Structuring learning environments: Lessons from the organization of post-literacy programs

New conceptual and historical work on the nature of literacy and information on several bellwether post-literacy efforts in developing countries furnish a basis for diagnosing some of the deficiencies in current approaches to post-literacy programming. The key issue is the design of a literate environment. Heretofore attention has been concentrated too exclusively on the reading materials and continuing education side of the problem, and insufficient attention has been given to the more critical and difficult aspect: ensuring adequate opportunities for the application of new literate skills. The availability of these functional opportunities is closely related to the possibilities for accumulation and reinvestment of economic surplus in the environment, and to the way in which the related activities are organized. Literacy programs can unite skills relevant to management of local resources with strategies of cultural, political or religious revitalization that mobilize people to use their human resources. They therefore continue to offer an attractive means of initiating a reinvestment spiral from limited initial capital. To realize these potentials at the post-literacy stage, however, requires planning post-literacy before literacy, broadening programs to address primary school leavers as well, and paying greatly increased attention to the economic and social structure of the learning environment.

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Zusammenfassung Neue konzeptionelle und historische Arbeiten zur Alphabetisierung sowie Informationen über bahnbrechende Nachalphabetisierungsprojekte in Entwicklungsländern bilden die Grundlage, um einige Unzulänglichkeiten bei den derzeitigen Ansätzen der Nachalphabetisierungsprogramme zu diagnostizieren. Die Kernfrage betrifft das Schaffen einer allgemeinen Literalität. Bisher richtete man seine Aufmerksamkeit auf das Lesematerial und die Weiterbildung, während kritischere und schwierigere Aspekte der Sicherung ausreichender Chancen für die Anwendung neuerworbener Alphabetisierungsfähigkeiten nur ungenügend berücksichtigt wurden. Die Schaffung funktioneller Möglichkeiten ist eng verbunden mit den Möglichkeiten zur Akkumulation und Reinvestition des ökonomischen Überschusses in die Umwelt und mit der Art und Weise, wie die aufeinander bezogenen Aktivitäten organisiert sind. Alphabetisierungsprogramme können den Erwerb von Fähigkeiten, die dem Management lokaler Ressourcen dienen, mit kulturellen, politischen oder religiösen Wiederbelebungsstrategien vereinen, damit Menschen ihre menschlichen Ressourcen nutzen. Sie fahren daher fort, durch attraktive Mittel eine Reinvestitionsspirale über das begrenzte Startkapital hinaus in Bewegung zu setzen. Um die Möglichkeiten der Nachalphabetisierung zu nutzen, ist es jedoch notwendig, sie vor der Alphabetisierung zu planen, Programme zu erweitern, damit auch Schulabgänger angesprochen werden, und auf die wirtschaftliche und soziale Struktur der lernenden Umwelt erheblich mehr Rücksicht zu nehmen.

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Résumé Les dernières études conceptuelles et historiques sur la nature de l'alphabétisation et de la postalphabétisation et les informations sur quelques efforts avantgardistes de postalphabétisation qui ont été recensés dans des pays en développement fournissent une base à partir de laquelle peuvent être diagnostiquées quelques-unes des carences des approaches actuelles de la planification de la postalphabétisation. La question-clé a trait à la création d'un environment lettré. Jusqu'ici, l'attention a été concentrée trop exclusivement sur les matériels de lecture et le côté éducation continue du problème, et l'on ne s'est pas suffisamment préoccupé de l'aspect le plus critique et le plus difficile qui est celui d'assurer des occasions adéquates d'application des compétences d'alphabétisme nouvellement acquises. La disponibilité de ces occasions fonctionnelles est étroitement liée aux possibilités d'accumulation et de réinvestissement du surplus économique dans l'environnement, et à la manière dont les activités connexes sont organisées. Les programmes d'alphabétisation associent virtuellement les compétences pertinentes par rapport à la gestion des ressources locales aux stratégies de revitalisation culturelle, politique et religieuse qui encouragent les individus à utiliser leurs ressources humaines. Ils ne cessent donc d'offrir un moyen intéressant d'instaurer une spirale de réinvestissement à partir d'un capital initial restreint. Pour réaliser ces potentiels au niveau de la postalphabétisation, il convient, cependant, de planifier la postalphabétisation avant l'alphabétisation, d'élargir l'accès des programmes aux absolvants de l'école primaire également, et d'accorder une attention toujours plus grande à la structure économique et sociale du milieu dans lequel l'apprentissage se fait.

     

Lessons from exemplary colleges of education: Factors affecting technology integration in preservice programs

This study focused on efforts in four colleges of education deemed exemplary in their approaches to prepare preservice teachers to use technology. The study addressed one over-arching question: What are the important pieces of the puzzle that make up the current technology integration efforts at these exemplary sites? Data were gathered during the 1997–98 academic year. Findings suggest that there is a web of enabling factors that supports student learning opportunities and desired technology-related outcomes for preservice teachers. The informed leadership of deans and other administrative and faculty leaders appears to be especially critical to sustain and expand technology-integration efforts. Leadership issues, along with a wide range of other factors, are systematically examined across the four case studies. The authors conclude that while each of the four cases is unique, many of the recommended practices explored in this study would likely prove beneficial if employed in other settings.     

Assessing the impact of financial education programs: A quantitative model

Prior studies disagree regarding the effectiveness of financial education programs, especially those offered in the workplace. To explain such measurement differences in evaluation and outcomes, we employ a stochastic life cycle model with endogenous financial knowledge accumulation and investigate how financial education programs optimally shape key economic outcomes. This approach permits us to measure how such programs shape wealth accumulation, financial knowledge, and participation in sophisticated assets (e.g. stocks) across heterogeneous consumers. We apply conventional program evaluation econometric techniques to simulated data, distinguishing selection and treatment effects. We show that the more effective programs provide follow-up in order to sustain the knowledge acquired by employees via the program; in such an instance, financial education delivered to employees around the age of 40 can raise savings at retirement by close to 10%. By contrast, one-time education programs do produce short-term but few long-term effects. We also measure how accounting for selection affects estimates of program effectiveness for those who participate. Comparisons of participants and non-participants can be misleading, even using a difference-in-difference strategy when the common-trend assumption is unlikely to hold. Random program assignment is needed to evaluate program effects on those who participate.     

Assessing writing in cross-curricular programs: Determining the locus of activity

Writing across the curriculum (WAC) programs had their genesis in grass-roots efforts to promote attention to writing in all disciplinary areas. At first based on generic faculty-development activities with little regard to systemic and institutional concerns, WAC programs are now more often engaged in assessment and research of writing, especially to measure the effects of the program on student learning and development. Yet little scholarship in WAC has analyzed assessment efforts in light of locations and types of WAC activities. This essay first describes two axes, one representing the “space” or location of WAC activity, and the other representing levels of assessment and other research on writing. When brought together, these axes create a matrix of possible types and centers of WAC activity. A case is made for the department or academic program as a locus of activity for WAC implementation and assessment that has not been fully explored in program development.     

Assessing the quality of Portuguese child care programs for toddlers

The purpose of this study was to describe the quality of toddler child care classrooms in the district of Porto, in the north of Portugal. One hundred and sixty classrooms for children between 1 and 3 years of age participated in this study. Results suggested the existence of poor average quality and absence of good-quality classrooms. Child–adult ratio was a statistically significant predictor of overall child care quality (with lower ratios associated with higher quality). The results of this study provide information on the applicability of ITERS-R to a new cultural and linguistic context, suggesting the need to enhance the quality of Portuguese programs serving toddlers.     

第三次国际数学与科学研究:美国的回应及其启示

第三次国际数学与科学研究(简称TIMSS),是国际上迄今为止规模最大、最为严密、最具综合性的国际教育比较研究。在41个TIMSS参与国中,美国的回应最为积极而强烈,其对TIMSS信息的分析最为精细,开发与传递的策略也最为巧妙。透过美国的回应方式与策略,我们至少可以得到三点启示:鉴别国际基准,需要对研究信息作精细的分析;中小学数学与科学课程改革需要审慎的态度和基于研究的决策;教育行政部门应在改革中行使“领导”和“服务”双重职能。     

Teaching Reading: Lessons from the Experts

There have been several investigations into the effective teaching of reading, but very few into the qualities of teachers who are effective practitioners in this area. In this article, the authors report some of the findings of a project commissioned by the Teacher Training Agency to investigate the characteristics of effective teachers of literacy. The effective teachers studied had a number of features in common, including a coherent set of beliefs about the importance of meaning in literacy teaching and an ability to help their pupils to make connections between language at the text, sentence and word levels.     

Collective Experimentation: Lessons from the Field

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to document smallholder experiences during a participatory experimental initiative and draw useful lessons for field practitioners. The main methods used to collect data were participant observation, in-depth interviews among 40 farmers, and analyses of notes taken during participatory monitoring and evaluation. These farmers were regular participants in four collective trials—designed by scientists, managed by smallholders—that were run for over five years in western Kenya. This paper shows that scientific trial designs enhanced ‘conviction’ among smallholders in new technologies that were being experimented. The study further reveals that (1) collective trials must last long enough for interactive learning to effectively occur, (2) farmers’ selected aspects of experiments and did not generally treat the whole trial as one concept, (3) field trials were forms of evidence of research or project activity, and (4) trials were seen as like ‘churches’ and multipurpose congregating sites, especially because these collective experiments had roots in local traditions.

The practical implication is that because interactive trials are social events, like other learning platforms, they must be appropriately situated within local contexts to enhance their relevance. This paper also shows that experiments are only a first step in learning, which needs to be supported by in-depth research and support for smallholder experiments. Collaborative experimentation is an effective tool for improving smallholder knowledge. Experimentation is a hands-on tool; it strengthens interactive learning, enhances understanding of a concept and improves ownership of the process or research among farmers. However, longer-term collective experiments develop a strong underlying human dimension. Understanding the social dynamics that influence the value of collective experimentation is critical for the process of scaling out.     

The gateway to the profession: Assessing teacher preparation programs based on student achievement

With teacher quality repeatedly cited as the most important schooling factor influencing student achievement, there has been increased interest in examining the efficacy of teacher training programs. This paper presents the results of research investigating the relationship between teachers who graduate from different training programs and student achievement on state reading and math tests. Using a novel methodology that allows teacher training effects to decay, we find that training institution indicators explain a statistically significant portion of the variation in student achievement in reading, but not in math. Moreover, there is evidence that graduates from some specific training programs are differentially effective at teaching reading than the average teacher trained out-of-state and that these differences are large enough to be educationally meaningful.     

Assessing quality in programs of university without walls graduates

The University Without Walls (UWW) program at the University of Minnesota completed a study of correlates of quality, those parts of students' programs that were thought to influence the quality of students' work. Graduation dossiers were rated according to graduates' fulfillment of seven graduation criteria. Quality ratings were correlated with barriers possessed by graduates at admission, major area of study, length of time in UWW, and narrative evaluations of graduates' work. Narrative evaluations from university faculty had the greatest effect on dossier quality ratings.     

On discarding affirmative action: An address to the regents of the University of California

Editor's Note: On 20 July 1995 the Board of Regents of the University of California voted to end the use of race, gender, and ethnicity in student admissions and in faculty and staff hiring. Before the vote, thirty-one “elected and other public figures” were scheduled to address the Regents briefly on the subject of affirmation action. Governor Pete Wilson (ex officio president of the Board) was allocated several of the thirty-one slots. Among those he invited to speak was NAS member John M. Ellis. We present Professor Ellis’s remarks below.     

Assessing quality characteristics of center-based early childhood environments in Germany and Portugal: A cross-national study

Based on the knowledge that direct assessment of the quality of early childhood educational environments is becoming more and more important, this article deals with a coordinated adaptation of the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS) in Germany and Portugal. The ECERS, developed by Harms and Clifford (1980), is a complex rating scale, comprising 37 items, which is implemented to assess major quality characteristics of early childhood classrooms and has been used quite extensively in the US as well as in other countries. In this article we describe how the scale was adapted and we report selected results of a jointly coordinated comparative study on a sample of 103 early childhood classrooms in Germany and 88 in Portugal. The classrooms were classified according to three different types in each country. In particular, we report the item characteristics of the adapted versions, reliabilities and intercorrelations of the total scale and the apriori-subscales, and results of factor analyses. A one-way ANOVA indicates group differences between the six types of classrooms which can be meaningfully interpreted.     

合作教育不仅仅是合作而已——读《国际教育新理念·合作教育》心得

合作教育是以健康良好的师生关系为基础、以教师积极推动为前提、以多样化的方式方法来实现、以学生个性发展为目的的一种教育理念,这就要求以＂合作教学、激发学生潜能＂为特点的教学改革必须重视师生关系的建构、重视教师队伍的建设、重视合作方式方法的研究和探索,否则,合作教学也仅仅是合作而已,起不了提高教育质量的作用。