LARA courses for adult learners

Based on the course framework four courses for the target group of adult learners were developed, delivered and evaluated.

Under the titles

• Self-presentation
• My career path – Working to my full potential
• Health. How did illness or accident influence my life? What did I learn? How did my life change as a result of what I learned?
• I’ve got so far –  Planning next learning steps

learners from a variety of socio-economic and educational backgrounds, including those with significant literacy issues, came together for short courses to test methodologies and the framework proposed by the LARA team.

LARA partners, responsible for the delivery of the pilot courses, wanted to gauge reactions to: active and participatory learning, learning based on the experience (own and others’), changes in practice engendered by facilitation (as opposed to teaching), progress that is made from experiential rather than imposed learning.

The extent of this kind of learning is limited within partner countries. Learners needed support to become proactive, they wanted reassurances about the quality and integrity of trainers who were dealing with highly personal and sensitive information, modelling was necessary by trainers in most cases to initiate the sharing of experiences within groups, some compromises needed to be made in the balance between teacher input and facilitated group learning.

Evaluation showed, however, that once initial reservations had been overcome, learners felt that they had been through a meaningful learning opportunity that would impact on their conduct outside the classroom. Demand has been such that partners are now considering ways of implementing learning of this kind more widely.