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…

In the final article of the forum, the field of adult basic education has mounted a strong response to COVID-19's disruption of classes and educational practices. As educators begin to think about the long-term consequences of this disruption, it might be useful to consider the ways that these changes and innovations could be built upon. In the…

State adult education systems, which receive significant funding from the U.S. government, are the primary source of many key integration services for adult immigrants--from English classes and literacy programs to civics courses and some workforce development activities. Although such programs have existed for decades, the passage of the…

Adult education programs play a critical role in preparing immigrants and New Americans (multilingual learners) for employment by building English language skills and supporting workforce preparation and training. Addressing multilingual learners' economic integration needs, one of the three pillars of immigrant integration, along with civic and…

Straddling conventional education system boundaries between adult learners and children, and between employment-related and social benefits, family literacy programmes are not well recognised or supported in New Zealand's policy and funding environment. In this article, I reflect on my personal experience of redesigning the Whanau Ara Mua…

After many previous failed attempts to reach illiterate adults, the award-winning South African "Kha Ri Gude" mass literacy campaign, launched in 2008, undertook to ensure that learners seized the opportunity to learn--for many adults, this was a "last chance". Written from an insider perspective by the campaign's founding…

The promotion of adult functional literacy programs per se, neither creates the necessary motivation for learning, nor enhances the participation of adult learners in work-oriented or socio-cultural functional literacy programs. The task in learning-teaching transaction is to create the enabling environment for harnessing and enhancing…

Action Learning can be effectively used in both large and small businesses and organizations by employees, stakeholders, or volunteers through this "learning by doing" approach to evaluate an issue or issues of importance to the organization. First developed in the 1940s, Action Learning has increasingly been used as a method to explore questions…

Contains an analysis of prevailing practices in adult literacy volunteer programs. Considers selected research, literature, and programs, mostly from the context of the burgeoning emphasis on literacy voluntarism in the United States. Neglected questions of policy and practice are raised. (Author/CH)

Literacy should be viewed as a continuum of undereducation, stretching from those who cannot read and write at all at the low end to those who have less than a high school education at the high end. People at different points have different needs, which may differ greatly from those current literacy programs try to meet. The track record of…

Presents 10 tips for effective adult literacy programs, which were culled from presentations at the 1988 annual conference of American adult education directors. States that the key to success is having a sense of mission--nurturing a team spirit among the literacy program's staff and students. (RS)

Describes the Chinese effort to eliminate adult illiteracy. The author discusses purposes of adult education, history of adult literacy education, adult illiteracy statistics, the design of literacy education, curriculum construction, teaching methods, evaluation of the literacy education process, impact of literacy education, and implications of…

Two soft'' (non-formalized) models--the convergence model for R & D program management and a model of the processes of innovation in the public sector -- have been used in designing a strategy for a national right-to-read project. Covers the history of the project, an evaluation of the soft models, and a discussion of the conditions under…

The "Work First" environment demands the following tasks of literacy practitioners: designing programs for clients' specific needs; fostering collaborative relationships with agencies and employers; focusing on comprehensive outcomes; planning holistic curricula integrated with work, family, and community contexts; and providing continuous staff…