Making a connection


Whether you are teaching adults or children, the best way of engaging learners is to respond to their interests and experiences. Greater emphasis on accreditation shouldn’t be allowed to get in the way, says PETER LEYLAND


I


n the fourth series of Baltimore-set drama series The Wire, a former policeman turned teacher realises that he can only promote the learning of disaffected kids by engaging them, using their own experience as a trigger. The power of this idea struck me forcibly while I was teaching a Workers’ Educational Association course called Helping in Schools. The more I taught it the more concerned I became that a course begun as a means through which parents could come to understand how primary schools worked by volunteering was in danger of becoming an exercise in achieving assessment targets because of a greater emphasis on accreditation. Such pressure can only inhibit the efforts of teachers in engaging as wide a range of learners as possible.


The course was for adults who were


returning to learning, particularly those who had a poor initial experience of education and wanted to try again. It enabled me, as a newcomer, to transfer and adapt the skills I had learned teaching middle-school pupils to an adult education setting. Helping in Schools originated in Yorkshire in 1994. The idea was that parents should volunteer in their children’s primary school, and be introduced to the workings of the school. This would encourage them to return to learning. The course ran for 10 weeks, was accredited, and sometimes resulted in learners becoming learning assistants of some kind in their local school. What made the course exceptional was the way it engaged a variety of learners with widely diverse educational backgrounds in the joint enterprise of understanding what school is like for their children. It was structured so that, over the 10 weeks, the learners encountered ideas such as how reading was taught in their schools, what a ‘behaviour policy’ consisted in, and how special educational needs policies ensured that all pupils were included in the school’s activities. To be accredited, the learners had to complete a portfolio of work and a 1,500- word project about an aspect of education


30 ADULTS LEARNING APRIL 2010


that interested them. The learning style of the course depended to some extent on the tutor but group work was always encouraged. I have now delivered the course seven times and on each occasion have met an entirely different group of adult learners. As I worked with my first class I became aware of the distinct attitudes to learning reflected in their personalities. There was Angela who had worked in industry as a secretary but who had never taken her education further than O-level. A keen contributor to class debate, by the end of the course she had become a school governor. She had also achieved a Level 3 grade for her course portfolio and was given a learning award by Berkshire County Council.


In contrast to Angela there was Jan. Jan


realised that by taking a leading part in discussions, but never handing in any written work, she was behaving in exactly the same way as she had at school. Although we discussed this during our tutorial session, there was no resolution and no portfolio was ever handed in. Overall, however, Jan gave me to understand that she had benefited from the course. The second group of learners that I taught on the course were from India and Pakistan. Some had degrees from their home countries, others had such poor writing skills that I knew I would have to teach the rudiments of essay writing if they were ever to fulfil the requirements of the course. Fortunately, built into the course are a number of ‘practical sessions’ where tutors are able to use material of their own choosing. I would carry out problem-solving activities with them like getting them to build a free-standing tower from A4 paper and sellotape. This proved a good bonding exercise for learners with a wide range of abilities. To address my concerns about writing skills I divided the class into two. For those who had good written ability I devised a lesson based on the Lynn Truss’s book, Eats, Shoots and Leaves, where the learners were shown how to use commas, colons and semi-


colons. For those who were struggling with paragraphs I took some ideas from the BBC website. I then taught the group in a differentiated manner. The learners were now used to working in groups and responded well.


Some adults are not suited to group work,


however, and it became clear early on that with Nasim, who lacked confidence in speaking but who was exceptionally bright, I needed to take a different approach. Reflecting on teaching skills from my school experience, I decided to work with her more individually. I discussed her work with her in detail, both by email and in person, and she responded well to my recognition that she was bright but hampered by her difficulty in expressing herself. By the end of the course she had written a clear and concise explanation of the different ways that reading is taught in primary schools and was confident enough to apply for teaching assistant posts. Much like ‘Mr Prezbo’ in The Wire, I was finding, as an adult tutor, that the closer you get to what interests the learners the more learning takes place. It’s just the same with children. Two examples from learners on a recent course illustrate this. The first is Diane who has children in our local education system, which is a selective one. Diane was unhappy about the way this system operates to favour the parents who know how it works at the expense of those who, like herself, had not grown up in the area and had little knowledge of the grammar-school system. She discussed with me the idea of writing an information leaflet for parents and children for her project and this turned into a critique of the system in which she found herself trapped. This is what she said:


… a lot of parents made it seem like grammar schools were the be all and end all of education and their child had to pass their 11+. As parents, we did not feel that giving extra tuition was right as if you start at middle school you have to carry on giving extra support right through the secondary


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