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…

The Programme for International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) will establish technical standards and guidelines to ensure that the survey design and implementation processes of PIAAC yield high-quality and internationally comparable data. This document provides a revised version of the technical standards and guidelines originally…

Before World War II, more than one million people took part in literacy education programs in Thailand. Because of the chaos caused by the war, however, and the subsequent disruptions of the country's life, fewer adults were taking part in literacy efforts. During the late 1960s and the 1970s, an increased emphasis was placed on literacy education…

This document provides guidelines for implementing workplace literacy programs. Project leadership selection, characteristics and skills, education and experience, and roles and responsibilities are reviewed. Community and business involvement, partnership development, and the voluntary advisory council components of a marketing workplace literacy…

The California Literacy Campaign (CLC) is a statewide, community-oriented, library-based adult literacy program initiated by the California State Library in 1984. A key feature is the latitude given individual sites for developing literacy services to meet the needs of the local population. Two evaluations suggested that current learner progress…

This report summarizes issues facing New Zealand's modern adult literacy movement and places it in the context of the rapidly changing skill demands of the 21st century. Part I introduces political, economic, and social issues facing New Zealand. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the issues and structures that create the current climate. Part II…

Intended for use by adult basic education (ABE) instructors who are organizing or reorganizing their reading programs for individualized instruction, this guide outlines the ABE Reading Sequential Competency System (SCS). The main benefits of this particular system for reading are that it delineates a sequence of reading skills, allows the…

Since the Literacy in Libraries Across America (LILAA) initiative began in 1996, participation in the program's services had fallen short of the amount that research indicates is needed to improve literacy levels substantially. Efforts to improve student persistence and implement service enhancements were therefore initiated in 2000. A study of…

Pima County Adult Education's Workplace Education Project provided workplace education classes at 8 worksites to 322 workers. The worksites included Hughes Aircraft Company; AiResearch Tucson Division; Burr-Brown Corporation; Westward Look Hotel; Tucson Medical Center; Radisson Suite Hotel; Manufacturing & Research, Inc.; and University of…

Cuyahoga Community College's (CCC) Unified Technologies Center (UTC) collaborated with three Cleveland area manufacturing companies in a workplace literacy project. The project provided job-related mathematics and communications programs for 302 employees who needed basic skills upgrading to improve their job performance. The project…

This instructional manual consists of materials for use in implementing a computer-assisted instructional program in reading skills development for adult nonreaders. Discussed first are the project during which this instructional program and manual were developed and the goals of the computer-assisted beginning reading program, a major feature of…

This report describes a low-cost, adaptable methodology for assessment of basic learning competencies (BLCs) in diverse cultural contexts. Following the introduction, section 2 provides a policy framework and covers priority populations; policy and assessment needs; challenges for policy-driven assessments; and questions policymakers might have.…

This two-part document contains the final report (part 1) and the model curriculum (part 2) of the Workplace Basic Skills project at Burke Mills, Inc., North Carolina. Part 1, the final report, discusses the design, implementation, and operation of a project to identify a yarn manufacturer's skill needs, assess prospective employees' basic skills,…

The Vermont Institute for Self Reliance (VISR) conducted a Basic Educational Skills for Training (BEST) program, a national demonstration project in workplace literacy, from April 1990 to March 1992. BEST provided learner-centered, context-based literacy instruction onsite, on company time, at two General Electric (GE) Aircraft Engines Rutland…

Although English-as-a-second-language (ESL) practitioners are generally making good progress in teaching listening and speaking skills, the entire area of teaching literacy skills to ESL students is barely in the formative stage. The teaching of ESL is further complicated when students are not only lacking in English literacy skills but are also…