[NLA] Beyond Reading: Skills for the 21st Century (longer)

[Thomas Sticht]

Research Note		November 6, 2002

Analysis and Synthesis: Basic Skills for the Knowledge Societies of the
21st Century

Thomas G. Sticht
International Consultant in Adult Education

Today a great deal of attention in the adult literacy field is being given
to the role of phonemic awareness and phonics instruction in teaching
adults to read.  In such teaching, the goal is to have the adult student
learn that the written language is, in many respects, a graphic
representation of the spoken language. The student’s task is to learn to
decode the graphic symbols into the prior learned oral language and to
then comprehend the symbols in the same manner as the spoken symbols would
be comprehended. With a lot of practice, the student may become quite
fluent in the decoding process and be able to process written language as
automatically and with the same understanding as the spoken language. When
this happens, the student may be said to have reached a mature stage of
reading. After this, reading will tend to be used more for acquiring new
concepts and the vocabulary used to express those concepts.

Graphic Tools and Skills for Analysis and Synthesis

While reading and writing as a substitute for listening and speaking is
the first order of business in acquiring the literacy of the alphabet, a
secondary goal for literacy development is to learn to combine the written
language with the unique features of graphic technology to develop tools
for aiding communication, thinking and reasoning for developing new
knowledge.  Specifically, beyond reading and writing, for sifting through
and organizing the vast bodies of information being developed daily in
contemporary knowledge societies demands that adult basic skills learners
develop skills for using graphic tools that help them render large amounts
of information comprehensible and usable.

In a program of instruction developed for adults with reading skills from
the 4th  to the 7th grade levels on a standardized test, students were
taught how to analyze paragraphs of complex information and to synthesize
the information into new knowledge displays using different forms of
graphic tools.

For instance, adult students in work-oriented programs were given the
following paragraph:

Types of Bars
Crowbars are used for moving timbers and rocks. They are available in 4
and 5 foot lengths with a diameter of 1 or 1-1/4 inches. Pinch bars are
from 12 to 36 inches long and are used for prying out spikes and nails.
Pinch bar diameters range from 1/2 to 1 inch depending on their length.
Wrecking bars have diameters of 1/2 to 1-1/8 inches and are available in
lengths from 12 to 60 inches. They are used for the same things as
crowbars. Pry bars are used for prying out gears and bushings. They are 16
inches long and have a diameter of 1-1/16 inches.

Adult students were taught to read the dense information contained in the
paragraph and to use it to construct a matrix like the following:

TYPE		USE				LENGTH		DIAMETER
Crowbar	Moving timbers		4-5 feet		1 or 1-1/4 inches
		And rocks

Pinch bar	Prying out spikes	12-36 inches	1/2 to 1 inch
		And nails

Wrecking 	Moving timbers		12-60 inches	1/2 to 1-1/8 inch
bar		And rocks

Pry bar	Prying out gears	16 inches		1-1/16 inches
		And bushings


To transform the information from paragraph form to matrix form, students
had to analyze the paragraph into its different parts, and then synthesize
the information by constructing a matrix with labeled columns and cells
containing the appropriate information. In the early stages of learning to
use the matrix as a tool for information analysis and synthesis, students
were provided with paragraphs and matrices that were mostly already
completed. Students then went on to complete the matrix. Over practice
trials, using different types of content, the information in the matrix
was reduced and the students had to complete more of the unfinished
matrix. Finally, students were simply given paragraphs to analyze and
synthesize into a matrix of their own construction.

The matrix is a basic form of graphic tool for conducting a classification
analysis of a complex body of information and synthesizing it into a more
easily comprehended graphic display. In a study with over 100 adults it
was found that performance on a matrix construction performance assessment
increased as skills measured by a general reading test increased. For
adults reading at the 4th grade level or below, their performance of the
matrix construction task averaged less than 20 percent correct. While for
adults reading at or above the 7th grade level, performance averaged 70
percent correct or better. In a study with 36  students in the adult
literacy program who read between the 4th and 7th grades, it was found
that pre- and post-tests scores on the matrix construction performance
assessment increased on average from 65 to 95 percent correct following
about five hours of instruction per week for four to six weeks.

In the adult literacy program, students were also taught to read detailed
procedural instructions, analyze them and synthesize them into a new
graphic form – a flow chart. In the study of 100 adults mentioned above,
adults with 4th grade or less general reading skills scored about 22
percent correct on a test of flow-chart construction while those scoring
at the 10th grade level or above scored higher, but still less than 50
percent correct. This indicates that the construction of a flow chart of
procedural directions is a more difficult task than the construction of a
matrix from classification information as discussed above. In the adult
literacy program,  pre- and post-test scores for 36 students went from an
average of 37 to 61 percent correct on the flow chart performance
assessment in 20 to 3 hours of instruction spread over 4 to 6 weeks.

These data indicate that even adults with weak reading and writing skills
can acquire, in a relatively brief period of time, considerable knowledge
of graphic tools for information processing and communication and use them
to develop analysis and synthesis skills to render complex information
more understandable and usable. It seems likely that with the rapid
expansion of knowledge, the need for analytical skills and the ability to
use graphic displays to synthesize the products of analysis into more
communicable and usable formats take on added importance as components of
the curriculum in basic skills for adult literacy students.

The present emphasis in adult literacy programs upon the alphabetic
principle and reading as a substitute for listening to the spoken
language, with its emphasis upon decoding, addresses the foundational
meaning of literacy – to be able to read and write using the alphabet. But
beyond this foundation, the need for knowledge and skill in using graphic
tools for information processing and communication, and the development of
the analysis and synthesis skills that make the construction of new
knowledge possible should also be of concern.

The processing of information from the types of graphic devices discussed
here played a major role in the International and National Adult Literacy
Surveys of the 1990s, and a second round of surveys is presently in the
development stage. Given the importance of analysis and synthesis skills
for understanding complex bodies of knowledge, and their prominence in
national and international comparisons of literacy, it is important that
adult basic skills providers include the teaching of such skills in their
programs.

For the 21st century, reading is absolutely necessary, but totally
insufficient for the growth and development of complex bodies of
knowledge. For this, students need to master the graphic tools for
information processing involved in analysis and synthesis.






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