Our practitioner-research project explored learners' perspectives on progress, focusing on Level 1 and 2 learners who primarily had "independence" as a learning goal. The focus group discussions first confirmed that learners come to our programs for a wide variety of reasons. It was not always easy to separate or prioritize these reasons into discrete goals. Secondly, our discussions highlighted that the pathway of independence encompasses a wide range of learner needs. Learners' views of independence seemed to be linked to the ability to do everyday tasks at home and in their community and to a range of personal growth issues.
Learners reported 103 specific goal statements in total. These statements were grouped into 15 sub-categories in order to aid analysis. These sub-categories were in turn classified into one of three categories, as shown in the table below.
| Learning Categories | Goal statement sub-categories, as described by learners |
| Independence | Improve numeracy for every-day purposes |
| Improve ability to read & write for every-day purposes | |
| Improve reading and writing so as not to have to depend on anyone else | |
| Improve ability to read to kids / help kids with homework | |
| Improve verbal communication skills | |
| ESOL | |
| Improve self esteem | |
| Self expression write a book, write poetry, write songs | |
| Personal growth: redress education they missed when young; "to see how much I could accomplish" | |
| Expand social circle | |
| Improve specific skills: spelling, grammar, vocabulary, numeracy | |
| Further Training or Education | Pursue further credit: General Equivalency Diploma (GED), college, high school credit |
| Employment | Help get a job |
| Help get a better job | |
| Improve reading / writing for current job |