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Subject: [NIFL-4EFF:2821] Literacy Assessment from T. Sticht
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September 5, 2004
Fluid and Crystallized Literacy Assessment and Development With Adults:
Challenges to the Validity of the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy
(NAAL)
Tom Sticht
International Consultant in Adult Education
Psychometric research on intelligence over the last half century has resulted
in a trend to draw a distinction between the knowledge aspect and the
processing skills aspects of intelligence. Beginning in the 1940s and continuing up
to the 1990s, Cattell and various collaborators, and later many independent
investigators, made the distinction between "fluid
intelligence" and "crystallized intelligence." Cattell (1983) states, "Fluid
intelligence is involved in tests that have very little cultural content,
whereas crystallized intelligence loads abilities that have obviously been
acquired, such as verbal and numerical ability, mechanical aptitude, social skills,
and so on. The age curve of these two abilities is quite different. They both
increase up to the age of about 15 or 16, and slightly thereafter, to the early
20s perhaps. But thereafter fluid intelligence steadily declines whereas
crystallized intelligence stays high" (p. 23).
Cognitive psychologists have reframed the "fluid" and "crystallized" aspects
of cognition into a model of a human cognitive system made-up of a long term
memory which constitutes a knowledge base ("crystallized intelligence") for the
person, a working memory which engages various processes ("fluid
intelligence") that are going on at a given time using information picked-up from both the
long term memory's knowledge base and a sensory system that picks-up
information from the external world that the person is in. Today, over thirty years of
research has validated the usefulness of this simple three-part model for
thinking about human cognition (Healy & McNamara, 1996).
The model is important because it helps to develop a theory of literacy as
information processing skills (reading as decoding printed to spoken language)
and comprehension (using the knowledge base to create meaning) that can inform
the development of new knowledge-based assessment tools and new approaches to
adult education.
The International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS), the National Adult Literacy
Survey (NALS) of 1993 and the new 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy
(NAAL) all used "real world" tasks that are complex information processing tasks
that engage unknown mixtures of knowledge and processes. For this reason it
is not clear what they assess or what their instructional implications are
(Venezky, 1992).
Sticht, Hofstetter, & Hofstetter (1996) used the simple model of the human
cognitive system given above to analyze performance on the NALS. It was
concluded that the NALS places large demands on working memory processes ("fluid
intelligence") and that is what may account for some of the large declines in
performance by older adults. To test this hypothesis, an assessment of knowledge
("crystallized intelligence") was developed and used to assess adult's cultural
knowledge of vocabulary, authors, magazines and famous people. The knowledge
test was administered by telephone and each item was separate and required only
a "yes" or "no" answer, keeping the load on working memory ("fluid
intelligence") very low.
Both the telephone-based knowledge test scores and NALS door-to-door survey
test scores were transformed to standard scores with a mean of 100 and a
standard deviation of 15. The results showed clearly that younger adults did
better on the NALS with its heavy emphasis on working memory processes ("fluid
literacy") and older adults did better than younger adults on the knowledge base
("crystallized literacy") assessment that was given by telephone.
In addition to a trend to incorporate bodies of content knowledge more
prominently in theories and assessments of adult cognitive development (Ackerman,
1996), there is a growing recognition of the importance of focussing on the
bodies of content knowledge that are taught in adult basic education in addition
to the concern with developing generic, content-free "skills" like "reading"
with little concern for the substance of what is being read and how to develop
interrelations among bodies of knowledge (see articles on content-based adult
literacy education in the December 1997 issue of Focus on Basics from the
National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy).
Given the differences between younger and older adults on "fluid literacy"
and "crystallized literacy" there is reason to question the validity of using
"real world" tasks like those on the Prose, Document and Quantitative scales of
the IALS, NALS, and NAAL to represent the literacy abilities of adults. In
general, when assessing the literacy of adults, it seems wise to keep in mind
the differences between working memory or "fluid" aspects of literacy, such as
fluency in reading with its emphasis upon efficiency of processing, and the
"crystallized" or knowledge base aspects of reading.
It is also important to keep in mind these differences between fluid and
crystallized literacy in teaching and learning. While it is possible to teach
knowledge, such as vocabulary, facts, principles, concepts, and rules, it is not
possible to directly teach fluid processing. Fluidity of information
processing, such as fluency in reading, cannot be directly taught. Rather, it must be
developed through extensive, guided, practice. Though I know of no research on
this theoretical framework regarding the differences between fluid and
crystallized literacy and instructional practices in adult literacy programs, it can
be hypothesized that all learners are likely to make much faster improvements
in crystallized literacy than in fluid literacy, and this should be especially
true for older learners, say those over 45 to 50 years of age.
Note; For references cited see Beyond 2000 by Thomas Sticht downloadable
online at http://www.nald.ca/fulltext/beyond/Beyond.PDF
Thomas G. Sticht
International Consultant in Adult Education
2062 Valley View Blvd.
El Cajon, CA 92019-2059
Tel/fax: 96190 444-9133
Email: tsticht at aznet.net
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