Low Literacy at Play

<< Background >>With the LoLit project, our consortium of five interdisciplinary organizations aimed to increase knowledge about aging, literacy and digital skills, self-management and active engagement of senior citizens with fewer basic skills such as low literacy. About 24 to 40 million older Europeans have low literacy; i.e. difficulty with reading and understanding an instructional leaflet, and often coincides with lesser digital skills. Low literacy is linked to negative health behavior and poor outcomes, wellbeing, mental health and societal engagement. Although this group of seniors is clearly at risk of adverse outcomes, they are considered to have limited learnability, are not included in current educational offers and are approached mainly for what they can't do. On top of this, often they do not consider their literacy as main problem but rather the anxiety, communication problems, lack of confidence and social contact that result from this. In recent years, education for this group has virtually disappeared, whereas an appropriate educational approach is needed and desired for this target group to foster inclusion, participation and basic skills for them.<< Objectives >>Our overall goal was to meet the learning needs of older individuals with lower basic skills (such as low (health/digital) literary) and minimize socio-economic disparities. We had three objectives: The first being the development of a flexible, pedagogical approach and learning trajectory that centers on the actual learning needs of older adults throughout Europe. Secondly, we aimed to provide older European citizens living in more disadvantaged conditions the right tools to access and interpret information in such a way that they are better prepared for future obstacles (life events) but also crises such as the COVID pandemic. To meet both objectives we proposed an innovative non- traditional learning approach, using co-creation and based on meaningful play and collaborative learning. Our third objective was to create awareness about the learning needs of seniors with fewer basic skills amongst professionals and volunteers working in the field of adult education and build a community of potential trainers. This was done by involving local stakeholders throughout the project and by delivering a guideline, hand-outs and micro-learning and an freely available and accessible platform for professionals.<< Implementation >>We started our project by looking into meaningful play principles as a first step towards developing the methodologies for teaching. We then did a scoping review of current meaningful play and collaborative learning examples (Project Result 1). We also engaged our target audience of adult learners to discover what it is that they would like to know more about in relation to aging, and we asked them during our co-creation sessions (7 sessions, approx. 66 adults involved). Adult learners indicated that they would show up if they could socialize and share their experiences. Few indicated literacy skills as a learning target (this was input for our transnational project meeting I). We then continued to develop our course after a mid-term LTTA in which we established the themes for our course and our core methodology (May 2022). We then continued to develop the course principles and play elements (e.g. cards, games, May-September 2022). After which we ran our pilots (A2-4) using the developed materials for approx. 84 participants. During the course pilots we discussed up to 5 themes, with sessions ranging from 1.5 to 2 hours. Depending on the wishes of the participants we had various ways of providing the sessions (see PR1). After this implementation, we evaluated the course and on the basis of this organized our national multiplier events (ME in Copenhagen, Amsterdam and Coimbra). We then starting co-creating our training for professionals, resulting in a micro-learning which we piloted in September-November 2023 for approx. 50 prospective trainers, again together with partners involved in the MEs. During the same period we developed a toolkit and guideline on the basis of this to further support future similar endeavors which we published and made available on a platform in four different languages.<< Results >>Concrete resultsPR1 Blended course for seniors with fewer basic skills (such as low (health/digital) literacy): a course based on meaningful play and collaborative learning now containing five themes and various play-based and meaningful formats that allow seniors to express and share experiences (peer-learning) and develop their skills together. Trainers can (with PR2) use and develop the materials further as well as additional themes.PR2 Blended training for professionals and volunteers: a training for prospective professionals and volunteers that allows them to provide the course for older adults in various form. A micro-learning consisting of 6 newsletters, downloadable from the platform, is available that guides them step-by-step. Each microlearning consists of 5-6 learning nugget. Participants can, if they wish, find further information when clicking on the links in these nuggets. Additional material and background is to be found on our platform.PR3 Toolkit: a toolkit for professionals and volunteers that provides with all material, guideline, handouts, templates and background information for providing a course Healthy ageing through play to seniors. All material can be read online on our platform www.lolit.eu and can be (separately) downloaded from the platform. All material as well as the platform is available in four languages.PR4 Scientific paper: This paper discusses the pedagogical principles and co-creation of our educational programme and the impact as well as evaluation of the course. The paper is to be published open access (in preparation at the time of writing).OutputO1 Meaningful play and collaborative learning overview (literature study) and information sheetsO2 Play cards for use with the course activities: available in four different languages and about five themesO3 Overview of examples of meaningful play based education initiatives: several handouts providing trainers with guidelines on how to integrate exercises in their courseO4 Toolkit for LOLit: downloads providing all the material and templates needed to provide a course Healthy ageing through playO5 Guideline: brief handbook supported by a microlearning that enables trainers to provide the course Healthy ageing through play with practical tips, tricks and advice