Hi everyone,

Last month, Tom Sticht shared his wonderful syllabus for an online 
course of self-study with this list, including instructions for locating 
the articles online.  Recognizing the value of this resource, I 
requested permission to publish the syllabus online, with direct links 
to all of the articles. 

Tom graciously agreed, and the syllabus is now available online at 
http://adulted.about.com/od/adultbasiceducation/a/sticht.htm   I have 
also published Tom Sticht's impressive bio at 
http://adulted.about.com/od/adultbasiceducation/a/sticht_3.htm

Enjoy!

-- 
Kimeiko Hotta Dover
About Adult & Continuing Education
http://adulted.about.com

www.About.com
About.com is part of The New York Times Company




Brian, Dr Donna J G wrote:

> February 23, 2007

>

> Adult Education and Literacy in the United States:

> A Syllabus and Resources for an Online Course of Self-Study

>

> Tom Sticht

> International Consultant in Adult Education

>

> Each year many people start work in adult education and literacy

> development without much background in the field. Others who have worked

> in the field for a while may wish to deepen their knowledge of the

> field. To give people a chance to learn more about the field and its

> history, policies, practices and issues that it deals with I have

> developed this syllabus for self-study. It provides guidance to 12

> reports of mine which are available for free downloading online. Reading

> one report a week will provide a one semester, 12 week course of

> self-study. Except for number 1.1, these resources are located online at

> www.nald.ca at the Library pages for the site. To find any of these

> resources search the NALD Library pages using Sticht for my last name,

> or google my name and the title of the report.

>

> Syllabus and Resources

>

> Part 1: History of and Perspective on the Adult Education and Literacy

> System (AELS) of the United States

>

> 1.1. The Rise of the Adult Education and Literacy System in the United

> States: 1600-2000. [ A 400 year history of activities leading to the

> Adult Education Act of 1966 and the emergence of the present day AELS

> with organizations and individuals involved in this rise. Online at

> www.ncsall.net/?id=576].

>

> 1.2. Beyond 2000: Future Directions for Adult Education.  [Looks at

> social, demographic, science, economic and technology trends with

> implications for the AELS; examines government and legislative trends

> with implications for the future of the AELS.]

>

> 1.3. The  Adult Education  and Literacy System (AELS) in the United

> States:

> Moving From the Margins to the Mainstream of Education. [Includes the

> growing value of the Adult Education  and Literacy System (AELS)  in the

> new millennium; value of AELS for improving adults' and children's

> health, learning and schooling; need for mainstreaming the AELS in U.S.

> education; strengthening the AELS.]

>

> Part 2. Testing, Assessment, and Accountability in the AELS.

>

> 2.1. Adult Literacy in the United States: A Compendium of Quantitative

> Data With Interpretive Comments.  [Presents a developmental theory of

> literacy and history of and items from standardized tests in the U.S.

> including military tests from World War I to 1990s and all mass literacy

> tests for adults from 1930s to the National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS)

> of 1993, which is similar to the NAAL of 2003. Presents data on

> relationships of parents education to the literacy of their children;

> relationships of adult literacy to occupations; and samples of pre- and

> post-test gains for over 30 programs, including longitudinal growth

> curves for some programs.]

>

> 2.2. Accountability in Adult Literacy Education: Focus on Workplace

> Literacy Resources for Program Design, Assessment, Testing, &

> Evaluation. [Provides knowledge resources for designing, delivering and

> evaluating workplace literacy programs; discusses testing and

> accountability in adult literacy programs in the Workforce Education Act

> of 1998 still in effect as of 2007; determining how many adults are

> lacking in workforce literacy: the national and international adult

> literacy surveys.]

>

> Part 3. Curriculum Theory With Case Studies Illustrating Applications to

> Adult Education and Literacy Programs.

>

> 3.1. Functional Context Education: Making learning relevant (1997

> edition).

> [Eight chapters including The Power of Adult Literacy Education; Some

> Challenges of Diversity for Adult Literacy Education. Views On

> Contemporary Cognitive Science; Introduction to Functional Context

> Education; Functional Context Education and Literacy Instruction; and

> four case studies in applying Functional Context Education to the design

> of programs that integrate (or embed, contextualize) basic skills and

> vocational or parenting education. (workplace literacy, family

> literacy).]

>

> 3.2. Functional Context Education: Making Learning Relevant in the 21st

> Century (2005 edition). [Functional Context Education (FCE) materials

> available online in several nations; the Adult Literacy and Life skills

> (ALL) survey, National Adult Assessment of Literacy (NAAL) survey; FCE

> in historical perspective, (1860-Present) including Paulo Freire and

> Learner Centered, Participatory Literacy Education. Methodologies used

> in adult literacy research for determining what is relevant to youth and

> adult learners; five case studies illustrating the application of FCE in

> parenting, vocational training, and health literacy.]

>

> Part 4. Listening and Reading Theory and Practice With  Adult Learners

>

> 4.1. Auding and Reading: A Developmental Model. [This is the first book

> applying modern cognitive science to oracy (listening to and speaking

> language) and its transfer to literacy development with children and

> adults. It presents an early version of Gough's "simple model of

> reading"

> stating that Reading=Decoding+Comprehension (measured by listening). It

> provides an extensive review of research on language development,

> relationships of listening to reading, and the evaluation of four

> hypotheses derived from the simple model presented in the book.

>

> 4.2. Teaching Reading With Adults. [This paper discusses literacy as the

> mastery of graphics technology. It shows how the basic elements of the

> graphic medium - its relative permanence, its ability to be arrayed in

> space, and its use of the properties of light - work together to permit

> literates to generate (write) and access (read) massive collections of

> knowledge; to analyze and synthesize discrete information into coherent

> bodies of knowledge, and to perform complex procedures with accuracy and

> efficiency.

>

> 4.3. Seven Pioneering Adult Literacy Educators in the History of

> Teaching Reading With Adults in the United States.  [Throughout the 20th

> century both Synthetic and Analytic methods of teaching reading were

> favored by different adult literacy educators. Favoring the Synthetic or

> "code"

> methods are Harriet A. Jacobs, J. Duncan Spaeth  and Frank Laubach.

> Favoring the Analytic or "meaning making " methods are Cora Wilson

> Stewart, Paul Witty, Francis P. Robinson, and Septima Poinsette Clark.

> This paper discusses teaching innovations introduced by each of these

> pioneers in adult literacy education.]

>

> 5. Policy Papers

>

> 5.1. Toward a Multiple Life Cycles Education Policy: Investing in the

> Education of Adults to Improve the Educability of Children. [This paper

> argues for education policy that recognizes that literacy is transferred

> across generations from parents to their children. Therefore, we need to

> have a much larger investment in the education of youth and adults who

> are parents or who will be parents. Adult literacy education affects

> multiple life cycles. An extensive review is presented of research on

> early childhood education, relationships of parent's education to

> children's literacy, parenting and preschool effectiveness, and other

> issues.]

>

> 5.2 Reforming Adult Literacy Education: Transforming Local Programs Into

> National Systems In Canada, the United Kingdom & the United States.

> [Activities are underway in these three nations for transforming adult

> literacy education from a variety of disparate programs into organized

> systems of education for adults. Activities include:1. Scale of Need:

> determining how many adults are in need of adult basic skills education.

> 2.

> Access to Provision: determining how many adults are aware of, have

> access to and enroll in adult literacy education provision. 3. Nature of

> Provision: determining the nature of the delivery system of adult

> literacy provision. 4. Quality of Provision: determining the need for

> improved quality. 5. Accountability of Provision: improving methods for

> determining student learning and other outcomes.]

>

>

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