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About the project

The project supports digital transformation plans of adult-education institutions by increasing the capacity and readiness not only of the institutions, but also of their learners, by providing learners, teachers and adult education center managers with the skills and knowledge to manage an effective shift towards digital education. The project provides a targeted, purposeful use of digital technologies in adult education for supportive teaching, learning, assessment and engagement. The project will develop a series of digital pedagogy skills and competence for teachers, with the aim of encouraging and supporting learners to adopt a critical thinking, reflective and metacognitive approach to their own learning journey. The project’s result will further develop existing European digital frameworks to create a bespoke set of tools to support vulnerable, underrepresented adult learners both personally and professionally. The project addresses the improvement of high-quality learning opportunities for vulnerable, low-skilled and NEET adult learners by providing them with upskilling opportunities to be able to manage their own learning journey, monitor and evaluate their own progress, and ultimately build their metacognitive capacity to adapt to continue learning through self-motivation during challenging situations, such as the Covid-19 pandemic.

Ultimately the project objectives are:

  • To create a clear and direct upskilling pathway for vulnerable and low-skilled adult learners, to improve their accessibility to uncommon, yet very important skills;
  • To support the increase in the take-up of adult education through increasing the ability of adults with a low level of skills, knowledge and competences to successfully complete adult education courses and qualifications;
  • To improve mentoring and guidance skills in educators as a service to ensure that adult learners have relevant learning capacity throughout life with their metacognitive skills;
  • To provide resources, training and support to provide effective outreach, guidance and motivation strategies to adult learners.

The expected results are:

  • Metacognitive Best Practice Handbook – which will gather and analyze best practices in the use of metacognitive activities to support reflective and self-directed learning in adult education learning environments, specifically amongst low-skilled and NEET adult learners;
  • Metacognitive Competence Framework – an effective method to assess, maintain, and monitor learners’ metacognitive knowledge, skills and attitudes and progress towards them;
  • Metacognitive Learner Interactive e-Course – which will provide a 30-hour course aimed at introducing, explaining and encouraging low-skilled/educated adult learners through a series of engaging, interactive modules which cover each competence of the metacognitive framework in detail;
  • Metacognitive Supporter e-Course – a 15-hour e-Course and supporting CPD resources will upskill, reskill and focus adult educators and trainers to have the skills and knowledge to be able to actively provide support and guidance to adult learners’ self-directed and reflective learning activities relating to their metacognitive skills.
  • Metacognition Change Management Toolkit – which will provide key resources to adult education organizations and their leaders to support their teachers and learners to make a sustainable transition to the integration of metacognition within their existing adult education learning environment.

The project activities are:

  • Conducting research and analysis on best practices in metacognitive activities in order to improve adult education learning possibilities;
  • Creating effective and innovative methods and methodologies in order to assess, maintain and improve metacognitive knowledge and skills for adult learners through the creation of learning opportunities and digital education;
  • Producing high quality interactive e-Course and toolkit which will provide educational opportunities for low skilled adult learners (especially NEET) and will upskill and reskill adult educators in order to better meet leaners needs by testing the products realized with them.

The expected impact of the project on vulnerable, low-skilled, NEET adult learners is: improved self-awareness, heightened critical thinking skills, improved personal development and management skills, increased employability and productivity, personal empowerment and independence.

Also, the expected impact on adult education staff and teachers is: deeper awareness of key metacognitive competences, understanding of metacognitive regulation, knowledge and practical application of how to manage a learner through planning, monitoring, evaluation and reflection phases, increased awareness of types of metacognitive learners, understanding of the limitations and appropriateness of metacognition, increased accessibility to and awareness of a wider bank of training material and resources.