[NLA] Re: Tom's Note: Teaching is Reaching

[Catherine King]

Tom:

I think what all the new research is 
discovering is the unending depth of 
meaning that is **already** going forward when
adults return to education.   

The end run for teachers is that, with this 
knowledge, they can have a sense of progress 
by knowing that there are many levels that their 
teaching is reaching even without all the flap 
about accountability or numbers.    

If you fear that there is a direct correlation
between all meaning-depth development in 
the adult and the expectations from our 
teachers, you are right:

If our funders really understand how deeply 
adults are affected by their education on every 
level developed by EFF and more--including
what they themselves do not understand in
the beginning about what is happening to them,
and including inroads into political acumen--
there will be less, not more, need for teachers
to account for "everything little countable
thing."  

Perhaps that's why your note "rings" with such
disdain for new R&D.  With Shakespeare, Me 
thinks you protest too much. 

Keep up the good work,

Catherine King

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Thomas Sticht <tsticht at aznet.net>
To: <nla at lists.literacytent.org>
Cc: <tsticht at aznet.net>
Sent: Tuesday, October 23, 2001 1:37 PM
Subject: [NLA] Implement this immediately!


> Research Note October 23, 2001
> Tom Sticht
> 
> Practitioners should implement this right away! 
> 
> I recently received reports from the National Center for Adult Learning
> and Literacy (NCSALL) and the National Institute for Literacy (NIFL)
> that caused me to realize that R & D is rapidly equipping adult literacy
> educators to improve the future of adult literacy education in the
> United States. 
> 
> For instance, from NCSALL there are reports about Adult Multiple
> Intelligences (AMI) research. This research identifies eight
> "intelligences": linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial-visual,
> bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and
> naturalist. The report I looked at says, "MI validates good practice and
> expands the capacity of teachers to bring out the best in their
> students." While I couldn't find any  direct evidence to support these
> claims, the information is out there for practitioners to use. 
> 
> But hold on, don't move forward with your AMI reforms too quickly.
> Another recent NCSALL report says it has a new developmental dimension 
> of adult learning and meaning-making, and that "practitioners can also
> benefit by remaining alert to the ways that learners' meaning systems
> might also transform over the course of a program." That is, teachers
> need to be aware of adult's "ways of knowing" as they change from
> Instrumental, to Socializing to Self-Authoring ways of knowing and
> meaning making. Again, I looked for evidence that practitioners actually
> can benefit from knowing about this research but I probably didn't look
> long enough because I didn't find any. Nonetheless the information is
> there for the taking, too. 
> 
> With three new dimensions of meaning-making to be on the alert for, and
> eight intelligences that might interact in some complex way with these
> new "ways of knowing," teachers now have the opportunity of  keeping up
> with the possibility of 8 times 3 equals 24 new dimensions of change
> that their students may be undergoing.   
> 
> NCSALL reports also suggest that practitioners conduct a "force-field"
> analysis to create teaching approaches that will enhance an adult
> learner's motivation and participation. The latter may also be
> influenced by whether one designs instruction that is
> life-contextualized not life-decontextualized and dialogic not
> monologic.
> 
> But that is not all. From the NIFL comes the Equipped for the Future
> "reform effort" that has four purposes, three life roles and seventeen
> standards that teachers need to keep track of with each student while
> they are presumably also tracking the 24 interactions of "ways of
> knowing" and "multiple intelligences," conducting "force-field
> analyses," and seeking to be life-contextualized and dialogic. 
> 
> NIFL has also produced a 218 page volume on what the science of thinking
> and learning has to offer adult education with 18 multi-page, stand
> alone "fact sheets" that present some discrete ideas from cognitive
> science and then offers some teaching tips for each of the 18 "fact
> sheets". 
> 
> So the NIFL reports give practitioners four purposes, three life roles,
> 17 standards, and 18 fact sheets giving over 3,600 possible combinations
> that can then be tracked and monitored along with 24 more from NCSALL
> providing a cornucopia of over  88,000 combinations teachers can use
> while designing instruction and teaching! 
> 
> Of course these new findings interact with those old stalwarts, the
> "learning styles," including auditory, visual, and kinesthetic learners
> and field-dependent and independent learners (just six combinations). So
> teachers need to keep these in mind and plan instruction accordingly,
> too.  
> 
> With all these 6 times 88,000+ equals over 528,000+ new dimensions of
> learning and teaching available, adult literacy educators can certainly
> get  equipped for the future of adult literacy education. Just remember
> to also keep track of how many adults move upwards on the six levels of
> the National Reporting System in ESOL, ABE, and ASE programs and how
> many go on to read more to their children, get off of welfare, get new
> jobs or advance in old jobs, earn more money, pay taxes and return more
> to the government than the government spent on their education (the
> latter shouldn't be difficult at all!). 
> 
> Special Alert For Practitioners! All this information is already out
> there and if you are going to use it you'd better hurry up. I just
> attended two meetings where lots more future R & D for adult literacy
> education was being planned. You'll want to get the present new
> information into practice before the future new information comes along
> and possibly invalidates what the old  information that's new today
> says. And don't worry about whether there is any convincing evidence
> that any of this old or new information actually improves your teaching
> and/or your instructional program.  Just implement it immediately!
> 
> (PS. If you can show you're using technology while implementing all this
> new/old/new R & D information, that's even better!). 
> 
> (PPS. Though it is missing from NIFL's 218 page report on thinking and
> learning, cognitive science provides a two-step, problem-solving
> algorithm for solving your program's problems using the new/old/new R &
> D findings:
> Step 1. Identify your problem.
> Step 2. Solve it!
> You can repeat this process as often as needed. Works every time!)
> _______________________________________________
> NLA mailing list: NLA at lists.literacytent.org
> http://lists.literacytent.org/mailman/listinfo/nla
> LiteracyTent: web hosting, news, community and goodies for literacy
> http://literacytent.org

_______________________________________________
NLA mailing list: NLA at lists.literacytent.org
http://lists.literacytent.org/mailman/listinfo/nla
LiteracyTent: web hosting, news, community and goodies for literacy
http://literacytent.org