[AAACE-NLA] Boomerang Brings Deja Vu

[tsticht@znet.com]

April 22, 2007

Boomerang Brings Déjà Vu: The Rediscovery of
Functional Context Education in the 21st Century

Tom Sticht
International Consultant in Adult Education

>From 1915 to 1917 Cora Wilson Stewart wrote a series of readers for adult
literacy learners in Kentucky called  the Country Life Readers. In these
texts she integrated (embedded, contextuliazed) the teaching of reading and
writing within content related to work, home, and community areas of
interest to the rural populations of Kentucky. This included such content
as farm improvement, good roads, horticulture, sanitation, voting,  and so
forth. She said, "...each lesson accomplished a double purpose, the primary
one of teaching the pupil to read, and at the same time that of imparting
instruction in the things that vitally affected him in his daily life"
(Stewart, 1922, p. 71).

Jumping ahead quite a bit, in a recent internet discussion Susan Reid (2007)
of Workbase, an organization in New Zealand focused on adult language,
literacy, and numeracy (LLN) development of adults, reported that programs
have taken place in New Zealand and other nations that integrate the
teaching of LLN with the teaching of vocational, workforce, or other forms
of training. She went on to say what is almost a direct repeat of what Cora
Wilson Stewart had said nearly a century earlier, "The critical aspect of
integrated literacy is the concurrent development of the two sets of skills
together."

Elsewhere (Sticht, 1999a) I have referred to this idea of teaching LLN so
that the adult learner develops two kinds of knowledge and skill
concurrently, such as learning generally useful word recognition techniques
using work-related vocabulary, as providing "double duty dollars."  Instead
of investing in a literacy program and then a vocational program, you can
integrate the two and develop literacy while also developing vocational
skills. So you pay only once for the education but get two important
outcomes: improved LLN and workforce development.

Sticht, et al. (1987) report research on the Functional Literacy (FLIT)
program showing that in an integrated basic skills and job knowledge
program, students made as much or more gain in "general" literacy as was
made in general literacy programs that were not job-related. Importantly
however, the integrated program made over three to five times the amount of
gain in job-related reading as achieved by the general literacy program.

The book by Sticht et al. (1987) formed the basis for workshops and
presentations on Functional Context Education (FCE) in the U. S., U.K.,
Canada, and New Zealand. FCE includes a course design principle for
integrating basic skills and vocational or other important content areas
such as health, parenting, etc. The principles of FCE became the basis for
the National Workplace Literacy Program of the U. S. Department of
Education. Under that federally-funded program there were numerous
demonstrations of integrated LLN and vocational skills education. Sticht
(1999b) reports the results of several programs that integrated LLN with
job training and also provides a chapter on methods for evaluating
workplace literacy programs based on the requirements of the federal
government during the NWLP.

However, aside from the original research on the FLIT program, which was a
quasi-experimental research project comparing a general literacy program to
a job-related program, there has been very little experimental or
quasi-experimental research comparing the integrated approach to more
traditional courses of separate basic skills and vocational skills
education.

In one quasi-experimental study, Sticht, McDonald, & Erickson, (1998)
compared an Electronics Assembly Vocational English as a Second Language
(VESL) class which integrated vocational and ESOL together, a Vocational
class in Electronics Assembly (no ESOL instruction) and a conventional ESOL
class, not vocationally related. In all three courses pre- and post-test
data were obtained on a vocational vocabulary test related to electronics
training and a general literacy test (the Adult Basic Learning Exam-ABLE).
The data showed that the integrated VOCED+VESL program had greater gains on
the vocational vocabulary test than either of the comparison groups, as well
as a gain rate per 100 hours of instruction some 65 percent higher for
general reading (ABLE) than the general ESL program, and over 300 percent
greater than the VOCED program.

Casey, et. al (2006), working in the United Kingdom, reported research with
1,916 learners in 79 vocational courses with varying amounts of integrated
(what they called embedded) LLN.  Using a four point scale courses were
rated as non-embedded, partly embedded, mostly embedded, and fully
embedded. This provides a form of quasi-experimental design with a
treatment group (fully embedded) and three comparison groups. They reported
that,  "On the embedded courses retention was 16 per
cent higher
The embedded courses also had higher success rates than the
non-embedded courses. 
 For learners on the fully-embedded courses, 93 per
cent of those with an identified literacy need achieved a literacy/ESOL
qualification, compared to only 50 per cent for those on non-embedded
courses. 
 " (p. 5) They found similar results for fully embedded numeracy
courses.

In summary, at the present time, the Functional Context Education
principles, including that calling for the integration of basic skills with
vocational, workplace, health, and other important content areas, are
supported by almost a hundred years of professional wisdom from Cora Wilson
Stewart through the National Workplace Literacy Program of the late 1980s
into the 1990s, to the present and the largest body of scientific,
quasi-experimental research on adult vocational, English language, literacy
and numeracy instruction in the field of adult education. They provide a
solid foundation for evidence-based instruction in the Adult Education and
Literacy System of the United States and other English-speaking
industrialized nations.

In reading the message posted by Susan Reid, in which she explained that
Australia has been doing integrated LLN and vocational training since the
mid-1990s, I thought that there was something of a boomerang effect going
on. The research, concepts, and U. S. government policies of FCE, including
principles and methods for integrated workplace and workforce literacy were
disseminated out of the U. S. starting in the mid-1970s (see Sticht, 1975)
and early 1980s. Now, seven years into the 21st century, they are returning
back to the U.S. from Ireland, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and
Australia!

Heide Spruck Wrigley's (2007) message on the NIFL Special Topics discussion
list in which she said "In terms of PD [professional development] that
focuses on the development of language skills in the context of work or on
the integration of jobs skills on the one hand and  language and literacy
skills on the other, I keep hearing renewed  interest in these models from
foundations, government agencies, and  other institutions."

Reading all this aroused a bit of déjà vu in me. Is it possible that we are
getting ready to throw the boomerang of Functional Context Education for
workforce development once again? I wonder how long it will take to come
back this time?

References

Casey, H. et. al (2006, November). "You wouldn't expect a maths teacher
to teach plastering..." online at www.nrdc.org.uk.

Reid, S. (2007). Message on NIFL Special Topics discussion list. Downloaded
April 22, 2007 from
http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/2007/000325html

Stewart(Stewart, C. W. (1922). Moonlight Schools. E. P. Dutton & Co.

Sticht, T. (1975). Reading for Working: A Functional Literacy Anthology.
Alexandria, VA: Human Resources Research Organization. Online at
www.nald.ca searched under the Library pages.

Sticht, T., Armstrong, W., Hickey, D., & Caylor, J. (1987). Cast-off Youth.
New York: Praeger.

Sticht, T. (1999a, July). Adult Basic Education:  Strategies to Increase
Returns on Investment (ROI). Online at www.nald.ca searched under the
Library pages.

Sticht, T. (1999b) Testing and Accountability in Adult Literacy Education:
Focus on Workplace Literacy Resources for Program Design, Assessment,
Testing, & Evaluation. Online at 
http://www.nald.ca/library/research/sticht/testing/testing.pdf

Wrigley, H. S. (2007). Message on NIFL Special Topics discussion list;
Downloaded April 22, 2007 from
http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/2007/000323/.html

Thomas G. Sticht
International Consultant in Adult Education
2062 Valley View Blvd.
El Cajon, CA 92019-2059
Tel/fax: (619) 444-9133
Email: tsticht at aznet.net