Designing and piloting PTLLS ESOL: Appendix 4: provider’s final report

This is a final report of a project funded by LSIS to design, pilot and evaluate an specialised PTLLS programme in ESOL. The project was piloted with WCS and evaluated the pros and cons of delivering such a project in a specifc way to practitioners who are already employed in a teaching role in the LLS sector. [Grant: £5000

Using targeted observation sessions as a replacement for micro teaching sessions on a PTLLS ESOL course

This paper reports on the piloting and evaluation of an innovative approach to the delivery of the observation component of PTLLS under a funded LSIS action research project

Evaluation of an e-peer tutorial model for mature trainee teachers

This paper reports the disposition of a group of trainee -teachers in a university towards the provision of tutorial support through the use of an E-peer-tutoring model. Two participant cohorts were involved in the study. In the first cohort, mature second-year students on a PGCE programme initially participated as tutors to first-year students through a MOODLE platform but subsequently functioned in both roles as the need arose. With the second cohort, similar students in the same year group participated interchangeably as tutors and students. Using a mixed method approach, the study explored the effectiveness of this approach from the viewpoint of students. It explored participants’ dispositions towards the use of both the electronic platform and the peer tutoring model and the rationales driving those dispositions. Data were collected through a combination of the analysis of participants’ logs, semi-structured interviews and focus groups. The data thus collected were subjected to a mixture of quantitative and qualitative analysis with the former focused on distributional patterns and the latter on participants’ views and preferences. The study found that while participants found the model to be useful, there are a number of problems with its use. In particular, the elements of voluntary commitment to the model by students and the limitations to the knowledge of students acting in the role of tutors were found to be a key stumbling block. Based on this, the study argues for two things. First, assumptions about innovative ideas need to be explored further in the context of learners’ disposition towards such ideas before they are introduced wholesale. Second, and with specific reference to this study, it is suggested that a mandatory model of the approach, which eliminates the element of voluntary participation, might need to be considered, if the approach is to fulfil its potential

Socialising young literacy learners into a discourse of failure: Dominant discourses in literacy teaching and assessment and their impact on the progression of young literacy learners into employment

This paper argues that contemporary literacy programmes are a mismatch for the expectations of both the government and employers as well as the goals of learners. It submits that the dominant discourses in literacy provision have led to the emergence of a learning culture which not only fails the learners but is also incapable of meeting the aspirations of both the government and employers. To support this argument, the paper reports a small scale research project that analyses the perceptions of learners, teachers and employers who were involved in a work placement scheme for young literacy learners in a college of further education. Data for the study were collected through focus group and face to face interviews and analysed using the framework of discourse analysis provided by Gill (2000) with findings codified and analysed thematically. The study found that teachers were aware that their learners were not adequately prepared for the world of work because of the demands of the dominant discourses of quality and performance measurement which were most obviously manifested in their assessment, teaching methods and the attitudes of learners. It found that employers perceive young learners as inadequate in terms of the workplace expectations. Learners in the study revealed that their workplace culture and expectations were totally different from the culture to which they had been socialised in their studies. The study concludes that unless the dominance of these discourses is ameliorated, young literacy learners will continue to be socialised into a discourse of failure

Significant factors and events in the evolution of adult literacy policy and practice from the 1970s to the Moser Committee

This study was designed to trace the significant factors that informed the evolution of adult literacy policy from the 1970s to 2000. The study proceeded on the premise that factors have continued to change not only because of the changing social environment but also in line with developments within overarching educational policies. The study, with a focus on process rather than product analysis, established a preference for the qualitative approach to research on the basis of its alignment to the social theory of literacy and employed methods including interviews, electronic questionnaire and documentary analysis, to collect data at three levels. The first consisted of as many members of the Moser Committee as would consent to being interviewed (8). A second group of ten individuals who were practitioners in the 1970s and 1980s, but who now have different roles ranging from involvement in research to management, were also interviewed. Lastly, data were collected through the use of an online questionnaire which was based on 65 responses from current practitioners to find their perception of the impact of policy on practice. The study establishes that influential factors in the evolution of policy changed from the themes of entitlement and social responsibility which were dominant up to the mid-1970s, to the themes of the economy, the labour market and international competitiveness from the late 1980s onwards. These latter themes were found to be particularly significant in the deliberations of the Moser Committee which produced the most recent strategy on adult literacy. Also, the study confirmed that a focus on UK-wide perceived skills needs rather than the needs of individual learners was primary in the deliberations of the Moser Committee. Furthermore, it identified conflicting allegiances among members of the Moser Committee and that the SfL agenda the Committee produced was a product of compromises on many aspects of the Committee’s deliberations. Finally, the study recorded that a majority of practitioners responding to the questionnaire held negative perceptions of the agenda and that, like some members of the committee, they compromised their paradigmatic inclinations in implementing the dictates of the SfL agenda. The study concludes that literacy policy after the mid- 1970s was largely informed by a perception that poor literacy was the cause and remedy of social dysfunctions rather than being just a symptom of them. Finally, the study makes a number of recommendations to practitioners, policy makers, awarding bodies for literacy qualifications and teacher trainers. Central to these recommendations is the development of literacy curricula for specific purposes. The study argues that the development of such curricula will enable practitioners, funders and awarding bodies to be accommodated within the same framework of literacy delivery. This recommendation is also central to the professional development of the researcher, as it is seen as relevant in his twin professional roles of literacy teacher and teacher educator

Teacher trainers' attitudes towards the use of digital recordings in collaborative feedback: A qualitative study

This paper reports the attitudes of tutors who were participant-researchers on the use of digital recordings in the promotion of a more collaborative feedback. Using interviews and focus group discussions, it explores the attitude of tutors towards role reversal that the promotion of a more collaborative feedback might induce. It found that although teacher educators are ostensibly positively disposed to the use of strategies and devices for the promotion of collaborative feedback, there are potential areas of resentment which might be easily overlooked. It identifies procedural issues and a potential failure to cater for differentiation as limitations to the use of digital recordings in the facilitation of a more collaborative feedback. The study advocates that the positive elements associated with the use of digital recording as a tool for facilitating collaborative feedback are sufficient to recommend it for use in other fields

A transformational approach to addressing the needs of a new generation of ‘left behinds::a preliminary exploration of the dominance of ‘it/digital literacy’ in organisational processes

There are two parts to this paper. In the first part, the paper takes a preliminary look at an emerging dominant literacy, IT literacy, and its potential impact on some members of relevant communities. Drawing on the perception of literacy as social practice, the paper locates organisational processes within institutions as belonging to a specific social practice and explores the pattern of dominance of IT literacy that is beginning to emerge within this practice. Using qualitative methods of interviews and a focus group discussion, the study conducted a preliminary exploration of the views of staff within one organisation on the impact of this new dominant literacy. Some of the emergent views elicit the notions of exclusion, inadequacies, and imposition. The second part of the paper explores how this potentially excluding process could be addressed in a democratic way. It suggests that organisations can avoid the negative impact by drawing on transformative approaches to literacy development. It emphasises the use of dialogic engagement with staff to identify needs and map out the processes for meeting the identified drives and advocates that employers should shift from a reductive model and instead build a transformative approach into their needs analysis processes to promote a cycle of empowerment

Using technology in the development of a collaborative approach to feedback and more active reflection: an exploration of trainee teachers’ views

This study is driven by two separate but interrelated issues. First, it is driven by the desire to explore the effectiveness of technology devices in the structure of professional development of trainee teachers. Second, it seeks to explore the extent to which such technologies, as reflected in the use of digital recordings in the process of self-reflection by trainee teachers, can contribute to a shift to more collaborative feedback and active reflection. The anchor for this exploration is the desire to move away from the teacher (educator)–centred role (Copland 2010) that is prevalent in the use of feedback in contemporary teacher training programmes. The study surveyed the views of trainee teachers in two colleges through the use of a questionnaire and through a focus group discussion in consonance with the integrative approach to action research which acknowledges the importance of the voice of the third person (Coghlan and Brannick, 2010). The findings were subjected to both qualitative and quantitative analysis, the former through the use of the SPSS statistical analysis tool and the latter through an ethno-linguistic approach (Copland 2010). The study found that in the views of trainee teachers (third person), the use of technology devices can significantly facilitate the promotion of more collaborative approaches to giving and using feedback in their professional development if certain conditions were met. The study concluded that while these approaches are highly desired by trainee teachers who see them as more helpful than the prevalent teacher-centred approach, there is the need to develop a conceptual framework for its implementation

Moments in Transformation: Newly Qualified LIfelong Learning Teachers' Reconceptualization of Assessment in Practice

This study aims to establish the time and process of transformation in theunderstanding and practice of beginner teachers in their assessment practice.It investigates the pre- and post-training conceptualisations of assessmentamongst recently qualified teachers in the lifelong learning sector in the UK.Using the lens of transformative learning, it maps out the relevant processes,factors and time in re-conceptualisation. The study employed a combinationof statistical tools and content analysis for data analysis. It found that the dominant pre-training conceptualisation of assessment was in its summativeessence and that re-conceptualization is dynamic and occurred mostly duringpractice through participatory rather than chronological experience. Thestudy calls for a review of the structure and content of assessment educationbeyond training programmes

Towards a pedagogy of complementary alternative adult literacy learning spaces (CALLS) in ESOL and literacy learning: A case study of the use of a computerised environment (SCRATCH) in an ESOL class

This article provides an argument for the recognition of complementary alternative literacy learning spaces (CALLS) as a strategy for operationalising the notion of multi-literacies in classroom practice. The paper draws empirical evidence from a small-case project to support the claim that scratch, functioning as a CALLS is a viable tool for ESOL/literacy teaching and learning. Empirical data was collected from students from two ESOL classes in London and their tutor over a ten-week project. In addition to defining the bounds of CALLS, the paper identifies four components as desirable for a pedagogy of CALLS and concludes that CALLS is a viable avenue for operationalising the notion of multi-literacies in classroom practice