Evaluation of the City and Guilds Level 3 Adult 8umeracy Support Course at Merton College in the UK

Abstract

This paper looks at the evaluation of the Level 3 Certificate in Adult Numeracy Support (City and Guilds 9484) course at Merton College. The latter is a general further education (FE) college and the main provider of post-16 education and training in the London Borough of Merton. The College also runs a number of higher education (HE) courses. The course was introduced into the School of Community Education following the college’s successful bid to run a Level 3 course in numeracy in partnership with other colleges in the South London learning Partnership. The main objective of the evaluation of the course at Merton College was to find out how the course measured up to the standards specified by the DfES/FENTO Subject Specifications and echoed by City and Guilds in the Course handbook (City and Guilds, 2005) as well as the procedures specified in the Merton College College’s Quality Assurance system. It was clear that the team was faced with challenges in understanding the level of the mathematics content required, and of linking this with strategies, methods and skills to teach adult numeracy learners. One critical observation the author made was the team’s inability to change the course structure and content to suit the needs of the candidates. One other limitation of the course was the absence of information and computer technology use. Candidates were not introduced to adequate use of information and computer technology (ICT) as part of their learning. The author observes further that initial teacher education is a complex combination of knowledge as it requires specialist knowledge but at the same time much depends on experience and learning on the job. There is little doubt that the lack of thorough and systematic support for trainees in the place of teaching is a profound systemic weakness that impoverishes all teacher education programmes, not just those discussed in this paper