Effect

📣 How to re-lay a good foundation for learning in adulthood?

🎯 Our project’s multiplier event “How to re-lay a good foundation for learning in adulthood?” was held on the 27th of April 2022 in Estonia, Tartu. The event brought together 59 participants in a maybe unusual composition - adult educators from the business sector, adult teachers from adult gymnasiums, vocational schools, folk high schools and other specialists working with low-educated/low-skilled adults (e.g. Unemployment service’s specialist etc.). One fourth of the participants were colleagues from Latvia and Slovakia.

It is rather not that common that adult educators (from the business sector) and teachers are together.

💬 Our aim was to create a forum and highlight the issues in relation to adult learners, whose' educational background is not so strong. This is a challenge of the formal but also non-formal education sector.

💡 What has changed in your work as trainers/adult teachers
over the last 10 years?

💡 How do you see your role as an adult educator in the next 10 years?

Kasvulava
topcoach.sk
Organizācijas attīstības centrs Spring Valley
DevelopDesign®

Learning material: What to do with general skills at a training?

🎯Learning material vol13!

"When it comes to adult learning, there is a growing shift from a knowledge-based approach to a skills-based approach. General skills are valued and highlighted, and it is not possible to cope in the world of labour without paying attention to them. It is likely that all curricula also support the development of general skills to some extent, but the issue that remains is if educators follow this consciously in their teaching, if they guide learners to pay attention to general skills in their learning and try to influence them to do so in a purposeful way."

📣 Our project team wrote a series of learning materials for trainers and adult teachers. The produced learning materials capture many important topics in the adult education field and raise awareness of the different aspects in relation to adults' learner-centeredness.

Kasvulava
Mai Timmi

Learning material: What to do with general skills at a training? Author: Mai Timmi, educator-development expert, OÜ Kasvulava When it comes to adult learning, there is a growing shift from a knowledge-based approach to a skills-based approach. The description of skills, both in terms of the terminology involved and the approaches, have become increasingly more c...

Learning material: The main steps of adults learning and development

🎯Learning material vol12!

"The latest research shows that clarifying how the concepts of education, training and development are defined and perceived is one of the most crucial steps, when we think about raising the adults’ training and development process effectiveness. Therefore, the most modern adult teaching approach is based on the idea that a trainer has to take in account that his trainees should develop and release their full potential in their lives and careers."

📣 Our project team wrote a series of learning materials for trainers and adult teachers. The produced learning materials capture many important topics in the adult education field and raise awareness of the different aspects in relation to adults' learner-centeredness.

Organizācijas attīstības centrs Spring Valley
Ruta Luse"

Learning material: The main steps of adults learning and development Author: Rūta Lūse, chairman of the board of organizational development centre “Spring Valley” Adults’ development process is one of the “hottest” topics nowadays, therefore, it has been on the agenda of many researchers in different times. For a long time, it was assumed that adults stop...

Learning material: Training in complex changing environments

🎯Learning material vol11!

"Encouraging adults to engage in the training and education process is far from easy, especially for uneducated and lower-skilled individuals who aren’t engaged with education the first time round. For those people, barriers to upgrading their professional (and personal) skills are less related to money, which is quite an important aspect to improve one’s competitiveness in the labor market nowadays, than to a sense that education isn’t for them. "

📣 Our project team wrote a series of learning materials for trainers and adult teachers. The produced learning materials capture many important topics in the adult education field and raise awareness of the different aspects in relation to adults' learner-centeredness.

Organizācijas attīstības centrs Spring Valley
Ruta Luse

Learning material: Training in complex changing environments Author: Rūta Lūse, chairman of the board of organizational development centre “Spring Valley” The process of globalization is changing the world very fast. On the one hand, these changes are very inspiring because globalization is providing a lot of new, invaluable opportunities. On the other ...

Learning material: Psychological Barriers to Learning – How can an educator support the learner?

🎯Learning material vol10!

"Learning results in a change – in one’s knowledge, skills or attitudes. Learning can take place both consciously and as planned, as well as unconsciously and spontaneously. Learning is often triggered by some controversial experience or issue, a specific need. In the course of learning, it is not only people’s current baggage of knowledge and skills that changes, but personal growth also takes place."

📣 Our project team wrote a series of learning materials for trainers and adult teachers. The produced learning materials capture many important topics in the adult education field and raise awareness of the different aspects in relation to adults' learner-centeredness.

DevelopDesign®
Kadri Kõiv

Learning material: Psychological Barriers to Learning – How can an educator support the learner? Author: Kadri Kõiv, adult educator, DevelopDesign® Learning results in a change - in one's knowledge, skills or attitudes. Learning can take place both consciously and as planned, as well as unconsciously and spontaneously. Learning is often triggered by some controversial experience or issue, a s...

Learning material: The secret of the group dynamics

🎯Learning material vol9!

"Experience shows that those trainers, who don’t care about the group dynamics enough, sooner or later fail in achieving their learning goals. It means only one thing – all the trainers, who are result oriented, have to change their mindset and the training approach because the trainer is the key factor of the learning process efficiency."

📣 Our project team wrote a series of learning materials for trainers and adult teachers. The produced learning materials capture many important topics in the adult education field and raise awareness of the different aspects in relation to adults' learner-centeredness.

Organizācijas attīstības centrs Spring Valley
Ruta Luse

Learning material: The secret of the group dynamics Author: Rūta Lūse, chairman of the board of organizational development centre “Spring Valley” There is no secret that people in different circumstances tend to behave and interact in different ways. But, despite the fact it’s nothing unusual, the problem is that being in a group, the attitud...

Learning material: Creativity in adult learning

And there is more to come!🎯Learning material vol8!

"Creativity is valuable in the learning environment because it builds cognitive complexity. Being creative involves using an existing set of knowledge or skills in a particular subject or context to experiment with new possibilities in the pursuit of valued outcomes, thus increasing both knowledge and skills. It develops over time."

📣 Our project team wrote a series of learning materials for trainers and adult teachers. The produced learning materials capture many important topics in the adult education field and raise awareness of the different aspects in relation to adults' learner-centeredness.

topcoach.sk
Veronika Korim & Sona Stefkova

Learning material: Creativity in adult learning Author: topcoach team (Veronika Korim & Sona Štefkova) Creativity can mean several things to different people, however it’s generally viewed as a tendency to generate or recognize ideas, alternatives, or possibilities that may be useful in solving problems, communicating with others, and entertai...

Learning material: Beliefs That Affect Learning

🎯Learning material vol7!

"The baggage of beliefs accompanies learners in learning situations as well. Learning outcomes are directly influenced by beliefs related to learning and learners’ understanding of their ability to learn, develop and change. A prior negative learning experience combined with the belief that being less competent and less successful than others leads to an even stronger perception that learning is difficult or that the person is incapable of learning altogether."

📣 Our project team wrote a series of learning materials for trainers and adult teachers. The produced learning materials capture many important topics in the adult education field and raise awareness of the different aspects in relation to adults' learner-centeredness.

DevelopDesign®
Kadri Kõiv

Learning material: Beliefs That Affect Learning Author: Kadri Kõiv, adult educator, DevelopDesign® An adult learner is an established persona with distinctive habits, presumptions, and supporting stances and beliefs. Beliefs develop and change throughout life due to collected experiences and received feedback. In general, beliefs support a pers...

Learning material: Importance of feedback

This is not all! 🎯Learning material vol6!

"The importance of feedback in any environment is irrefutable. Regardless of the message’s subject, receiving feedback will elevate the discussion and ensure the message is delivered as originally intended. It should improve a learner’s confidence, motivation to learn and ultimately, a learner’s attainment. It comes in all shapes and sizes and can improve learner confidence, motivation to learn and ultimately, a learner’s attainment. It can be delivered in various forms."

📣 Our project team wrote a series of learning materials for trainers and adult teachers. The produced learning materials capture many important topics in the adult education field and raise awareness of the different aspects in relation to adults' learner-centeredness.

topcoach.sk
Veronika Korim & Sona Štefkova

Learning material: Importance of feedback Author: topcoach team (Veronika Korim & Sona Štefkova) “Feedback plays a decisive role in learning and development … . We learn faster, and much more effectively, when we have a clear sense of how well we are doing and what we might need in order to improve.” - Dai Hounsell

Learning material: How to ask the right questions?

🎯Learning material vol5!

"Asking the right questions can be the magic key to any kind of personal or professional development. A simple “why?” opens the door to a rich dialogue. A “how?” removes doubt or misunderstanding and gives space to creativity. Unfortunately, many people don’t ask questions at all, out of fear of asking the wrong question. Especially low-skilled adult learners, who often want to learn, but are afraid they might not be good, or qualified enough. However, it’s impossible to move forward without asking questions. "

📣 Our project team wrote a series of learning materials for trainers and adult teachers. The produced learning materials capture many important topics in the adult education field and raise awareness of the different aspects in relation to adults' learner-centeredness.

topcoach.sk
Veronika Korim & Sona Štefkova

Learning material: How to ask the right questions? Author: topcoach team (Veronika Korim & Sona Štefkova) Asking the right questions can be the magic key to any kind of personal or professional development. A simple "why?" opens the door to a rich dialogue. A "how?" removes doubt or misunderstanding and gives space to creativity. Unfortunately, man...

Learning material: Critical thinking

🎯Learning material vol4!

"Critical thinking requires us to use the skill of reasoning. It involves active learning and not just being a passive recipient of incoming information. People who use critical thinking question the ideas they receive instead of accepting them as straight facts. These people are also determined to test their ideas, whether they are accepted by the majority or not and whether they can be contradicted."

📣 Our project team wrote a series of learning materials for trainers and adult teachers. The produced learning materials capture many important topics in the adult education field and raise awareness of the different aspects in relation to adults' learner-centeredness.

topcoach.sk
Veronika Korim & Sona Štefkova

Learning material: Critical thinking Author: topcoach team (Veronika Korim & Sona Štefkova) What is critical thinking? It is a way of thinking and questioning things around us in order to make better decisions. It can be defined as the ability to think clearly and rationally, and to understand the logical connections between ideas. It...

Learning material: Make Group Processes Work for Learning!

🎯Learning material vol3!

📣 Our project team wrote a series of learning materials for trainers and adult teachers. The produced learning materials capture many important topics in the adult education field and raise awareness of the different aspects in relation to adults' learner-centeredness.

DevelopDesign®
Kadri Kõiv

Learning material: Make Group Processes Work for Learning! Author: Kadri Kõiv, adult educator, DevelopDesign® Adult learners value the exchange of experiences with fellow learners. In course feedback participants often express gratification over new contacts, exchanges of ideas and ideas from peers. However, the opposite has certainly happened as well. In...

Learning material: How to Select Teaching Methods Suitable for Adults?

There is more to come!🎯Learning material vol2!

📣 Our project team wrote a series of learning materials for trainers and adult teachers. The produced learning materials capture many important topics in the adult education field and raise awareness of the different aspects in relation to adults' learner-centeredness.

DevelopDesign®
Mari-Liis Järg

Learning material: How to Select Teaching Methods Suitable for Adults? Author: Mari-Liis Järg, adult educator, DevelopDesign® “It was so good to participate in a course, where the entire content was not simply the teacher’s monologue,“ said a participant at the end of one course. I was surprised. It made me wonder how it can still be possible that in 2021

Learning material: Learning Starts with Mapping

📣 Our project team wrote a series of learning materials for trainers and adult teachers. The produced learning materials capture many important topics in the adult education field and raise awareness of the different aspects in relation to adults' learner-centeredness.

🎯Learning material vol1!

DevelopDesign®
Kristel Jalak

Learning material: Learning Starts with Mapping Author: Kristel Jalak, educator-consutant, DevelopDesign® In his book A Short History of the Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson gives an example of the explanation of the M-theory of quantum physics to the so-called common man, “The exyrotic process begins in the indefinitely distant past with a pair

During March 2022, the Slovak partner topcoach.sk organized a series of pilot trainings for our Erasmus + project.
During these trainings and meetings, the trainers had the opportunity to learn techniques and tools when working with adults, especially in the context of working with disadvantaged and unemployed adults.
The project is awaiting for the final multiplier event in Tartu on April 27, 22.

Thank you for our project partner from Latvia - Organizācijas attīstības centrs Spring Valley - who hosted us in Riga. Finally we could meet again!

Fun facts

✅ It was our first and final physical meeting with the project team! Due the pandemic we had to implement almost everything via online, but we made it. The project main results – the curriculum and toolkit – are in finale phase and will be made public soon.
✅ The 32nd project month is running, and we have 23 days left (counted from 8 April)
✅ We are looking forward to the Multiplier Event “How to re-lay a good foundation for learning in adulthood?” in Estonia, Tartu.

On April 8, 22, the last project meeting for the Effect project took place in Riga, Latvia. Subsequently, at the end of April, the final multiplication event awaits us, where we will present all outputs of this project.

Pilot courses are in motion by Spring Valley (Organizācijas attīstības centrs) in Latvia! 👏

Jaunu darba nedēļu uzsākam ar lielu gandarījuma sajūtu – veiksmīgi noslēgušās Erasmus+ projekta Effect’21 ietvaros izstrādātās mācību programmas “Praktiski rīki pasniedzējiem pieaugušo mācību efektivitātes uzlabošanai” pirmās pilotapmācības. Virkni vērtīgu atziņu ir guvuši gan to dalībnieki, gan arī mēs.

Galvenais secinājums – līdzīgi kā darbā ar bērniem un pusaudžiem, arī mācot pieaugušos izaicinājumu netrūkst.

Īpaši sarežģīts ir darbs ar mazizglītotiem pieaugušajiem “studentiem”, jo viņiem nereti “pieklibo” motivācija iesaistīties mācību procesā pilnvērtīgi un apgūt jaunas nākotnes darbam nepieciešamās zināšanas un iemaņas. To veicina galvenokārt psiholoģiskie šķēršļi, ko veicina zemās sociālās prasmes. Tomēr tieši no šīm zināšanām un iemaņām ir ļoti lielā mērā atkarīga šo cilvēku turpmākās dzīves kvalitāte. Tāpēc pasniedzējiem ir jāmeklē iespējas pielāgot mācību saturu un metodes ne vien šo cilvēku vēlmēm un vajadzībām, bet arī spējām un iespējām!

Paldies Liepājas Universitāte par viesmīlību, bet mācību dalībniekiem – dažādu programmu pasniedzējiem, – par aktīvo iesaisti mācību procesā!

Kas tālāk?

Septembrī mums šī projekta ietvaros ir paredzētas vēl divas pilotapmācību grupas. Pēc tām kopā ar partneriem no Igaunijas un Slovākijas pievērsīsimies mācību programmas pilnveidei ar mērķi padarīt to vēl efektīvāku, vēl jaudīgāku, vēl universālāku.

📣 Today we started in Estonia with the third pilot group!

Täna tegime algust Navi seltsimajas koostöös Loome OÜ-ga (DevelopDesign kaubamärgi esindaja) koolitajate Kadri Kõivu ja Mari-Liis Järg`iga kolmanda pilootkoolituse grupiga, kes õpivad ERASMUS+ rahvusvahelise koostööprojekti EFFECT raames välja arendatud õppekaval.

🔍 Koolitajate koolitusel on erilise luubi all koolitamise tõhusus- millised on need olulised printsiibid, mis võimaldavad parimal võimalikul viisil õppida

🔍 Otsitakse vastuseid muuhulgas küsimustele: meetodid ja nende valiku põhimõtted- kuidas üldse valikuid teha ja milline on optimaalne koolituse ülesehitus? Ajusõbralik ja tõhus?

Lisaks Navil toimuvale koolitusgrupile, toimub seesugune koolitus veel ka Pärnus ja Räpinas. Meie partnerid Lätis ja Slovakkias viivad ellu samasisulisi pilootkoolitusi.

Rohkem infot projekti kohta leiad siit: http://kasvulava.ee/projektid/
https://www.developdesign.eu/
Ja Facebookist lehelt "Effect"

Piloting has finally started!

⛳️Our project has moved to the piloting phase. Starting from the second half of August the first pilot course started in Latvia, followed by a second group in the beginning of September. Two more groups in September will start in Estonia. And there are more to come.

📣In total there will be 9 pilot courses carried out in Estonia, Latvia and Slovakia for testing the developed curriculum and toolkit with 100 adult teachers/trainers who deal with adult learners.
🇱🇻 🇸🇰 🇪🇪

“Participating teachers will be more motivated, methodologically prepared and open minded to adults in their training groups. The idea to develop and test this curriculum is to increase the adult learning efficiency. The adult trainer's knowledge and methodological approaches are crucial for achieving more learning efficiency. The methodological development is focused especially on how to support developing general skills, including for example social skills, learning skills etc.”

Still on online mode: From expert to expert - one of the main ideas of the project!

In the beginning of March we gathered again via online for the second part of our short-term training event, which originally should have taken place in Latvia. The first part of this event happened in the beginning of August 2020. Then it became really clear that we can not travel and we decided to continue via online - our virtual travel was about to begin! Since that we have stayed on this track!

This has not always been easy but opened up another world for international cooperation, full of challenges and experiences - until now there has been a lot of talk about digital skills and their importance. But now they are essential for making it work. And all our partners have worked hard. But in relation to our project and it’s main aim it is not anymore only about the challenge to co-operate via online, the global pandemic has changed our vision about the training process as well - we are working especially hard to adapt it to the "new reality" and maintain the benefits of face-to-face trainings.

We are now in the phase of curriculum development, where we have ready the first version of learning outcomes, main principles and each country's training plans.

This time we organised the short-term training event so that every partner organisation could share the methods/approaches of their training plans, which others wanted to know more about. So it was like a methods fair and from expert to expert session. All concluded to “steal something from another” due the fact they got interested to use it in their training plans as well. This captured one of the main ideas of this cooperation project - to share and gain professional expertise from different country partners educational training organisations. With the bigger aim to develop a curriculum with the focus on learning efficiency and helping to support teachers/educators who are involved with learners, who might not have that good earlier learning experiences and learning skills.

From our session we found it especially interesting - the ABCD method, the 4 C model and the roles of the facilitative trainer.

Continuing via online: the reality of our Erasmus+ project Effect …

In the beginning of November all four partner organisations from Estonia, Latvia and Slovakia gathered in Zoom to continue with our short-term training events. The Estonians and Latvians “e-flyed” to Slovakia, meaning as there are still due the Covid crises no options for us to meet in person, we continued in online mode. Our aim is to stay on the project track and introduce each other our organisations common practices and training themes, with the mission to develop along the project activities a curriculum with the special focus on increasing learning efficiency, learner-centeredness and basic skills of adult learners.

This time it was the turn of topcoach.sk from Slovakia. Topcoach is an innovative educational organisation, which has rich experiences in the design of trainings and workshops, to educate adults and youth. They have created their own keynote format leTalk and in-house academy for future leaders called NewLeaders Academy.

In this online session we focused on gamification, motivation and feedback in the training process. Ingrid Schostokova Krupickova introduced us to the topic gamification, and not only introduced, but also allowed us to experience it. For the bigger part of the participants gamification was known more or less, but not used as much. The session gave a glimpse to it as an option, but also questions arose – how to hold the balance in the learning process, so “playing” would not take over the deeper focusing. All agreed it needs more reading into, thinking and practicing.

The topic related to motivation of participants in training was addressed by Jana Lednarova and giving feedback in the training process by Zora Inka Groholova.
Amongst many other key principles for creating a learning environment which supports the learners self-directedness, the concept of a fixed and growth mindset, achieved special attention and should definitely be one of the core themes in our designed curriculum.
We as well got a reading tip from Zora - Radical Candor by Kim Scott hits the waves in the professional circle of coaches and trainers.

But there is more to discover of the experiences of Topcoach - in spring 2021 we still hope to really fly to Slovakia to continue our short-term training event. When it is not possible, we continue in online mode. Until then we can already use the experiences in our curriculum development process. Right now every partner organisation is working on their training plans.