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• Literacy in NL

Practicing Shared Accountability

Click HERE to download the full report (pdf)

To ensure competencies in a field such as Literacy and Essential Skills (LES), practitioners require more in knowledge, skill and understanding than initial training alone can provide. Regardless of where they have gained their initial competencies - in the formal arena of undergraduate or graduate studies, or through experiential learning - continuing professional development is needed to ensure needed skill development.

The survey was designed to gather information about the access to and desire for professional development amongst literacy practitioners in Newfoundland and Labrador. The survey was purposefully broad in its reach to practitioners, so as to gather the best available data on the professional development needs of the sector.

Areas for Consideration

The following areas have direct and immediate implications regarding the objective of carrying out this survey, which was to assess the impact and scope of current and future professional development initiatives:

Past and Future Participation in Professional Development (PD):
Sixty-nine (69%) of respondents indicated that they had participated in PD in the past 24 months.

“Sometimes you connect with someone at a conference and follow up and share a few things. A mechanism to do this more formally and ongoing would be fab - lunch and learns, teleconfs, etc.”
- Practitioner respondent

Eleven percent 11% of respondents indicated that they are registered to participate in PD in the next 24 months. Seventy-five (75%) of respondents indicated that they are not registered but are interested in participating in PD in the next 24 months.

“I would like to keep up to date with current practices and resources.”
- Practitioner respondent

Past Professional Development Areas of Concentration:

Areas of professional development which have been accessed over the past 24 month period were identified to include:

• Essential Skills (31%)
• Workplace Literacy (20%)
• Informal/Peer Supported (16.7%)
• Assessment (15.5%)
• Prior Learning (14.3%)
• Program Administration (14.3%)
• Evaluation (11.9%)
• Instruction (11.9%)
• Family/Adult Instruction (9.5%)

“The workshops were led by experts in the field dealing with adult literacy.”
- Practitioner respondent

Requested Future Areas of Concentration in Professional Development:
Practitioners expressed interest in a number of different areas of competency. Ten (10) areas were named by multiple respondents:

• Assessment 11
• Student Development (motivation, abuse, stress management) (8 respondents)
• Learning Disabilities (7 respondents)
• Adult Learning / Instruction (6 respondents)
• Family Learning (5 respondents)
• Workplace Learning (5 respondents)
• Essential Skills (5 respondents)
• Stakeholder Engagement (5 respondents)
• ESL (3 respondents)
• Computers/Digital Literacy (2 respondents)

“any that would help my students - motivating, abuse issues, anger management”
- Practitioner respondent

Preference as to form of Professional Development:
Classroom instruction was the most popular form of instruction at 78%, followed by web/online(51.5%) and peer-to-peer (48.5%).

“materials were shared by colleagues who developed same...”
- Practitioner respondent

Organizations offering past Professional Development (PD):
For the past 24 month period respondents indicated that they were receiving PD from no fewer that 20 organizations, eight of which were named by more than one respondent:

• OLC's Conference: Spotlight on Learning (a Literacy NL partnership initiative) (8 respondents)
• College of the North Atlantic (5 respondents)
• Literacy Newfoundland and Labrador (4 respondents)
• Memorial University of NL (3 respondents)
• Newfoundland and Labrador Laubach Literacy (3 respondents)
• Teachers on Wheels (2 respondents)
• Community Sector Council (2 respondents)

Key Findings

There are several areas of interest which stand out in this survey.

1. The interest and enthusiasm of a significant majority (75%) of practitioner respondents in continuing professional development who do not foresee any planned PD over the coming 24 months.
2. The percentage of practitioners (31%) who did not identify any professional development participation over the past 24 months,
3. The 25% who did not identify any interest in accessing PD over the coming 24 months.
4. The wide variety of professional development interests and needs as identified by practitioner respondents.
5. The identification of several core organizations currently facilitating professional development initiatives in the province.

Implications of Findings

PD content and availability to practitioners:
The challenge for the training community is to offer a range of programming which can meet the present and future needs of practitioners.

While there does appear to be a significant number of past offerings in professional development which match the expressed future interest of practitioners for PD, one cannot extrapolate that these offerings are widely available to the full range of practitioners: Instructors - ABE, Instructors - Other, Tutor, Practitioners, Adult Learner, Administrator, Funder, and Other.

Further study, possibly through interviews with those core stakeholders offering professional development, might ascertain the level of availability across a range of practitioners. Such research might also discover potential new matches between professional development content and the perceived needs of current practitioners.

Increased coordination across those organizations currently offering PD:
A more coordinated approach to planned professional development initiatives, especially among those core organizations currently offering training, might serve to benefit practitioner access to - and interest in - continuing professional development.

Coordination of professional development can eliminate duplication of services, deliver competencies in a timely manner across the range of practitioners, and support the high degree of current motivation expressed by practitioners for professional development. Increased coordination may also serve to increase the motivation of those practitioners not currently engaged in professional development.

Click HERE to download the full report (pdf)

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