Practice Makes Perfect
Rebecca Still, Literacy Specialist
Why do learners come and go?
Learners come and go from programs, and we may wonder whether staying longer would have been enough for the program to have made a difference in their life. We might feel that if they could develop more skills before they left, they would be able to do more.
However, research shows a different picture. It is true that participating in programs can have a positive impact on an adult’s life, but it’s more about the practices or use of skills that makes the change, not the increase in their skills while in the program.
Research shows...
Stephen Reder conducted a longitudinal study on adult literacy development (Reder 2009). The study traced the growth of adults’ literacy abilities and uses, over a span of 10 years. One finding is that "program participation is directly related to changes in engagement in literacy practices." This means that when a learner is participating in a program, the change is a result of them using their skills. (Reder uses the term practice engagement to reflect use of skills and the term proficiency to reflect skills).
His findings, along with Sheehan-Holt and Smith (2000), found that in the first year after leaving the program, there was a short-term effect on an adult’s level of practice engagement (skills used) but no change on proficiency (skills). However, five years after leaving the program, there was a significant change in the adult’s skills because of the long-term effect of using the skills that they gained from attending the program.
A more recent study (Reder, Gauly & Lechner 2020) reinforced that using one’s skills in reading develops reading skills over time.
The research done by Reder is consistent with research by Purcell-Gates et al. (2002) who found that when the focus of instruction uses authentic literacy practices, there is greater change in those practices compared to programs who are not focused on using authentic literacy practices.
What does this mean for CALP Staff?
I found a few key points that validates our work and reasons to emphasize why we need to encourage learners to use their skills in everyday practices.
Validate
a. CALPs are asked to measure Skills Use (Outcome 1.2a) in their Annual Report. The research emphasizes why this is an important measurement to gather. It’s especially important to have concrete evidence that learners are in fact using their skills in other ways beyond the learning opportunity. This ensures they will be able to use their skills if suddenly they need to step out of the learning opportunity.
b. It may seem, on the surface, that a learner hasn’t learned very much or made a great deal of progress; but remember the gains aren’t sometimes seen until 3-5 years after they leave.
Reasons
a. It’s not so much about teaching the skills, as it is in helping the learner to use their skills - not only in the learning opportunity but also in their daily life.
b. Whenever the learner leaves the learning opportunity, if we have provided enough opportunities for them to use the skills they have learned to that point in practical ways, we can feel confident that over time it will pay off.
c. When the focus of our learning opportunity is on actual materials the learner uses in their daily life, learners will have more ability to use their skills after they leave the learning opportunity.
Practice does make perfect.
References
Reder, S. (2013) Lifelong and Life-Wide Adult literacy Development. Perspective on Language and Literacy, Spring 2013, 18-21.
Reder, S. (2020) A Lifelong and Life-Wide Framework for Adult Literacy Education. Adult Literacy Education, 2(1), 48-53.
Reder, S., Gauly, B., & Lechner, C. (2020) Practice makes perfect: Practice engagement theory and the development of adult literacy and numeracy proficiency. International Review of Education, 1-22.