Please cite as: Owen, H., & Schwenger, B. Using literacy tools and strategies as a foundation to enhance students' learning and study success.
Paper presented at The New Zealand Association of Bridging Educatiors: 2008 Conference.
Students’ learning and study success are at the heart of education provision. A strong concern in this context is how to enable staff to assist students more effectively in their learning journey and in their participation in the community, especially those learners who are facing difficulties in engaging with the literacy and numeracy demands of their programmes. The potential gap of course demands and student skills is at the centre of a programme initiative at Unitec New Zealand, which is at the same time concerned with curriculum redevelopment and wider institutional initiatives.
It has been identified that an integrated approach to combine content learning with literacy and numeracy skills enhances students’ learning and study success in terms of retention, completion and stair-casing into higher levels of learning. Capability building that engages staff and helps them to review their methodology is an essential ingredient for supporting tutors in implementing best practice into their every-day teaching strategies.
Tools and strategies for integrating and embedding literacy and numeracy as part of the teaching and learning experience are available but not always accessible to teaching staff. The Centre for Teaching and Learning Innovation (CTLI) at Unitec New Zealand is working closely with staff to introduce appropriate strategies and tools which can be easily integrated into courses whilst taking into account the needs identified by each school for their specific learners.
This paper is based on an initiative between Automotive Engineering staff and CTLI. At this stage, eleven literacy and numeracy related tools, sourced from a variety of places, have been chosen to demonstrate best practice in collaborative and interactive contextualised workshops. The presenter will showcase three tools and conference participants are then invited to critique and discuss in small groups if and how these tools could be adapted to fit within their context of teaching and learning. Thoughts and opinions will then be collected and discussed in the large group. The theory informing the literacy tools and strategies and the workshop delivery (including the iterative cycle of evaluation and improvement of the workshops in response to participant feedback) will be shared with conference participants to conclude the session.
Using literacy tools and strategies to enhance student learning and study success
1. Using literacy tools and strategies
as a foundation to enhance
students’ learning and study
success
Hazel Owen and Bettina Schwenger
Centre for Teaching and Learning
Innovation Unitec NZ
2. Overview
• Supporting student success
• A continuum of learning
• Tools and strategies - underpinning
principles
• Making decisions about tools and
strategies: three examples
• Interactive task for you
• Conclusion / feedback
3. Supporting student
success through ...
Learning in real-world contexts
Analysis and Transferable skills
interpretation tasks
Strategies CRSP Tools
Small group work Investigational work
Problem solving
July 24, 2009 Hazel Owen & Bettina Schwenger 3
4. A continuum of learning...
“Literacy is the ability to identify, understand,
interpret, create, communicate and compute,
using printed and written materials
associated with varying contexts. Literacy
involves a continuum of learning to enable an
individual to achieve his or her goals, to
develop his or her knowledge and potential,
and to participate fully in the wider society.”
(UNESCO, 2003, p. 5)
5. Tools and strategies - underpinning principles
Deliberate
and explicit
Constructivist
Purposeful
Underpinning
Principles
Encourage
Appropriate independence
and relevant
Using tools Practitioners’
and best capability
practice
7. Dynamic variables affecting literacy
Reading
Teacher culture
training Pedagogy
Opportunities
Education to read
Literacy
Access to books
Wealth Freedom/
creativity
Vocational
Political skills
policies Family
Society & culture
Literary canon Status of literature
10. Initiated & championed by
Iain Seymour-Hart, Head of
Tools Department
Vocabulary
profiler
Issues with Tradeshow 1 –
teaching
Survey – reading
6 tools demonstrated,
Lesson plan 10 minutes each
Numeracy
Multi-media
Feedback from lecturers.
What are the issues? VOCABULARY
Approaches to vocabulary:
Hot Potatoes Tradeshow 2 -
E-flash cards
Teaching vocabulary
Numeracy
On-line assessment
Critical thinking
An example of teaching: Tradeshow 3 -
Vocab Demonstration lessons
Reading
Information literacy
15 minutes each
(Smith, 2008) Numeracy
July 24, 2009 Hazel Owen & Bettina Schwenger 10
20. Feedback
Keesing-Styles, L. (2008). Automotive Tradeshows - Literacy and Numeracy in Vocational Education. The VET(31), 7.
21. Feedback (cont.)
This is a superb model for staff
professional development, no matter
what the topic. Here, a whole
department is engaged in reflecting on
and improving their teaching and their
students’ learning.
Linda Keesing-Styles
Keesing-Styles, L. (2008). Automotive Tradeshows - Literacy and Numeracy in Vocational Education. The VET(31), 7.
22. Management
support
Workshops Feedback
Specific
Building follow-up
Capability sessions
Tradeshows
Professional Individual
Toolbox help
Location
(on-line)
& food
(Smith, 2008)
July 24, 2009 Hazel Owen & Bettina Schwenger 22
23. Interactive task for you
1. Turn to the person next to you
2. Using the handout, discuss the
questions, and
3. Write your responses
4. There will be opportunity for people to
describe their conclusions/ reaction
5. Please hand your completed handout to
Mark and Bettina (the presenters)
24. Items to discuss
1. Describe a tool or strategy that you
have used to teach literacy and
numeracy. Explain what you feel made
it effective.
2. Would some of the tools and strategies
demonstrated today be useful in your
context? Why / why not?
3. What are the questions we need to ask
of the tools and strategies when
deciding on what to use with learners?
25. Conclusion
• More successful teaching and
learning can take place
• Ask ‘why’ – purpose and
rationale
• The tradeshow must go on
Open Blackboard in a browser:
http://bb.unitec.ac.nz
Login in with the username:
eittl2008 & password: eittl2008
Click on: UATI Automotive
Toolkit
26. Thank you for
listening
Any questions and feedback
please email:
howen@unitec.ac.nz
msmith@unitec.ac.nz
bschwenger@unitec.ac.nz
