National Adult Literacy Database

For a large percentage of the population, learning is a challenge at the best of times.  Add to that the spectre of childhood abuse, domestic violence, war and migration, and all the ways that systemic violence, such as racism, ‘ableism’ or homophobia, plays out, and the odds for succeeding in that realm can be further diminished.

These new interactive learning tools will be a welcome resource for practitioners and program administrators who are often faced with the task of determining how to remove barriers that impede successful learning outcomes. One tool speaks directly to students so that they too can see how to strengthen their own ability to learn and surmount the barriers they experience in colleges and community programs.

Welcome to the tool reception area. Click on the first link below and you’ll find captivating graphics and compelling information beyond its doors.

• Student Kit: Helping Myself Learn features animated stories that depict how incidents of violence can live on and affect learning. Students will recognize themselves and their friends in the scenarios and find resources and strategies to help everyone learn effectively. Teachers will value the wide range of activities that can be used to explore the issues in depth – using words, images, music and movement.

• College Tool: Changing Lenses, Changing Practices, equally clever in its design, looks at aspects of the college learning environment.  A simple filing cabinet is “a place for new discoveries.” The auditory feature of the device directs the user every step of the journey and the wording on the monitor enhances the learning component.

• The Community-based Literacy: Reflection Guide starts with a colourful quilt and a diverse cast of characters, all pointing to vital information about learning in a community-based environment and the collective knowledge and support that are available for those faced with violence.

“I believe that if people in all roles in education begin to really use these new interactive tools they could revolutionize how we learn and teach literacy and essential skills,” said Jenny Horsman, the project coordinator and an educator/researcher.

“They build on what we have learned over the past decade about the impacts of violence on learning, and although they may be vital to helping survivors of violence to learn in our programs, they will also create good practice that will support ALL students to learn more effectively and all programs to improve their practices. I dream that educators will use them right across Canada and beyond!”

The Government of Canada’s Office of Literacy and Essential Skills (OLES) provided funding for the creation of these tools. They are three of the end products of a project of the School of Work and College Preparation, Centre for Preparatory and Liberal Studies, George Brown College, in partnership with Spiral Community Resource Group (Jenny Horsman). The fourth product – a set of training materials for addressing the impact of violence on learning in colleges and community-based programs – is being added daily to the NALD-hosted website learningandviolence.net.

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