Teaching Adult Literacy 278 309

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8 Planning and assessment Jay Derrick and Judith Gawn In this chapter we look at planning and assessment within adult literacy teaching and learning. The two are very closely connected and we will explore this connection throughout the chapter. Assessment and planning – principles Three purposes for assessment In this section we look at assessment and its implications for planning. Much of what we say here applies to teaching and learning in any subject and in any situation. However, getting the approach to assessment right is even more important for learners with negative previous experiences of education, and with less confidence in themselves as learners. Many adult literacy learners are likely to fall into this group. We start by distinguishing between three types of assessment, based on different purposes, all more or less important in adult literacy learning: + summative assessment: for certification and/or progression; + formative assessment: for planning teaching and learning; + formative assessment: for the development of judgement, self- evaluation and sustainable learning. Summative assessment: for certification and/or progression Most people have a ‘common-sense’ idea that assessment is about exams: indeed, many adult literacy learners may worry about assessment because they associate it with previous experience of failure. They think of tests, or perhaps of written assignments, and of getting grades or marks. They may have experienced their grades or marks being compared publicly with other learners, and may have felt humiliated if they didn’t do well. Assessment does have an important role in providing public recognition of achievement; it provides evidence that learners can take to future employers, for example. Many adult literacy learners, while perhaps nervous of failure, are still very keen to gain certificates and qualifications: to help directly with

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Teaching Adult Literacy

Transcript of Teaching Adult Literacy 278 309

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    8 Planning and assessmentJay Derrick and Judith Gawn

    In this chapter we look at planning and assessment within adult literacy teaching andlearning. The two are very closely connected and we will explore this connectionthroughout the chapter.

    Assessment and planning principles

    Three purposes for assessment

    In this section we look at assessment and its implications for planning. Much of whatwe say here applies to teaching and learning in any subject and in any situation.However, getting the approach to assessment right is even more important forlearners with negative previous experiences of education, and with less confidence inthemselves as learners. Many adult literacy learners are likely to fall into this group.We start by distinguishing between three types of assessment, based on differentpurposes, all more or less important in adult literacy learning:

    + summative assessment: for certification and/or progression;+ formative assessment: for planning teaching and learning;+ formative assessment: for the development of judgement, self-

    evaluation and sustainable learning.

    Summative assessment: for certificationand/or progression

    Most people have a common-sense idea that assessment is about exams: indeed,many adult literacy learners may worry about assessment because they associate itwith previous experience of failure. They think of tests, or perhaps of writtenassignments, and of getting grades or marks. They may have experienced their gradesor marks being compared publicly with other learners, and may have felt humiliatedif they didnt do well. Assessment does have an important role in providing publicrecognition of achievement; it provides evidence that learners can take to futureemployers, for example. Many adult literacy learners, while perhaps nervous offailure, are still very keen to gain certificates and qualifications: to help directly with

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    employment, or just to prove to themselves that they can be successful in education.Achieving a certificate for the first time, at any level, can be a powerful factor inimproving learners confidence and motivating them to persist and continue improv-ing their literacy.

    This kind of assessment, or summative assessment, often comes at the end of aprogramme of learning, for example in a test, but it can also take place duringcourses. Some courses consist of the steady collection by the learner and the tutor ofevidence demonstrating the learners performance against a set of assessment criteria,which the learner builds into a final portfolio. In this case assessment for certificationis taking place throughout the course. The evaluation of this evidence, or marking oftests, is usually carried out either independently or by the tutor whose marking isthen moderated internally and externally. The learners own view about how she hasdone and what she has learned is rarely taken into account. Summative assessment issometimes referred to as assessment of learning. In England and Wales, thoughnot in many other countries, the results of this kind of assessment are numericallyaggregated and used to determine funding, and to compare the performance ofteachers, provider organizations, regions, and even countries.

    Formative assessment: for planning teachingand learning

    Alongside its important role in certificating learning, assessment has other criticalroles. In its second key role, assessment is the main means by which teachers find out,and keep revising, what needs to be taught. Assessment for planning, teaching andlearning starts at the very beginning of the course, or even before it, in processesknown as screening, initial assessment and diagnostic assessment. These will bediscussed later in the chapter, but for now we will just note that their purpose is tofind out about the learners abilities and dispositions at the outset. Any informationabout new adult literacy learners can be crucial in helping them to learn successfully.Assessment here includes not just finding out about how fluent they are with spellingor punctuation but also, for example, about what their schooling was like and howthey feel about it.

    Assessment for planning, teaching and learning, starting right at the beginningof a course, needs to continue all the way through, so that the teacher can constantlyupdate his information about the development of learners. He needs to adjust theteaching plan accordingly, both on a moment-by-moment basis and from lesson tolesson. This type of assessment aims to improve teaching and learning by continuallyincreasing the accuracy of its focus. It concerns not just what happens within thecourse but events and episodes in the learners lives outside the course and theinfluence they may have on learning. The key activity is dialogue between the learnerand teacher. The teachers role is to enable, stimulate and develop this dialoguethrough constructive and open-ended questioning, and through generating thinkingand reflection about learning. Again, we will look at this in more detail later in thischapter.

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    Formative assessment: for the development ofjudgement, self-evaluation and sustainable learning

    The third type of assessment activity adds a critical dimension to learning, assomething which, when practised by learners themselves, is concerned with the devel-opment and exercise of judgement: judgement of performance, appropriateness,accuracy and authenticity. It is through these activities that learners develop theircapacity to make critical, aesthetic and practical judgements of the quality andeffectiveness of their literacy activities. If they are not encouraged to practise theseskills as part of their literacy learning, the skills they learn will be decontextualizedand more difficult to transfer between different situations. Learners will be less awareof the importance of using differentiated literacy practices in different social settings,and less able in relatively unfamiliar situations to gauge how to interact successfullyin their use of language.

    The focus of this type of assessment is on successful performance, which isusually largely a matter of personal judgement or opinion. We can compare this tothe kind of judgements people make when they are talking about the quality ofperformance of a play or a music concert. These mostly reflect the personalpreferences of those involved. People may justify their opinions by referring tovarious norms or rules, but these too may be rejected by others in favour of anotherset of norms and different rules. Similarly, any use of language in real-life situationstends to be evaluated immediately and intuitively by the people involved in theexchange.

    It follows that it is vital that literacy learners are given support in developingtheir fluency and confidence in using language in a wide range of situations, and indeveloping the ability to monitor and evaluate their own language use. This fluencycan only be developed through practice. Literacy classes need to provide learners withrelevant conceptual tools, and practical collaborative experience of making, exchang-ing and discussing judgements of the quality of literacy work. There are examples ofactivities that promote critical reading in Chapter 5.

    Language use is not simply a matter of speaking, reading or writing correctly. Itis, in practice, a matter of interaction, negotiation, intuition and empathy, andincludes such forms as irony, dishonesty and dramatic impersonation as well asopenness and authenticity. Literacy learners need support in developing fluency,confidence and discrimination in their use of language in all its forms. Otherwise,although they may gain useful qualifications, they may not have improved theirliteracy in practice. This type of assessment focuses on sustainable learning orientedtowards the future (Boud 2000). It implies that the teachers role is more like afacilitator or mentor. We will look at how teachers can play this role in practice lateron.

    The second and third types of formative assessment distinguished above areoften called assessment for learning (ARG 2002). Each calls for a high level of rich,interactive, two-way communication between learners themselves and betweenlearners and teachers. While there are important differences between assessment oflearning and assessment for learning, both are important for adult literacy learners.

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    There is an important link between both formative and summative assessment, andthe motivation and persistence of learners (Ward and Edwards 2002). Teachers needto have a clear understanding of the differences between them and use this to informtheir lesson plans and schemes of work.

    The role of formative assessment

    Assessment is often looked at as a process starting with initial and diagnosticassessment, moving through on-course assessment and finishing with summativeassessment. Although this sounds like common sense, it can lead to confusion aboutthe different purposes of assessment mentioned above. For example formativeassessment is sometimes confused with continuous assessment, in which assess-ment for certification and/or progression is spread throughout the learning pro-gramme rather than just at the end.

    There is powerful evidence from school-based research that in high-stakessystems (where the formal outcomes of learning are used for funding, performancemanagement purposes and league tables), teachers do not pay sufficient attention toformative assessment as they are over-focused on grades and getting the learnersthrough the test (see for example Black and Wiliam 1998). The research found thatshifting the focus to formative assessment developed broader and deeper learning andmarkedly improved achievement and the longer term capacity and motivation oflearners. This research is now being replicated in the post-compulsory sector (Derricket al. 2007, 2008). Importantly for adult literacy teachers, these results apply morestrongly to learners with less confidence and success in previous education andtraining.

    This chapter aims to support teachers in providing the most effective andsustainable learning for their learners: this requires them to keep in mind at all timesthe different roles of assessment in learning and the three different types ofassessment. The essential ingredient of effective learning is continuous interaction anddialogue with learners about the processes of learning. There are three practical benefits ofthis approach: first it recognizes the status of the learners as adults and enables themto use and express their accumulated experience and knowledge for the benefit ofeveryone in the group. Secondly, it is through extended dialogue with the learnersthemselves that the teacher can best discover how to differentiate the learningprogramme so that the diversity of needs and purposes amongst learners can beaddressed. Thirdly, dialogue enables teachers to orient the learning programmetowards the particular everyday tasks each group of learners is most concerned with.This can lead to increasing the learners understanding of their own learningprocesses, help them connect their learning with what they do outside the classroomand build their capacity for self-assessment and independence.

    In the rest of this chapter we consider:

    + the teaching and learning cycle;+ planning and record keeping;+ screening and initial assessment;

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    + integrating formative assessment with teaching and learning;+ feedback and marking; and+ summative assessment (including the formative uses of tests).

    We include case studies and tasks to illustrate the discussion.

    The teaching and learning cycle

    The teaching and learning cycle above shows the stages of teaching and learning, andhow assessment informs planning. In practice, the cycle involves a complex inter-weaving of the two. Planning is inevitably influenced by external factors such asfunding, government guidance on policy and the needs of local circumstances. It willalso naturally take into account the demands of any accreditation being offered.However, the key starting point of the planning process is initial assessment, and itcontinues to be informed by ongoing assessment of learners progress, or formativeassessment. The final outcomes and achievements (summative assessment) of learnersin a particular group will inform planning for the next group or stage of learning.

    First contact, screening and initial assessment

    Screening usually refers to the identification of a literacy need. It may result insignposting to provision or advice about an appropriate course. This may occur

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    during initial contact with a prospective learner, either in conversation or byinformation given on an application form. The first person a new learner speaks towhen they make an enquiry about learning has a crucial role to play here as theirattitudes and welcome can make a significant difference to the confidence of learners,who may easily be discouraged.

    The purpose of initial assessment is to begin to build up a picture of thelearner, his literacy needs, abilities and short- and long-term goals. Many paper andonline assessments give a very limited insight into learners strengths and areas fordevelopment. Whether or not teachers use tests, initial assessment can also be anopportunity to establish some essential information through a one-to-one conversa-tion. Learners need to understand the reasons they are being asked particularquestions and how that relates to their future learning. (The focus of discussion atthis stage should always be on what people can do rather than what they cant.) Forthe teacher, it is an opportunity to clarify the learners beliefs and feelings aboutlearning and about his expectations of a good teacher. It is critical that the teacherhas an understanding of the learners likely responses to particular pedagogicalapproaches or learning activities (Belzer 2004). For example, learners who feelstrongly that learning is a matter of individual practice, involving silent concentra-tion and hard work, may feel that classroom discussion is a waste of their limited timewith the teacher. The initial assessment process needs to establish:

    + what the potential learner wants to do and why;+ information about her previous educational experiences;+ some information about her previous achievement and skills;+ how the learner likes to learn;+ mother tongue and/or variety of English language used;+ an indication of what her current strengths are;+ an indication of some areas for development;+ issues which may affect her learning, e.g. health problems, dyslexia,

    work/personal commitments;+ any longer term goals;+ availability and time constraints;+ an indication of additional support needs.

    It is important also to explain to learners why they are being asked to complete initialassessment tasks and how the information gained will be used to help plan futurelearning with them.

    Task 8.1

    Initial assessment in your organization

    + What is the initial assessment process in your organization?+ Using the criteria above, consider how effective it is?+ What suggestions, if any, would you make for improvement?

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    Diagnostic assessment

    The aim of diagnostic assessment is to draw up an in-depth profile of the learnersstrengths and areas for development. As in initial assessment, there are plenty ofonline and paper-based assessment materials and toolkits to draw on, but teachersneed to ensure that they are appropriate for the learners and provide all theinformation required for effective planning. Sitting a learner down with a form or infront of a screen will not be sufficient as it wont uncover why the learner finds itdifficult to structure sentences or understand what they have read. Diagnosticassessment requires skill in identifying why people are making mistakes, rather thanjust identifying what those mistakes are. It means assessing the learners level ofcompetence in, for example, constructing and deconstructing words, or their famili-arity with a range of texts and how language works in formal and informal registers. Italso requires an awareness of the social and cultural dimensions of the uses of literacy how people use reading and writing in their everyday lives in order tocontextualize the learners own use of language. (There is an example of detaileddiagnostic assessment in Chapter 3.)

    The diagnostic assessment process is also an opportunity to discuss withlearners the strategies they use round literacy, their preferences in relation to theirown learning and their purposes and their motivation for coming. Jane Mace arguesfor the importance of this kind of dialogue with learners, including discussing theirprevious experiences of schooling and assessment. Only from such a dialogue can theteacher fully understand the motivation, the ability to engage in formal learning andthe formation of their attitudes and ideas about assessment and perceptions ofsuccess (Mace 1979). Considerable skills, knowledge and empathy are needed inorder to analyse the information gathered and then to set relevant and realisticlearning goals with the learner. As a result of diagnostic assessment, teachers shouldbe able to build up a profile of individual learners in a group.

    Planning

    Planning is an essential part of any teachers work. One of the primary purposes ofassessment and evaluation is to support ongoing planning by suggesting directionsfor change (Rogers 2002). Effective teachers change and develop their plans based onevidence derived from learners from the initial assessment process and formativeassessment of their ongoing learning and progress. This also allows the teacher todifferentiate plans to suit individual learners. The skill of the teacher is in planningfor the whole group whilst addressing the needs of individuals.

    Course planning

    A scheme of work provides an overview of learning activities over a specified periodof time, but this does not mean that it should be set in stone and never veered away

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    from. Teachers working within an externally accredited system have a difficultbalancing act to support learners to make progress towards the intended outcomesas well as any other learning objectives individual learners may have.

    The adult literacy scheme of work is likely to include:

    + the formal outcomes the course is defined as covering;+ any other learning objectives the learners may have;+ the content to be covered (topics);+ how skills, knowledge and understanding will be addressed (teaching

    methods, resources and activities);+ how individual learning needs will be met (differentiated strategies and

    preferred modes of learning);+ the context for learning (may affect the content, e.g. workplace, family

    learning);+ the assessment processes.

    Schemes of work clearly have an administrative role, but it is important thatteachers use them as working documents, which change as a result of the develop-ment of the skills and motivation of the learners during the course.

    Developing a scheme of work

    A tutor drew up a draft ten-week scheme of work for an Entry Level 21 literacygroup at the beginning of Term 1. The scheme focused on skills development inreading and writing. The tutor did not plan to work explicitly on speaking andlistening skills at this point in the course, though of course she fully intended toencourage discussion and sharing of ideas in the group.

    The draft scheme of work was informed by the limited information she hadgleaned from initial assessment, which gave only a partial overview of individualsstrengths and areas for development and provided no information about theirinterests and priorities. From Week 3 onwards the tutor amended her scheme in orderto respond to the groups interest in reading childrens books (they were all parents orgrandparents and wanted to be able to read to young children). She also built into thenew scheme a stronger focus on particular skills in order to address gaps inunderstanding which she had gathered from observation, discussion and feedbackfrom learners. Ongoing assessment allowed her to make further adaptations.

    From discovering more about the learners lives and interests, she continued tonote topics and themes to provide new contexts for skills development, some ofwhich would inform the scheme of work for Term 2. She had the opportunity to useICT facilities and as the learners expressed a keen interest, she began to build this intoher scheme to support learning. The teacher used ongoing assessment and negotia-tion with learners to inform teaching and planning in an integrated way.

    Her revised scheme of work is shown below. It is not intended as a model interms of its format, headings or the amount of space devoted to each aspect. There aremany different ways of drawing up a scheme of work and every institution has its

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    own procedures that teachers are asked to follow. What is important is that courseplanning is an organic and responsive process, in which the tutor amends her plansin the light of her growing understanding of learners interests, abilities and prioritiesfor learning.

    Note on terminology

    Course aims

    These are broad, long-term, developmental aims, encompassing knowledge, under-standing and skills that the learners are working towards during the course. They canalso include soft outcomes such as confidence, for example the confidence to read astory aloud to a child or to write a letter to the school.

    Lesson aims

    These are what the tutor wants learners to achieve in one lesson.

    Lesson objectives

    These are statements of specific things that the learners should be able to do by theend of the session, and which will provide evidence of new knowledge, understand-ing and skills.

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    Lesson planning

    An effective lesson plan should also be a working document and a guide, rather thana straitjacket. There needs to be a cyclical element to planning so that sessions arestructured coherently to build in review, recap and forward planning in a way that isclear to learners.

    There is plenty of material elsewhere on lesson planning, so below is a briefguide to an effective plan for an adult literacy class.

    A lesson plan will normally include:

    + aims and objectives for the session;+ teaching and learning activities and resources;+ assessment approaches;+ post-session notes reviewing the session and follow-up for individuals.

    Lesson objectives

    In setting out the objectives for the session, its useful to consider whether all learnerswill be able to achieve the objective to the same degree and develop differentiatedobjectives to meet the needs of individual learners.

    Teaching and learning activities and resources

    A session plan includes a detailed breakdown of activities and resources. An effectiveplan includes a good variety of methods, for individual and group work, andopportunities for peer and individual reflection and dialogue with the teacher. Theplan should indicate where activities are differentiated for different learners.

    Assessment

    The plan will show how assessment is built into activities at each stage and notsimply focus on an end product.

    Review

    Effective sessions will include recap and review, both of the previous session and thecurrent session. These need to be more than just routine exercises, checking, forexample, whether learners remember the last sessions topic. They should providemeaningful opportunities to check learners understanding of and feelings aboutsessions, as well as being an opportunity to reinforce important learning points.Reviews are a source of evidence to support planning for future sessions. The sessionplan itself needs sufficient space for the tutor to write her own review, and notes onindividual progress. Pre-set formats adopted by the whole organization may not havesufficient space to record the results of detailed observations or one-to-one conversa-tions with learners, so literacy teachers should be willing to adapt these appropriately.

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    Task 8.2

    Staging a lessonStaging is an important aspect of lesson planning. Having designed activitiesthat will enable learners to achieve the aims of the lesson, the tutor mustsequence the activities in a way that allows learners to develop their skillsincrementally. In other words, each activity should be a step towards achievingthe overall aim.

    + How has the tutor staged the learning in the sample lesson above?+ How do you think this would help learners build their knowledge,

    understanding and skills incrementally?

    Comment 8.2

    In this session, in order to achieve the aim of writing directions for a tubejourney, learners needed to be able to: find the names of stations in analphabetical index; locate these stations on a tube map using a grid; and writedirections using the imperative form of the verb.

    The tutor began by reviewing alphabetical order, discussing where and why itis used, and enabling learners to consolidate skills they had learned in aprevious lesson. She then introduced the tube map, once again beginning withthe wider context and inviting learners to discuss their own experiences beforeidentifying specific difficulties with map reading. This led naturally to a focuson grids, as this was the aspect of map reading that was likely to be unfamiliarand pose a challenge to learners. The next activity provided practice in usinggrids, more specifically the skill of using coordinates to find a particularlocation. Learners then applied this skill to finding tube stations and workingout routes between them. Finally, before asking students to write directions, thetutor illustrated the particular form of the verb they would need, to ensure thatthey were equipped for the task. So the lesson was carefully staged to equiplearners for tasks at each stage of the process.

    However, as she noted in her evaluation, the tutor did underestimate some ofthe knowledge and skills needed for these activities, including the meaning ofnorthbound and southbound, the skill of decoding unknown words and, fora small group of bilingual learners, the use of prepositions in sentences. Herevaluation was thorough, based on close monitoring of how people learned andthe difficulties they encountered, and she planned to address these issues in thenext lesson.

    Recording teaching and learning

    The recording of learning is all too often little more than a paper exercise designed tomeet the requirements of funding and inspection regimes. The bodies that provide

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    funding for provision and those that monitor quality obviously need to know thatmoney is being spent well and therefore require evidence of effective practice.However, a system that is driven solely by such requirements can all too often lead tothese processes being implemented in a bureaucratic way rather than based on theneeds of learners. The processes of recording learning must be underpinned by soundpedagogical considerations and informed by the ongoing dialogue with learners thatwe have already referred to.

    Individual Learning Plans (ILPs), Individual Training Plans (ITPs), Work Records call them what you will have caused an enormous amount of debate and anguishsince their introduction in England in the late 1990s. Seen as time-consuming andpointless by some teachers, they are valued by others as a vital tool for planning andrecording progress. At the bottom line, this record of learning needs to be a realworking document with a clear benefit to both learner and teacher. If possible, thelearner should have a copy. But in any case, the learner needs to have a real sense ofownership of this document. It is useful if the ILP has space to record discussionswith learners about their progress, rather than being a simple checklist of skills ortasks to be achieved. However, the format of the document is much less importantthan the process.

    Later in this chapter we will discus how self-assessment is a crucial dimension tolearning. Discussions around the ILP are a prime opportunity to enable learners topractise making judgements about the quality and effectiveness of their literacyactivities.

    Learners in adult literacy classes are often encouraged to keep a record of what theyhave done or what they have learnt in each session. Whilst it is useful for learners to reflecton the session, this activity can involve learners simply copying from the board what theteacher has written or ticking a box to indicate whether they have completed a particularpiece of work or need to do more. A more useful exercise might be to encourage learners totalk or write about specific aspects of the session. For example:

    + What do you know now that you didnt know at the beginning of thesession (or part of the session)?

    + What can you do now that you couldnt do at the beginning of the session?+ What was the most interesting thing about what you have read today?

    Why?+ Tell the person next to you about / how to .

    Providing a variety of questions or ways of encouraging learners to think aboutlearning can reduce the likelihood of this becoming routine and help learners to buildup a repertoire of modes of reflection.

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    Example 8.3:

    Learner record sheet

    Integrating formative assessment into teaching andlearning

    Dialogue and discussion

    Alexander (2004), writing about the education of children, argues that learning is aprocess in which teachers and learners are interactive participants. He characterizesdialogic teaching as collective, reciprocal, supportive, cumulative and purposeful.In dialogic teaching, knowledge is open to discussion rather than given and closed.This is a view also held by Freire (1972), who wrote of liberating education as

    What have you learned, understood or worked out since we started the lesson? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

    What more work would you like on this topic/skill? __________________________________________________________________________________________

    Todays topic/skill: ___________________________________

    What does this mean to you? What do you already know?Even if youre not sure, try to think what it might mean. __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________

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    consisting of shared acts of cognition. Through problem-posing and dialogue be-tween learners and teachers, the world is recreated and unequal power relationsaddressed.

    Teaching and learning through dialogue sees the development of knowledgeand understanding, as a process. This dialogue is important not just between teacherand learners but between learners themselves. It assumes that responsibility for thedevelopment of learners knowledge, skills and understanding does not rest only withthe teacher.

    In a class based on dialogue, learning is structured as far as possible arounddiscussion between teachers and learners and between learners. Talk is open-endedand exploratory, rather than a series of routine exchanges and simple encouragement.It is organized so as to encourage reflection, supporting learners to develop theirconfidence and autonomy and to see themselves as planners and architects of theirown learning. Learning itself and how that is evaluated are explicit topics for regulardiscussion focusing on how people learn, remember and approach difficult areas.

    Task 8.3

    Dialogue through a reflective diaryTutor M is working with a group of Level 1 literacy learners in an inner-cityadult education college. Because it is an evening class there is minimal time forlengthy conversations on a one-to-one basis. M wanted to set up a conversationwith her learners that would involve them in the process of learning and makeplanning and teaching more learner-centred.

    Her intervention has been to implement a reflective diary this works asboth a mode of communication about how the learners feel about their learningas well as a tool for working on writing skills. The questions in the diary changeregularly so that M can focus on particular activities or skills. She then replies inwriting to their comments and uses what she has learnt about their interestsand level of skills to plan her future sessions. Learners have all writtensomething about how they like to work in the classroom. The learnersthemselves asked M to use diaries to correct their mistakes.

    What teacher M said

    It has helped us to grow as a group. It was not received particularlypositively at first, but it started a conversation that has grown. Themain reticence is that at first they didnt know what to write. But it hasencouraged the learners to reflect on their learning, to think aboutwhat they want to do, to think about who they are and where theywant to go. I thought it would help with planning and focusing onwhat they wanted to learn, but in fact it has meant a lot more thanthat. It has helped me to create activities that I know they will beinterested in and will suit their personalities, ways of working.In future I would like the learners to be more active participants in

    deciding what should go into the diary. I would like to involve themmore in the creation of it.

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    Suggested activities

    Discuss this idea with at least one other teacher.

    + In what ways could a diary like this help the teacher to understandmore about her learners learning?

    + What might be the difficulties in implementing this activity and whatcould be done to overcome them?

    + How could learners become more active participants in the creation ofa diary?

    Questioning

    Research on effective formative assessment in schools (e.g. Black et al. 2003) hasdemonstrated that effective questioning is a key formative strategy. Asking the rightquestions can help learners to explore ideas and solve problems rather than justcoming up with right answers, and it also models for learners how to formulatequestions for themselves.

    It is always useful to develop a repertoire of questioning techniques. Hodgenand Wiliam (2006) recommend that teachers share, talk about and reflect uponquestioning with other teachers. In research with teachers they found this to be avery valuable way of increasing their repertoire of questions and their ability to usethese questions in the classroom.

    It is important for teachers to avoid leading questions, rhetorical questions andclosed questions as these all discourage learners from reflection or from revealing alack of understanding. Questions that require learners to find their own words aremuch more useful:

    Why did you decide to put a full stop/comma there?

    What do you think happens next in this story?

    What do you like about your piece of writing?

    What parts did you find hard?

    Adult literacy teachers who use these sorts of questions will discover more about theirlearners knowledge of how language works and gain a greater understanding of howthey are approaching the literacy tasks. In addition, expressing their ideas andlistening to others will provide learners with opportunities to develop those skills atthe same time. This is another example of learning and assessment being effectivelythe same thing.

    Questioning is a complex process and there are no easy answers about how bestto respond in the moment to learners ideas and questions.

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    Example 8.4

    Using formative questioning with a group of Entry 2/Entry 3literacy learners

    The teacher is helping the learners prepare for the tests they will be taking at theend of the term. Most of them have already completed a practice paper, whichinvolved planning, drafting, editing and rewriting a short informal text.

    Tutor: Ok, last week we did a practice paper for the test youre going to do in afew weeks time. How did you feel that went?Student 1: I didnt think I did very well.Student 2: It was hard, but I think I did OK.Student 3: It wasnt as bad as I thought it was going to be.Student 4: No, I felt nervous, I didnt really like it.Tutor: Well, what Im going to do is give you back the papers I have marked andId like you to go through them and decide what youve done well on andwhere you need to do some more work. I suggest you work in pairs. D, can youmove and sit with P? How about if you two (S and K) work together and J, youjoin them I know you havent done the practice test, but have a look and seeif youd like to try doing it.

    (Tutor hands back the practice tests and goes to sit with two of the pairs.)Tutor: Well, how do you think you did now youve had a look at the paper?Student 1: Well, I still think I didnt do very well, but I can see I did alright onthis (the planning).Tutor: You did do well and did it help you to think about what you wanted towrite?Student 3: Its difficult to know what to write the spidergram helped me.Tutor: How did the spidergram help you?Student 3: Well, it made me think about the different points I wanted to makeand then I used a new paragraph for each point.Student 4: I didnt really write much on the spidergram.Tutor: K (S3) can you explain to P (S4) how you used the spidergram, what youdid?Student 3 (showing her spidergram to S4): See this is what I did: I put somethingat the end of each leg the place, the journey, the weather, the food, then itmade me think about starting a new paragraph for each idea.Tutor: Do you think that would help, P?Student 4: Yes, I think thats a good idea because I didnt have any newparagraphs, its just one.Student 5: Its important to read what it says you have to do its worth takingthe time to read it carefully. Because it tells you at the top of each page whatyou have to do.Tutor: What do you think, P?Student 5: Yes, I didnt really read it; I just started writing. I didnt really planwhat I was going to write.

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    Student 1: I did the planning, that was OK, but then it was changing what Idwritten; I didnt know what to change.Tutor: Well, what did you want to change? What are you looking for?Student 13: Spelling the right spelling.Student 3: And if its in the past, what is it the right tense?Student 5: Its hard not having any lines on the paper, my writing went downlike this, look Tutor (turning to the groups): Has anybody else had that difficulty, of not beingable to write on a straight line? (Nods and assent) Anybody got any suggestionswhat we can do about that in future?Student 6: How about if we use one of those sheets like you get with letter paper,with thick lines on, and put it underneath, that might help.Tutor: Great thats a brilliant idea. Ill make sure I get some for next time.

    Building in self- and peer-assessment activities

    In assessment for learning, developing self- and peer-assessment activities ise central.This requires the adult literacy teacher to construct a safe learning environmentwhere learners feel comfortable with each other and confident about taking somerisks. This can be difficult with learners who may have received their earlier educationin traditional settings where learners are expected to be passive and to see theteachers judgement as paramount. It can take time for some learners to feelcomfortable with the processes of self- and peer-assessment, but with careful prepara-tion learners at any level can benefit from being involved in these activities. One ofthe case studies below suggests how this can be organized.

    Activities that encourage self- and peer-assessment include:

    + paired reading;+ paired or small group discussions on ideas for writing;+ exchanging drafts for comments;+ setting each other spelling tests.

    Learners need to be supported to understand the processes of assessment and thecriteria on which it is based. For many learners the language of assessment can seemhighly technical and inaccessible. If teachers encourage pairs and groups of learnersto discuss and agree upon their own criteria for assessment, and then apply them totheir own work and that of others, this can help them understand and put intoperspective the status of the official criteria. This promotes an essential part oflearning to be able to evaluate their own performance in real-life situations withoutthe support of the teacher.

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    Example 8.5

    Self- and peer-assessment

    This case study is based on Example 7.1 in Chapter 7, which looks at a shortseries of lessons on giving an informal presentation.

    Ruth is a teacher working with a group of eight literacy learners in aninner-city further education college. There are varying degrees of confidence inthe group. Some learners are relaxed about participating in group activities,while others find it difficult to speak to the group as a whole and tend to speakonly to the teacher in one-to-one situations, or when asked a direct question.

    Ruth wants to incorporate simple self- and peer-assessment activities intolearning activities and she decides to build these around learners making shortspoken presentations to the group, as this is something they have said theywould like to do. In particular, she wants learners to evaluate their own andeach others presentations.

    A principle that underpins Ruths approach is that adult learners, throughtheir experience of everyday life, have already developed the speaking skillsneeded for many different contexts. They may not be aware of these skills andsome of them will be more effective speakers than others. However, she hopesthat, by reviewing the situations where they already speak effectively, and bypractising a new kind of speaking in a supportive group environment, they willbecome more confident about speaking in a wider range of contexts.

    The activities are planned to take place over three sessions, so that people getused to the ideas and to working in a group. Ruth is careful to ensure that eachmember of the group is involved in the activities, though this is difficult attimes. If someone feels unable to speak to the whole group, she asks them towork with a partner at first.

    Ruth discusses the aims of the three sessions with learners and the new skillsthey will be working on, including the skills of self- and peer-assessment. Sheemphasizes that the activity is meant to be constructive and supportive.

    She focuses first on the speaking skills learners already have and moves on toa discussion of what makes a good presentation. The group produces a list ofcriteria for a successful presentation. In the second and third sessions, learnersreview the criteria and use them to evaluate their own and others performance.

    The tutor spends significant amounts of time on this process of learnersdevising their own assessment criteria. At times it is a struggle, as one or two ofthe learners are not used to being in this role. But even if the process doesnt goperfectly at all times, overall it does result in learners taking responsibility for,and having ownership of, their learning in a way that they have never donebefore. It also helps less confident learners to participate more confidently,which Ruth sees as a crucial learning objective:

    Presenting, discussing or even implementing imperfect strategies canbe of great value as it forces the learners to identify the criteria bywhich to plan and judge future assessments. How often does a teachingstrategy work absolutely perfectly?

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    The planning and preparation of the learners presentations is another stage ofthis extended process. Ruth offers them various forms of scaffolding andallows time for revisions and reworking. Some work on individual presenta-tions, and others do them in pairs.

    The learners actual presentations are followed by the self- and peer-assessment stage. This starts with group discussion, followed by individuallearners making their personal assessments. The teacher organizes simple recordsheets on which learners assess their own performance and that of their peersagainst the criteria already agreed by the group. They use a very simpleclassification system: the point is not the actual results as much as the practicallearning fostered by the process. She then adds her own assessments. Thedifferences between these three distinct assessments are then discussed. Mostlearners find that they have assessed themselves at a lower level than theirpeers assessments of them.

    Ruths conclusions are that:

    The learner input appears to lead to increased motivation. Its easy,when working with learners at this level of literacy, to forget that theyare sophisticated, thinking people. The focus on trust and respectworked: at the beginning of the year some of them wouldnt listen toeach other, but now they are all happily doing self- and peer-assessment. It doesnt all work perfectly every time, but I now makethis kind of activity a central element of my teaching strategy. The factthat they are low-level learners only means that my preparation has tobe more careful, not that they cant do it.

    Feedback and marking

    Action without feedback is completely unproductive for the learner.(Laurillard 1997: 61)

    Oral and written feedback is a key part of the interactive dialogue that goes on all thetime between teacher and learners, and a central element of teaching and learning.Teachers need to know as much as possible about their learners previous experiencesof education and assessment, their perceptions of their own strengths and weak-nesses, which specific literacy tasks and situations are important to them and, mostimportantly of all, how they think they learn best.

    Teachers will always give informal feedback, and more formal feedback (widelydescribed as marking) of learners work is now a more common feature of adultliteracy teaching. Formal feedback clearly overlaps with formal record-keeping re-quirements and thus potentially can embody both formative and summative assess-ment purposes at the same time. It is important not to let record keeping become thedominant reason for carrying it out, for, if so, the formative potential of feedback andmarking may be diminished. As with all such interactions, the purpose is two-way:

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    the teacher aims to give the learner information about the progress she has made andpractical advice about what to do next, and to listen to the learners responses, checkher understanding and motivation and monitor any changes in her purposes andaspirations.

    Research shows that effective feedback:

    + is given regularly and as soon as possible;+ gives clear reasons for the learners success or failure;+ gives factual descriptions of the performance of the learner, such as you

    have used linking words to make your story read better rather thannon-specific comments such as good;

    + offers constructive and practical guidance about how to improve;+ is given privately (at least at first);+ avoids the teacher correcting the work of the learner;+ agrees what should be done next with the learner.

    Guidelines about feedback apply equally to marking learners written work.Learners tend to value comments which are practical, descriptive and constructiverather than opinionated: You have used apostrophes correctly except in this one case isnt this a plural?, rather than Excellent use of apostrophes for the most part.

    Two ideas for developing constructive approaches to formal feedback are:

    + to treat the feedback as if it is a brief research report on a study of learningcarried out jointly with the learner;

    + particularly for a piece of writing, to see feedback as a comment on anartistic performance, in which issues of correctness need to be balancedwith the expression of an authentic voice.

    Taking a research perspective should ensure that feedback is based firmly on theevidence of the learners work and offers constructive ways forward. It should alsotake account of the views of the learner, who should be seen as a fellow researcher inthis context.

    Gardener (1985) offers detailed advice on the marking of written work:

    Marking clearly needs to be related to past and future teaching. Even withmarking for correctness, we respond differently to persistent errors on pointswe think the writer is aware of, ambitious new errors, or confusions thatgrow from part-learning or misapplying hard won learning. Most of us surelymark selectively, with an eye to how much the writer can act on. We alsoneed to use a code the learner can read. If we underline a spelling mistake,what do we expect to happen? If we dont mark something, is it necessarilyright? If we write tenses in the margin, is it related to past discussions andproposals for work? Do we want to code differently our marking of exercisework and of free writing, where communication is the main aim? Does the

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    learner feel Good has a known value, or no value? Are our responsivecomments readable (and I mean handwriting as well as language) andstimulating? Do we want to suggest a grade of any kind, even related to thewriters own previous work? If we dont comment, is this read as rejection?We wont know any of this unless we make marking a running topic ofdiscussion with learners

    (Gardener 1985; section B2, 7)

    Task 8.4

    Feedback on learner writingBelow are brief profiles of two literacy learners followed by an example of theirwriting and the feedback given by each of the writers tutors.

    For each one, consider:+ In what ways is the feedback formative?+ Which features, if any, are not formative?+ In what ways could the feedback be made more formative?

    Learner A

    Profile

    Learner A is a young man who was born in the UK and attended primaryschool. At the age of 11 he went back to Bangladesh for three years and thencame back to the UK for the final two years of secondary school. He wants goback to college to get some qualifications. He is good at maths. He is quite shyand nervous about writing hes very keen to get it right.

    Text

    My name is I was born on the 8th October 1984 I attend at M **** Schoolfor just two years. and left, **** **** then to go and work for my Dad on cars. Iam a polite young man and willing ** to ** learn.

    Note: **** This symbol replaces words vigorously crossed out in the originalhand-written text.

    Feedback

    Good.I have marked the corrections I want you to make. Also, just remember you

    dont use an apostrophe for plurals, such as years, cars.Now write some more about what you want to do at work in the future.

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    Learner B

    Profile

    Learner B is attending a literacy course. He speaks Turkish as his first languageand was educated up to the age of 14 in Turkey. He came to the UK 12 years ago.Although he speaks English well, he finds writing difficult. He wants to improvehis reading and writing in English in order to improve his career prospects andto help his young son with his school work. He would be interested in settingup and running his own restaurant.

    Text

    My hobbies at the weeks are. to go see my son and thank him to the pictures,also thank him to the pank prork prank palyind football together, and findingthe ducks with beard beard.

    I like to do joking very moring to keep myself feet.My hobbies to cooked.

    Written feedback

    This is an interesting piece of writing: you have said clearly what your hobbiesare. I enjoyed reading about your trips to the park with your son.

    You have used paragraphs well, with one paragraph for each hobby.You have used full stops well, to mark the ends of sentences.Your spelling is getting better well done! You have got some difficult words

    right. Can you pick out three or four words youre not sure of? We can talkabout these.

    Oral feedback/dialogue

    When you wrote about going to the park with your son, you gave some niceexamples of things you did, like feeding the birds together. I could easily pictureyou doing it. Whats your sons name? How old is he?

    What about the other two hobbies? Do you enjoy jogging or is it just hardwork? Can you say more about this?

    What do you like to cook? Are you a good cook? If you had your ownrestaurant would you do the cooking yourself?

    Your paragraphing is good, but you could improve it more by leaving a spaceafter each paragraph, before going on to the next one. What difference wouldthis make to how your story looks on the page? How would it help the personreading it?

    Youve used full stops very well, but in the first line there is a full stop in themiddle of the sentence. Can you find it? I think I know why you used a full stophere but can you explain it to me?

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    Youve spelt some difficult words correctly, for example pictures, hobbiesand together. Well done! Did you remember these or did you find them in adictionary?

    Have you picked out some words to talk about?

    Comment 8.4

    Effective feedback involves

    + deciding on the particular points in a piece of work to give feedbackon (it may well not include everything);

    + deciding on the focus of the feedback (text-level, sentence-level,and/or word-level skills);

    + giving suggestions or prompts about how the piece of work can beimproved;

    + discussing with learners what makes good pieces of work.

    Learner A

    It is unlikely that this feedback will help the learner develop his skills orconfidence. The tutor gives no clear explanations that the learner can use toimprove his writing. For example, the word Good would not help himunderstand the strengths in his writing. The feedback on apostrophes is unclearand its unlikely that he will understand it.

    The tutor has taken ownership of the writing away from the learner bysimply telling him what she wants him to correct. She could make her feedbackmore formative by engaging in dialogue with him, using questions and promptsand offering practical suggestions on how to develop his writing further.

    The tutor has not taken into account the learners feelings about writing. Herfeedback would be likely to undermine him further. She could make it moreformative by showing an interest in what he wants to say. Instead of focusingexclusively on a punctuation error that does not seriously affect the overallclarity of the piece, she could focus on meaning, suggesting ways of improvingthe writing that would make the meaning clearer. She could also ask him whatwords he crossed out and why, and explain that even experienced writers do notget everything right in a first draft.

    Learner B

    In this case the tutor has given the learner feedback on what works well in hispiece of writing and why it works well, with examples that he can understand.She identifies specific strengths and areas for development at text, sentence andword level.

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    Rather than just correcting him, she asks questions and engages in dialoguewith him, to find out what he already knows and to stimulate him to develophis writing further, drawing on what he has told her about his interests andaspirations. She makes practical suggestions about how to improve and what towork on.

    Her feedback is selective and realistic, but to avoid overloading the learnershe may need to spread her comments over more than one conversation, as partof the process of supporting him in developing his text. She can make ajudgement about this by observing his response to feedback and assessing howmuch he is able to make use of at any one time.

    For more examples of formative feedback and dialogue with learners on their readingand writing, see Chapters 5 and 6.

    Summative assessment (including formative use ofsummative tests)

    As discussed at the start of this chapter, summative assessment can take many forms,including tests, written examinations and teacher/student assessment; it can takeplace in one go at the end of the course of learning or in stages throughout thecourse, or it could be a combination of any of these. The particular form and mode ofsummative assessment required is usually stipulated by the funding or awarding bodyfor a particular course. There is, however, strong evidence that adult literacy learnersprefer assessment based on discussion and portfolio building supported by tutorfeedback and individual reflection to tests and exams (for example, Ward andEdwards 2002).

    It is a vital part of the teachers role to encourage sustainable learning, even ifthis means that some learning activities may seem only indirectly related to thesummative assessment process. It is not enough, for example, to produce a singlepiece of writing that has no grammatical errors, even if that is all that is required bythe awarding body for the course. Learners need to have the confidence, knowledgeand experience to weigh up the grammatical quality of a range of different possibleways of expressing the same points. Without this kind of understanding of the issuesinvolved, learners may not be able to transfer their learning between different tasksand contexts and are not necessarily becoming more autonomous. In fact they maybe becoming less autonomous, even if they can satisfy the requirements of the course:There is all the difference in the world between having to say something and havingsomething to say (Dewey 1907).

    How can teachers encourage and support this kind of sustainable learning,particularly when the demands of summative assessment may discourage it? It isessential to remember that all assessment activities have the potential to be used bothformatively and summatively: it all depends on how they are used. Brookfield (1990)suggests organizing group activities which highlight elements of summative assess-ment regimes, in order to problematize them and encourage learners to consideralternatives to them, such as:

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    + critically examining the published assessment criteria for their prospectivesummative assessment tasks;

    + producing alternative summative assessment activities;+ producing alternative assessment criteria;+ looking at particular real life literacy tasks and discussing ways of talking

    about how well or badly they are carried out;+ revisiting previously assessed work, comparing the marks or comments with

    the original assessment criteria and suggesting alternatives or improve-ments;

    + critically examining judgements of quality by their own teacher.

    Brookfield and others argue that teachers need to focus attention on successcriteria rather than assessment criteria. This reminds learners of the subjective andprovisional nature of most judgements of quality in everyday life. Learners can worktogether and with the teacher to reflect on and develop criteria to assess the quality oftheir own writing, taking account of its appropriateness for purpose, its accuracy, itstechnical correctness and its authenticity in terms of that learners voice (seeChapter 6). Again, it is important that there is an emphasis on developing criticaljudgement, not just on technical correctness. This stage of the work, which beginstowards the end of the technical production of writing, is what connects literacylearning with the learning of English.

    From a learning perspective, assessment activities which do not contribute tolearning are wasted opportunities. So, for example when a learner takes an onlinemultiple choice literacy test, the more teachers can find ways to use aspects of theseactivities for learning, the better. Reflecting on the experience of doing such tests,collectively devising and evaluating alternative test questions, or group discussions ofthe effectiveness of such tests as tools for accurately measuring literacy capabilities inreal-life situations are all legitimate and valuable classroom activities for learning.Moderation meetings among teachers can also be rich sources of professionaldevelopment in assessment for learning if they are structured and organized at leastpartly for this purpose.

    In conclusion, then, most teaching and learning situations are circumscribed bypolicy and organizational systems and summative assessment processes such asexaminations, portfolios or tests. In principle, these processes are necessary andvaluable in their own terms: whatever their main purposes are, imaginative adultliteracy teachers will find ways to use them to support learning rather than simplymeasuring it.

    Further reading and resources

    Black, P. and Wiliam, D. (1998) Assessment and classroom learning, Assessment inEducation, 5(1): 774.

    Derrick, J., Gawn, J. and Ecclestone, K. (2008) Evaluating the spirit and letter offormative assessment in the learning cultures of part-time adult literacy andnumeracy classes, Research in Post-Compulsory Education, 13(2): 17384.

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    Derrick, J. Gawn, J. and Ecclestone, K. (in press) Using Classroom Assessment in AdultLiteracy, Language and Numeracy Teaching and Learning. Leicester: NIACE.

    Note

    1. Entry 2 is a level of skill identified in the English Core Curriculum for AdultLiteracy. To see the curriculum go to www.dcsf.gov.uk/curriculum literacy/accessed 18 June 2009.

    Acknowledgements

    We wish to thank the teachers who have contributed or helped with material for thischapter: Kay Rodbourn, Katrina Blannin and Sue East.

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    Front coverHalf title pageDeveloping Adult SkillsTitle pageCopyright pageContentsNotes on the contributorsAcknowledgementsIntroduction - Wendy MossSection 1: Literacy in its social context1 The social context of literacy - Mary Hamilton2 Who are the learners? - Yvon Appleby

    Section 2: Language awareness for literacy teachers3 How language works - Irene Schwab and Nora Hughes4 Language variety - Nora Hughes and Irene Schwab

    LEARNER PROFILES and TEXTSSection 3: Teaching and learning literacy5 Reading - Irene Schwab6 Writing - Nora Hughes7 Speaking and listening - Irene Schwab and Nora Hughes8 Planning and assessment - Jay Derrick and Judith Gawn

    Section 4: Inclusive learning9 Dyslexia - Margaret Herrington10 Literacy learning for adults with g