Adult Literacy A Review of International Experience Mae Chu Chang The World Bank 21 June 2011, Jakarta.

Adult Literacy

A Review of International Experience

Mae Chu Chang

The World Bank

21 June 2011, Jakarta

Outline

The Current Situation and History of Adult Literacy

How Effective are Literacy Programs?

Why are Literacy Outcomes still Modest?

Issues, Recommendations and Lessons Learned

2

The Current Situation and History of Adult Literacy

3

Who is illiterate?

Over 793 million adults (15+) worldwide.

Over 500 million of these are women. Nearly 70 percent are in E-9

countries. Most are unschooled, some illiterate

because of early drop-out or poor schooling.

4

History of Adult LiteracySource: UIS Literacy database as in June 2011

Government spending on adult literacy programmes is low

Source: CONFINTEA VI report, Education Sector Plan, MoF Budget.

A tiny fraction of Gross National Income is devoted to adult education and literacy

Country Year Public spending on adult literacy as % of

GNI (estimate)

Senegal 2008 0.04Pakistan 2009/10 0.01India 2008 0.001South Africa 2009 0.12Brazil 2008 0.04Indonesia 2009 0.01Colombia 2008 0.01Thailand 2007 0.001

Adult Literacy: Important…but disappointing history Analysis of 32 World Bank and non-World Bank

Literacy projects…

Reveals that progress in last few decades has been uneven and inadequate.

In these, 50 percent participants dropped out, of the remaining, 50 percent dropped back into illiteracy.

Overall, lots of government-led, top-down, brief courses without follow up… Efficiency rates = 12.5%

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History of Adult Literacy

New Strategies in 1990s based on past experience

History of Adult Literacy

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How Effective are Literacy Programs?

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Outcomes of the 90s projects

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Effectiveness

Findings from the 90s projects:Unreliable/Incomplete Data

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Effectiveness

Findings from the 90s projects:Drop out/Graduation rates

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Effectiveness

Findings from the 90s projects:

Reading Achievement + Social Benefits

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Effectiveness

Findings from the 90s projects:

Cost of Adult Literacy Programs

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Effectiveness

Why are literacy outcomes still modest?

Some insights from research on cognitive neuroscience

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Literacy participants are usually poor and femalewho face significant social and family problems

The neuro-cognitive basis of reading The importance of reading speed Instructional time use

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But children become literate under similar circumstances. What else may account for the outcomes?

Research

How does reading and comprehension work?

Complex Biology

To decipher and understand a message we need: The brain pathways controlling fluency

to function

Enough language knowledge to match letters and sounds

A sense of where words start and end (phonological awareness)

A good enough short-term memory to keep the message that has been read

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Research

How Do We Remember?

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About 7 items,4 pictures

Long-term memory

12 seconds at most

All you have stored, Infinite capacity

Short-term (working memory)What is in your mind right now Entryway

Research

What are the implications for Literacy?

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To understand a sentence we must read it within the 12 seconds deadline of our working (short-term) memory.

Read too slowly and you forget by the end of the sentence what you read in

the beginning.

Research

How are you managing to read this, with only a 12 second short term memory?

Your brain creates larger chunks (words or phrases instead of individual letters) that pass as one through the working memory

Initially, learners process small syllables, then words.

With practice comes automaticity

Research

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Practice in Youth configured your brain for Automaticity

Can you read this?

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Why?

Research

A learner may see just jumbles of letters, some incorrectly…

T h e g r o u p c o m m i t e e w i l l w o r k h a r d t o d e v e l o p n e w p r o d u c t s a n d s e l l t h e m t o t h e m a r k e t a t g o o d p r i c e s w i t h c r e d i t f r o m t h e s a v i n g s b a n k

Research

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Letter-by-letter readersfill the working memory with letters.

They run out of working memory!

Research

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To be literate: it is necessary to work within the limits of the working memory.

Adults learning to read seem to have difficulty attaining automaticity

The brain “cuts off” unneeded circuits at various times until maturity “critical” periods for acquiring some skills

During adolescence we may lose the ability to recognize new letters within milliseconds

We may all become dyslexic as adults in terms of learning new languages!

Issue not well researched

Research

So, what are the requirements for Functional Literacy?

To read an average sentence in an ‘average’ language roughly.. 7 items in 12 seconds…

Students must read at least a word per 1-1.5 second

45-60 words per minute with 95% accuracy Minimal criterion to reach in literacy

classes25

Research

What we need to be fully literate: Automaticity! Fluency!A miracle state

A special brain pathway gets activated: The brain identifies entire words rather than

single letters Each word or phrase becomes an item Letters are recognized within milliseconds Speed easily rises to 200+ words per minute People can’t help but read Pay attention to message rather than the print Automatized reading is not normally forgotten

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Research

Adult Literacy Instruction should focus on:

Increasing speed and accuracy, objectives that are usually not central in literacy courses.

Literacy tests should be timed.

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How is instructional time in literacy classes used?

Class cancellations Teacher absenteeism

Late arrivals, early departures Student absenteeism

Dropout and re-enrollment

Limited engagement in reading practice in class How much time do learners really spend

reading?

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Research

A lot of time is wasted… students don’t spend enough time reading

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Research

Class time as allocated by a government or NGO program (e.g. 900 hours or 9 months).

Time remaining after class cancellations (teacher absence, weather, extra holidays)

Time remaining after delayed teacher arrivals.

Time remaining after student absenteeism.

Class time devoted to any learning task (e.g. listening to others read).

Time students engaged in reading

Issues, Recommendations and Lessons Learned

Instruction and Information ProcessingThe Forgotten Variables

Peculiarity of human memory may be at the root of limited performance of literacy programs.

More attention required for instructional variables, quality and effectiveness issues.

More scientific research is required. And Governments and Development agencies need to work with researchers.

Adult literacy experts worldwide typically lack training in cognitive science.

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Issues

Better targeting for improved outcomes

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Different classes for different levels of

readers

Emphasize individual needs

Low quality primary education implies need for more targeted approach.

Lessons Learned

33

Achievement undermined by

dropout and poor instruction.

Attention to scientific research

is necessary.

Stand-alone projects more likely

to work.

Lessons Learned

34

Long term financial commitment is

required for success.

Government training, NGO

supervision and Community

Participation

Better Monitoring and evaluation.