The Adult Education Practitioner Training in Latvia

KomPas: 160-hour Training Course
(Kompetences pasniedzçjiem = Competences for educators)

by the Latvian National Project group

The Further Education Course KomPas has been developed within the project L4S, which was funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers and implemented by the Nordic Folk Academy, the Latvian Adult Education Association, the Lithuanian Association for Adult Education and the Estonian Non-formal Adult Education Association. One of the main goals of this project was to create in the three Baltic countries modern educational programmes for practitioners who work in the field of adult education.

To fulfil this goal:

• Nordic and Baltic experts of adult education defined criteria for a good adult educator and elaborated an evaluation scheme.
  
• Nordic countries experience in training adult educators was examined.
  
• A number of international and national working groups analysed needs in the further training of adult educators and elaborated recommendations for the new educational programme.

The outcome of this work has been taken into consideration in creating the KomPas Curriculum.

Curriculum

Requirements for Participants

The goal of KomPas is to raise the professional competence of practitioners of adult education. No requirements in regard to former formal education are raised. The decisive factor is whether the attendant is actively involved in the field of adult learning – e.g. as a teacher, mentor, coach, leader or consultant.

Objective of KomPas

The objective of the Course is to raise the competence of teachers in adult education.

Competences
KomPas creates an understanding about adult learning and adult education. It promotes the following competences:

• Planning and organisation of educational programmes;
  
• Implementation and supervision of teaching and learning processes;
  
• Process and result evaluation.

Criteria
The competences mentioned above are fostered by focusing on the following personal and professional development criteria:

Self-esteem – appreciating one’s worth and importance and being accountable for oneself and acting responsibly towards others.

Tolerance – the ability to demonstrate fairness and understanding to people whose way of thinking and opinions differ from one’s own.

Responsibility – being responsible for one’s actions, considering the result and effects in advance.

Communication skills – to foster dialogue in the learning process by developing the ability to listen actively, to transmit information in written or oral form; the ability to make oneself understood and to understand others.

Empathy – responsiveness.

Flexibility – the ability and willingness to change and achieve the best result, taking the permanently changing situation into account.

Knowledge about how adults learn and understanding the psychology of adults – knowledge about adult learning specifics, difference between pedagogy and andragogy; understanding of adult psychology. The ability to use the knowledge to help learners achieve better results in education and to develop their personality.

Knowledge of methods in adult education and learning – knowledge and ability to choose different ways of teaching and learning according to content of learning and participants’ interests, abilities and experience.

Skills to prepare value-based (democratic and humanistic) programmes – content of learning which emphasises learners’ capacities for choice and growth in combination with responsibility, respecting learners’ subjective experience and sense of freedom.

Planning and organisational skills – skills to plan one’s own and participants’ activities in the learning process and the ability to implement these plans.

Knowledge of the subject – good orientation in the subject in order to provoke students’ interest in it.

The ability to motivate for learning before, during and after the learning process – the ability to promote participants’ personal interest, involvement and activity in the learning process.

Developing the learning environment in accordance with students’ needs – focusing on self directed learning – learning organised in accordance with the learner’s individual growth and readiness for acquiring new knowledge independently, very often process based on knowing how to learn.

Skills to activate learners – the process of fulfilling learner potential on the basis of interest and discovery.

Skills for self-reflection and critical thinking – to raise awareness of the learning process and its results and to stimulate the ability for analysing and viewing things and matters from different points of view.

Participants’ Experience
In the beginning of the Course the level of experience of each participant is assessed. This information is taken into account in the teaching process in order to ensure a purposeful development of competences.

Course Structure and Content
KomPas consists of four parts:

• Adult education in today’s society, how do adults learn, adult psychology;
  
• Planning and organisation of educational programmes;
  
• Organisation and implementation of the teaching process;
  
• Process and result evaluation.

Methods
KomPas is based on the experience of each participant. The Course is organised in the following way:

• Interactive lectures (approx. 20%);
  
• Participants’ activities in regard to the content of the lectures, e.g. discussions and group work (approx. 30%);
  
• Participants’ own performance, e.g. presentations and teachings (approx. 50%).

The following methods will be used in the Course:

Individual work – Discussion groups;

Group work – Sharing of experience;

Self-study – Role-play;

Lectures – Projects;

Literature research – Practitioners’ research;

ICT – Practice.

Evaluation

The evaluation is organised in accordance with the KomPas criteria.
Main means of the evaluation process are methods of reflection and practitioners’ research, such as participants’ own practice, observation and feedback, analysis of documents prepared by participants, portfolio.
After completing the Course the participant receives a certificate. In order to receive the certificate, a participant may not miss more than 20% of the lessons.

Further educational possibilities

KomPas is designed for practitioners of adult education. After finishing the course, possibilities for the participants will be provided to continue sharing experience and good practice on a regular basis.
The Course is a good foundation for continuing studies in the included areas, such as, leadership, human resources development, psychology of adults, pedagogy, and andragogy.

Educators

KomPas is implemented by a team of educators. Each member of this team has to have at least three years’ experience in teaching adults, he/she has to demonstrate a high level of competence in the criteria mentioned in terms of reference of the curriculum, needs good knowledge of the Course content as it is outlined (see table no.1), and he/she has to continue to raise his/her own competence by studying, attending courses or involvement in educational projects on a regular basis, but at least every second year.

Materials

The Latvian Adult Education Centre in co-operation with the Latvian Adult Education Association provides all materials that are required for successfully implementing KomPas. This includes a Training Manual, web-based resource materials, and a Internet communication platform.

KomPas Curriculum (See Tables 4–9)

Table 4. Introduction of KomPas (Click on link to open table in new window)

Table 4     Table 5     Table 6     Table 7     Table 8     Table 9

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