[NLA] Implement this immediately!

[Thomas Sticht]

Research Note October 23, 2001
Tom Sticht

Practitioners should implement this right away! 

I recently received reports from the National Center for Adult Learning
and Literacy (NCSALL) and the National Institute for Literacy (NIFL)
that caused me to realize that R & D is rapidly equipping adult literacy
educators to improve the future of adult literacy education in the
United States. 

For instance, from NCSALL there are reports about Adult Multiple
Intelligences (AMI) research. This research identifies eight
"intelligences": linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial-visual,
bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and
naturalist. The report I looked at says, "MI validates good practice and
expands the capacity of teachers to bring out the best in their
students." While I couldn’t find any  direct evidence to support these
claims, the information is out there for practitioners to use. 

But hold on, don’t move forward with your AMI reforms too quickly.
Another recent NCSALL report says it has a new developmental dimension 
of adult learning and meaning-making, and that "practitioners can also
benefit by remaining alert to the ways that learners’ meaning systems
might also transform over the course of a program." That is, teachers
need to be aware of adult’s "ways of knowing" as they change from
Instrumental, to Socializing to Self-Authoring ways of knowing and
meaning making. Again, I looked for evidence that practitioners actually
can benefit from knowing about this research but I probably didn’t look
long enough because I didn’t find any. Nonetheless the information is
there for the taking, too. 

With three new dimensions of meaning-making to be on the alert for, and
eight intelligences that might interact in some complex way with these
new "ways of knowing," teachers now have the opportunity of  keeping up
with the possibility of 8 times 3 equals 24 new dimensions of change
that their students may be undergoing.   

NCSALL reports also suggest that practitioners conduct a "force-field"
analysis to create teaching approaches that will enhance an adult
learner’s motivation and participation. The latter may also be
influenced by whether one designs instruction that is
life-contextualized not life-decontextualized and dialogic not
monologic.

But that is not all. From the NIFL comes the Equipped for the Future
"reform effort" that has four purposes, three life roles and seventeen
standards that teachers need to keep track of with each student while
they are presumably also tracking the 24 interactions of "ways of
knowing" and "multiple intelligences," conducting "force-field
analyses," and seeking to be life-contextualized and dialogic. 

NIFL has also produced a 218 page volume on what the science of thinking
and learning has to offer adult education with 18 multi-page, stand
alone "fact sheets" that present some discrete ideas from cognitive
science and then offers some teaching tips for each of the 18 "fact
sheets". 

So the NIFL reports give practitioners four purposes, three life roles,
17 standards, and 18 fact sheets giving over 3,600 possible combinations
that can then be tracked and monitored along with 24 more from NCSALL
providing a cornucopia of over  88,000 combinations teachers can use
while designing instruction and teaching! 

Of course these new findings interact with those old stalwarts, the
"learning styles," including auditory, visual, and kinesthetic learners
and field-dependent and independent learners (just six combinations). So
teachers need to keep these in mind and plan instruction accordingly,
too.  

With all these 6 times 88,000+ equals over 528,000+ new dimensions of
learning and teaching available, adult literacy educators can certainly
get  equipped for the future of adult literacy education. Just remember
to also keep track of how many adults move upwards on the six levels of
the National Reporting System in ESOL, ABE, and ASE programs and how
many go on to read more to their children, get off of welfare, get new
jobs or advance in old jobs, earn more money, pay taxes and return more
to the government than the government spent on their education (the
latter shouldn’t be difficult at all!). 

Special Alert For Practitioners! All this information is already out
there and if you are going to use it you’d better hurry up. I just
attended two meetings where lots more future R & D for adult literacy
education was being planned. You’ll want to get the present new
information into practice before the future new information comes along
and possibly invalidates what the old  information that’s new today
says. And don’t worry about whether there is any convincing evidence
that any of this old or new information actually improves your teaching
and/or your instructional program.  Just implement it immediately!

(PS. If you can show you’re using technology while implementing all this
new/old/new R & D information, that’s even better!). 

(PPS. Though it is missing from NIFL’s 218 page report on thinking and
learning, cognitive science provides a two-step, problem-solving
algorithm for solving your program’s problems using the new/old/new R &
D findings:
Step 1. Identify your problem.
Step 2. Solve it!
You can repeat this process as often as needed. Works every time!)