Freedom to teach, freedom to learn

[Background] [Aims] [What participants will gain from attending] [How participants can use information gained from this event] [Audience] [Programme] [Application Form]

Background

The professionalisation of the Skills for Life workforce, and the more recent requirement for teachers in the post-16 sector to have Institute for Learning membership, means that teacher training and continuing professional development have a very high profile. Teachers are required to engage in regular CPD, which addresses both
their own needs, and those of their organisation, and which equips them to deal with curriculum development issues such as the introduction of Functional Skills. Amongst these competing demands, the issues of teacher autonomy and creativity risk being sidelined.

The recently refreshed strategy Skills for Life: Changing Lives has a clear focus on learning related to employment and employability, particularly through Train to Gain.
NIACE, The National Research Development Centre for adult literacy and numeracy (NRDC) and University and College Union (UCU) believe it is vital to ensure that learning in a wider context is also valued so that all potential learners, whatever their purpose, are able to engage in literacy, language and numeracy learning, and that professionals should feel confident about using creative and broad approaches to teaching and learning.

This conference will provide an opportunity to think about and re-visit literacy, language and numeracy pedagogy rather than funding arrangements, national tests and targets. It offers participants an opportunity to focus on the essentials of teaching and learning and is a chance to rediscover the creativity and passion that motivates us all in our work with learners.

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The event aims to provide participants with:

• an opportunity to explore issues around creativity in teaching and learning, in the context of the refreshed Skills for Life strategy
• opportunities to develop their skills and confidence in using a range of creative approaches to teaching literacy, language and numeracy

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What participants will gain from attending the event:

• Participants will hear about alternative approaches to literacy, language and numeracy teaching
• Participants will develop their skills and knowledge in using creative approaches to teaching and learning
• The conference will count towards the 30 hour CPD requirement for Institute for Learning membership

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How participants can use information gained from the event when they go back to their institutions

Participants will be able to use the teaching and learning approaches from the conference with learners, and also share those approaches with colleagues.

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Audience

• Literacy, Numeracy and ESOL practitioners and managers
• Family learning practitioners and managers
• Offender learning practitioners and managers
• ITT & CPD professionals
• Union Learning Representatives

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Programme

09:30 Arrival and registration (tea/coffee available)

10:00 Welcome and introduction to the day from the Chair

10:15 Keynote address
Lyn Tett, Professor of Community Education and Lifelong Learning,
University of Edinburgh

11:00 Tea /coffee break

11:15 Workshops (please indicate your choices on the application form)
          1) Write where you are
              Sue Southwood, Programme Director, NIACE

          2) Reading for pleasure
              Richard Crabb, Campaigns Manager, NIACE
              Genevieve Clarke, National Coordinator of The Vital Link at The Reading Agency

          3) Freedom to learn maths
              Joan O’Hagan, Consultant

          4) All for one, and one for all? The cult of the individual in adult education
              John Sutter, LLU+

          5) Exploring collaborative professional development using the Maths4Life resource ‘Thinking Through Mathematics’ (cancelled)
               Francis Bove, Consultant

          6) Let me tell you a story (cancelled)
              Rona Barbour, Storyteller

          7) Talk is cheap? (cancelled)
              Mark Thomson, Poet

          8) Freedom to Learn: tearing down the walls
               Brian Creese, Development Officer, NRDC

12:30 Lunch and networking

13:30 Campaigning Alliance for Lifelong Learning
Dan Taubman, Senior National Education Official (FE), UCU

13.40 Skills for Life teaching workforce: profile of a profession?
Helen Casey, Executive Director, NRDC

14:00 Take control: why expert teachers teach what counts, not what is tested
Geoff Petty, Author, Teacher Trainer and Consultant

15:00 Tea /coffee break

15:15 Workshops (repeated)

16:30 Close of conference

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Application Form