That's a good point, Kathy. Our first evaluation indicated that teachers wanted more "ready to use" information and materials. We responded to a certain degree by creating the occasional column "Focus on Teaching", by incorporating more boxes with teaching ideas into articles, and by encouraging authors to include sections on implications for teachers. At the same time, our focus is connecting research and practice, so we don't want to become a "lesson plan for tomorrow" resource. It's a careful balance, although you're right, we could certainly work more on connecting the research to the classroom.

 Barb Garner
Editor, FOB

  From: K Olson <kolson2 at columbus.rr.com>
Date: Thu Apr 13 11:12:56 CDT 2006
To: b.garner4 at verizon.net, 
	'The Focus on Basics Discussion List' <focusonbasics at nifl.gov>
Subject: [FocusOnBasics 232]  Who uses FOB?

I find that one of the differences between program administrators and adult
education teachers is that administrators look at the research and, when
they come across a good theory or implication for instruction, they pass it
along to their teachers. Unfortunately, teachers, on the other hand, are
often part time, many with other full time jobs. They do not have enough
time to stay up to date on all the research in the field, so FOB in my
estimation probably serves more administrators than teachers. 
What do I see that teachers want? They want material and lessons they can
use the next day in their classrooms as they do not have time to create such
materials. So, if FOB (and this is only my opinion) wants to reach both
teachers and administrators, I feel the articles exposing current research
in adult education should also have reproducible materials that can be
immediately used in the classroom that support this research. Perhaps in
this manner teachers will then be inspired to continue to create other
materials once they have had an opportunity to see how the particular piece
of research impacts learning in their classroom. 

Kathy Olson
Training Specialist




----------------------------------------------------
National Institute for Literacy
Focus on Basics mailing list
FocusOnBasics at nifl.gov
To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/focusonbasics