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Low Skilled Workforce In The U.S.: Key Findings From The Program For International Assessment Of Adult Competencies (Piaac), Emily Pawlowski May 2015

Low Skilled Workforce In The U.S.: Key Findings From The Program For International Assessment Of Adult Competencies (Piaac), Emily Pawlowski

Adult Education Research Conference

This paper provides an overview of the Program for International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), a large-scale international assessment of adult skills. Results on the literacy, numeracy, and digital problem solving skills of the low-skilled U.S. workforce will also be presented.


Institutional Ethnography And Actor Network Theory: The Possibilities And Challenges Of Exploring The Relational In Adult Education Research, Terrie Lynn Thompson, Christine Pinsent-Johnson Jun 2011

Institutional Ethnography And Actor Network Theory: The Possibilities And Challenges Of Exploring The Relational In Adult Education Research, Terrie Lynn Thompson, Christine Pinsent-Johnson

Adult Education Research Conference

Adult education practices are imbued with the relational and the material. Drawing on our empirical studies we explore the utility of Actor Network Theory and Institutional Ethnography—theoretically and methodologically—for adult education researchers. A brief theoretical overview of the two perspectives will highlight their convergences and divergences. We then introduce several methodological concepts to explore how IE and ANT encouraged us as researchers to unravel relations, bring relations into view, and attend to coordination/translation. Adult education is a disparate and complex field. Researchers may find the approaches useful in understanding the ways adult education practices are coordinated and connected.


Certification For What? Practitioner Perspectives On The Changing Landscape Of Adult Literacy Education, Suzanne Smythe Jun 2011

Certification For What? Practitioner Perspectives On The Changing Landscape Of Adult Literacy Education, Suzanne Smythe

Adult Education Research Conference

The responses of 63 adult literacy educators to an online survey suggest that professional development and training to meet the diverse contexts and practices in the field must attend to the embedded inequalities in access to quality literacy education for low income learners, and the marginalization of adult literacy work, which persists even as successive governments hail the importance of literacy education for citizenship and employment.


Essentializing The Experiences And Expertise Of Adult Literacy Educators, Christine Pinsent-Johnson Jun 2011

Essentializing The Experiences And Expertise Of Adult Literacy Educators, Christine Pinsent-Johnson

Adult Education Research Conference

Adult literacy educator expertise is being subsumed by the Essential Skills framework and IALS testing methodology as both are packaged as adult literacy pedagogy. Preliminary findings from an Institutional Ethnography illustrate how educators are becoming increasingly immersed in the discursive relations of the literacy regime as they: 1) get hooked into the discourse of the regime; 2) establish a direct link with assessments and accountability requirements; and 3) are taught to change the way they teach, discounting both research and practice based knowledge of literacy and adult learning.


The Meaning Of ‘Being Literate’ In The Case Of Adult Literacy Learners In Korea, Jihye Lee Jun 2011

The Meaning Of ‘Being Literate’ In The Case Of Adult Literacy Learners In Korea, Jihye Lee

Adult Education Research Conference

This study examines the meaning of ‘being literate’ along with focusing on the relationship with formal education in Korea. For the purpose of this study, adult literacy learners wrote 1,673 articles and they were also analyzed. As a result, the demand for having formal education experience limits and influences the motivation, educational process, and meaning of being literate for adult literacy learners in Korea.


Failing To Read Well: The Role Of Public Libraries In Adult Literacy, Immigrant Community Building, And Free Access To Learning, Luis Kong Jun 2011

Failing To Read Well: The Role Of Public Libraries In Adult Literacy, Immigrant Community Building, And Free Access To Learning, Luis Kong

Adult Education Research Conference

This study explores the impact library literacy programs have in the development of immigrant community engagement. Public libraries services are essential to the social, cultural, and economic development of rapidly expanding ethnic communities. A library’s adult literacy programs play an important role in reaching new Americans and expanding their participation in society. Through learner-centered instruction, these programs provide opportunities for advancement and integration. The dialogic exchange among learners promotes reciprocal teaching, and enriches their voices as they link what they learn to what is relevant in their lives. This study concludes with strategies to successfully bridge immigrant transition to become …


Unfolding The Adult Literacy Regime, Richard Darville Jun 2011

Unfolding The Adult Literacy Regime, Richard Darville

Adult Education Research Conference

A quarter-century’s development of a regime that promotes and regulates adult literacy has diminished the space for responsive and relational literacy work. Many institutional processes – in media, transnational policy- making, survey-based knowledge, and governmental regulation – are tied together in this development. Mapping their connections allows a better understanding of this development than does ideological critique.


From Classroom Assessment To Ials And Piaac: Disconnected Conceptions About Measuring Adult Literacy, Audrey Gardner Jun 2011

From Classroom Assessment To Ials And Piaac: Disconnected Conceptions About Measuring Adult Literacy, Audrey Gardner

Adult Education Research Conference

The International Adult Literacy Survey has resulted in a reframing of the meaning of adult literacy and contributed to disconnected conceptions about literacy assessment in Canada and elsewhere. In the emerging IALS framework governments prioritize statistical measures and largely overlook the array of mostly qualitative evidence of learner progress. Programs are challenged to balance assessment methods that are meaningful to learners with policy expectations on raising literacy rates. This paper offers a brief analysis of how adult literacy assessment has been caught up in the IALS discourse that undercuts learner-centered assessment.


Fostering A Literate U.S. Workforce: Perspectives Of Adult Educators In Human Resource Development, Merlissa C. Alfred Jun 2010

Fostering A Literate U.S. Workforce: Perspectives Of Adult Educators In Human Resource Development, Merlissa C. Alfred

Adult Education Research Conference

Organizations are faced with increasing demands for a highly literate and skilled workforce. Investments in basic literacy and skills training are required to effectively address these organizational needs. The purpose of this study was to investigate Human Resource Development’s role in investing in and developing the segment of the US workforce that lacks the basic literacy and skills needed to participate in the employment arena.


Oral Histories To Support Growing Democracy: Stories From The Nyc Adult Literacy Community, Dianne Ramdeholl May 2009

Oral Histories To Support Growing Democracy: Stories From The Nyc Adult Literacy Community, Dianne Ramdeholl

Adult Education Research Conference

This oral history project chronicled narratives from the NYC adult literacy community in an attempt to preserve the field’s public collective historical memory. These narratives, countering dominant ideologies, explicitly connect adult literacy to human rights struggles, can support the field in a larger collective conversation rooted in sustainable democratic practices.


Persistence Strategies In Adult Literacy Programs Supported By Community Colleges, Renata Russo, Mary V. Alfred Nov 2008

Persistence Strategies In Adult Literacy Programs Supported By Community Colleges, Renata Russo, Mary V. Alfred

Adult Education Research Conference

This roundtable will focus on the reasons why adult learners persist long enough to obtaining a post-secondary degree or certification. Furthermore, this study in progress is investigating the impact adult literacy and GED transition programs have on adult learners in post-secondary education.


Mapping Cognitive Engagement In Adult Literacy Classrooms, Thomas Valentine, Judy Milton, Anastasiya A. Lipnevich, Harold Beder Aug 2006

Mapping Cognitive Engagement In Adult Literacy Classrooms, Thomas Valentine, Judy Milton, Anastasiya A. Lipnevich, Harold Beder

Adult Education Research Conference

Using exploratory factor analysis to examine self-reported survey data from adult learners, this study identified three factors of cognitive engagement in the adult literacy classroom: program involvement, focus, and independent effort. A model that demonstrates the impact of independent effort on gains in reading test scores was developed using multivariate analysis.


Adult Students And Adult Literacy Practitioners Disconnected: Differing Perspectives Of Adult Students’ Needs, Lesley E. Tomaszewski Aug 2006

Adult Students And Adult Literacy Practitioners Disconnected: Differing Perspectives Of Adult Students’ Needs, Lesley E. Tomaszewski

Adult Education Research Conference

Adult Education Research Conference presentations are analyzed from 1995 through 2005 for content and authorship gender. This analysis compares findings from this time period with findings from the 1970’s and the late 1980’s.


Practice Makes Perfect: Shaping Influences On Informal Reading Among Adult Developing Readers, Alisa Belzer Jun 2006

Practice Makes Perfect: Shaping Influences On Informal Reading Among Adult Developing Readers, Alisa Belzer

Adult Education Research Conference

This study of 3 adult literacy learners’ outside class text interactions, indicate that quantity and quality of reading practice may be influenced by the ways prior experiences have helped shape their beliefs and understandings about reading development, access to text, and the nature of family relationships related to learning and literacy.


How Teachers’ Roles Shape Adult Literacy Learners’ Engagement In Instruction, Hal Beder Jun 2006

How Teachers’ Roles Shape Adult Literacy Learners’ Engagement In Instruction, Hal Beder

Adult Education Research Conference

This paper addresses the question: What are the contextual factors that shape learners’ engagement in adult literacy education? Six adult literacy classes were studied at an urban adult learning center. Data sources included video, traditional ethnographic observation, stimulated recall interviews and open interviews. Findings focus on the ways that teachers’ roles shape engagement.