Adult students don’t need literacy for its own sake – literacy needs are always linked to other life goals. Most adult students know what they need and why they want to learn – so how can we always put them at the very center of their own learning process?

In this session, we will:

• Take a look at the 6 Drivers of Persistence developed by the New England Literacy Resource Center, and discuss ways they can be incorporated into your program structure;
• Talk about how building your programs around Adult Learner Persistence principles can help learners to “stick with it”, learn more, and increase in confidence,
• Look at the close links between Adult Learner Persistence and Plain Language, and
• Discuss some practical ways you can embed the principles in your adult literacy programs.

Registration is open now for this free virtual event.

Presenter: Kathryn Bauchelle

Kathryn has a background in education and languages, with degrees in language acquisition, literature, and education from the University of Sydney, Australia. She worked as a teacher of foreign languages and English literature in high schools in Australia and the UK, and served as a Head of Faculty for Modern Languages. Her work with the Jubilee Debt Campaign, a London-based NGO, fueled her interest in social justice and community work, leading her to volunteer as an ESL tutor with Literacy Advance following her move to the United States in 2008.

She joined the Literacy Advance staff in 2009 as the Volunteer Manager, became Program Director in 2011, and then VP of Programs & Partnerships in 2017, working closely with both Programs and Development staff. After the successful merging of Literacy Advance with Memorial Assistance Ministries in 2019, Kathryn moved to consultancy work, including her part-time work with Literacy Texas. Kathryn continues to love adult literacy and learning, and found the Adult Learner Persistence Principles to be transformational when she was researching ways to structure the programs she was directing.