Scaling Up and Moving In: Connecting social practices views to policies and programs in adult education

Abstract

The social practices framework has had a major impact on adult literacy and numeracy research over the past quarter century in the US, the UK and other countries. To date, the social practices view has had far less influence on the development of policies and programs in adult literacy and numeracy education. To help this happen, new kinds of assessment tools aligned with the social practices framework are needed to support appropriate changes in curriculum design, learner assessment and program evaluation.In this article research is presented that illustrates how measures of adults' engagement in literacy and numeracy practices can be used in conjunction with well-entrenched proficiency measures to provide a richer quantitative framework for adult literacy and numeracy development. Longitudinal data about learners indicate that adult education programs are more closely aligned with practice engagement measures than with proficiency measures. Program participation leads to increased practice engagement that, over time, leads to the very gains in proficiency currently valued by policy makers.

ESL Participation as a Mechanism for Advancing Health Literacy in Immigrant Communities

“…Our pedagogical focus on social interaction as a key driver of health literacy development is consistent with practice-engagement theory (Reder, 1994, 2009) which “posits that literacy proficiency develops across the lifespan as individuals engage in literacy practices.... Reciprocally, higher levels of literacy proficiency lead to increased engagement in literacy practices” (Reder, in press). As adult ESL learners increase their engagement with new health literacy practices, initially in the classroom, and then eventually in out-of-school contexts (e.g., home, health care settings), they expand their access to institutional, social, and material resources.…”

“…Through meaningful interactions with others (e.g., teachers, more expert peers), ESL learners in turn may adopt new literacy practices for managing preventive health care tasks that they otherwise would not have been able to do alone. Reder’s (2009) longitudinal research on English-proficient adult learners found that the impact of increased practice-engagement on literacy proficiency was significant, but the effects were not immediate: Reder found it took 5–6 years to see the positive impact of practice-engagement on proficiency.…”

Ageing and Skills

“…While many researchers favour longitudinal data for investigating age-related change in skills, Salthouse (2009a;2009b;2010b) argued that longitudinal findings on age-skill profiles are too unreliable due to re-test and selection effects. Salthouse maintains that cross-sectional findings provide a more accurate picture of the age-related decline of cognitive skills though these claims are contested by many researchers (e.g., Abrams, 2009;Nilsson et al, 2009;Schaie, 2009).…”

An Analysis of Skill Mismatch Using Direct Measures of Skills

“…Literacy and numeracy skills are not only a function of formal education but also a wide range of other practices that occur over the lifespan including social and cultural practices, and not least, work practices such as engagement in literacy and numeracy related tasks at work (Desjardins, 2004). Practice engagement is thus important to nurture and develop skills (Reder, 2009a;2009b). By extension workers who are deprived of the opportunity to perform complex literacy tasks may lose some of their skills proficiency.…”

“…A closely related and often overlapping strand of studies focuses on alternative measures that are more closely tied to the concept of 'skill mismatch', namely 'underskilling' and 'overskilling', or alternatively 'skill deficit' and 'skill surplus/skill underutilization'(see e.g., Krahn & Lowe, 1998;OECD/Statistics Canada, 2005;Mavromaras, McGuinness & Wooden, 2007;Mavromaras, McGuinness & Fok, 2009a;2009b;Mavromaras, McGuinness, O'Leary, Sloane & Wei, 2010;Ryan & Sinning, 2009;OECD/Statistics Canada, 2011). There are fewer studies using the latter concepts partly due to the lack of data and the difficulty in measuring skill mismatch, but the advantages are apparent and interest appears to be on the rise (e.g., CEDEFOP, 2010a).…”