[AAACE-NLA] AAACE-NLA Digest, Vol 61, Issue 16

Tue Jul 1 10:39:43 EDT 2008

Hi Margot,

Well it seems that Ireland has a great deal of common sense (unlike the
United States). Helping with our literacy woes is really not rocket science,
but the way we go about things in the United States usually seems a bit
heavy-handed and overcomplicated.   :-)  In fact, I started Nox Press after
R.L. Stine (Goosebumps, Fear Street, etc.) and I did a forum on getting our
nation's boys reading. While doing that forum, I was asked to do for adult
literacy what my AL'S WORLD books did for middle-grade literacy in the US.
Knowing the materials our nation's adult learners are given, and also
knowing what our adult learners WANTED to use to help them learn to read, I
developed the JUNKYARD DAN series and went BACK to the learners to see if
they liked it and if they COULD read the series. (Keep in mind that I went
to the lowest level non-readers for their response.) They could finally
read, they LOVED the books, were proud of their accomplishment, and wanted
more.  When I went to the publishing industry in the US (which included
EVERY publishing house, including the one known to be, ah, the worlds
largest advocate for literacy materials and programs), they all said:
"Fiction for adult literacy? No. There's no money in it." :-(

Having reached my own level of frustration that this country is quite good
at providing for the "haves," and is also quite good at NOT providing for
the "have nots," my sons, husband and I decided to open our own publishing
house. We got a second mortgage on our house, and NOX PRESS was born so that
EVERYONE can have a bright future through literacy. We feel that reading
should be a RIGHT, not a privilege. I also wanted to show my sons that if
you see a problem and know of a way to begin to fix it, and know that you
can help others, then no matter what the personal cost, you should help be
part of the solution. (And it should be noted that we are in huge debt due
to this project.)

As to my books. Well, the AL'S WORLD series is put out by Simon & Schuster,
you should be able to buy them anywhere. I'm not involved in that. :-)  My
women's romantic comedies are through Harlequin NEXT, and they can be found
online and through the Harlequin website, I'm sure. The JUNKYARD DAN books
are published through NOX PRESS. We sell the books for what it costs us to
put them out (workbooks included), and we ship the books for what it costs
us to ship the books.  Embarrassingly, I do not know the shipping rates to
Ireland, but the books are only $6.95 (American) each, workbooks as well
(only $6.95, American), and then the cost of shipping. (I can find out what
that would be, if you are interested.)

Our JUNKYARD DAN series is being used across the US in correction
facilities, schools, adult ed classes, literacy programs, for ESL learners
and even for SLD folks.  :-)  [We got the most amazing video clip of a man
with Down's Syndrome reading book 2 of the JUNKYARD DAN series fluently, and
although our books were designed for struggling, emergent and ESL older
learners and not specifically designed for those with learning disabilities,
it just goes to show that all people can read our books and EVERYONE likes
them!]  If you have a spare minute and a half, you can see that at
www.NoxPress.com/DanielReading.wmv  It's really quite exciting and wonderful
to witness!

NOX PRESS is about literacy. We're truly about equal opportunities for all,
through literacy. Unfortunately (and sadly), in the US, we seem to be quite
short-sighted. Those that are in the position to make a difference, don't
quite understand that if we had an entire population who were educated,
besides being more globally competitive, we would have a lot less violence
and people doing stupid things out of desperation to put food on their
tables and a roof over their family's heads because through education and
literacy, people could get better-paying jobs. But I say that only through
experience of working with our nation's forgotten people, who are now,
thanks to education and a some self-pride, contributing members of society.
:-)  

Keep up the great work with your literacy programs in Ireland! It's nice to
know that there is a country out there that actually cares to ask its
learners what they want and need to learn. (And yes, as you explained, the
learners will be hesitant at first, trying to get the "experts" opinion and
input, but you are wise to let them know that it is they, and not you who is
the "expert" on what they need. It gives the learner ownership, some
responsibility, and are now vested in their education, while teaching them
that they should stop listening to what the supposed "experts" say, and
should, wholeheartedly, grab onto that self-empowerment! 

~Elise
************************************************************
NOX PRESS  
books for that extra kick to give you more power
813.579.5605
Website: www.NoxPress.com <http://www.noxpress.com/> 
Email: NoxPress at gmail.com <mailto:NoxPress at gmail.com> 

-----Original Message-----
From: aaace-nla-bounces at lists.literacytent.org
[mailto:aaace-nla-bounces at lists.literacytent.org] On Behalf Of Margot Walsh
Sent: Monday, June 30, 2008 5:22 AM
To: aaace-nla at lists.literacytent.org
Subject: Re: [AAACE-NLA] AAACE-NLA Digest, Vol 61, Issue 16

Elise
I agree completely with you and in workplace basic ed provision here in
Ireland, we ask the learners what they would like and need to learn and
include these requirements in the subsequent curriculum design.  This does
hold some difficulties sometimes as the learners ask to pick from a list or
ask you to decide what you ' the expert' would think best so we then discuss
their interests, current job, the job they would like to aspire to etc and
then work around those topics.  Takes a while but is worth it in the end.

Your books look exciting, where can they be purchased?
Regards

Margot Walsh
Workplace Basic Education Coordinator
Co Clare VEC
Ireland

-----Original Message-----
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Subject: AAACE-NLA Digest, Vol 61, Issue 16

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Today's Topics:

   1. Re:  Professional wisdom: part one (of a two	partdiscussion)
      (Elise Leonard)
   2. Re:  Professional Wisdom (esthershupe at comcast.net)

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Message: 1
Date: Sun, 29 Jun 2008 16:34:36 -0400
From: "Elise Leonard" <elise.leonard at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [AAACE-NLA] Professional wisdom: part one (of a two
	partdiscussion)
To: "'National Literacy Advocacy List sponsored by AAACE'"
	<aaace-nla at lists.literacytent.org>
Message-ID: <4867f1eb.0906c00a.0822.ffffe4c0 at mx.google.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

If we would truly like to do something constructive to help the adult ed
programs across our nation, how about asking the people IN the programs (and
those who NEED the programs) the following questions:

What do you need to learn?
What do you want to learn?
What are your goals for (and what outcome do you want to achieve by) doing
this program?
How long and how much time are you willing to invest in obtaining those
goals?

For those learners who are already IN a program, we need to ask them:

What did you feel was a waste of time?
What did you feel was beneficial?

As to HOW to teach the learners in adult ed programs:

We all learn differently. Some of us are visual learners and need to see
things. Some of us need to hear things. Some of us need to DO things in
order to learn. Many need a combination of techniques. As a former teacher,
I found that sometimes I had to teach, present or explain things 5, 6 or 7
different ways in order to get every learner in that particular class to
understand the lesson. In the next class, with the same topic but with
thirty different students, I had to find additional ways to teach the exact
same lesson to include the learning processes of those individually unique
students.

Learning is not "one size fits all." To try to make it as such, or to
dictate an instruction method would, most likely, eliminate a huge portion
of the learners from learning.

If you'd like to be productive by being proactive, and if you'd like to try
to unify the adult ed programs across the nation, how about coming up with a
curriculum of what NEEDS to be taught. But please, please include the
learners' responses from the questions I posed at the beginning of this
message.

Your program needs to be useful, relevant, and needs to offer positive
results that help the learner achieve his or her goals.  (By "positive
results" I mean that the learner can now read, when before, he couldn't.) 

The fact that many programs are still using materials dating back to the 70s
and 80s is inexcusable and ridiculous. (Not to mention boring, irrelevant
and a "turn off" for our learners.)

In my thirty years as a highly successful educator, I've found that
education is a lot like business. You have to give the consumer what he
wants, what he needs and what he likes... or he won't buy it!

Elise Leonard
elise.leonard at gmail.com
www.eliseleonard.com

  _____  

From: aaace-nla-bounces at lists.literacytent.org
[mailto:aaace-nla-bounces at lists.literacytent.org] On Behalf Of John Comings
Sent: Saturday, June 28, 2008 1:09 PM
To: National Literacy Advocacy List sponsored by AAACE
Subject: Re: [AAACE-NLA] Professional wisdom: part one (of a two
partdiscussion)

Janet referred to "intuition". I've also heard it referred to as the "art of
teaching", as in teaching is both a science and an art. Recently, I've been
thinking about it as the relationship between "a teacher and a student." I
like this because it brings the student in as an active player in judging
what type of instruction is useful and in adapting instruction to their
needs and personality.  Another form of professional wisdom might be the
results of asking teachers and students to work together to judge the
effectiveness of research findings and to adapt them to their needs. 
______________________
John P. Comings
25 Central Street
Auburndale MA 02466
1.617.335.9839
john.comings at gmail.com
http://john.comings@googlepages.com 

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Message: 2
Date: Sun, 29 Jun 2008 21:07:45 +0000
From: esthershupe at comcast.net
Subject: Re: [AAACE-NLA] Professional Wisdom
To: National Literacy Advocacy List sponsored by AAACE
	<aaace-nla at lists.literacytent.org>
Message-ID:

<062920082107.20972.4867F9A10005ADF9000051EC22147564020A9F9A089C9D0A089B9C0A
@comcast.net>

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

David ,
You say "An interesting problem occurs when two or more teachers who each
have a great deal of experience and have formed individual professional
wisdom based on their own experience, but do not agree on what are the best
practices.What then, is the professional wisdom that other teachers should
use in making decisions?"  

Honestly I don't see this as a problem unless you are ardent to have some
consensus on what works best in the classroom.  Shouldn't we use as
reference different best practice and knowledge base of teachers in order to
maximize the best results for all of our students.  After all our classrooms
aren't homogeneous in terms of ways of learning and ways of experiencing the
world.  David your example of enrollment procedures, I feel I can talk about
this from my experience.  I work in two different programs; one is managed
enrollment the other is open. There are definitely differences in the way a
teacher needs to operate in each of these programs but whether one is better
(or should be viewed as better) than the other really wouldn't be my
declarative.  I know that having students come into my class months after a
group has been working together can pose problems for the teacher (some of
the problems have been mentioned here on this list) but managed enrollment
with unrealistic  learni ng targets can also be promblematic.  I guess what
I'm saying is that although we can talk about what works we should be
careful not to rigidify our knowledge base so as to avoid exclusiveness of
our students.
thanks, e.b.
From: "TheWorld" <DJRosen at theworld.com> 

Janice and others,

Thanks for your rich description of your professional wisdom. Building on
what you wrote I offer this definition of informal individual teacher
professional wisdom: "intuition educated by the best practices that [a
teacher] knows" and has learned [through teaching experience and possibly
professional development].   

I would like readers' comments on this tentative definition.

An interesting problem occurs when two or more teachers who each have a
great deal of experience and have formed individual professional wisdom
based on their own experience, but do not agree on what are the best
practices.What then, is the professional wisdom that other teachers should
use in making decisions?

For example, one issue about which experienced teachers and administrators
in our field appear to disagree is managed enrollment. Some believe classes
with a fixed start and end date are more effective. Some believe
open-entry/open-exit is more effective. There are variations, too, such as
fixed time entry and open exit, and others. Which model should a program
choose? What evidence should a program consider in making that decision. Are
some kinds of evidence better than others? If so, what kinds?

 Another problem is how to teach essay writing. Some GED teachers have found
from their experience that the "five paragraph essay" is the key to success
that, with this formula and with practice, a student can quickly and easily
learn to write a successful GED essay. Other teachers have found that this
strategy does not help students write a thoughtful essay, the kind needed to
do well on (not just pass) the GED writing test and to prepare for college.
What evidence shoud teachers look at in order to decide which strategy/ies
are more effective for thier students?

I wonder if anyone has some ideas - John Comings included -- about what
should be included in a hierarchy of evidence for making these decisions.
Should any of the following be included in such a hierarchy, and if so
where: 
a systematic literature search;
the views of an experienced (and effective) individual teacher; the
consensus view of a group of teachers (at a program) who have reviewed the
existing evidence and formed an opinion; the consensus view of a group of
teachers from various parts of the country who have reviewed the evidence
and formed an opinion; systematic classroom experiments such as those
conducted through individual or group teacher action research; a discussion
or debate among teachers, for example a discussion held on a national forum
such as this one What other kinds of evidence should be looked at? How
should the evidence be ordered -- that is, are all of these kinds of
evidence of equal merit or are some better than others?

This leads me to another question: should our field have more discussions
about specific teaching problems on national discussion lists? Should we
hold formal debates? (I don't recall ever seeing a formal debate on any of
the discussion lists.) Would this be interesting? Useful? Would the archive
of such a debate be useful as part of a body of evidence to be considered in
acquiring (formal) professional wisdom for the field?

David J. Rosen
Adult Literacy Advocate
DJRosen at theworld.com

----- Original Message -----
From: Janice Sapp
To: National Literacy Advocacy List sponsored by AAACE
Sent: Friday, June 27, 2008 7:18 PM
Subject: Re: [AAACE-NLA] Professional wisdom: part one (of a twopart
discussion)

I have been a teacher in the field since 1971; the first group of adult
learners that I encountered were brought to me by my principal at that time
who gave me the opportunity to teach a group of refugees in 1974/75.  I
understand professional wisdom as that amorphous thing that can be termed as
intuition educated by the best practices that I know and have learned well
at any given time in my teaching history.  Professional wisdom is that
quality that I bring into the classroom and that quality that is fully
integrated and working when I begin to see the needs of my students as they
come into the room, sit down and ready themselves for class, open their
books and get set for the lesson, how they hold their pencils, arrange their
papers, work with their papers, the board, their pencils, books; follow the
pages in their books with their pencils or fingers; answer questions; write
answers; the quality of their handwriting; their ease with language; with
story telling, with impro  mptu q uestions, and more.  Each of my students
has required some different skill from me in order to 'get' the lesson.  And
as I apply my professional wisdom which includes what I know about different
teaching methods and what they elicit as well as the process of learning
(and to my best application of professional wisdom it doesn't include so
many years of reading growth per so many lessons!) and how each of my
students learn, I am aware that while my methods and applications may reach
most of my students, however, 100% of my students will not learn 100% of
what I teach.

I know a few other things about professional wisdom, at least for myself
these things are true.  If I can't apply a method or application, no matter
how well researched it may be, it has no meaning for me.  If I don't see the
efficacy of a method, I won't use it.  As a teacher well before I was
trained to be one, I havea well-honed intuition about teaching and students
and how to give a student a way to learn something that I want to teach him.
So, in addition to being well-educated and well-versed in the ways to reach
a multitude of students with different learning styles, teaching is a craft
for which one has a proclivity.

Well-educated and well-versed is not to be understood as book or academic
learning only although I like it mighty well.  People who are not well
educated don't understand diversity well, or how people learn (adults and
kids), and a lot of other stuff that might include having seen original art
in world class museums or knowing what a glass of pignot grigio tastes like.
etc.  Professional wisdom includes the who-ness of the educator as well as
the ability to have graduated from a teaching program and to teach something
new to a learner.

Date: Fri, 27 Jun 2008 10:12:48 -0400
From: john.comings at gmail.com
To: aaace-nla at lists.literacytent.org
Subject: Re: [AAACE-NLA] Professional wisdom: part one (of a two part
discussion)

I apologize for being out of the discussion loop for a while, but I was in
DC for the launch of the report of the National Commission on Adult
Literacy. I hope everyone reads it. As Tom mentioned, it can be found at
http://www.nationalcommissiononadultliteracy.org/report.html
or if that doesn't work just go to www.caalusa.org and you'll find a link
there. Maybe David can lead a discussion about it.

As to the conversation so far, I would say that it was postings like Amy's
that I was looking for. I believe that professional wisdom or practitioner
knowledge has an important role to play in evidence-based practice in our
field, but I'm not sure exactly what it is, how to fit it in, and how to
develop and promote it. I was hoping that the discussion would expand my
understanding of the concept.  I see this discussion as separate from one
about what counts as empirical evidence.

In medicine, which is used as the model for evidence-based practice,
professional wisdom has always been important and is reported in their
professional literature in the form of descriptions of clinical practice.
This form of professional sharing of experience used to dominate medical
journals. In some cases, a consensus grew up from these clinical
descriptions that grew into standard medical practice. Lots of these
practices continue today even though there is no empirical evidence that
they are the best practice or even efficacious.  As investment in research
produced more empirical evidence, the role of professional wisdom declined,
but it is still part of medicine. In Establishing and Evidence-based Adult
Education System, I sited an example of contemporary professional wisdom in
medicine in an editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association:

"Donald Berwick made the case that practitioner knowledge is important to
making the findings from scientific research work better in the field of
heart surgery. He cites an example of a group of surgeons in Massachusetts
who came together to learn why some of them had lower patient mortality
rates during surgery than others, even though they were all following the
same evidence-based practices. The difference in mortality rates was not
caused by a difference in practice but in how the practitioner performed the
practice. They observed each other's work, talked, debated, and learned from
each other, and they lowered mortality rates among their patients by 24
percent. Their closeness to the processes of surgery allowed them to reflect
on the possible causes and effects that a more distant investigator could
only have discovered more slowly. Engaging in this investigation as a
community of practitioners freed them from their respective blind spots."

I see this as one form of professional wisdom. Another is consensus views,
an example of which might be TESOL's "Program Standards for Adult Education
ESOL Programs". In the case of the ESOL standards, a group of experts with
extensive knowledge of research and practice came to a consensus on what
qualifies and good practice. For much of what we do in adult education, we
have no "gold standard" research. However, we do have some, and we have
other forms of empirical evidence from both quantitative and qualitative
research, we have consensus views in publications like the TESOL standards,
and we have some clinical literature (in Focus on Basics, for example).  In
searching for a way to process all of these sources of evidence, I had a
conversation with David and he suggested the idea of Jury, since this is
what juries do, they sift through many types of evidence to come to a
decision. 

So, I see professional wisdom playing two roles. One is being a piece of
evidence that plays its role in the process of defining evidence-based
practice, and the other is when a practice is identified by either gold
standard research or by a consensus view (maybe with a jury process),
practitioner wisdom explains how to make it work. In addition, there may be
some situations where practitioner wisdom is the only guidance we have. 

I'm also interested in how to build a system that would bring researchers
and practitioners together to support this evidence-based process. This
would require each side to admit their strengths and weaknesses and work
together, so that when research comes up with a finding that flies in the
face of common practice, practitioners are willing to suspend judgment and
give it a chance. When fellow practitioners try it out and find it works
(and find out how to make it work), the rest of the field is willing to
change, and when practitioners find it doesn't work, researchers are willing
to go back and look at where they may have gone wrong. 

The other season of giving begins 6/24/08. Check out the im Talkathon.
Check it out! 

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