The present paper sought to offer a theoretical perspective on the social practice approach (SPA) in adult literacy since its conceptualization in the early 1980s. It aims to provide a holistic understanding of SPA by examining its objectives, development, and practical applications. The analysis highlights how the SPA differs from traditional…

Childhood education affects how individuals adapt to the challenges of adulthood. Although various generalizations are made relating childhood educational experiences to characteristics of adults, there is scant evidence to support those assertions for adult literacy learners in the United States. This study investigates the relationship of…

Adaptive learning technologies hold great promise for improving the reading skills of adults with low literacy, but adults with low literacy skills typically have low computer literacy skills. In order to determine whether adults with low literacy skills would be able to use an intelligent tutoring system for reading comprehension, we adapted a 44…

Selecting assessments for adults who struggle with reading can be difficult because few literacy measures used by reading researchers have been normed on this population, leaving uncertainty regarding the validity of these tests for adult learners. This study focused on the performance of 116 adults reading between the 3rd and 8th grade levels on…

Selecting assessments for adults who struggle with reading can be difficult because few literacy measures used by reading researchers have been normed on this population, leaving uncertainty regarding the validity of these tests for adult learners. This study focused on the performance of 116 adults reading between the 3rd and 8th grade levels on…

The third "Global Report on Adult Learning and Education" ("GRALE III") draws on monitoring surveys completed by 139 UNESCO Member States to develop a differentiated picture of the global state of adult learning and education (ALE). It evaluates countries' progress in fulfilling the commitments they made in the Belém Framework…

This essay offers a commentary on how the relationship between language and literacy practices in and out of school has been conceptualized. It draws upon two new books in the field. Shirley Brice Heath's new book, "Words at Work and Play: Three Decades in Family and Community Life," which makes use of rich ethnographic accounts of…

In this study, confirmatory factor analyses were used to examine the interrelationships among latent factors of the simple view model of reading comprehension (word recognition and language comprehension) and hypothesized additional factors (vocabulary and reading fluency) in a sample of 476 adult learners with low literacy levels. The results…

The purpose of this article is to investigate major determinants of participation in adult education. Specifically, a direct measure of literacy skills available in the International Adult Literacy Survey is included. Interpreted as a measure of human capital, it is expected that literacy skills are at least as important a predictor of…