This report describes the processes and findings of a north east Learning and Skills Development Agency (LSDA) research project. This was a collaborative research study, which followed from a similar, much larger project in the north west, which looked into how learners view their own progress and achievement in the acquisition of literacy and numeracy. The present research took place between March 2003 and October 2003. The three major strands of this project were to: (1) produce new knowledge about north east learners' perceptions of progress and achievement in literacy and numeracy; (2) explore and develop the research instruments used in the north west project for involving literacy and numeracy learners in research, in particular the usefulness of the metaphor of a learning journey, in helping learners to talk about their experiences of learning; and (3) develop and further trial an approach to collaborative practitioner research into literacy and numeracy issues. This research project does not support the claims of the north west project, that the use of the learning journey metaphor alone is capable of developing learner confidence and the skills of critical enquiry. The authors of this report recommend that programs for supporting literacy and numeracy need to be extended to include the development of the underpinning "skills, knowledge and dispositions central to their acquisition and development, not just those that are easy to assess" (Black & Wiliam 2003). Adult literacy and numeracy programs need, therefore, to be extended to include the progressive development of learner confidence, the skills of critical enquiry, strategies for learning to learn and the integration of learning aims with personal, social and psychological realities and "organising circumstances" (Hamilton 1998) of everyday life.