Despite large-scale interventions, significant numbers of adults worldwide continue to have problems with basic literacy, in particular in the area of reading. To be effective, adult reading teachers need expert knowledge at practitioner level. However, practices in adult reading education vary widely, often reflecting the individual beliefs of each teacher about how an adult can learn to read. In this study, phenomenographic analysis was used to identify categories of approaches to teaching adult reading, used by a group of 60 teachers in Western Australia and New Zealand. Four approaches were identified: reassurance, task-based, theory-based and responsive. It is argued that for teachers to become effective and consistent in responding to learner needs, they must understand their own beliefs and the consequences of these. The identification of different approaches in adult reading education is an important step in this process.
Less-skilled adult readers have been found to be limited in their awareness and use of effective reading strategies. In this study, we aimed to (a) identify the strategies used by less-skilled adult readers that best predict word reading performance on standardized reading tests and (b) identify the word reading strategies that less-skilled adult readers reported using, as well as the extent to which these reports correlated with direct observations of reading behaviors. Results indicated that readers relied on six main strategies to read unknown words, but only two significantly contributed to prediction of actual word reading performance. These were also the two strategies that were most poorly understood by the readers. The findings emphasize the need for programs to incorporate methods to increase metacognitive awareness and strategy use in adults with reading difficulties.
Literacy skills have long been recognized as an important correlate of social and economic outcomes, both for individuals and for overall communities (e.g., European Union High Level Group of Experts on Literacy, 2012; National Research Council, 2012). Despite this, a considerable body of research evidence suggests that large numbers of adults worldwide continue to have difficulties in the area of basic literacy. Foremost among this research is a series of international surveys of adult skills, the most recent of which is the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) (OECD Skills Outlook, 2013). PIAAC has prompted a series of national reports examining local contexts. For example, one recent Australian report (Australian Industry Group, 2016) indicated that 44% of Australian adults have literacy skills below the minimum level required to function fully in a modern society. Similar results have been reported in studies from other developed countries. For example, in 2012, the European Union's High Level Group of Experts on Literacy reported that 20% of adults in Europe exhibited some difficulties in the area of literacy, while in 2014, Gyarmati et al. reported that nearly half of the working-age
Despite widescale literacy interventions, reading difficulties persist in the adult population. Results from international surveys report that millions of adults around the world remain unable to read the texts they require for daily life and work. Adult reading difficulties are diverse and under-researched, and adultreading teachers are generally underprepared to build reading skills, particularly at word level reading where many adults report difficulties. This study examined (i) the teaching foci that 60 adult-reading teachers prioritised in determining how to teach a hypothetical adult reader with difficulties at the word level and (ii) the teacher attributes by which these decisions varied. Around 40% of teachers indicated that they would prioritise non-word level components in deciding how to teach the hypothetical reader with word level difficulties, and these decisions varied with teachers' training/qualifications. To make sense of the persistence of low reading levels in the adult population, it is necessary to understand more about what teachers teach and why they teach the way they do. The findings of this study may provide an important step towards this goal.
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