How far can a Learning Journal support adult learners on a part-time course?
All full time students at Suffolk New College are allocated a progress tutor and are expected to attend mandatory Professional Skills Development lessons, as well as crucial progress tutorials to track, support and review their progress every six weeks. However, this level of support is not inclusive to all as it is not extended or offered to our adult learners on part-time study programmes. It could be argued that pastoral support is just as crucial, if not more so, for adult learners who are juggling careers, childcare and their studies. Moreover, traditional teaching is based on pedagogy and heavily focuses on young learners. This group learn differently to adults, therefore teachers should follow an andragogical approach with adult learners. Knowles (1975) stated that “there are certain assumptions about the characteristics of adult learners that is different from the assumptions about child learners on which traditional pedagogy is premised” (Knowles, 1975). I hope that this project will fill and bridge that gap, whilst offering invaluable support to adult learners.
I hope to enhance the overall learning experience of adult learners on their part-time English course by providing pastoral support to identify any ongoing issues, strengths/areas for improvement and previous experience.
The impact will be measured by termly 1:1 tutorials between the student and lecturer and recorded in a ‘Learning Journal’. This will allow both students and lecturer to discuss any problems, feedback from assessments, and set SMART targets to achieve.
