Strategies and Implications: Connecting Research to Practice

The following implications and strategies were developed by the participants who attended Beth Bingman’s TALAE presentation “Using Research to Build Evidence-Based Programs.” After participants had learned about recent NCSALL research projects on professional development, authentic materials, learner persistence, and reading, participants met in small groups to discuss the implications of the research on program practice and strategies for implementation. The following notes were compiled during those breakout group discussions.

Notes from the Professional Development Breakout Group

Implication: More money needs to be budgeted for professional development (PD).
Strategy: Have programs pay for prep-time and professional development.

Implication: More in-depth study should be offered as opposed to “hit or miss” professional development.
Strategy: Offer institutes for on-going professional development in specific topics, e.g. how to conduct teacher action research projects.

Implication: Give credit for implementing strategies—making it real in the classroom.
Strategy: Give professional development credit for documenting how knowledge learned was applied in the classroom.

Implication: “Raise the bar,” set expectations for professional development learning.
Strategy: Encourage Credential and tie pay rate to credential.
Strategy: Require more than the state required minimum for professional development.

Implication: Broaden the definition of what constitutes professional development.
Strategy: Allow for a variety of ways for teachers to acquire professional development hours and monitor how many hours have been accrued by mid-point in the fiscal year.

*Group notes by Debra Coe, Project Supervisor, Austin ISD, and Dominique Chlup, Assistant Professor, Texas A&M University, Director, TCALL

These implications are based on research conducted by NCSALL, the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy. For more information on this research go to the following web addresses:

http://www.ncsall.net/?id=233 for Focus on Basics article

http://www.ncsall.net/fileadmin/resources/research/brief25.pdf for research brief, How Teachers Change: A Study of Professional Development in Adult Education.

Go to http://www.ncsall.net/fileadmin/resources/research/report25a.pdf for the research summary, How Teachers Change: A Study of Professional Development in Adult Education.

Notes from the Authentic Materials Breakout Group

Implication
Teachers should include and increase the use of authentic texts and activities in their classes.

Issues for Program Directors to Consider
Teachers need time to plan use of authentic texts, perhaps more that if they use commercial materials. The needed planning time should decrease as they become more familiar with this approach.

Teachers may be resistant to making this change.

Students may resist what they see as not “real” school.

Fitting use of authentic materials with “direct systematic reading instruction” may be a challenge.

Strategies to support use of authentic materials
Begin by using authentic materials as a supplement to commercial texts.

Connect skills learned in authentic activities with students’ learning goals, making clear that they are learning, e. g. English language skills, while they participate in the activity.

Health issues provide topics that are of interest/authentic to most students and may be a good place to start.

The “potato chip bag” activity – giving a teacher or student a bag of potato chips and asking them to explore the information/learning possibilities – is a way to demonstrate the engagement and possibilities for learning found in authentic materials.

The Equipped for the Future Toolkit provide lesson examples that teachers can use to support use of authentic materials. Can be found on the EFF website at eff.cls.utk.edu.

*Notes compiled by Beth Bingman, Associate Director, Center for Literacy Studies
Coordinator, NCSALL Connecting Practice, Policy and Research Initiative

These implications are based on research conducted by NCSALL, the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy. For more information on this research go to http://www.ncsall.net/fileadmin/resources/research/brief17.pdf *** for research brief, Affecting Change in Literacy Practices in Adult Learners.

Creating Authentic Materials and Activities for the Adult Literacy Classroom, a guide for teachers, can be found at: http://www.ncsall.net/fileadmin/resources/teach/jacobson.pdf ***

***[To view the PDF documents please download the Adobe® Acrobat® Reader (free) or you can convert PDF to HTML via Adobe's conversion form.]

Notes from the Persistence Study Breakout Group

This group began with a 20-minute open discussion of the implications of the Persistence Study.

Help students with:

1) goal establishment;
2) self-efficacy;
3) managing positive and negative forces;
4) measuring progress toward goal.

The group agreed that designing an excellent Intake Process was the best way to impact these supports to persistence.

The Intake Process would include Identification of Needs, Identification of Barriers, Goal Setting, and development of an Individual Educational Plan.

Helping students measure their own progress would be part of the educational plan with regular follow-up and progress checks.

Some possible strategies include:

1. designating an intake specialist who has experience and training in needs assessment, goal setting, placement testing and available community support resources
2. making time available for regular student-teacher conferences to check progress and manage changing needs
3. teacher training in goal setting and progress monitoring
4. teacher training on the available community assistance resources that can help students persist in their educational program

*Notes compiled by Ken Appelt, Professional Development Specialist, TCALL

These implications are based on research conducted by NCSALL, the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy. For more information on this research go to http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu/research/report12.pdf for research brief, Persistence Among Adult Basic Education Students in Pre-GED Classes.

Additional reports on this research can be found at the following website:

http://www.mdrc.org/publications.html