A study of English workshop provision

During the past decade students with particularly low-level literacy skills have imposed special demands, some colleges of Further Education meeting their needs by means of workshops. There was an information-gap about how best to enable linguistic acquisition in 16+ mainstream students and that need prompted this investigation. The author set out to identify and describe good workshop practice in individual LEAs or colleges and to define the features of a model workshop. The central question was whether or not the workshop strategy was effective in meeting the literacy needs of FE students. After a preliminary survey to discover suitable colleges, students and tutors were interviewed. Workshop sessions were observed using two contrasting instruments and HE and LEAs surveyed. Teaching materials and the learning-environment were scrutinised. Two kinds of workshop emerged: the ILEA Communications Workshop and the Literacy-support workshop found in the non-ILEA colleges in the sample. Because of their individuality, it was not reasonable to delineate a model workshop. Nevertheless clear principles of good practice were established, for example that there was a need to create a careful balance between the following emphases: - learning individually and within groups; - experience of oral and written work; - practice in formal and informal talk; - the development of basic skills and wider learning-experiences; - student autonomy and teacher-guidance. As a result of the study it became clear that, whatever the lost opportunities discovered in individual workshops, in contrast with school they represented a positive educational experience for those who had been failed by traditional teaching-methods and students thought they were more effective in meeting their literacy needs. It also became clear that there was a need for staff development in the sample colleges and therefore probably in the FE sector as a whole in order to enable tutors to make more effective use of literacy workshops.

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

mphil

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Greenwich

Year dc:date.issued

1993

Author dc:creator

• Ware, Jennifer Helen

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Robson, Jocelyn

• LC Special aspects of education

Language dc:language

en