Hello everybody, 

 

sorry for not writing fluently in English. I am a German researcher and
lurking here since the beginning of the year. I learn a lot from your
round-the-world-discussion and I really appreciate your work and exchange of
tools. I do not know the “netiquette” here and if I ask too much questions
or make anyone feel uncomfortable, please take it as a “beginners’ mistake”,
thank you!

 

Well, in your latest mails I thought “this really describes what we face
here” – lots of classes, but no clear ways of assessment. As we speak
German, we cannot use the ETS PDQ – does anything alike exist in other
languages? Are there other nations on this list who face the same problem?
Do you use standardised tests to check literacy gains?

 

Anyway, we face very much the same problem in GER as well, like Alison said
for NZ. You can attend a literacy class, learn nothing (if you feel bored)
and in case you get a job later, this would count as “success” of the
literacy training. The most important figure for literacy legitimation is
employment. But nobody checks whether your employment has anything to do
with literacy. You can be a dishwasher – it would count as success.

 

Of course everyday practice is different and adults do learn a lot in the
classes and they like the atmosphere (mostly offered by “Volkshochschule” –
kind of public institution for adult education). But if authorities question
the efficiency of these classes and talk about shortening the funding, there
is little in our hands to prove that these classes are successful.

 

Adult learners here fear the testing situation, that’s why we have little
experience with adult assessment (neither summative nor formative). How do
you meet the fears of the learners against tests? Don’t they have any? What
if you use ETS PDQ, don’t people refuse to participate? Do you hand the
results to the participants or do you (as teachers, institution,
researchers) keep them for reporting? 

 

Tons of questions, sorry for that -

 

Yours, 

Anke Grotlüschen 

 

 

 

 

Prof. Dr. Anke Grotlüschen

Juniorprofessur für Lebenslanges Lernen

grotlueschen at uni-bremen.de

Universität Bremen

Fachbereich Erziehungs- und Bildungswissenschaften

Bibliothekstraße, GW2 Raum A 2100

28359 Bremen

www.ifeb.uni-bremen.de

 

Tel. 0421-218-3083 oder 0421-8383 519

Mobil: 0176-2384 7995

 

 

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