AWAL for Literacy Practitioners

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AWAL for Literacy Practitioners

• Group Name
• Date
• Facilitator Name

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What is AWAL?

• A deliberate play on words
• A one-day professional development activity
• A curriculum development process
• A means to link what teachers teach and what
  learners will need in the world of work using the
  lens of Essential Skills

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Have you gone AWAL?

• AWAL helps educators connect the world of work to
  the classroom
• Working in teams, educators visit work sites,
  interview employers and employees, and then
  develop instructional ideas based on essential
  skills in the workplace that are relevant to
  their own learners

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AWAL Overview

• Introduced in 1997 in BCs K-12 system
• 2000 went national with sessions in BC, AB, SK,
  MB, ON, NB, NS, NWT, PEI
• 2000 adult educators added
• Database at www.awal.ca
• 1st and longest application of HRSDCs Essential
  Skills Research Project (ESRP)

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There is abundant evidence

• that good literacy skills, along with numeracy
  and technological skills, are important
  prerequisites to the productivity and ongoing
  development of Canadas workforce.
• ABC CANADA, 2000

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AWAL Workplace Partners

• Air Canada
• BC Ferries
• BHP Billiton Diamonds Inc
• Boeing Canada
• Canada Post
• Canada Safeway
• Casino Nova Scotia

• Columbia Power
• DND Fleet
• IBM Vancouver
• Newbridge Networks
• Padinox Inc
• Royal Bank
• Tim Hortons
• White Spot

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Project Foundation

• Two Ideas
• AWAL combines an ancient idea about how we learn,
  with a more contemporary one about what it is
  possible and useful to teach

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Confucius

• Tell me and I forget.
• Show me and I might remember.
• Involve me and I learn.
• (circa 500 BC)

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The Independent

• Learners who can merely obediently reiterate
  what they have been told by others will be about
  as sought after in the next few years as those
  who cannot read have been for the last few.
• Once they can read and write, the rest of
  education must be about how to find things out,
  where to look and how to frame ideas.
• continued

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The Independent

• The how ... is really far more important than
  the what. What count are the skills and processes
  that they gain or use on the way to finding out.
• An ability in dealing with knowledge is what
  we need discovering information, making new
  things out of the information we have found.
• The Independent(Aug 20, 1999)

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AWAL can help you to answer

• Why do I have to learn this?
• When will I ever use this?
• Why do I have to work in a group? I can do it
  faster on my own!
• What skills?

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Workshop Agenda

• 830 am Welcome and Overview of the National
  AWAL Project / Introduction to Essential Skills
• 930 am Team Preparation / Travel to Workplace 
• 1000 am Interviews / Tour Workplace
• 1215 pm Return from Workplace / Lunch
• 100 pm AWAL Observations / Connection to
  Learning and Essential Skills
• 145 pm Activity Development
• 330 pm Next Steps
• 400 pm Closing

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What are Essential Skills?

• Skills that people use in their jobs and in their
  lives every day
• Enabling skills
• Skills that involve levels of complexity
• A foundation for learning other skills
• Skills that enhance our ability to adapt to
  workplace change

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The Velcro? Skills

• Essential Skills are the skills that other
  skills can stick to

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HRSDCs Essential Skills

• Reading Text
• Document Use
• Writing
• Numeracy
• Oral Communication
• Working with Others

• Thinking Skills
• Problem solving
• Decision making
• Critical thinking
• Job task planning organization
• Significant use of memory
• Finding information
• Computer Use
• Continuous Learning

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New Skill Added (2004)

• Critical Thinking
• The process of evaluating ideas or information,
  using a rational, logical thought process, and
  referring to objective criteria, to reach a
  rational judgment about value, or to identify
  strength and weakness
• Skill Complexity 4-level scale
• Skill Dimensions assessment criteria, assessment
  process, effects of critical thinking

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Purposes for Reading

• To scan for specific information / to locate
  information
• To skim for overall meaning / to get the gist
• To read the whole text to understand and to learn
• To read the full text to critique or to evaluate

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Connecting to the 21st Century

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Connecting the Skills

• Essential skills are those that, regardless of a
  learners program or discipline, are critical for
  success in the workplace, in day-to-day living,
  and for lifelong learning.

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Workplace Literacy

• Workplace literacy refers to the essential skills
  that people need at work such as reading, writing
  and math. It also includes critical thinking and
  problem solving. People will use these skills in
  different ways. Upgrading skills and lifelong
  learning are key factors in employability and
  adjusting to new demands in the workplace.
• National Literacy Secretariat (2002)

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Do soft skills matter?

• We are hired for our qualifications.
• We are promoted for our performance.
• We are fired for our lack of interpersonal
  skills.

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Your Task

• Using the information you gather from your
  interviews, you will create an activity suitable
  for YOUR learners that will provide practice in
  one of the transferable skills you learned was
  essential to that job.
• The activity will not necessarily prepare the
  learners to do that specific job.

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AWAL Website Database

• www.awal.ca

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Using the AWAL Forms

• Form 1 Management/Human Resources Interview (use
  with the employer)
• Form 2 Employee Interview
• Form 7 Workplace Feedback

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Break

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What do we already know?

• What do we know about learning?

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Learning is . . .

• about making connections between the known and
  the unknown.
• It is a highly reflective activity that is about
  personal and continuous improvement.
• John Abbott
• Battery Hens or Free Range Chickens
• What kind of education for what kind of world?
• www.21learn.org

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Learning is also . . .

• a collaborative, problem-solving, activity that
  occurs through progressive construction of
  individual knowledge.
• Information transfer is only a limited part of
  learning.
• The Science of Learning
• www.21learn.org

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Adult Learners Knowles

• Learners should know why they are studying
  something
• Instruction should be task-oriented, taking into
  account the wide range of different backgrounds
  of learners
• Learners should be able to relate what is being
  studied to their personal/professional
  experiences
• Learners should be motivated and ready to learn
• Learners should be involved in the planning and
  evaluation of their instruction
• Instruction should be problem-centred rather than
  content-oriented

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Problem-based learning

• Problems are learning opportunities in disguise.
• Pam Kuhns,
• Implementing Problem-Based Learning
• in Leadership Development and Problem-Based
  Learning for Administrators (1992)

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Appreciative Inquiry (AI)

• Appreciative Inquiry asks us to pay special
  attention to the best of the past and present
  
• in order to ignite the collective imagination of
  what might be.
• Dr. David L. Cooperrider
• Case Western Reserve University

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The Brain

• The brain tends to discard information for which
  it finds no connection or meaning, or for which
  the meaning is obscure.
• Dale Parnell
• Cerebral Context
• American Vocational Association, 1996

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Brain Scan 1

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Brain Scan 2

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Brain Scan 3

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Brain Scan 4

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Experience and Learning

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Activity Design

• Your activity, like your literacy program itself,
  will be
• Learner-centred
• Goal-directed
• Outcomes-based

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Activity Components

• What does a tutor need to know to use your
  activity with a learner?
• Tutor instructions
• Materials needed
• Evaluation
• Alternatives
• Other?

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AWAL Resources

• The Big Picture
• Essential Skills for Life, Learning and Work
• www.awal.ca

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AWAL Forms and Resources

• www.awal.ca/resources.asp

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Why Skills? Why Now?

• Skills are HOT!
• In the private sector CSTD Conference 2004
  workplace literacy is an essential dimension of
  training and development. WL includes not only
  reading, writing and numeracy, but also document
  use, critical thinking, problem solving and
  computer skills
• In Government Increasingly, federal and
  provincial throne speeches and programming
  emphasize the need for enhanced Essential Skills

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Canadas Workplace Skills Strategy

• Announced in the 2004 Throne Speech
• Goal to better understand the types of skills
  needed in the present and the future for todays
  workers and employers and includes
• literacy training and essential skills upgrading
  for workers
• measures to encourage apprenticeships in skilled
  trades
• employer-based training

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Workplace Skills Strategy

• A learning approach to resolving employment
  issues.

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ES and Workplace Literacy Initiative

• Launched April 2004
• Goal to enhance the skill levels of Canadians
  who are entering -or are already in - the
  workforce by
• increasing awareness and understanding of
  Essential Skills
• supporting the development of tools and
  applications, building on existing research
• working with other Government of Canada programs.

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Knowledge Matters

• To achieve Knowledge Matters milestones
  (2002-2007)
• Reduce the number of adult Canadians with low
  literacy skills by 25 over the decade solid ES
  are a critical piece of that.
• Businesses increase by 1/3 their annual
  investment in training per employee ES will help
  ensure a solid return on this training
  investment.
• Over 5 years increase the number of adults
  pursuing learning opportunities by one million
  without ES their efforts will risk failure.

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Knowledge . . .

• is a product of a learners processing and
  making connections between new information
  received and knowledge previously constructed.
• Jolie Mayer-Smith
• UBC Faculty of Education

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Why does AWAL work?

• AWAL provides a natural place for the education
  system and the employment systems to connect
• Its a win-win-win

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AWAL Makes Connections

• The need to find meaning is a strong motivational
  force in the life of each of us. If teachers can
  consistently help learners connect subject matter
  content with the context of application, I
  believe we may be astonished at the significant
  increase in learning.
• Dale Parnell, Cerebral Context
• American Vocational Association, 1996

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So What?

• So what next?
• Your ideas?

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To Learn More . . .

• www.awal.ca
• Activity database
• The Big Picture (student AWAL activities)
• The AWAL Guide Handbook for Facilitators
• AWAL Workshop forms and resources
• www.towes.com
• www.measureup.towes.com

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Thank you for going AWAL!

• Contact