ADULT LITERACY PROGRAM MODELS
A variety of delivery models are used in adult literacy programs. Taylor
(2001) suggested there are four key organizing frameworks in adult literacy
education: community–based, workplace, school–based, and family literacy. Issues related
to community–based literacy, school–based literacy and workplace literacy
(as it relates to employment preparation, compared to on–the–job literacy
education) will be examined because of their connection to the three settings
of the employment preparation program. It should be noted that the employment
preparation program cannot be neatly aligned with only one of the main
organizing frameworks, but, in fact, borrows from three of the four.
School–Based Programs
In Ontario, most of the 46,000 adults who participate in programs attend
a school–based program (A. Rachlis, Keynote Speech, LBS Manager's
Day, May, 2003), such as one run by a community college or a school board.
These school–based programs are also referred to as classroom programs.
It is important to examine these kinds of programs because they relate
directly to the classroom setting of the study. The classes most often consist of a medium to large
group of students (12–25) and are often taught by a paid instructor
who has at least a post–secondary degree. Although the programs
may be housed in a college or school board setting, they access a separate
body of funding and are not usually integrated into the school board or community college
structure. For example, literacy programs run by a school board are most often part
of adult continuing education departments and not elementary or secondary school education.
School-based programs most often focus on the improvement of literacy
skills in order to help students acquire academic credentials—to enter a high school credit
program, to pass a community college entry test, or to acquire a GED.
Subsequently, the curriculum is most often based on a schooling model, and the accumulation
of academic literacy skills is emphasized over literacy uses in other
contexts such as home, community and work.
Recent research from Beder and Medina (2001) claimed to be "the first major
study since 1975 to investigate classroom behaviour in adult literacy education"
(p. ii). Guided by grounded theory in order to develop a "broad, panoramic,
macro picture" of classroom behaviours (p. 8), data were collected
from two 90–minute classroom observations of 20 classrooms in eight states,
and three 45–minute teacher interviews. Findings were organized into three categories:
the content and structure of instruction, social processes in the classroom,
and factors that shaped the dynamics of the class. The authors found that
the dominant mode of instruction in a class concentrated on the accumulation
of factual and discrete skills, whereas meaning–making instruction—characterized
by collaboration, authentic materials, the teacher taking on the role of
facilitator, and the development of higher–level abilities—was found in only
20 percent of the classes. The seven social processes that occurred in the
class were sanctioning, engagement, directing, correcting, helping, expressing values
and opinions, and community. These social processes were also described in
greater detail in Taylor, King and Pinsent–Johnson (2002). The final
broad category in the Beder and Medina study was shaping factors. These were
the forces that influenced the classroom outside of the actions and behaviours of the people
in the class, such as enrollment turbulence, classroom composition, and funding pressures. This
study directed attention to many of the same ideas that will be explored in the present
study through situated learning, such as the content and structure of instruction,
social processes in the classroom, and factors that shaped the dynamics of the class.
|