This report analyzes the Piedmont Works Adult Education Program (PW) at Piedmont Virginia Community College (PVCC) and compares PW students with regular students at the college. PW offers aid to students to attend PVCC. Those students follow the same scheduling and enrollment procedures as other PVCC students. The PW program helps fund educational…

Integrating technology into the Adult Basic Literacy Education (ABLE) classroom can be very helpful to students and teachers, but it requires a shift in the teacher's role. The idea of "delivering" instruction--teacher-centered classes or tutor-directed lessons--should be replaced with student-centered, self-paced learning. Although the first…

Describes adult education efforts in Saudi Arabia's national program to eliminate the country's high illiteracy rate. Includes discussions of literacy training on television and in institutions, new schools and practices, the importance of economic and social implications, need for skilled manpower, and other adult education problems and goals.…

This study examined the characteristics of 280 adults who came to an inner-city adult literacy program. Participants were characterized by a wide range of cognitive, academic, and social difficulties; the extent of these difficulties increased dramatically as literacy level declined. Results support the need for comprehensive educational, social,…

Analyzes economic and social costs of functional illiteracy in industrialized countries, highlighting Canada and the United States. Identifies the functionally illiterate and the illiteracy-poverty cycle. Estimates the cost of Canadian illiteracy is between $4.2 and $10.7 billion. Suggests measures for preventing adult illiteracy, including…

Analyzes literacy campaigns in developing countries since early postcolonial efforts. Sees the Experimental World Literacy Programme as a turning point, reflecting lessons learned from past failures. Identifies features of successful campaigns, including political will, resource mobilization, timing, decentralized implementation, realistic…

Examines relationships among gender, subordination, politics, poverty, and illiteracy in developing nations. Links women's illiteracy with uneven power distribution. Suggests that patriarchal ideologies shaping the sexual division of labor affect women's access to education and attainment of literacy. Recommends literacy programs be more relevant…

Reports on the IBM Educational Systems' 1988 Schools Partnership Executive Conference that focused on what schools can do about the literacy problem. Highlights include computers in the classroom; the importance of success in early grades; bilingual education; dropout prevention; adult literacy; funding; substance abuse; and software for special…

Factors influencing 834 Swedish men to participate in organized adult education programs on a life-long basis were studied. Indicators of social origins, cognitive ability, formal youth education, occupational status, job satisfaction, and attitudes toward education collectively explained little of the variation in participation. Factors possibly…

Discusses how discourses construct teaching, by examining "the Literacy Letters," a correspondence between pairs of middle-class teachers and working-class women enrolled in an adult basic education course. Challenges the ideology that class, race, and gender differences, while present in American society, are absent from American…

Discusses three ethnographic studies of electronic media and technological literacy among urban immigrant and multicultural individuals, analyzing electronic media consumption according to preferred forms and genres, social functions, maintenance of cultural identity, and education and information functions. Recommendations for adult basic…

This paper describes Literacy Independence towards Enabling, Responsibility, Attainment, Trust, and Excellence, a program for adult literacy learners that involves a comprehensive approach to development of competency in reading, writing, and oral language. Learners participate in a cooperative-learning experience in which they provide input…

Analyzes the political and socioeconomic context of three innovations introduced in Tanzania in the 1960s and 1970s: functional adult literacy, workers' education, and the Folk Development Colleges. Identifies factors hindering their implementation (e.g., lack of trained educators, inadequate financing, and mismatch between needs and programs) and…

Explores definitions of adult literacy. The shift toward a more learner-centered education makes literacy meaningful to teachers and learners mutually and can be achieved through joint planning of instruction so that students share responsibility for determining what is needed. New definitions of literacy bring new insights. (SLD)

A strategic instruction model introduced into adult basic education classrooms yields insight into the feasibility of using direct and explicit instruction with adults with learning disabilities or other cognitive barriers to learning. Ecobehavioral assessment was used to describe and compare instructor-learner interaction patterns during learning…