Thesis on "Designing a Specific Educational Program Adult Literacy"

Thesis 14 pages (3982 words) Sources: 12 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Adult Literacy Educational Program Design

Nature And Extent Of The Problem

institutional and personal context for the program

TARGET POPULATIONLEARNING SITE CONSTRAINTS

NEEDS ASSESSMENT

TARGET POPULATION

DEFINITION of NEED

BASIC PURPOSES

DATA REQUIREMENTS

IDENTIFICATION of NEEDS

COSTS of NEEDS ASSESSMENT PROCESS

DESIGNING a SPECIFIC EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM: ADULT LITERACY PROGRAM

ESTABLISHING OBJECTIVES and DEFINING CONTENT

DESIGNING a SPECIFIC EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM: ADULT LITERACY PROGRAM

ESTABLISHING OBJECTIVES & DEFINING CONTENT

DESIGNING a SPECIFIC EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM: ADULT LITERACY PROGRAM

EVALUATION

DESIGNING a SPECIFIC EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM: ADULT LITERACY PROGRAM

PART SIX

PROGRAM COORDINATION

ADULT LITERACY EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM DESIGN

PART ONE

PROGRAM CONTEXT

BACKGROUND of the PROBLEM

Adult literacy is an important issue in today's communities and society-at-large and as more communities and the overall society increasingly becomes more diverse the needs to promote adult literacy become even more important. Because there are such a large number of adults who are not literate this work addresses the design of an adult literacy program. According to the National Center for Education Statistics "low levels of literacy are likely to limit life chances and may be related to social welfare issues including poverty, incarceration, and preventive healthcare. Given this, it has become increasingly important for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners to understand the literacy skills and deficits of the least-literate adults." (NAAL, 2009) According to SIL International the "compelling global issues" related to literacy include:

illiteracy's staggering statistics;

poverty and illiteracy;

education or marginalized minorities;

language of instruction;

women's education; language preservation; and alphabets for previously unwritten languages. (SIL International, 2009)

SIL International states that the literacy rates as compared to per capita income is as follows:

Literacy Rate Per capita income

Below 40% Less than $600

Above 98% More than $12,000 (SIL International, 2009)

SIL International states "...in the comparison of these figures, as the literacy rate doubles, so doubles the per capital income." (2009) Additionally stated by SIL International is "Illiteracy may mean income loss not only for the individual but for society at large as well. According to the National Adult Literacy Survey, in the U.S. alone, adult illiteracy carries an estimated price tag of more than $17 billion per year as a result of lost income and tax revenue, welfare, unemployment, crime and incarceration, and training cost for business and industry. This could suggest that the price tag for illiteracy at large is more than the cost of literacy." (SIL International, 2009)

The ProLiteracy organization reports: "Thirty million adults -- an estimated 14% of the country's population over the age of 16 -- lack basic literacy skills. That means they can barely read, write, and understand written text. Another 63 million have only slightly better literacy skills. Individuals in the service industry and construction field held many of the more than one million jobs lost in 2008. Research shows that many adults with low literacy skills work in those fields." (2008)

SOURCE of the PROBLEM

The source of this expanding adult literacy problem in noted by the Center for Adult English Language Acquisition (2008) which reports the growth that the United States has been experiencing across the country in regards to the immigration population and much of this is due to the "...new immigrant populations settling in states that had limited numbers of immigrants twenty years ago." (Center for Adult English Language Acquisition (CAELA), 2008) Resulting is that many adult education programs "are working with new populations of adult learners who need to learn English." (Center for Adult English Language Acquisition (CAELA), 2008)

It is important to note the statement of McKay and Schaetzel as follows: "The development of oral interaction skills is paramount for adult English language learners. Speaking and listening skills are essential to their ability to participate effectively in the workplace and community: for example, talking with their co-workers and employers, discussing their children's education with teachers and school officials, or negotiating a lease for an apartment or a loan for a house or car. Oral interaction skills are also important for literacy and beginning-level learners, because they form the basis for English literacy development. (McKay and Schaetzel, 2008)

NATURE and EXTENT of the PROBLEM

The work of Britt (2009) states that approximately 14% of adults in the United States cannot read which is about 1 in 7 U.S. adults. Specifically stated is: "More than 1 million people lost their jobs in 2008 and the new unemployment figures are the highest in 16 years. A large number of the unemployed are low-skilled individuals who struggle with everyday reading, writing and math tasks. The administration wants to create new jobs with the stimulus packages, but to take advantage of those new positions; these adults need basic literacy skills." (Britt, 2009)

INSTITUTIONAL and PERSONAL CONTEXT for the PROGRAM

The educational institutions have a keen interest in the adult literacy program because this program will not only assist adults who need literacy skills, and desperately so, but will also assist the school-age children and the interactions that the institution has with these individuals who are parents and grandparents interacting in the community. Therefore, all stakeholders in the proceeding of an adult literacy program will benefit and the interactions thereto will follow the same course. This is a positive investment from the institutional as well as being a sound contextual personal view of the improvement potential this program represents in regards to community interaction person-to-person as well as the interactions of the institution with the surrounding community of adults.

TARGET POPULATION

The target population for this adult literacy program is the group of immigrants across the United States which is a group that is expanding rapidly.

LEARNING SITE CONSTRAINTS

Constraints on the learning site are likely to be related to parking and capacity and will require tight scheduling and adherence to said scheduling of adult literacy classes and other components of the adult literacy program. However, as shown in the following sections, the chosen locations for this adult literacy program will serve to facilitate this program and serve as functional facility provision for these classes and other components.

ADULT LITERACY EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM DESIGN

PART TWO

NEEDS ASSESSMENT

TARGET POPULATION

The target population of this proposed adult literacy program is the large and expanding population of immigrants who are in need of adult literacy learning and related skills.

DEFINITION of NEED

The needs of this population are not only literacy skills but inclusive as well are skills related to social interaction and functional skills of this population in coping with everyday life and the institutions in their environment.

BASIC PURPOSES

The basic purposes of this program are those as follows:

Adult literacy;

Adult literacy associated skills for successful interaction.

DATA REQUIREMENTS

The assessments conducted during the course of this study will provide the data necessary to track the progression of the students in this adult literacy program.

DATA COLLECTION METHODS

Data collection in preparation for this study will through the use of the National Assessment of Adult Literacy: English Background Questionnaire. This questionnaire is utilized by the National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) in assessing literacy needs of the adult population. This questionnaire collects data on various background categories and serves three purposes:

1) Provides descriptive data on respondents;

2) Enhances the understanding of factors associated with literacy skills used at home, at work, or in the community, and 3) Allows for changes over time to be reported. (NAAL, 2009)

This questionnaire is orally administered to participants by an interviewer using a computer-assisted personal interview (CAPI) system. The questionnaire takes approximately 30 minutes to complete.

DATA ANALYSIS

Data analysis will be of a qualitative and quantitative nature and in the form of observation and

IDENTIFICATION of NEEDS

Needs are to be identified as set out by the identified questionnaires and surveys noted in section 1 of this work in writing.

COSTS of NEEDS ASSESSMENT PROCESS

Needs assessment will be according to the population of each school district participating in the adult literacy program. This is a community-based program that will most optimally be successful with stakeholders at all levels involved in the development process. This will require population demographical data in order to fund capacity in each school district. The larger the population that needs adult literacy program access the higher the costs for that specific area will be in sum total. This work will however, proceed to conduct an estimation of per participant cost for the adult literacy program being proposed herein.

ADULT LITERACY EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM DESIGN

PART THREE

ESTABLISHING OBJECTIVES and DEFINING CONTENT

Adult literacy programs differ "...in their emphasis on teaching predetermined sets of skills or alternately, in building the literacy practices of everyday life." (Lytle, 1994; as cited in: Purcell-Gates, Degener, and Jacobson, 1998) This is stated to be "reflected in the contents of adult literacy textbooks, which range from life skills and problem solving to phonics and word family drills." (Purcell-Gates, Degener, and Jacobson, 1998) the distinction "between life-contextual and life-decontextual appears to be important in light of research that has found students to learn most efficiently when instructional materials reflect and… READ MORE

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