Colleagues: On July 10 Heide Wrigley asked about discussing different
approaches to integrated LLN and workforce development programs. In this
regard, the following note may be of interest. Tom Sticht


August 14, 2009


Embedded or Integrated LLN Programs: Another Approach


Tom Sticht
International Consultant in Adult Education


In February of 2009, the Tertiary Education Commission of New Zealand issued
a report entitled  Strengthening Literacy and Numeracy: Theoretical
Framework. It is one of a series of reports providing guidelines for
developing “embedded” programs of LLN.

The report states, “Research confirms that improving workforce literacy,
language and numeracy skills works best if the learning is in a context
that is relevant to the learner, eg. existing workplace training. The
Literacy, Language and Numeracy Action Plan proposes a significant increase
in the amount of explicit literacy and numeracy teaching and assessment that
is embedded into vocational training.” (p. 3)

This recent series of reports from New Zealand take their place alongside a
growing number of reports since the beginning of the decade of 2000 that
call for and promote the funding of adult LLN programs that integrate or
embed the LLN education with programs of job training or vocational
education. For an extended review of a number of these reports see Sticht
(2005, chapter 1).

Typically, the guidelines for embedding or integrating basic skills
education with vocational/job training deal with the redesign of the LLN
instruction to support the vocational training, the effectiveness of which
is accepted as a given.

But,  in an earlier report, Sticht (1997) presents a number of case studies
of various embedded LLN and workplace or vocational programs. Among these,
Chapter 9 discusses Functional Context Education Case Study #3: An
Integrated Basic Skills and Electronic Technician's Course. The chapter
starts with a fictitious scenario and then describes the actual development
of a new prototype integrated vocational and basic skills program. Here’s
the scenario (based on real cases):


[Start of Fictitious Scenario]: One day Helen Jones went to ABC'S Inc. and
talked with them about getting into their Electronics training program. The
in-take advisor asked M. Jones to take some basic skills tests. The
Electronics program required 9th grade reading and mathematics skills for
enrollment. But Jones had only 7th skills and was advised to go to the
basic skills program to raise her skills. She left and never came back.


Their experience with M. Jones lead the ABC'S Inc. staff to wonder why the
Electronics program required 9th grade basic skills. After studying the
program, they found that it was highly theoretical and abstract. The text
for the course was written at the 11th grade level, and there was little
emphasis upon learning in a developmental sequence from enactive, to
iconic, to symbolic modes of learning.


The ABC'S Inc. staff decided to find out if there were other approaches to
Electronics
training and they came across a prototype Electronics course that had been
developed in research sponsored by the Ford Foundation. What the Functional
Context Education/ Electronics Technician's (FCE/ET) prototype course did
was redesign technical training so learners with basic skills at the 5th
grade or above could enter directly into technical training. In the context
of the technical training, then, their basic reading and mathematics skills
were developed to higher levels. [end of scenario]


In this scenario, the part that is of most significance to the present 
movement into embedded LLN and vocational/job training programs is that the
vocational technical training itself was first redesigned to make it
accessible to students with literacy skills below what the original course
required. Then, reading and numeracy skills were embedded into the
redesigned vocational training. The report by Sticht (1997) describes the
actual development of an integrated re-designed electronics program with
embedded basic skills instruction done in cooperation with the San Diego
Community College District.


The lesson here is that adult LLN educators should not take for granted that
existing vocational/job training programs are optimally designed and that
they, the LLN educators, should work to the requirements of the course.
Instead, both the vocational/job training and LLN educators should first
focus on how any program that excludes people with LLN below a certain
level could first be redesigned to make it more accessible to a wider range
of people. After that has been done, and the vocational/job training program
has been re-designed, the integration of LLN instruction should be
accomplished.


Always, the goal of embedded or integrated LLN and vocational/job training
education should be to open up opportunities for people and avoid to the
extent possible the exclusion of people due to their basic skills.


Tom Sticht
tsticht at aznet.net


References


Sticht, T. (1997). Functional Context Education: Making Learning Relevant.
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).
http://www.nald.ca/library/research/context/context.pdf


Sticht, T. (2005). Functional Context Education: Making Learning Relevant in
the 21st Century. 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.
http://www.nald.ca/library/research/fce/FCE.pdf