Chapter 1

Introduction to Functional Context Education (FCE) Materials and Principles Available Online

The concepts of Functional Context Education, developed within the field of adult literacy education, are being widely disseminated on the internet. Several online databases provide a wide range of resources for adult educators and others and include information about Functional Context Education theory and principles for embedding or integrating basic skills with relevant content subject matter.

1. National Adult Literacy Database (NALD) in Canada. An earlier (1997) Functional Context Education (FCE) Workshop Resource Notebook is available for free pdf downloading from the NALD in Canada at

http://www.nald.ca/fulltext/context/cover.htm

(or www.nald.ca under Full Text Documents searched by S for Sticht.) The notebook presents FCE theory of cognition and literacy, and it provides evidence for the effectiveness of FCE and examples of FCE type programs.

What is Functional Context Education (FCE)?

Functional Context Education is an approach to education that is based upon a cognitive science theory of cognitive development, learning, and instruction. The theoretical framework and the principles for applying this framework to the task of instructional development are discussed in this notebook.

Literacy is given special attention in FCE because of its importance to all schooling and instruction in our information age. A general thesis is that the idea that literacy is something one must "get" in one program, which is then "applied" in another is misleading. Rather, it is argued that literacy is developed while it is being applied. This means that for the large numbers of youth and adults who read between the fifth and ninth grade levels, literacy and content skills education can be integrated. Therefore there is no need for special "remedial" literacy programs to get students to "prerequisite" levels of literacy before they are permitted to study the "real thing."

In overview, education based on functional context theory includes the following conceptual framework:

  • Society and culture provide the most important resources for human cognitive development. These resources include symbols and symbol systems, such as the natural language and conceptual (in contrast to perceptual) knowledge, which constitute the primary means for the transmission of cognitive abilities.

  • The learner possesses a "human cognitive system" with an internal knowledge base "inside the head" and access to an external knowledge base in the world "outside the head." The learner has a working, or short term memory in which processing skills such as language are used to move information in and out of both the internal and external knowledge bases.