Meeting the Basic Learning Needs of the Newly Literate: China's Post-literacy Education for the Early 21st Century

While China has achieved considerable success in its efforts to raise literacy levels, it has been faced with the relapse of many newly literate adults into illiteracy. The consolidation of literacy skills through post-literacy programs is therefore of key importance to the country. This study examines the reasons why adult literates relapse and discusses the problems and modalities of post-literacy education, concluding with recommendations for future post-literacy policy.     

终身教育体系下推进农村扫盲后教育的思考——以重庆市为例

以重庆市为例,对农村扫盲教育的现状进行分析,发现部分脱盲农民的整体文化素质偏低、缺乏实用技术能力。因此,脱盲农民有必要接受扫盲后教育,而扫盲后教育作为终身教育体系的一部分,旨在弥补扫盲教育的不足。因此,应加大对农村扫盲后教育的投资力度,巩固并深化扫盲教育,加强农村实用技术教育,重视农村成人学校师资建设,从而推进农村扫盲后教育的健康有序发展。     

Teacher Professional Growth on Assessment Literacy: A Case Study of Prevocational Geography Education in the Netherlands

Abstract

Teachers should have the necessary assessment knowledge and skills to contribute to students’ learning. This study provides insight into how a professional development program for teachers contributed to the achievement of higher mastery levels of assessment literacy. This study used Xu and Brown's TALiP (Teacher Assessment Literacy in Practice) framework to achieve these higher levels. To evaluate the extent to which teachers demonstrated professional growth regarding their assessment literacy, teachers’ practices were evaluated through a content analysis of summative assessments. Potential changes in teachers’ knowledge, skills, and beliefs were measured through questionnaires and interviews. The outcomes showed that reflection on educational goals and on teachers’ beliefs, collaborative practice, and peer feedback played an important role in fostering higher mastery levels in assessment literacy. The outcomes of this study support the value of the TALiP framework and support the idea that professional growth could be fostered via diverse growth pathways.     

Interpretations of literacy

The National Literacy Strategy (NLS) was introduced into schools in England in 1998 with the aim of raising the literacy attainments of primary‐aged children. The Framework for Teaching the Literacy Hour, a key component of the NLS, proposes an interpretation of literacy that emphasises reading, writing and spelling skills. An investigation of the Literacy Hour for pupils with a range of special needs raised questions about teachers' interpretation of literacy when children have severe and complex learning needs. The research suggested that a skill‐based view of literacy is limited and has the potential to exclude pupils who cannot access or produce written material by conventional means. These issues are discussed within the context of views drawn from contemporary literature. Implications for further research are identified.     

Learning in the mother tongue: Examining the learning outcomes of the South African Kha Ri Gude literacy campaign

International Review of Education - The aim of this article is to examine literacy and numeracy scores of learners who participated in the South African Kha Ri Gude Literacy Campaign. Analysing the...     

Challenges and Support When Teaching Science Through an Integrated Inquiry and Literacy Approach

In the Budding Science and Literacy project, we explored how working with an integrated inquiry-based science and literacy approach may challenge and support the teaching and learning of science at the classroom level. By studying the inter-relationship between multiple learning modalities and phases of inquiry, we wished to illuminate possible dynamics between science inquiry and literacy in an integrated science approach. Six teachers and their students were recruited from a professional development course for the current classroom study. The teachers were to try out the Budding Science teaching model. This paper presents an overall video analysis of our material demonstrating variations and patterns of inquiry-based science and literacy activities. Our analysis revealed that multiple learning modalities (read it, write it, do it, and talk it) are used in the integrated approach; oral activities dominate. The inquiry phases shifted throughout the students' investigations, but the consolidating phases of discussion and communication were given less space. The data phase of inquiry seems essential as a driving force for engaging in science learning in consolidating situations. The multiple learning modalities were integrated in all inquiry phases, but to a greater extent in preparation and data. Our results indicate that literacy activities embedded in science inquiry provide support for teaching and learning science; however, the greatest challenge for teachers is to find the time and courage to exploit the discussion and communication phases to consolidate the students' conceptual learning.     

Narratives of agency: the experiences of Braille literacy practitioners in the Kha Ri Gude South African Mass Literacy Campaign

In this article, we locate the Kha Ri Gude South African Mass Literacy Campaign within the context of the problem of illiteracy and exclusion in South Africa, while concentrating on various post-apartheid initiatives designed to give visually challenged adults the opportunity to become literate. We shall provide a detailed account of focus group sessions organised in 2012; the aim of these sessions was to explore the experiences of blind literacy practitioners who were charged with the supervision and coordination of Braille literacy classes for blind, illiterate adults. We suggest that the way the practitioners expressed what being involved in the Campaign meant for them for an extended period (three years or more) gives us a glimpse of how, through their roles as literacy organisers, they were able to engender agency among blind adult literacy learners and themselves.     

The literacy and numeracy ‘crisis’ in Australian workplaces: discursive rhetoric vs. production floor realities

The dominant discourse on adult literacy and numeracy in Australia sees the federal government, industry, workforce skills agencies and the media speaking with one voice on the ‘crisis’ involving workers’ low literacy and numeracy skills. Underpinning this discourse are the Australian results of the international Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey (ALLS) which are used to model correlations between low literacy/numeracy levels and productivity. In turn, these correlations are deemed to have implications for the competitiveness of individual enterprises and the prosperity of the nation. In the ALLS, approximately half of manufacturing workers are found at the lowest two levels. Adopting an ethnographic perspective, and viewing literacy and numeracy as social practices, this paper investigates this ‘crisis’ from the situated perspectives of managers, trainers and workers in three manufacturing companies. Multiple observations of production work and semi-structured interviews with over 50 company personnel reveal a contradiction between the crisis discourse rhetoric on workplace literacy and numeracy and the realities of production work. Literacy and numeracy are found not to have a negative influence on production work in the three companies. This raises questions about the basis for the crisis discourse, and government policy and programmes that flow from it.     

A Literacy Hour is Only Part of the Story

The literacy hour is a key facet of the new National Literacy Strategy and its use will be more or less mandatory in English primary schools from September, 1998. Yet there are some problems with the concept and, Robin Campbell argues in this article, it may not in fact go far enough. Is a literacy hour in itself likely to make a significant difference to children’s literacy achievements, or are there other considerations which require some attention?     

Perspectives on literacy,gender and change: a case for Zambia

This study examines illiterate participants' perceptions of literacy training that was conducted after 6-12 months of training in one urban Copperbelt province and one center in rural Luapula province in Zambia. Interviews were conducted among 29 female and 11 male participants and 15 male and 3 female officials. Analysis is based on interviews, observations, and written records. The researcher identified five broad areas of change: affective, attitudinal, pedagogic, economic, and sociopolitical. This study shows that literacy in rural areas is beneficial to people personally, to gender relations, and to socioeconomic development. The findings support the arguments advanced by Rockhill (1987), Bhola (1981), Freire (1970), and Nyerere (1978) about the need to reduce the fears and insecurities associated with being illiterate and the gain from developing people and not just production. The literacy training did not enrich people culturally nor did it alleviate poverty; it concentrated on integrating people into new modes of production. Affective changes included changes in self-esteem and feeling happier. Attitudinal changes included positive learning experiences about child care among both men and women. Nutrition and sanitation improved. Couples reported a greater effort at demonstrating polite behavior and respect toward each other. Literacy increased their status among friends and was accepted in steps, such as being proud of knowing how to write their name. Some participants changed their attitudes toward family planning, and clinic attendance increased. Literacy gave some more confidence and awareness of social relations. Literacy helped read seed and fertilizer labels. Lack of reading materials was a problem. Participants reported reading the Bible and magazines and writing letters. Participants tended to participate in church or literacy groups rather than political ones.     

民族地区扫盲及扫盲后继续教育的调查与思考——以云南省西双版纳地区为个案

文章以云南省西双版纳地区为个案,概要地介绍了当地扫盲及扫盲后继续教育开展的情况,如实地反映了当地扫盲及扫盲后继续教育在思想意识淡薄、经费紧张、教师待遇差、成人教育机构萎缩、教材滞后等方面存在的问题。通过对当地扫盲及扫盲后继续教育存在的矛盾的分析,作者提出了建立以需求为导向的扫盲新体制、探索开发地方性教材和坚持经济效益与社会效益并重的建议和对策。     

Production-on-the-go practice: storyboarding as a retrospective and redundant school literacy activity

Storyboarding is one common strategy used in teaching young people digital media. This paper argues that in adolescents' literacy practices, they engage in production on the go. The metaphor is described in this paper to put forward the argument that storyboarding can be a retrospective and redundant literacy activity in adolescents' school literacy practices when it is not their inherent practice to engage in a two-step process in digital media production, i.e., design intended to precede production. Drawing on the theoretical underpinnings of New Literacy Studies, this study adopts an ethnographic perspective to gain insights into 10 14-year-old Chinese adolescents' literacy practices in Singapore. Data for this paper were collected over a period of eight months from participant observations, with video-and-audio recordings, semi-structured and in-depth text-elicited group and individual interviews, the adolescents' research diaries and artefacts from their literacy practices.     

Locusts,gerbils and barley

Literacy teaching and learning in English primary schools has changed over the last few years. In particular the Literacy Hour has established more firmly a number of literacy activities such as shared reading and shared writing as well as creating a clear focus and time for literacy. However, it has also led, this article argues, to a devaluing of books, children and teachers. The Literacy Hour for the early years in Key Stage 1 may be too restrictive, formal and inappropriate for the youngest primary school children.     

An Unfortunate Distraction: the real books debate, 10 years on

This paper re‐examines some aspects of the ‘real books‐reading scheme books’ debate which erupted into the British literacy education field a decade ago. It argues that the debate was not only over‐polarised but that it did not take appropriate account of a scholarly review of related research by Professor Jeanne Chall which had been published a few years earlier. Subsequent research has further supported Chall's arguments. The paper indicates how the use of reading scheme and real books can be reconciled in curriculum programmes which are sensitive to how learning needs change in the course of early literacy development. It also notes the related significance of some current developments in the field, such as the National Literacy Project and the Literacy Task Force.     

Evaluating the Effectiveness of the National Literacy Strategy: Identifying indicators of success

In 1998, the Government introduced the National Literacy Strategy (NLS) in all primary schools in England in a bid to raise literacy standards. The first cohort of primary schools in the northern Local Education Authority ( n = 19) implemented the project in January 1997, the second cohort ( n = 20) began in September 1997. Each cohort consisted of three different year groups (Year 2, Year 4 and Year 6). The aim of this project was to focus upon exam results from these schools and thereby identify possible predictors of success (e.g. socio-economic status, age of pupils, teaching and learning style). We looked at differences within and between each cohort. We also carried out in-depth case studies of three northern schools. Each case-study involved interviews with key staff. The wider implications of the findings for the implementation of the NLS and for the training needs of teachers are considered.     

豫中地区大学生信息素养现状调查与分析

信息素养是信息时代终生学习的核心,是数字时代一项基本的人权。了解大学生的信息素养既是高等教育的要求,也是大学生全面发展的需要。笔者针对豫中地区的信息化实际情况,对大学生的信息素养进行问卷设计与调查,并对导致大学生信息素养低下的原因进行了分析,指出了应对策略。     

Developing students' mental health literacy through the power of sport

This research is an evaluation of a six-week mental health literacy programme, referred to as the Cambridge United Community Trust’s ‘Mind Your Head’ programme, which was delivered by sports professionals to secondary school students (11-16) in Cambridge, England, during 2017–18. A Mental Health Literacy Scale was used to measure students’ knowledge of mental health issues pre- and post-intervention. Statistical data from these surveys were analysed using an independent samples t-test. Focus groups were held with students in each school, and individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with one lead teacher in each school. The statistical data indicate that statistically significant improvements in mental health literacy were achieved, and this occurred across all genders and ethnicities. The qualitative data suggest that this programme resulted in positive attitudes towards mental health and improved knowledge of how to seek help. The data indicate that investment in similar programmes would be beneficial for schools in improving students’ knowledge of mental health and reducing stigma.     

Socio-economic status and female literacy in India

It seems as if the universally acclaimed need for literacy has recently re-gained currency in India, justifying enormous investment in areas traditionally scorned for their low rate of return. The focus on increased enrolment, retention and achievement in primary education, in conjunction with feverish Total Literacy Campaigns conducted by the Government of India (GOI), may be credited with steering the spotlight away from more pressing structural problems such as the deeply ingrained gender bias at all levels of the education-employment matrix and the inherently gendered nature of the ideological framework underlying educational provision in India.Seldom questioned is the value and relevance of the kind of literacy being advocated or the logic behind the slogan ‘basic education as a basic human need’. It can be argued that churning out batches of literate women does not guarantee the articulation of their needs or their participation in planning and decision making. This paper argues that, divorced from other areas such as women's low socio-economic status, labour market inequalities and legal bias, literacy programmes are a relatively inexpensive and politically expedient palliative in their present limited form.