Programme in action
The Literacy and Numeracy Team at UCOL, Annette Aubrey, Jan Eyre and Gillen Smiler, is getting to know the roads between Palmerston North, Wanganui and Wairarapa very well. The team members’ commitment to embedded literacy and numeracy has seen them travel regularly between UCOL’s three main campuses over the last few months, offering all UCOL staff the opportunity to engage with professional development activities. Staff on all sites have enthusiastically taken up the opportunities. Thirty staff recently graduated with the National Certificate in Adult Education (Vocational Tutor/Lecturer or Workplace Trainer), Level 5. A number of these tutors have gone on to become Literacy Champions for UCOL, working one-on-one with colleagues and acting as mentors and first line of support for the 24 staff currently enrolled in the NCALE qualification. Regular NCALE study groups are held on all three campuses at lunchtimes, and have proved a great way of building the literacy and numeracy community and supporting the study process.
During February, the Literacy and Numeracy Team also provided a series of literacy and numeracy workshops on all three sites. The interactive workshops, 24 in all, were designed to provide an introduction to the Learning Progressions and develop participants’ knowledge of appropriate literacy and numeracy teaching strategies. Around 30 staff attended the literacy workshops and a similar number engaged with the numeracy workshops. Those attending included tutors and lecturers working on programmes from certificate to degree level, as well as library and support staff. The workshops were well received, with evaluations including comments such as, ‘Learning how to embed both numeracy and literacy into my class has been great. It makes the class more fun for me and my students’ and, ‘I have found that I am enjoying my teaching a lot more. Literacy awareness = confidence = enthusiasm = participation = happy lecturer and students.’ A second series of workshops will run during the mid-semester break.
Another popular literacy and numeracy event is the ‘Breakfast Club’. Once a month, tutors, lecturers and support staff get together over a relaxed and informal breakfast, and explore how literacy and numeracy strategies can be applied to particular (and often challenging) topics. The topics are nominated by staff and the agenda for 2010 includes ‘helping students find their way around textbooks and handbooks’, ‘building measuring skills’, ‘teaching vocabulary’, ‘percentages and calculating GST’, and ‘reading skills’. Staff members value the opportunity to ‘share and bounce ideas off each other’ and the Club also provides a platform for showcasing innovative approaches, resources and strategies.