Literacy Research Matters

Looking for that critical research report, journal article or conference paper?

The VOCED & ALADIN online databases may help you.

VOCED is a free international research database from NCVER relating to workforce needs, skills development, and social inclusion. It encompasses vocational education and training (VET), higher education, adult and community education, informal learning, and VET in Schools. International in scope the database contains over 63,000 English language records, many with links to full text documents. You can easily search by keyword or ‘Browse’ by author, title, journal or subject.

Adult Learning Documentation and Information Network (ALADIN) , is an initiative of the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning. It was created to support networking and capacity building between documentation centres and libraries in the area of adult learning and literacy. Today it comprises of 96 documentation centres in 47 countries in all regions of the world, from complex university libraries and research units, to small NGO resource centres and some virtual collections. The National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) is an ALADIN member organisation.

KEEP UP TO DATE: New research is collated into a bi-monthly ALADIN Online Alert located on the ALADIN News webpage – no ‘subscription’ or signup required. Find out about recent online and full-text information in the areas of adult learning, adult literacy, lifelong learning and technical and vocational education and training (TVET).

Jane Jones

Conferences coming up

Conferences 2015

WA Adult Literacy Council 2015 State Conference at Central Institute of Technology on 16th and 17th April, 2015. The conference is titled Great Expectations: literacy, the individual and the economy.

ACER Research Conference 2015 – Learning assessments: Designing the future. 16-18 August, Crown, Southbank, Melbourne
A conference to connect  teachers, education leaders and policy makers with the latest assessment research to inform teaching and learning.

ACAL National conference 2015 – Resilience, Risk, Preservation – held held at the Adelaide Zoo in  Adelaide on 24th and 25th September 2015.

PD coming up from December 2014

Teach Me Grammar 2015

Teach Me Grammar is available again for next year if you are interested in Teach Me Grammar checkout the GoogleGroup or visit Teach Me Grammar Program 2015 to get more information and the application form.

Collaborative numeracy: working together to build numeracy skills in adults

Collaborative numeracy: working together to build numeracy skills in adults is a program of  professional development for teaching numeracy to adults and young people in vocational training  and other adult learning contexts. For more information on this and application forms see the article that follows this one.

Applications need to be in by 5pm Monday 19th January 2015

The Collaborative Numeracy Workshops

Collaborative Numeracy

In 2014 Beth Marr delivered a series of extended workshops for adult numeracy teachers in Western Australia. This very successful program will be offered again in 2015. You are encouraged to apply, but numbers are strictly limited. Applications will be assessed once the application period closes on 19th January 2015.

See Collaborative Numeracy 2015 information for applicants for more information and download the Application Collaborative Numeracy 2015

The program consists of three workshops, each of a day and a half, scheduled for February, March and April. You are required to attend all three of the workshops.

Previous participants have said:

“ It was pure luxury to be able to explore and experience cooperative logic.”

“Every single thing we did was useful. It extended my thinking, knowledge and strategies. Loved it.”

“Making sense of algebra.”

“Hands on is a much more interesting and engaging way to include students with different abilities.”

“Making learning social.”

 Margaret McHugh

LLN Practitioner Scholarships Programme

The LLN Practitioner Scholarships Programme is a competitive initiative. The Programme provides scholarships of up to $5000 to individuals seeking to undertake approved study towards an adult LLN qualification. Up to 50 scholarships are awarded annually.

Applicants must successfully complete and submit their application on the Department’s online application system by midnight Wednesday, 12 November 2014, AEDT

More information and the online application can be found at the “Language, Literacy and Numeracy Practitioner Scholarships Programme

New numeracy workshop offering

Practical Strategies for Teaching Adult Numeracy Workshop with Beth Marr

This two day adult numeracy workshop is designed for Literacy Language and Numeracy (LLN) practitioners interested in learning how to strengthen and/or diversify their numeracy teaching skills. It will be aimed at a mix of experienced teachers with mathematical backgrounds and literacy teachers wishing to learn about numeracy. See Practical_Strategies_ Numeracy_flyer_Sept for more information and registration information.

Cost: $198.00 (Lunches provided)

Date: Wednesday 3rd  and Thursday 4th September 2014

Time: 9.00 am – 4.30 pm

Venue: Conference Room, DTWD (WestOne Services)

 

ALaN WA Newsletter – April 2014

Welcome to edition 12 of the Adult Literacy and Numeracy Network of Western Australia Newsletter!

Views expressed by contributors to the newsletter are their own and, unless expressly stated, do not reflect the opinions of their employers/organisations.

This contents page links individually to each article enabling you to go immediately to those of your choice. Alternatively, if you go to the main blog link, you can access the articles by scrolling down the page.

We welcome your comments and contributions to our newsletter. If you are an Adult Literacy/Numeracy practitioner in Western Australia or indeed, anywhere in the world, we invite you to subscribe and comment. If you are interested in joining the GoogleGroup for our network, please visit our “How to join” page and complete the online form.

Contents

1. ThingLink! Linking to content from images

A neat online tool for using images with links to further information

2. New time for the WAALC conference

WAALC is piloting a new time of year for the WAALC conference

3. Excellence in Language, Literacy and Numeracy Practice Award

A national focus award in the Australian National Training Awards

4. WA curriculum update April 2014

Re-accreditation activities

5. PD coming up/continuing

PD available through the network and beyond

6. Some conferences this year

Update on conference information for 2014

New time for WAALC conference

The Western Australian Adult Literacy Council (WAALC) is piloting a change of conference time from July to April. As a result, they will not have a conference in July 2014. The next conference will be April 2015.

Proposed Dates are 16th and 17th April 2015 (at the end of school holidays and after Easter).

Conference planning is starting now.

Please book 16-17 April 2015 for the conference into your organisation’s calendar (and advise info@waalc.org of any clashes with other events substantially affecting LLN teaching staff).

Send ideas to include in the conference: suggestions for Keynote speakers, topics, workshops or other activities that you think would make for an  inspiring event.

WAALC offers professional learning independent of employers and government priorities.  Your support is needed to help newcomers to the LLN field and to re-energise and update the experienced worker.

We plan to call for Expressions of Interest in September/October so be talking to new presenters with something to share and reminding your favourite presenters that you want them back!

PD coming up and continuing April 2014

PD within the WA ALaN network

The face-to-face Collaborative Numeracy workshops with Beth Marr are continuing on 14-15 May. Beth is also delivering an in house program for Centacare during April and plans are under way for another two day workshop soon.

The “What’s in a number!” project continues and is due to finish in May. Checkout the recent posts on “Estimation”  then on  “Percentages”   and the most recent on “Exponents” and catch up with any others you have missed. Don’t forget to check out the comments and feedback and add your own!

Other PD

Coming up from IBSA/Velg are “Foundation Skills Workshops for VET Practitioners”  the Perth one is on June 4th – NOTE that the target audience for these is NOT LLN/Foundation Skills specialists but VET practitioners. However they may be relevant for others in your organisation. As we already use CAVSS here in WA to support vocational learners through team teaching, these workshops which have a focus on identifying foundation skills in units and then using the Foundation Skills (FSK) Training Package are perhaps less relevant to our VET practitioners than they would be elsewhere.

Conferences update – April 2014

Australia

The National Adult Language, Literacy and Numeracy Assessment Conference 2014 will be held in Melbourne on May 1st and 2nd 2014.

Not specifially LLN but there are usually some LLN related sessions. Registration is now open for our own State Training Providers’ Forum 2014. This takes place at Crown Perth on Monday 19th and Tuesday 20th of May.

The Australian Literacy Educators Association has a focus mainly towards the school sector, however with many young students now in the VET sector rather than in school their 2014 National Conference “aNTicipating New Territories: building strong minds, places and futures” in Darwin from 9-12 July has increasing potential for relevance to our network.

The 2014 conference of the International Applied Linguistics Association is being hosted by the Applied Linguistics Association of Australia and takes place from the 10th to 15th of August in Brisbane.

This year’s ACAL Conference “Literacy: a learning spiral for life” is on October 2nd to 4th at Surfers Paradise in Queensland. Keep up to date by registering an expression of interest on the ACAL website. Call for papers is open now. You are invited to give a 45 minute paper presentation, or a 1.5 hour colloquium, in which a group of presenters will give a series of papers on a theme, or a 1.5 hour hands-on workshop.

Australian Council of TESOL Associations – International Conference 2014 with the theme “Meeting the Challenge” takes place from September 30 – October 3 2014 in Melbourne. For information available to date check out the website.

The next Western Australian Adult Literacy Council state conference is planned for April 2015.  That’s a different time of the year than usual and there won’t be one in 2014.

A little further afield

In New Zealand this year – the 14th National Conference for Community Languages and ESOL has the theme “Essentials for Learning and Teaching: Ko te Pū, ko te Ako”