This study explores the effectiveness of social practice approach by integrating social practices along with modern teaching strategies, and teacher training to address the challenge of low academic achievement among adult learners in basic literacy programs. For a 4-month experiment, two of a metropolitan city's fourteen adult literacy centres…

Functional literacy is the learning of knowledge and skills for vital necessities as a higher level of basic literacy and then the operational use of this information in individual, socio-cultural, or economic fields. This research aims to examine the opinions of teachers in the context of functional literacy related to the II level primary…

This design case will discuss how design strategies evolved through the development and implementation of two e-service-learning project cohorts. The article provides a detailed account for how Designers for Learning launched its first e-service-learning instructional design project to address adult basic education needs. Information and design…

The focus of each Technology Solutions for Adult Basic Skills Challenges column begins with a common challenge facing adult basic skills practitioners. This article examines a technology solution to two large and related challenges: student engagement and student persistence, which, from a program or school perspective, is often described as…

Why do inmates participate in educational activities? Is it for the main reasons that individuals belonging to general population do, or do the reasons differ significantly? The present study sought to determine the motives that drive adult prisoners to take part in educational programmes offered in prison. The study took part in Korydallos…

This paper reports on the implementation of a high level contextualized mathematics curriculum by 12 adult basic instructors in a midwestern state. The 10-week pilot curriculum embedded high level mathematics in contexts that were familiar to adult learners. Instructors' weekly online posts were coded, and the following themes emerged: (a)…

Thirty-five years after independence the Mozambican illiteracy rate has been reduced from 93% to just over 50% according to official statistics. Although this indicates an enormous achievement in the area of education, the challenge of today still is to design appropriate adult basic education programmes including literacy, numeracy and life…

The extant literature offers little to describe the processes for screening students in adult basic education (ABE) programs for potential learning disabilities, referring adult students for diagnostic assessment, or barriers to obtaining diagnostic assessment for a learning disability. Without current documentation of a learning disability, ABE…

The right to education is an internationally recognized right. As part of the global movement for Education for All in the past two decades, the right to basic education has emerged in international law, and it carries international obligations--political and legal--on account of collective commitments by the international community for its…

Extensive reading is an approach to teaching reading that has been utilized with English as a Second Language (ESL) learners, but not widely used in the adult literacy classroom. This article investigates whether this approach can be utilized in a classroom for adults who have difficulty with reading. A description of our implementation of…

Discusses how a program designed to teach children and youth to read was used in two classes for adults. Presents an explanation and description of the implementation, reports of learner progress, and the perceptions of the participants. Concludes that despite poor testing outcomes, the learners, instructors, and administrators believed in the…

Describes how New Mexico's Section 310 personnel reviewed the literature on self-directed learning and devised strategies for integrating self-directed learning into staff development training. Their plan for accomplishing this is described. (Author/CT)

A survey of 200 volunteer monitors in literacy centers in India identified problems they had, particularly in acquiring suitable materials and securing cooperation from agencies and communities. Some relationship between monitors' personal characteristics and problems was found, suggesting a need for preservice and inservice training. (SK)

Reflects upon the development, implementation and research of specific intergenerational family literacy initiatives in the Anglophone section of New Brunswick. Presents four initiatives and discusses working with the community, working in the neighborhood, and working within a university context. (SG)

A literacy program incorporating adult learning principles was designed using functional materials and an appropriate methodology, and the feasibility of this program was assessed in an adult basic education setting. Analysis of achievement data indicated that the application of adult learning principles to adult literacy resulted in effective…