[NLA] NLA Discussion: Evidence-based education

Mon May 6 17:09:25 EDT 2002

Andrea --
I should have "read on" before I sent the last reply off to <literacytent>.
You mentioned this in the other email as well.

ANDREA WROTE:
<< "...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.>>

Laubach Literacy *has* produced videos which we use with the "Training By
Design" basic tutor training package.  I'll bet not all of the literacy
programs do, though.  All comes back to money.  We were lucky to have a
grant pay for the set or we wouldn't have been able to purchase them either.

The videos ARE good resources. Excellent, well done videos!  For those of us
who have volunteers who would like to sit in on tutoring lessons "observing"
a learner in action (which would reeeeaaaallly make a New Reader very
uncomfortable!)  the videos would be good for that purpose.  I feel it is a
way to model an effective use of teaching technique that the videotape
portrays.  And I agree with showing positively the capabilities of the
volunteer as well.  Our program has more than just grandma-types, is the
only thing.  Plus our tutors' experience often comes from elsewhere.  For
example, being a trainer in a workplace training program, instructing a
church program for adults, teaching nursing at the college and the latest
tutor training session includes a social work instructor from the local
college.  That's what's *great* about volunteers!  Ours are told "you don't
HAVE to be a teacher or retired teacher to teach Laubach."

The 8-set Laubach tapes showing teaching technique, informational segments
about appropriate materials and other topics.  I use one about sensitivity
to adult needs and interviews of four learners who express why they enrolled
and then what were the benefits.  They are Real People and sound like it.
We also use a videotape in training that was sponsored by Half-Price Books.
It's not a brand new tape, but the story is about a grandpa and his
classmates.  The "camera follows" him to his session (and interviews several
others in his class -- including several volunteers).  It does a good job of
showing his humanity and why reading to a grandchild is important to him.

Yes, videos *do* in my opinion add a very worthwhile dimension to the
educational experience.  Each trainer needs to cautiously review any videos
they use, though.  One of the above tapes shows a different technique used
with a small group of learners, which isn't our existing program.  I explain
before the tape begins that the service delivery isn't the same and then we
discuss the small group experience they saw after the video concludes.

We have also used various videos in our New Reader group setting.  The faces
are real.  And they express what many of the adult learners in our program
are afraid to say initially.  It has been a means by which our learners
could "let go" of some old hurts, as an example, and a "discussion
stimulator" in another.  When it's someone else "talking your feelings" it's
Okay somehow.  So, yes, the use of videoas is a good idea in my opinion,
too.

Nancy Hansen
Sioux Falls Area Literacy Council
Sioux Falls, SD
sfliteracy at mcleodusa.net

----- Original Message -----
From: <Awilderast at aol.com>
To: <nla at lists.literacytent.org>
Sent: Thursday, May 02, 2002 1:22 PM
Subject: Re: [NLA] NLA Discussion: Evidence-based education

> 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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