6 Outcome 1.4 NZ adult literacy and numeracy: why so low?
Description includes a discussion of reasons for low adult literacy and numeracy levels in Aotearoa New Zealand.
First, I will not accept unchallenged, that low adult literacy exists here in New Zealand. Low as compared to what, whom or where?
We candidates are asked to discuss why there is low adult literacy and numeracy here in New Zealand. Why should I accept that statement. Is there actually? What would 'low' be? What would 'high'?
I believe as a general rule that it is dangerous to blindly accept an untested and unsupported assumption. But let's proceed on the supposition that there is room for improvement.
If we start with the assumption that adult literacy is low, then it would seem to be fair to conclude that previous initiatives have not worked very well. They are probably on the wrong track. It is therefore not a case of tweaking something that is slightly sub-optimal, but of considering a different paradigm.
Low literacy would not be not for the want of schooling, teaching, sufficient explanation, number of hours spent in a classroom and the like. There's no dearth of that. ANd more of the same is not likely to improve matters. To paraphrase Albert Einstein, we are unlikely to solve any problem with more of the same sort of thinking that led to the problem in the first place.
In my opinion, the main reason for any low literacy results from treating literacy and numeracy as isolated subjects, taken out of context. We have made them artificial and irrelevant to our students' lives.
We've largely divorced of numeracy from literacy. We've divorced English from language. We've divorced meaning from form. According to Frank Smith, is a person is able to hear and see, there is nothing extra in the brain required to be able to read. According to him, there is no such thing as dyslexia.
Adult illiteracy, I propose, is a result of educators being overly fixated on grammar. Here introduce quotes from Vicars Bell On Learning the English Tongue.
Learners quite rightly resist being schooled in artificial methods that have poor results. They therefore resist the academic approach. They mistrust scientists regarding issues such as global warming. We need to win them back with education that works. Education needs to escape the confines of the classroom.
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First, I will not accept unchallenged, that low adult literacy exists here in New Zealand. Low as compared to what, whom or where?
We candidates are asked to discuss why there is low adult literacy and numeracy here in New Zealand. Why should I accept that statement. Is there actually? What would 'low' be? What would 'high'?
I believe as a general rule that it is dangerous to blindly accept an untested and unsupported assumption. But let's proceed on the supposition that there is room for improvement.
If we start with the assumption that adult literacy is low, then it would seem to be fair to conclude that previous initiatives have not worked very well. They are probably on the wrong track. It is therefore not a case of tweaking something that is slightly sub-optimal, but of considering a different paradigm.
Low literacy would not be not for the want of schooling, teaching, sufficient explanation, number of hours spent in a classroom and the like. There's no dearth of that. ANd more of the same is not likely to improve matters. To paraphrase Albert Einstein, we are unlikely to solve any problem with more of the same sort of thinking that led to the problem in the first place.
In my opinion, the main reason for any low literacy results from treating literacy and numeracy as isolated subjects, taken out of context. We have made them artificial and irrelevant to our students' lives.
We've largely divorced of numeracy from literacy. We've divorced English from language. We've divorced meaning from form. According to Frank Smith, is a person is able to hear and see, there is nothing extra in the brain required to be able to read. According to him, there is no such thing as dyslexia.
Adult illiteracy, I propose, is a result of educators being overly fixated on grammar. Here introduce quotes from Vicars Bell On Learning the English Tongue.
Learners quite rightly resist being schooled in artificial methods that have poor results. They therefore resist the academic approach. They mistrust scientists regarding issues such as global warming. We need to win them back with education that works. Education needs to escape the confines of the classroom.
NEXT
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