Effect of Social Practice Approach on Academic Achievement of Adult Learners in Basic Literacy

Abstract

The challenge of low academic achievement among adult learners has been continuously reported in adult basic literacy. Adult literacy programs prioritize integrating basic life-related literacy, empowering learners to manage daily responsibilities independently and enhancing academic achievement. Therefore, the present study was conducted to empirically investigate the effect of the social practice approach on learners' academic achievement through pretest, protest control group design. They involved 70 learners, with 35 assigned to each experimental and control group. A worksheet (pretest/posttest) was employed for data collection. Data were analyzed by using an independent sample t-test. The findings revealed that the experimental group, exposed to the social practice approach in their literacy activities, showed improved academic achievement. The study recommended conducting learner assessments before literacy content development to align with identified social needs, offering context-based literacy training for teachers, and establishing an assessment and evaluation system that forges connections between learners' daily lives and literacy practices. Furthermore, it suggested implementing virtual and physical feedback mechanisms to gather input from adult learners to enhance adult basic literacy consistently.