The purpose of this research was to find out the extent to which tertiary education organisations (TEOs) are embedding literacy and numeracy into their practices; how the professional development delivered by the National Centre of Literacy and Numeracy for Adults (the National Centre) is supporting TEOs to do this; and the future needs of TEOs. The findings in this report come from interviews with staff in 20 TEOs.
The TEOs showed different levels of maturity which, based on these findings, have been described as emergent, partial and mature practices. The institutes of technology and polytechnics (ITPs) and the wānanga overall showed more mature practice than private training establishments (PTEs). This means that ITPs and the wānanga have, for the most part, the capability to continue their literacy and numeracy work and will require limited and targeted support to get literacy and numeracy operating effectively at an organisational level.
PTEs will require further support at the learner and classroom level so that they can fully embed literacy and numeracy into their programmes. They will need continual and targeted support to do this, before they move on to embedding literacy and numeracy at the organisational level.
All TEOs require support from the National Centre to up-skill vocational tutors. Both professional development and resources on the National Centre website need to be practical, contextualised and targeted so that tutors see it of value and connecting to their vocational context.
All TEOs need support to get the full benefits from the Assessment Tool. For ITPs and wānanga, who are already using the results to inform learner and programme development, this means support from the National Centre to work with the information at an organisational level. For PTEs it means, to start with, support to use the results to inform teaching and learning programmes.
Distance learning is also an area that will require support from the National Centre. This means supporting tutors from a distance through online resources, including online professional development, webinars and resources. Tutors also need support to develop resources that are specifically focussed on distance learning.
Purpose
The purposes of this Research are to:
- gain an understanding of the extent to which TEOs are embedding literacy and numeracy in their practices
- find out how professional development delivered by the National Centre of Literacy and Numeracy for Adults is supporting these TEOs to improve their literacy and numeracy practice.
Accordingly, the Research has the following objectives:
- to better understand how TEOs have embedded numeracy and literacy
- to gauge how well professional development delivered by the National Centre of Literacy and Numeracy for Adults has been responsive to meeting needs of TEOs
- to find out TEOs’ future professional development needs in the literacy and numeracy area
- to identify effective models of professional development delivery to best meet those needs.
Methodology
A mixed methods approach was used to gather data for the Research. Quantitative data were gathered from information collected and held by TEC, including information on ethnicity and on qualification and completion rates in Level 1-3 programmes. Qualitative data were collected from interviews with staff members with responsibility for leading literacy and numeracy work in 20 TEOs.
TEO interviews
Structured telephone interviews (and one face-to-face interview) were conducted with key literacy and numeracy staff from each institution. Other academic and/or administrative staff involved with literacy and numeracy were also invited to provide a broader organisational focus. An introductory email outlining the key question areas was sent to participants prior to the interviews. Each interview took up to an hour.
The interviews took place from September to November 2012.
Rationale for methodology
Telephone interviews were selected as a cost-effective method of gathering a variety of users’ perspectives from across the country. The interview format allowed the researchers to probe and/or adjust the questions as they deemed appropriate and allowed for the ‘unpacking’ of users’ perceptions on their experiences of professional development and their future needs. The use of structured interviews allowed the researchers to gather equivalent information from all participating TEOs and thus provided useful data for analysis purposes.
A limitation of telephone interviews was that, as opposed to site visits, the researchers spoke to only one or two people who were giving their perspectives on literacy and numeracy within each organisation. This may not necessarily give the full picture of what is going on across each organisation. To balance this, performance data were used to provide wider context (see Appendix Two).