[NLA] Are You Being Served?

[Art LaChance]

Lloyd,

It does not appear to me that you've answered Tom's questions in para 3 and 4.
?
I suspect strongly that the workers were probably provided with some incentive
for their participation, as in most work-place programs, and that the Hawthore
effect mentioned by Tom in para 4 was in full bloom during this project.
As such I don't see how the actual curriculum issues could be validated when
there are obviously separate issues that lend themselves to the motivation of
individual learners vs the walk-in-the-door student that many centers deal with
on a daily basis.
However, I'm sure that the processes utilized at CEI most probably were very
successful for that particular group and I for one would be very interested in
knowing more about the individual outcomes as mentioned by Tom.

Thanks,

Art


Art LaChance
Gilmer Learning Center
Ellijay, GA



Lloyd David wrote:

> Tom,
> It is difficult for me to answer all your questions. CEI was only one part
> of the research project. There were 2 other sites where students were
> interviewed. The purpose of the project was to determine adult learning
> development in a manner other than by using standardized or other tests. The
> Harvard team interviewed CEI students enrolled in the CEI Adult Diploma
> Program at Polaroid. Each student was interviewed 3 or 4 times at different
> stages – beginning, middle, end of their studies. Some of your questions
> should be directed to the members of the research team led by Professor Bob
> Kegan at robert_kegan at gse.harvard.edu.
>
> The NCSALL report itself is pretty indigestible to people in the field,
> primarily because it is so big. That's why we broke it down it to a
> smaller, more bite-size chunk. Primarily, it helped us by confirming that
> what we do is working. The project was not designed to be an evaluation of
> the CEI Adult Diploma Program but we learned a great deal about our
> methodology and how it meets needs of students from different cultures. The
> study proved the value to the adult student of the classroom experience. It
> also re-emphasized the importance of our focus on small-group learning and
> creating a "dynamic, transitional, holding
> environment" as we continue to develop distance and computer-based learning
> into our programs. This emphasis on creating a holding environment in
> combination with our goals of developing distance learning may or may not
> increase our number of graduates and cost-efficiency. Time will tell. The
> bite-size chunk of the report will hopefully help attract more clients,
> thereby increasing the number of graduates.
>
> I am including for you information a summary of the material from the NCSALL
> study which we have produced for the CEI web site www.ceilearn.net. We hope
> this summary will be on the web site by the end of the week.
>
>  Harvard Researchers Praise CEI ADULT DIPLOMA PROGRAM
>
> “Our findings teach us that the cohort and this program—its teachers,
> tutors, curricula, and programmatic structures—served as consistent and
> enduring sources of support and challenge as these adults made their
> learning journey while balancing the demands of their roles as learners,
> workers, and parents.  This dynamic, transitional, holding environment was
> robust and spacious enough to support and challenge adults with
> qualitatively different ways of knowing as they grew and changed. ” (Summary
> and Implications, p.602)
>
> Much of the success of the CEI Adult Diploma Program and the English as a
> Working Language programs are due to CEI’s practical application of current
> adult educational theory.  In August of 2001, the Harvard University
> Graduate School of Education’s National Center for the Study of Adult
> Learning and Literacy (NCSALL) published a Research Monograph that reports
> some of the successes of the CEI Adult Diploma Program at Polaroid
> Corporation.
>
> Creating a Learning Environment
>
>  In Toward a New Pluralism in ABE/ESOL Classrooms: Teaching to Multiple
> “Cultures of Mind”, NCSALL Reports No. 19, The Adult Development Research
> Group [ADRG], led by Dr. Robert Kegan, documents how CEI succeeds at
> creating a supportive classroom learning community, defined as a ‘cohort’ in
> the research:
>     “We [ADRG] did not initially set out to examine the influence the cohort
> might have on participants’ program experience, but we came to understand
> that being part of a cohort mattered importantly, and in different ways, to
> participants at all three sites, and especially to learners in the
> Polaroid-CEI program.  We discovered that for Polaroid learners, membership
> in this cohort was one of the most critical supports to their learning.”
>
> “In Polaroid’s CEI adult diploma program, cohort members worked in
> collaborative learning groups in all five of their classes; we will show how
> this type of group learning among cohort members facilitated academic
> development and provided psychological support through social interaction
.
> The interpersonal relationships that peers developed in the cohort made a
> critical difference to their academic learning, emotional and psychological
> well-being, and ability to broaden their perspectives.” (P.384-385)
>
> Teaching Excellence
>
> Developing a supportive learning environment and a successful cohort is one
> indication of CEI’s excellent program structure, professional staff and
> faculty.
> “The teachers in CEI’s program creatively structured their classes so that
> interaction among adult learners in the cohort helped learners achieve their
> educational goals.  By helping learners make good use of each other, this
> program was able to provide both the challenge that encouraged learners to
> grow and the support they needed to meet those challenges.” (p.387)
>
> Customized Curriculum
> Every lesson in the ADP is based on fundamental skills, or pervasive skills,
> developed through review of current academic research on skills and
> standards.  These skills stress communication, critical thinking, and core
> knowledge.
>
> “CEI curricula—and every course in the program—emphasize what CEI refers to
> as their “pervasive standards” [also known as “pervasive skills”], which are
> closely aligned with what our colleagues at Equipped for the Future refer to
> as “EFF Standards” (Stein, 2000).  Sondra Stein (2000) discusesses EFF’s
> standards in this way:
> “The 16 Equipped for the Future Standards define the core knowledge and
> skills adults need to effectively carry out their roles as parents,
> citizens, and workers.  The Standards have been identified through research
> on what adults need to do to meet broad areas of responsibility that define
> these roles as adults. (p.17)”
>
> “Dr. David [President of CEI] acknowledges the critical influence of EFF’s
> research on his own thinking about how the CEI program can better support
> the acquisition and development of skills that adults need to meet their
> responsibilities as workers and learners.  Communication, problem solving,
> presentation, and computer skills are a few of the pervasive standards that
> infuse the CEI curriculum and program design.  Each course emphasizes these
> standards as well as reading, writing, and critical thinking skills (CEI
> program materials 1997, p.1).  For example, in the Writing/ English course,
> students develop writing skills by engaging in various individual and group
> exercises in which they have opportunities that help them learn and
> practice: brainstorming, creating cluster diagrams, and developing a point
> of view.  Students learn to improve their reading strategies by developing
> skills in generating questions, distinguishing between fact and opinion,
> making storyline, and summarizing.  In this course, students also enhance
> their critical thinking strategies by improving their skills in analyzing,
> classifying, evaluating texts, interpreting, and synthesizing.
>
>  “Significantly, CEI classes and the program curricula are oriented toward
> reinforcing “teamwork concepts” (CEI Program materials, 1992, p. 4).  All
> classes use collaborative group learning structures to facilitate and
> enhance adult learning.  These structures, as well as other aspects of the
> CEI program design discussed previously, seem to reinforce teamwork and
> various forms of adult collaboration.” .[P. 398-399]
>
> Conclusions
>
> “The interplay between CEI’s program structure and the teacher practice of
> using collaborative learning created opportunities for learners to share
> experiences, form interpersonal relationships, and support one another’s
> learning
.Engaging in common learning experiences over an extended period in
> which learners worked together toward the same goal contributed importantly
> to the formation of caring learning community in which adult learners
> supported one another as they participated in this program.  For many
> learners, this cohort was “like a family.” [p.466]
>
> “All of these learners spoke about feeling more “confident” as workers
> because of learning in the program.  Many reported better communication
> skills as a result of their program participation. [p.576]”
>
> “In addition to important and life-enhancing skill changes reported by
> learners, we find it remarkable, given the relatively short duration of this
> program, that fully one half of these cohort learners demonstrated a
> qualitative change in their underlying meaning system from program start to
> finish. “ (p.609)
>
> “Development and change, as demonstrated in this group of learners, occurred
> by meeting learners where they were and by carefully scaffolding them with a
> variety of forms of support and challenge (e.g. concrete and relational
> supports as well as access to information and opportunities for
> self-reflection). Cohort relationships, collaborative learning,
> teacher-learner relationships, curricula, pedagogical practices, and program
> structure seemed to work synergistically to support and challenge the adult
> learners across a wide range of ways of knowing.  This dynamic and
> multifaceted holding environment held learners as they developed greater
> capacities to manage the challenges and complexities of their lives.”
> (p.610)
>
> “Our findings teach us that the cohort and this program—its teachers,
> tutors, curricula, and programmatic structures—served as consistent and
> enduring sources of support and challenge as these adults made their
> learning journey while balancing the demands of their roles as learners,
> workers, and parents.  This dynamic, transitional, holding environment was
> robust and spacious enough to support and challenge adults with
> qualitatively different ways of knowing as they grew and changed. ” (Summary
> and Implications, p.602)
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Thomas Sticht <tsticht at znet.com>
> To: nla at lists.literacytent.org <nla at lists.literacytent.org>
> Date: Saturday, December 14, 2002 1:14 PM
> Subject: [NLA] Are You Being Served?
>
> >Lloyd David said: "It seems to me no thought is given to publicizing the
> >results of these studies even though many cost a great deal of money. I
> >think that there should be a marketing plan developed around every project
> >which in essence advertises the results so those in the field can
> >benefit."
> >
> >Lloyd: It has been my experience every since 1976 when I directed the
> >Basic Skills Division of the National Institute for Education (the
> >predecessor to OERI and the new whatever it is now being called) that
> >after spending tens of millions of dollars on research, very little is
> >done to disseminate it. Mostly reports are placed into the ERIC system and
> >that’s about it. Also troubling is the fact that federal research monitors
> >who have oversight for millions of dollars of research may also fail to
> >read all the reports they get. But perhaps this is understandable when it
> >is recognized that one national research center alone may produce one or
> >two dozen or more of the types of reports you are talking about. And a
> >federal monitor may have three or more centers to monitor, and there is a
> >lot of other work to do when monitoring research besides reading the
> >reports. Teachers, administrators, etc.., too, have a lot to do so they
> >have a great deal of difficulty reading all the reports researchers
> >produce each year.
> >
> >Regarding your organization’s work with the NCSALL project, do you think
> >those in the field would benefit from reading the 700+ page report, and if
> >so in what ways? Can you provide a quick summary of some of the most
> >important results of the project that you think should be more widely
> >known? In what ways did the research improve your program? Did you recruit
> >better? Did you place people in programs more accurately? Did people learn
> >more? Did they learn knowledge that was more relevant to their goals? Did
> >people stay in the program longer (improved retention/greater
> >persistence)? Did more people get GEDs or high school diplomas if that was
> >the goal? Was the program made more cost-efficient – (that is one of the
> >NCSALL’s stated missions – to make adult education and literacy programs
> >more cost-efficient)?
> >
> >Was there a comparison group that participated in some sort of special
> >project that was not the same as yours so that the project could control
> >for the so-called "Hawthorne" effect (that is, sometimes teachers and
> >others perform better in a project not because of the ideas and methods of
> >the project but simply because they are participating in something
> >special. So the researchers have to try to arrange their research to make
> >sure that it is the effects of their ideas and methods and not simply
> >special attention that leads to any observed results)?
> >
> >Tom Sticht
> >
> >
> >
> >
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>
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