Teaching adults to read

Teaching and working with illiterate adult learners might not be as simple as many of us think. This being the case, Archbishop Mihayo University College of Tabora (AMUCTA) has developed the adult literacy mentors’ training manual in partnership with Finnish institutions (Niilo Mäki Institute, University of Jyväskylä, and University of Helsinki) together with the Kenya Institute of Special Education (KISE), Kenya; University of Namibia (UNAM), Namibia; and University of Zambia (UNZA), Zambia.

The mentors’ training manual is the guiding document/road map for preparing facilitators to train illiterate adults on literacy programmes and/or other related relevant programmes. The document contains important information and skills needed when teaching and working with adult learners in different contexts. The manual can be used either by trainers of trainers for adult learners or by adult learners’ mentors when preparing literacy lessons. Therefore, this manual offers facilitators of adult literacy learning the necessary approaches, methods and techniques for organising literacy programmes. It also explains how to involve adult learners in the actual planning, implementation and evaluation process. The manual is designed to guide facilitators through the training process, supporting them to better understand, design, organise, conduct and evaluate adult literacy learning.

This training manual has five units, as follows:

Unit One: Overview of adult education

Unit Two: Adult learning context

Unit Three: Integrating the REFLECT approach with other socio-economic activities

Unit Four: Methods of teaching literacy to adults

Unit Five: Monitoring and evaluating adult literacy programmes

Each unit is divided into several topics, starting with an explanation of the purpose of the unit and an outline of the topic, which is laid out in the following way:

1. Introduction
2. Objectives
3. Time
4. Necessary teaching and learning aids
5. Procedure and main points to be learned
6. Assessment
7. Follow-up activities

You can access the Training Manual Here.