Return-Path: <nifl-aalpd@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id i0MHgLI25351; Thu, 22 Jan 2004 12:42:21 -0500 (EST) Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2004 12:42:21 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <7C94AF08.492D9389.0AB94E44@aol.com> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-aalpd@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-aalpd@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-aalpd@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: AndresMuro@aol.com To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-aalpd@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-AALPD:923] Re: examining the effectiveness of professional development X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 X-Mailer: Atlas Mailer 2.0 Status: O Content-Length: 3025 Lines: 44 Jackie asks: > What data collection/analysis is going on in your program, region, and/or > state to examine the effectiveness of professional > development? None in our program, and I personally think that this is a totally silly question. Let me explain. If I jump into a pool I will get wet. I know this, even though I don't think that there is any research that collected data to predict this. Just as I know that if I get into the pool I will get wet, I know that if I know more about a topic I will do a better job. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule. However, the assumption is that if I study about something I will get better at it. Otherwise, nobody will study. Since there are virtually no schools that teach adult literacy I decided several years ago that I was going to learn on my own. Eight years ago I decided to devote an hour a day, specifically, to study adult literacy related stuff. I also have traveled to a lot of conferences and experimented with the acquired knowledge. As a result, I know that I am a much better literacy provider than I was 8 years ago. Do I have any data to prove this. Of course not. My program is doing a lot better. However, even though I know that it is partly because of me, I can't isolate my knowledge as an independent variable to be studied. Actually, theoretically I could, but it would be a silly task that would require an investment in developing a research model to be tested. Essentially, I could offer two classes. In one, the students would receive instruction w/o any application of the knowledge that I now posses. In the other we would do the opposite. We could predict that the students that benefit from my knowledge would do better. However, there are variables that we cannot control such as illness of students, employment status, etc. So, I would have to repeat the study a significant amount of times to be able to collect valid data. Since no adult education program gets money to do this, how are they going to do this. Also, the government insists that the only programs that will get funded will have to do this. However, they have not been funding this either. Even if they funded this sort of think, does anyone realize that it would be completely stupid to do this? Also, bringing Tom Stich into the picture, I 've noticed that he does a lot of traveling to do lectures. Why does he do this? Simply to entertain people? For the $$$$? Or, does he think that people will be better at their jobs if they listen to him? Does he have any hard data to prove this? If not, why continue to do this? Andres In a message dated 1/22/2004 10:06:48 AM Eastern Standard Time, jataylor@utk.edu writes: > > Colleagues: > > What data collection/analysis is going on in your program, region, and/or > state to examine the effectiveness of professional > development? Would you > tell us about it? > > Thanks! > > Jackie > > Jackie Taylor > NIFL-AALPD > List Facilitator > > > > go here: www.geocities.com/andresmuro/art.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Thu Dec 23 2004 - 09:45:36 EST