Blog

The CREATE Adult Skills Network (funded by the Institute of Education Sciences) has released a new article “Supporting Effective Research in Adult Foundational Education”. This article is intended to share insights on doing research in the context of Adult Foundational Education (AFE). It can serve as a starting point for conversations within research teams and with AFE program staff and students. As a product of the CREATE Adult Skills Network (funded by the Institute of Education Sciences), we put together this resource based on inputs gathered through a…

Numeracy skills, or the ability to understand and calculate using simple numbers, along with digital literacy and problem-solving abilities, enable a person to engage with and make sense of the world around them. These essential skills are more critical than ever for economic mobility and healthy civic participation in today’s society. Yet, the latest global survey of adult skills presents a troubling picture for the United States. Among adults in America, these skills have declined in recent years. According to the most recent PIAAC report, a third of U.S.…

This blog is reposted from content previously shared on the TSTM-SkillBlox Research project page by the EdTech Center @ World Education.In the last TSTM-SkillBlox blog, the World Education team described our process for developing new SkillBlox features. Leveraging a design research approach to gather user insights about teaching and learning, our aim has been to create practical tools and advance research that supports skill-aligned instruction through open education resources (OER). Iterative Feature DevelopmentThrough focus group conversations,…

This blog is reposted from content previously shared on the TSTM-SkillBlox Research project page by the EdTech Center @ World Education. The follow-up to this blog, Designing an Application For and With Educators, is also available.World Education is building new features for SkillBlox as part of our partnership with the American Institutes for Research (AIR) in IES-funded design and development TSTM-SkillBlox research. Our qualitative approach is guided by Design Based Research (DBR) (Brown, 1992; McKenney & Reeves, 2018; Sandoval, 2014), through which…

The CREATE Adult Skills Network is starting its fourth year of operation in Fall 2024. The Network’s job is to help expand the adult skills research base and resources for using, and then facilitate the translation and use of that research in everyday practice. We could not do this without the contributions from each of our six research teams and our Network Partners. Network Partners volunteer their time and share ideas during Network meetings and workgroup discussions, providing perspectives from directly teaching adult learners, informing and influencing…

by Aydin Durgunoglu and Erin CaryAccording to the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), 108.4 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced as of late 2022 (https://www.unhcr.org/us/). Although these statistics help illustrate the incredible scale of this problem, it is also important to understand how it is affecting individuals and their families. Recently, we have completed a small-scale implementation of our CILIA-T curriculum with approximately 50 adult English learners in four classrooms. The students came from various cultural and…

Adult Learning and Education in Digital Environments: Learning From Global Efforts to Promote Digital Literacy and Basic Skills of Vulnerable PopulationsAuthor: Judy A. Alamprese, MAJournal: Adult Learning, Volume 35, Issue 2AbstractThe pervasive role of digital technologies in adult learning and education (ALE) was a prominent theme throughout the deliberations of the Seventh International Conference on Adult Education (CONFINTEA VII) held June 15-17, 2022 in Morocco. CONFINTEA VII embodied the worldwide interest in digital technologies through the use of a…

Recently, SkillBlox was updated to include over 1,000 new activities in four new subject areas, along with a number of new features designed to ease the process of sharing and adapting SkillBlox created by other users. But what led to these updates over others? In Designing in the Open: Building Free Software, Blox by Blox, the TSTM-SkillBlox team describes the invention and building of the free, open education resource (OER) platform. The team shares early insights gleaned as they’ve worked to build a sustainable, equitable open education ecosystem that…

The TSTM-SkillBlox Instructional Support Pilot is exploring how the TSTM instructional framework, delivered through the SkillBlox online platform, can improve technology-enabled adult skills instruction. We launched the first component of the pilot, an implementation study of TSTM, in Fall of 2021 to explore the needs and experiences of teachers who are aligning their instructional practices with TSTM. We found promising practices and identified obstacles to inform development of SkillBlox that supports TSTM implementation. About the TSTM-SkillBlox…

The digital technology landscape is constantly evolving. To sustain provision of innovative and quality instruction that prepares adult learners to use digital technologies in schooling and work, adult education program leaders and teachers must continuously evolve in the way they make use of digital technologies in their programming. This can be a dizzying challenge as practitioners and program leaders may feel they have insufficient experience and confidence to make choices about what technology to use, when to use it, and for what purpose. Quality technical…