Helping children do well in school prepares them for a successful future, both in school and in life. This is one of a series of handbooks that Alberta Education developed, in the Curriculum Handbook for Parents series, to help parents understand what children will learn in the classroom, as well as the education goals set for the school year.…

This document contains eight papers on social literacies across communities, cultures, and contexts in Australia. "Social Literacies" (Jean Searle) is an introduction to the other papers, which each report on small action research projects examining how particular groups of people use literacy. "Recognising Shifting Delivery Modes:…

As a source of trained workers, postsecondary schools need to develop a curriculum that encourages critical thinking and provide an environment that helps students to understand the changing economy. The curriculum should be based on the student's experiences and interests and should prepare one for life situations. In the business curriculum,…

The m-learning project is a 3-year, pan-European research and development study which aims to use portable technologies to provide learning experiences relating to literacy and numeracy skill development for young adults aged 16-24 who are outside full-time formal education settings, and to promote the development and achievement of lifelong…

In 1999 Ministers responsible for school education agreed to the new set of "National Goals for Schooling in the Twenty-First Century," with the aim of providing high quality schooling in Australia which would secure for students the necessary knowledge, understanding, skills and values for a productive and rewarding life. As a…

This document contains 13 papers from and about a working conference on adult mathematical literacy. The following papers are included: "Preface" (Iddo Gal, Mary Jane Schmitt); "Summary of Conference Discussions" (Iddo Gal et al.); "Reflecting about the Goals of Numeracy Education" (Iddo Gal); "Needed Skills and…

This final report documents the development of a workplace literacy program for 100 employees of the Geriatric Authority of Holyoke, Massachusetts (GAH), a major nonprofit nursing home and rehabilitation facility. It describes how GAH employees received instruction in English as a Second Language, adult basic education, and General Educational…

Noting that academic failure begins early and that the focus of school reform should be at the elementary level, this book describes the Basic School, an idea based on best practice in elementary education. A Basic School pushes school reform back to the first years of formal education; gives priority to language and suggests a coherent core of…

The Schneider Skills Enhancement Program is a workplace literacy partnership between the medical manufacturing firm Schneider, Inc., and the Adult Academic Program of the Robbinsdale Area Schools in Minnesota. A literacy audit of 39 Schneider employees established a need for instruction in literacy, numeracy, and English as a Second Language (ESL)…

The Workplace English Language and Literacy (WELL) program is intended to provide Australian workers with the language, literacy, and numeracy skills needed to meet their current and ongoing employment and training needs. A research methodology based on the principles of naturalistic inquiry was used to examine the extent to which WELL projects…

Since the "Kangan Report" (1974), literacy and numeracy (L&N) issues have become an integral component of policy development in Australia's vocational education and training (VET) sector. Debate in the literature is based on competing discourses: functional-economic and social practice. These discourses and globalization of the…

Subject choice by students in year 12 in Australian secondary schools was examined by using data on the 1995 cohort participating in the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth project. The seven broad categories of English, mathematics, humanities and social sciences, economics and business, biological and physical sciences, and the arts…

The question of whether unemployed youths would benefit from different pedagogical techniques when learning numeracy skills was examined in a multifaceted qualitative study. Data were collected from the following activities: case studies in which a kit of everyday materials was used to stimulate discussion about numeracy practices with 30 selected…

Thirteen marginal Philippine communities were examined in an ethnographic study of the meaning of functional literacy and whether literacy invariably promotes development. The 13 sites were purposely selected to provide a broad sampling from three standpoints: (1) major livelihood and form of economic activity (farming, fishing, urban poor,…

This Policy Brief describes and explains patterns of access to schools in South Africa. It outlines policy and legislation on access to education and provides a statistical analysis of access, vulnerability and exclusion. It is based on findings from the Country Analytic Review on Educational Access in South Africa (Motala et al, 2007) [ED508808]…