Improving Adult Literacy Outcomes : Lessons from Cognitive Research for Developing Countries

Abadzi, Helen

关键词: ABE;    ADULT BASIC EDUCATION;    ADULT EDUCATION;    ADULT ILLITERACY;    ADULT LITERACY;   

DOI  :  10.1596/0-8213-5493-0
RP-ID  :  26286

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Despite the existence of about onebillion illiterates in the world, adult literacy programsmake up 1-5 percent of government or donor budgets, and theyremain severely underfunded in comparison to primaryeducation. Though dropout and course completion ratesimproved in the 1990s, the outcomes of literacy instructionare still modest and may have improved little since the1970s. The results may disappoint governments and donors whoexpect that once taught, people will have usable skills andremain literate. The modest results make it hard to increasecoverage and to argue for increased expenditures for thissector. The results may be due to inefficient instructionbut also to the structure of human memory, which hasimportant implications for adult literacy acquisition. Theneed to learn the rapid recognition of complex patternsposes problems that are not apparent to people who becameexpert readers in their childhood.