[NLA] NLA Discussion: Evidence-based education

[Awilderast@aol.com]

Talk about bizarre!  Here we are all interpreting what another person writes! 
 Sounds like adult literacy to me.

What I think John is laying out is a master plan for understanding adult 
literacy through well-designed studies.  It's not an all or nothing shot, 
it's gradual, and as results come in they are used to influence and shape the 
real field of adult literacy that Nancy Hansen describes.  Example:  The 
Murnane and Willett (I think) quasi-experimental study (I think) that shows 
that those who get a GED will make more money than those who don't, AND that 
those who score higher in the GED will also make more money.  I think this is 
useful knowledge, and it can be turned into policy right now.  I hope that 
getting out of poverty is a value that people on this list ascribe to.

In a post I just sent in to the list I describe how a video can capture good 
teaching practice.  More videos showing other good teaching practices can 
certainly be tools for teacher training.  One of the questions this study by 
Alamprese is trying to answer:  What are program characteristics that 
influence student abilities to read and write better?  I should think, but 
Nancy Hansen might correct me, that these videos could be used as teaching 
tools with her volunteers.  I particularly appreciated that the teacher 
filmed looked like a capable grandmother!  You know, experience counts, and 
there is everyone's grandmother teaching reading and writing!  I am not 
implying that she put aside her knitting needles to get to the blackboard, 
the film narrative said that she was already an experienced teacher.

I think there is a gulf between Nancy Hansen's world and John Coming's world, 
but some of the distance is illlusory.

There was also another point I wanted to mention, I can' remember in whose 
email it popped up.  It is perfectly possible to design a study  to satisfy 
multiple ends, with multiple measures.  This can happen when multiple people 
get together, each with their own constituency or agenda to satisfy.  So a 
study can be designed to measure 1)  higher scores gained on a standardized 
test AND 2) gains in self-effficacy (or whatever squishy outcome you might 
want to measure).  
 A SCHOOL can be designed to do this!  

Did anyone watch "Frontier House," or whatever it was called, on PBS over the 
last three nights?  A great example of how a school can do it--with kids and 
an experienced teacher.  Yes, it was with children, but one of the adult 
literacy questions to be answered is :

1)  Do adults learn differently than children? 
2)  If so, in what ways? 

Why is this important?  Because there are many studies out there about 
children, and it would be useful to know if they also can be applied to adult 
learning--a shortcut.

Andrea


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