impada_o1_criteria_research_document_2016_07_15
TRANSCRIPT
IMPADA
Criteria for Measuring the
Effectiveness of Adult
Education for Disadvantaged
Groups: Research Document
Output type: O1
IBE
May 2016
2
Project acronym: IMPADA
Project name: Improving the effectiveness of adult education for
disadvantaged groups
Project code: 2015-1-UK01-KA204-013666
Document
Information
Document ID name: IMPADA_O1_Criteria_Research_Document_2016_07_15
Document title: Criteria for Measuring the Effectiveness of Adult Education
for Disadvantaged Groups: Research Document
Output Type: Intellectual Output
Date of Delivery: 15/07/2016
Activity type:
Activity leader: IBE
Dissemination level: Public
Document History
Versions Date Changes Type of change Delivered by
1.0 14/03/2016 Initial
document, IBE
2.0 15/07/2016
Revised
version following DACES
Feedback
Revisions across
document IBE
Disclaimer The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not
constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
The project resources contained herein are publicly available under the Creative
Commons license Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International.
Contents
Acronyms & abbreviations .................................................................................................................................. 5
1. Introduction ....................................................................................................................................................... 6
2. Analytical Framework ................................................................................................................................... 7
2.1. Research Methodology ........................................................................................................................................ 7
2.2.1. Focus groups............................................................................................................................................... 7
2.2.2. Desk-based research ............................................................................................................................... 7
2.2.3. Partner documentation ........................................................................................................................... 8
2.2. Key Definitions ....................................................................................................................................................... 8
2.1.1. Adult education .......................................................................................................................................... 8
2.1.2. Effectiveness of adult education ....................................................................................................... 10
2.1.3. Disadvantaged groups .......................................................................................................................... 11
2.3. Inclusion and inclusive practice in adult education................................................................................ 12
2.3.1. The identification of disadvantaged groups .................................................................................. 13
2.3.2. The challenge in adequately defining and identifying disadvantage ................................... 15
2.3.3. What do we know about adults with low skills ............................................................................ 17
2.3.4. Existing models to increase effectiveness of community based adult education
(including education for disadvantaged groups) ........................................................................ 20
3. Main findings about quality factors ...................................................................................................... 22
3.1. External vs. internal quality factors ............................................................................................................. 26
3.2. Strategy development, planning and marketing .................................................................................... 26
3.3. Participation .......................................................................................................................................................... 27
3.3.1. Recognition of participation barriers ............................................................................................... 27
3.3.2. Recruitment (including promotion) .................................................................................................. 28
3.3.3. Retention .................................................................................................................................................... 31
3.4. Provision ................................................................................................................................................................. 33
3.4.1. Teaching, learning and assessment strategies ............................................................................ 33
3.4.2. Length of a course .................................................................................................................................. 41
4
3.4.3. Teachers "quality" .................................................................................................................................. 42
4. Outcomes of (adult) education .............................................................................................................. 44
4.1. Educational gain in relation to earnings, labour market status and benefits dependency ..... 45
4.2. Personal and social returns ............................................................................................................................. 47
4.3. Methods and measures used in the assessment of educational outcomes .................................. 49
5. Conclusions on criteria on measuring adult education effectiveness ................................. 54
6. Bibliography ..................................................................................................................................................... 58
Appendices ................................................................................................................................................................ 64
I) UK WEA Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (2014-16) ................................................................................... 65
II) Learning Link Scotland (2016) .................................................................................................................................... 66
III) Professional Standards for Teachers and Trainers in Education and Training – England Education and Training
Foundation (2014) ..................................................................................................................................................... 67
IV) Criteria for measuring: “Soft/Human Skills” outcomes (produced by the document’s authors) .............................. 69
5
Acronyms & abbreviations
IMPADA consortium
DACES Derbyshire Adult Community Education Service
IBE Educational Research Institute
UPTER People’s University of Rome
ENAEA Estonian Non-formal Adult Education Association
PROMEA Hellenic Association for the promotion of Research & Development Methodologies
Other abbreviations
BMBF German Ministry of Education and Research
CIF Common Inspection Framework
CSE Child sexual exploitation
E+D Equality and diversity
GED General Education Development (certificate, US)
ISCED PIAAC indicator for level of education
LLL Lifelong Learning
NIACE National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (organisation, England and Wales)
NRS American National Reporting System for Adult Education
OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (multinational)
PIAAC Programme of International Assessment of Adult Competencies
RARPA Recognising and Recording Participation and Achievement (process, UK)
SMART Specific, measurable, agreed and achievable, realistic, timebound and trackable
TLA Teaching, learning and assessment
UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
WEA Workers’ Educational Association (organisation, UK)
WVABE West Virginia Adult Basic Education Program (US)
6
1. Introduction
This report forms part of Outcome 1 of the IMPADA project: to ascertain “criteria for measuring adult
education effectiveness on disadvantaged groups”.
The main goal of this research was therefore to explore and recognise what may form the key criteria for
measuring the effectiveness of adult education. These criteria will then be developed into a framework that
can be used by adult education providers to assess their current provision and further embed good practice, to
facilitate increased effectiveness of adult education for disadvantaged groups.
The research focused around two key questions:
1. What does “effectiveness of education” look like?
2. How can this be measured?
Answers to these questions will enable practitioners to better understand the challenges faced by
disadvantaged groups, ensure that interventions are put in place to improve its effectiveness, and ensure that
these are measured.
This report presents a review of findings from both primary and secondary research regarding the effectiveness
of adult education for disadvantaged groups.
- Primary research: Focus groups carried out by partners in the IMPADA project with key practitioners
and learned stakeholders in the field of adult education. Five focus groups were carried out in five
countries.
- Secondary research: Desk based research of key relevant studies, reports, journals and publications,
plus documentation from provider partners, used to examine and explore the observations made in
the focus groups and to fill any gaps in focus group observations of what the key themes and questions
that practitioners might need to consider.
7
2. Analytical Framework
This section presents methodological approach and key definitions adopted in the research.
2.1. Research Methodology
There were three sources of information used in this report, these are outlined below.
2.2.1. Focus groups
Firstly, each partner organisation conducted a focus group (of duration 1.5-2.5 hours) in their base country. The
participants of each focus group were carefully selected to ensure that they included learned professionals and
practitioners all experts at a variety of levels within educational and research roles, including decision makers
and highly experienced front line practitioners.
All focus groups were conducted according to an agreed semi-structured scenario, which was necessary to
gather coherent and comparable data among all project partners. The synthesized data analysis of all focus
groups followed the content analysis approach and involved coding participants’ open-ended answers to main
questions into closed categories. This allowed the emerging issues that were most pertinent and salient to be
identified, and to enable the data to be organised into various typologies through comparing and contrasting
data from each organisation.
It was known that the sample would provide the rich and highly valid qualitative data that would be needed to
gain the deep understanding necessary to tackle this difficult subject area. This primary research was
considered as solid introduction to the desk based research and pointed the direction of the latter. The most
significant discoveries from the focus groups will be therefore presented next to the corresponding results of
the desk research.
2.2.2. Desk-based research
In order to extrapolate and ensure reliable data, the primary research was then supported by an extensive
desk-based secondary research exercise. This enabled the primary research to be examined and extended with
quantitative data that would corroborate or refute the focus group observations, and to provide a political and
economic understanding as a backdrop. The secondary research was intended to interrogate questions raised
from the primary research, and to fill any gaps that were present in the findings from the small focus group
sample size.
8
The secondary data used in the report has been gathered from current publications, studies and surveys in the
field of adult community education, and wider in relevant fields of education with a focus on effectiveness of
education and disadvantaged groups. This is supplemented by some studies, research and articles from a
broad-based general research exercise of journal articles in such publications as Adult Education Quarterly, and
Studies in the Education of Adults and using relevant keyword search terms, such as “effectiveness of adult
education” and “disadvantaged adult education”, plus reports form notable renowned institutions such as
OECD, UNESCO and National Institute of Adult Continuing Education. References can be found in the final
section of this report.
2.2.3. Partner documentation
Thirdly, UPTER, DACES and ENAEA, the project partners who are adult education providers, shared
documentation that they use relevant to the effectiveness of adult education for disadvantaged groups, as well
as their own assessment reports, to provide insight into current practice within these organisations and their
national contexts. This report also comprises the findings of this exercise.
2.2. Key Definitions
The final versions of definitions of the key words used in the IMPADA project were established on the basis of
the results from desk research phase and will be presented in the next sections.
2.1.1. Adult education
The term “adult education” is sometimes understood as any type of education that occurs after the theoretical
age of completion formal education. In the IMPADA project we use this term in a narrower sense and follow
the definition of Erasmus+ guidelines, which stipulates that adult education is “all forms of non-vocational
adult education, whether of a formal, non-formal or informal nature” (European Commission, 2016). This
includes intentional and non-intentional learning, learning over a short or long period and that organised by
people for themselves such as community groups or online communities, as well as on formal education. The
IMPADA project focuses on non-formal education1.
Non-formal education for adults, assumed to be those over the age of 18, could be seen to include:
literacy/numeracy training, foreign-language training, ICT training, as well as vocational programmes and soft-
1As opposed to formal education, guided by a formal curriculum, referring to the structured education system that runs from primary
school to university and focused rather on providing learners with information/knowledge than with competences and capacities useful
in everyday life.
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skills (life-skills) programmes. The IMPADA project focuses solely on non-vocational programmes, but notes
that lessons can be learned from all forms of formal and non-formal education. Therefore publications from
different forms of education are not considered to be out of scope for research purposes.
In the context of non-formal adult education systems, it is noted that the delivery of “non-vocational”, as
opposed to vocational learning, can be defined in three distinct terms:
1. Those courses that do not lead to a qualification, such as: courses for health and wellbeing, creative
arts and crafts courses, non-qualification community languages courses, personal development
courses, Family Learning courses.
2. Those courses that are not tailored to a particular profession (e.g. art for pleasure), as opposed to
those with a particular profession being taught (e.g. plumbing, electrician) and therefore could be
assumed to have an immediate and direct impact on the labour market.
3. Courses that are primarily in a learning environment away from the workplace, as opposed to learning
that takes place mainly in the workplace (e.g. apprenticeships).
In the case of each distinction, there is some “blurring of the lines”. For example, an “English for Adults”
programme may or may not have the attainment of a qualification as an objective, but the effectiveness of the
education for disadvantaged groups is still applicable. Additionally, one can argue that any type of education
could have an impact on a learners’ ability to enter and progress in the labour market.
For the purposes of this research, it was therefore assumed that none of these three distinctions fall outside of
scope as all may provide useful and relevant insight into understanding the issues and formulating the criteria.
Because of the fact that the IMPADA project focuses on the non-vocational adult education for disadvantaged
groups, this report usually (but not explicitly) refers to key competences (mainly basic skills) courses, basing on
the assumption that education can be a solution for those whose (social, educational, labour market) exclusion
results in and at the same time deepens through falling behind in using at least one type of important skills
(independently of the primary reasons for exclusion). Among such courses the most popular are those aimed at
providing literacy and numeracy education, followed by soft skills, ICT and motor skills education. Those are
also primary themes in the literature on adult education (see e.g. Vorhaus, Litster, Frearson, & Johnson, 2011;
Windisch, 2015). Furthermore, regardless of the necessity to narrow the scope of project interest, IMPADA
partners are aware of the challenges in adequately defining and identifying disadvantage presented in section
2.3.
10
2.1.2. Effectiveness of adult education
The broad term “effectiveness of education” can be viewed from at least two different angles which are:
- quality – as a feature characterising – positively or negatively (depending on its impact on outcomes) –
all elements of educational process provided by educational institutions (including training
programmes, teachers, etc.) – measured with the use of indicators specific for certain elements (e.g.
quality of teaching indicators).
- outcomes – understood as achieved objectives of educational process – both expected and
unexpected, short- and long-term, influencing individuals or whole communities/societies – measured
with the use of objective or subjective measures (indicators).
Everyone who would like to understand the phrase "effectiveness of education" literally (narrowly), should
focus only on "outcomes" and so do e.g. all the analysts who decide to define it in strictly economic terms.
Indeed, the impact of education on earnings and employability is well proven, and appears to be one of the
most important characteristics of education. But one must conclude that economic outcomes are not solely
results of education, especially in the case of adult education for disadvantaged groups. Among other (and
often prior) results of such education, one can mention better citizenship, self-confidence, and stronger
relationships etc., which are features often difficult to define in terms of observable indicators. Therefore, in
order to be able to measure impact of education in cases of educational programmes aimed at achieving goals
that are hard to measure, in addition to identification and operationalization of variables relating directly to
the "outcomes" – understood as all outcomes of education that improve learner’s quality of life (direct
indicators), IMPADA partners decided to define key factors influencing "quality" (indirect indicators), so that
the prepared common assessment framework to evaluate adult education effectiveness on disadvantaged
includes both "quality-related" and "outcome-oriented" components.
Given the above, the “effectiveness of adult education” for disadvantaged groups can be defined in the way
that combines these two approaches and its evaluation framework can include two main parts, such as:
- Planning participation and provision ("quality") – in which accepted indicators should not only be
focused on factors that are usually related to quality of education, but should be tailored to the specific
of education for adults from disadvantaged groups and allow for comparing certain group(s) of learners
with various control groups, which will provide answers to questions such as:
o Does the provision effectively recruit learners from identified disadvantaged groups?
o Are the recruitment numbers proportionate to the local/national society (those who fall into
the defined “disadvantaged groups” and those who do not) or positively discriminated so that
programmes have a greater proportion of disadvantaged groups (those who could be seen to
benefit the most from adult community education provision)?
11
o Are those from disadvantaged groups recruited onto programmes that are appropriate to them
and their needs?
o Is the retention rate for those from defined disadvantaged groups any different from those
who do not fall into these groups?
o Do the teaching, learning and assessment (TLA) strategies used impact on the retention rates
for disadvantaged groups?
The approach of evaluating the effectiveness of education on the basis of its quality will be further
discussed in section 3.
- Success and achievement ("outcomes") – in which accepted indicators should not only be
concentrated on measures of individual success (e.g. improving in/acquisition of new skills), but should
allow for comparing certain group(s) of learners with various control groups, which will provide
answers to questions such as:
o Is the course success rate (defined by meeting course objectives) as high for those in identified
disadvantaged groups compared with those who do not fall into these groups?
o Do learners from disadvantaged groups progress onto further, higher or more advanced
learning at the same rate and in the same volumes as those who do not fall into these groups?
o Do learners from identified disadvantaged groups enjoy significantly more life chances as a
result of adult education? Have they moved from adult education into the workplace at the
same comparative rate? Do they have an improved participation in wider society as a result of
their learning experiences?
The approach of evaluating the effectiveness of education on the basis of its outcomes will be further discussed
in section 4.
2.1.3. Disadvantaged groups
“Disadvantaged groups” could be an extremely wide-ranging umbrella term for a large number of
characteristics. Broadly, disadvantage can be defined as any characteristic that can be seen as a “barrier to
learning” and as such negatively impact participation or achievement in society, economically or in education:
in short, “life chances” (Weber 2016).
For the purposes of this report and for the IMPADA project, “disadvantaged groups” are not defined only as
singular identifiable and homogenous ‘groups’ of people (such as a group of learners in the same class who
come from a particular ‘disadvantaged’ geographic area), but could be any individuals who can be perceived as
12
being at a disadvantage compared with the general populous (and therefore be ‘grouped’ by having a
particular characteristic in common, such as being deaf/hard of hearing, or having dyslexia).
The challenge in defining and identifying disadvantage is discussed in subsection 2.3, especially in parts 2.3.1
and 2.3.2.
2.3. Inclusion and inclusive practice in adult education
Inclusion and inclusive practice are approaches to teaching, learning and assessment that strive to encourage
the maximum participation of all adults, to achieve and reach their full potential. It also implies the
commitment to avoid the opposite: exclusion, under-achievement leading to lack of success and limiting life
chances.
The Tomlinson report on Inclusive Learning (Tomlinson, 1997), endorsed a learner centred approach to
teaching and learning, that positions learners’ individual needs as the starting point for developing a
responsive, personalised learning experience. The report investigated widening participation specifically for
learners with learning difficulties or disabilities and recommended that the responsibility is on the education
provider to empathise with and respond to the individual, and to address the needs of individual learners. The
definition of inclusion used in the report is based on obtaining the greatest degree of match or fit between
individual learning requirements and provision
Further to this, The Kennedy report, Learning Works (Kennedy, 1997), emphasised the importance of making
learning accessible to all learners and focused on people who may be disadvantaged because of their social,
economic or educational background. Kennedy (1997) highlighted some of the barriers to learning that can
prevent or discourage adults from engaging in adult learning – for example: lack of awareness of learning
opportunities, lack of confidence, childcare support, to name but a few.
Fig. 1. Achieving equality of opportunity through inclusive learning and widening participation
Source: (Reisenberger & Dadzie, 2002)
Equality of Opportunity
Your organisation
Inclusive learning
Your Learners
Widening
Participation
Your Community and
Partnerships
13
2.3.1. The identification of disadvantaged groups
As will be further explained in section 2.3.2, "in many countries, patterns of social exclusion often continue to
influence the patterns of exclusion in education while exclusion in education often feeds into social exclusion"
(Unesco, 2012). International human rights treaties prohibit any exclusion to educational opportunities on the
bases of perceived differences, which relates to differences in: “sex,” “race,” “ethnic origin,” “language,”
“religion,” “political or other opinion,” “national origin,” “birth,” “descent,” “economic condition, “property,”
“social origin,” “disability,” and “the status, activities, expressed opinions, or beliefs ...” (Unesco, 2012). It
means that every country needs to ensure that educational opportunities are not limited for anyone due to the
differences listed above. On the other hand great differences in participation in adult (voluntary) education
between countries suggests that some of them deal with the problem of inequity in education (including adult
education) better than others. In general, adult education participation rates are positively correlated with a
country’s level of economic development as measured by per capita GDP. However, there are variations
between countries at the same development stage which suggest that participation is not solely a function of
income level, but also a consequence of other factors, perhaps particularly the impact of public policy (Unesco,
2009).
According to Eurostat, percentage participation in education and training of the population aged 25-64 is the
highest in United Kingdom among IMPADA countries (17,4% compared to 13,7% in Estonia; 8,3% in Italy; 4,3%
in Poland and 2,8% in Greece)2. In this section we present some statistics and policies relating to inequity in UK
education and identification of disadvantaged groups. The groups least represented in education and training
provision in the United Kingdom are those who are also the most socially and economically disadvantaged, to
include: the long-term unemployed; low-wage manual and service workers; people with poor literacy,
numeracy skills with no or low qualifications; members of black and ethnic minorities; older adults; homeless
people; single parents; caregivers of sick or elderly relatives; care leavers and adults living in rural communities
(McGivney, 2000) . Encouraging these disadvantaged groups to engage in adult learning is a challenging and
complex process that involves a range of related constituents, such as targeted development work in the
community, inclusive curriculum development, additional learner support, and differentiated teaching and
learning strategies.
Similarly, the NIACE Adult Participation in Learning Survey (2015) provides a unique overview of the level of
participation in learning by adults in the UK, with a detailed breakdown of who participates and who does not.
Just over a fifth of adults (22%) are currently learning, with around two in five adults (41%) having taken part in
some form of learning in the previous three years. A third of adults (33%) have not participated in learning
since leaving full-time education, a slight decrease from 35% in 2014. Engagement in learning is not evenly
distributed across society. In 2015, as in all previous years, the survey clearly shows that participation in
learning is determined by social class, employment status, age and prior learning. There are significant
differences between the participation rates of workers, unemployed adults and those outside of the workforce.
2Data for the year 2014 (source: Eurostat: online data code: trng_lfs_01).
14
This is unsurprising, given that over three-quarters (76%) of all learners started their learning for work or career
related reasons. The proportion of unemployed adults who are taking part in learning has decreased since
2014, falling from 41% to the previous level of 35% found in 2013. Furthermore, the proportion of unemployed
adults who have not taken part in learning since leaving full-time education has increased from 32% to 41%. In
line with previous surveys, the 2015 survey confirms that there is a considerable difference in the participation
of those who left school at the earliest opportunity and those who continued in full-time education. Over half
(52%) of those who left full-time education aged 21+ are learning, compared with just over a quarter (26%) of
those who left school at or before the age of 16. Almost half (47%) of adults with internet access have taken
part in learning in the previous three years compared with just 12% of those without access. Furthermore,
nearly two-thirds (62%) of adults without regular access to the internet have not taken part in learning since
leaving full-time education. This suggests that the digital divide continues to have a significant impact on
participation in learning.
Current UK legislation, the Equality Act 2010 (which incorporates and builds upon the Human Rights Act 1998),
codifies discrimination around 9 identified protected characteristics, age; disability; gender reassignment;
pregnancy and maternity; race; religion or belief; sex; sexual orientation. Consequentially, these 9 identified
protected characteristics are an integral part of UK baseline measures and as such are inherently embedded in
all UK practice, not only in education, but also in business and employment law et al. For education providers,
this legislation is operationalized into guidance such as Equality and Human Rights Commission (2016).
Furthermore, the UK Ofsted Common Inspection Framework (Ofsted, 2015a) stipulates that inspectors pay
particular attention to the outcomes for a range of vulnerable and disadvantaged groups, including the
protected characteristics, plus wider criteria (ibidem, pp. 6-7). Inspectors also specifically examine that
providers “actively promote equality and diversity, tackle bullying and discrimination and narrow any gaps in
achievement between different groups of children and learners” (Ofsted, 2015a, p. 13)
Based upon such identification of disadvantaged groups and their expert knowledge and experience, the
IMPADA partners and practitioners in the focus groups developed the following collection of what
‘disadvantaged groups’ could be identified in adult education.
15
Fig. 2. Types/cohorts/characteristics that could be considered disadvantaged groups within adult education3
Source: IMPADA partners
2.3.2. The challenge in adequately defining and identifying disadvantage
There is much research into the field of disadvantage, and it is often assumed and reduced to simply assuming
that all the disadvantaged are also low-skilled. However, a learner could be well-skilled but a wheelchair user,
and be considered at disadvantage; an individual may be a female to male transgender learner who is well
qualified but also be considered to be disadvantaged.
Where the link between disadvantage and low skills levels are made, practitioners must also be careful not to
assume that this correlation is automatically a relationship of causation. Although low skills levels, particularly
in the case of literacy and numeracy, can be seen as a societal disadvantage, practitioners must also consider
what underlying disadvantage/s have contributed to this.
3This is an illustrative diagram, not considered exhaustive. Presented types/cohorts/characteristics should not be perceived as disjoint
sets.
16
For example, many learners who enter adult community education do so with low literacy and numeracy, and
with the intention of upskilling in this area. Being low skilled can be seen as a societal disadvantage (and one
that learners enter adult education to reduce) but also as a result of other disadvantage experienced in earlier
life.
It can be seen, then, that disadvantage can be self-perpetuating and indeed snowball into greater disadvantage
over the course of a person’s life. Skills levels can be seen both as a cause and as a result of disadvantage.
Further to such cycles, practitioners within the IMPADA project noted that many learners are subject to
multiple disadvantage from a variety of individual and socioeconomic factors. A learner may be a BME male
who has had a geographically disrupted childhood and therefore disrupted early schooling, and have had an
undiagnosed learning difficulty and not received the support required to enable learn literacy and numeracy
skills to be learned effectively. This is corroborated by multiple studies, such as the PISA study (OECD 2016),
which evidences that “poor performance at age 15 is not the result of any single risk factor, but rather a
combination and accumulation of various barriers and disadvantages that affect students throughout their
lives… Thus, within any single county or region, tackling low performance requires a multi-pronged approach.”
(OECD 2016, p192)
In order to break people from such cycles of disadvantage, and at any stage of a person’s life, adult education
should provide opportunity to upskill learners4.
Given the above and taking into account the fact that the IMPADA project focuses on the field of education
(not e.g. social or health policy), by the term “disadvantaged groups” we understand the adults, who lack some
important skills (including basic skills such as literacy and numeracy and/or soft skills, ICT as well as motor
skills) in a way that negatively impacts their functioning in society. Such broad group is usually link with some
"physical", "psychological" or "social" characteristics as age, gender, race, state of health, lack of confidence,
lack of help with childcare, or economic status (often existing simultaneously). We therefore treat this term
broadly, with no special focus on any of the more specific groups. Such definition stays in accordance with
other known from literature. E.g. (Jarvis, 2005) defines disadvantaged as “persons who, ..., have not had
equality of opportunity to achieve their potential through educational means”. (Anderson & Niemi, 1969)
noticed that disadvantaged status is not only a consequence of economic (or: objective) factors, but also
subjective determinants that shapes person’s opinion about themselves.
4 Upskilling learners could be in terms of knowledge and aptitudes, attainment of qualifications or in soft/human skills that act as
disadvantage. Each of these factors could contribute to economic and social disadvantage, reducing life chances.
17
Fig. 3. Exemplar cycle of disadvantage
Source: IMPADA partners
2.3.3. What do we know about adults with low skills
One of the frequently described and subjected to educational impacts sub-groups of disadvantaged adults are
low-skilled. There are many definitions of the low-skilled adults, one of that is the understanding presented by
(Windisch, 2015) who finds three main characteristics of this group:
- Low skills are strongly correlated with low level of education (ISCED 0-2). A group of particularly high
risk are withdrawals;
- Such correlation is the strongest in the group of young adults. Among older adults other factors start
playing crucial role. These include for example: working in an environment that requires the use of
Geographical migrancy
Disrupted early
schooling
Low levels of literacy and numeracy
Non-achievement of
qualifications
Unemployment
Low economic advantage
Unable to afford further
education, dependancy on social welfare
Unable to afford/maintain good standard
of living
18
literacy and numeracy skills as well as using the skills in family or social context (e.g. helping children
with homework);
- Literacy and numeracy skills tend to deteriorate because of non-use.
The German Ministry of Education advises to providers to use some hints in recognising the low-skilled adults.
The most often factors appearing in CVs are: low level of formal education; frequent changes in education
(different schools), unexpected breaks in education or employment (BMBF, 2012).
National strategies such as England’s Skills for Life Strategy, Australia’s National Foundation Skills Strategy for
Adults, Indonesia’s AKRAB programme, France’s National Agency for the Fight against Illiteracy, Germany’s
National Strategy for Literacy and Basic Education of Adults are often designed as to improve the situation of
adult low-skilled learners, thus they are an important source of knowledge.
Following the assumption that low-skilled (understood as those who lack basic skills and qualifications) are one
of the biggest (though not the only one) groups of disadvantaged adults, we reviewed the results from the
Programme of International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). PIAAC is an international survey held
by the OECD in order to recognise the structural factors influencing adult competencies and to diagnose main
deficits. The survey was held among representative adults from different OECD countries, with the same
questionnaire, including measurement of numeracy and literacy, so it is possible to make the international
comparisons based on the results of PIAAC. More than 160 thousand adults from 24 countries took part in the
first edition of the survey (OECD, 2013a). The unique feature of PIAAC is that it measured skills levels among
adult population using computer-based or paper tests, identifying those with lowest level of skills, i.e. those
whose skills are at level 1 or below.
We used the PIAAC data to identify the vulnerable groups in four countries that are taking part in IMPADA
project: Poland, UK, Estonia and Italy and participated in PIAAC (Greece was not included, as Greece was not
participating in the PIAAC survey).
The low-skilled adults were there defined as those who performed less than 226 points in numeracy or literacy
tests5. Such an absolute measure caused that the share of people in the total adult population (in age group 15-
65) classified as low-skilled was different in different countries: Poland – 29,5%, UK – 25,8%, Italy – 37,8%,
Estonia – 18,5%.
The analysis allowed identifying from 3 to 11 groups (clusters) of adults6, that are particularly at risk of being
low-skilled. Those clusters are presented in Table 1.
5 PIAAC scores are normalised, so the OECD-average is 500. Thus the score 226 may be interpreted as “no more than a half of an OECD-
average score”. 6 Please note that groups may overlap.
19
Table 1. Identification of vulnerable groups on PIAAC data
Country Group Group as
percentage of
total
population
Percentage of
a group
identified as
low-skilled
Italy ISCED 1 or lower education; retired or working;
disabled
6,3% 69,9%
Italy ISCED 1 or lower education; unemployed or
housekeeping
4,5% 83,1%
Italy ISCED 2 education; possesses less than 10 books;
unemployed for more than 5 years
6,6% 68,2%
Poland ISCED 2 or lower education; more than 47 years old;
possesses less than 10 books, single
1,5% 84,2%
Poland ISCED 1 education; possesses less than 100 books 2,4% 68,2%
Poland ISCED 2 or lower education, low ISEI index7 (<22.16) 2,5% 64%
UK ISCED 2 or lower education; housekeeping or
unemployed; possesses less than 25 books
2,9% 83,2%
UK ISCED 2 or lower education; low ISEI index (<28,5),
low monthly earnings
1,9% 78,2%
UK ISCED 4 or lower education, age above 40 years; not
working for 5 years or more
1,6% 78,6%
Estonia Unemployed or housekeeping; possessing less than
10 books
1,8% 58,2%
Source: own estimates based on PIAAC database (OECD, 2013a)
The table shows those groups, in which the share of low-skilled is above 50% and such statistics is found to be
statistically significant. As one can notice, in almost all cases the key distinctive characteristic is low educational
attainment (at ISCED level 2 or lower), but it is not always the case. Particularly interesting seems the Estonian
case, where the unemployment and social environment (as one can understand the number of books) are
sufficient factors leading to low level of skills, regardless the education.
7 International Socio-Economic Index of Occupational Status
20
2.3.4. Existing models to increase effectiveness of community based
adult education (including education for disadvantaged groups)
The IMPADA project recognises that similar areas to that of interest of the IMPADA project have been
developed previously. This section provides a summary of existing models, which the IMPADA project will use
as support and inspiration for developing a framework.
Workers’ Educational Association (WEA)
WEA Single Equality Scheme (2014-16), includes “What Excellence will look like” and notes that the onus for
implementing the strategy falls at all levels within the organisation. The This Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
Strategy (2014-16) model (Appendix I) recognises that this must be built from a collaborative culture with
students at its heart, and that the barriers to this include Equality, Diversity and Inclusion seen as additional (as
opposed to being embedded throughout the organisation as normal practice).
The model illustrates that, to strive towards being recognised as a leading Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
organisation in Adult and Community Learning, the organisation must achieve such factors as increasing
participation by students affected by education, economic and social disadvantage; and achieve high success
rates and outcomes for students from all social and cultural groups.
RARPA – Recognising and Recording Progress and Achievement in Community Learning courses
A UK national framework from NIACE, which is quality assured and measures progress for non-qualification
courses. An important aspect of charting learners’ progress, integrating assessment into the learning, and
involving the learners in the process is RARPA. RARPA is a 5-staged process which Tutors in Community
Learning use to improve provision for learners by engaging them in dialogue about their learning, their
progress and their achievement. Applying the RARPA approach to learning in ways that are appropriate and
systematic will provide valuable evidence of learners’ achievements. All of the elements are mapped for
Quality Assurance to the CIF (Common Inspection Framework).
The 5 elements of the staged process are:
- Aims – appropriate to an individual learner or groups of learners;
- Initial assessment – to establish each learner’s starting point;
- Identification of appropriately challenging learning objectives;
- Recognition and recording of progress and achievement during programme – formative assessment;
- End of programme learner self-assessment, tutor summative assessment; review of overall progress
and achievement.
The staged process based on these elements seems to be particularly interesting form the perspective of adult
learners from disadvantaged groups, because it takes into account learners’ diverse needs, interests and
purposes of learning.
21
North West Wellbeing Portfolio
The portfolio focuses on factors (‘hidden depths’) which help create a successful community based health
improvement intervention. These are:
1. Financial management;
2. Beneficiaries & Outcomes;
3. Governance;
4. Project Management;
5. Delivery Staff;
6. Organisational Capacity;
7. Project Planning & Sustainability;
8. Partnership Working;
9. Community Engagement;
10. Quarterly Reporting;
11. Evaluation;
12. Marketing;
13. Communication.
We assume that these factors are crucial not only in the case of health improvement programmes, but also for
all kinds of community based adult learning.
Logic Model
Learning Link Scotland and Evaluation Support Scotland developed Explaining the Difference (EtD) approach to
evaluate and show the outcomes and the impacts of adult learning providers. At the centre of proposed toolkit
they decided to put a logic model based on Wisconsin model (Learning Link Scotland 2016) as a useful tool for
organisation of the assessment of the influence of specific factors. Its basic components (see Appendix II) seem
to be suitable for the purpose of planning evaluation of adult education for disadvantaged groups.
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3. Main findings about quality factors
Even though some solutions are more effective than others, there is much evidence showing that basic skills
courses are generally effective in terms of improving adult learners’ skills (Myers & Myles, 2005; Vorhaus et al.,
2011; Windisch, 2015). Myers & Myles, 2005 found that the least educated learners are most likely to gain
from adult education. This effect is not equal for all low-skilled groups, e.g. evidence suggests that adult
women gain more than men (Heckman, 2003). The problem is that, at the same time, poorly educated adults
are least likely to participate in any type of education (Condelli, Kirshtein, Silver-Pacuilla, Reder, & Wrihley,
2010).
Vorhaus et al., 2011 states that
“Improved practice often precedes improved achievement: participation in ALN programmes leads to
increased engagement in literacy and numeracy practices, and over time this can lead to gains in
proficiency and achievement”. (p. 62)
To better understand the character and subtleties of adult education effectiveness, we started with the
analysis of key quality factors influencing adult education for disadvantaged, including low-skilled, groups.
Conclusions from both – IMPADA focus groups and literature review – indicate 2 main groups of such factor
(Ofsted, 2015b):
1. External factors – understood as factors independent or only to a certain extent dependent on the
education providers,
2. Internal factors – significantly dependent on the performance of education providers.
Factors from the first group (external factors) – generally – cannot be improved by the education providers, so
they seem to be outside the scope of this study. However, each education provider has to be conscious of
those factors. Such external factors sometimes serve as an obstacle, so the education provider has to adjust its
programme (make reasonable adjustments) or organization in order to fully utilize its potential and benefits
from its own work.
The second group are the institutional factors, which can be grouped into 4 categories – adjusted to the needs
of adult learners from disadvantaged groups – presented briefly in Figure 4 and Table 2 – some of which will be
further discussed in next parts of this section.
23
Learners
Stakeholders
Partners
Strategy development,
planning, marketing
Participation Provision
Fig. 4. Institutional quality factors
Source: IMPADA partners
Table 2. Institutional quality factors
I. Strategy development, planning and marketing
II. Participation III. Provision
1. Strategy development: establishing "inclusion" as one of
the key values of the training provider;
developing organisational strategy informed both by: a) current legislation (on the European and state level) and best practices in learning adults and equality, diversity and inclusion in education, b) assessment of needs as well as assessment of inputs (provider’s sources);
2. Assessment of needs of internal (actual and potential students grouped into target groups) versus external (community and
1. Recognition of participation barriers – in relation to (among others) recruiting learners from disadvantaged groups;
2. Developing "strategies of reaching" – answering to different sets of identified barriers (including individual and structural barriers);
3. Recruitment (and promotion) – with the use of recruitment channels (media, external institutions, etc.) and methods adjusted to identified barriers according to developed strategies of reaching, e.g.:
setting appropriate entry criteria,
1. Identification of individual needs of recruited learners (and their individual goals);
2. Identification of teaching, learning and assessment (TLA) strategies best suited to the needs of recruited learners (and their individual goals):
differentiation: individual approach (including meeting VAK/variety of learning preferences), flexibility of provision (including on-line and blended learning), variety of resources;
organisation of learning – adjusting tools, settings, methods and
Feedback
24
business) customers: based on priorities on state/regional/community level, statistical data, focus groups with stakeholders, learner voice surveys (including needs related to the fields of adult education and equality, diversity and inclusion in adult education – among others);
3. Assessment of inputs: including money (funding streams), people (staff), time, premises, equipment, etc.;
4. Setting strategic partnerships: with decision makers, communities, experts in the fields of adult education and equality, diversity and inclusion (including career advisors, social workers, etc.), employers (employers organisations), other external organisations (e.g. other training providers and intermediary organisations in outreach to difficult-to-engage groups), etc.;
5. Setting goals: short term/medium term/long term objectives (answering for defined needs of defined target groups – with the use of sources – inputs – adjusted to them);
6. Developing action plans and educational programmes.
providing scheme to recognise prior learning (informal and non-formal),
choosing appropriate – not stigmatising – names for educational programmes,
developing campaigns that show educational opportunities as well as potential benefits – in ways that correspond to the needs and barriers of prospective learners,
community promotion including consultation with prospective learners,
offering candidates professional support and guidance provided e.g. by qualified career advisors,
minimising bureaucratic procedures and maximizing accessibility by lowering costs of programmes and organising learning in easily accessible places,
making initial assessment possible friendly by e.g. resigning from entrance exams – when necessary,
conducting the process of recruitment consciously – proper recognition of individual barriers and acting according to candidates’ needs – and with respect, sympathy, empathy, openness, patience and individual approach to all learners, etc.
4. Retention: recognising individual situations
which may increase risk of not completing educational programme and providing appropriate support for learners at risk (coaching, helping with childcare, enabling distance learning, etc.);
being aware of specific times learners are more likely to withdraw and using proper intervention strategies;
approaches to the identified needs;
formative assessment – good feedback/assessment practices, goal-oriented education;
establishing safe learning environment;
encouraging learners to build learning communities (mutual support and cooperation);
3. Curricula design – adjusting educational programmes to the identified needs;
4. Organisational issues – including clear and considered policies and procedures (regarding e.g. average length of a course, service intensity, average number of learners per course, procedures for equality, diversity and inclusion), as well as learning infrastructure – adjusted to learners' needs;
5. Proper selection of teachers/trainers – who should be competent in their fields, with high level of soft skills and proper attitude towards all learners.
25
providing on-programme support for all learners (targeted guidance services, tutor management, etc.).
Initial assessment – by internal and external experts, and assessment based on feedback from II (Participation)
Initial assessment – by internal and external experts, tracking, and assessment based on feedback from III (Provision)
Initial assessment of adjusted programmes and designed policies and procedures – by internal and external experts, getting on-going feedback from teachers/trainers and learners, and assessment based on feedback from I (Strategy development, planning and marketing)
Source: IMPADA partners
In general terms most of quality factors (either external or institutional) influence also other types of education
(e.g. shape of curricula). However, there are two crucial differences:
- adult learners from disadvantaged groups belong also to “hard-to-reach” groups, so the participation
rates are much lower;
- rates of achievement in adult education are non-linear, e.g. learners who completed the programme
benefit (on average) more than twice more than those who withdrew in the middle of a programme
(see e.g. Vorhaus et al., 2011).
Given the above, the third part of this chapter, focused on the specificity of adult education for disadvantaged
groups (especially basic skills teaching), is divided into 3 sections, and each of them describe one of the issues
particularly important in case of this type of education. It should be noted that identified areas are complex to
assess, as they are strongly influenced by both external and institutional factors. These are:
- Strategy development, planning and marketing that – on one hand – should be based on putting
equality, diversity and inclusion in the centre of provider’s key values and must be informed both by
current legislation and best practices and that – on the other hand – should be strongly connected with
provider’s situation (community, inputs – such as money, staff, premises, etc. – strategic partnerships,
goals);
- Participation that in adult education for disadvantaged groups, according to subject literature – apart
from other impacts – depends on proper recruitment (including adequate and targeted promotion)
and on actions aimed at enhancing adult learners to finish courses (that is at increasing retention);
- Provision understood as teaching, learning, assessment and organisational strategies, methods and
sources influencing outcomes of the students who finish the course.
This approach will be followed in consecutive sections.
26
3.1. External vs. internal quality factors
As it was mentioned above, factors having positive or negative impact on effectiveness of adult education for
disadvantaged groups can be generally divided into two types: external and internal. The latter can be
improved by adult education providers on their own. The former cannot be controlled, but it is also important
to analyse them. Full knowledge on external factors shaping adult education helps providers adjust their
programmes to given circumstances in order to overcome the given obstacles.
There are two main types of external factors affecting adult education:
1. Public policies on education; this issue is not limited to policies on adult education, since it can also be
affected by – say – formal elementary education;
2. Social policy (including policies on equity, diversity and inclusion) – vast majority of programmes for
adults from disadvantaged groups is addressed to those who are also the beneficiaries of social
policies. It is particularly crucial in case of activation policies or different types of mandatory
programmes.
The internal factors are introduced in further sub-sections.
3.2. Strategy development, planning and marketing
In order to increase access to adult education and encourage more adults from disadvantaged groups to take
part in educational activities aimed at evening their chances to live a satisfying life within society, adult
education providers should constantly be improving their inclusive practices at all levels – strategic, tactical and
operational. In the context of equality, diversity and inclusion strategy development, planning and marketing –
understood as establishing target audiences and appealing to them – should include at least elements such as:
1. Strategy development – understood as a process in which provider engages on a regular basis (cycle)
using an agreed procedure and methodology and following the assumptions listed below:
o each organisational strategy should be informed by a variety of information sources
(international, national and state level legislation, best practices, needs assessment and input
assessment taking into account adult learners from disadvantaged groups),
o adult education for disadvantaged groups should constitute important focal points of the
provider’s strategy documents (e.g. vision, action plans, etc.),
o implementation of the strategy (and its outcomes) should be regularly monitored and
evaluated.
2. Needs assessment – understood as a target group need assessment study, aimed at identifying and
address the needs of both internal and external customers, in which the provider engages on a regular
basis following agreed and periodically revised methodology (based on collecting information from
27
various sources – e.g. public statistics, target group representatives interviews or surveys, literature
review, etc.
3. Goal setting and action plan design – aimed at developing an action plan strictly related to provider’s
strategy and based on SMART methodology.
4. Strategic partnerships – with various types of stakeholders (decision makers, communities, experts in
the fields of adult education, career advisors, social workers, employers, other external organisations
etc.).
One of the examples of strategy that seems to be built in accordance with the assumptions described above is
strategy “Achieving Excellence Through Equality, Diversity & Inclusion” developed by the WEA (WEA, 2014-
2016). The document presents the WEA’s mission, vision, approach and values – all with respect to equality,
diversity and inclusion – as well as the WEA’s understanding of these terms from the perspective of whole
organisation, staff, students and volunteers. It indicates groups responsible for implementing the strategy,
shows outcomes that should be realised and explains how the WEA wants to achieve equality, diversity and
inclusion in teaching, learning and assessment.
3.3. Participation
3.3.1. Recognition of participation barriers
Participation barriers – e.g. lack of awareness of learning opportunities as well as low motivation to engage in
learning – are one of the most important factors influencing the effectiveness of adult education (Windisch,
2015). Various types of such barriers apply both to unemployed and those whose workplaces that don’t play
the role of learning environments by engaging their employees in self-development and providing them basic
education and training (Porras-Hernández & Salinas-Amescua, 2012).
The most common types of barriers to lifelong learning, identified in a lot of previous research and applicable
also to adult education (Desjardins & Rubenson, 2013; Litster, 2007; Windisch, 2015), are:
1. Situational barriers, created by learner’s personal situation. Usually it is linked with lack of time, caused
by family and job obligations. It may also refer to other physical barriers such as inability to travel.
2. Institutional barriers that occur when learner is unable to fill the requirements to participate in a
programme (financial or formal, e.g. lack of prerequisite qualifications).
3. Dispositional/psychological barriers when a learner has negative attitude to participate in a
programme. In case of disadvantaged learners it is very often linked with bad formal education
experiences.
4. Informational barriers when a learner is unable to receive proper information about the actual offer
and potential benefits of a programme.
5. Financial constraints that are strictly linked with situational and institutional barriers.
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Desjardins & Rubenson (2013) conclude that there are two key aspects of barriers to adult education:
individual and structural barriers. Education providers have to, therefore, apply different strategies to different
sets of problems. It is particularly addressed to institutional barriers at the provider level.
From the OECD’s review based on data from 1999-2004 (OECD, 2006) one can conclude that – in order to
improve participation in LLL, including participation in adult education – educational authorities and policy
makers should create and implement public policy focused on: (a) creating the structural preconditions for
raising the benefits of basic skills learning; (b) sharing information on learning opportunities and benefits; (c)
promoting well-designed co-financing arrangements; (d) improving delivery and quality control; and (e)
ensuring policy co-ordination and coherence by involving stakeholders such as social partners, employers,
labour unions, and education providers.
Apart from the efforts that should be made by authorities, one can indicate activities necessary to implement
by education providers from that promotion and recruitment seem to be the most important in the context of
the need to increase disadvantaged adults’ participation in education.
3.3.2. Recruitment (including promotion)
The first aspect of an effective recruitment into adult education programmes is its proper promotion.
Disadvantaged adults often lack the information on the possibilities of taking part in adult education. One of
the most important reasons is that they use another media than those in which such programmes are
promoted. Furthermore, even those who have information about the possibility to apply to a programme often
lack the knowledge about the potential benefits of such programmes and, consequently, are not motivated to
apply. Finally, disadvantaged (or hard-to-reach) adults can have bad formal school experiences, so they are
discouraged from taking part in any other kind of education.
The latter issue is also an important factor in discussion the mandatory programmes (e.g. when participation in
adult education is requirement for receiving unemployment benefits). People who are discouraged from any
kind of education are very unlikely to achieve any significant progress while participating in adult education.
Furthermore, lack of progress only deepens the discouragement, creating a harsh vicious circle. Thus, the
promotion of positive outcomes of adult education should also be directed to mandatory students.
All of those factors mean that the effective adult education provider should implement a number of strategies
to adequately promote its services. One can find a growing number of the literature on which strategies can be
effective and why.
(Windisch, 2015) identifies some characteristics of promotion the hard-to-reach groups. First of all, they are far
more easily reached in community context. Thus, one way to improve the participation rates is to work in the
community (Hamilton & Wilson, 2005). Similarly, (Mcintosh, 2004) suggests that the one-to-one approach is
the most effective way to engage learners. Such approach may be best achieved in a community context.
29
Communities are also good places to provide education programmes. Places such as community centres or
workplaces are more accessible for potential learners, so it is much easier to convince them to try applying to a
programme.
There are also another benefits of communities. If a person lives in a community where education is believed
to be profitable or valuable he/she is more likely to engage in any kind of formal or non-formal education.
Thus, education providers may try to change attitude of whole community.
There is also growing body of evidence on how the programmes are perceived by potential learners. Some
researchers suggest that a name of a course is one of the factors increasing or decreasing participation rates.
Programmes which names directly suggest that they are addressed to the low-skilled or disadvantaged learners
(e.g. “Reading and writing”) are perceived by learners as a kind of stigma. To avoid such risks, it is
recommended to use indirect names, such as “communication skills”.
Another aspect that must be analysed by an education provider is how a certain programme fits into specific
type of disadvantaged learners. For instance, it is shown that adults who have higher numeracy levels are more
likely to participate in on-the-job training (Parsons & Bynner, 2007). Such observations have to be taken into
account while designing promotion and recruitment activities.
Even though adult education is understood as non-vocational type of education, one should not pass over the
occupational context. As Vorhaus et al. (2011, p. 62) noticed:
“Workplace basic skills courses can reach people who are not normally involved in continuous education
or training”. (p. 62)
This aspect was noticed by (NAO, 2008), who claims that the first crucial point of a successful educational offer
addressed to adults from disadvantaged groups is creation of an offer integrated with a specific place of work
(specific job). This can be explained by the fact that people who are away from education are likely to be
interested in returning to learning only if they believe that the knowledge they can gain will help them to take a
chosen job. On the basis of positive examples one may identify specific factors that play a role in this process.
These include enhanced working environment, professional support provided by a qualified tutor experienced
in working with people with difficulties in learning and the possibility of validation and certification of informal
and non-formal learning (e.g. skills acquired at work), particularly important because otherwise skills acquired
in such ways would not be recognized by other (future) employers. Ambos stresses also that the low skilled
prefer to acquire professional skills informally or in a non-formal way, in particular through observation and
practice as well as through training or apprenticeships in their workplace. At the same time, they demonstrate
distance to classic education opportunities (such as courses organized outside their working environment) and
to traditional methods of learning (such as reading professional literature or learning via Internet) (Steiner,
Voglhofer, Schneeweiß, Tamara Baca, & Fellinger-Fritz, 2012).
Individual counselling is one of the most important factors that contribute to arousing interest in further
education among members of this group. With respect to people who are "away from education" yet still
professionally active, it is recommended to organize such counselling at their place of work, because it allows
30
for a clearer understanding of their specific professional situation. Furthermore, in case of people that wish to
learn and return to the labour market, individual counselling allows facing their fear of not succeeding, which is
often indicated as the main barrier to making decisions about further education. It applies especially to elderly
people who are often afraid that they will not be able to work with much younger co-workers (ibidem).
In order to reach this group, it is important that educational offer was easily accessible. Three aspects play here
a key role: a) easy access to education programme, without bureaucratic procedures, b) lack of entrance exam,
c) easy access to the place where a process of education is being realized. Accessibility of educational offer is
also connected with its costs. It can be seen that free offers are particularly attractive and thus easily
accessible. Since people belonging to this group could be seen to be usually low paid and have little
involvement in education, the need to cover costs of education is one of the main barriers to learning. At the
same time, these people often lack the ability to find a suitable offer via the Internet. For these reasons, it is
important to create opportunities to provide information about learning programmes with the use of methods
alternative to the Internet. One such method is posting advertisements in regional and local press (Steiner et
al., 2012).
As it was stated before, proper promotion is essential to effective recruitment. Windisch (2015) presents the
approach to recruitment designed by German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). According to this
approach, recruitment of adults with low basic skills involves two key elements: recognition of such persons
and proper talking to them. Apart from demographic or social characteristics (see section 2.2), it is advised to
analyse certain behavioural characteristics and – on this basis – to recognise needs of adult learners. Typical
recognised behaviours are:
- Refusal of reading or writing, using hardly plausible excuses (such as the lack of glasses)
- Refusal of educational offers
- Signing unread documents
- Ignoring written materials, e.g. flyers
- Inability to read or write a text longer than a single sentence.
(Windisch, 2015) finds also that screening and initial assessment are crucial. However, it has to be conducted
sensitively and carefully in order to better meet the learners’ needs and not to demoralise them.
Good recognition of adults with low skills (and wider – all adults at disadvantage) is crucial for successful
recruitment. First of all, it allows a provider to place a learner in a proper programme – if the person is wrongly
placed in the programme (e.g. he/she finds the programme as a throwing into deep water), he/she can be
easily discouraged, withdraw from the programme (see section 3.3.3) and, finally, refuse to participate in
another programmes. Secondly, proper recognition of a disadvantaged person allows provider to adapt the
recruitment process in order to increase the probability of convincing him/her to participate in a programme.
BMBF lists five key aspects of adequate communication with low-skilled adults that seem to be important in
the context of all disadvantaged groups: sympathy, empathy, openness, patience and individual approach.
Sensitiveness and respect to all learners may be crucial in encouraging them to participate in adult learning and
in further successful completion of the program.
31
The next aspect identified by Windisch (2015) is partnerships of employers and trade unions. They are
considered as an important and effective drivers of workplace based basic education programmes that help to
support learners’ motivation and raise retention rates.
In addition, it is typical – particularly for the group of low-skilled adults – that they generally are not able to
express concrete expectations towards educational offer, which is of their interest. This is often due to their
lack of knowledge and awareness of the available educational opportunities. For this reason, institutions
involved in adult education have to identify and meet the interests and needs of these people and create an
offer, which will be most adapted to their needs. One of the possibilities of reaching this group is to place
educational offer in a group’s cultural and social environment (community context – see above) (ibidem).
The importance of proper recruitment was also stressed by the participants of IMPADA focus groups, especially
when they answered the question about what could be improved in the adult education provided to
disadvantaged groups in order to deal with the issue of group heterogeneity. In 4 out of 5 groups "targeted
appropriate support and differentiation" (including – among others – ‘recognition of prior knowledge') was
cited, in 3 out of 5 – “ethnographic approach” (including – among others – ‘using of methods such as
interviews, observation, cultural mediations etc., in order to understand each group of learners needs' as well
as 'challenging stereotypes').
On the basis of their experiences and documentation considered as relevant to the effectiveness of adult
education for disadvantaged groups, the IMPADA partners who are adult education providers pointed that –
beside all the factors that were mentioned above – one of the most powerful and persuasive promotional tool
in the case of recruitment of disadvantaged learners are case studies of learners’ success stories. Adult
education providers should therefore collect and promote such stories not only to strengthen their students’
motivation to learn (see: next section), but also to make their recruitment processes much more effective.
3.3.3. Retention
As was mentioned in the introduction to this chapter, the key to successful adult education programme are
high retention rates. Learners benefit the most when they complete whole programme as well as such impact
is correlated with attendance to particular lessons (Windisch, 2015).
However, adults from disadvantaged groups are not only less likely to participate in adult education, but also
are more likely to withdraw during the programme. (Coben et al., 2007) mention that average attendance in
150-hours courses was just 39 hours – such pattern is also a case in many other programmes. Therefore,
keeping high motivation among learners is one of the key tasks for education provider. There is no unequivocal
evidence suggesting who is most likely to withdraw during the course, mainly because hardly any provider
monitors this issue, which results in lack of proper data (Vorhaus et al., 2011).
Numerous sources (Alkema & Rean, 2014; European Commission, EACEA, & Eurydice, 2015; Vorhaus et al.,
2011; Windisch, 2015) cite guidance services for disadvantaged adults as an important way to improve their
32
motivation to participate in adult education. Though this factor seems to be crucial, there are hardly any
European countries that provide guidance services for adults who do not participate in public employment
services, and this group is limited and does not cover a large fraction of disadvantaged adults (European
Commission et al., 2015). Windisch (2015), therefore, concludes that a structural guidance services aimed to
support disadvantaged learners are not popular among European countries. In a report of (European
Commission et al., 2015) there are just a few examples of such strategies on a national level: Austrian “Zentrale
Beratgungsstelle für Basisbildung und Alphabetisierung”), German telephone guidance services, Luxembourg’s
“Maison de l’orientation” and Portugal’s “Centros para a Qualificação e o Ensino Profissional”. In a majority of
countries where such strategies are absent it is advised to prepare (out of necessity in a smaller scale) similar
solutions by adult education providers.
Windisch, 2015 finds appropriate information, advice and guidance as crucial factors increasing retention rates
in adult education for disadvantaged groups. Many disadvantaged students are unaware of potential benefits
of education and therefore do not take advantage of them. That often contributes to the decision of
withdrawing the programme. American researchers suggest that the fraction of students actually benefiting
from the different forms of guidance is very slight and even smaller among the disadvantaged adults. They
therefore suggest implementation of Crockett’s idea of “intrusive advising” (Mcdonnell & Soricone, 2014).
It is important to note that a single case of withdrawal does not always prove that the programme failed.
Sometimes the changing circumstances in personal situation of a learner (such as sicknesses or personal
problems) force him/her to withdraw from the programme. In such cases an education provider should
recognise such persons and provide them support in retaining to the programme when their situation gets
back to normal. Such support should principally involve strengthening learner’s motivation and additional
measures as distance and blended learning that helps learners to minimize losses (Vorhaus et al., 2011).
Furthermore, when it comes to providing support parallel to teaching, it should be tailored to the kind of
disadvantaged people (in terms of specific sub-groups) – e.g. for those with the care responsibility it is
important to provide childcare possibilities or to create family friendly places of learning. The most important
aspect in this case is flexibility in terms of time of learning. Learning is problematic especially for those with
care responsibilities. Financial issues should also be taken into account, since high tuition could be and often is
a major barrier to making decisions about starting and continuing learning among members of this group.
Moreover, it is strongly recommended to create separate educational offers aimed at various sub-groups, such
as migrants and older people (Steiner et al., 2012).
Supporting learners’ motivation and high retention rates means assisting learning during and beyond formal
classes. One interesting conclusion of Vorhaus et al. (2011, p. 14) is that
“breaking off from programmes is not always a programme failure but may be a more 'rational and
positive response to changing circumstances' (...)”.
33
Taking it into account, adult education providers must ensure that – when those external circumstances change
– a learner will not be discouraged from coming back into programme. Thus, the guidance and assistance for
learners must occur not solely during the programme, but also beyond it.
One of the factors influencing retention rates and – as it seems – often underestimate by providers is their
awareness of specific times learners are more likely to withdraw, which should be followed be using proper
intervention strategies. In WVABE Instructor Handbook such specific “withdrawal times” are listed:
time after the first meeting – because of panic over the threatening prospect of not succeeding,
period within the first three weeks,
period within three to nine months when learners reach their “plateau of progress”,
time after holidays or during periods of inclement weather (WVABE, 2009).
According to the handbook’s authors, maintaining high retention rate during each of these specific times
requires the use of different intervention strategies with accompanying ongoing assessment of learners’ needs.
In this context the education provider is perceived as mainly responsible for anticipation of potential problems.
Vorhaus et al. (2011) find that the key to learners’ motivation to complete certain educational programme is a
sensitive monitoring of progress. The lack of (self-reported) outcomes of adult education is often a reason why
learners are discouraged from programmes. Such monitoring should also involve the “soft outcomes, such as
improvements in self-confidence” and can be the basis for formative assessment, which is one of many
examples of institutional quality factors influencing learners’ retention and outcomes at the same time. We
grouped most of such factors in the category “Provision”, which is further discussed in the next part of this
chapter.
3.4. Provision
3.4.1. Teaching, learning and assessment strategies
Among factors referring to the quality of provision and significantly influencing learners’ retention rates, the
widest group consists of factors connected with developing and using teaching, learning and assessment (TLA)
strategies. In fact, to that category belong – listed by Litster (2007) who summarized the number of surveys
and British experiences in subject area – strategies aiming at improvement of learners’ motivation to complete
an educational activity they have already started. She grouped them into five groups: safe learning
environment, community in the classroom, individualization of learning, goal-oriented education and
supporting self-improvement.
The first group, a safe learning environment, is mainly addressed to teachers. It is crucial to create the
relationship between teacher and learner that makes the latter more confident and willing to learn. Litster
(2007) lists examples such as:
- Finding common interests with learners;
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- Knowing their names;
- Communication the learners’ language (at least learning few words);
- Understanding the learners’ personal situation and their problems with motivation;
- Chatting with learners and giving informal advice;
- Cooperation with other teachers and staff who also deal with a given student.
Community in a classroom focuses on creating the cooperation among students that help them benefit from
each other. Litster (2007) mentions following strategies:
- Controlling learners’ attendance and finding out the reason, with offering the help to solve problems
that limit their participation;
- Team working, working in pairs;
- Setting up a “buddy system”, in which one student is a support for the other;
- Creating possibilities to make up for those who miss a class;
- Engaging former students to talk about their motivation and successes;
- Engaging students to talk about their “goals, motivations, hopes and fears”.
The third element, individual approach to each learner, is complementary to the former two. It helps a learner
to understand that they can personally benefit from a programme and – therefore – improve their motivation
to actively participate. There are three proposals of obtaining this goal:
- Establishing clear learning routes;
- Finding links to learners’ personal experiences and redesigning a programme as to make it relevant to
their lives;
- Creating activities that involve personal impact in the learning, such as writing diaries or personal
histories.
Goal-oriented education is a strategy that is common for adult and other education. In case of the former, the
proposed strategies involves:
- Explaining to students what does goal-setting really mean;
- Finding out learners’ real goals;
- Asking students about the factors that might affect their performance and – therefore – obtaining their
goals;
- Revisiting goals on a regular basis;
- Using formative assessment (discussed later in the chapter).
One of the most important outcomes of adult education is to encourage learners to continue their education
and self-development also after the completion of one programme. Strategies that support self-learning and
self-development are:
- Encouraging learners to take responsibility for their education by working independently, fulfilling
homework etc.;
35
- Solid assessment of homework;
- Giving the comments and advice on the homework, both verbal and written.
The last two of the strategies mentioned above are examples of formative assessment, that is one of the most
important elements of high quality provision of educational services, which will be further discussed in this
section.
Another relevant factor recognised by Windisch (2015) is supporting self-study. It helps to achieve additional
goals as well as is one of the most efficient ways to support high retention: when a learner is prepared to self-
study, it is much easier to enable them to survive the period outside of education and henceforth come back to
the programme.
Some strategies, especially those involving advisory, are common for all types of education and experiences in
another schools may be also useful for adult education for disadvantaged groups. For instance, Bailey &
Alfonso (2005) analysed the practices in (2-year) community colleges in United States and found 4 strategies
that were proven to have a positive impact on the quality of provision in those institutions. Those are:
1. Supporting learning with advisory, mentoring and counselling;
2. Creating learning communities that help learners to better benefit from teachers’ experience;
3. Creating special programmes or services for underprepared learners (this point is crucial from a point
of view of analysing the adult education for disadvantaged groups);
4. Having a “college-wide” perspective on reforming and improving services: since the institutional
elements of education programme are highly complementary, the education provider must not analyse
learners' performances on a basis of one single aspect.
Very similarly, Siebert (2003) proposed five recommendations to maximise retention rates, which – according
to the framework presented at the beginning of this section (Table 2) – are strongly related to the "provision"
component:
- Counselling based on full, realistic and objective information;
- Recognition of learners’ interests and goals in the beginning of the programme;
- Ongoing assessment;
- Recognition of the causes on why some students do not complete educational programmes, based on
interviews with both those who withdrew and those who completed a course;
- Enabling the flexible learning modes by modularisation of programmes.
Casey et al. (2006) found the embedded programmes to have a positive impact on retention rates. They
understand "embedded" as the programmes that integrate vocational and basic skills provision. Particularly,
most effective embedded programmes were characterised by a strict collaboration between literacy, numeracy
and vocational teachers.
In order to adjust an educational offer to the possibilities and needs of disadvantaged adults, it is also
important that the form of learning and thus developing new skills does not refer to their past school negative
36
experiences. Regular feedback focused on made progress and implemented in the form of coaching may be of
help here (see – formative assessment – characterised later in this chapter). Furthermore, one has to keep in
mind that motivation is the key aspect not only before the start of learning, but it should be the integral part of
the whole process (Steiner et al., 2012).
Among factors of high quality educational provision – and narrowing the scope – factors related to TLA
strategies, we can also indicate organisation of learning – understood as use of certain practices, tools,
settings, methods and approaches aimed at increasing learners’ engagement and motivation to learn as well as
adjusting educational process to diagnosed learners’ needs, including:
- Focus on identification of learners' needs;
- Additional support for learners – if needed (e.g. childcare, financial support, adaptive equipment) –
strongly influencing learners' retention as well as their outcomes, as it was mentioned before;
- Establishing partnerships and working closely with different stakeholders in order to link formal and
informal learning and learning in different environments as well as to identify local needs in the field of
adult education.
As previously mentioned, one of the most important characteristics of adult education for disadvantaged
groups is that learners often have bad experiences with formal class-based education and, therefore, negative
attitudes to learning. Such attitudes affect not only participation and retention, but also learners’ performance
– discouraged learners are more passive during a programme and, consequently, less likely to succeed.
Windisch (2015, p. 58) puts it simply:
“the learning context matters for success”.
The National Research and Development Centre for Adult Literacy and Numeracy prepared series of reports
analysing the effectiveness of particular types of basic skills education: writing (Grief, Meyer, & Burgess, 2007),
reading (Brooks, Burton, Cole, & Szczerbiński, 2007) and numeracy (Coben et al., 2007).
According to the report on writing (Grief et al., 2007), the following strategies were proven to be effective:
- Using texts of different kinds, e.g. applying writing short stories, letters or e-mails, complaints or
acknowledgments, etc.;
- Using texts with meaningful contexts in that learner can find the links with real life, both in substance
(e.g. stories on his own autobiography or family) and form (e.g. complaints on real products, as
mentioned above);
- Discussions on writing, both with a teacher and with a group;
- Individual feedback from a teacher – marking of writing should involve not only grades, but also
teacher's comments on what should be improved.
Benseman, Sutton, & Lander's, (2005) report on reading focuses on slightly different approaches. According to
them, the key to effective reading provision are skilled teachers who apply a variety of teaching strategies. The
impact of "quality" of teachers is discussed in one of the next sections of this report. Second factor identified
37
by (Benseman et al., 2005) is – similarly to the case of writing – creating curricula linked to life. Provision is
much more effective when the examples of texts that are read during the course are somewhat familiar for
students, e.g. have reference to their professional experiences or living environments. Finally, the strategy that
is proven to be very effective is implementing the reciprocal reading, involving cooperation among students.
An additional factor identified by Vorhaus et al., (2011) is the assistance for a teacher, important because of
the fact that the effective provision of adult education must combine two elements: good subject knowledge
and pedagogical preparation. Since subject teachers often lack the competencies adjusted to the needs of
disadvantaged adults, a teaching assistant may serve as an important factor of improving adult education
quality.
Ofsted, (2007) points on the desirable character of such assistance. Competencies of a subject teacher and a
support tutor should be highly complementary, and their work is most effective when they tightly cooperate,
including the preparation of a programme and the design of curriculum. A situation in which a teaching
assistant limits their engagement to in-class activities, however, often occurs, and this can lower overall
programme quality.
The third crucial type of basic skills education is numeracy programmes. Coben et al., (2007) examined their
provision in UK to conclude that the most important factor is flexibility. That should involve: the possibilty to
adapt a programme to diverse group of learners and changing during the course expectations on final
outcomes. However, they noticed that among British providers such diversity was mediocre: they identified
very limited use of practial tools and ICT. The organisation of learning was dominated by whole-class approach
to learning and limited use of group or collaborative work.
Factors connected with the organisational site of learning were often mentioned during IMPADA focus groups,
especially:
- when discussing what could be improved in adult education programmes for disadvantaged groups in
order to improve its effectiveness (5/5 indications in case of "identification of learners' needs", 3 – in
cases of "additional support" and "partnerships");
- when discussing factors that should be included in adult education for the disadvantaged training
programmes (3/5 indications in case of "using social pedagogy – supporting the process of learning,
e.g. 'searching for <knowledge distributors> also within learners' social environment', 'working with
members of families' etc.).
One of the most significant components of strategies aimed at high quality educational provision is formative
assessment – following the distinction on two types of assessment, “formative” and “summative", proposed by
Looney (2011). Summative assessment is a more regular and common one: it involves the assessment of a
learner’s performance based on his/her achievements, measured with the use of tests or examinations taking
place by the end of a programme. Summative assessment is also a part of validation process, since it is a way to
prove that a learner gained learning outcomes required for obtaining a certain qualification (certificate or
diploma) and therefore it may be used to get access to higher levels of education or some specific occupations.
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On the other hand, formative assessment is also based on learner’s performance, but it has more ongoing
character and another goal: improvement of learning process. Thus, the formative assessment may serve as a
way to identify learning needs and to adjust teaching processes.
Looney (2011) sums up the difference, noticing that “summative assessment is sometimes referred to as
assessment of learning, and formative assessment, as assessment for learning”.
Table 3. Types of assessment
Formative Summative
Informal Where are we so far? What do we
want to do next?
Example: a fitness class for people
with arthritis
What do we learn?
Example: an introduction to art
history class
Formal How much assessment
specification/learning outcomes
have we achieved?
Example: an NVQ portfolio
development workshop
Did we achieve all the learning
outcomes? What grade/level has
been attained?
Example: AVCE/A level classes
Source: (Hillier, 2005)
Derrick & Ecclestone (2008) analysed the issue of formative assessment in detail. As was mentioned before,
formative assessment is believed to be one of the most effective strategies to improve retention rates. It also
has a positive impact on outcomes of adult learning, since it helps to adjust the curricula to the changing
motives of learners and their progress in learning.
Derrick & Ecclestone (2008) identified two aspects of adult learning in the context of formative assessment:
“The first of these consists of practices and activities in which the purpose is to produce evidence for the
planning of future learning and/or for constructive feedback and review: these might include activities
such as assignments, tests, role-play, performances, observations, questioning, etc. It is important to
note that these activities can also be used primarily for purposes that are not essentially formative or to
support learning, for example to fulfil bureaucratic requirements or to serve the purposes of summative
assessment. Secondly, formative assessment can take the form of learning activities which aim to
develop the autonomy of learners by giving them practice in the use of relevant skills and knowledge in
real-life contexts, and particularly in the assessment and evaluation of their performance and those of
others, in those contexts.” (p. 71).
They also identified the following aspects of formative assessment that are crucial for an effective provision:
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- Formative assessment cannot be used instead of summative assessment. The latter still exists as an
essential strategy in adult education. However, its tools shall be “used formatively”. Derrick &
Ecclestone, (2008, p. 73) put it in a such way:
“this involves finding ways to get students to <<get beneath>> and <<go beyond>> the bald results of
the summative assessment processes and try to understand how they work and reflect on what they
mean.”
- Formative assessment may be used in planning activities, as to adjust the plans to actual needs;
- There should be an on-going evaluation of teachers’ communication skills, particularly those involving
listening, empathy and understanding;
- Feedback should be constructive and practical. It also should not be taken by a learner personally, so it
has to address the task;
- The assessment should aim at “improving motivation and confidence, autonomy, and citizenship”;
- Good cooperation between teachers should lead to an exchange of questioning techniques. The
authors state that open questions are more effective than those as: double questions, leading
questions, rhetorical questions, closed questions;
- The assessment during all the stages of adult education programmes should involve peer assessment
and self-assessment;
- The assessment techniques are often not understood by learners. One of the most popular reasons for
that fact is that adult learners from disadvantaged groups use different language than teacher. In
practice formative assessment should involve:
“Encouraging learners to develop, discuss and evaluate their own assessment criteria and assessment
materials, as well as collectively designing “perfect” answers [which] will at the same time help them
understand and critique the language of official assessment criteria.“ (Derrick & Ecclestone, 2008, p.
75);
- There is sometimes a tension between the “letter” and “spirit” of formative assessment. Formative
assessment is often understood in very narrow way, that is limited to defining the learning goals.
However, the spirit of formative assessment is “a way of engaging learners deeply with their learning in
order to develop critical and cognitive autonomy.” (ibidem);
- Formative assessment is useful in all types of adult education.
Formative assessment (or assessment FOR learning as opposed to assessment OF learning) became the most
important area of professional interest for English education authority – Dylan Wiliam. In his “Embedded
Formative Assessment” Wiliam presents 5 strategies of embedded classroom formative assessment (Wiliam,
2011). These are:
1. Clarifying, sharing and understanding learning intentions and success criteria;
2. Eliciting evidence of learners’ achievement;
3. Providing feedback that moves learning forward;
4. Activating students as instructional resources for one another;
5. Activating students as owners of their own learning.
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According to Wiliam, using all these strategies should provide a structure for ensuring that students and
teachers work together in order to adapt teaching and learning to meet students’ needs. Moreover, formative
assessment – as an example of ‘pedagogy of contingency’ – allows for implementing each of 5 strategies using
various techniques, depending on students a teacher working with, subject he/she is teaching, and the kind of
school he/she works in. The above mentioned strategies define therefore the territory of assessment for
learning but teachers are responsible for the choice of techniques for implementing that in practice.
Beside factors connected with developing and using teaching, learning and assessment (TLA) strategies there
are other groups of most important factors that contribute to high quality of educational provision (also in the
case of adults from disadvantaged groups), such as: curricula design, organisational issues and infrastructure.
Additionally, one must not ignore quality assurance that, in fact, is crucial not only for educational provision,
but for each group of institutional quality factors presented in Table 2, and include – among others – such
important factors as proper selection of teachers/trainers.
In the case of curricula design issues that are visible in the literature include: curricula diversity, flexibility (e.g.
short optional courses as a part of a larger education programme), adequacy and responsiveness to the actual
labour market’s needs (Swain et al., 2009).
Curricula design was also a topic that was raised directly during IMPADA focus groups. Participants of FGIs,
asked about factors that should be included in adult education for the disadvantaged training programmes,
indicated – among others:
- "improving learners' progression routes" (4/5 indications), including 'focusing on the big picture of each
learner's journey', 'individualized approach' and 'extending the use of optional courses';
- "programming – flexibility: creating individual paths for learners" (3/5);
- "focus on the labour market needs and Increased Joint Practice Development between practitioners"
(3/5).
The second group covers strictly organisational issues including: average length of a course, service intensity
(e.g. average number of learning hours per week/month, total number of teaching hours, number of hours of
instruction received by an average individual learner), and number of learners per course. The last issue was
raised by some of IMPADA focus groups' participants who indicated the number of 8 to 12 participants –
depending on the characteristics of learners – as the optimal size of an average adult disadvantaged learners'
class as 'accessible and attractive to such learners and providing enough support and time for those in most
need').
(Brooks et al., 2007) see the time spent in a classroom as a key to effective literacy provision. Their findings
suggest that self-study may be an appropriate strategy to increase retention, but still it is less effective in
improving literacy than actual working with a teacher or trainer. They therefore formulate 4 recommendations
for adult education providers that seem to be important in high quality provision:
- Programmes should be more intensive, so that shorter courses involve more hours of attendance;
- Providers should aim at decreasing learner:staff ratio;
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- Time of working alone appears to be too long in many cases;
- Most practical ways to decrease the time of working alone is to enhance working in groups or pairs
(e.g. buddy system).
Learning infrastructure (including accommodation, resources, access to ICT, settings adjusted to programme’s
specificity) also contributes to quality of educational provision. This factor was mentioned by the participants
of almost all IMPADA focus groups (4/5 indications) in the context of naming characteristics crucial for training
institutions that provide adult education for the disadvantaged. During the discussions on this topic the
following factors were mentioned: 'infrastructure adapted to the specifics of implemented actions and to the
needs of their participants (trainers, teachers and learners)', 'small, accessible venues in the communities with
the most disadvantaged learners', 'learning that is based where the learners are (not necessitating travel to a
campus)', 'small scale and cosy buildings, less intimidating to disadvantaged than big institutions'.
Last but not least, quality assurance (internal QA systems implemented by training providers, external QA –
depending on existing regulations, respected adequate QA procedures etc.) is crucial for the quality of
outcomes.
Summarising, quality of provision depends on various factors, which can be shaped by a training provider.
Knowing this, we asked IMPADA focus groups’ participants about characteristics that training institutions
should have in order to provide effective adult education for the disadvantaged. Apart from infrastructure, the
most frequently received answers to this question were:
- “good organisation qualities and characteristics” (5/5 indications), including ‘listening to learner's
voice’, 'taking actions to make improvements based on feedback’, ‘using feedback mechanisms after
end of programme and after ½ a year’, ‘using effective Quality Assurance Procedures’, ‘being
characterised by respect and responsibility toward individuals’, ‘being characterised by innovation and
reliability (ability to demonstrate experience in effective management of educational projects)',
‘employing varied team (trainers and teachers) in terms of age, experiences and skills’, ‘being
characterised by flexible approach in learning activities (programmes)’, ‘offering continuing education
courses for teachers’;
- “experienced, dedicated and looked-after staff” (5/5 indications);
- “successful training networks and partnerships”.
The following sections extend some of the abovementioned issues.
3.4.2. Length of a course
As it was mentioned in the previous section, the key high quality provision and – in consequence – to positive
outcomes of adult education are attendance and completion of a course. One may ask, though, how long
should be a course in order to have an impact on learner’s competencies. (Alkema & Rean, 2014) cite a range
of evidence to show that the answer to this question is unclear and hugely depends on the way of defining the
word “improvement”. In USA e.g. there is a term “measurable gain” which is understood as the improvement
by a level (or gaining a GED certificate). In that case the evidence shows that there is the need of 100 hours of
teaching. Contrary, studies in New Zealand and United Kingdom focused to measure “a significant gain”
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(understood as statistically significant improvement in competencies) and showed that even shorter courses,
lasting 35-39 hours, may improve learners’ literacy and numeracy.
Based on the analysed evidence, Alkema & Rean (2014) propose the useful distinction between analyses
focusing on the issue of programme’s length and divide them into two categories: (1) courses that are focused
on gaining new skills and (2) courses that focus on “brushing-up” existing skills, which is particularly often the
case regarding to literacy and numeracy programmes. The latter appear to be shorter ones.
The report (European Commission et al., 2015) shows that there is a variety of approaches among European
countries in designing the length of courses. In the majority of cases “basic education programmes” last
between 100 and 300 learning hours or one year of learning. In a number of countries such programmes are
divided into smaller unites as in case of Portugal where each “module” lasts 50 hours, or in Denmark where
each “step” lasts between 30-60 hours (see also Windisch, 2015). Similarly, Coben et al. (2007) found that to
achieve a progress of one level of qualifications framework, it is required to learn for 100-150 hours, but an
observable progress is achieved by those who participate just for an average 39 hours.
To sum up, the length of a course is an important factor influencing the outcomes of adult education. In order
to optimize its impact, a provider has to take into account following criteria:
- The needs and motivations of learners;
- Character of a course (gaining new skills or brushing-up existing ones).
3.4.3. Teachers "quality"
The issue that is analysed in virtually all the publications on effectiveness of adult education is the quality of
teachers and trainers. There are two approaches to this case: one focuses on the (formal) qualifications of
teachers, the second on soft skills. The key conclusion of Vorhaus et al., (2011) is that qualifications matter.
There is a wealth of evidence suggesting, that – contrary to some popular beliefs – provision is more effective
when staff are trained and have a pedagogical background.
Ofsted, (2011) lists the following strategies that appear to be effective:
- Teachers having high expectations about learners’ achievements;
- Adapting curricula to meet the needs of particular group of disadvantaged adult learners;
- Intervention to a curricula or a programme when learners’ expectations change or previously assumed
strategies appeared to be ineffective;
- Understanding barriers of disadvantaged learners, that are often different than those of “regular”
learners.
One conclusion is particularly important for providers of adult education for disadvantaged groups: some
teachers tend to limit their expectations about their students and measure their progress by a comparison with
a whole group, rather than with national average, which could be higher. Such strategy is found to be
ineffective and makes the gap between an average and disadvantaged student persist (Ofsted, 2011).
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MacLeod & Straw, (2010) underline the need of providing strong teacher-learner relationships. Informal
contacts between teacher and learners help the latter to improve their provision and adapt the solutions
described above.
A report of American Institutes for Research within the project “Promoting Teacher Effectiveness” proposed
the useful framework to assess and identify teachers’ skills and competencies. The framework is based on 4
aspects: domains, competencies, performance indicators and sample illustrations. Table 4 presents this
approach.
Table 4. Adult Education Teachers Competencies Framework
Domains There are four domains that represent broad areas of activity for an adult education teacher: 1. Monitors and manages student learning and performance through data. 2. Plans and delivers high-quality, evidence-based instruction. 3. Effectively communicates to motivate and engage learners. 4. Pursues professionalism and continually builds knowledge and skills.
Competencies
Within those 4 domains of activity 17 individual observable competencies represent the knowledge, skills, and abilities that an adult education instructor should possess to be effective within those domains. Each domain has four to five competencies.
Performance Indicators
Each competency has a set of indicators that articulate what the performance of this competency looks like in an adult education context.
Sample Illustrations
Each performance indicator is accompanied by a sample illustration that provides examples of the practices in different adult education settings (such as a multilevel English as a second language classroom, a basic literacy class for native speakers).
Source: (American Institutes for Research, 2015)
Another interesting example of a framework to assess teachers’ competencies are Professional Standards for
Teachers and Trainers in Education and Training developed in 2014 by the Education and Training Foundation
(UK). The standards are underpinned by the assumption that teachers and trainers are ‘dual professionals’ –
they must be subject and/or vocational specialists and experts in teaching and learning at the same time. They
should therefore be committed to maintain and develop their expertise in both aspects of their role. The
professional standards are set across three sections – 1. Professional values and attributes, 2. Professional
knowledge and understanding, and 3. Professional skills – each of equal importance, which means that each
links to and supports the other sections (see Appendix III).
Yin, Condelli, Ogut, & Cronen, (2013) analysed the variety of aspects of adult education teachers’ performance.
Some of them appeared to be less significant than it was assumed at the beginning of the survey, whereas
others proved to be crucial factors of effective adult education provision. The following aspects were
examined:
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- Demography of teachers proved to have no impact on students’ performance. There were some
suggestions that some demographical features may be important (e.g. gender or age of teachers), but
there were no statistically significant results, or results found in one states were not proven in another;
- Teachers' professional development programmes hugely vary among different states, so it is
impossible to give one simple answer on their effectiveness. However, there is a small, but significantly
positive impact of the crude fact that one has participated in such programmes;
- Teacher's experience proved to be one of the most important factors. It has significantly positive
impact on effectiveness in all analysed aspects: overall, language and mathematics post-tests.
IMPADA focus groups' participants – asked about what kind of knowledge, skills, competences, qualifications
and support do trainers for disadvantaged adult learners need – gave answers such as:
- "empathy and understanding" (5/5 indications), including 'building relationships with learners',
'awareness of learners diversity', 'high levels of tolerance and respect', 'communication and listening
skills', 'stimulating adult learners to have faith in their ability to learn and change', 'creating
relationships of trust with learners, as a pre-condition to the effectiveness of the learning process',
'reducing distance between trainer/teacher and programme's participants by using the appropriate
appearance and behaviour', 'personal skills such as psychological resistance, inner-direction, sense of
mission, ability to separate work from personal life, maturity, stability, high level of energy,
mindfulness etc.';
- "teaching skills" (5/5), including 'ability to teach through active methodologies and methods adapted
to adult learners', 'knowledge of different learning styles and learners' differences', 'knowledge of
motivation factors', 'ability to understand and influence the group process', 'ability to create training
situations conducive for the group engagement', 'ability to create alternative learning situations',
'coaching skills – ability to ask the right questions';
- "equality, diversity and inclusion skills" (3/5), including 'experience of working with people from a
range of disadvantaged groups, e.g. autism, schizophrenia, bipolar, depression, anxiety etc.',
'compulsory training on Prevent, CSE, safeguarding';
- "organisational, fundraising and community skills" (3/5);
- "support from colleagues and employers" (3/5), including 'work shadowing and sharing other good
practices', 'coaching support, counselling, weekly meetings to discuss current personal and training
issues', 'encouraging to generate demand for and interest in initiatives to nurture staff creativity',
'providing to novice trainers/teachers many opportunities to participate in internships and perform
real professional tasks with the support of experienced professionals'.
4. Outcomes of (adult) education
The term “effectiveness of education” is usually associated with its impact on labour market status of learners.
Since the late 1960s, there is a standard method in economics of education to measure the effectiveness of
education with so called “Mincerian wage equations”, named after Jacob Mincer (see (Heckman, Lochner, &
Todd, 2006). Those equations allow measuring the rates of returns to education, e.g. how much will the wage
45
increase with an additional year of education. There is a vast amount of empirical literature proving, that there
is strong, positive and statistically significant correlation between education and wages in virtually all the
countries in the world8 (see, for example, Card, 1999; Psacharopoulos & Patrinos, 2002).
However, the economic returns to education are not the only effects of education. McMahon (1999) basing on
macroeconomic perspective, shows 7 “sectors” influenced by education: economic growth, population and
health (net population growth, fertility, longevity, infant mortality), democratization, human rights and political
stability, reduction of poverty and inequality, environment (forest and wildlife preservation, air pollution, water
pollution), crime and drug use, labour force participation.
On the other hand, taking the perspective of an individual learner – which is much closer to the perspective of
an average training provider – we can point such potential outcomes of education as:
- gained/improved skills – including literacy and numeracy, soft skills, ICT, motor skills (short-term
outcomes),
- increased participation/entrance in further education and training/labour market/community/civil
society (long-term outcomes)
- Functional skills allowing for the fullest involvement in society, to not be marginalised and isolated by
not having these skills. For instance a functional skill of being able to use the internet to book an
activity and work out costs. This results in greater participation in society and willingness to learn.
Conclusions from both – IMPADA focus groups and literature review – show that everyone who wants to
measure the relevance of adult education for disadvantaged groups should consider measuring not only direct
and short-term outcomes, but also results achievable in a longer time (e.g. learner’s increased participation in
labour market caused by acquisition of new skills). In further parts of this section we present some findings
regarding relations between educational-gains-outcomes and long-term-outcomes – either “objective”
(increased earnings or employment/social status) or “subjective” (wellbeing, attitudes, etc.).
4.1. Educational gain in relation to earnings, labour market
status and benefits dependency
The outcomes of adult education are similar to those described in case of education system in general, but the
evidence is often less clear. Vorhaus et al. (2011) notice that – despite the fact that literacy and numeracy skills
are strongly correlated with labour market status (employment status and earnings) – it is not obvious, if such
8 Even though, it is unclear if it is an effect of “signaling” or improvement in human capital.
46
relation is also true for literacy and numeracy qualifications. It appears that in case of adult learning signalling
effect of actual literacy and numeracy skills9 is much less important than in case of formal education.
Similarly, Champagne (1987) examined the effects of adult education such as: educational participation,
obtaining qualifications, lower dependence on public assistance (e.g. unemployment benefits), employability,
quality of employment (temporality of contract, income, job-satisfaction), confidence. The author focused on
the effectiveness of career counselling within adult education to prove that there exists some moderate effect
on all of those characteristics.
Broader criteria of effectiveness are also an important element of evaluation and assessment frameworks.
American National Reporting System for Adult Education (NRS) lists three key measures: “educational gain”,
entered or retained job and further education (e.g. entering post-secondary education). Educational gain is
here defined as the difference between competencies of a learner at the beginning and at the end of a
programme (National Reporting System for Adult Education, 2015).
NRS lists also four follow-up measures, based on formerly described criteria:
- Entering employment;
- Retaining employment within two years;
- Completing secondary education (obtaining GED certificate);
- Entering post-secondary education.
Vorhaus et al., (2011) identified several outcomes of adult education. First, they concluded that economic
outcomes are important, but not crucial in adult education. There is some moderate influence on earnings,
though it is smaller than expected by comparisons with other types of education. There is also an influence on
employment rates: adults who participate in adult education tend to have higher employment rates. That
effect is not equal: for men the bigger effectiveness is obtained through literacy courses, while for women
numeracy programmes have a bigger impact.
However, the most important outcome of adult education recognised by Vorhaus et al. (2011) is the
improvement of relative labour market status of a person via improvement of his/her job and job-seeking skills,
such as:.
Job-seeking skills:
- Increased confidence in applying for a job;
- Confidence in getting a job;
- Increased aspirations (applying for a better job);
- Increased motivation;
9 Signaling in economic literature is understood as a situation, in which having certificate of diploma is a “signal” for a potential
employer that a person has a given set of skills and capabilities. In such understanding of education signals happen to be more
important than an actual increase of knowledge, skills or competencies (Spence, 1973).
47
- Enhanced job search skills.
Job skills:
- Team work;
- Appropriate behaviour;
- Willingness in taking responsibility;
- Timekeeping;
- Better stocktaking skills.
Vorhaus et al. (2011) underline that
“However, over the course of the programmes, the participants’ optimism about the employment
impacts of the programmes tended to decrease. Individuals reduced their expectations about their
future job prospects, and often became frustrated and discouraged.” (p. 36)
Some interesting and non-obvious findings are the element of Speckesser & Bewley (2006) report. They
analysed three types of work-based learning for adults: “Basic Employability Trainings”, “Short Job-Focused
Trainings” and “Longer Occupational Trainings” to examine their long-term (after 40 months) effects on
employability and dependency on social benefits. Short Job-Focused Trainings are defined as a short-term (up
to 6 weeks) programmes aimed at increasing the job match, e.g. training to obtain the health certificates
required in applying for a job. Longer occupational trainings are the programmes up to 14 weeks designed to
obtain some particular qualification10. Finally, Basic Employability Trainings are longer (up to 26 weeks)
programmes addressed to adults who have a poor level of basic skills and focus on general literacy and
numeracy skills.
According to their research, Short Job-Focused Training had the most significant impact: the employment rate
among participants was increased by 5 percentage points and that effect seemed to be sustainable. The effect
of Longer Occupational Trainings was similar, about 4 percentage points, but delayed: it is therefore important
not to measure the impact immediately after the completion of the course, but also later in time. Finally, the
Basic Employability Trainings also proved to have a positive impact on employment rates, however no impact
was found on benefits dependency. That may be considered as a field that has to be better examined in order
to find solutions and policies that would lead to reduced benefit dependency.
4.2. Personal and social returns
It is important to notice, as researchers suggest, that some of the literacy and numeracy programmes
outcomes cannot be examined by a typical quantitative comparison of skills proficiency at the beginning and
10
Noted that this does not correlate with the definition of adult education presented in chapter 2.
48
after the completion of a programme. There are some effects, such as improvements in confidence, teamwork,
employee initiative and problem solving that cannot be measured in a typical way (Alkema & Rean, 2014).
This way of understanding the role of adult education was strongly visible among IMPADA focus groups'
participants who – when asked what type of content should be included in adult education training
programmes for disadvantaged groups – indicated priority focus on ‘soft’ skills and general well-being rather
than just outcome qualifications (5/5 indications). Soft skills (e.g. confidence, social skills, self-belief, better
routine) were often mentioned on the occasion of answering the question about what are the areas that could
provide input for the assessment of the education provided (3/5 indications). Other often mentioned areas
were: “progression and destinations”11, including ‘continuing further adult education programmes’ and
‘improvement and use of ICT skills’ (3/5) and “employability – life transformation” (3/5).
Vorhaus et al., (2011) in their summary of research and publications list the following outcomes of adult
education that are linked with psychological wellbeing of a person:
- Increased self-confidence;
- Confidence to try new things;
- Self-esteem;
- Belief in own ability;
- Belief in personal achievement;
- Reduced embarrassment or stigma;
- Improved health outcomes (physical and psychological);
- Positive attitude.
The second field of non-economic outcomes found in the same report are improvements in family and
everyday life. Those include:
- Increased ability to help children with their homework;
- Increased confidence to help children;
- Increased confidence to undertake the activities that involve literacy and numeracy skills, such as
signing the agreements;
- Ability to contribute to family life.
Adult education also has a positive impact on participation in further education. Furthermore, the effect of
increased confidence and motivation to engage or re-engage to learning appears to be durable (Evans & Waite,
2008).
Ofsted’s report on literacy and numeracy of foreigners suggests that such programmes have positive impact on
soft skills, ICT skills, self-confidence and self-efficacy. Some learners benefit also in their level of oral
communication (Ofsted, 2003).
11
Broadly understood as learners’ participation in life-long learning (LLL).
49
Other literature (Mcintosh, 2004; Windisch, 2015) also confirms the following (mentioned before) outcomes:
- Gains to self-confidence;
- Encouragement to get further education;
- Better family background via helping children.
Centre for Literacy of Quebec (2010, p. 8) emphasized the impact of adult education on social capital:
“These studies, as well as related discussions (Sticht 1999, 2000, 2006, 2007), and literature surveys
such as those produced by Benseman and Tobias (2003), Westell (2005), Gray (2006), Hartley and
Horne (2006), and Salomon (2009), point overwhelmingly to social capital as an almost ubiquitous
outcome of adult learning and literacy interventions internationally in the past twenty years’ (…). Social
capital outcomes include communicating and becoming involved with others, whether at work or home,
with the family, or in the community.” (p. 8)
The fact that non-economic outcomes of adult education are sometimes equally or more important than
economic outcomes is also visible among motivations of learners. As (Vorhaus et al., 2011) noticed,
"Learners are often motivated by a far wider range of factors than the wish to improve job
performance, and managers by factors other than the desire to fill skill gaps or improve productivity"
(p. 62).
That fact also should serve as a basis while discussing learners’ motivation on participation and retention in
programmes.
4.3. Methods and measures used in the assessment of
educational outcomes
Evaluating the effectiveness of educational programmes for disadvantaged adults, including basic skills
programmes, is challenging and needs to be conducted over an extended period of time, taking into
consideration that disadvantaged learners, especially those facing difficulties with basic skills, do not
necessarily follow a direct or uninterrupted learning path (European Commission et al., 2015).
Taking into account that learner cohorts include a mix of learners including those with a range of possible
disadvantage, measurement of the effectiveness of education should be nuanced. It is very important to note:
if a disadvantaged person doesn't find a job after completing an adult education programme, it does not
always mean that the course was ineffective. Employability is just one of the aspects, but it may serve as a
good illustration. Therefore, it is advised to measure "net" effect rather than "gross" – relative improvement
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since joining a programme. For instance, in the Polish formal education system there is being implemented a
method called “educational value added” to measure if the absolute improvement of a student is a merit of
school or some external factors (such as innate capabilities of a student).
Education providers should also focus on measuring the effectiveness of awareness-raising and outreach
activities, which is found to be particularly difficult (Windisch, 2015).
As noticed in (OECD, 2013b), the field of educational evaluation is constantly growing in all levels of education
and both in formal and non-formal education. This is even more important, since there is a huge demand for
more effective and equitable education. Furthermore,
“Although educational evaluation within school systems is not a recent concern, it has traditionally
focused mostly on the assessment of students. In recent years, countries are increasingly developing
more comprehensive evaluation and assessment frameworks.” (p. 18).
Apart from the disputes on what does the effectiveness of education mean (as well as the quality or equity),
the biggest problem is how to measure it. In general – basing on information collected during IMPADA project’s
desk based research phase (including findings presented in the report so far) – one can name two main sources
for assessing the direct outcomes of education:
1. Objective measures – the word “objective” refers to the fact that the process of measuring the
effectiveness of education based on these measures requires using assessment methods which are
aimed at the observation of certain objective indicators, and not obtaining subjective opinions; based
on the results of IMPADA project’s desk research phase, at least two main categories of such measures
can be distinguished:
a) Short-term effects measures – this group refers to measuring the improvement in/acquisition
of new skills by learners, whose performances are compared to those that were observable at
the time before starting a learning process; this approach focuses on the outcomes that are
“visible” shortly after completing a certain education programme, and thus can be assessed
during the validation process (which can be directed towards a certification of specific skills);
because of the fact that disadvantaged adults are a very diverse group – as it was highlighted
before – there is a broad spectrum of skills that potentially should be learned (and thus
taught), however basing on the comprehensive list of “key competences for lifelong learning”
(European Parliament, 2006) seem to be adequate; the list includes competences such as:
Communication in the mother tongue;
Communication in foreign languages;
Mathematical competence and basic competences in science and technology;
Digital competence;
Learning to learn;
Social and civic competences;
Sense of initiative and entrepreneurship;
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Cultural awareness and expression.
Another example of such list – that can be of particular usefulness in the case of evaluating the
effectiveness of adult education for disadvantaged groups – is the list of “Soft/Human Skills”
outcomes and criteria for measuring their acquisition, provided by DACES – one of the IMPADA
partners who are adult education providers (see: Appendix IV).
b) Long-term results measures – that are possible to obtain by comparing groups of learners
(social, vocational, educational, financial) position/situation before starting a learning process
(a certain educational activity) and after some time from completing it (alternatively
positions/situations of two groups can be compared – one of which acts as the control group);
these measures can relate to areas such as:
Social wellbeing/social exclusion – measured by various indicators and scales (e.g.
learners’ better existence in local communities, better participation in civic society –
e.g. by voting – better access to basic needs services such as good quality water and
food, appropriate shelter, public transport, social and health services, greater
participation in culture etc.);
Family literacy – aspects of which were briefly described in the previous chapter;
Employability (e.g. percentage of graduates who were employed for at least 6 months
by the end of the first year after graduation), which – as was stressed in the previous
chapters – is one of the most often quoted outcomes, even in the case of basic skills
programmes, which – as a rule – are not directly aimed at improving a learners
situation in the labour market (see also: information about job and job-seeking skills in
section 4.1);
Level of professional/vocational sufficiency (e.g. increased sufficiency measured by
performance indicators), which – in case of employed learners – contributes to
productivity at the company level; when it comes to this kind of outcomes (Moore &
Silva, 1999) stress that:
“(…) companies often lack the necessary data, or will not share these data beyond
corporate management, to empirically establish the programs’ effect on indicators such
as reductions in safety violations, reduced employee turnover, or increased employee
attendance.” (p. 10),
so this issues require further investigation;
Participation in LLL – continuous/further education (e.g. percentage of graduates who
successfully participated in educational activities within the first 3 years after
graduation), which – as it was repeatedly stressed in this report – is one of the key
success factors in case of adult education, especially AE for disadvantaged groups;
Finances (e.g. increase in average annual/monthly salary in examined group of
learners).
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2. Subjective measures – measures obtained by satisfaction quantitative and qualitative surveys (e.g. self-
reported returns); although – due to the cost effectiveness and relative ease of carrying out such
surveys – this approach seems to be very popular, it is also controversial because of its limited
applicability and low reliability of the obtained data; the participants of IMPADA focus groups
emphasise that – on one hand:
“Post training evaluation should evaluate (and somehow measure) the level of satisfaction and
psychological fulfilment of learners, and not only their acquired knowledge, skills and
competences.” (PROMEA’s synthesized focus group data form),
and – on the other hand – that the level of satisfaction (“reaction” – referring to Kirkpatrick's ‘Four-
Level Training Evaluation Model’) should only be one of a couple indicators of education efficiency
(IBE’s synthesized focus group data form); among groups of potential respondents in the researches
aimed at measuring the effectiveness of adult education for disadvantaged groups on the basis of
satisfaction surveys are:
a) Learners – e.g. questions about satisfaction with educational experience – seeing positive influence
on someone’s own life, seeing improvement in someone’s own self-esteem or feeling more
capable across certain areas, but also questions about potential improvement of the quality of a
learner’s family life, increased frequency of reading etc.);
b) Employers (labour market’s perspective) – e.g. employers’ satisfaction with employees’ skills
acquired during a certain education programme;
c) Members of learners’ families (parents, spouses, children, siblings etc.) – e.g. spouses’ of learners
satisfaction with the improvement of the quality of family life achieved thanks to the skills acquired
by learners during a family literacy programme;
d) Teachers, trainers, tutors and head teachers – who can be asked about their level of satisfaction
with chosen aspects connected with their own provision (e.g. aspects connected with the quality of
provision – see chapter 3);
e) Local authorities –e.g. who can assess chosen learning activities in relation to selected local
policies and strategies.
Of course both sources for assessing the direct outcomes of education – based on “objective” and “subjective”
measures – have major limitations. Self-reported returns are biased by subjective feeling, especially among
disadvantaged learners, who usually can often have bad experiences from formal education (what can lead
both to under or overestimation of real effects). On the other hand, objective measures often require costly
monitoring methods, which may be not efficient way to assess the impact. Furthermore, they often hide some
indirect effects and even in the case of assessing short-term outcomes (improvement in or acquisition of skills)
assessment methods should be chosen carefully, especially in the case of adults from disadvantaged groups
(who can be easily discouraged by single case of not succeeding during the validation process). The examples of
different kinds of assessment methods possible to use to verify if a learner attained certain learning outcomes
are presented in the Table 5 – the choice of a concrete method should be made by the adult education
provider taking into account various factors.
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Table 5. Assessment methods of learning outcomes
Learning outcome Level of understanding Assessment task
Basic facts, definition of terms
(example: state the cost of
materials needed to make a brick
wall)
Recall and recognition, some
relational and multistructural
Multiple choice, close, short
answer questions
Distinguish between different
concepts, relate facts (relational
and multi-structural)
Differentiate between fair and
unfair dismissal
Assignment, presentation,
comprehension test, case study
Demonstration of skill
(search a database by fields)
Procedural knowledge Presentation, simulation
exercise, audio/videotaping
Converse fluently in foreign
language (conduct a one-to-one
conversation about the weather)
Relational, functional knowledge
Role play, audio/videotaping
Develop an argument and defend
own views (specify how humour is
used to portray stereotypes in
‘Jeeves’)
Evaluation, relational and
extended abstract
Discussion, long essay, seminar
presentation
Reflect on own learning
(monitor own progress)
Extended abstract, relational Log/diary
Source: (Hillier, 2005)
In the case of adult education for disadvantaged groups, it is important to use an appropriate tool to measure
the effectiveness of a course (see educational value added (4.3) and RARPA (2.3.4)). If the learner does not
achieve the desired outcome (though effective initial assessment should ensure that the learning is
appropriate) it does not mean that the course was ineffective. For example, a disadvantaged person may have
problems with finding a job after graduation despite the fact that his/her relative labour market value has been
improved. For that reason one should not forget about the possibility to measure indirect outcomes based on
inferencing about the effectiveness of learning process (education programme) from indicators characterising
education providers (and depending on their educational activities and achievements). In case of this group of
measures various statistical data referring to – described in section 3 – quality factors (and not to individual
learners or their groups) may be of great help. On the basis of this data it is possible to compare providers’
inputs and achievements in the field of adult education using quantitative indicators such as:
- Learners’ average attendance at classes;
- Learners’ retention rate/percentage of withdrawals;
- Exam pass rates;
54
- Increases/decreases in numbers of participants of certain education programmes in relation to the
previous editions of these programmes etc.
5. Conclusions on criteria on measuring adult
education effectiveness
Evaluating the effectiveness of education is critical to education programmes accountability and, of course, it
applies to adult education (including education for disadvantaged groups) in the same way as to general and
higher education. It can be assumed that learning programmes have a strong positive influence that, for
example, literacy programmes have on adults’ employment, family relations or other areas of life – referring to
the fact that such influence is indicated in the case of literacy proficiency itself. At the same time, a clear
indication of reliable ways to measure the actual results of education (specific education programmes), based
on properly selected criteria and adequate methods of measurement, remains among common research
challenges, especially when we talk about the long-term outcomes and focus on the specific group of
disadvantaged adults. It is due to the lack of surveys based on scientific approach (e.g. with comparison with
the mean and conducted over a long period of time) as well as to mutually exclusive results obtained in the
completed studies focused on this issue. According to Dylan William, teaching will never be a research-based
profession in the traditional sense of this word, that is a profession
55
“in which professionals – for the majority of decisions they need to take – are able to find and access
credible research studies providing evidence that particular courses of action would be substantially
more likely to lead to better outcomes than others.” (Wiliam, 2016)
There are various issues regarding educational research that jointly contribute to it, including e.g. issues of:
stability of (educational) processes, accuracy of measurement (classrooms are chaotic), dependability of
measures, clustering in data, etc. Moreover, in education, “What works?” is rarely the right question, because
“everything works somewhere, and nothing works everywhere, which is why in education the right question is
“Under what conditions does this work?”. Asking this question should be the starting point for educational
research understood as a never-ending process of assembling evidence that certain actions should be taken in
a particular context (Wiliam, 2016). This approach is consistent with the goals of the IMPADA project, because
self-assessment and self-evaluation in education seem to be good ways for collecting such evidence, and
various tools designed for these purposes (including assessment frameworks) may be here of great help.
The report presents the current state of knowledge about effectiveness of adult education. The design of the
study, combining the literature review with the knowledge obtained within focus group interviews with experts
in adult education, allowed a deep understanding of the issue. So far the ongoing discussion on the
effectiveness of adult education for disadvantaged groups has not resulted in consensus on how the terms
“adult education” and “disadvantaged” should be understood. IMPADA partners chose therefore to accept
definitions related to the goals of the project (see: section 2.2).
Disadvantaged adult learners appear to be “hard-to-reach”. That means that they are less likely to participate
and to persist in any educational programmes. We therefore conclude that it is not enough to create good
curricula for these learners, but it should be complemented by various strategies aimed at improving their
participation rates. That leads to the proposed division of key quality factors of effective adult education into
three groups: 1. strategy development, planning and marketing, 2. participation (including recognition of
barriers, recruitment and retention), 3. provision.
In this chapter we present the typology of the criteria on measuring the effectiveness of adult education for
disadvantaged groups. Keeping in mind that in the case of this broad group of learners the impact of education
is often very hard to measure, in addition to criteria relating directly to the "outcomes" (see also chapter 4), we
decided to define criteria relating to the "quality" – indirect indicators (see chapter 3). The typology presented
below is based – on one hand – on our research on the specific characteristics and needs of very broadly
defined disadvantaged adults, and on the other hand – on findings regarding these two main groups of criteria
for measuring educational effectiveness. This approach is planned to be further continued in creating a
common assessment framework to evaluate the effectiveness of adult education on the disadvantaged based
on both "quality-related" and "outcome-oriented" components. The criteria are structured in the way that will
constitute a solid base for such framework, which is planned to be a useful source of knowledge for adult
education providers on how to understand their own performance.
56
List of criteria on measuring the effectiveness of adult education for disadvantaged groups – the result of
IMPADA project research phase:
1. Criteria for evaluating provider’s leadership and management connected with provider’s strategy –
that can be divided into sections such as:
1.1. Strategy development, with criteria in the form of statements such as:
1.1.1. The provider regularly engages in development and revision of organisational
strategy.
1.1.2. The strategy development process follows an agreed upon/licensed methodology,
comprising a cycle of steps like: research, vision, analysis, planning, implementation
and review.
1.1.3. Organisational strategy is informed by a variety of information sources, comprising
national and state level legislation, best practices, need assessment and input
assessment in the context of disadvantaged education.
1.1.4. Disadvantaged education constitute major/important focal points of the provider’s
strategy documents (vision, need analyses, action plans, evaluation forms, reporting
templates etc.).
1.1.5. Outcomes of strategy implementation are monitored and evaluated.
1.2. Needs assessment (target group level), with criteria in the form of statements such as:
1.2.1. Provider regularly engages in target group need assessment study and its review.
1.2.2. The strategy development process follows an agreed upon/licensed methodology,
comprising steps like: problem identification, design of need assessment, data
collection, data analysis, feedback.
1.2.3. The target group need assessment is collaborative and informed by a variety of
information sources, comprising adequate public statistics, target group
representatives interviews or surveys, literature review.
1.2.4. Provider identifies and addresses the needs of both internal (actual and potential
students grouped into target groups) versus external (community and business)
customers.
1.3. Goal setting and action plan design, with criterion in the form of such statement:
Provider follows a high quality process of goal setting and action plan design.
1.4. Strategic partnerships, with criterion in the form of such statement:
Provider aims at setting strategic partnerships with a broad spectrum of stakeholders (decision
makers, communities, experts in the fields of adult education, career advisors, social workers,
employers, other external organisations).
2. Criteria for evaluating teaching and learning processes – that can be divided into sections such as:
2.1. Participation, which can be further divided into:
2.1.1. Overcoming participation barriers, with criteria in the form of statements such as:
o Provider recognizes and understands the participation barriers of disadvantaged
learners.
57
o Provider develops the strategy to overcome participation barriers.
2.1.2. Recruitment, with criteria in the form of statements such as:
o Provider successfully promotes adult education for disadvantaged groups.
o Entry criteria are achievable by disadvantaged adults.
o Provider supports candidates.
o Initial assessment and recruitment procedures are user-friendly.
2.1.3. Retention, with criteria in the form of statements such as:
o Provider recognizes individuals who are more likely to withdraw from a program.
o Provider shapes the programmes to increase retention rates.
o Participants receive on-going support.
2.2. Provision, which can be further divided into:
2.2.1. Need assessment – individual level, with criteria in the form of statements such as:
o Provider assesses training needs of each internal customer.
o Customers voice is being heard.
2.2.2. Adjusted teaching, learning and assessment strategies and tools, with criteria in the
form of statements such as:
o Teaching, learning and assessment preferences of customers are being identified.
o Teaching, learning and assessment strategies are being adjusted to individual and
group needs.
o Teaching, learning and assessment strategies are being reviewed.
2.2.3. Relevant curricula, with criteria in the form of statements such as:
o Curricula are being developed on a basis of a variety of sources (i.e. literature
review, good practice, target group need assessment outcomes and individual
need assessment outcomes).
o Curricula are being regularly reviewed.
2.2.4. Organisational issues, with criteria in the form of statements such as:
o Organisational preferences of customers (in terms of timing, duration, settings,
intensity) are being identified.
o Organisational settings are being adjusted to individual and group needs.
o Organisational settings are flexible throughout training provision and are
adjusted.
2.2.5. Teaching staff, with criteria in the form of statements such as:
o Teaching staff is adequately qualified in terms of subject knowledge and soft
skills.
o Teaching staff is being supervised internally and/or externally.
3. Criteria for evaluating learner outcomes – that can be divided into outcomes such as:
3.1. Skills (knowledge acquisition and attitudinal change), with criteria such as:
3.1.1. Summative assessment,
3.1.2. Formative assessment.
3.2. Socio-economic outcomes, which can be further divided into:
58
3.2.1. Prospects, with criteria in the form of statements such as:
o Provider defines a set of envisaged socio-economic outcomes of training
(employability, health markers etc.) and its measures.
o Provider reviews training outcomes and its measures.
3.2.2. Factual change, with criterion in the form of such statement:
Provider monitors levels of the defined set of training outcomes.
As it was mentioned before, the set of criteria presented above will constitute a common assessment
framework to evaluate adult education effectiveness on disadvantaged. In the next phase of IMPADA project
the framework will be complemented with success measures indicators operationalising the criteria into
statements against which providers can self-assess (e.g. “Strategy development constitutes part of the
providers working agenda”). The framework designed on the basis of such components will be a flexible tool
that can be used in a variety of ways, for example: questionnaires, individual or group interviews scenarios, etc.
Therefore, it will be easily adapted by any adult education provider.
6. Bibliography
Alkema, A., & Rean, J. (2014). Adult Literacy and Numeracy: An Overview of the Evidence. Tertiary Education Commission (TEC), New Zealand Government.
American Institutes for Research. (2015). Adult Education Teacher Competencies.
Anderson, D., & Niemi, J. (1969). Adult Education and the Disadvantaged Adult. Retrieved from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED029160.pdf
Bailey, T. R., & Alfonso, M. (2005). Paths to persistence: An analysis of research on program effectiveness at community colleges. Indianapolis: Lumina Foundation for Education. Retrieved from http://www.luminafoundation.org/publications/PathstoPersistence.pdf
Benseman, J., Sutton, A., & Lander, J. (2005). Working in the light of evidence as well as aspiration: A Literature Review of the best available evidence about effective adult literacy, numeracy and language teaching. Auckland: Ministry of Education.
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Appendices
I) UK WEA Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (2014-16)
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II) Learning Link Scotland (2016)
III) Professional Standards for Teachers and Trainers in Education and Training –
England Education and Training Foundation (2014)
Introduction
Teachers and trainers are reflective and enquiring practitioners who think critically about their own educational assumptions, values and practice in the context of a changing contemporary and educational world. They draw on relevant research as part of evidence-based practice.
They act with honesty and integrity to maintain high standards of ethics and professional behaviour in support of learners and their expectations.
Teachers and trainers are ‘dual professionals’; they are subject and/or vocational specialists and experts in teaching and learning. They are committed to maintaining and developing their expertise in both aspects of their role to ensure the best outcomes for their learners.
These expectations of teachers and trainers underpin the 2014 professional standards, with their overall purpose being to support teachers and trainers to maintain and improve standards of teaching and learning, and outcomes for learners.
The professional standards are set across three sections each of equal importance: each links to and supports the other sections.
The 2014 professional standards:
set out clear expectations of effective practice in Education and Training;
enable teachers and trainers to identify areas for their own professional development;
support initial teacher education;
provide a national reference point that organisations can use to support the development of their staff.
The corresponding Guidance, which was developed with the support of practitioners, aims to help teachers and trainers use the standards and apply them to the context in which they work.
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Professional Standards
As a professional teacher or trainer you should demonstrate commitment to the following in your
professional practice.
Professional values and attributes Develop your own judgement of what works and does not work in your teaching and training
1. Reflect on what works best in your teaching and learning to meet the diverse needs of learners 2. Evaluate and challenge your practice, values and beliefs 3. Inspire, motivate and raise aspirations of learners through your enthusiasm and knowledge 4. Be creative and innovative in selecting and adapting strategies to help learners to learn 5. Value and promote social and cultural diversity, equality of opportunity and inclusion 6. Build positive and collaborative relationships with colleagues and learners
Professional knowledge and understanding Develop deep and critically informed knowledge and understanding in theory and practice
7. Maintain and update knowledge of your subject and/or vocational area 8. Maintain and update your knowledge of educational research to develop evidence-based practice 9. Apply theoretical understanding of effective practice in teaching, learning and assessment drawing on
research and other evidence 10. Evaluate your practice with others and assess its impact on learning 11. Manage and promote positive learner behaviour 12. Understand the teaching and professional role and your responsibilities
Professional skills Develop your expertise and skills to ensure the best outcomes for learners
13. Motivate and inspire learners to promote achievement and develop their skills to enable progression 14. Plan and deliver effective learning programmes for diverse groups or individuals in a safe and inclusive
environment 15. Promote the benefits of technology and support learners in its use 16. Address the mathematics and English needs of learners and work creatively to overcome individual
barriers to learning 17. Enable learners to share responsibility for their own learning and assessment, setting goals that stretch
and challenge 18. Apply appropriate and fair methods of assessment and provide constructive and timely feedback to
support progression and achievement 19. Maintain and update your teaching and training expertise and vocational skills through collaboration
with employers 20. Contribute to organisational development and quality improvement through collaboration with others
IV) Criteria for measuring: “Soft/Human Skills” outcomes (produced by the document’s authors)
Pre-entry - E2 E3 L1 L2
Communication Active Listening Follow step by step instructions for specified activities Contribute to a review of how they worked with others Use basic communication skills Contribute to a group discussion
Know the importance of listening to others within group situations
Identify good listening skills practice
Understand and demonstrate the use of good active listening techniques
Body language Know the importance of good body language
Identify the use of good body language
Demonstrate effective use of body language
Interacting in a group
Be able to communicate verbally with group members
Communicate appropriately to others in a range of structured situations
Perform effectively in a group discussion
Social skills/building relationships
State the appropriate response to praise and constructive criticism from others
Allow others to express their view/responses without interrupting
Draw conclusions from other group members’ views/responses without interrupting
Written and verbal communication
Give an example of how to use verbal communication appropriately with others
Select information being communicated orally Respond appropriately
Assess own ability to communicate appropriately with others in a range of group situations
Able to work collaboratively
Be able to recognise others’ rights to communicate within a group situation Be able to recognise the importance of co-operation when working in group situations
Discuss why it is important to allow others the opportunity to speak
Outline different responsibilities for group members when working in group situations
Confidence and assertiveness
Personal presentation
Know the steps needed to complete simple activities and tasks
Recognise and understand the importance of personal presentation
State the benefits of being confident Demonstrate the making of own positive decisions and choices
Contribute to group discussions and/or role-play in structured and supported situations
Having Opinions
Use own negotiation skills to achieve a desired outcome
Outline how lacking confidence might influence others
Give examples of situations where self-control is required
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Dealing with criticism
List personal areas for improvement for own emotional resilience and criticism from others
State the benefits of dealing with criticism in a positive manner
Give examples of situations where self-control is required
Positive thinking
List the benefits of being assertive
List the benefits of being assertive
Summarise the key benefits of positive thinking
Celebrate your own individuality and that of others
List examples of ways for coping in difficult situations List good thoughts that help in difficult situations
Outline how confident behaviour might influence others’ perceptions of an individual
Identify own responsibilities and rights in a group situation
Becoming an independent learner
Resilience Achievement at Entry 2 reflects the ability to make use of skills, knowledge and understanding to carry out simple, familiar tasks and activities with guidance. Agree with a suitable person a goal that could be achievable
Know what an independent learner is.
List key qualities of an independent learner
Describe the personal qualities and skills needed to become an independent learner
Self-study Be able to identify what self-study is and the benefits of it
Demonstrate the use of self-study and identify the benefits of it
Evaluate the benefits of self-study
Setting realistic goals and achieving them
List personal short-term goals Participate in producing an action plan for achieving these goals
Present an action plan that includes the setting of own personal goals
Understand how own personal attributes have affected current situation to date
Self-Awareness Self-esteem Use knowledge or understanding to carry out simple, familiar activities Know the steps needed to complete simple activities
State how own personal attributes have affected current situation to date State personal weaknesses
Identify ways of building confidence and self-esteem Define self-esteem
Demonstrate ways to build self confidence
Expert learner Be able to demonstrate good learning practices
Demonstrate methods of self-assessment
Acting autonomously
Be able to work independently
Evaluate own practice and identify when independent learning has been planned for.
Action planning Identify ways of building Explain steps to be taken to
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confidence and self-esteem Identify how confidence building strategies could be applied
achieve personal goals Produce an action plan
Recognise and deal with own emotions
Give examples of how personal emotions have been dealt with
Use own initiative and/or creativity when dealing with emotions
Organising yourself
Describe the personal qualities and skills needed for effective self-management
Use own initiative and/or creativity when organising own work load
Civic skills Multicultural awareness
With appropriate guidance begin to take some responsibility for the outcomes of simple activities Actively participate in simple and familiar activities
To be able to give an example of a group of people protected by equality law To be able to give an example of how equal opportunity law can help a specified group Know about the role of government in the daily life of citizens
To be able to give examples of the legal rights of a citizen Outline the types of responsibilities a citizen has to others
Understand the importance of active participation in the local community Explain what is meant by the term ‘equal opportunities’
Community participation
Know that citizens have rights and responsibilities
Outline the types of responsibilities a citizen has to others
Understand the social diversity of citizens in the local community Describe the key points of a current equal opportunity issue Describe the responsibilities a citizen has to others in society
Voting State what a citizen needs to Outline how people are Describe the process for
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do in order to be able to vote in an election
elected to local and central government Give the main responsibilities of local government Give the main responsibilities of national government Outline the main public services available in own community
electing people to local and national government Describe the main responsibilities of local and National government
Empathy for others/looking after others
Identify a responsibility that citizens have to maintain their own well-being Identify a responsibility that citizens have to others
To be able to Identify the types of responsibilities citizens have to maintain their own well-being Outline the types of responsibilities a citizen has to others
Describe the main public services available in own local community Describe how citizens can access these services Give examples of how citizens can influence the operation of local services Describe the rights and responsibilities a citizen has to maintain own well-being
Valuing and respecting the opinions of others
Identify a responsibility that citizens have to others
Looking after yourself
Mental health With appropriate guidance State two signs of good health Name an illness
State three things in the way we live that can affect our health
Outline how work/life balance can help maintain physical well-being
Define mental health
Physical health State three things s/he can do to keep/improve own health
Outline how work/life balance can help maintain emotional and mental well-being
Demonstrate and explain how work/life balance can help maintain emotional and mental well-being
Managing Stress
State a key activity that can help manage stress
Outline what is meant by ‘stress’
Define stress and possible causes of stress
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Outline why human beings feel stress
Describe steps that could be taken to reduce stress in his/her life