Hi everyone,

  Let me introduce myself and our study a bit.  I'm Steve Reder.  I'm a
professor of applied linguistics at Portland State University.  My research
and teaching interests center around how adults develop literacy and
language abilities.  The project we're discussing this week, the
Longitudinal Study of Adult Learning (LSAL), has been following a sample of
about 1,000 adults from the target population for adult education over the
past 8-9 years.  There are a couple things that make this study unique
within our field.  We are following adults who may or may not participate in
adult literacy education programs rather than just program participants.  We
periodically interview our "panel" of subjects -- and assess their literacy
skills and practices - regardless of whether they are in programs.  We
conduct in-depth qualitative interviews with some of individuals to
complement the more formal interviews and assessments, helping us to
interpret the patterns of change we see in the quantitative data.  When
individuals move - as they often do - during the course of this longitudinal
study, we attempt to follow them.  So far we have retained and continued to
follow about 90% of our original sample over this long period of time, even
though some individuals have moved away, a few may have gone to jail or
prison, many experienced major changes in family and job situations,
weathered a significant recession, and in general displayed great richness
and diversity in their unfolding adult lives.

  The LSAL data give us a new view of the learners who come to programs as
well as of their counterparts who do not come to programs.  This gives us a
broad perspective on individuals' decisions to participate or not, and over
time, a new perspective on patterns of participation and other learning
activities as people move in and out of programs.  From what we are seeing
so far, there is a "swirl" of learning activities that surrounds programs,
with adults engaged in a rich variety of learning experiences to improve
their basic skills or prepare for the GED.  Some adults in this "swirl" come
to our programs, whereas others may not because of job, family or other
constraints.  By considering this broader "swirl" of learning activity, we
see higher rates of participation and more persistence of learning than if
we take the more traditional program-based view of learning.  We are trying
to think about how programs may be able to broaden their outreach and
support of these additional learners and this additional learning.  

  Here are a few questions to think about as we discuss this issue of FOB.
Have you had students in your programs who move in and out of participation
because of changing needs or life circumstances?  Have you tried to find
ways to stay in touch with and support them even when they stop coming to
class?  Have they told you about friends or family members who would like to
come to classes if other things weren't getting in the way?  Have you tried
ways to "blend" activities in your program with learning activities that
students could carry out on their own?  What role do you see for technology
in blending program- and self-directed learning activities for improving
basic skills?

-Steve Reder    

  

  

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