4 Identification of needs and interests of adults

Ms. Nishat Farooq

 Content Outline

•  Objectives of the module
•  Purpose of need assessment of target learners
•  Pre-planning for identification of need and problems
•  Method of Data collection
•  Observation
•  Interview
•  Unconventional methods
•  New Participatory (NP) Method
•  Conclusion

Objectives of the module

After completing the module, the learner will be able to

1. Describe purpose of identification of needs and problems of target learners/neo-literates.
2. Explain methods of identification of needs, problems and interests of learners/neo-literates.
3. State process of classifying and analysing survey data

Meera, Rashida and Manu live in same village and read in same literacy centre. Meera likes to read about cooking but Asha loves embroidery design books.

Books on skill development does not interest Rashida, she is interested in learning about mother and child care.

Books on environment cleanliness and personal hygiene are Manu’s weakness, whereas Deepika is interested in politics and Indian history.

It means even in same literacy class and village, there are differences among learners’ interests and preferences. Their needs, problems and interests are different. Why it is so and how to find out what will interest most of the learners?

It is a known fact that life of adult learners is usually full of worries and problems. They have very little leisure time for reading books and even if they have time, they would like to read books which really interest them. It has been observed that adult learners and neo-literates like such material which quench their curiosity and give them pleasure and enjoyment. Materials do not attract them unless it stimulates the urge to read. Therefore, the first step in development of material is to identify the needs, problems and interest of learners. It is quite a technical step. In the present module, we will learn about conventional and unconventional methods of identification of needs and interests of learners and the main issues to be focussed during identification of need and interests of learners.

Purpose of need assessment of target learners/neo-literates

The first step in development and production of adult education material is to collect and analyse the data concerning needs, problems and interest of target learners. This is important because:

3. Material should provide solution to learners’ problems and needs– It is essential that material prepared must be based and linked with learners’ problems and needs to help them improve their quality of life. Objective of adult education is to bring positive changes in the life of learners. It is to help them learn how to meet their own and community needs more effectively.
4. Material should be accepted by the learners Although Teaching learning materials are just a part of educational and development efforts, still it may play important role if it is liked and accepted by the learners. It is a known fact that materials are more acceptable if learners’ needs, problems and interests are reflected in it. Moreover, the differences among learners’ age, health, living condition, work, income, belief, experiences, etc. make their reading preferences and interests very diverse. It means learners profile also play important role in their reading interest. Thus, the material developers and producers need to have a deep understanding of the learners’ and community’s strengths, problems and special characteristics.
5. Materials are resources for new knowledge and skills Material should also provide new knowledge and skills to learners. this is not possible without knowing the learners background. Appropriate, relevant and useful information can be provided only after getting full knowledge about learners’ occupation, income, culture, health condition, food habits, beliefs, values, etc.

In order to do this the material developer and producer need a deep understanding of the community’s strengths, problems and special characteristics. Together with the learners and community people the material developer need to consider:

1. Needs of people

• Local problems that effects people’s well-being and their causes
• Other problems effecting their lives
• What people feel to be their biggest problems and needs

2. Social, economic and cultural factors

• Beliefs, customs and habits that affects their life
• Family and social structures.
• Traditional forms of problem solving
• Ways in which community people relate to each other
• Who controls whom
• Education system (how people learn)
• Political system, etc.

3. Resources

• Land, crops, food, fuel, water, power resources, etc.
• Market, transportation, communication, health facilities
• Availability of work, livelihood, earnings in relation to cost of living
• Local leaders, story tellers, teachers, health workers, artists, craftsmen, people with special skills, etc.

People in a village/community already know most of essential facts from their own experiences. They need to understand

• How do the combined effect of these – need, social, economic, cultural factors and resources affect their life and well-being?
• How can their quality of life and well-being be improved by using some, and changing or reorganising others facts?

All the above information can be collected by actually visiting villages/community. Without knowing the actual situation of the target learners by field-visit, suitable and beneficial material cannot be developed for them.

The general problems that concerns learners are usually poverty, ill health, ignorance, shortage of resources, etc. Around such general problems need-based, relevant, appropriate and useful material cannot be developed. The data collected from the field by the material producer himself is used to break down these general problems into specific sub-problems. For example, problem of ill health can be broken down into sub problems of malnutrition, tetanus, diarrhoea, malaria, malnutrition caused due to poverty, and many other.

Pre-planning for identification of need and problems

Before beginning field work following questions should be considered for successful survey and better results:

What is the size of community whose needs have to be assesses?

Entire county?  Whole state? District? Block? Or village?

The bigger the community, the more work is involved – different study methods would have to be used for a large community than for a small one.

How much human resource is available to do the work?

An individual? A small group of people? A larger organization?

How much time is available to complete the task?

Fortnight? A week? A month? As much time as it takes?

More in depth requires more time.

What financial resources are available?

If available, resources for copying or printing and to support human resources (time) can be helpful.

There are no set rules or right approach for gathering needed information in a community. Still with the experience several methods have come up which are adopted for identification of need and problems of learners. Whatever method is adopted following are the pre-requisites to be considered before beginning data collection:

1. Decide objective

• Clearly identify objective of data collection
• Decide upon the content of data collection in detail. Unclear and incomplete content planning can result in overall failure of the survey.

2. Clearly decide the target group

• Male/female
• Age group
• Occupational group
• Classification by issue

3. Method to be used for data collection

• Observation
• Interview – (a) structured (b) unstructured
• Focus group discussion
• Unconventional method

4. Selection of investigators

• Such persons are selected as investigator who can get maximum and authentic information
• It is always useful to involve local people in gathering the information

5. Preparation for compilation of data

• Prepare in advance for compilation and organization of data so that needed information could be available for use as soon as possible

Method of Data collection

To identify the learning needs of learners, it is most important to understand their daily life. Meeting with learners inside and outside learning centres may help in understanding their learning needs in better way. Some common methods used to assess their needs and problems are as follows:

Observation

Observation, in a setting in which observer is not interfering with normal life of people, is used to gather first hand data about respondents’ and their community’s strengths and weaknesses.

By observing the living conditions of the target group, their problems, needs and interests can be identified to a large extent. Observation means in depth observation on the situation of the target group, e.g. observing their food, water, eating habits, clothing, health, recreation, house, environment, population, communication facilities, spiritual activities, etc.

Observation can be made in structured or unstructured manner. Observation tools are used for structured observation. Observation tools have questions based on the objectives of the survey. For observation material producer visits people’s homes and get to know them. While observing their life information is also gathered in friendly and casual manner. Observer can gather as much information by watching the way people act and do things as much by asking questions. A good observer has to learn to look and listen.

Interview

Interview is a method to gauge opinion and perceptions by using a series of predetermined questions. This tool allows respondents to comment on different issues concerning their life and allows interviewers to ask in depth questions about their needs and problems. It is a good method to find out needed information. Effective interview is not conducted in mechanical way. Good interview is conducted in a way that it becomes a learning experience for those being questioned. Effort is made to ask questions that not only seek information but also get people thinking and looking at things in new ways.

Questions are avoided on issues for which accurate official records are available. For example, official medical records may provide important health information. Respondent are also selected carefully. Depending on the objective of need assessment respondents may be community leaders and target group. Under leader’s category unofficial opinion leaders as well as local authorities are included. Leaders are selected among teachers, head of village, Sarpanch and panchas (elected village leaders), government officials, religious leaders, youth leaders, other prominent people in the community, etc. Sampling technique is used to limit the respondents.

Interview may be structured or unstructured. While interviewing people following care is taken-

• To interview learners/neo-literates surveyor go to their homes/centre. Information is gathered in friendly manner as Information learned in casual friendly manner is often more true and useful.
• Efforts are made to find out what problems people feel are most important or want to solve first. Surveyors also try to learn what ideas they have for solving them.
• Only such information is asked that makes sense.
• It is also ensured that people understand why the information is needed.
• Surveyors are instructed to be honest and open about purpose of the visit.
• Local people are also involved in gathering the information.
• Surveyors avoid writing notes when person is talking and replying the question. They listen carefully and remember and write notes later.

Unconventional methods

Sometimes it becomes difficult to identify real needs and interests of people through observation and interview only. Quite often people are reluctant to share their felt needs. To extract more information about their problems and needs some unconventional methods are also used. Main unconventional methods used are as follows:

1. Poster method

A village situation, depicting the problems noticed or envisaged by the material producer/surveyor is drawn on a poster paper. This poster is used to initiate discussion. A group of 20-30 people/learners from the area are asked to comment on the problems. Problems are taken one by one. Only one problem is discussed at a time. Comments of respondents are noted down. The people are encouraged to make comments on other problems also which are not depicted in the poster.

2. Serialized poster method

A set of 5-15 posters is developed for the purpose. Each poster has certain picture which can be interpreted as a problem. Group of people are asked to arrange the posters in any sequence and tell story based on the posters. Problems, needs and interest of people are identified from the story they tell.

3. Flexiplan

Flexiplan is a set of small flexible cut outs of human figures and other objects related to life of learners and village situation. First of all, pictures are drawn on thick paper or cardboard and then cut out. The figures are flexible, drawn in way that they may be changed in different positions. For example, human figures may be in shape of walking, running, sitting, etc. positions. These figures are spread in front of respondents and they are asked to choose and arrange flexiplan on flannel board, to illustrate their own real-life situation. After that questions are asked about the problems emerging out of arrangement of flexiplan. Flexiplan may be made out of old newspaper or leaves etc. also and it can be arranged on the ground instead of flannel cloth.

4. Group discussion

Another method of assessing needs, problems and interests of target groups is group discussion. Group discussions are organised with target group, community leaders and other concerned people.

5. Participatory Rural Appraiser (PRA)

Participatory rural appraisal (PRA) is a set of participatory and largely visual techniques for assessing group and community resources, identifying and prioritizing problems and appraising strategies for solving them. It is a research/planning methodology in which a local community studies an issue that concerns the population, prioritizes problems, evaluates options for solving the problem(s) and comes up with a Community Action Plan to address the concerns  that have been raised.

PRA is particularly concerned that the multiple perspectives that exist in any community are represented in the analysis and that the community itself takes the lead in evaluating its situation and finding solutions. Outsiders may participate as facilitators or in providing technical information but they should not ‘take charge’ of the process.

Many PRA techniques are used to learn about people’s socio-economic conditions. The types and process of implementing PRA depends on the area, socio-economic condition and attitude of people. Two techniques used for need assessment of adult learners are as follows:

Technique1. Preference Ranking

Preference Ranking can be conducted in a courtyard or on a big piece of paper in following sequence:

1. Material producer or anyone else starts discussion on a specific topic and asks others to share and discuss their major problems.
2. After that all the participants write their problems on small pieces of paper. One problem on one paper slip. They also write their names on small slips. Those who cannot write take help from others.
3. Participants arrange their written problems vertically on left side of a big paper/courtyard.
4. They arrange their name slips horizontally in a row.
5. First of all, one participant is asked to ranks the problems according to her/his priority. She/he prioritise three most crucial problems by putting 3, 2 and 1 stone chip or any other locally available material (seeds, leaves, buttons) on the statements (3 stones for most crucial, 2 for second most and 1 for third most crucial one). After that she/he is asked to explain the reason of her/his ranking.
6. All the participants are encouraged to rank the needs in the same manner.
7. In the end, number of chips for each problem are added up and most crucial problems of the community are identified.

Material producers/surveyors check the reason behind the preference ranking of each participant and asks questions to know the real cause of ranking without imposing his/her own opinion in their preference ranking. Preference Ranking can be done separately for children, adolescents, male, female to learn and compare their views separately.

Technique2. Community Mapping

Community Mapping is a learner-cantered technique of identifying needs and problems. In this method the respondents discuss the real-life situation of the village like land, property, social situation, etc. under guidance of a facilitator. After that they construct the social map or graphics on the ground with the help of locally available materials and discuss problems and needs using the map. Based on the discussion problems and needs related to issues like poverty, illiteracy, social problems, agriculture, livelihood etc. are identified.

New Participatory (NP) Method

New Participatory Method of ACCU is a simple method that allows involvement of facilitators, learners village leaders, etc. to participate together in data collection and its analysis. The two main stages involved in NP method are:

Stage1. Making a data map of problems

Stage2. Making a data map of solution for priority problems

All the participants involved in survey are divided in to smaller groups of 7 to 10 persons. Each group collects data from field through observation, discussion, interview, house visit etc. After collecting data all the groups sit together and share their experiences for 20 minutes. While sharing experiences every member has to express her/his experiences.

After sharing experiences, each member of the group writes down most crucial problems and needs observed on small slips of paper. Only one problem is written on one slip. Different colour slips are used for facilitators, learners and community leaders. Facilitators help them who cannot write.

After writing the slips each person takes turn to read out what she/he has written. Other members listen carefully so that slips could be classified according to similarity of content. Members classify all the slips into several categories and paste them on separate sheets of paper.

Each category is encircled to make ‘small islands’. A summarized sentence is written for each category integrating content of all the slips. Also, the number of slip in each category is indicated as a reference for prioritization. ‘Small islands’ under similar problems are grouped into ‘big islands’.

Prioritization of problems – Number of slips in each cluster is one of the criteria for prioritization. Other criteria are number of coloured slips that represent learners’ felt needs. Taking these criteria into consideration members discuss and select few most crucial problems for development of material.

For stage 2 same procedure is adopted to make map on solution to the top priority problems.

Classifying data according to ten basic aspects of life

Data collected through any method can be classified according to human needs. 10 basic aspects of life identified by Sarvodaya Development Education Institute of India, enumerate human needs as follows:

1. Essential for Life

1. Food
2. Clothing
3. Housing
4. Water
5. Health

 2. Socio-economic Life

1. Environment and population
2. Communication
3. Income
4. Education and Cultural Life
5. Cultural and spiritual

Classification of survey data through priority list

1. Preparation of priority list of surveyed data

• Data collected through any of the above method are organised and listed carefully, in order of priority of the particular target group.

2. Basic method of classifying survey data

• The collected data is arranged into separate categories of target group, issue, etc. in order of priority.
• Priority of needs and problems is identified by converting the data into percentage.
• Important or crucial items are taken up as the theme of material to be produced even if they show small percentage through discussion among surveyors, material producers and other experts.
• Statements made by learners, community people are also categorised and considered while setting up priorities. These statements become very important in development of materials as well.

Selection of theme for material development

Based on the priority list of problems and needs and taking into consideration factors such as probable solution to problems, national goals, etc. a learning curriculum for the target group are formed. Important or crucial items are taken up as the theme of material to be produced even if accorded minimal priority through discussion between surveyor, neo-literates, material producers and others.

Conclusion

Identification of problems, needs and interests of learners and neo-literates is the first and an important step in development of adult education materials. Proper assessment of learners’ problems, need and interest is crucial because adult education material should be need based and provide solution to learners’ real problems and needs. Moreover, materials are resource for the learners to provide new knowledge and skills. To identify the learning needs of learners, it is most important to understand their daily life. Need and problems of learners are identified through conventional methods like interview, survey and observation or unconventional methods like single poster or serialized poster method, group discussion, flexiplan, New participatory Method, Participatory Rural Appraisal, etc. Collected data are classified according to ten basic aspects of life – food, housing, water, health, environment and population, communication, income, education and culture and spiritual. Based on the priority list of problems and needs and taking into consideration factors such as probable solution to problems, national goals, etc. a learning curriculum for the target group is formed. Important or crucial items are taken up as the theme of material to be produced.