[NLA] Evidence-based practice in Adult Literacy Education]

[George E. Demetrion]

Andrea:

My jogging routine calls, so let me be brief now, maybe more later.

There are a number of impact studies readily available, though they don't
look closely or precisely at the relationship between reading and
application.  Still, these studies (below) have merit, they are
research-based, contain empirical evidence, and are based on certain
intellectual assumptions.  The two I mention most are:

Merrifield et al Life at the Margins (1997), an ethnographic study of 12
adults

Fingeret and Drennon (1997) Literacy for life, which looks at the impact
of literacy on 5 students.  The initial study by Fingeret and Danin
(1991), They Really Put a Hurtin on My Brains, involves many more
students and looks at a wide array of  interrelationships within what
might be viewed as the reading/learning process.

Then there is the Canadian study, Learning to Learn:  Impacts of the
Adult Basic Education Experience on the Lives of Participants which
studies 45 students.  More recently there is the work by Sherry Royce and
Richard Gacka (2001), Learning for Life:  A Longitudinal Study of
Pennsylvania's Adult Education Success Stories' recipients.

In the late 80s-early 90s Beder and Valentine looked at impact among ABE
students in Iowa.  In a recent article, Motivation and the Adult New
Reader (2001), I provide a longitudinal case study of three
students--only three, so no generalizability is assumed, but the research
is detailed in attempting to tease out impact and correlation of other
factors.

There is other research of this ethnographic nature,which far from tells
the whole story, but discloses something,which should not be lightly
ignored.

A couple closing points:

a) Reading is important, but is still a subset of learning.  Rather than
reading as an end in itself, I'm more interested in the relationship
between reading progress at varying levels, its application impacts in a
broad array of contexts and both the symbolic, meaning making
significance of such learning as well as its more concrete
manifestations.

b)  I'm also interested in the questions/issues that frame any research
project. What are the operative assumptions, epistemological/political
contexts that frame this or that study?  How is it being used, by whom? 
What is being illuminated, what is being ignored or marginalized, etc.

Got to run.

George Demetrion


On Sun, 7 Apr 2002 21:30:17 EDT AWilder106 at aol.com writes:
>George,
>
>I never  thought I'd be on the side of the Bush agenda, but here we 
>go:  I 
>think they (who ever they are) and we--I think I know that--are trying 
>to 
>find out WHAT WORKS.
>
>What methods work best to teach adults to read and write better?
>
>How is this measured?
>
>I think people in the field should be able to dredge up, or demand, 
>info on 
>these questions.  It should not be all that onerous, but for busy 
>teachers 
>this may be pretty far down the line of priorities.  I tossed in 
>Victoria 
>Purcell-Gates because her material is most easily accessible to me.  
>Her work 
>is an example of WHAT WORKS.  The measurement issue in her NCSALL 
>research 
>project she solved by looking at changes in literacy practices 
>(reading and 
>writing) in the home.
>
>There are more NCSALL examples.  
>
>I know we have all (those who have spoken out here) been shocked by 
>the 
>emphasis on treatment/control group studies, but this isn't invalid!  
>If we 
>feel we know what works in the classroom, and we have studies to back 
>it up, 
>we can make our own case.
>
>But I'm not sure who I'm suggesting to do this case making, as there 
>is a gap 
>between what we talk about on the list and who actually does the heavy 
>
>lifting for adult literacy.
>
>Andrea
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