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 iBB4Y8U02014; Fri, 10 Dec 2004 23:34:08 -0500 (EST) Date: Fri, 10 Dec 2004 23:34:08 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <41BA77CF.7060007@comcast.net> 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: Roberta McKnight <rkmcknight@comcast.net> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-aalpd@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-AALPD:1795] Evidence for professional development? X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Status: O Content-Length: 4808 Lines: 101 Greetings all, Evidence of benefit from pedagogical principles and professional development can be found in many fields, especially in instructional design. An example can be found in Helen Osborne's work on Health Literacy at http://www.healthliteracy.com It provides "hard" evidence for improvement in healthcare that is grounded in professional development. This evidence manifests in the form of health behavior changes, based on understanding of disease processes, nutrition, and the informed use of pharmaceuticals. By attending to literacy, communication is more effective, and people are able to realize improvements in health. Hence, professional development is the foundation of effective communication and human interaction. Experience informs our ability to teach more effectively by showing us what teaching strategies are most useful. Similar evidence can be found for general life skills such as document literacy (filling out job applications, using maps), reading food labels, or reading to children. These forms of evidence are the most profound and life altering. While the NRS uses only a handful of standardized assessments, we must ask how additional forms of assessment can be added to their inventory. What is the approval process? If the NRS is the gatekeeper for approving measurement tools, what process is described to expand and improve literacy assessment? Accountability requires that we ask the right questions to protect the public trust - that we insist that assessment is constantly improving, and not limited to existing measures. Validity is at the heart of this issue - are we measuring what we want and need to measure? Such questions are a vital part of professional development. My best to all, Roberta McKnight Healthcare Multimedia Design http://www.hcmmdesign.net Catherine B. King wrote: >Tom: > >Are you questioning that teachers learn by going to school (or other kinds of PD); that learning is understanding, and that teachers who understand more are better teachers; and that, further, better teachers equate to better classrooms; and that better classrooms make for better instruction for students who are in those classrooms? > >Perhaps you cannot find such "hard" evidence (besides what happens in classrooms most or all of the time) because most of us rightly assume that better educated teachers are better teachers and that our students benefit from betterment? > >I remember you question from before; and I still am mystified at it. > >Catherine King > > >----- Original Message ----- >From: "jataylor" <jataylor@utk.edu> >To: "Multiple recipients of list" <nifl-aalpd@literacy.nifl.gov> >Sent: Friday, December 10, 2004 12:47 PM >Subject: [NIFL-AALPD:1792] From Tom, Any scientific evidence for >professional development? > > >>[The following inquiry is from Tom Sticht, please read on ~ Jackie] >> >>On April 15, 2003, following a strand of messages about "evidence-based" >>instruction and how AALPD members had gone about providing professional >>development to encourage "evidence-based" teaching, I asked Jackie to >>post a message for me in which I noted that I have been looking for >>reports in which it has been demonstrated in a "scientific, >>evidence-based" manner that adult literacy professional development has >>produced actual improvements in some aspects of adult literacy education >>somehwere. >> >>For instance, has some one demonstrated with "hard" evidence that >>professional development lead to more enrollments, or perhaps better >>retention, or maybe greater learning, or increased gains on standardized >>tests, more people reporting they reached personal goals, and so forth. >> >>Some 20 months later I am still looking for some researcher, professional >>developer, or other adult literacy expert who has documented in a >>"scientific, evidence-based" manner that they have gone to an existing >>adult literacy/ABE program somewhere and improved its functioning in some >>way. >> >>I have followed the various NIFL discussion lists for several years, I >>have read numerous books and journal articles from national and state >>literacy research and development centers, and I have tracked federal >>government web sites. I still cannot find any reports in which the >>researchers, professional developers, or other adult literacy experts >>actually went to an existing program and made it better providing >>scientifically acceptable evidence of their accomplishments. >> >>Has any professional developer who has posted messages on the AALPD list, >>or any researcher that reads the AALPD list accomplished any demonstrable >>improvements in an existing program anywhere that they can share >>information about? >> >>Thanks for your help! >> >>Tom Sticht >>tsticht@aznet.net >> >>
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