Engaging young people in LLN
Youth Guarantee Webinar
8 September 2010
Webinar agenda
• Some challenges about teaching young people
to consider
• Findings from the research
• The Youth Guarantee workshops
• Some challenges about teaching young
people to reconsider
Continuum exercise
Strongly agree Agree Disagree Strongly disagree
• 21st Century young people are different.
• Being literate in the 21st Century is the same as it
ever was.
• NCEA is an appropriate response to changed times.
• Young people’s pathways decisions are more
difficult than ours were.
• New understandings of learning mean it is not
appropriate to teach the way we were taught.
True or false?
• Young adults should be taught separately from older adults
because they are different.
• Young adults are more extrinsically motivated than older
adults.
• Work and work experience are important to young adults.
• We should change our views of teaching and learning young
adults because of new brain research.
• Tertiary education should replicate the best things about
school.
• Good teaching is more important than pastoral care for young
adults.
• Literacy and numeracy is best embedded by “stealth” and not
addressed explicitly.
How to find the research
• http://www.dol.govt.nz/services/LMI/researc
h-programme/lln/
• Literature review; summary report; research
report (literature, interviews and case studies
• A number of publications about adult LLN
including the Upskilling Project
Findings from the research
• Young people/young adults’ LLN outcomes are
difficult to measure:
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timeframes
research methodology
self report (no national instruments)
economic impact on individual (Tyler) and society
funding (people leave programmes for employment before
completion)
– measuring “soft outcomes” - self-confidence and selfesteem
What we do know: the learners
• range of perspectives (Gen Y)
• motivation and engagement in postschool
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importance of vocational approach/work experience
extrinsic motivation
mentoring and counselling
hooking in (referrals or word of mouth)
the impact of the school experience
• being treated as an adult and as an individual
• having a voice
Adults who work with young people
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importance of good teaching
“unsung heroes”?
dealing with social, personal and academic
status in education and qualifications
appreciate opportunities to undertake
qualifications
Effective organisations
• Integrated services – friendships facilitated
• embedded approach – LLN and vocational
• importance of teaching and relationships with
learners
• hooking in (referrals and word of mouth)
• social (not physical environment)
• “not like school” – being an adult
Effective programmes
• The importance of good teaching
– Small groups
– Authentic contexts
– Short term goals, learning in manageable steps
– Start from where the learner is at, meet individual
needs
– Progress at the learner’s pace
– Relaxed informal but focused
What works specifically for young
people
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Use of ICTs and mobile technologies
A range of activities, fun activities
Short term goals; extrinsic rewards
Emotional support from teacher
One-on-one mentor, easily accessible
Popular culture, youth culture as contexts
Valuing of young people for uniqueness
Social context facilitated; youth friendly
environments
Future considerations
• 21st century learning, LLN and young
people/young adults (new learnings about the
brain)
• focus on those “most at risk”
• teacher training and quality (multiple abilities
needed)
• funding models – outcomes, programmes
• accept multiple approaches
Youth Guarantee Workshops:
April and May
• Participants
• Programme
– Research findings
– Sharing resources including assessment tool
– Surfacing issues
• Youth Guarantee cohorts
• Organisational factors
• Unexpected and not uniform experiences
Youth Guarantee Workshops
• Issues
– policy implications – funding, age group and
demographics, numbers
– paperwork
– research findings (not so easy in practice)
– “these kids are different and harder to motivate”
– literacy and numeracy for adults assessment tool
– school responses