I have been reading up on IBEST and I am very impressed with it. The
professional development training I would suggest is for the training of
team teachers; i.e. content teachers to learn literacy strategies and for
literacy teachers to learn how to adapt strategies to content.

Barbara Jacala
Guam Community College 

-----Original Message-----
From: professionaldevelopment-bounces at nifl.gov
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Sent: Monday, December 29, 2008 3:00 AM
To: professionaldevelopment at nifl.gov
Subject: ProfessionalDevelopment Digest, Vol 39, Issue 11

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Today's Topics:

   1. [ProfessionalDevelopment 2701] Economic Stimulus and
      Professional	Development (Jackie A. Taylor)
   2. [ProfessionalDevelopment 2702] Re: Economic Stimulus and
      Professional Development (tsticht at znet.com)
   3. [ProfessionalDevelopment 2703] Re: Economic Stimulus and
      Professional Development (djrosen1)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Sat, 27 Dec 2008 14:05:31 -0600
From: "Jackie A. Taylor" <jackie at jataylor.net>
Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 2701] Economic Stimulus and
	Professional	Development
To: "The Adult Literacy Professional Development Discussion List"
	<professionaldevelopment at nifl.gov>
Message-ID: <662B8FD89D9FDC49BD319600D3FD9C8901DF9B at neo.ccs-group.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Dear Professional Development Colleagues:

 

The Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) recommends that the
Transition Team add $500 million to the economic stimulus package for
adult education: "Funding should be directed at programs that integrate
basic skills, English language and occupational training and focus on
transition to postsecondary education and job training in order to
ensure that lower-skilled people are not left behind in this labor
market." http://www.clasp.org/publications/claspbeyondstimulus.pdf 

 

The National Coalition for Literacy (NCL) and the National Council of
State Directors of Adult Education (NCSDAE) support this request.
Congress hopes to have the stimulus package ready when Obama is sworn in
as President on January 20th.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5g-fho3A_PJJqcnUtiO_ns
DH_Hd1Q 

 

If $500 million were included in the stimulus for adult education and we
had 27 months to spend it, what should be spent on professional
development in order to help lower-skilled adults go to work and
experience career success?

 

For example, adult educators will need to help adult learners upgrade
their skills and transition to work without losing sight on those
learners that are hardest to serve. Adults transitioning to work might
also follow different career pathways: 

 

*	Traditional, sequential, linear pathway: Adults enroll first in
adult education then into postsecondary once the adult learner raises
his or her basic skills. For example, earning a GED then enrolling into
postsecondary.

 

*	Dual or concurrent enrollment pathways: Adults dually or
concurrently enroll in basic skills and postsecondary education and
training. For example, taking welding and math courses, learning the
welding trade while improving math skills needed for the profession.

 

In these (and other) situations, adult educators will need to teach in
ways that integrate basic skills and postsecondary education and
training content in the adult education classroom; for example,
co-teaching with an occupational skills trainer. Tom Sticht recently
posted two related examples here: Functional Context Education (FCE) and
Microenterprise Training and Development. See "Learning for Work in Hard
Times"
http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/professionaldevelopment/2008/002738.html 

 

So, a few questions:

 

*	What are the considerations for professional development if the
$500 million stimulus for adult education became an immediate reality?
*	What additional models already exist that we can learn from?
*	How would we get up and running as quickly as possible?

 

Thanks for your thoughts, and here's to 2009!

 

Best wishes...Jackie

 

 

 

Jackie Taylor, Online Facilitator, jackie at jataylor.net

Adult Literacy Professional Development

 

Adult Literacy and Language Learning Communities of Practice

http://www.nifl.gov/lincs/discussions/discussions.html

National Institute for Literacy www.nifl.gov <http://www.nifl.gov/>  

 

 

 

 

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Message: 2
Date: Sun, 28 Dec 2008 07:28:34 -0800
From: tsticht at znet.com
Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 2702] Re: Economic Stimulus and
	Professional Development
To: professionaldevelopment at nifl.gov
Message-ID: <1230478114.49579b22a7776 at webmail.znet.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Jackie and all: The following note includes further information about
integrated basic skills and vocational education. It includes some links
that may be of interest regarding professional development in this area.
Tom Sticht

Integrated Literacy Works! Making Workforce Development Efficient and
Effective in Industrialized Nations

February 11, 2007

Tom Sticht
International Consultant in Adult Education

Throughout the industrialized nations of the world, which are fast becoming
the informationalized nations of the world, there is an urgent need to
up-skill the literacy, numeracy, and English language skills of what are
increasingly becoming under-skilled workforces. International adult
literacy surveys showing one- to two-fifths of a nation's workforce with
lower than expected literacy, numeracy, or English language skills, and an
emergent globalization of work being sent to lower wage nations have
heightened the need for effective and efficient ways to help adults
re-skill, up-skill, and cross-train as jobs shift globally and
technologically.

One approach to improving the efficiency of basic skills and job skills
training that is gaining in popularity in developed nations follows what I
have called a Functional Context Education approach. In this approach,
basic literacy, numeracy , and English language skills education is
integrated into, or embedded in, or contextualized within, vocational
education or job skills training. This approach is more efficient because
it shortens the learners overall time required to be in education and
training, and increases the amount of time that can be spent on a job
providing productive activity in the marketplace and bringing home a
paycheck. It does this because it removes the need to have learners spend
time first raising their basic skills to some established level before they
can enter into vocational education. Instead, the integrated approach makes
it possible to both raise basic skills and learn vocational knowledge and
skills at the same time.

In January 2007 I presented three speeches in the Dublin, Ireland area
called Integrated Literacy Works! In one speech on 23 January at the
National University of Ireland (NUI) at Maynooth I summarized a hundred
years of professional wisdom using Functional Context Education to
integrate literacy instruction with important skills training such as
farming, banking, working, and parenting. Then I summarized four lines of
scientific (quasi-experimental) research from the United States and United
Kingdom that supports the integrated literacy approach to adult basic
skills and vocational education.

The foregoing speech was followed by a two hour workshop in which I
presented four case studies of Functional Context Education integrating
literacy and vocational education, including methods, materials,
evaluation, and outcomes. Cases included job training in a large
organization, vocational English for English Language Learners (ELL/ESOL),
integrated basic skills and electronics education, and examples of
materials for integrating literacy and numeracy in five occupational
education programs: Construction Trades, Automotive Industries, Electricity
& Electronics, Office Technology, & Health Occupations.

Both the speech and the workshop at NUI Maynooth were especially relevant on
23 January because the university was celebrating the graduates of a unique
certificate program in Integrated Literacy that was jointly sponsored with
the National Adult Literacy Agency (NALA) in Ireland. NALA was the
originator of the Integrated Literacy effort in Ireland in which literacy,
numeracy, and English language skills are taught integrated into vocational
training.

The Integrated Literacy approach developed at NALA was picked-up by adult
literacy educators in New Zealand, where a recent report on integrating
literacy in other courses was developed. In a policy-oriented speech on 24
January for a group of policymakers and literacy education sponsors I spoke
about the international efforts at integrated literacy in Australia, Canada,
New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In the UK Integrated
Literacy is referred to as Embedded Literacy and I reviewed recent research
showing that the greater the extent of embedding of literacy into
vocational training, the greater the completion rates, achievements of
qualifications, and other important outcomes for both literacy and
vocational qualifications.

In the policy-oriented presentation I also reviewed the use of Functional
Context Education with integrated/embedded/contextualized literacy and
special subject matter content in job training in a large organization,
vocational English for English Language Learners (ELL/ESOL), electronics
education, and occupational education.

Implications were drawn for a policy and strategy on vocational and
work-related education and training, based on Functional Context Education
principles, including integrated literacy, numeracy, and English language
education, which provide multiple returns to investments in adult literacy
education. These "multiplier effects" of Functional Context Education go
beyond the training in literacy, numeracy, English language and
work/vocational skills and tend to return benefits in health, community
activity, and, importantly, in parenting and grand-parenting that helps
children with their school learning.

Ireland's NALA has produced a very important set of products for adult
educators showing how to integrate literacy with vocational training, and
it has pioneered a university level certificate program at a prestigious
university for the professional development of adult educators who can work
to integrate basic skills and jobs skills training. These activities provide
a solid model for workforce development in our globalized world.

Given the increasing need for both basic skills and work-related skills in
industrialized/informationalized nations, integrated literacy education
provides a cost-beneficial approach for more rapidly advancing adults into
the work they want and with the basic skills they need. In short,
Integrated Literacy Works!

Online Resources:

For NALA's resources on integrating literacy go to www.nala.ie and click on
Projects to find Integrating Literacy into Further Education and Vocational
Training; under NALA's Publications search for Integrating Literacy
Guidelines. For Functional Context Education reports go to
www.nald.ca/fulltext/fce/cover.htm and see Functional Context Education:
Making Learning Relevant in the 21st Century. Chapter 2 in this report
provides information about integrated/embedded/contextualized literacy in
six industrialized/informationalized nations. For integrated literacy in
New Zealand go to www.workbase.org.nz and search publications for a guide
to integrating literacy into other courses. For embedded literacy in the
United Kingdom go to www.nrdc.org.uk

Thomas G. Sticht
International Consultant in Adult Education
2062 Valley View Blvd.
El Cajon, CA 92019-2059
Tel/fax: (619) 444-9133
Email: tsticht at aznet.net



------------------------------

Message: 3
Date: Sun, 28 Dec 2008 09:12:26 -0500
From: djrosen1 <djrosen1 at gmail.com>
Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 2703] Re: Economic Stimulus and
	Professional Development
To: The Adult Literacy Professional Development Discussion List
	<professionaldevelopment at nifl.gov>
Message-ID: <49091A36-2FAB-4B63-8A58-8E4E4623BFC0 at gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252"

Colleagues,

On Dec 27, 2008, at 3:05 PM, Jackie A. Taylor wrote:

So, a few questions:

What are the considerations for professional development if the $500  
million stimulus for adult education became an immediate reality?

? Massachusetts many years ago decided that 10% of its state and  
federal adult education funding should be used for professional  
development. I think that's a guideline that should be recommended to  
other states in all new federal funding.

? We (professional developers, practitioners) need federal funding  
for a national research center specifically for adult literacy  
education (like NCSALL).

What additional models already exist that we can learn from?

One of the adult literacy education delivery models that has great  
promise, but that will require significant new and additional  
professional development ,is online learning. This is especially  
useful for programs that involve initial face-to-face training and/or  
education and then job placement, where there is still need for  
continued education once the person is working, but because of the  
work schedule there is not much opportunity to attend classes. A  
blended model, that involves some face-to-face, perhaps one or two  
Saturdays a month, and 4-10 hours a week of online learning might be  
an ideal model for some people in this situation. Currently there are  
very few adult literacy education teachers who have been trained to  
do online learning well. If online or blended learning significantly  
expands, there will be a "labor shortage" of these teachers.

How would we get up and running as quickly as possible?

We are now close to having final AALPD standards for professional  
development. Using those standards as a touchstone, and the knowledge  
gained by Project IDEAL, the Health Care Learning Network in  
Massachusetts, The McDonald's Corporation's English Under the Arches,  
programs that have used English for All (and now USA Learns) and  
other online and blended learning models, perhaps we could discuss  
here -- and archive on the ALE Wiki -- some design principles,  
objectives and content areas for training/professional development in  
online teaching. Has someone already done (or begun) that?

If there were a small group of people who were interested not just in  
discussing this, but also working on developing a PD design for  
online adult literacy education teaching, perhaps they could organize  
themselves in an online workgroup (using Officezilla, Community Zero,  
a Google or Yahoo group and/or a wiki). We could discuss that here, too.


David J. Rosen
DJRosen at theworld.com






David J. Rosen
djrosen1 at gmail.com



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