From the 5th to the 10th of May, 2014 the Lithuanian Association of Adult Education held the workshop of Iceberg of Literacy (Iceberg of Literacy, ICoL, 2013-1-LT1-GRU13-09823) under the Grundtvig program in Vilnius. 19 adult educators from 9 countries (Latvia, Estonia, Germany, Ireland, Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria, Finland and Greece) participated.
At the beginning professor Valdas Dienys presented the problem of (il)literacy in the contemporary context of education and learning. The participants presented the situation of (il)literacy in their countries.
Later on participants had group discussions on “visible” and “invisible” elements of (il)literacy, which were visualized as the images of iceberg of literacy. On the last day the images of iceberg were looked over again in order to reflect and evaluate the experience gained by participants during the workshop.
The main attention was paid to the ways to improve the competencies of adult educators working on the issue of adult literacy, where fostering the motivation for literacy of adult learners is of utmost importance. The participants shared the successful methods which they apply when working with various groups: immigrants, disabled people, young adults etc. The methods were demonstrated in a practical way involving the colleagues of the workshop. The different possibilities of using the methods and their possible modifications were discussed in the group.
A certain part of the program was dedicated to the developing of new ideas for literacy education and creating new methods and tasks. The participants in groups of 4 to 5 were challenged to explore the untraditional learning spaces (markets, railway stations, cemeteries, old town etc.) as an inspiration to create inovative tasks. The new tasks were created, described and shared with the colleagues.
The experience of Lithuanian adult educators in literacy education was shared by Jolanta Labutyte (the Lithuanian language teacher of Vilnius “Varpas” adult school) and Ksenija Kolomina (the Lithuanian language teacher of Soros International House).
The evalutions of the workshop by the participants, the opinion of moderators and organizers clearly prove the importance and success of the event.
The e-publication on methods from “Iceberg of Litteracy” were created:
