project andon the network.

They kept diaries on a community blog whichprovided qualitative data about their own actionresearch projects, comments on others’ projects andreflections about the project.

Learners discussed and reviewed their views andopinions on any changes in the classroom during theproject. Four group interviews were conducted withone evening group and two outreach classes, andone mixed-group learner forum of daytime collegestudents.

Three out of the six tutors kept class blogs onwww.blogger.com and one tutor’s project involved avirtual social network which incorporated a blog.

There were six hour-long meetings throughout theproject, including a final group evaluation session.

The tutors devised a pro forma to recordobservations and for setting up reciprocalobservations with other members of the actionresearch network. The focus of each observationwas negotiated between the observer and observedtutor in advance and feedback was given after theevent.

The projects

Project a – CathyI did a ‘mini’ action research project with a Level 1ESOL group where they had a choice of variousactivities. Feedback from the learners gave me theconfidence to extend this into something bigger formy Entry Level 3 tutor group.

This class produced a giant class ILP (individuallearning plan). First activities and topics wereranked in order of importance, then SMART (specific,measurable, achievable, realistic, timebound) targetswere matched to each one. Four of these topics werechosen to be group targets and then individualschose their own priorities from the rest.

Project b – FriedaI explored and tested, with a group of outreach EntryLevel 3 ESOL learners, the use of social networks interms of promoting independent learning, peercollaboration and improving the learners’ Englishwriting skills. Taking learning outside the classroomand being able to communicate with them wheneverit was needed was also my intent.

The learners took an active part in the project bychoosing which website they would like to use andalso selecting topics they would like to write about.

Project c – TinaI decided to start a peer-teaching project combinedwith a blog and noticeboard for evaluation andreviews at each stage of the project. The researchwould involve me learning to not be in completecontrol during the class and students consideringlearning new grammar from a teaching perspective.Both of these would be new skills for all concernedand a chance for students to directly compareteacher- and student-led methods of learninggrammar.

Project d – BethMy Level 2 students were not very independent andalso not very effective in the decision-makingprocess. My project involved introducing my studentsto De Bono and his coloured hats to help themunderstand and improve their discussion anddecision-making skills. Then they used these skills todevelop a class scheme of work (SOW) for six weeks.They decided on topics and content of lessons, evenhomework, and then transferred their choices to acollege SOW pro forma.

Project e – AnitaNumeracy classes are run on a workshop basis. Iwanted to change that, to get people talking to eachother, learning things together, and to improve thegroup dynamic and to make numeracy fun!

I started by ending the sessions with treasure huntsaround the room. The class was jigsawed into groupsand they pulled out of a hat a task to search the room


Learner-centered action research

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to find pieces of information that they would thenfeed back to the rest of the group. It continuedthrough the year using the interactive whiteboardwith students coming up to the front and solvingproblems with help from their classmates.

Project f – JuliaAim: improve my students’ writing in preparation forexams by getting them to proofread moreeffectively. I intended to do this by introducing peermarking to Entry Level 1 and Entry Level 2 students.I started by introducing a marking code and had thestudents group mark a text to correctly identifymistakes.

The next stage was to graduate the activities soeventually the students would be comfortable peermarking and this should impact on their ownproofreading and accuracy. I also used dictation, as Ihave never used this before, to tie into checkingwork.

Action research network activities

MeetingsThe meetings were timetabled from September. Thefirst three revolved around debates on actionresearch, how to involve learners and the blog. Thelast three focused on what was happening in theclassroom, feedback from learners, developing peerobservations and a final evaluation of the wholeproject.

Peer observationsThe group developed a simple schedule reflectingkey elements:

• Learning process and not judgemental• Equal, with both the observer and observed

teacher wanting to learn and develop from theexperience

• Aims of the observation should be negotiated andagreed beforehand

• Space on the observation schedule is provided forjoint reflections after the observations.

Tutor diaryA single page blog was selected because oneperson was the administrator, each tutor could besubscribed just once and all posts could easily beread and commented on

Findings

Tutor interviewsThe interviews demonstrated that all the tutorsvalued their participation in the action researchnetwork for the time and space it gave for sharingideas and peer support, especially peerobservations. Negotiating the outcomes wasparticularly useful, along with the opportunity towatch other tutors in the classroom.

They also identified some weaknesses: a slow start,a lack of clarity in the beginning and the failure ofblogs to operate at full potential.

All involved the learners at some stage of the actionresearch cycle and felt the the learners benefited.They talked about increased confidence in usingnew technologies, being more aware about theirwork, more prepared to collaborate and doing morelearning outside the classroom. None talked aboutstudents improving their literacy, language ornumeracy.

Network blogTutors wrote positively about how the network wasdifferent from the norm of teaching; they focused onsharing and ‘stealing’ ideas and used the blog tosupport each other. The blog also reflects thetutors’ initial nervousness and shows how theprojects seem to have evolved through a mixture ofbouncing ideas off one another, involving thelearners and the reflective cycle of action research.

Learner forumsLearners’ views on the effectiveness and benefits ofthe projects varied but all the learners were happywith their involvement. Where tutors relinquishedcontrol to learners, learners embraced this in theirlanguage, literacy or numeracy development. Onegroup involved in peer teaching talked about



All involved the learners at somestage of the action research cycleand felt the the learners benefited

learning from each other and their growingconfidence.

Student blogsMost comments from the learners stated that theyliked or enjoyed the projects but rarely why. Somefocused on their language learning; others wrotemore generally about learning from each other. Theyalso expressed their successes in terms of ‘softoutcomes’; that it was good but hard work to choosein this way, and made them focus on what they wantto learn.

ConclusionsBoth tutor and learners have benefited from alearner-centred action research network. Putting thelearners at the centre of individual projectscontributed to its success and created an environmentthat nurtured motivation. However, while themeetings and peer observations were an essentialpart of the network, more consideration needs to gointo the role of written reflections via a blog.

All tutors reported that their learners benefited fromgreater independence, greater involvement andinterest in their own learning. Learners also reporteddevelopment of literacy, language or numeracy.

The network allowed tutors to take the risk thatthings may go wrong. Many tutors reported that theymight have done some kind of innovation in theclassroom without the support of the network butthat it wouldn’t have been as large scale, asstructured or as focused.

Although most tutors in this study were notinterested in being academic researchers, theywholeheartedly embraced the collaborative aspectsof the network, such as peer observations and face-to-face meetings.

The network also demonstrated that learners can beinvolved in their learning in alternative ways to apaper-based ILP connected to SMART targets. Thispotentially presents a challenge to the individualisedway in which policy in Entry Level Skills for Lifeclasses is often implemented.

The network has been effective in promoting creativityin teaching and learning, and lessons learnt can becarried over to the next cycle, whether this is again inSkills for Life or spread wider across the College.

Dissemination

We hope to disseminate results to the whole collegeand also generally through NRDC. One of the projectleaders may develop the project into an MAdissertation. Support and encouragement will beprovided to tutors who wish to write up results ofindividual projects. Two tutors have already presentedat the RSC_YH Regional Conference on the use ofblogs and social networks.

Another action research network is planned for2006–07 and we are canvassing senior managementto make space and time available for similar projectsin the future.


Some of the issues raised in the first term and theconfusion about the learners’ involvement and use ofthe blogs happened because the project leadersthemselves were unclear about the extent to whichlearners could be involved. It would have been usefulto clarify how much the blog was available for use asa personal space for reflection versus the need fordata for the PLRI project.

If a network were to be run again it would be useful tolook at the long-term impact on learners, thedepartment, the college and individual tutors. Howwould the network feed into the college’s formalobservation cycle? Given the widespread dislike offormal observation among colleagues, we feel thatinformal peer observation should maintain a strictlyseparate existence.

There is also potential for a ripple effect. If thenetwork becomes part of college practice, might itencourage all tutors to be more overt inexperimentation, reflection and sharing? Among thetutors taking part in the network, strategies used inindividual projects have been absorbed into theirmainstream teaching. ■


Learner-centered action research



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Weaving reading for pleasureinto the Skills for Life adultliteracy curriculum

Essex

Sue Oakey

Introduction

This research focused on the effects of incorporatingreading for pleasure into Skills for Life literacyclasses based on the adult literacy curriculum andwhether there is evidence to support the linkbetween creative reading and the acquisition offunctional literacy skills.

Skills for Life literacy tutors are increasingly underpressure to demonstrate learner progression bymeeting the requirements of the National LiteracyTests at Level 1 and Level 2. They experience atension between providing creative ‘learner-centred’teaching and learning experiences, and the pressureof teaching to the requirements of the tests. As aresult the experience of reading for pleasure is indanger of being pushed to the margins of group andindividual learner experiences and viewed as time-consuming and inappropriate as a class activity.

Background

The partnership between Essex County Council Adultand Community Learning and Essex County CouncilLibraries began in 2000 when they worked togetherto develop criteria that enabled library staff toidentify mainstream books that were accessible to

emergent readers in Skills for Life classes. Thepartnership has continued with library staff visitingclasses and learners visiting libraries.

Essex Libraries have developed a service toemergent readers that is embedded into their stafftraining, stock selection and procedures, with QuickRead collections at all the libraries. Their work hasinformed the development of the national Vital Linkprogramme which focuses particularly on howcreative reading activity through libraries canmotivate students and engage new learners, andtakes partnership between the library and Skills forLife sectors as its starting point.

The aims of this project were to:

• Investigate the links between innovative readingactivity with learners and greater enjoyment,motivation, progression and the more functionalacquisition of skills that support adult learners inmeeting the Government’s ambitions for learnerachievement

• Enable Skills for Life practitioners to reflect ontheir everyday practice in more detail to uncoverthe impact of book-related activity for learners



• Begin to address the link between wider readingand vocabulary acquisition

• Begin to address how emotion, attitude andmotivation affect cognitive growth with adultlearners – all areas that can be affected by anengagement in reading

• Identify aspects of good practice and helpfulinformation that support partnership workingbetween Skills for Life tutors and library staff.

Research question

What are the links between innovative readingactivity with learners and greater enjoyment,motivation, progression and skills acquisition?

Research design

The project began in September 2005 and work withthe learners was completed by April 2006.

Eight Skills for Life tutors working at adultcommunity colleges across Essex agreed to trackthe impact of innovative book-related activities. The57 learners who volunteered to take part attendedadult literacy classes linked to the National Tests atLevel 1 or Level 2 in Chelmsford, Canvey Island,Colchester, Basildon, Brentwood, Harlow, Maldonand Warley.

The project was introduced to the tutors asappropriate for learners who were emergent readersranging from literacy Entry Level 3 to Level 2, butthe tutors also included learners who wereinterested and enthusiastic, and adapted theirteaching strategies accordingly. The variation ofreading ability in the Entry Level 1 to Entry Level 3range is in accordance with the ‘spiky profiles’ ofadult learners, who are often better at reading thanwriting.

Library staff visited seven of the literacy classes andadvised the tutor in Colchester. They used the VitalLink toolkit reading activities to interest and engagethe learners and after detailed discussions aboutindividual preferences and personal interestsreturned to the groups with a range of appropriatebooks.

Tutors planned the reading activities and integratedthem into their courses. None had any problemlinking the reading for pleasure work to the adultliteracy curriculum. Learners worked with theirtutors to complete reading diaries and book reviews.Library staff visited to discuss learners’ and tutors’responses to the books and to provide more QuickReads. Learners and tutors also provided feedbackcomments at focus group meetings. Tutors werefunded for an extra two hours a week to completepaperwork and meet colleagues to share ideas andexperiences. The learners completed aquestionnaire at the beginning and at the end of theproject.

Data collection

The initial questionnaire established a baseline ofinformation about the 57 adult learners. Most wereaged 25–49 with the younger and older age groupsalmost equally represented. Women outnumberedmen and there were no men under 25. Learnersidentified a wide range of interests includingcooking, gardening, ICT, craftwork and art.

Over half (67 per cent) of the learners alreadybelonged to the library but only half of these visitedit regularly (at least once a month), so overall athird of learners accessed a library regularly.

Eleven learners had taken part in a Quick Readproject in 2003 but only five visited the libraryregularly. Of the remaining six learners one hasmobility difficulties, one prefers to buy books andfour of the learners rarely visit a library.

During the project tutors and library staff met inChelmsford to share good practice andinformation. Paul Davies from NRDC gave apresentation entitled ‘The use of soft outcomes inresearch’. The research practitioner led the focusgroup sessions and passed on the commentscollected to library staff who matched them to thefive generic learning outcomes, a tool thatmeasures the outcomes and impact of learningand demonstrates how cultural organisationscontribute to the learning.


Reading for pleasure and the adult literacy curriculum

What are the links betweeninnovative reading activity withlearners and greater enjoyment,motivation, progression and skillsacquisition?

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Data analysis

A wide range of data was collected from tutors andlearners. Learner responses to the questions werecollated, summarised and recorded on Excelspreadsheets and bar charts so that informationcould be traced back to individual learners. Theperceptions and experiences of the tutors, librarystaff, learners and the research practitioner linkedtogether to form a strong body of evidence.

Findings

The initial questionnaireOnly 35 learners (61 per cent) responded to thequestion about their attitude to reading at the startof the project. Half of those said they enjoyed it butdid not have enough time; the rest said that theywere either nervous about reading or disliked it.Overall there was a lack of enthusiasm aboutreading, particularly reading books. Less than halfthe learners read anything often and official lettersand magazines were read more frequently thanfiction/non-fiction books.

The final project questionnaireThe final project questionnaire demonstrated theimpact of the project on the enjoyment, learning andmotivation of the learners. Learners said that theyhad learnt more about their own reading tastes andfelt more confident about their skills and abilitiesgenerally. These responses also came through verystrongly in the focus groups and were supported bythe tutor evaluations of individual learners. Theywere more hesitant about assessing their ability tothink creatively but still gave a 65 per cent positiveresponse.

Learners also said that they felt more motivated tolearn. Skills for Life learners have often overcomehuge barriers to learning and are well motivated butnervous about their abilities. Their greatermotivation may have been linked to increased self-confidence.

Tutor evaluation questionnaireIt is interesting to compare the learners’ responsesto the final questionnaire and their tutors’

evaluations of the impact of the project. Thelearners seem to have gained more from the projectthan their tutors realised. Their tutors were positiveabout the outcomes but the learners respondedmore strongly to every question.

Focus group informationLibrary staff linked the comments from learners tothe generic learning outcomes. Enjoyment,inspiration and creativity scored the highest,followed by activity, behaviour and progression.These are the infrastructure supporting theacquisition of skills, knowledge and understandingthat affect attitudes and values.

Conclusions

The main messages from Skills for Life tutors arethese:

• The support, expertise and resources of thelibrary service make it easy to include reading forpleasure in delivery of the National LiteracyCurriculum.

• The Vital Link reading resources are powerfultools in engaging learners’ interests.

• Introducing reading for pleasure enables tutorsand learners to share their individual interests.

• Linking the activities to the National Curriculumis straightforward.

• The improvement in learner self-confidencesupports the development of functional skills.

• Oral literacy work is greatly enhanced by theconfidence gained from reading for pleasure.

Some key points emerged from the researchevidence:

• The importance of the freedom not to finish abook.

• Learners who rarely read a book agreed that theydisliked thick books with dense print. Learnerswith poor memories found it difficult to resumetheir place in a book if they had to stop readingpart-way through a chapter.

• Library staff and tutors used games anddiscussions to introduce learners to the Quick



Less than half the learnersread anything often and officialletters and magazines wereread more frequently thanfiction/non-fiction books.

Reads and supported learners through the firstchapter of the book. Speaking and listeningactivities enabled learners to share theirperceptions and consider different attitudes andvalues.

• Learners felt less isolated after reading aboutissues that they recognised and more confidentabout giving opinions based on experience.

• Learners were eager to rewrite the endings ofbooks that they felt could be improved. Thefreedom to use their own ideas was a powerfulmotivator in supporting their writing.

Functional literacy skillsThe learners identified a wide range ofimprovements linked to their reading activities,particularly:

• improvement in vocabulary• increased awareness of the importance of

punctuation• improvement in spelling• improvement in summarising and writing book

reviews• improvement in discussion skills• the confidence to give an opinion about a book.

Tutor evaluations also identified improvement inthese areas.

Quick ReadsTutors found it easy to use the Quick Read texts forfunctional literacy topics and the learners found iteasier to work on text analysis because theyunderstood the broader context of the text withinthe story. Tutors also recorded that learnersbecame aware of how an author’s choice oflanguage can indicate the genre of a book and thisinfluenced their own creative writing.

Library membershipThe 11 learners who had taken part in a previousQuick Read project said that they now knew moreabout the facilities in libraries and 14 learnersjoined the library as a result of the project.

The figures suggest that the reading for pleasureproject had most impact in supporting the transitionfrom Entry Level 3 to Level 1 and Level 1 to Level 2.


The findings from this research were disseminatedat the national NRDC dissemination event in Londonin July 2006 and the local dissemination event inEssex during autumn term 2006.

The Vital Link will publicise the research and EssexLibrary Service and Essex Adult and CommunityLearning Service intend to produce good practiceguidelines based on feedback from library staff andACL tutors involved in the project.

The research clearly supports further developmentof Quick Reads for adults who enjoy reading but donot have time to read long books, and foradolescents who are reluctant readers.

Research practitioner comments

It has been a pleasure to be involved in the projectbecause the practitioners, library staff and learnersin Essex worked with such enthusiasm andenjoyment.

The amount of information has been vast, andsorting and ordering it all has been challenging.Contacting tutors, nearly all of whom work part-time, was not always easy and visiting all theprojects in locations across Essex meant thattravelling time and mileage exceeded the originalspecifications of the project.

However, putting faces to names on questionnaireswas invaluable as the learners were more preparedto talk about their learning experiences.

Skills for Life tutors and library staff in Essex haveexcellent working relationships. The project hasprovided further evidence of the strength of thepartnerships and the advantages for both servicesand for the Skills for Life learners. ■


Reading for pleasure and the adult literacy curriculum



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Introduction

Sunderland YMCA Foyer provides accommodationand support for young people who are, or are at riskof being, homeless. These young people often fallinto the Government’s broad category of not ineducation, employment or training (NEET) and aredesignated hard-to-reach learners: as such theyform one of the key target groups for Skills for Life.

The Training and Education Department at theYMCA set up a peer-education project called MAD4U(Making a Difference for You) in 2005 to use theexperience of young people who have beenhomeless themselves to:

• raise awareness of youth homelessness• help improve services provided to homeless

young people through lobbying and campaigning• deliver training to help young people gain a

successful leaving home experience.

The project is strongly learner-centred and involvesyoung people in planning, giving presentations,lobbying on homelessness issues, developing anddelivering peer-education sessions. Literacylearning is embedded in all of these activities but

not usually clearly articulated by the staff orrecognised and valued by the young peoplethemselves.

Background

The research project aimed to explore these literacypractices and enable the young people involved tovalue their literacy learning. The team at the YMCApreferred a social practices model of literacy to themore conventional Skills for Life provision. Itenabled them to make sense of the literacy involvedin the peer-education work and focused on thepositive rather than the negative implicit in theNEET label.

The project was a partnership between SunderlandYMCA Training Department and SunderlandUniversity, School of Education and LifelongLearning.

The YMCA runs several short programmes includingEntry to Employment (e2e) and the Learning PowerAward, which is specifically designed for learnerswho have experienced homelessness or arecurrently homeless. Other courses are fundedthrough the adult and community learning fund.

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Stepping up – a peer-educationproject for young homelesspeople


Sarah Rennie and Stephen McKinlay



Literacy learning is embedded inall of these activities but notusually clearly articulated by thestaff or recognised and valued bythe young people themselves.

Research questions

• What literacy practices are involved in the peer-education project?

• What evaluation methods will enable youngpeople to value their literacy learning?

Research design

The research was carried out between October 2005and May 2006 with a group of young people whowere already working together on the MAD4Uproject. It studied real-world settings in a particularplace and a particular time, dealing with real peoplein their context and seeking to represent theparticipants’ perspectives.

The young people were involved from the beginning:there were regular discussions about the progressof the research and one member of the groupsattended the PLRI launch. The emerging findingswere fed back so that any apparent inconsistenciesor misrepresentation could be corrected. The youngpeople read and commented on the case studiesand chose their own pseudonyms.

Four interviews were carried out and there was alsofeedback from professionals.

Data collection

Data were collected through observation of what theyoung people did and the ‘artefacts’ they produced –see the following case studies for examples.

We tried a variety of methods to help young peoplereflect on their experiences of which the heart,head, bag and bin exercise was the most successful.Here the heart represented a change of feeling orattitude; the head something learnt; the bagsomething they could take away, a transferableskill; and the bin something they would ratherforget about.

Data analysis

We first constructed a grid to organise our data,splitting it into sections by theme and by source.

We devised a framework for the case studies andthe interviews and discussed it with the team. Thefirst draft was also discussed with the team andwith the subjects to gain feedback, new insights anda different perspective.

We then analysed the case studies and the rawdata from which they sprang to see if we couldidentify any common themes, patterns anddifferences.

We measured the engagement in some literacypractices and evaluative methods and lack ofengagement in others through what Roger Hart(1992) called the Ladder of Young People’sParticipation.

Case study 1Sophie is 22. She has borderline personalitydisorder and has led a turbulent life. School has badmemories for her and she left without anyqualifications. She has been with the Prince’s Trust,the Venture Trust and Fairbridge but finds that thecourse is over just as she is beginning to assertherself.

She has been a very committed MAD4U member,rarely missing meetings and travelling toBirmingham, London and Lancaster to represent it.

Sophie wants to work for Sunderland YMCA Foyeras a support worker and has begun her first ‘properjob’, at an outdoor pursuits centre in summerholidays working with schoolchildren.

She said: ‘Being part of MAD4U gave me innerstrength to try and overcome my personalitydisorder so I can play a bigger part. Coming toMAD4U gave me the confidence to attend the jobinterview in Cumbria.’

During the head, heart, bin and bag exercise Sophiehighlighted being able to discuss things withauthority figures as a major transferable outcomeand using ICT to create a newsletter. She placed heruse of poetry in the heart section and the public


Stepping up – a peer-education project for young homeless people

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speaking skills, refugee awareness and childprotection course in the head section. She assessedcreating a newsletter and promotional work as thetasks that showed the highest degree of learnerparticipation.

Case study 2Sarah is 18; she is ‘bubbly, cheerful and talkative’, ‘abit aggressive’ but her aggression can bechannelled.

Sarah says she enjoyed school but suffered frombullying both at age eight and then later in life whileattending college, which led to her withdrawal fromthe course. She hated PE but enjoyed practicallessons such as cookery and enjoyed workplacements, for example childcare.

She wants to become a hairdresser, get married andsettle down with kids. She is currently trying to getinto college again and has said, more than once, thatvolunteering with MAD4U pushed her to do this:‘Since doing MAD4U I have been thinking aboutgoing back to college ... I don’t know ... because I amsick of being stuck in the house all of the time. Theonly time I go out is for MAD4U’.

As part of MAD4U Sarah attended training courses,sent mail-outs, created and delivered a presentationand worked on a video. During the head, heart, binand bag exercise she listed all these in the bagcategory; put training courses and creating thepresentation in ‘head learning’, and poetry anddelivering the presentation in heart because of theincrease in confidence they engendered.

Case study 3Nicola is 18. She enjoyed primary school but dislikedsecondary school. She did a painting and decoratingcourse after school, only because ‘her mate wasdoing it’.

Nicola has had her training severely disruptedbecause of moving from town to town but has settledrecently and completed an e2e course, passing aNational Test in literacy. She wants to work in

childcare but has discovered that her criminal recordmay hinder this.

She enrolled on the e2e programme at the YMCA .The e2e course runs in the morning with a drop-in inthe building in the afternoon. Catering (sometimesliterally) for the young homeless in the city centre,the drop-in is the obvious recruiting centre forMAD4U.

This led to Nicola being a leading light in the shortMAD4U film developed with Connexions Direct. Aswell as contributing to ideas and scriptwriting,Nicola was one of the main characters, but did notrealise what literacy practices she might havedemonstrated until she was helped to value theactivity as a rounded learning experience based onthe following tasks:

• script reading• script writing, in a team• speaking and actively listening to another young

person while rehearsing.

Asked what she now thought of the activity inrelation to learning she admitted that it hadencouraged her to talk more, giving her confidenceto express her opinions.

Findings

The amount of quality literacy work that was beinggenerated contradicted homeless young people'ssupposedly ‘hard to reach’ label, but the otherelement of the research project was to help youngpeople value what they were doing.

Corrections to texts were made later because theperson desires that the finished product will reflectthe effort that has gone into it. They seek theapproval of the facilitator and their peers and it isoften here that the learning takes place.

Of the approaches we tried, the questionnaire, withits predefined ‘tick-box’ answers, was the leastparticipative, there seemed no motivation tocomplete the journal and web blog and the tree



As well as contributing to ideasand scriptwriting, Nicola was oneof the main characters.

exercise was viewed as too abstract. By far the mostsuccessful evaluation method/reflective device wasthe heart, head, bag and bin method, perhapsbecause it gave a loose structure to the youngpeople, inviting very open opinions.

This also rang true for the semi-structured informalinterviews. They were taped and transcribed toenable a natural conversational style, while thestructure helped to keep things on track. Theexisting good relationship between the interviewerand interviewee ensured a positive atmosphere.

Housing professionals who had attended apresentation by the MAD4U group gave writtenfeedback on structured sheets as did the two YMCAresearchers. This triangulated feedback providedobjective, reliable data for the three case studies.

Accreditation was also possible. All the MAD4Ugroup were working towards the Learning PowerAward. All the young people in the case studies haveachieved Level 1 certification.

Truly to learn a person must approach the task froman intrinsically motivated perspective. Extrinsicincentives (payment, food) are easy to dangle in frontof a young homeless person and the task will becompleted, but learning will not necessarily havetaken place.

Conclusions

• Real-life literacy practices, particularly with acampaigning focus, act as strong motivations forimproving literacy, i.e. ‘to get the words right’.

• The MAD4U group proves that once motivation istapped, things happen, including growth ofconfidence, assertiveness, personal growth,raised aspirations and skills development.

• The literacy practices and evaluation approachesthat were most motivating were the ones in whichthe young people actively took part in thedecisions about what they were doing, why andthe language in which it should be expressed.

This language included visual images.• Real learning takes place by encouraging these

practices. This cannot be easily replicated intraditional classroom settings with a focus onfunctional literacy development. Skills for Lifefunding should acknowledge this.

• Explicitly involving young people in their ownaction research is the best way to help themreflect on their literacy development. The mainpositive outcome is increased confidence, whicharises from being valued for what they cancontribute, and being viewed as an expert insomething – probably for the first time.

Comments

Working with homeless young people brings manychallenges. As we try to help young people todevelop we are inevitably drawn into the chaos thatcan surround their lives. The research projectallowed us to take a step back and analyse the workwe do and why we do it in a more rigorous way. Thesupport we received from the Lancaster ResearchTeam was second to none: they helped us to:

• develop our own voice• gain confidence that what we had to say really

mattered• put what we had to say into a suitable framework• broaden our reading and our minds.

To make a case for change based on evidence is anempowering feeling and one that I would advocate toanyone who thinks they have something to say orwho would like to change the system. The NRDCPractitioner-led Research Initiative has given astructure to this that can also be viewed asmirroring what we try to do with the MAD4U group.■


Stepping up – a peer-education project for young homeless people



www.nrdc.org.uk

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Spectrum: working to engageyoung offenders

Future Prospects and YorkCollege

Eamonn Addison and Andy Bucklee

Introduction

This project attempted to identify effective teachingand learning strategies and barriers to learning foryoung people not in education, employment ortraining (the group known as NEET). It specificallyaimed to engage young people involved in youthoffending or antisocial behaviour. Data were gatheredfrom working with 16 to 25-year-olds within thistarget group: from interviews, observations, trainingsessions, practical outdoor group activities, videoevidence and life and citizenship skills activities.

Background

We entitled the project ‘Spectrum’, a non-stigmatising title that a group could identify with. Tomeet the funding guidelines we aimed to work with16 young people for a minimum of four hours re-introducing them to appropriate citizenship/socialskills through new and innovative ways of learningthat would also help to develop their literacy andnumeracy levels. For some, these fundamental coreskills had lapsed and not progressed since they hadleft formal secondary education.

We also aimed to develop the research skills oflearners and practitioners, including using innovative

participatory methodologies and techniquesappropriate for learners likely to be resistant orhostile towards ‘traditional’ research activities, suchas questionnaires and interviews.

The project was a collaborative venture betweenFuture Prospects, which undertook the research anddevelopment activity, and York College, whichprovided support and project management throughits Learning Development Unit (LDU).

Future Prospects is a partnership funded by over 28organisations that delivers numeracy and literacycourses for marginalised groups, such as minorityethnic groups, drug users, homeless people andyoung offenders. The two practitioners involved in theproject had more than seven years' experienceworking with a range of hard-to-reach groups,including young offenders.

York College provided regular meetings and contact.Training events and project meetings included timefor discussion and networking, and were also open tomembers of the Advisory Group. Initial findings fromthe project were shared with the Safer YorkPartnership and the Connexions service.



Research questions

• Can creative learning methods and specificcreative practices stimulate, interest and motivateyoung offenders taking mandatory literacy and/ornumeracy programmes, and if so, how?

• How can teachers develop creative activities withinthe constraints of curriculum and assessmentrequirements?

• How can current teaching practice in creative andexpressive arts inform development in adultnumeracy/literacy provision for young offenders,and vice versa?

• Can creative learning practices play a key part inchanging offending behaviour?

Research design

The research involved two practitioners and threegroups of learners, 17 learners in all, engaged in twoto four week courses, which could lead to theNational Test. Learners helped to developappropriate, non-threatening techniques for datacollection and made video diaries during theircourses. Professional fieldworkers were available toundertake interviews. The Future Prospects projectmanager made regular classroom observations andpractitioners kept diaries of their practice. Learnersmade visits to college classes in creative andexpressive arts vocational areas to help identifyinteresting activities and features.

Grounded theory techniques were used to ensurethat findings are rooted in the learners' experiences;constant comparison and principles of inclusion wereapplied to make sure that the research evidenceaccurately and reliably reflected all the data.

All the statutory agencies that worked with youngpeople in this group were contacted and informedabout the Spectrum project.

The project manager, who was based at the LDU,supported the project with training. The unit alsoprovided training opportunities for the practitionersand learners, and held regular meetings with theproject team.

Data collection

Digital video cameras were used to capture sessionevidence and highlight:

• the relations between the tutors and students• student-to-student interactions• the evaluation of individual responses to certain

learning modules and the various learning styles.

Throughout the programme students appearedreluctant to speak when they were reminded thatfilming was going on so it was agreed to gather datathrough other means. However, when the studentstook some responsibility for the filming itself and theactivity was based around interviewing and comm-unication techniques, students became more at ease.

Each session ended with inviting the learners torespond verbally to the day’s activities: what wasenjoyable, what have they learnt, what was andwasn’t useful? Using a whiteboard and pen, the tutorwrote up their responses. This informal groupapproach seemed less threatening for the individualand didn’t require the learners to read and answerquestions with a written response.

Individual student review sheets were introducedearly on. They invited students to circle a numberfrom one to ten, according to how much or how littlethey enjoyed an activity, and also to add comments.

Throughout all the sessions delivered at the college,the project facilitators used a purpose-madespinning wheel device, which determined whichparticipant would do what and when. It got thestudents up and out of their chairs and involved inthe session. The style of material and the topics werealso designed to aid the students’ concentration andability to work positively with the group that day,especially as the numbers attending varied from dayto day, as well as from week to week.

The practitioners delivering Spectrum kept dailywork and observation sheets and met every day todiscuss all aspects from the learning material tostudent issues.



How can current teaching practicein creative and expressive artsinform development in adultnumeracy/literacy provision foryoung offenders, and vice versa?

3

Findings

• The team achieved enhanced levels of motivationand engagement in learning among youngoffenders.

• The successful areas of engagement included:(a) the concept of increased earning power, skills

for work and earning money(b) using youth culture, fashion labels and

identifying brands(c) examining criminal activity itself, using

literature and case studies to learn literacyand to unpick the myths behind gang culture.(Not as glamorous as many young peopleimagine.)

• The project provided inspiration to practitioners tohelp develop creativity in the numeracy/literacycurriculum, and to embed adult literacy andnumeracy in the curriculum of other vocationalsubjects.

The key findings were based around the use ofchanging teaching methods that drew on differentlearning styles. All classroom-based sessionsrotated between visual, auditory and kinaestheticlearning, each of no more than 10 minutes. Theclient group was unable to remain still, especiallywhen seated. This required careful managementbecause, although the aim was to provide a learningstyle to suit the learners, we also aimed to work onimproving attention span and application.

Multimedia were used to capture evidence oflearning and creative learning resources within theexisting curriculum framework. The client groupreadily engaged with the materials and did notinitially relate the experience to literacy learning. Forexample at the end of each session, learnersprovided feedback on ‘What did you learn today?’This included factual details such as how to open abank account or how to conduct an interview, notcorrectly spelling personal information or askingappropriate questions to meet the situation.

What ‘creative’ aspects of Spectrum worked well?• At the beginning of each session, as a group, we

decided on at least two set breaks within a four-hour learning period.

• We used simple activities/worksheets that tookonly about ten minutes to complete.

• None of the students could be excluded from theentire programme but if they demonstratedinappropriate behaviour, they would be asked toleave that session, think about their actions andcome back the following day.

• Having two facilitators in each session helped usto manage the client group and, if necessary,offered additional one-to-one support.

• Focused research into areas of interest helped topromote the group’s initial interest. Exercises andactivities were created to balance this withworking on Skills for Life goals. Learners werethen reminded that they had attempted,completed and then achieved something –because it had retained their interest.

What aspects of Spectrum didn’t work so well?

• Different rooms in college were allocated eachday so the students had no regular base andcourse work could not be displayed.

• Students who were trying to attend the project butstill involving themselves with petty crime andsocial disorder offences struggled to makeregular attendance.

• Funding restrictions that determined when theproject needed to be up and delivered workedagainst thorough planning and establishingreferral processes.

Conclusions

The project found that the styles of provision towhich young people respond best are those thatreflect their genuine interests and use learningstyles that are different from pre-16 education.There is sufficient flexibility in the Skills for Lifecurriculum to allow creative learning experiencesthat reflect the interests and culture of young peopleto match learning outcomes and Skills for Lifeobjectives.



The project provided inspiration topractitioners to help developcreativity in the numeracy/literacycurriculum.

Cross-fertilisation with multimedia was an effectivetool for engagement as was blending learning intoother less academic areas around personal andsocial education. The key barriers to bringing increative practices from other curriculum areas arestaff flexibility and support from management. Therewas also productive collaboration acrossdepartments at FE level.

However, there are still issues to be addressedregarding the capacity to invest in curriculumdevelopment and around whether the furthereducation (FE) sector is willing to spend guidedlearning hours on activity that is not purely focusedon National Test achievement.

This research activity successfully developed thereflective and analytical skills of the learners andpractitioners but it turned out that film was notalways to be the most straightforward way ofcapturing research data.

Good practice and creative techniques have beenshared, and adult literacy and numeracy integratedinto the curriculum of vocational subjects such asMusic Technology, Art and Design, and MediaStudies. The research will also benefit the widerresearch community, complementing and furtheringexisting knowledge in this vital area of teaching andlearning.

We were not able to test how well the creativepractices could be absorbed into mainstream FEdelivery practices but the LDU has identified apotential role for the ethos of the delivery as part ofan intervention strategy for learners who havebehavioural issues.

Another area of research to develop would be theimpact of learning on antisocial behaviour. Changingnegative behaviour patterns is essential to creatingthe right environment for learning and work.During the programme, people who were attendingregularly were changing their offending behaviour.At the end of the programme, after attending eachday for at least two weeks, their routine had

changed so they displayed different behaviour.Whether their offending had changed is difficult toassess, but they had developed the tools to changea pattern of behaviour. The next step would be toapply these tools to other areas of their lives.


A set of bespoke activities and associatedresources is being prepared to be available as aweb-based resource. The research findings havebeen shared within the College and at the PLRIevent in London.

We are going to build on the research and embed itas part of staff development and service researchand development. We also intend to developpractice to improve the quality of research.

The next goal is to look at the impact of behaviourand routine on learning and work achievement. Weare currently developing innovative practice on theback of the Spectrum project, which will focus on amodel of person-centred positive routineimprovement.

Comments

The pilot research project provided us with anexcellent opportunity to devise and implement astrategy of working in groups with young offenders.Previously the focus has been on one-to-one work,but this was missing a great chance to work onsocial and citizenship skills.

As practitioners, we struggled at times to balancegathering data with delivering a learningprogramme for a tough group of learners. A keylearning experience was to focus ourselvesthroughout the project on exactly what we wereattempting to achieve. Although the process wasenlightening and successful, in the future we willintegrate the research element further into theheart of the learning programme. ■





www.nrdc.org.uk

Introduction

Soft Currency (SC) was a small-scale, practitioner-led action research project carried out between June2005 and June 2006. Our team consisted of tenresearchers. Other key contributors were threeteachers at a local primary school; approximately 30children at the primary school aged 8 to 9 and 11interviewees aged 57 to 89.

Background

SC was based in the Learning and DevelopmentDepartment of Exeter Council for Voluntary Service(CVS) which comprises a local membership of about130 voluntary bodies, plus a further network oforganisations through its volunteer centre. Its mainaim was to find out whether we could usereminiscence work to elicit a learner-centredfinancial literacy curriculum for older people and, inthe process, ascertain levels of financial literacy inolder people.

Research question

In attempting to address soft and hard outcomes, wenarrowed our research questions until we had onereformulated question:

• How effective is reminiscence work for exploringolder people’s financial literacy, utilising theframework of the generic learning outcomes?

In particular, we were attracted by the GLO blend ofsoft outcomes (enjoyment, inspiration, creativity,attitudes, values) and hard outcomes (knowledge,understanding, activity, behaviour and progression,skills).

Research design

We were looking for ways of:

• researching conversational techniques that mightpoint us to what motivates our learners

• in the case of non-accredited learning –implementing RARPA (Recognising and RecordingProgress in Achievement).

An initial impetus for us was the question: how canwe gather soft and hard data relating to olderpeople’s levels of financial literacy? Conversationthrough reminiscence work presented itself as apromising route into this enquiry. Conversations withlearners also form a major contribution to RARPA’sapproach.

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Alan Gorman, Professor GarthAllen, Jane Mace, Bill Greenwell,David Wright, Caroline Denham,Wendy Hearn, Von Mathieson,Ronnie Plagerson



We also wanted to produce evidence that could helpto restore:

• greater control of the adult education agenda togenuine collaboration between learners and tutors

• concomitant trust in practitioners’ professionaljudgement and adult learners’ personalaccountability.

We decided to focus on a particular sub-species ofstorytelling, namely reminiscence, triggered by anexisting project called ‘Money In Later Life’ (MILL).Inspired by MILL, we determined that SC wouldexplore reminiscence as a means of ascertaining thelevels of financial literacy of older people and ofidentifying a financial literacy curriculum in theprocess.

For the purposes of this study, we then adopted theview that if a person is financially literate they will atvarious levels of competency:

• demonstrate a grasp of relevant financiallanguage, vocabulary and/or concepts

• be able to call on appropriate numeracy skills toperform financial assessments, transactions anddecisions, great or small.

We also adopted the assumption of the FinancialServices Authority (FSA) that ‘the extent of a person’sfinancial capability can be measured by examiningtheir behaviour’ (FSA 2005: 2).

As studies suggest that learning in older age conferssignificant mental and physical health benefits wedecided not to exclude older learners fromconsideration simply because they were not enrolled,or intending to enrol, on a formal course of study. Wetook the Exeter CVS MILL volunteers as models of‘lifelong learners’: they were reaching out to thehard-to-reach in their communities, helping themwith their queries about budgeting or benefits, and inso doing were updating their own financial literacyskills. In this broad sense, as far as we wereconcerned, they were learners. Moreover, these werelearners who would expect to have a say in

determining their curriculum. Therefore, we took aprincipled position in ‘starting from where thelearners were’, that is, we tried to avoid imposing apredesigned agenda on them.

Older people have been identified in more than onestudy among the ‘consumers that need the mosthelp in improving their financial capability’. Inparticular, we were interested in the degree andways in which, if any, age is a determining factor inthe variation of the components of financial literacy,and whether the different circumstances broughtabout by living through particular decades also hada significant bearing on financial capability in laterlife.

In the baseline FSA study, researchers identify ‘threekey elements that determine financial capability’(FSA 2005: 5):

1. knowledge and understanding2. skills3. confidence and attitudes.

These elements, conditioned by age, are majorfactors in shaping financial literacy in later life. Thecauses of variation, or of age-determined financialliteracy, are, in their model:

• a person’s experience and circumstances• their personality (FSA 2005: 20).

This observation gave us the confidence to includepsychological and sociological factors in aninvestigation of older people’s financial literacy, andincorporate them into our data analysis.

Starting where the learners are

The actual mix of these elements changedcontinuously but the dominant model, theframework for handling these elements, emerged asa focus on the role of oral reminiscence as a meansof allowing people to clarify their own perception oftheir financial capabilities and the capabilities ofothers.



Older people have been identifiedin more than one study among the‘consumers that need the mosthelp in improving their financialcapability’.

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Data collection

Twenty-two older people aged 57 to 97 participated inthe study. We met them in four semi-structuredgroup meetings and ten one-to-one semi-structuredinterviews.

MeetingsThe information was collected on video and in notesby the team members. They took it in turns to chairthe meeting and occasionally joined in. Permission torecord the meetings was sought and granted. Thetopics covered in the discussion included:

• the cost of clothes, food and sweets• the ‘waste not want not’ mentality contrasted with

‘built-in obsolescence’• the reduction in the cost of replacing goods

rendering ‘make do and mend’ obsolete• paying the insurance man in instalments (1p per

week)• leaving the money for the milkman on the kitchen

table• the mother in the family determining budgets, etc.

An initial analysis of this meeting indicated thatparticipants used this reminiscence opportunityamong peers predominantly to share their knowledge(58 per cent of topics), then to talk about the valuesassociated with money and attitudes to money (37per cent), and very rarely as a way of displaying anyfinancial or numeracy skills (2 per cent).

The second SC meeting took place in January 2006 ina local primary school. The head teacher and themaths teacher prepared their 8 to 9-year-old pupilsto think about the theme of money by introducing itas a study topic in the weeks before. Compared to theprevious meeting, the spread between the threecategories was far more even (approximately 30 percent in each of the three columns).

One-to-one interviewsThe one-to-one interviews took place in May andJune 2006, in interviewees’ homes. There were 12interviewees – 9 women, 3 men – interviewed in 11interviews (one of the interviews was conducted withtwo interviewees). Their ages ranged from 57 to 89.Six interviewers were recruited into the SC team bypersonal invitation on an hourly rate, only one haddone any interviewing or reminiscence work before.

Data analysisAfter the first interview-scripts became available, wedecided to allow the scripts to speak for themselves,recording what emerged from them and then comingup with analytical categories. We thus graduallycame to two broad headings:

• value judgements: values• statements of fact: knowledge, skills.

Value judgements (40 per cent of statements)Most of the value judgements related to personaloutlook or self-evaluation, which tied into how highlythe FSA (2005: 20) rated older people’s personalityand experiences when assessing their financialliteracy.

The highest proportion of value judgements (55 percent) expressed the speaker’s personal outlook on avariety of finance-related topics: 6 per cent of thosetouched on the interviewee’s own income, 19 per centrelated to their savings and 39 per cent were aboutthe speaker’s own spending.

Self-evaluation was the focus of 15 per cent of allvalue judgements, most of which (69 per cent)suggested quite high self-esteem. When intervieweeswished they had done things differently, they usually(73 per cent) expressed their wishes in positive terms(‘I wish I had ...’ as opposed to ‘I wish I hadn’t ...’).

Statements of fact (60 per cent of statements)Over a quarter (26 per cent) of all the statements offact identified related to financial literacy or financialcapability. A further 6 per cent included the use offinancial terminology and/or concepts, with justunder half of these instances consisting ofappropriate use of financial concepts in the absenceof precise financial terminology. The biggestproportion (35 per cent of the total), however, relatedto events, situations or behaviours that affected thespeaker, in 47 per cent of cases positively.

Other types of factual statement included cultural,social and political observations, of which one-thirdrelated to issues of wealth and poverty, another thirdto gender issues, the rest to power issues. Only a tinypercentage (2 per cent) of such statements wereabout age or class. Of the significant others referredto in a financial context, most (74 per cent) werefamily members, the rest being outsiders (such asbank managers).

In the development of the interview analysis thatfollowed, we wanted to see if we could base thebeginnings of a learner-centred financial literacyprogramme on the statements we had gathered. Todo this we returned to generic learning outcomes.

Data analysis by generic learning outcomesWe used a selection of statements quoted directlyfrom interviews, classified them according to the SCcriteria and translated these into generic learningoutcomes which then led to suggestions of topics for



a financial literacy programme as outlined below.However, clearly, these areas overlap.

Knowledge and understanding

• rounding• decimal conversions• tracking income and expenditure• key financial terms.

Skills

• discussion: alternative exchange systems, e.g.barter

• filling in a tax return.

Attitudes and values

• how much pocket money should children get?• what should children be taught about money

management, and how?• if I won the lottery ...

Enjoyment, inspiration and creativity

• spending versus saving• how is money to be enjoyed?• risk versus security• is there a relationship between hard work and

monetary reward?

Activity, behaviour, progression

• budgeting and keeping domestic accounts• choosing a savings account• the pros and cons of credit.

Reflections

Action research, as I experienced it through SC,requires flexibility and thinking on one’s feet, becausethings don’t always go to plan. The unfolding of theproject – its analytical framework as well as itsevents – gave me a sense of adventure, and it was

good to be able to rely on the SC team to embracethis adventure with good humour.SC’s findings, however small-scale, have somethingto offer financial literacy education providers forolder people by way of a respectful and enjoyableapproach to learner-centred curriculum design andinformal initial assessment, targeted at older people.

Our experience of working with older people hasopened our eyes to a use for reminiscence work andempowering them to raise their own issues fordiscussion in their own way. I would say, therefore, inanswer to our research question, that thereminiscence work carried out by the SC team waseffective in exploring older people’s financial literacy.

Where next?It would be worth exploring the same researchquestion on a bigger scale and looking again atintergenerational educational work.

The following questions are also interesting:

• Is it worth adding financial literacy to the existingmedical programmes exploring the health andsocial benefits of reminiscence work, for examplein slowing down the advance of Alzheimer’s?

• Would more general literacy and numeracyprogrammes, or other subjects, be as effective asfinancial literacy at stimulating reminiscence workin older people?

• What role could storytelling have in empoweringlearners and identifying a learner-centred Skillsfor Life curriculum?

Reference

FSA (2005) Consumer Research Study no. 37Measuring financial capability: an exploratory study.Personal Finance Research Centre, University ofBristol, Financial Services Authority. Available fromhttp://www.fsa.gov.uk/pubs/consumer-research/crpr37.pdf Retrieved June 2006. ■





www.nrdc.org.uk

Part4Resources and appendices

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Resources for practitioner research

Appendix 1: Statement of principles for practitioner involvement in NRDC activities

Appendix 2: Guidelines for applying to the NRDC initiative in literacy, numeracy and ESOL

Appendix 3: Membership and terms of reference for the consultative group

Appendix 4: List of funded projects and titles: PLRI projects 2004–2006

Appendix 5: NRDC discussion paper on the publications strategy for practitioner research projects

Appendix 6: Guidelines for the critical friend

Appendix 7: Agenda for meeting with project research support people

Appendix 8: Interim progress report

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Selected references on practitioner research

Allwright, D. (2001) ‘Three major processes ofteacher development and the appropriate designcriteria for developing and using them’. In BillJohnston and Suzanne Irujo (eds), Research andPractice in Language Teacher Education Voices fromthe Field CARLA Working Paper 19, Minneapolis,Minnesota, May, 115–33.

Arnold, R. and Burke, B. (1983) A Popular EducationHandbook. Toronto, Canada: Participatory ResearchGroup.

Atkinson, T. and Claxton, G. (eds) 2000 The IntuitivePractitioner. Buckingham: Open University Press.

Bingham, M.B. and Smith, C. (2003) ‘Professionaldevelopment and evidence-based practice in adulteducation’. Paper presented at the RISE Conference,Rutgers, October 2003.

Burns, A. (1999) Collaborative Action Research ofEnglish Language Teachers, Cambridge LanguageTeaching Library. Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress.

Carr, W. and Kemmis, S. (1986) Becoming Critical:Education, Knowledge and Action Research. Lewes:Falmer.

Cochran-Smith, M. and Lytle, S. (1998) ‘Teacherresearch: the question that persists’. InternationalJournal of Leadership in Education: Theory andPractice, 1(1): 19–36.

Cochran-Smith, M. and Lytle, S. (1999) ‘The teacherresearch movement: a decade later’. EducationalResearcher, 28(7):15–25.

Cochran-Smith, M. and Lytle, S. (1999)‘Relationships of Knowledge and Practice: Teacherlearning in communities’. In Iran Nejad, A. andPearson, C.D. (eds) Review of Research in Education,Vol. 24. pp 249–305. Washington: AmericanAssociation for Educational Research (AERA).

Cochran-Smith, M. and Lytle, S. (2004) ‘Practitionerinquiry, knowledge and university culture’. In J.Loughran, M.L. Hamilton, V.L. LaBoskey and T.Russell (eds), International Handbook of Self-Study ofTeaching and Teacher Education Practices, KluwerInternational Handbooks of Education Vol. 12.Dordrecht, Boston, London: Kluwer AcademicPublishers, 601–49.

Cranton, P. (1994) Understanding and PromotingTransformative Learning: A Guide to Educators ofAdults. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Dadds, M. (1995) ‘Passionate enquiry and schooldevelopment: a story about teacher actionresearch’. In M. Dadds and S. Hart (eds) (2001)Doing Practitioner Research Differently. London:Routledge Falmer.

Drennon, C.E. (1994). Adult Literacy Practitioners asResearchers (ERIC Digest Report No. ED372663).Washington, DC: National Clearinghouse for ESLLiteracy Education. http://www.ericdigests.org/1995-1/adult.htm [accessed 6 April 2007].

Eraut, M. (1985) ‘Knowledge creation and knowledgeuse in professional contexts’. Studies in HigherEducation, 10: 117–33.

Eraut, M. (1993) ‘The characterisation anddevelopment of professional expertise’. EducationalManagement and Administration, 2(4): 224–32.

Eraut, M. (1994) Developing Professional Knowledgeand Competence. London: Falmer Press.

Eraut, M. (1995) ‘Schon shock: a case for reframingreflection in action?’ Teachers and Teaching: Theoryand Practice, 1(1): 9–23.

Eraut, M. (1995a) ‘Developing professionalknowledge within a client-centred orientation’. InT.R. Guskey and M. Huberman (eds), ProfessionalDevelopment in Education. New York: Teachers’College Press, 227–52.

Eraut, M. (2000) ‘Non-formal learning and tacitknowledge in professional work’. British Journal ofEducational Psychology, 70, 113–36.

3 Resources for practitioner research

Erickson, F. and Gutierrez, K. (2002) ‘Culture, rigorand science in educational research’. EducationalResearcher, 31(8): 22–4.

Fendler, L. (2002) ‘Teacher reflection in a hall ofmirrors: historical influences and politicalreverberations’. Educational Researcher, 32 (3):16–25.

Fingeret, A. and Jurmo, P. (1989) (eds) ParticipatoryLiteracy Education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Fingeret, H. and Pates, A. (1992) Heads and Hands: AStudy of Collaborative Research in Two North CarolinaCommunity Colleges. Durham, NC: Literacy South.Available form Peppercorn Books athttp://www.peppercornbooks.com/catalog/

Freeman, D. (1998) Doing Teacher–Research: FromInquiry to Understanding. Boston. Heinle and Heinle.

Freire, P. (1970) The Pedagogy of the Oppressed. NewYork: Seabury Press.

Gherardi, S. (2000) ‘Practice-based theorizing onlearning and knowing in organizations’. Organization,7(2): 211–23.

Gillespie, M. (1989) ‘Research within reach’. Focuson Basics 2(2): 8–9. Cambridge, MA: National Centerfor the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy(NCSALL).

Goswami, D. and Stillman, P. (1987) Reclaiming theClassroom: Teacher Research as an Agency forChange. Upper Montclair, NJ: Boynton Cook.

Hamilton, M., Ivanic, R. and Barton, D. (1992)‘Knowing where we are: participative approaches toresearching literacy’. In J.P. Hautecoeur (ed.),ALPHA92: Literacy Strategies in Community-BasedOrganizations, Hamburg: UNESCO, 105–16.

Hammersley, M. (2002) Educational Research:Policymaking and Practice. London: Paul ChapmanPublishing.

Horsman, J. and Norton, M. (1999) ‘A framework tosupport practitioner involvement in adultliteracy/research in practice in Canada’. Paperprepared for the National Literacy Secretariat. TheLearning Centre Association, Edmonton, Alberta.

Horsman, J. and Woodrow, H. (2006) Focused onPractice: A Framework for Adult Literacy Research inCanada. Vancouver, British Columbia: Harrish

Press. Available as a pdf file at:http://ripal.literacy.bc.ca/Jan5LiteracyBook.pdf[accessed 6 April 2007].

Huberman, M. (1993) ‘Changing minds: thedissemination of research and its effects on practiceand theory’. In C. Day, J. Calderhead and P. Denicolo(eds), Research on Teachers’ Thinking. London:Falmer.

Jarvis, P. (1998) The Practitioner Researcher:Developing Theory from Practice. San Francisco:Jossey-Bass.

Lytle, S. and Cochran-Smith, M. (1993)Inside/Outside: Teacher Research and Knowledge.New York: Teachers College Press.

Lytle, S., Belzer, A. and Reuman, R. (1993) InitiatingPractitioner Inquiry: Adult Literacy Teachers, Tutorsand Administrators Research Their Practice.Philadelphia, PA: National Centre on Adult Literacy,University of Pennsylvania.

Lytle, S. (1997) ‘On reading teacher research’. FocusOn Basics, Vol 1. Cambridge, MA: National Centerfor the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy(NCSALL).

Merrifield, J. (1997). Knowing, Learning, Doing:Participatory Action Research. Cambridge, MA:National Center For the Study of Adult Learning andLiteracy (NCSALL), Focus on Basics, Volume 1, IssueA, 23–6. http://gseweb.harvard.edu/~ncsall/fob/1997/merrif.htm

Middlewood, D., Coleman, M. and Lumby, J. (1999)Practitioner Research in Education: Making aDifference. London: Paul Chapman Publishing;Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. There is anespecially useful overview in Chapter 1.

Morris, A. and Norman, L. (2004) The LSDA Guide toPractitioner Research. London: Learning SkillsDevelopment Agency.

Murray, L. and Lawrence, B. (2002) Practitioner-based Enquiry: Principles and Practices forPostgraduate Research, Social Research andEducational Studies. London: RoutledgeFalmer.

NCSALL (2002) Five Year Review. Cambridge, MA:National Center for the Study of Adult Learning andLiteracy (NCSALL).

Part 4: Resources and Appendices


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Noffke, S.E. and Stevenson, R.B. (eds) (1995)Educational Action Research: Becoming PracticallyCritical. New York: Teachers College Press.

NRDC (2003) Strategy 2003–2007. London: NRDC.http://www/nrdc.org.uk

Pritchard, I.A. (2001) ‘Travellers and trolls:practitioner research and institutional reviewboards’. Educational Researcher 31(3): 3–13.

Quigley, A. and Norton, M. (2002) It Simply Makes UsBetter: Learning From Literacy Research in PracticeNetworks. Research in Practice in Adult Literacy(RiPAL) Network, Edmonton: Canada.http://www.nald.ca/ripal/ [accessed 6 April 2007].

Radnor, H. (2002) Researching Your ProfessionalPractice: Doing Interpretative Research. Buckingham:Open University Press.

Research In Practice in Adult Literacy (RiPAL)Network Project (1996) Policy Conversation onLiteracy Research, February 5–7 1996: A Report.Learning at the Centre Press, Edmonton, Alberta.Available from http://www.nald.ca (includes anappendix listing the funded research activitysupported by the Canadian National LiteracySecretariat 1988–1996).

Reason, P. (1994) ‘Participatory research’. In N.Denzin and Y. Lincoln (eds), Handbook of QualitativeResearch, London: Sage.

Schon, D.A. (1983) The Reflective Practitioner: HowProfessionals Think in Action. New York: BasicBooks.

Schugurensky, D., Clover, D. and Wilson, D. (2002)Building Adult Literacy Research Capacity in Ontario:A University/Community Approach. Final Report of aconsultation process. Toronto, Canada: OntarioInstitute of Studies in Education, University ofToronto.

Shore, S. (2002) Keeping a Sense of Proportion: TheImpact of Sponsored Research in the Australian AdultLiteracy and Numeracy field. Perspectives on theperiod 1999–2000. Centre for Studies in LiteracyPolicy and Learning Cultures, University of SouthAustralia, Adelaide. Adult Literacy and NumeracyAustralian Research Consortium (ALNARC).

Stenhouse, L. (1985) Research as a Basis forTeaching. London: Heinemann.

Wells, G. (ed.) (2000) Action, Talk, and Text: Learningand Teaching Through Inquiry (Practitioner Inquiry).New York:Teachers College Press.

Wilson, J. (2000) ‘Mentoring in practitioner-basedresearch’. In G. Sanguinetti, and D. Bradshaw (eds),Considering the Research, Debating the Issues, pp65–67. Proceedings of the first National AdultLiteracy and Numeracy Australian Research Forum,17–18 February 2000. Adult Literacy and NumeracyAustralian Research Consortium (ALNARC).

‘How to’ practical guides

Examples of participatory and practitioner research

ActionAid (1996) The Experiences of Three ReflectPilot Projects in Uganda, Bangladesh and El Salvador.ActionAid http://www.reflect-action.org/ [accessed 6April 2007].

Allen, D., Davies, P., McRae, D., Niks, M. andNonesuch, K. (2003) Dancing in the Dark. How doAdults with Little Formal Education Learn? How doPractitioners do Collaborative Research? Victoria,Canada: National Literacy Secretariat and Provinceof British Columbia Ministry of Advanced Education:Victoria, Canada.

Appleby, Yvon (ed.) (2004) Listening to Learners.London: NRDC.

Barton, D. (2000) ‘Researching literacy practices:learning from activities with teachers and students’.In D. Barton, M. Hamilton and R. Ivanic (eds),Situated Literacies, pp 167–79. London: Routledge.

Battell, Evelyn (2001) Naming the Magic: Non-Academic Outcomes in Basic Literacy. Victoria,Canada: National Literacy Secretariat and Provinceof British Columbia Ministry of AdvancedEducation/Centre for Curriculum Transfer andTechnology: Victoria, Canada.

Battell, E., Gesser, L., Rose, J., Sawyer, J. andTwiss, D. (2004) Hardwired for Hope: EffectiveABE/Literacy Instructors. Nanaimo, BritishColumbia: Malaspina University-College.

Begg, F. (2002) Adapting Writing to Read for adults. Itworked for Bill. Will it work for Carol? Research InPractice in Adult Literacy (RiPAL) Network project.Edmonton, Alberta: Learning at the Centre Press.




Davies, F., Hedge, N. and Ivanic, R. (2001)‘Recognising Progress Research Project: ACollaborative Initiative between Literacies 2000Team and Scottish Qualifications Agency’.Unpublished report. See especially the annex onPractitioner Research Methodology.

Davis, J. and Searle, J. (2002) Seeding Literacy: AdultEducators Research Their Practice. Queensland,Australia: Queensland Centre of The Adult LiteracyAnd Numeracy Australian Research Consortium.

Doig, S.M. and Gunn, S. (1999) Queensland AdultLiteracy Research Network 1993–1999 EvaluationReport Griffith University. Queensland, Australia:Language Australia.

Hamilton, M. and Wilson, A. (eds) (2005) New ways ofengaging new learners: lessons form round one of thepractitioner-led research initiative. London: NRDC.

Ivanic, R. (ed.) (2004) Listening to Learners. NRDC:London,

James, D. (ed.) 2004 Research in Practice:Experiences, Insights and Interventions from theProject Transforming Learning Cultures in FurtherEducation. Building Effective Research: 5. London:Learning and Skills Research Centre.

Keen, J. (1995) ‘Family literacy in Lothian: connectcommunity learning programme with and forparents’. RaPAL Bulletin, 28/29: 22–30.

Kushner, S., Simons, H., James, D., Jones, K. andYee, W. C. (2001) ‘Teacher Training Agency SchoolBased Research Consortia Initiatives: EvaluationFinal Report’. Unpublished report. Bristol:University of the West of England.

Ling, J. (1998) Research in Practice: Report by theGeorgia Adult Literacy Practitioner Inquiry Network.Durham NC: Literacy South. Available fromPeppercorn Bookshttp://www.peppercornbooks.com/catalog/

Mellor, H., Kambouri, M., Sanderson, M. and Pavlou,V. (2004) ICT and Adult Literacy, Numeracy and ESOL.London: NRDC.

Niks, Marina I. (2004) ‘The more we get together:The politics of collaborative research betweenuniversity-based and non university-basedresearchers’. PhD thesis, Department ofEducational Studies, University of British Colombia.

http://www.nald.ca/fulltext/together/together.pdf[accessed 6 April 2007].

Norman, L. (2001) Evaluation Report: LSDA RegionalResearch Projects 2000–2001. London: Learning andSkills Development Agency.



Norton, M. and Malicky, G. (eds) (2002) LearningAbout Participatory Approaches in Adult LiteracyEducation: Six Research in Practice Studies.Edmonton, Alberta: Learning at the Centre Press.Available at: http://www.nald.ca/litweb/province/ab/ripal/resourcs/learning/learning.pdf [accessedApril 6 2007].

Norton, M. and Woodrow, H. (2002) (eds) LookingBack, Looking In: Reports from ‘Bearing Blossoms,Sowing Seeds. A Gathering about Literacy Research inPractice’. Edmonton, Alberta: Learning at the CentrePress. Available at: http://www.nald.ca/RiPAL/events/lookback/cover.htm [accessed 6 April2007].

Parr, S. (1995) ‘Lost for words: aphasia and literacy’.RaPAL Bulletin, 26: 8–13.

Pates, A. and Fingeret, H. (1994) Innovative TrainingPractices: Practitioner Research as Staff DevelopmentThe Story of a Practitioner Research Project. FinalProject Report Prepared for the National Institute forLiteracy. Durham, NC: Literacy South.

Pheasey, A. (2003) What do Adult Literacy Studentsthink being Literate is? Research In Practice in AdultLiteracy (RiPAL) Network project. Edmonton,Alberta: Learning at the Centre Press.

Roberts, G. and Prowse, J. (1999) ‘Reporting soaps’.RaPAL Bulletin, 38: 26–8.

Sanguinetti, J. (1994) ‘Exploring the discourses ofour own practice’. Open Letter, 5(1): 21–44. Sydney,Australia.

Soroke, Bonnie (2004) ‘Doing Freedom: AnEthnography of an Adult Literacy Centre’.Unpublished MA Thesis, Department of EducationalStudies, University of British Colombia

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http://www.nald.ca/fulltext/soroke/freedom.pdf[accessed 6 April 2007].

Steeves, P. (2002) From Practice to Theory and BackAgain. Research In Practice in Adult Literacy (RiPAL)Network project. Edmonton, Alberta: Learning atthe Centre Press.

Still, R. (2002) Exploring Tutors’ and Students’ Beliefsabout Reading and Reading Strategies. Research InPractice in Adult Literacy (RiPAL) Network project.Edmonton, Alberta: Learning at the Centre Press.

Taylor, M. (2001) Putting the Action into ActionResearch: Using Action Research in WorkplaceLiteracy Programmes. Collection of paperspresented at the gathering about Literacy Researchin Practice, July 25–25 2001. Edmonton: Universityof Alberta.

Tomlin, A., Coben, D., Baxter, M., Wresniwiro, T.,Leddy, E. and Richards, L. (2006) Measurementwasn’t taught when they built the pyramids – was it?London: NRDC.

Ward, J. and Edwards, J. (2002) Learning Journeys:Learners Voices. Learners Views on Progress andachievement in Literacy and Numeracy. London:Learning and Skills Development Agency. Availableat: http://www.lsneducation.org.uk/pubs/pages/021387.aspx [accessed 6 April 2007].

Young, P. (2002) ‘Rapid Writing … is my Cup of Tea’.Adult Upgrading Students’ use of Writing Strategies.Research In Practice in Adult Literacy (RiPAL)Network project. Edmonton, Alberta: Learning atthe Centre Press.

Accessible research methods books

Bell, J. (1999) Doing Your Research Project.Buckingham: Open University Press.

Blaxter, L., Hughes, C. and Tight, M. (2001) How toResearch. Buckingham, Open University Press,second edition.

Campbell, A., McNamara, O., and Gilroy, P. (2004)Practitioner Research and Professional Developmentin Education. Paul Chapman Publishing.

Cockley, S. (2002) The Adult Guide to PractitionerResearch. Virginia, USA: The Virginia AdultEducators Research Network.http://www.aelweb.vcu.edu/resguide/resguide1.html

Denscombe, M. (1998) The Good Research Guide: ForSmall-scale Research Projects. Buckingham: OpenUniversity Press.

Drever, E. (1995) Using Semi-structured Interviews inSmall-scale research: A Teachers Guide. Glasgow:The Scottish Council for Research in Education.

Duffin, P. (1990) ‘A place for personal history’. AdultsLearning, 2(1): 17–19.

Egan-Robertson, A. and Bloome D. (eds) (1998)Students as Researchers of Culture and Language intheir Own Communities, Language and SocialProcesses Series. Cresskill, New Jersey: HamptonPress Inc.

Elliott, J. (1991) Action Research for EducationalChange. Buckingham: Open University Press.

Gillespie, M. (1989) ‘Research within reach’. Focuson Basics, 2(2): 8–9. Cambridge, MA: NationalCenter for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy(NCSALL).

Hodge, R. and Jones, K. (1996) Photography inCollaborative Research: ‘Insider’ ‘Outsider’ Imagesand Understandings of Multilingual Literacy Practices.Centre for Language in Social Life Working PapersNo 83. Lancaster: Lancaster University.

Jameson, J. and Hillier, Y. (2004) Researching Post-Compulsory Education, Continuum ResearchMethods Series. London: Continuum InternationalPublishing Group.

Lytle, S. and Zeni, J. (2001) Ethical Issues inPractitioner Research, Practitioner Inquiry Series.New York: Teachers College Press.

Maynard, M. and Purvis, J. (1994) ResearchingWomen’s Lives. London: Taylor and Francis.

McNamara, O. (ed.) (2002) Becoming an Evidence-Based Practitioner: A Framework for Teacher-researchers. London: Routledge/Falmer.

McNiff, J., Lomax, P. and Whitehead, J. (1996) Youand Your Action Research Project. London: Routledge.

Radnor, H. (2002) Researching Your ProfessionalPractice: Doing Interpretative Research. Buckingham:Open University Press.

Scott, D. and Usher, R. (1996) UnderstandingEducational Research. London: Routledge. See




especially Chapter 7 by Ian Bryant on actionresearch and reflective practice.

Steinberg, S.R. and Kincheloe, J. (eds) (1998)Students as Researchers. Basingstoke, Hants:Falmer Press.

Stringer, E. (1996) Action Research: A Handbook forPractitioners. London: Sage.

Wadsworth, Y. (1997) Do it Yourself Social Research,2nd edn. Melbourne, Australia: Allen and Unwin.

Walker, R. (1985) Doing Research: A Handbook forTeachers. Cambridge: Methuen.

Wilkinson, D. (ed.) (2000) The Researchers Toolkit.London: Routledge.

Woods, P. (1996) Researching the Art of Teaching:Ethnography for Educational Use. London: Routledge.

Zeni, J. (ed.) (2001) Ethical Issues in PractitionerResearch, Practitioner Inquiry Series. New York:Teachers College Press.

Some useful websites

There are many useful resources available on theweb. Some sites that are especially relevant to adultliteracy and numeracy are indicated here. It isparticularly worth browsing these sites for onlineresources and publications. Many also haveexcellent links.

UKNRDC http://www.nrdc.org.uk

Research and Practice in Adult Literacy (RaPAL) is amembership organisation athttp://www.literacy.lancaster.ac.uk/rapal. RaPALpublishes a bulletin three times a year and theindex of back issues is listed on the website. Hardcopies of all the bulletins are kept at Lancaster andwe can photocopy (within reason!) particular articlesyou would like to read.

A parallel organisation now exists in Canada: theResearch in Practice in Adult Literacy group (RiPAL)can be found at http://www.nald.ca/ripal/about.htm.This site has many downloadable reports and otherresources.

AustraliaThe Adult Literacy and Numeracy AustralianResearch Consortium (ALNARC) has many

publications online athttp://www.staff.vu.edu.au/alnarc. In particular, youmight like to browse among the papers posted inthe online forum athttp://www.staff.vu.edu.au/alnarc/onlineforum/index.html.

From the British Association of Settlements andSocial Action Centres (BASSAC) website, download aresource paper on ‘Doing Community Research’ –their website address is http://www.bassac.org.uk.Find this paper from the home page by going to‘news and services’| ‘resources’| ‘resource papers’.This is a very useful site more generally if you areinvolved in community-based literacy work.

The Centre for Development Studies, University ofSwansea is home to the Participatory EthnographicEvaluation and Research (PEER) Network. See:http://www.peer-method.com/index.html

USAThe Virginia Adult Educators Network is a usefulsite for links within the USA. It also contains anexcellent, short and succinct guide to PractitionerResearch which can be found at http://www.aelweb.vcu.edu/resguide/resguide1.html. Thisincludes general, reassuring advice and casestudies of practitioners talking about theirexperiences of doing projects. Highlyrecommended!

Adult Education Teacher Inquiry Projects andRelated Research Resources is a part of theLiteracy Resources Rhode Island website. Thesepages provide information about and reports ofRhode Island practitioner inquiry and researchwork, as well as links to other practitionerresearch-related sites. http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Swearer_Center/Literacy_Resources/inquiry.html.

The US National Center for Studies in AdultLearning and Literacy (NCSALL) athttp://www.ncsall.gse.harvard.edu. is similar to theEnglish National Research and Development Centrefor Adult Literacy and Numeracy. Among manyother things, it publishes an online journal calledFocus on Basics.

Practitioner-oriented journals and newsletters

UKNRDC http://www.nrdc.org.uk publishes a regularnewsletter, reflect. 3



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Research and Practice in Adult Literacy (RaPAL)http://www.literacy.lancaster.ac.uk/rapal publishesa journal three times a year.

The Adults Learning Maths network http://www.alm-online.org/ publishes the ALM Newsletter and alsoorganises conferences.

NATECLA (The National Association for TeachingEnglish and other Community Languages to Adults)http://www.natecla.org.uk/ organise an annualconference and publish the journal Language Issues.

CanadaLiteracies is a national forum that includesuniversity-based researchers, programme-basedresearchers, policy makers and programmeworkers. Its goal is to cross fences and unite therange of fields and disciplines that touch literacy.http://www.literacyjournal.ca.

AustraliaLiteracy and Numeracy Studies is an internationaljournal in the education and training of adultsfocusing on the many and complex ways thatlanguage, literacy and numeracy are implicated inadult life. http://www.education.uts.edu.au/lns/index.html

USThe National Center for Studies in Adult Learningand Literacy (NCSALL) athttp://www.ncsall.gse.harvard.edu publishes anonline journal called Focus on Basics.



As far as practicable, practitioners should beinvolved at all stages of NRDC’s researchprogramme. They will have important contributionsto make in decision making at each stage of theresearch process: aims, methodology, datacollection, interpretation, communication,embedding and impact on policy and practice.

Wherever possible, learners, tutors and managersshould be involved in the conduct of researchcarried out by NRDC as co-researchers from theearliest stages. This is important in order to ensurethat the work done is relevant and geared to theneeds of adult learners, and that its value isrecognised by practitioners and their institutions. Itwill increase the sense of ownership of andcommitment to the research itself, and to anyteacher development and other policy and practiceproposals which are based on the research.

Involving tutors and managers in conducting theresearch will in itself be a form of professionaldevelopment for them. Wherever possible theseactivities will be credited towards recognisedprofessional qualifications. Practitioners will also beencouraged to link into existing research andpractice networks.

To facilitate these aims, all projects funded byNRDC will be required to state in their proposalshow they will engage practitioners in the differentstages of the research process and to includeappropriate support for this in their budgets.

Any project wishing to have a paid element ofpractitioner involvement will be encouraged to buildthis into the budget and research design at theproposal stage.

Operational plans will monitor the activities andoutcomes of practitioner engagement.

Practical variations on these principles will berelated to:

• The desire of practitioners for step by stepinvolvement in research

• Current environmental constraints onrecruitment and cover

• Variations in characteristics of research projectsin the NRDC programme, e.g. timing andresearch sites

• Capacity of host universities and otheradvisory/mentoring and resourcing institutions.


Appendix 1

83

Appendices

Appendix 1

Statement of principles for practitionerinvolvement in NRDC activities

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3

3

Section 1: General guidance

What is the Practitioner-Led Research Initiative?This is an initiative to develop practitioner-ledresearch. Up to six small-scale, nine-month projectswill be funded, addressing a common theme: Newways of engaging new learners. Up to £10,000 will beavailable for each project.

This initiative is an important addition to NRDC’sprogramme of activities. It is designed to be anopportunity for practitioners to put research ideasinto practice, to step back and reflect on practice andto explore systematically day-to-day issues arisingfrom the Skills for Life policy. It is intended to spreada research culture within the field and to draw in aconstituency of new practitioner researchers. It willcontribute to the underpinning strategy of the centreby inviting practitioners to identify problems,formulate research questions, design and carry outprojects with structured support from the researchcommunity.

Closing date for first round applications is 5 p.m. on2 February 2004. Late or incomplete applications willnot be accepted. All applicants are advised to keepproof of postage.

The first round of projects will run from March2004–November 2004.

Purpose of the initiative

The aims of the programme are to:

• Identify problems and issues in the field of adultliteracy, numeracy and ESOL and to address themthrough research.

• Build research capacity in the field.• Produce findings which will give new insights into

adult literacy, numeracy and ESOL.• Embed the activities of NRDC in practice.• Strengthen networks which will link practice,

research, development and policy.

The programme will be monitored and reviewedduring the first year in relation to these aims.

Theme

The theme for the first round will be ‘New ways ofengaging new learners’. This theme is intentionallybroad, enabling scope for groups to pose manydifferent questions, whilst addressing a key topicalissue relevant to the Skills for Life policy. Theintention is to allow room to pose researchablequestions expressed in ways that are useful topractitioners, organisations and the localcommunities they serve. Ideally the research topicwill be related to activities already engaged in andissues that need to be addressed locally. ‘Newlearners’ can be adults who are not currentlylearning in any organisation and who may find formalorganisations hard to access. They can also be adultsalready involved as learners but who are notcurrently working on literacy, numeracy and ESOL.

Under the broad theme, projects might pursue:

1. Research into the needs and characteristics ofadults and their communities that will enablebetter decisions to be made about publicising andorganising appropriate learning opportunities andmake organisations more accessible to potentiallearners.

2. Research that will inform the content andmethodology of learning and teaching workingwith new groups of learners.

3. Research that will enable the development ofappropriate support for adults to reach theirlearning goals, for example: new forms of adviceand guidance, use of volunteers, newcollaborations between practitioners, ways ofdocumenting progression, new ways of supportinglearners towards vocational goals.

Priority will be given to projects that link to theinterests and activities of employing organisations.Please note that this fund is for research. Resourceswill not be forthcoming for staff development andother activities which could and should be otherwisesupported. For the purposes of this initiative,research is defined as:

Systematic documentation of and reflection onactivities, through collecting and recording new data so

Appendix 2

Guidelines for applying to the NRDC initiative inliteracy, numeracy and ESOL

3

3


Appendix 2


as to develop an underpinning framework for futuredevelopment. Research produces information for futureuse, not simply a change in present provision.

Who can apply?

Applications are invited from locally based consortiaof between 3 and 6 people led by those who aredirectly involved with Skills for Life learners in anyorganisational setting in England. These can becolleges, adult community learning centres, thevoluntary sector, prisons or the workplace.Collaborations between organisations areencouraged, including links with universities.However, the lead applicant must be directly involvedwith Skills for Life learners. Ideally, groups will bemade up of practitioners based in the sameorganisation or within a local ‘travel to learn’ area tominimise communication problems and allow for alocal support group to develop.

What arrangements must there be for research

support in the group?

Each group must include someone whose role will beto offer research support in day-to-day projectactivities. This person will provide a link to academicresearch methods advice and traditions, offerrelevant reading, arrange and/or deliver researchmethods training and assist with the finaldissemination strategy for the project, including co-ordinating production of the final written report. Thisperson should be someone with a postgraduatequalification that includes research training, andsome practical research experience. Links with alocal university should be made wherever possible.

In addition, groups will be expected to link intoexisting local and regional networks (such as NRDC,BSA, LSDA, NIACE and ABSSU Regional Co-ordinators, and Local Learning Partnerships). TheNRDC will arrange an initial briefing day for allprojects funded through the initiative, an interimadvisory meeting and a dissemination event at theend of the project period. All groups are expected totake part in these events.

What happens when applications have been

submitted?

Proposals will be assessed by an independentspecialist panel during the first two weeks ofFebruary. The NRDC will arrange an initial briefingmeeting for all successful project groups to meet oneanother shortly after this date.

How will payments be made?

Project grants will be paid directly to the organisation

of the lead applicant in two separate instalments,half at the outset and half at the end of the projectupon production of audited accounts from theorganisation and submission of a written researchreport. The group via the lead applicant will beresponsible for planning and monitoring expenditure.Guidelines for the written report will be madeavailable through NRDC’s website.

Grants will be to a maximum of £10,000 per project.

Allowable costs

The following types of expenditure can be claimed.The bulk of expenditure must be focused on theresearch investigation rather than the purchase ofhardware materials or equipment. Suggestions aremade below about the approximate proportions ofthe budget that might be spent on each element:

• Research support person’s time (daily rate, up to50 per cent of the project budget can be spent onthis).

• Cover costs for practitioners involved in the project(daily rate, up to 50 per cent of the project budgetcan be spent on this).

• Administrative support (state daily rate orfractional post).

• Research training costs (maximum £1,000).• Fieldwork expenses (photocopying, consumables,

etc.).• Travel to meetings (state number of meetings).• Costs for learners involved in the project (e.g.

travel costs, vouchers, prize draws, etc.).• Payment to organisations for facilitation and

promotion of the project (one-off fee).• ‘Expert research’ advice from a specialist in the

topic of the research (daily rate or freely offered byNRDC consortium members).

How will progress on the project be monitored and

evaluated?

You should review your own progress throughout yourresearch and groups will receive a self-monitoringquestionnaire from NRDC to help evaluate thatprogress.

NRDC will set up an external advisory group for theinitiative, and will allocate a link person to eachgroup who will act as a ‘critical friend’, offeringadvice throughout.

Your senior manager is also expected to providesupport during the research process and help withmonitoring and disseminating your outcomes orfindings. 3


Appendix 2

85

Section 2: Notes of guidance for

submitting your application

Submissions must be no more than nine pages andmust comprise:

A. Completed Project Application cover sheetB. Written supporting statementC. A signed supporting statement from a senior

manager in the lead applicant’s organisationD. A signed statement and cv from the person

taking the research support role in the groupE. Completed Project Application checklist.

A. Information to be included on the cover sheet:

1. Name of organisation submitting the application2. Project title3. Members of the project group4. Details of person providing research support5. Project summary and proposed outcomes.

B. Information to be included in accompanyingwritten statement:

6. Project overview7. Project aims8. Research questions9. Research design and methods10. Research support plans11. Organisational context for the project12. Timetable13. Summary of costs14. Expected outcomes15. Communication and impact16. Ethics17. Other relevant information18. Feedback on the application process.

C. Senior manager’s statement:A signed supporting statement from a seniormanager in the lead applicant’s organisationidentifying the ways in which your research proposalis supported by the organisation.

D. Statement from research support person:An individualised statement written and signed bythe person who will take the research support rolein your group, demonstrating that communicationhas been established between you and the supportperson. This should also explain how and at whatpoints they will support your project and how theymight help disseminate the research findings. Theyshould also include a cv.

A. Information for application cover sheet

1. Name of organisation submitting the applicationThis should be the organisation that will receivethe contract for the project and with which thelead applicant is affiliated. A senior managerfrom this organisation must endorse the project.

2. Project title This will be used by NRDC to identifyyour project. The title should briefly express thekey focus of the project.

3. Members of the project group A clear projectmanager who will liaise with programme co-ordinators at NRDC must be identified within thegroup. This person is the lead applicant. They willdeal with finance for the project and take overallresponsibility for seeing the project through. Theproject manager may be, but is not necessarily,the research support person.

4. You should list the names of all the other groupmembers, their organisational affiliations andtheir roles in the project (for example,practitioner researcher, data analysis specialist).

5. Details of person providing research support Eachgroup must include someone whose role will beto offer research support in day-to-day projectactivities, arrange and/or deliver researchmethods training and co-ordinate report writing.This should be someone with a postgraduatequalification that includes research training, andsome practical research experience. Links with alocal university should be made whereverpossible. This person should attach a statementexplaining how they will support the group andthe nature of their expertise and they shouldattach their cv.

6. Project summary and outcomes (maximum 500words) This summary elaborates on the title, witha summary of the aims, methods and outcomes.

B. Information to be included in your written

statement

Project overview

You should describe the background and rationale toyour proposed project, covering the following points:

• Relevance/evidence of need for this research• How it addresses the theme ‘New ways of

engaging new learners’


Appendix 2


• References to other relevant research• How the project will add to our knowledge• Who will benefit from the project and how• How your research will enhance adult literacy,

numeracy or ESOL provision in your organisation.Be as specific as possible.

Project aims

Your project should have a clear aim stating what youhope to find out and how this will make a differenceto the field of adult literacy, numeracy and ESOL. Youshould consider your aims in relation to the goals oroutcomes of the project. Please consult theaccompanying document, Further Ideas for Designinga Small-Scale Research Project, for guidance on howto define your aims and objectives.

Research questions

Your project aims should be developed in the form ofone or more questions that your research willanswer. Please consult the accompanying document,Further Ideas for Designing a Small-Scale ResearchProject, for guidance on how to define your researchquestions.

Research design and methods

Your application must describe and justify the ‘why,what, who, where and when?’ of your researchdesign. You need to specify your data collectionmethods and why you have chosen them (e.g.interview, diary, questionnaire, observation), thenumbers of participants that will be involved, howyou will interpret the data, how you will present thefindings, where and to what audiences. In definingyour project some practical principles to bear in mindare:

• consider how to involve learners in decision-making at different stages of the project

• consider possible collaborations between differentorganisations and agencies

• keep it simple and manageable within existingstaff commitments and activities

• be creative about methods used to collect data:don’t just think about a survey questionnaire

• find an appropriate research support person towork in your group (NRDC may be able to suggesta possible person in your locality)

• be clear about how you will manage the researchprocess from day-to-day

• think about how you will network with others inyour local area

• think about how you will communicate yourfindings.

A range of research methods is possible. Because ofthe small-scale and action-research nature ofpractitioner research, data collection is likely toinclude observation, interview, document collectionand data on learner outcomes. You may also chooseto use the funding for handling quantitative,statistical data and tests, and project research could,for instance, revolve around the statistical dataalready collected by an organisation for its ownpurposes.

Analysis will draw on a range of models asappropriate, including for example grounded theory,situated cognition, discourse analysis and participantaction research as well as basic quantitativetechniques.

Collaborative and co-operative methodologiesinvolving learners in the decision-making processesof the project will be encouraged.

Possible project designs include:

• A group of practitioners meeting regularly todocument and reflect on some aspect theirpractice relevant to the theme – an extension ofthe idea of a ‘study circle’.

• Each person individually collects parallel data on acommon theme (as in the recent LSDA ‘LearnersJourneys’ report) meeting to synchronise andcollectively write up results.

• Group members comparing two or more differentcontexts, pairing up to observe/visit each other’sclassrooms.

• Analysis of existing statistical data to answer newquestions or allow new information to emerge, e.g.participation data, or information on progression.

• An action research design where you try outsomething new, an intervention is made andcarefully documented for its effects on an existingcontext, e.g. a new method of screening learnersor documenting progress.

Please consult the accompanying document FurtherIdeas for Designing a Small-Scale Research Project, forother suggestions.

Research support plans

You will need to give details in your application of:

• The research methods training the group will needand how you will access it

• The role of the person in the group who isproviding research support.

3


Appendix 2

87

Possibilities for training include pre-training, stagedtraining days integrated into the phases of theresearch itself, buying in, for example, parts of theLSDA Research Toolkit and Project managementhandbook, or enrolling members of the group onto auniversity-run research methods module.

As mentioned above, you must carefully specify therole of the research support person in your group.They might: provide a link to academic researchmethods advice and traditions, offer relevant reading,arrange and supervise research training or assistwith the final dissemination strategy for the project,including co-ordinating production of the final writtenreport.

Organisational context for the project

Applications can be from a group of people workingin one organisation, or a group collaborating acrossdifferent organisations. You are strongly advised toset up a group of people who are geographicallyclose enough to communicate regularly with oneanother.

You should briefly describe:

• What organisations are represented in the group.• What role these organisations will play in the

research collaboration and in projectmanagement.

• What networks the project group is linked to (e.g.RaPAL, LSRN, NATECLA, LSDA regional, ALMetc.).

• How you will ensure that a local support groupexists among members of the research group.

• How you will monitor and evaluate your work onthe project.

Timetable

Give details of how will you organise your time on theproject.

A timetable must be included, with milestones foreach point in the research process. You will be askedto briefly report to the NRDC on the progress of theproject at three-monthly intervals using thesemilestones.

It is suggested that you allow approximately twomonths to set the project up, four months for datacollection and three months for analysis,dissemination and report writing.

Summary of costs

See Section 1 of the general guidelines for categoriesof allowable costs and timing of payments. Youshould include a full statement of the project’splanned expenditure using these headings.

Expected outcomes

Groups will be expected to:

• Identify a problem or issue that would benefit fromresearch.

• Decide a research question.• Design a research project to investigate the

question.• Decide appropriate methodology.• Carry out the research.• Write up the findings.• Network with other groups funded by the scheme

and share expertise.• Participate in briefing days and dissemination

events to share work with other researchers.

You must prepare a summary report of the researchproject for NRDC of around 5,000 words, including atwo-page summary.

Communication and impact

You will need to exchange ideas and discuss yourresearch strategy, data and developing analyseswithin your group. Explain how you plan to do this,through electronic and face-to-face discussion asappropriate. The kinds of questions you mightconsider are:

• How (and how often) will group memberscommunicate with one another during the project(through meetings, e-mail etc.)?

• How will you keep your organisations and researchsites informed about your activities?

• How will you communicate and disseminate yourfindings to the wider field?

• How will you liaise with NRDC?• How will you network with other funded projects?

Ethics

Your project should involve research methods andrelationships that are respectful of all participantsinvolved, especially learners. Applicants are expectedto have consulted the ethical guidelines for researchused by the British Educational Research Associationhttp://www.bera.ac.uk/ guidelines.html or the BritishAssociation of Applied Linguisticshttp://www.baal.org.uk/ethicsug.htm and to outlineany ethical issues likely to arise in the course of theproposed project.


Appendix 2


Other relevant information

Please include here any other essential informationnot covered by our headings.

Feedback on the application process

Your comments on the process of application for thisinitiative and the design of the guidance materialsare welcomed. Please relay these through KathrynJames at Lancaster (address as above).

Additional guidance for applications

Ideas for designing a small-scale research projectThese ideas are for your additional guidance indesigning a research study for your application(adapted from the DfES’ Best Practice Guidelines forResearch).

1. What are the aims of your research? What is it you would like to find out?

• The initial focus for your project is likely tocome from an issue or puzzle that you haveidentified in the course of your everyday work.Moving from this initial focus (e.g. improving theinitial assessment process with new learners inan organisation) to a clear and researchablequestion is an important part of defining yourproject.

• Applications for NRDC’s Practitioner-LedResearch Initiative need a clear aim. The morespecific you can be, the more rewarding theexperience is likely to be and the greater yourchance of success.

• Aims which practitioners have chosen to pursuein previous investigations have included, forexample:I. to investigate the role of referral agencies inlearners’ take-up of provision in a local areaII. to investigate learners’ perceptions ofprogress in literacy programmesIII. to investigate learners’ and tutors’ attitudesto accreditationIV. to explore the literacy practices and needs ofparticipants in a domestic violence supportgroup.

2. Developing your research question(s)

• One frequent problem people have in definingsmall-scale research is setting out an aim, e.g.‘to develop learners' writing’ without thenproceeding to identify what they wanted to findout in the form of a research question, e.g. ‘howcould a residential writing workshop be used toproduce new kinds of writing with “entry level”

learners in a workplace setting‘?• In deciding on a researchable question, it is

worth thinking ahead to the outcomes you hopeyour research will produce. What difference doyou expect your study to make? What will it beable to tell us that will be useful to the field ofadult literacy, numeracy and ESOL?

• Your question will also help you decide on theevidence to collect and ensure that data helpsyour goal and keeps your project manageable.Make sure your aims are in proportion to thetime and resources you will have available.Practitioner research is always more rewardingfor the practitioner and credible to colleagues ifit has manageable and specific aims. If you aimto find out whether a strategy has an impact donot forget to document how the strategy wasimplemented as well. Other people, inspired byyour results to try it out, will want to know howyou did it!

3. Methods: How will you identify the relevant datayou are going to collect? How will you collect,analyse and evaluate the data? How do they link toyour aims and what is known already?

• This is an important aspect of your researchdesign because these methods are the activitiesthat help you turn your plans into a practicalreality and any description of what you will dohelps assessors feel confident that yourproposal has been properly thought through.

• This aspect in particular is where your projectresearch support person should be able to help.Ask them and your colleagues for ideas aboutrelevant research. You could consult a localcollege or university librarian about searchstrategies too.

What data will I collect?• You need to collect information that helps you

answer your question. You also need workablestrategies for collecting data. Ideally your datashould also be useful on a day-to-day basis aswell as in answering your question.

• Examples of data that practitioners have foundmanageable and useful include:I. creating peer observation records throughvisiting one another’s learning groups andorganisationsII. making video or sound recordings oflearner/tutor interactionsIII. collecting practitioner diaries or learnercommentaries to identify their perspective onlessons/activities 3


Appendix 2

89

IV. using questionnaires with learners orinterviewing them to explore their thinking andunderstanding.

How will I check that my data is valid?• Being clear why you are collecting data is an

important part of ensuring they are valid.Reasons for collecting data duringinvestigations in the past have included trying toidentify:I. changes in patterns of learners’ responsesand interactions in response to specificstrategiesII. the types of questions asked by learners andtutors and the ways in which these change asinitial assessment strategies are implementedIII. alterations in tutors’ practices as a result ofthe introduction of new training.

• It is often better to collect different kinds ofinformation, which allow you to check validity bycross-referencing (a process calledtriangulation) than to collect larger amounts ofidentical data. For example, practitioners whohave reviewed video recordings of learningsessions alongside learning logs or learners’commentaries on the video material have beensurprised (often pleasantly) about thedifferences between learners' perceptions andtheir own.

How will I analyse data and draw conclusions?• It is important to allocate time for analysing

your data and to avoid rushing to conclusions.In particular, it is important to check thatevidence contradicts any emerging patterns aswell as evidence that confirms them.

4. Timetable: How are you going to organise yourtime during the research? What is your timelinefor identifying data? When will you collect, analyseand interpret it? How much time do you need toallow for writing up what you have done?

• You need to describe:I. how you will phase your researchII. the timescale for:

a. data collectionb. analysisc. writing up your report.

• Remember to leave plenty of time for dataanalysis: this often gets overlooked. It can behelpful to allow time to test your strategies forcollecting data since they might need refining inthe context of busy organisations.

5. How will you monitor your own learning andprofessional development during the research?

• As practitioners you will have lots of ideas formonitoring learning. Remember to plan howyou will obtain positive criticism and supportfrom others alongside steps for personalreflection.

6. Organisational context: how do you intend toevaluate your research?

• If your expected outcomes are clear and yourmethods relevant to them, it should be easy toidentify how the work you are undertakingcontributes to this.

7. What are the expected outcomes or findings ofyour research? How will the research process behelpful to adult learners?

• This question is asking you to explain what willbe different if your project meets its aims.

• Think about outcomes in relation to your ownand your colleagues' development as well asyour learners. It is also better to describedetailed outcomes and ways of assessing themthan to offer sweeping or general claims.

• Aim to explore connections between strategiesand outcomes rather than trying to test causeand effect. There are too many variables inlearning settings to make this feasible.

8. Considering impact: How will your research helpto improve teaching and learning? How do youpropose to communicate your research findings toother practitioners?

• You might be able to answer these questions byreferring to previous projects in yourorganisation or to research carried outpreviously by practitioners or academics. If youraims are quite abstract (e.g. improving learnermotivation) you need to link these to specificexamples of how this will affect teaching andlearning in particular settings or with particulargroups of learners.

• You need to think about how you want to shareyour work in your own organisation throughlocal and regional networks and throughprofessional organisations. Often the mosteffective networks for dissemination arepersonal and involve visits and discussionrather than writing or presenting a formalpaper.


Appendix 2


Anita Wilson, Lancaster University/NRDCYvon Appleby, Lancaster University/NRDCDavid Budge, NRDCDavid Mallows, NRDCDiana Coben, Kings CollegeHelen Casey, NRDCJuliet Merrifield, Friends Centre, BrightonJan Eldred, NIACEJane Ward, NIACEJay Derrick, ConsultantJenny Gartland, JRG LtdJenny Gardiner, Association of CollegesJudith Edwards, LSDAMike Baynham, Leeds UniversityMaria Kambouri, Institute of Education/NRDCFiona MacDonald, Learning Connections, ScotlandMary Hamilton, Lancaster University/NRDCNyona Chanda, ConsultantOonagh Gormley, Institute of Education/NRDCOlivia Sagan, NRDCPhilida Schellekens, NATECLA and ConsultantSheila Rosenberg, NATECLA and ConsultantMargaret Siudek, Croydon CollegeSimon James, LSDAUrsula Howard, NRDCYvonne Hillier, City University, London

The consultative group will:

1. Assist the NRDC and project directors indecision-making and strategy in relation to theinitiative across the three rounds of funding.

2. Meet a maximum of three times per year, inLondon or Lancaster.

3. Communicate regularly by e-mail and or phonecommenting on and offering advice about draftdocuments and operational issues.

4. Receive and comment on evaluation reports fromthe initiative.

5. Assist in the selection of practitioner-ledresearch projects, by joining the shortlisting andselection panels as appropriate.

6. Assist projects with communicating their findingsin order to ensure projects have an impact onpractice and policy.

Membership of the group

Up to 20 people will be drawn from the followinggroups:

1. Members of NRDC project management for thePLRI.

2. A range of interested people with specificexpertise drawn from the wider NRDCconsortium.

3. Representatives from related organisations (e.g.ABBSU, LSDA, NIACE, LSRN, BSA, universities,practitioner networks in literacy, numeracy andESOL).

4. Representatives from a range of providingorganisations and funders such as community,private training providers, FE, prison andworkplace.

5. International representatives with specificexpertise in PLR activity and policy, includingother countries in the UK.

Mary Hamilton

Lancaster University

March 2004

3

3

Appendix 3

Membership and terms of reference for theconsultative group


Appendix 3

91

Round One projects 2004

‘New ways of engaging new learners’

Project title

What methods could be used to engage

classroom assistants, who work in

school and post-16 sectors, to improve

their own literacy and numeracy skills

through the Skills for Life agenda?

Organisation

Bishop Burton CollegeBishop BurtonEast Yorkshire HU17 8QG

Project leaders

Cheryl Dillon – Project Lead

CLiCK

Reaching and engaging new learners

using popular culture through a blend

of online and classroom learning

South East DerbyshireCollege1–5 Church StreetRipleyDerbyshire DE5 3BU

The Sheffield CollegeGranville RoadSheffield S2 2RL

Cheryl Dillon – Project Lead

Improving workplace training and

support for council employees

Blackburn with DarwenBorough Council BBC Learning Centre22–26 Darwin StreetBlackburnLancashire BB2 2EA

Hamid Patel – Project Lead

Engaging new learners in rural SMEs 69 Spa RoadWeymouthDorset DT3 5EP

Sandi Wales – Project Lead

Essential skills support for health care

assistants

c/o Lancaster UniversityLiteracy Research CentreInstitute for AdvancedStudiesLancaster UniversityLancaster LA1 4YD

Lynn Ireland – Project Lead

Appendix 4

List of funded projects and titles: PLRI projects 2004–2006

3

3


Appendix 4


Round Two projects

‘Understanding purpose and perseverance – learners' aspirations and commitment to learning’

Project title

What motivates or demotivates adults to

improve their numeracy skills?

Organisation

Brighton and HoveCity College Pelham StreetBrightonEast Sussex

Project leaders

Sara Fletcher – Project LeadAlison Kelly – Researcher

Extracurricular activities and ESOL:

adding value or wasting resources?

Exeter CollegeCommunity ESOL ProjectExeter College12 York RoadExeterDevon

David Wright - Project Lead

Learner-centred practice: provision to

meet the goals and motivation of

learner on Skills for Life programmes

Learning Development UnitYork CollegeTadcaster RoadYork YO24 1UA

Helen Kenwright – Project Lead

‘I Can’: measuring soft outcomes for

homeless and vulnerable learners

Broadway Central OfficeChaucer HouseWhite Hart YardLondon SE1 1NX

Harriet Cookson – ProjectLead

Participants’ perspectives on the

factors in teacher method and teacher

qualities which promote learner

retention in part-time adult ESOL

courses

Cityand Islington CollegeCity and Islington CollegeDalby House396–398 City RoadLondon EC1V 2QA

James McGoldrick – ProjectLead

Learner perceptions of the impact of

residence on skills for life learning

Northern College forResidential Adult EducationWentworth CastleStainboroughBarnsleySouth Yorkshire S75 3ET

Bronwen Hiles – Project Lead

3


Appendix 4

93

Round Three projects

‘Creativity in teaching and learning’

Project title

Weaving reading for pleasure

into the adult literacy curriculum

Organisation

Essex County Council AdultCommunity LearningAdult Community LearningCounty HallChelmsfordEssex CM2 6WN

Project leaders

Sue Oakey – Project Lead/ Researcher

Creative approaches to

overcoming barriers to learning

with young offenders on Skills

for Life programmes – tried

and tested

Future Prospects – YorkCollegeLearning Development UnitYork CollegeTadcaster RoadYork YO24 1UA

Helen Kenwright – Project LeadAndy Bucklee

Literacy and numeracy

practices in a peer education

project for young people at risk

City of Sunderland YMCA Foyer2 Toward RoadSunderland SR1

Sarah Rennie – Project LeadStephen McKinlay

Learners, tutors and action

research: instigating learner-

centred research in Skills for

Life

Dewsbury CollegeHalifax RoadDewsbury WF13 2AS

Cathy Clarkson – Project LeadVasiliki Scurfield

Soft Currency Exeter Council for Voluntary ServicesWat Tyler HouseKing William StreetExeter EX4 6PD

Alan Gorman – Project Lead


Appendix 4


Why practitioner research?

One of the underpinning strategies of NRDC is to‘build research capacity, reflective practice andcareer development through the systematicengagement of teachers and other practitioners inthe centre’’ (NRDC, 2003: p.13). The overallintention of the practitioner-led research initiative isto publicise and support this strategy by drawing ina new constituency of beginning practitionerresearchers. The aims are to:

• build research capacity in the field• produce findings which will give new insights into

adult literacy, numeracy and ESOL• embed the activities of NRDC in practice• strengthen networks linking practice, research

and policy.

Drawing on a model of partnership working, theinitiative was intended to be of benefit topractitioners and their organisations in a number ofways, providing an opportunity to put originalresearch ideas into practice, offering the chance tostep back and reflect on practice, and to exploresystematically day-to-day issues arising from theSkills For Life policy.

Within the scope of a broad theme, practitionerswere invited to pose researchable questions thatwould be useful to them, their employinginstitutions and the local communities they serve.Ideally research topics would be related to existingactivities and issues that needed to be addressed byorganisations.

Practitioner research is frequently challenging toothers in the research/policy community because itshows that research can be done and written up indifferent ways. It can also show how the ‘ordinary’can be a source of creative research ideas, with theemphasis placed on the practical, small-scaleissues which dominate the working lives ofpractitioners.

Who are the potential audiences for practitioner

research?

Policy-makers to whom PR offers accessible,grounded and fine-grained findings that cancomplement large-scale surveys and othertraditional research, as well as insights intopractitioners perspectives and concerns.

Participants in the projects: practitioners and theirsponsoring organisations who took part in theresearch. PR offers validation of their status andknowledge-base, visibility, levers for funding locally,ideas to feed into training and managementstrategies.

Other practitioners aspiring or interested in PR:models of what PR can accomplish, how it’s doneand supported, pitfalls and benefits, how it can becommunicated. Evidence suggests (e.g. seeBingham and Smith, 2003) that practitioners engagebest with research if they have first-handinvolvement in the process, and that practitionersare more likely to take notice of, and value, researchthat has been produced with the involvement ofother practitioners

Academic researchers in the field of ALNE, to enablelinks to be made with other NRDC reports, todouble-check/validate their own findings andperspectives, to obtain ideas for new researchangles, factors they may have overlooked. Also toget a better understanding of how to maximise theinput of practitioners and to manage good researchrelationships with them. Through PR practitionersexpress their views of what it is like to be involvedwith research, and the potential benefits tothemselves. The process adopted by NRDC ICTprojects is a particularly good example of this.

What are the implications for NRDC’s publications

strategy?

There are many implications, some of which arerelevant more broadly to NRDC’s communicationsstrategy.

• Multiple formats should be considered fordifferent audiences. Creative use of different

3

3

Appendix 5

NRDC discussion paper on the publicationsstrategy for practitioner research projects

3


Appendix 5

95

modes of communication – diagrams, imagesand oral presentations as well as the writtenword – are important in order to attract thosewho would not normally read a research report.

• Whilst the use of web publication offers chancesfor rapid feedback and circulation of material fortraining purposes, care needs to be taken thatisn’t considered ‘second-best’. A printed reportstill has high status and may be especially valuedwhere practitioners are trying to establishcredibility for their work or organisation. It isimportant to practitioners to have got somethingin print. It makes them feel less dependent onthe views passed down from 'the great and thegood'.

• The web offers other possibilities, e.g. forinteractive forums, based around written projectreports and other linked documents, such aspolicy and discussion papers.

• It is important to look for similarities betweeninterested groups as well as differences. Forexample, policy-makers and practitioners havesimilar needs for accessible, succinct reportsthat address their specific interests and can fitinto busy lives. However, they may be convincedby different types of evidence.

• Reports need to differentiate local/national/international audiences, e.g. press releasesmight be aimed especially at local media.

• Non-technical summaries of up to four pages areuseful to accompany full reports.

• Technical reports that detail the methodology andsupport process can be valuable additionaldocuments. The readership for these are thesponsoring organisations and the researchcommunity more generally.

• Key message summaries to practitioners thatemphasise the process ‘How to do it’ and how itfeels and what will happen if you try … Thesecould include personal comments frompractitioners who have been through the process.We have many examples from the project reports.

• Key message summaries that emphasise thesubstantive findings and how they fit with whatwe already know or what others are doing.

• Offer help for practitioners to put together oralpresentation of research findings: videos, CDs,production of audiovisual materials to accompanyconference and workshop presentations (visuallyinteresting posters, PowerPoint presentations).

• Layout and format of reports should be eye-catching – creative use of visuals is essential.

Mary Hamilton with Paul Davies,

PLRI July 2006


Appendix 5


Role of the NRDC academic mentor

Definition of a critical friend:A trusted person who asks provocative questions,provides data to be examined through another lensand offers critiques of a person’s work as a friend. Acritical friend takes the time to fully understand thecontext of the work presented and the outcomes thatthe person or group is working toward. The friend isan advocate for the success of that work.Costa, A. and Kallick, B. (1993) ‘Through the lens ofa critical friend’. Educational Leadership, 51(2): 49-51.

You have agreed to be NRDC’s ‘academic mentor’for the Practitioner-Led Research Initiative projectnamed above. We feel that it might be helpful togive you a sense of what will be expected. Thesesuggestions are not definitive, of course, and weexpect that you will negotiate your involvement withyour particular project in whatever way you all feelmost appropriate.

Why you have been asked

You have been approached because you haveexpertise in the content area of the selected project.This means that you may have access toinformation, experience, or resources that theproject members may not be aware of or that youmay be able to give input into content-areadiscussion or issues that the team are dealing with.

What is expected of you

Again, this is negotiable but we are not expectingthat you will have a great deal of day-to-dayinvolvement with the project as each team isadditionally supported by other colleagues with arange of knowledge and experience. In addition to

the involvement of their line managers, each teamalso has access to a named research supportperson who can be accessed locally. The role of thisperson is to offer guidance and training in relationto research methodology and project management.Again, negotiation with your project team would bethe most obvious way of working through how youwill be involved.

Suggestions as to how you might fulfil your role are:

• Being available throughout the project to offeradvice by e-mail or phone

• Giving feedback on project plans, data collectionand analysis

• Suggesting helpful resources• Visiting the project and/or the research site• Attending interim report meetings• Helping to publicise and disseminate the work of

the project through NRDC and your ownnetworks.

Additional information

The operational team are very appreciative of thefact that you are making a voluntary contribution tosupport promising and innovative research projects.If we can be of any further assistance please do nothesitate to get in touch with us.

(Append details of the project, including originalproposal, contact details, names of people in theteam.)

Appendix 6

Guidelines for the critical friend

3

3


xxxx

97Part 4: Resources and Appendices

xxxx


Appendix 6

97

Quaker Meeting House, Euston, London, 2 March

2006

Meeting for research support people 2 March.We have always seen the role of the researchsupport person as vital to the activities of eachproject and especially important to ensuringcompletion of the project report. Our impressionlooking back across the three rounds of funding isthat this important role has been carried out verydifferently in different projects and that the natureof the relationship between the RSP and groupactivities has varied, depending on the compositionof the groups, the kind of research being carriedout, the specialist skills of the RSP, etc.

However, we have never really discussed how therole has worked out in practice with RSPsthemselves and this meeting is an opportunity toexplore the possible models of research supportthat have been developed in the initiative, and thepros and cons of these. The point is to inform thefinal report of the PLRI that we have to write andalso to suggest the ways in which practitionerresearch can best be encouraged and embedded inthe future.

The brief we suggested in our guidelines in theapplication pack about the role of the researchsupport person was as follows:

Each group must include someone whose role will beto offer research support in day-to-day projectactivities. This person will provide a link to academicresearch methods advice and traditions, offer relevantreading, arrange and/or deliver research methodstraining, assist with the final dissemination strategyfor the project, including co-ordinating production ofthe final written report. This person should besomeone with a post-graduate qualification thatincludes research training, and some practicalresearch experience. Links with a local universityshould be made wherever possible.

In addition, groups will be expected to link intoexisting local and regional networks (such as NRDC,BSA, LSDA, NIACE and ABSSU Regional Co-ordinators and Local Learning Partnerships). NRDC

will arrange an initial briefing day for all projectsfunded through the initiative, an interim advisorymeeting and a dissemination event at the end of theproject period. All groups are expected to take partin these events.

Issues for discussion at the meeting

• What part did you play in the writing of the initialproject proposal, and if so did you consider yourrole as RS at that point?

• What role did you play in your PR project?• Were you doubling up with other roles (e.g.

project management)?• Did you do things you hadn’t anticipated you

would have to?• At what points in the life of the project were you

called on?• Were there particular moments in the project

when your input was crucial? If so, what werethese and why?

• Were there conflicts or sensitivities involved inyour role?

• Was it difficult to get from action to reflection inyour project group?

• What affects the persistence of practitionerresearchers?

• What are your views about the value ofpractitioner research: lip-service? Converted toit?

• Do you feel there is a tension between the qualityof the process and the outcomes frompractitioner led research?

• The importance of money to buy people’s time –is this important? Is it double-edged inencouraging people to dream up ideas they wouldotherwise not think of just to get the money?

• The importance of time and timing moregenerally … can money buy it?

Appendix 7

Agenda for meeting with project research support people

3

3


Appendix 7


Project title

Contact details

Project applicant

Organisation

Address

Telephone

Fax

E-mail

continued over

Appendix 8

Interim progress report

3

3

3


xxxx


xxxx


Appendix 8

99

Please provide details of your work undertaken and who carried out that work. The following headings canbe used as a guideline; please do feel free to add any additional headings you feel would help at the end ofthe document.

Brief overview – What has happened so far on your project?

Timetables and milestones – Have you kept to schedule?

Data collection – How is your data collection going?

Training – What research training has your team undertaken?

Academic advisor – What role has your academic advisor played?


Appendix 8


Plusses and minuses – Are there issues and ideas that may help others doing projects?

Project communication and management – Have the project team kept in touch? Have the financialarrangements been smooth?

Other project activities – Is there additional information you think we should know?

Please indicate additional support, if any, you would like us to provide

Name

Signature

Date

Once completed and signed please forward to:

Kathryn James

Educational Research, County South, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YD

E-mail: [email protected]


xxxx


xxxx


Appendix 8

Those interested in finding out more about the widermovement towards developing practitioners asresearchers/developers and practitioner-led research can contact the following:

Professor Yvonne Hillier

Education Research CentreSchool of EducationUniversity of BrightonMayfield HouseFalmerBrighton BN1 9PH

Tel: 01273 643433Fax: 01273 643453Email: [email protected]

or

Dr Andrew Morris

Education ConsultantEmail: [email protected]

NRDC

Institute of Education

University of London

20 Bedford Way

London WC1H 0AL

Telephone: +44 (0)20 7612 6476

Fax: +44 (0)20 7612 6671

email: info@ nrdc.org.uk

website: www.nrdc.org.uk

NRDC is a consortium of partners led by the Institute of Education,University of London. It includes:• Lancaster University• University of Nottingham• University of Sheffield• East London Pathfinder• Liverpool Lifelong Learning

Partnership

• National Institute of Adult Continuing Education

• Basic Skills Agency • Learning and Skills

Network• LLU+, London South

Bank University • King’s College London• University of Leeds

Funded by theDepartment for Education and Skills aspart of Skills for Life:

the national strategy forimproving adult literacy and numeracyskills.

www.nrdc.org.uk

Documents

Practitioners leading research - UCL Institute of Educationdera.ioe.ac.uk/22298/1/doc_3554.pdf · Practitioners leading research ... Suuand George, Gabi Rechnagel, Catherine Ruck