VISIONS for Greater Employment Opportunities. Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical Coll., Orangeburg, SC.

The VISIONS project, a workplace literacy program held in two manufacturing plants and a regional medical center, was conducted during an 18-month period from July 1, 1993 to December 31, 1994. During the project, staff were hired and trained, task analyses and orientation sessions were held, and tests and curricula were developed. Employees were…

Development and evaluation of a specialized task taxonomy for spatial planning - A map literacy experiment with topographic maps

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rautenbach, Victoria; Coetzee, Serena; Çöltekin, Arzu

2017-05-01

Topographic maps are among the most commonly used map types, however, their complex and information-rich designs depicting natural, human-made and cultural features make them difficult to read. Regardless of their complexity, spatial planners make extensive use of topographic maps in their work. On the other hand, various studies suggest that map literacy among the development planning professionals in South Africa is not very high. The widespread use of topographic maps combined with the low levels of map literacy presents challenges for effective development planning. In this paper we address some of these challenges by developing a specialized task taxonomy based on systematically assessed map literacy levels; and conducting an empirical experiment with topographic maps to evaluate our task taxonomy. In such empirical studies if non-realistic tasks are used, the results of map literacy tests may be skewed. Furthermore, experience and familiarity with the studied map type play a role in map literacy. There is thus a need to develop map literacy tests aimed at planners specifically. We developed a taxonomy of realistic map reading tasks typically executed during the planning process. The taxonomy defines six levels tasks of increasing difficulty and complexity, ranging from recognising symbols to extracting knowledge. We hypothesized that competence in the first four levels indicates functional map literacy. In this paper, we present results from an empirical experiment with 49 map literate participants solving a subset of tasks from the first four levels of the taxonomy with a topographic map. Our findings suggest that the proposed taxonomy is a good reference for evaluating topographic map literacy. Participants solved the tasks on all four levels as expected and we therefore conclude that the experiment based on the first four levels of the taxonomy successfully determined the functional map literacy of the participants. We plan to continue the study for the remaining levels, repeat the experiments with a group of map illiterate participants to confirm that the taxonomy can also be used to determine map illiteracy.

Training Manual Development Program: Dominion Bridge. Final Report. Organizational Needs Assessment of Workplace Literacy Skills & Development of Training Manuals for the Paint Department.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McKeag, Janis

To address specific workplace literacy needs within the steel fabrication sector in Manitoba, an organizational needs assessment was conducted training manuals were developed using literacy task analysis techniques. The organizational needs assessment assessed the general and workplace literacy tasks and demands of hourly workers at Dominion…

Pacific CRYSTAL Project: Explicit Literacy Instruction Embedded in Middle School Science Classrooms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Anthony, Robert J.; Tippett, Christine D.; Yore, Larry D.

2010-01-01

Science literacy leading to fuller and informed participation in the public debate about science, technology, society, and environmental (STSE) issues that produce justified decisions and sustainable actions is the shared and central goal of the Pacific CRYSTAL Project. There is broad agreement by science education researchers that learners need to be able to construct and interpret specific scientific discourses and texts to be literate in science. We view these capabilities as components in the fundamental sense of science literacy and as interactive and synergetic to the derived sense of science literacy, which refers to having general knowledge about concepts, principles, and methods of science. This article reports on preliminary findings from Years 1, 2, and 3 of the 5-year Pacific CRYSTAL project that aims to identify, develop, and embed explicit literacy instruction in science programs to achieve both senses of science literacy. A community-based, opportunistic, engineering research and development approach has been utilized to identify problems and concerns and to design instructional solutions for teaching middle school (Grades 6, 7, and 8) science. Initial data indicate (a) opportunities in programs for embedding literacy instruction and tasks; (b) difficulties generalist teachers have with new science curricula; (c) difficulties specialist science teachers have with literacy activities, strategies, genre, and writing-to-learn science tasks; and (d) potential literacy activities (vocabulary, reading comprehension, visual literacy, genre, and writing tasks) for middle school science. Preinstruction student assessments indicate a range of challenges in achieving effective learning in science and the need for extensive teacher support to achieve the project’s goals. Postinstructional assessments indicate positive changes in students’ ability to perform target reading and writing tasks. Qualitative data indicate teachers’ desire for external direction and the need for researchers to expand the literacy framework to include oral discourse. A case study of teachers’ use of a specific literacy task and its influence on students revealed indications of robustness and effectiveness. Experiences revealed procedural difficulties and insights regarding community-based research and development approaches.

The Case for Authentic Tasks in Content Literacy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parsons, Seth A.; Ward, Allison E.

2011-01-01

Motivation, academic vocabulary, and the role of teachers have been themes of previous Content Literacy columns. In this installment, we suggest that the tasks, or assignments, students complete are an important aspect of content literacy because they influence students' understandings of content and reading. Additionally, we demonstrate how…

Investigating Predictors of Spelling Ability for Adults with Low Literacy Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Talwar, Amani; Cote, Nicole Gilbert; Binder, Katherine

2014-01-01

This study examined whether the spelling abilities of adults with low literacy skills could be predicted by their phonological, orthographic, and morphological awareness. Sixty Adult Basic Education (ABE) students completed several literacy tasks. It was predicted that scores on phonological and orthographic tasks would explain variance in…

Cross-lagged relations between teacher and parent ratings of children's task avoidance and different literacy skills.

PubMed

Georgiou, George K; Hirvonen, Riikka; Manolitsis, George; Nurmi, Jari-Erik

2017-09-01

Task avoidance is a significant predictor of literacy skills. However, it remains unclear whether the relation between the two is reciprocal and whether it is affected by the type of literacy outcome, who is rating children's task avoidance, and the children's gender. The purpose of this longitudinal study was to examine the cross-lagged relations between teacher and parent ratings of children's task avoidance and different literacy skills. One hundred and seventy-two Greek children (91 girls, 81 boys) were followed from Grade 1 to Grade 3. Children were assessed on reading accuracy, reading fluency, and spelling to dictation. Parents and teachers rated the children's task-avoidant behaviour. Results of structural equation modelling showed that the cross-lagged relations varied as a function of the literacy outcome, who rated the children's task avoidance, and children's gender. Earlier reading and spelling performance predicted subsequent parent-rated task avoidance, but parent-rated task avoidance did not predict subsequent reading and spelling performance (with the exception of spelling in Grade 3). Teacher-rated task avoidance and reading fluency/spelling had a reciprocal relationship over time. In addition, the effects of teacher-rated task avoidance on future spelling were significantly stronger in boys than in girls. This suggests that poor reading and spelling performance can lead to subsequent task avoidance in both classroom and home situations. The fact that task avoidance permeates across different learning environments is alarming and calls for joint action from both parents and teachers to mitigate its negative impact on learning. © 2017 The British Psychological Society.

Reading the Legal World: Literacy and Justice in Canada. Report of the Canadian Bar Association Task Force on Legal Literacy = Lire les lois: Justice et alphabetisation au Canada. Rapport du Groupe de travail de l'Association du Barreau canadien sur l'alphabetisation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Canadian Bar Association, Ottawa (Ontario).

A Canadian Bar Association Task Force on Legal Literacy explored the relationship between literacy and access to the legal system. A literature review revealed that little attention had been directed to literacy and use of the legal system. Three important findings emerged from 24 focus groups of current and former adult learners: virtually all…

Authentic Reading, Writing, and Discussion: An Exploratory Study of a Pen Pal Project

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gambrell, Linda B.; Hughes, Elizabeth M.; Calvert, Leah; Malloy, Jacquelynn A.; Igo, Brent

2011-01-01

In this exploratory study, reading, writing, and discussion were examined within the context of a pen pal intervention focusing on authentic literacy tasks. The study employed a mixed-method design with a triangulation-convergence model to explore the relationship between authentic literacy tasks and the literacy motivation of elementary students…

The Challenge of Evaluating Students' Scientific Literacy in a Writing-to-Learn Context

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tomas, Louisa; Ritchie, Stephen M.

2015-02-01

This paper reports on the challenge of evaluating students' scientific literacy in a writing-to-learn context, as illustrated by our experience with an online science-writing project. In this mixed methods study, year 9 students in a case study class (13-14 year olds, n = 26) authored a series of two `hybridised' short stories that merged scientific and narratives genres about the socioscientific issue of biosecurity. In seeking to measure the efficacy of the intervention, we sought evidence of students' conceptual understanding communicated through their stories. Finding a suitable instrument presented our first challenge. This led to the development of scoring matrices to evaluate students' derived sense of scientific literacy. Student interviews were also conducted to explore their understanding of concepts related to the biosecurity context. While the results of these analyses showed significant improvements in students' understanding arising from their participation in the writing tasks, the interviews highlighted a second challenge in evaluating students' scientific literacy: a disparity between their written and vocalised understandings. The majority of students expressed a deeper level of conceptual understanding during the interviews than they did in their stories. The interviews also revealed alternative conceptions and instances of superficial understanding that were not expressed in their writing. Aside from the methodological challenge of analysing stories quantitatively, these findings suggest that in a writing-to-learn context, evaluating students' scientific literacy can be difficult. An examination of these artefacts in combination with interviews about students' written work provided a more comprehensive evaluation of their developing scientific literacy. The implications of this study for our understanding of the derived sense of scientific literacy, as well as implications for classroom practice, are discussed.

'Distributed health literacy': longitudinal qualitative analysis of the roles of health literacy mediators and social networks of people living with a long-term health condition.

PubMed

Edwards, Michelle; Wood, Fiona; Davies, Myfanwy; Edwards, Adrian

2015-10-01

The role of one's social network in the process of becoming health literate is not well understood. We aim to explain the 'distributed' nature of health literacy and how people living with a long-term condition draw on their social network for support with health literacy-related tasks such as managing their condition, interacting with health professionals and making decisions about their health. This paper reports a longitudinal qualitative interview and observation study of the development and practice of health literacy in people with long-term health conditions, living in South Wales, UK. Participants were recruited from health education groups (n = 14) and community education venues (n = 4). The 44 interview transcripts were analysed using the 'Framework' approach. Health literacy was distributed through family and social networks, and participants often drew on the health literacy skills of others to seek, understand and use health information. Those who passed on their health literacy skills acted as health literacy mediators and supported participants in becoming more health literate about their condition. The distribution of health literacy supported participants to manage their health, become more active in health-care decision-making processes, communicate with health professionals and come to terms with living with a long-term condition. Participants accessed health literacy mediators through personal and community networks. Distributed health literacy is a potential resource for managing one's health, communicating with health professionals and making health decisions. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Reading in dyslexia across literacy development: A longitudinal study of effective connectivity.

PubMed

Morken, Frøydis; Helland, Turid; Hugdahl, Kenneth; Specht, Karsten

2017-01-01

Dyslexia is a literacy disorder affecting the efficient acquisition of reading and writing skills. The disorder is neurobiological in origin. Due to its developmental nature, longitudinal studies of dyslexia are of essence. They are, however, relatively scarce. The present study took a longitudinal approach to cortical connectivity of brain imaging data in reading tasks in children with dyslexia and children with typical reading development. The participants were followed with repeated measurements through Pre-literacy (6 years old), Emergent Literacy (8 years old) and Literacy (12 years old) stages, using Dynamic Causal Modelling (DCM) when analysing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data. Even though there are a few longitudinal studies on effective connectivity in typical reading, to our knowledge, no studies have previously investigated these issues in relation to dyslexia. We set up a model of a brain reading network involving five cortical regions (inferior frontal gyrus, precentral gyrus, superior temporal gyrus, inferior parietal lobule, and occipito-temporal cortex). Using DCM, connectivity measures were calculated for each connection in the model. These measures were further analysed using factorial ANOVA. The results showed that the difference between groups centred on connections going to and from the inferior frontal gyrus (two connections) and the occipito-temporal cortex (three connections). For all five connections, the typical group showed stable or decreasing connectivity measures. The dyslexia group, on the other hand, showed a marked up-regulation (occipito-temporal connections) or down-regulation (inferior frontal gyrus connections) from 6 years to 8 years, followed by normalization from 8 years to 12 years. We interpret this as a delay in the dyslexia group in developing into the Pre-literacy and Emergent literacy stages. This delay could possibly be detrimental to literacy development. By age 12, there was no statistically significant difference in connectivity between the groups, but differences in literacy skills were still present, and were in fact larger than when measured at younger ages. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Health literacy and task environment influence parents' burden for data entry on child-specific health information: randomized controlled trial.

PubMed

Porter, Stephen C; Guo, Chao-Yu; Bacic, Janine; Chan, Eugenia

2011-01-26

Health care systems increasingly rely on patients' data entry efforts to organize and assist in care delivery through health information exchange. We sought to determine (1) the variation in burden imposed on parents by data entry efforts across paper-based and computer-based environments, and (2) the impact, if any, of parents' health literacy on the task burden. We completed a randomized controlled trial of parent-completed data entry tasks. Parents of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) were randomized based on the Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (TOFHLA) to either a paper-based or computer-based environment for entry of health information on their children. The primary outcome was the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Task Load Index (TLX) total weighted score. We screened 271 parents: 194 (71.6%) were eligible, and 180 of these (92.8%) constituted the study cohort. We analyzed 90 participants from each arm. Parents who completed information tasks on paper reported a higher task burden than those who worked in the computer environment: mean (SD) TLX scores were 22.8 (20.6) for paper and 16.3 (16.1) for computer. Assignment to the paper environment conferred a significant risk of higher task burden (F(1,178) = 4.05, P = .046). Adequate literacy was associated with lower task burden (decrease in burden score of 1.15 SD, P = .003). After adjusting for relevant child and parent factors, parents' TOFHLA score (beta = -.02, P = .02) and task environment (beta = .31, P = .03) remained significantly associated with task burden. A tailored computer-based environment provided an improved task experience for data entry compared to the same tasks completed on paper. Health literacy was inversely related to task burden.

Task Values and Ability Beliefs as Predictors of High School Literacy Choices: A Developmental Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Durik, Amanda M.; Vida, Mina; Eccles, Jacquelynne S.

2005-01-01

This study examines how competence beliefs and task values predict high school achievement choices related to literacy. Students' task beliefs (self-concept of ability, intrinsic value, and importance) about reading in the 4th grade and English in the 10th grade were tracked over time. Task beliefs, school performance, and gender were used to…

Omics Metadata Management Software v. 1 (OMMS)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Our application, the Omics Metadata Management Software (OMMS), answers both needs, empowering experimentalists to generate intuitive, consistent metadata, and to perform bioinformatics analyses and information management tasks via a simple and intuitive web-based interface. Several use cases with short-read sequence datasets are provided to showcase the full functionality of the OMMS, from metadata curation tasks, to bioinformatics analyses and results management and downloading. The OMMS can be implemented as a stand alone-package for individual laboratories, or can be configured for web-based deployment supporting geographically dispersed research teams. Our software was developed with open-source bundles, is flexible, extensible and easily installedmore » and run by operators with general system administration and scripting language literacy.« less

Effects of Home Literacy, Parents' Beliefs, and Children's Task-Focused Behavior on Emergent Literacy and Word Reading Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stephenson, Kathy A.; Parrila, Rauno K.; Georgiou, George K.; Kirby, John R.

2008-01-01

We examined the effects of home literacy (shared book reading, teaching activities, and number of books), children's task-focused behavior, and parents' beliefs and expectations about their child's reading and academic ability on kindergarten children's (N = 61) phonological sensitivity and letter knowledge and on Grade 1 word reading. The results…

Comparing cognitive performance in illiterate and literate children

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Matute, Esmeralda; Montiel, Teresita; Pinto, Noemí; Rosselli, Monica; Ardila, Alfredo; Zarabozo, Daniel

2012-02-01

While it is known that the process of becoming literate begins in early childhood and usually involves several years of schooling, research related to cognitive characteristics has been done mostly on illiterate adults, and information concerning illiterate children is therefore limited. The aim of the present study, involving 21 illiterate and 22 literate Mexican children aged 6 to 13, was to investigate the effects of literacy on neuropsychological characteristics during childhood. The children's performance on 16 cognitive domains of the Evaluación Neuropsicológica Infantil (ENI, Child Neuropsychological Assessment) was examined in three mixed within- and between-groups profile analyses. The results suggest that the effect of literacy observed in adults is already evident in children in almost every task analysed. Moreover, the fact that an age effect was detected for the calculation abilities suggests that maths learning is school- and environment-dependent.

Lessons in Financial Literacy Task Design: Authentic, Imaginable, Useful

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sawatzki, Carly

2017-01-01

As part of ongoing design-based research exploring financial literacy teaching and learning, 10 tasks termed "financial dilemmas" were trialled by 14 teachers and more than 300 year 5 and 6 students in four government primary schools in urban Darwin. Drawing on data related to three tasks--"Catching the bus," "Laser…

Health Literacy and Task Environment Influence Parents' Burden for Data Entry on Child-Specific Health Information: Randomized Controlled Trial

PubMed Central

Guo, Chao-Yu; Bacic, Janine; Chan, Eugenia

2011-01-01

Background Health care systems increasingly rely on patients’ data entry efforts to organize and assist in care delivery through health information exchange. Objectives We sought to determine (1) the variation in burden imposed on parents by data entry efforts across paper-based and computer-based environments, and (2) the impact, if any, of parents’ health literacy on the task burden. Methods We completed a randomized controlled trial of parent-completed data entry tasks. Parents of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) were randomized based on the Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (TOFHLA) to either a paper-based or computer-based environment for entry of health information on their children. The primary outcome was the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Task Load Index (TLX) total weighted score. Results We screened 271 parents: 194 (71.6%) were eligible, and 180 of these (92.8%) constituted the study cohort. We analyzed 90 participants from each arm. Parents who completed information tasks on paper reported a higher task burden than those who worked in the computer environment: mean (SD) TLX scores were 22.8 (20.6) for paper and 16.3 (16.1) for computer. Assignment to the paper environment conferred a significant risk of higher task burden (F1,178 = 4.05, P = .046). Adequate literacy was associated with lower task burden (decrease in burden score of 1.15 SD, P = .003). After adjusting for relevant child and parent factors, parents’ TOFHLA score (beta = -.02, P = .02) and task environment (beta = .31, P = .03) remained significantly associated with task burden. Conclusions A tailored computer-based environment provided an improved task experience for data entry compared to the same tasks completed on paper. Health literacy was inversely related to task burden. Trial registration Clinicaltrials.gov NCT00543257; http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00543257 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/5vUVH2DYR) PMID:21269990

Insights from a Financial Literacy Task Designer: The Curious Case of Problem Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sawatzki, Carly

2016-01-01

As part of ongoing design-based research exploring financial literacy teaching and learning, ten tasks termed "financial dilemmas" were trialled by 14 teachers and more than 300 Year 5 and 6 students in 4 government primary schools in urban Darwin. Drawing on data related to two tasks--"Catching the bus" and "Buying…

English as a Foreign Language in Bilingual Language-minority Children, Children with Dyslexia and Monolingual Typical Readers.

PubMed

Bonifacci, Paola; Canducci, Elisa; Gravagna, Giulia; Palladino, Paola

2017-05-01

The present study was aimed at investigating literacy skills in English as a foreign language in three different groups of children: monolinguals with dyslexia (n = 19), typically developing bilinguals (language-minority) (n = 19) and a control group of monolinguals (Italian) (n = 76). Bilinguals were not expected to fail in English measures, and their gap with monolinguals would be expected to be limited to the instructional language, owing to underexposure. All participants were enrolled in Italian primary schools (fourth and fifth grades). A non-verbal reasoning task and Italian and English literacy tasks were administered. The Italian battery included word and non-word reading (speed and accuracy), word and non-word writing, and reading comprehension; the English battery included similar tasks, except for the non-word writing. Bilingual children performed similarly to typical readers in English tasks, whereas in Italian tasks, their performance was similar to that of typical readers in reading speed but not in reading accuracy and writing. Children with dyslexia underperformed compared with typically developing children in all English and Italian tasks, except for reading comprehension in Italian. Profile analysis and correlational analyses were further discussed. These results suggest that English as a foreign language might represent a challenge for students with dyslexia but a strength for bilingual language-minority children. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Considering Community Literacies in the Secondary Classroom: A Collaborative Teacher and Researcher Study Group

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carbone, Paula M.; Reynolds, Rema E.

2013-01-01

A year long study group brought teachers and researchers working in urban contexts in US public schools together to examine literacy practices incorporating students' community literacies into schooled tasks. The goal was to provide teacher development in making connections across their students' community literacies and the academic literacy they…

Perceived and Performed eHealth Literacy: Survey and Simulated Performance Test

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

Background Electronic health (eHealth) literacy of consumers is essential in order to improve information and communication technology (ICT) use for health purposes by ordinary citizens. However, performed eHealth literacy is seldom studied. Therefore, the present study assessed perceived and performed eHealth literacy using the recent conceptualization of health literacy skills. Objective The aim of this paper was to examine the association between perceived and performed eHealth literacies. Methods In total, 82 Israeli adults participated in the study, all 50 years and older, with a mean age of 67 (SD 11). Of the participants, 60% (49/82) were women and 72% (59/82) had a post-secondary education. The participants were first surveyed and then tested in a computer simulation of health-related Internet tasks. Performed, perceived (eHealth Literacy Scale, eHEALS), and evaluated eHealth literacy were assessed, and performed eHealth literacy was also recorded and re-evaluated later. Performance was scored for successful completion of tasks, and was also assessed by two researchers for motivation, confidence, and amount of help provided. Results The skills of accessing, understanding, appraising, applying, and generating new information had decreasing successful completion rates. Generating new information was least correlated with other skills. Perceived and performed eHealth literacies were moderately correlated (r=.34, P=.01) while facets of performance (ie, digital literacy and eHealth literacy) were highly correlated (r=.82, P<.001). Participants low and high in performed eHealth literacy were significantly different: low performers were older and had used the Internet for less time, required more assistance, and were less confident in their conduct than high performers. Conclusions The moderate association between perceived and performed eHealth literacy indicates that the latter should be assessed separately. In as much, the assessment of performed eHealth literacy in clinical settings should entail the structuring of tasks as well as shortening and automatizing the assessment. PMID:28096068

Perceived and Performed eHealth Literacy: Survey and Simulated Performance Test.

PubMed

Neter, Efrat; Brainin, Esther

2017-01-17

Electronic health (eHealth) literacy of consumers is essential in order to improve information and communication technology (ICT) use for health purposes by ordinary citizens. However, performed eHealth literacy is seldom studied. Therefore, the present study assessed perceived and performed eHealth literacy using the recent conceptualization of health literacy skills. The aim of this paper was to examine the association between perceived and performed eHealth literacies. In total, 82 Israeli adults participated in the study, all 50 years and older, with a mean age of 67 (SD 11). Of the participants, 60% (49/82) were women and 72% (59/82) had a post-secondary education. The participants were first surveyed and then tested in a computer simulation of health-related Internet tasks. Performed, perceived (eHealth Literacy Scale, eHEALS), and evaluated eHealth literacy were assessed, and performed eHealth literacy was also recorded and re-evaluated later. Performance was scored for successful completion of tasks, and was also assessed by two researchers for motivation, confidence, and amount of help provided. The skills of accessing, understanding, appraising, applying, and generating new information had decreasing successful completion rates. Generating new information was least correlated with other skills. Perceived and performed eHealth literacies were moderately correlated (r=.34, P=.01) while facets of performance (ie, digital literacy and eHealth literacy) were highly correlated (r=.82, P<.001). Participants low and high in performed eHealth literacy were significantly different: low performers were older and had used the Internet for less time, required more assistance, and were less confident in their conduct than high performers. The moderate association between perceived and performed eHealth literacy indicates that the latter should be assessed separately. In as much, the assessment of performed eHealth literacy in clinical settings should entail the structuring of tasks as well as shortening and automatizing the assessment. ©Efrat Neter, Esther Brainin. Originally published in JMIR Human Factors (http://humanfactors.jmir.org), 17.01.2017.

Development of functional oral health literacy assessment instruments: application of literacy and cognitive theories.

PubMed

Bridges, Susan M; Parthasarathy, Divya S; Au, Terry K F; Wong, Hai Ming; Yiu, Cynthia K Y; McGrath, Colman P

2014-01-01

This paper describes the development of a new literacy assessment instrument, the Hong Kong Oral Health Literacy Assessment Task for Paediatric Dentistry (HKOHLAT-P). Its relationship to literacy theory is analyzed to establish content and face validity. Implications for construct validity are examined by analyzing cognitive demand to determine how "comprehension" is measured. Key influences from literacy assessment were identified to analyze item development. Cognitive demand was analyzed using an established taxonomy. The HKOHLAT-P focuses on the functional domain of health literacy assessment. Items had strong content and face validity reflecting established principles from modern literacy theory. Inclusion of new text types signified relevant developments in the area of new literacies. Analysis of cognitive demand indicated that this instrument assesses the "comprehension" domain, specifically the areas of factual and procedural knowledge, with some assessment of conceptual knowledge. Metacognitive knowledge was not assessed. Comprehension tasks assessing patient health literacy predominantly examine functional health literacy at the lower levels of comprehension. Item development is influenced by the fields of situated and authentic literacy. Inclusion of content regarding multiliteracies is suggested for further research. Development of functional health literacy assessment instruments requires careful consideration of the clinical context in determining construct validity. © 2013 American Association of Public Health Dentistry.

Development and evaluation of the Korean Health Literacy Instrument.

PubMed

Kang, Soo Jin; Lee, Tae Wha; Paasche-Orlow, Michael K; Kim, Gwang Suk; Won, Hee Kwan

2014-01-01

The purpose of this study is to develop and validate the Korean Health Literacy Instrument, which measures the capacity to understand and use health-related information and make informed health decisions in Korean adults. In Phase 1, 33 initial items were generated to measure functional, interactive, and critical health literacy with prose, document, and numeracy tasks. These items included content from health promotion, disease management, and health navigation contexts. Content validity assessment was conducted by an expert panel, and 11 items were excluded. In Phase 2, the 22 remaining items were administered to a convenience sample of 292 adults from community and clinical settings. Exploratory factor and item difficulty and discrimination analyses were conducted and four items with low discrimination were deleted. In Phase 3, the remaining 18 items were administered to a convenience sample of 315 adults 40-64 years of age from community and clinical settings. A confirmatory factor analysis was performed to test the construct validity of the instrument. The Korean Health Literacy Instrument has a range of 0 to 18. The mean score in our validation study was 11.98. The instrument exhibited an internal consistency reliability coefficient of 0.82, and a test-retest reliability of 0.89. The instrument is suitable for screening individuals who have limited health literacy skills. Future studies are needed to further define the psychometric properties and predictive validity of the Korean Health Literacy Instrument.

Mathematical literacy in undergraduates: role of gender, emotional intelligence and emotional self-efficacy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tariq, Vicki N.; Qualter, Pamela; Roberts, Sian; Appleby, Yvon; Barnes, Lynne

2013-12-01

This empirical study explores the roles that Emotional Intelligence (EI) and Emotional Self-Efficacy (ESE) play in undergraduates' mathematical literacy, and the influence of EI and ESE on students' attitudes towards and beliefs about mathematics. A convenience sample of 93 female and 82 male first-year undergraduates completed a test of mathematical literacy, followed by an online survey designed to measure the students' EI, ESE and factors associated with mathematical literacy. Analysis of the data revealed significant gender differences. Males attained a higher mean test score than females and out-performed the females on most of the individual questions and the associated mathematical tasks. Overall, males expressed greater confidence in their mathematical skills, although both males' and females' confidence outweighed their actual mathematical proficiency. Correlation analyses revealed that males and females attaining higher mathematical literacy test scores were more confident and persistent, exhibited lower levels of mathematics anxiety and possessed higher mathematics qualifications. Correlation analyses also revealed that in male students, aspects of ESE were associated with beliefs concerning the learning of mathematics (i.e. that intelligence is malleable and that persistence can facilitate success), but not with confidence or actual performance. Both EI and ESE play a greater role with regard to test performance and attitudes/beliefs regarding mathematics amongst female undergraduates; higher EI and ESE scores were associated with higher test scores, while females exhibiting higher levels of ESE were also more confident and less anxious about mathematics, believed intelligence to be malleable, were more persistent and were learning goal oriented. Moderated regression analyses confirmed mathematics anxiety as a negative predictor of test performance in males and females, but also revealed that in females EI and ESE moderate the effects of anxiety on test performance, with the relationship between anxiety and test performance linked more to emotional management (EI) than to ESE.

Defining and Measuring Literacy: Facing the Reality

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ahmed, Manzoor

2011-01-01

Increasing recognition of a broadened concept of literacy challenges policy-makers and practitioners to re-define literacy operationally, develop and apply appropriate methods of assessing literacy and consider and act upon the consequent policy implications. This task is given a new urgency by the call of the Belem Framework for Action to…

U.S.A./Mexico Adult Literacy Project: Educacion sin Fronteras/Education without Borders. Final Report, January 1, 1993 - September 30, 1993.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hacienda La Puente Unified School District, City of Industry, CA.

A cooperative literacy education program involving Mexico and the United States' border states is documented. The project has three objectives: to (1) implement the Mexican literacy agency's approach to promoting literacy among native Spanish speakers; (2) coordinate U.S./Mexico literacy task force activities; and (3) develop an immigrants' rights…

Implementation literacy strategies on health technology theme Learning to enhance Indonesian Junior High School Student's Physics Literacy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Feranie, Selly; Efendi, Ridwan; Karim, Saeful; Sasmita, Dedi

2016-08-01

The PISA results for Indonesian Students are lowest among Asian countries in the past two successive results. Therefore various Innovations in science learning process and its effectiveness enhancing student's science literacy is needed to enrich middle school science teachers. Literacy strategies have been implemented on health technologies theme learning to enhance Indonesian Junior high school Student's Physics literacy in three different health technologies e.g. Lasik surgery that associated with application of Light and Optics concepts, Ultra Sonographer (USG) associated with application of Sound wave concepts and Work out with stationary bike and walking associated with application of motion concepts. Science learning process involves at least teacher instruction, student learning and a science curriculum. We design two main part of literacy strategies in each theme based learning. First part is Integrated Reading Writing Task (IRWT) is given to the students before learning process, the second part is scientific investigation learning process design packed in Problem Based Learning. The first part is to enhance student's science knowledge and reading comprehension and the second part is to enhance student's science competencies. We design a transformation from complexity of physics language to Middle school physics language and from an expensive and complex science investigation to a local material and simply hands on activities. In this paper, we provide briefly how literacy strategies proposed by previous works is redesigned and applied in classroom science learning. Data were analysed using t- test. The increasing value of mean scores in each learning design (with a significance level of p = 0.01) shows that the implementation of this literacy strategy revealed a significant increase in students’ physics literacy achievement. Addition analysis of Avarage normalized gain show that each learning design is in medium-g courses effectiveness category according to Hake's classification.

The Effects of Synchronous Text-Based Computer-Mediated Communication Tasks on the Development of L2 and Academic Literacy: A Mixed Methods Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Li, Jinrong

2012-01-01

The dissertation examines how synchronous text-based computer-mediated communication (SCMC) tasks may affect English as a Second Language (ESL) learners' development of second language (L2) and academic literacy. The study is motivated by two issues concerning the use of SCMC tasks in L2 writing classes. First, although some of the alleged…

Assessing Teacher Beliefs about Early Literacy Curriculum Implementation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McKenney, Susan; Bradley, Barbara

2016-01-01

Against the backdrop of growing international concern for a narrowing view of early literacy, this study was initiated to determine how teachers of four-year-olds view their task of fostering early literacy. This paper reports on the first steps to design and validate an instrument which captures teachers' perceptions of early literacy content…

Workplace Literacy Programs: A Review of the Literature.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dunn-Rankin, Patricia; Beil, Drake

This literature review observes that (1) there is an increasing need for enhancing job literacy skills among workers; (2) workplace literacy programs cover both basic literacy and job-related technical training; (3) successful curricula use job-related tasks and materials; and (4) management needs to be heavily involved and committed if a program…

Literacy Skills in Children With Cochlear Implants: The Importance of Early Oral Language and Joint Storybook Reading

PubMed Central

Ambrose, Sophie E.; Eisenberg, Laurie S.

2009-01-01

The goal of this study was to longitudinally examine relationships between early factors (child and mother) that may influence children's phonological awareness and reading skills 3 years later in a group of young children with cochlear implants (N = 16). Mothers and children were videotaped during two storybook interactions, and children's oral language skills were assessed using the “Reynell Developmental Language Scales, third edition.” Three years later, phonological awareness, reading skills, and language skills were assessed using the “Phonological Awareness Test,” the “Woodcock–Johnson-III Diagnostic Reading Battery,” and the “Oral Written Language Scales.” Variables included in the data analyses were child (age, age at implant, and language skills) and mother factors (facilitative language techniques) and children's phonological awareness and reading standard scores. Results indicate that children's early expressive oral language skills and mothers’ use of a higher level facilitative language technique (open-ended question) during storybook reading, although related, each contributed uniquely to children's literacy skills. Individual analyses revealed that the children with expressive standard scores below 70 at Time 1 also performed below average (<85) on phonological awareness and total reading tasks 3 years later. Guidelines for professionals are provided to support literacy skills in young children with cochlear implants. PMID:18417463

Designing PISA-Like Mathematics Tasks In Indonesia: Experiences and Challenges

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zulkardi, Z.; Kohar, A. W.

2018-01-01

The insignificant improvement of Indonesian students in PISA mathematics survey triggered researchers in Indonesia to develop PISA-like mathematics tasks. Some development studies have been conducted to produce valid and practical PISA-like problems that potentially effect on improving students’ mathematical literacy. This article describes the experiences of Indonesian task designers in developing PISA-like mathematics tasks as well as the potential future studies regarding to mathematical literacy as challenges for policy makers, researchers, and practitioners to improve students’ mathematical literacy in Indonesia. The results of this research indicate the task designers to consider domains of PISA like: context, mathematical content, and process as the first profiles of their missions. Our analysis shows that the designers mostly experienced difficulties regarding to the authenticity of context use and language structure. Interestingly, many of them used a variety of local wisdom in Indonesia as contexts for designing PISA-like tasks. In addition, the products developed were reported to be potentially effects on students’ interest and elicit students’ mathematical competencies as mentioned in PISA framework. Finally, this paper discusses future studies such as issues in bringing PISA task into an instructional practice.

The Nature and Impact of Task Definition: Information Problem Categorization during Task Definition within the Information Problem-Solving Process

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marino, John L., Jr.

2017-01-01

Information literacy describes expertise in information problem-solving. This expertise includes facility in several endeavors addressed by the information behavior literature, including information needs, seeking, and use. Definitions and descriptions of information literacy suggest that this expertise is broadly applicable to a variety of…

Examining the Developmental Dynamics between Achievement Strategies and Different Literacy Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Georgiou, George K.; Manolitsis, George; Zhang, Xiao; Parrila, Rauno; Nurmi, Jari-Erik

2013-01-01

We examined the developmental dynamics between task-avoidant behavior and different literacy outcomes, and possible precursors of task-avoidant behavior. Seventy Greek children were followed from Grade 4 until Grade 6 and were assessed every year on reading fluency, spelling, and reading comprehension. The teachers assessed the children's…

Valuing the Implementation of Financial Literacy Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davis, Kimberlee; Durband, Dorothy Bagwell

2008-01-01

Placing a monetary value on education is a complex task. A more difficult task is to determine at what monetary level individuals will support educational improvements. The contingent valuation method was used to estimate the value of the implementation of financial literacy education in Texas public schools. A Web-based survey was administered to…

Task Persistence Mediates the Effect of Children's Literacy Skills on Mothers' Academic Help

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kikas, Eve; Silinskas, Gintautas

2016-01-01

This longitudinal study aimed at examining the relationship between children's task persistence, mothers' academic help, and the development of children's literacy skills (reading and spelling) at the beginning of primary school. The participants were 870 children, 682 mothers, and 53 class teachers. Data were collected three times--at the…

Serving-Maids and Literacy: An Approach to Teaching Literacy through History and Music.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Turner-Bisset, R.

2001-01-01

Presents a case study of an integrated approach to teaching history, literacy and music, in a Year 6 class. Suggests success was due to use of varied teaching approaches including storytelling, drama, singing and discussion. Emphasizes links between genuine historical tasks, and activities in the National Literacy Strategy. Suggests how music…

An Assessment of Civic Scientific Literacy in Japan: Development of a More Authentic Assessment Task and Scoring Rubric

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Naganuma, Shotaro

2017-01-01

Scientific literacy has been measured by a variety of assessment tools in the past few decades. International surveys such as Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) emphasize the importance of scientific literacy. Scientific literacy is now regarded as a…

Marketing Information Literacy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Seale, Maura

2013-01-01

In 2012, more than a decade after the original Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education (hereafter the Standards) were institutionalized as the goal of academic library instruction, the Information Literacy Competency Standards Review Task Force convened by ACRL recommended…

Staying with the Text: The Contribution of Gender, Achievement Orientations, and Interest to Students' Performance on a Literacy Task

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Graham, Jedda; Tisher, Ruth; Ainley, Mary; Kennedy, Gregor

2008-01-01

This study addresses concerns about boys' underperformance on literacy tasks compared to girls, by investigating male and females students' responses to narrative texts. Participants were 142 Grade 9 and 10 students. Achievement orientations, including goals, self-efficacy, and self-handicapping, were measured and approach and avoidance factors…

Individual Differences in Fifth Graders' Literacy and Academic Language Predict Comprehension Monitoring Development: An Eye-Movement Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Connor, Carol McDonald; Radach, Ralph; Vorstius, Christian; Day, Stephanie L.; McLean, Leigh; Morrison, Frederick J.

2015-01-01

In this study, we investigated fifth graders' (n = 52) fall literacy, academic language, and motivation and how these skills predicted fall and spring comprehension monitoring on an eye movement task. Comprehension monitoring was defined as the identification and repair of misunderstandings when reading text. In the eye movement task, children…

Content-Learning Tasks for Adult ESL Learners: Promoting Literacy for Work or School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ewert, Doreen E.

2014-01-01

Teachers of English as a second language (ESL) are often on the frontline of working with adult ESL learners who are facing a difficult developmental pathway to academic and/or economic success. These learners come to the task of learning English with widely varying schooling experiences, degrees of first language literacy, and English language…

Teachers' Spatial Literacy as Visualization, Reasoning, and Communication

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moore-Russo, Deborah; Viglietti, Janine M.; Chiu, Ming Ming; Bateman, Susan M.

2013-01-01

This paper conceptualizes spatial literacy as consisting of three overlapping domains: visualization, reasoning, and communication. By considering these domains, this study explores different aspects of spatial literacy to better understand how a group of mathematics teachers reasoned about spatial tasks. Seventy-five preservice and inservice…

Financial Literacy: Getting beyond the Markets

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stanford, Jim

2010-01-01

Recently, several Canadian provinces have added financial literacy into core curriculum for high school students, and in his 2009 budget, federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced the creation of a Task Force to evaluate current financial literacy initiatives. Typically, these initiatives focus on "individual responsibility",…

Taming Multiculturalism: The Will to Literacy in Composition Studies.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vandenberg, Peter

1999-01-01

Presents a review of composition textbooks and professional discourse. Claims the transformative potential of multiculturalism is often subordinated to the task of reducing "cultural distance," and that acquiring multicultural literacy may demand a long, deep and compliant congruity with dominant-culture literacy education. (NH)

Occupational Task Profiles: A Pan-Canadian Snapshot of the Canadian Literacy and Essential Skills Workforce--A Think Paper. Revised

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harwood, Chris

2012-01-01

Because Literacy and Essential Skills are so important to economic development, it is vital to know the competencies needed by the educators who deliver Literacy and Essential Skills programming. Likewise, Literacy and Essential Skills are crucial for labour market attachment. Low-skilled work has been most affected by technological change. There…

The Potential of an Alliance of Media Literacy Education and Media Criticism in Russia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Levitskaya, Anastasia

2015-01-01

Media criticism and media literacy education have much in common. For example, media literacy education and media criticism attaches great importance to the development of analytical thinking audience. Indeed, one of the most important tasks of media literacy education is precisely to teach the audience not only to analyze media texts of any kinds…

Children's Literacy Growth, and Candidates' and Teachers' Professional Development Resulting from a PDS-Based Initial Certification Literacy Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rosenthal, Julie L.; Donnantuono, Marie; Lebron, Mary; Flynn, Christina

2017-01-01

This paper reports the effects on children, teacher candidates, and classroom teachers of a PDS-based initial certification course in the teaching of literacy. In this course, teacher candidates work with individual struggling readers on a range of literacy tasks, and the classroom teacher and university faculty member serve as course…

Measuring Health Literacy: A Challenge to Curriculum Design and Evaluation. Research Briefs on Adult Literacy. Number 1

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pleasant, Andrew

2008-01-01

There is a growing interest in health literacy and in developing curricula for health care providers and for the general public. However, developing curriculum without accompanying evaluation plans is like starting a race without a finish line, and current measures of health literacy are not up to the task of evaluating curriculum. This research…

Comparing the Reading Performance of High-Achieving Adolescents: Computer-Based Testing versus Paper/Pencil

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eno, Linda Peet

2011-01-01

Literacy is moving into the digital context. Many of the literacy tasks associated with higher education, the workplace, and civic life now take place in the digital world. Literacy in high school, however, languishes in the text world. This study compared the text literacy of a group of high-achieving 10th-grade students, to their digital…

Writing for Science Literacy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chamberlin, Shannon Marie

Scientific literacy is the foundation on which both California's currently adopted science standards and the recommended new standards for science are based (CDE, 2000; NRC, 2011). The Writing for Science Literacy (WSL) curriculum focuses on a series of writing and discussion tasks aimed at increasing students' scientific literacy. These tasks are based on three teaching and learning constructs: thought and language, scaffolding, and meta-cognition. To this end, WSL is focused on incorporating several strategies from the Rhetorical Approach to Reading, Writing, Listening and Speaking to engage students in activities designed to increase their scientific literacy; their ability to both identify an author's claim and evidence and to develop their own arguments based on a claim and evidence. Students participated in scaffolded activities designed to strengthen their written and oral discourse, hone their rhetorical skills and improve their meta-cognition. These activities required students to participate in both writing and discussion tasks to create meaning and build their science content knowledge. Students who participated in the WSL curriculum increased their written and oral fluency and were able to accurately write an evidence-based conclusion all while increasing their conceptual knowledge. This finding implies that a discourse rich curriculum can lead to an increase in scientific knowledge.

Name-writing proficiency, not length of name, is associated with preschool children’s emergent literacy skills

PubMed Central

Puranik, Cynthia S.; Lonigan, Christopher J.

2011-01-01

The goals of this study were twofold: first, to examine whether preschool children’s name-writing proficiency differentiated them on other emergent reading and writing tasks, and second, to examine the effect of name length on preschool children’s emergent literacy skills including alphabet knowledge and spelling. In study 1, a range of emergent literacy tasks was administered to 296 preschool children aged 4–5 years. The more advanced name writers outperformed the less advanced name writers on all emergent literacy measures. Furthermore, children with longer names did not show superior performance compared to children with shorter names. In study 2, four measures of alphabet knowledge and spelling were administered to 104 preschool children. Once again, the more advanced name writers outperformed the less advanced name writers on the alphabet knowledge and spelling measures. Results indicated that having longer names did not translate into an advantage on the alphabet knowledge and spelling tasks. Name writing proficiency, not length of name appears to be associated with preschool children’s developing emergent literacy skills. Name writing reflects knowledge of some letters rather than a broader knowledge of letters that may be needed to support early spelling. PMID:22523450

Developing an ICT-Literacy Task-Based Assessment Instrument: The Findings on the Final Testing Phase

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mat-jizat, Jessnor Elmy

2013-01-01

This paper reports the findings of a study which seeks to identify the information and communications technology (ICT) literacy levels of trainee teachers, by investigating their ICT proficiency using a task-bask assessment instrument. The Delphi technique was used as a primary validation method for the new assessment tool and the ICT literacy…

What Does Empowerment in Literacy Education Look Like? An Analysis of a Family Literacy Program for Guatemalan Maya Families

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schoorman, Dilys; Zainuddin, Hanizah

2008-01-01

Educators in the field of "family literacy" have identified multiple approaches to family literacy programs (FLPs), and have underscored the need to identify and make explicit the philosophical orientations of their own programs. This was the task undertaken in this article, which focused on a FLP in south Florida that served the needs…

Advanced Foreign Language Learning: A Challenge to College Programs. Issues in Language Program Direction.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Byrnes, Heidi, Ed.; Maxim, Hiram H., Ed.

This book includes the following chapters: "Literacy and Advanced Foreign Language Learning: Rethinking he Curriculum" (Richard G. Kern); "A Template for Advanced Learner Tasks: Staging Genre Reading and Cultural Literacy Through the Precis" (Janet Swaffar); "Fostering Advanced L2 Literacy: A Genre-Based, Cognitive…

Applying the Framework for Information Literacy to the Developmental Education Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garcia, Larissa

2014-01-01

Translating the new Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education (ACRL November 2014) into learning outcomes, instructional content, and assessments might appear to be an overwhelming task; however, in many cases the revision exemplifies how many librarians have been teaching information literacy in the digital information landscape.…

Paperwork Plus: Literacy Materials for the Service Industry. Hotel Edition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bond, Judith; McGill, Teresa

The instructional materials are intended for use in teaching vocational English and English literacy to limited-English-speaking personnel in the hotel industry. They are designed for learners at three instructional levels, and address job-specific literacy tasks. An introductory section describes the materials and offers suggestions for…

Defining, Designing for, and Measuring "Social Constructivist Digital Literacy" Development in Learners: A Proposed Framework

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reynolds, Rebecca

2016-01-01

This paper offers a newly conceptualized modular framework for digital literacy that defines this concept as a task-driven "social constructivist digital literacy," comprising 6 practice domains grounded in Constructionism and social constructivism: Create, Manage, Publish, Socialize, Research, Surf. The framework articulates possible…

Literacy for the Twenty-First Century: Research, Policy, Practices, and the National Adult Literacy Survey.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, M. Cecil, Ed.

This book focuses on results from secondary analyses of the National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS) and implications of these analyses for policy, practice, and further research on adult literacy. Part I contains an introduction and three additional chapters that provide a substantive summary of the NALS and its purposes: "Introduction: Adult…

Lessons in financial literacy task design: authentic, imaginable, useful

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sawatzki, Carly

2017-03-01

As part of ongoing design-based research exploring financial literacy teaching and learning, 10 tasks termed "financial dilemmas" were trialled by 14 teachers and more than 300 year 5 and 6 students in four government primary schools in urban Darwin. Drawing on data related to three tasks— Catching the bus, Laser Tag and Buying bread—this article explores insights into problem context and task design principles. The findings highlight that fit to circumstance, challenge yet accessibility and pedagogical architecture are important task design principles. Further, tasks involving unfamiliar, novel and imaginable problem contexts, while pedagogically demanding for teachers, can be considered useful by students and have the potential to broaden their horizons.

Emergent literacy in kindergartners with cochlear implants

PubMed Central

Nittrouer, Susan; Caldwell, Amanda; Lowenstein, Joanna H; Tarr, Eric; Holloman, Christopher

2012-01-01

Problem A key ingredient to academic success is being able to read. Deaf individuals have historically failed to develop literacy skills comparable to those of their normal-hearing peers, but early identification and cochlear implants have improved prospects that these children can learn to read at the levels of their peers. The goal of this study was to examine early, or emergent, literacy in these children. Method 27 deaf children with cochlear implants (CIs) who had just completed kindergarten were tested on emergent literacy, as well as on cognitive and linguistic skills that support emergent literacy, specifically ones involving phonological awareness, executive functioning, and oral language. 17 kindergartners with normal hearing (NH) and 8 with hearing loss, but who used hearing aids (HAs) served as controls. Outcomes were compared for these three groups of children, regression analyses were performed to see if predictor variables for emergent literacy differed for children with NH and those with CIs, and factors related to the early treatment of hearing loss and prosthesis configuration were examined for children with CIs. Results Performance of children with CIs was roughly one or more standard deviations below the mean performance of children with NH on all tasks, except for syllable counting, reading fluency, and rapid serial naming. Oral language skills explained more variance in emergent literacy for children with CIs than for children with NH. Age of first implant explained moderate amounts of variance for several measures. Having one or two CIs had no effect, but children who had some amount of bimodal experience outperformed children who had none on several measures. Conclusions Even deaf children who have benefitted from early identification, intervention, and implantation are still at risk for problems with emergent literacy that could affect their academic success. This finding means that intensive language support needs to continue through at least the early elementary grades. Also a period of bimodal stimulation during the preschool years can help boost emergent literacy skills to some extent. PMID:22572795

The Evolution and Impact of Literacy Campaigns and Programmes, 2000-2014. UIL Research Series: No. 1

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hanemann, Ulrike

2015-01-01

The paper analyses the status and characteristics of adult literacy campaigns and programmes since 2000. Global trends are analysed in terms of the ten key aspects of the suggested framework for successful literacy campaigns and programmes. Four case studies on major literacy campaigns in Brazil, India, South Africa and Indonesia are used to…

Are trajectories of self-regulation abilities from ages 2-3 to 6-7 associated with academic achievement in the early school years?

PubMed

Sawyer, A C P; Chittleborough, C R; Mittinty, M N; Miller-Lewis, L R; Sawyer, M G; Sullivan, T; Lynch, J W

2015-09-01

The aim of this study was to estimate the association between two key aspects of self-regulation, 'task attentiveness' and 'emotional regulation' assessed from ages 2-3 to 6-7 years, and academic achievement when children were aged 6-7 years. Participants (n = 3410) were children in the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children. Parents rated children's task attentiveness and emotional regulation abilities when children were aged 2-3, 4-5 and 6-7. Academic achievement was assessed using the Academic Rating Scale completed by teachers. Linear regression models were used to estimate the association between developmental trajectories (i.e. rate of change per year) of task attentiveness and emotional regulation, and academic achievement at 6-7 years. Improvements in task attentiveness between 2-3 and 6-7 years, adjusted for baseline levels of task attentiveness, child and family confounders, and children's receptive vocabulary and non-verbal reasoning skills at age 6-7 were associated with greater teacher-rated literacy [B = 0.05, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.04-0.06] and maths achievement (B = 0.04, 95% CI = 0.03-0.06) at 6-7 years. Improvements in emotional regulation, adjusting for baseline levels and covariates, were also associated with better teacher-rated literacy (B = 0.02, 95% CI = 0.01-0.04) but not with maths achievement (B = 0.01, 95% CI = -0.01-0.02) at 6-7 years. For literacy, improvements in task attentiveness had a stronger association with achievement at 6-7 years than improvements in emotional regulation. Our study shows that improved trajectories of task attentiveness from ages 2-3 to 6-7 years are associated with improved literacy and maths achievement during the early school years. Trajectories of improving emotional regulation showed smaller effects on academic outcomes. Results suggest that interventions that improve task attentiveness when children are aged 2-3 to 6-7 years have the potential to improve literacy and maths achievement during the early school years. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Students' Engagement in Collaborative Knowledge Construction in Group Assignments for Information Literacy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sormunen, Eero; Tanni, Mikko; Heinström, Jannica

2013-01-01

Introduction: Information literacy instruction is often undertaken in schools as collaborative source-based writing assignments. his paper presents the findings of a study on collaboration in two school assignments designed for information literacy. Method: The study draws on the models of cooperative and collaborative learning and the task-based…

Knowledge and Processes That Predict Proficiency in Digital Literacy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bulger, Monica E.; Mayer, Richard E.; Metzger, Miriam J.

2014-01-01

Proficiency in digital literacy refers to the ability to read and write using online sources, and includes the ability to select sources relevant to the task, synthesize information into a coherent message, and communicate the message with an audience. The present study examines the determinants of digital literacy proficiency by asking 150…

From Standards to Frameworks for IL: How the ACRL Framework Addresses Critiques of the Standards

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Foasberg, Nancy M.

2015-01-01

The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education, since their publication in 2000, have drawn criticism for ignoring the social and political aspects of information literacy. The ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards Task Force responded with the Framework for…

The App Map: A Tool for Systematic Evaluation of Apps for Early Literacy Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Israelson, Madeleine Heins

2015-01-01

As portable devices become increasingly available in elementary classrooms teachers are expected to use these new technologies to engage students in both traditional print-based literacy learning and digital literacies practices, such as multimodal composing. Teachers face the daunting task of integrating apps into their current research-based…

Information Literacy: A Story of Collaboration and Cooperation between the Writing Program Coordinator and Colleagues 2003-2010

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Corso, Gail S.; Weiss, Sandra; McGregor, Tiffany

2010-01-01

This narrative describes collaboration among librarians, writing program coordinator, and professors on an information literacy task force. Their attempts to infuse the University's curriculum with information literacy are described. Authors define the term, explain its history with three professional organizations, and describe processes for…

Getting Ready Right from the Start. Effective Early Literacy Interventions.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hiebert, Elfrieda H., Ed.; Taylor, Barbara M., Ed.

Presenting descriptions of seven successful emergent literacy programs, this book demonstrates that early literacy intervention programs with a focus on accelerated learning and on authentic reading and writing tasks can prevent many first-grade children from failing to learn to read. Programs described in the book focus on story book reading and…

Investigating the Literacy, Numeracy and ICT Demands of Primary Teacher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de Silva Joyce, Helen; Feez, Susan; Chan, Eveline; Tobias, Stephen

2014-01-01

Pre-service teacher education programs are required to graduate students who meet externally determined standards in literacy and numeracy. However, little is known about the literacy, numeracy and ICT knowledge and skills demanded of teacher education students as they complete assessment tasks on which successful completion of their teaching…

Impact of induced joy on literacy in children: does the nature of the task make a difference?

PubMed

Tornare, Elise; Cuisinier, Frédérique; Czajkowski, Nikolai O; Pons, Francisco

2017-04-01

This research examined whether induced joy influences fifth graders' performance in literacy tasks. Children were asked to recall a joyful experience, used as a joy induction, before completing either a grammar (Study 1) or textual comprehension task (Study 2). The grammar task involved understanding at the surface level and retrieval of appropriate declarative and procedural knowledge, but limited elaboration unlike the textual comprehension task, which tackled inference generation. By differentiating tasks based on depth of processing required for completion we aimed at testing the validity of two concurrent hypotheses: that of a facilitating effect and that of a detrimental effect of induced joy. Compared to controls, joy induced children showed better performance on the grammar task - specifically children with lower language ability. No differences across groups emerged as a function of joy induction on the text comprehension task. Results are discussed with respect to emotion effects on cognition.

Riding the Lines and Overwriting in the Margins: Affect and Multimodal Literacy Practices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lenters, Kimberly

2016-01-01

This case study examines the multimodal literacy practices of 11-year-old Nigel as he plays with assemblages of people, objects, and practices in his storywriting. The study asks "How does following the seemingly off-task multimodal literacy practices of one pre-adolescent youth across his home-community-school terrain provide insight into…

Measuring Literacy in IALS: A Construct-Centered Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kirsch, Irwin S.

2003-01-01

This paper offers a brief overview of the framework that has been used for developing the tasks used to measure literacy in IALS as well as for understanding the meaning of what is being reported with respect to the comparative literacy proficiencies of adults. The importance of developing a framework is thought to be central in construct-based…

Online Group Work Design: Processes, Complexities, and Intricacies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kleinsasser, Robert; Hong, Yi-Chun

2016-01-01

This paper describes the challenges of designing and implementing online group work. We are responsible for a seven-and-a-half week's online literacy and bi-literacy graduate course in a Bilingual/English as a Second Language (BLE/ESL) Master of Arts program. One of the tasks includes online literacy circle exchanges where students are encouraged…

Integrating the Liberal Arts and Chemistry: A Series of General Chemistry Assignments to Develop Science Literacy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miller, Diane M.; Chengelis Czegan, Demetra A.

2016-01-01

This paper describes assignments that have been implemented in a General Chemistry I course to promote science literacy. This course was chosen in particular because it reaches a broad audience, which includes nonscience majors. The assignment series begins with several discussions and tasks to develop information literacy, in which students find…

Statistical Literacy as a Function of Online versus Hybrid Course Delivery Format for an Introductory Graduate Statistics Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hahs-Vaughn, Debbie L.; Acquaye, Hannah; Griffith, Matthew D.; Jo, Hang; Matthews, Ken; Acharya, Parul

2017-01-01

Statistical literacy refers to understanding fundamental statistical concepts. Assessment of statistical literacy can take the forms of tasks that require students to identify, translate, compute, read, and interpret data. In addition, statistical instruction can take many forms encompassing course delivery format such as face-to-face, hybrid,…

Food and Beverage Industry ESL Workplace Literacy Curriculum for Hotels.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Van Duzer, Carol; And Others

The Workplace Literacy Curriculum for Food and Beverage was developed for English-as-a-Second-Language classes for workers in participating hotels in Arlington County, Virginia, through a national workplace literacy grant with the cooperation of the Arlington County Chamber of Commerce. It is based on an analysis of tasks and interactions at the…

An Analysis of Factors Influencing Urbanite Woman Learner-Participation in Functional Literacy Programs in Selected Christian Churches, Accra

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Saah, Albert Amoah

2013-01-01

The promotion of adult functional literacy programs per se, neither creates the necessary motivation for learning, nor enhances the participation of adult learners in work-oriented or socio-cultural functional literacy programs. The task in learning-teaching transaction is to create the enabling environment for harnessing and enhancing…

The "Functional" and "Social" Uses of Literacy.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Duffey, Joseph

The task of providing the tools of basic literacy for all citizens is still unfinished in the United States, as well as on an international scale. No longer can the developed and underdeveloped worlds relate as mentor and learner; the United States has much to learn from the great work in literacy and basic education performed in lesser developed…

Building Facilities/Custodial Services English as a Second Language Workplace Literacy Curriculum.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arlington County Public Schools, VA. REEP, Arlington Education and Employment Program.

The Workplace Literacy Curriculum for Custodial Services was developed for English-as-a-Second-Language classes for workers in participating businesses in Arlington County, Virginia, through a national workplace literacy grant with the cooperation of the Arlington County Chamber of Commerce. It is based on an analysis of tasks and interactions at…

Toward a New Definition of Employability. Report by the North Central Indiana Workforce Literacy Task Force.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Center for Remediation Design, Washington, DC.

The North Central Indiana Workplace Literacy Initiative seeks to develop a curriculum management system addressing work force literacy needs and a coordinated human resource investment system meeting individual economic self-sufficiency needs and labor market needs. The workplace of the future will contain six key changes: employers will require…

Tracing Literacy Journeys: The Use of the Literacy Autobiography in Preservice Teacher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Edwards, Debra

2009-01-01

This paper analyses the use of literacy autobiography as a way for preservice teachers to examine their own understandings of literacy, multiliteracies and literacy teaching. We reflect on what we as lecturers have learnt about our students and their literacy experiences, about our own literacy experiences and values, as well as what the students…

Emergent Literacy in Thai Preschoolers: A Preliminary Study.

PubMed

Yampratoom, Ramorn; Aroonyadech, Nawarat; Ruangdaraganon, Nichara; Roongpraiwan, Rawiwan; Kositprapa, Jariya

To investigate emergent literacy skills, including phonological awareness when presented with an initial phoneme-matching task and letter knowledge when presented with a letter-naming task in Thai preschoolers, and to identify key factors associated with those skills. Four hundred twelve typically developing children in their final kindergarten year were enrolled in this study. Their emergent reading skills were measured by initial phoneme-matching and letter-naming tasks. Determinant variables, such as parents' education and teachers' perception, were collected by self-report questionnaires. The mean score of the initial phoneme-matching task was 4.5 (45% of a total of 10 scores). The mean score of the letter-naming task without a picture representing the target letter name was 30.2 (68.6% of a total of 44 scores), which increased to 38.8 (88.2% of a total of 44 scores) in the letter-naming task when a picture representing the target letter name was provided. Both initial phoneme-matching and letter-naming abilities were associated with the mother's education and household income. Letter-naming ability was also influenced by home reading activities and gender. This was a preliminary study into emergent literacy skills of Thai preschoolers. The findings supported the importance of focusing on phonological awareness and phonics, especially in the socioeconomic disadvantaged group.

Financial Literacy for High School Students: A Guidance Document to Assist Nevada's School Districts in Meeting the Requirements under SB 317

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nevada Department of Education, 2010

2010-01-01

The 2009 Nevada Legislature approved Senate Bill 317 (SB 317) requiring that Nevada's public high schools, including charter schools, provide instruction in financial literacy. In an effort to assist school districts with implementation of instruction in financial literacy, the Nevada Department of Education assembled a task force (Financial…

Implementing a Disciplinary-Literacy Curriculum for US History: Learning from Expert Middle School Teachers in Diverse Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Monte-Sano, Chauncey; De La Paz, Susan; Felton, Mark

2014-01-01

In recent years, educators in the USA have emphasized disciplinary literacy as an essential path forward in cultivating adolescents' understanding of subject matter in tandem with literacy practices. Yet, this agenda poses challenges to teachers who have been tasked with its implementation. Here, we examine two expert US history teachers' efforts…

Literacy and Life Skills Education for Vulnerable Youth: What Policy Makers Can Do

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bernhardt, Anna Caroline; Yorozu, Rika; Medel-Añonuevo, Carolyn

2014-01-01

In countries with a high concentration of youth with low literacy levels, the policy and programming task related to education and training is particularly daunting. This note briefly presents policies and practices which have been put in place to provide vulnerable youth with literacy and life skills education. It is based on a multi-country…

An Exploratory Examination of Literacy Assessment Practices of Adult Programs in North Carolina's Piedmont-Triad Region

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Byrd, Eboni Nikita; Comer, Marcus M.

2007-01-01

It is estimated that 22 percent, of adults in the Piedmont Triad of North Carolina have poor literacy skills, meaning that they have difficulty with tasks involving simple texts and documents. Purpose: Given this low level of adult literacy, the purpose of this exploratory research study was to analyze the perceptions of North Carolina's adult…

Digital Literacies. A Tale of Two Tasks: Editing in the Era of Digital Literacies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chandler-Olcott, Kelly

2009-01-01

This article argues that editing in the era of digital literacies is a complex, collaborative endeavor that requires a sophisticated awareness of audience and purpose and a knowledge of multiple conventions for conveying meaning and ensuring accuracy. It compares group editing of an article about the New York Yankees baseball team on Wikipedia,…

Families and Literacy: The Contribution of Out-of-School Experiences to Children's Acquisition of Literacy. Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chall, Jeanne; Snow, Catherine

Addressing the question of why some children manage to continue successfully through the later stages of literacy acquisition while others are unable to meet the challenges presented by fourth and fifth grade reading tasks, an 18-month, in-depth study was conducted of the home environment factors influencing the reading comprehension of second,…

Literacy and Languages. The Second Yearbook of Literacy and Languages in Asia, International Reading Association Special Interest Group. Selection of Speeches and Papers From the International Conference on Literacy and Languages (1st, Seoul, South Korea, August 12-14, 1985).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Byong Won, Ed.

Cosponsored by Hanyang University as a demonstration of its founding philosophy, "love in deed and truth," this conference focused on literacy and languages from cross-cultural and instructional perspectives. The papers selected for this yearbook and their authors are as follows: (1) "Designing Tasks for Slow Learners in L2"…

Testing Job-Specific Literacy of Industrial Workers: Cooperation between Educators and Industry.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anderson, William W.; Stewart, Oran J.

A test of job-specific literacy, called the McCoy Assessment of Worksite Literacy Abilities (MAWSLA), could not predict the job success of the 100 employees who took it. The 108-item test was based on literary tasks encountered by employees in the course of a routine day at McCoy Electronics Company, a 560-employee firm in Pennsylvania. The…

How much do we count? Interpretation and error-making in the decennial census.

PubMed

Iversen, R R; Furstenberg, F F; Belzer, A A

1999-02-01

Following a critique of the 1990 decennial census procedures, we conducted a field study among low-income, inner-city residents in 1991 to examine how they conceptualized and managed the civic task of census response. Interpretations about the purpose and meaning of the census, about commitment to the task, and about connection to government, singly and together with literacy skills (e.g., reading and general literacy competence), were associated with errors that are not detectable by evaluative methodologies used regularly by the Census Bureau. The validity and reliability of census data, and possibly other self-administered survey research, will be increased by greater use of knowledge about both interpretation and literacy skills in formulating data collection procedures.

The National Early Literacy Panel: A Summary of the Process and the Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shanahan, Timothy; Lonigan, Christopher J.

2010-01-01

This article summarizes "Developing Early Literacy: Report of the National Early Literacy Panel," which was published in 2008.That report provides an extensive meta-analysis of approximately 300 studies showing which early literacy measures correlate with later literacy achievement. It also provides a series of meta-analyses of a comprehensive…

On Defining and Developing Literacy across Communities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bernardo, Allan B. I.

2000-09-01

The paper attempts to raise a few issues relating to the task of defining and operationalizing literacy and literacy development across communities with diverse socio-economic profiles. In particular, the following concerns are raised: (1) Can literacy development be assessed using one set of domains, given that the domains of literacy practices vary across cultures? (2) Does the acquisition of literacy skills mean the same thing to people across different communities? (3) Does illiteracy have the same consequences for people in different communities? (4) Is the process of literacy acquisition and development the same across diverse communities? The paper underscores the importance of considering the diverse socio-economic patterns in different communities in trying to determine present levels of literacy development and in proposing programs to increase levels of literacy skill. It also proposes using the level of community (in addition to the macro-level of nation-state and the micro-level of individual) in analyzing matters relating to literacy development.

Early Executive Function at Age Two Predicts Emergent Mathematics and Literacy at Age Five

PubMed Central

Mulder, Hanna; Verhagen, Josje; Van der Ven, Sanne H. G.; Slot, Pauline L.; Leseman, Paul P. M.

2017-01-01

Previous work has shown that individual differences in executive function (EF) are predictive of academic skills in preschoolers, kindergartners, and older children. Across studies, EF is a stronger predictor of emergent mathematics than literacy. However, research on EF in children below age three is scarce, and it is currently unknown whether EF, as assessed in toddlerhood, predicts emergent academic skills a few years later. This longitudinal study investigates whether early EF, assessed at two years, predicts (emergent) academic skills, at five years. It examines, furthermore, whether early EF is a significantly stronger predictor of emergent mathematics than of emergent literacy, as has been found in previous work on older children. A sample of 552 children was assessed on various EF and EF-precursor tasks at two years. At age five, these children performed several emergent mathematics and literacy tasks. Structural Equation Modeling was used to investigate the relationships between early EF and academic skills, modeled as latent factors. Results showed that early EF at age two was a significant and relatively strong predictor of both emergent mathematics and literacy at age five, after controlling for receptive vocabulary, parental education, and home language. Predictive relations were significantly stronger for mathematics than literacy, but only when a verbal short-term memory measure was left out as an indicator to the latent early EF construct. These findings show that individual differences in emergent academic skills just prior to entry into the formal education system can be traced back to individual differences in early EF in toddlerhood. In addition, these results highlight the importance of task selection when assessing early EF as a predictor of later outcomes, and call for further studies to elucidate the mechanisms through which individual differences in early EF and precursors to EF come about. PMID:29075209

Early Executive Function at Age Two Predicts Emergent Mathematics and Literacy at Age Five.

PubMed

Mulder, Hanna; Verhagen, Josje; Van der Ven, Sanne H G; Slot, Pauline L; Leseman, Paul P M

2017-01-01

Previous work has shown that individual differences in executive function (EF) are predictive of academic skills in preschoolers, kindergartners, and older children. Across studies, EF is a stronger predictor of emergent mathematics than literacy. However, research on EF in children below age three is scarce, and it is currently unknown whether EF, as assessed in toddlerhood, predicts emergent academic skills a few years later. This longitudinal study investigates whether early EF, assessed at two years, predicts (emergent) academic skills, at five years. It examines, furthermore, whether early EF is a significantly stronger predictor of emergent mathematics than of emergent literacy, as has been found in previous work on older children. A sample of 552 children was assessed on various EF and EF-precursor tasks at two years. At age five, these children performed several emergent mathematics and literacy tasks. Structural Equation Modeling was used to investigate the relationships between early EF and academic skills, modeled as latent factors. Results showed that early EF at age two was a significant and relatively strong predictor of both emergent mathematics and literacy at age five, after controlling for receptive vocabulary, parental education, and home language. Predictive relations were significantly stronger for mathematics than literacy, but only when a verbal short-term memory measure was left out as an indicator to the latent early EF construct. These findings show that individual differences in emergent academic skills just prior to entry into the formal education system can be traced back to individual differences in early EF in toddlerhood. In addition, these results highlight the importance of task selection when assessing early EF as a predictor of later outcomes, and call for further studies to elucidate the mechanisms through which individual differences in early EF and precursors to EF come about.

Simulation of dyslexia. How literacy and cognitive skills can help distinguish college students with dyslexia from malingerers

PubMed Central

de Bree, Elise H.; de Jong, Peter F.

2018-01-01

Academic accommodations associated with a diagnosis of dyslexia might be incentives for college students without reading or spelling difficulties to feign dyslexia and obtain the diagnosis unfairly. In the current study we examined malingering practices by comparing the performance of college students instructed to malinger dyslexia (n = 28) to that of students actually diagnosed with dyslexia (n = 16). We also included a control group of students without reading and spelling difficulties (n = 28). The test battery included tasks tapping literacy skills as well as underlying cognitive skills associated with literacy outcomes. These tasks are commonly used in diagnosing dyslexia. We examined patterns in the performance of malingerers across tasks and tested whether malingerers could be identified based on their performance on a limited number of tasks. Results indicated that malingerers scored significantly lower than students with dyslexia on reading and spelling skills; i.e., the core characteristics of dyslexia. Especially reading performance was extremely low and not in line with students’ age and level of education. Findings for underlying cognitive skills were mixed. Overall, malingerers scored lower than students with dyslexia on tasks tapping mainly speed, whereas the two groups did not differ on tasks reflecting mainly accuracy. Based on word and pseudoword reading and letter and digit naming, the three groups could be distinguished with reasonable sensitivity and specificity. In all, results indicate that college students seem to understand on which tasks they should feign dyslexia, but tend to exaggerate difficulties on these tasks to the point where diagnosticians should mistrust performance. PMID:29782515

The Human-Computer Interface and Information Literacy: Some Basics and Beyond.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Church, Gary M.

1999-01-01

Discusses human/computer interaction research, human/computer interface, and their relationships to information literacy. Highlights include communication models; cognitive perspectives; task analysis; theory of action; problem solving; instructional design considerations; and a suggestion that human/information interface may be a more appropriate…

Quality Matters: Content Literacy for English Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Wei

2017-01-01

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) require students to read and comprehend complex content texts. They specify three dimensions of a text that simultaneously contribute to text complexity across the curriculum: qualitative dimensions, quantitative dimensions, and reader and task considerations. In literacy instruction, recognizing and…

Language Policy and Literacy Practices in the Family: The Case of Ethiopian Parental Narrative Input

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stavans, Anat

2012-01-01

The present study analyses the Family Language Policy (FLP) in regards language literacy development of children in Ethiopian immigrant families. Bridging the gap between linguistic literacy at home and at school hinders a smooth societal integration and a normative literacy development. This study describes the home literacy patterns shaped by…

The effects of live music groups versus an educational children's television program on the emergent literacy of young children.

PubMed

Register, Dena

2004-01-01

Research suggests that music is beneficial in teaching both social and academic skills to young children. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a music therapy program designed to teach reading skills versus the "Between the Lions" television program on the early literacy behaviors of Kindergarten children from a low socioeconomic background. Subjects (n = 86) were children, aged 5-7 years, enrolled in one of four different Kindergarten classes at a public elementary school in Northwest Florida. Each class was assigned one of four treatment conditions: Music/Video (sequential presentation of each condition), Music-Only, Video-Only, and no contact Control group. Growth in early literacy skills was measured using the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) and 3 subtests of the Test of Early reading Ability-3rd edition (TERA-3). Teachers' perceptions of classroom literacy behaviors were measured using a pre and poststudy survey. This study also compared on- and off-task behavior of students during video versus music conditions. Results of the 7 subtests measuring early literacy were varied. The Music/Video and Music-Only groups achieved the highest increases in mean scores from pre to posttest on 4 of the 7 subtests. Students in the Video-Only group scored significantly better on the phonemic segmentation portion of the DIBELS than peers in the Music/Video condition. Furthermore, strong correlations were found between the Letter Naming, Initial Sounds Fluency tests, and total raw score of the TERA-3 tests for both pre and posttesting. Additionally, graphic analysis of mean off-task behavior per session indicated that students were more off-task during both video conditions (video alone and video portion of Music/Video condition) than during the music conditions. Off-task behavior was consistently lower during music sessions for the duration of the study. This study confirmed that music increases the on-task behavior of students. Additionally, the combination of music and video enrichment showed gains in 4 of the 8 tests used to measure students' progress. This pattern supports the need for further investigation regarding benefits of enrichment programs specifically designed to enhance curricula for students from low socioeconomic backgrounds, particularly programs that incorporate music activities.

Effects of Classroom Practices on Reading Comprehension, Engagement, and Motivations for Adolescents

PubMed Central

Guthrie, John T.; Klauda, Susan Lutz

2014-01-01

We investigated the roles of classroom supports for multiple motivations and engagement in students’ informational text comprehension, motivation, and engagement. A composite of classroom contextual variables consisting of instructional support for choice, importance, collaboration, and competence, accompanied by cognitive scaffolding for informational text comprehension, was provided in four-week instructional units for 615 grade 7 students. These classroom motivational-engagement supports were implemented within integrated literacy/history instruction in the Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction (CORI) framework. CORI increased informational text comprehension compared with traditional instruction (TI) in a switching replications experimental design. Students’ perceptions of the motivational-engagement supports were associated with increases in students’ intrinsic motivation, value, perceived competence, and increased positive engagement (dedication) more markedly in CORI than in TI, according to multiple regression analyses. Results extended the evidence for the effectiveness of CORI to literacy/history subject matter and informational text comprehension among middle school students. The experimental effects in classroom contexts confirmed effects from task-specific, situated experimental studies in the literature. PMID:25506087

Effects of Classroom Practices on Reading Comprehension, Engagement, and Motivations for Adolescents.

PubMed

Guthrie, John T; Klauda, Susan Lutz

2014-10-01

We investigated the roles of classroom supports for multiple motivations and engagement in students' informational text comprehension, motivation, and engagement. A composite of classroom contextual variables consisting of instructional support for choice, importance, collaboration, and competence, accompanied by cognitive scaffolding for informational text comprehension, was provided in four-week instructional units for 615 grade 7 students. These classroom motivational-engagement supports were implemented within integrated literacy/history instruction in the Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction (CORI) framework. CORI increased informational text comprehension compared with traditional instruction (TI) in a switching replications experimental design. Students' perceptions of the motivational-engagement supports were associated with increases in students' intrinsic motivation, value, perceived competence, and increased positive engagement (dedication) more markedly in CORI than in TI, according to multiple regression analyses. Results extended the evidence for the effectiveness of CORI to literacy/history subject matter and informational text comprehension among middle school students. The experimental effects in classroom contexts confirmed effects from task-specific, situated experimental studies in the literature.

The effect of first written language on the acquisition of English literacy.

PubMed

Holm, A; Dodd, B

1996-05-01

The relationship between first and second language literacy was examined by identifying the skills and processes developed in the first language that were transferred to the second language. The performance of 40 university students from The People's Republic of China, Hong Kong, Vietnam and Australia were compared on a series of tasks that assessed phonological awareness and reading and spelling skills in English. The results indicated that the Hong Kong students (with non-alphabetic first language literacy) had limited phonological awareness compared to those students with alphabetic first language literacy. The reading and spelling tasks showed no differences between the groups on real word processing. However, the students from Hong Kong had difficulty processing nonwords because of their poor phonological awareness. The results supported the hypothesis that people learning English as a second language (ESL) transfer their literacy processing skills from their first language to English. When the phonological awareness required in English had not been developed in the first language, ESL students were limited to a whole-word, visual strategy. The findings indicate that students from non-alphabetic written language backgrounds might have difficulties with new, or unfamiliar words when attending universities where English is the medium of instruction.

The DigiLit Framework

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baxa, Julie; Christ, Tanya

2018-01-01

Selecting and integrating the use of digital texts/tools in literacy lessons are complex tasks. The DigiLit framework provides a succinct model to guide planning, reflection, coaching, and formative evaluation of teachers' successful digital text/tool selection and integration for literacy lessons. For digital text/tool selection, teachers need to…

Journalism as Model for Civic and Information Literacies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smirnov, Natalia; Saiyed, Gulnaz; Easterday, Matthew W.; Lam, Wan Shun Eva

2018-01-01

Journalism can serve as a generative disciplinary context for developing civic and information literacies needed to meaningfully participate in an increasingly networked and mediated public sphere. Using interviews with journalists, we developed a cognitive task analysis model, identifying an iterative sequence of production and domain-specific…

Exploring the relationship between social class, mental illness stigma and mental health literacy using British national survey data.

PubMed

Holman, Daniel

2015-07-01

The relationship between social class and mental illness stigma has received little attention in recent years. At the same time, the concept of mental health literacy has become an increasingly popular way of framing knowledge and understanding of mental health issues. British Social Attitudes survey data present an opportunity to unpack the relationships between these concepts and social class, an important task given continuing mental health inequalities. Regression analyses were undertaken which centred on depression and schizophrenia vignettes, with an asthma vignette used for comparison. The National Statistics Socio-economic Classification, education and income were used as indicators of class. A number of interesting findings emerged. Overall, class variables showed a stronger relationship with mental health literacy than stigma. The relationship was gendered such that women with higher levels of education, especially those with a degree, had the lowest levels of stigma and highest levels of mental health literacy. Interestingly, class showed more of an association with stigma for the asthma vignette than it did for both the depression and schizophrenia vignettes, suggesting that mental illness stigma needs to be contextualised alongside physical illness stigma. Education emerged as the key indicator of class, followed by the National Statistics Socio-economic Classification, with income effects being marginal. These findings have implications for targeting health promotion campaigns and increasing service use in order to reduce mental health inequalities. © The Author(s) 2014.

Conceptualising Teachers' Assessment Literacies in an Era of Curriculum and Assessment Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Willis, Jill; Adie, Lenore; Klenowski, Val

2013-01-01

Teacher assessment literacy is a phrase that is often used but rarely defined. Yet understanding teacher assessment literacy is important in an international curriculum and assessment reform context that continues to challenge teachers' assessment practices. In this article situated examples of classroom assessment literacies are analysed using…

Contextualized Literacy in Green Jobs Training

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Waugh, Alexandra

2013-01-01

Millions of adult Americans lack the basic literacy skills necessary to perform everyday tasks requiring basic reading and math. This stifles our economy, given that employers are increasingly likely to require education or training beyond high school. Organizations that provide job training to lower-skilled adults through Jobs for the Future's…

Digital Literacy Instruction for eHealth and Beyond

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hill, Laura

2016-01-01

The increasing importance of digital technologies can disenfranchise individuals who lack digital literacy skills. As clinics adopt online health portals, even health care services require digital skills. Patients are often expected to check test results and perform other health-related tasks online, but few clinics provide support for those who…

Evidence Based Education Request Desk. EBE #131

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Regional Educational Laboratory Southeast, 2007

2007-01-01

To complement the information gathered on middle school and high school literacy initiatives as reported in "Middle and High School Literacy across the Curriculum" (Task 1.2 Fast Response Project), the Regional Educational Laboratory Southeast (REL-SE) staff conducted a scan of the six southeast states to gather the following information…

Web-Based Inquiry Learning: Facilitating Thoughtful Literacy with WebQuests

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ikpeze, Chinwe H.; Boyd, Fenice B.

2007-01-01

An action research study investigated how the multiple tasks found in WebQuests facilitate fifth-grade students' literacy skills and higher order thinking. Findings indicate that WebQuests are most successful when activities are carefully selected and systematically delivered. Implications for teaching include the necessity for adequate planning,…

Reading & Writing Together: Collaborative Literacy in Action.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Steineke, Nancy

Success in literacy takes participation born of trust, a positive group dynamic built on sharing tasks, maintaining good working relationships, and examining group functioning. This book tells why and how a truly collaborative environment is at the heart of accomplishment in the secondary classroom. In the classroom profiled in the book, students…

Tales, Tasks, Tools, and Talk

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McKeny, Timothy S.; Foley, Gregory D.

2012-01-01

The importance of a literacy-based approach to content learning, especially within elementary school grades, is not a new idea. During the past quarter-century, the use of children's literature as an effective teaching tool has gained popularity across all content areas (Thiessen 2004). The definition of literacy has expanded not only to include…

The New Literacies of Online Reading Comprehension: Future Directions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coiro, Julie

2012-01-01

Research in four areas has the potential to dramatically improve how practitioners address the challenges of integrating digital texts and tasks into their literacy curriculum. Advances in defining and measuring key components of online reading comprehension are rapidly emerging. In addition, instructional models, such as Internet reciprocal…

Sixth-Grade Students' Engagement in Academic Tasks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parsons, Seth A.; Malloy, Jacquelynn A.; Parsons, Allison Ward; Peters-Burton, Erin E.; Burrowbridge, Sarah Cohen

2018-01-01

Student engagement is important for teachers and researchers because it is associated with student achievement. Guided by self-determination theory, this year-long case study used observations and interviews to examine six students' behavioral, affective, and cognitive engagement in integrated literacy and social studies tasks. Task differences…

Connecting qualitative observation and quantitative measurement for enhancing quantitative literacy in plant anatomy course

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nuraeni, E.; Rahmat, A.

2018-05-01

Forming of cognitive schemes of plant anatomy concepts is performed by processing of qualitative and quantitative data obtained from microscopic observations. To enhancing student’s quantitative literacy, strategy of plant anatomy course was modified by adding the task to analyze quantitative data produced by quantitative measurement of plant anatomy guided by material course. Participant in this study was 24 biology students and 35 biology education students. Quantitative Literacy test, complex thinking in plant anatomy test and questioner used to evaluate the course. Quantitative literacy capability data was collected by quantitative literacy test with the rubric from the Association of American Colleges and Universities, Complex thinking in plant anatomy by test according to Marzano and questioner. Quantitative literacy data are categorized according to modified Rhodes and Finley categories. The results showed that quantitative literacy of biology education students is better than biology students.

Understanding literacy as our WORLD inheritance: Re-visioning literacy discourse and its implications for teaching practice

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Parr, Michelann; Campbell, Terry A.

2012-08-01

While universal literacy is one of the most pervasive targets of today's educational systems, it is at the same time perhaps the narrowest of all goals. Standardised testing reduces language and literacy to tasks associated with reading and writing. As learning communities become increasingly diverse, teachers, administrators and policy makers are finding themselves in a position where in order to maximise student development they need to broaden their conceptualisations of literacy, merge curricular areas and implement inclusive practices. Addressing literacy instructors and policy makers in particular, the authors of this article present a WORLD view of literacy (Word, Orality, Re-vision, Literacies, Discourses) towards making sense of contemporary literacy research. The purpose of this paper is multi-layered in terms of theory and practice. On the philosophical and theoretical level, it is intended to extend our understanding of literacy in view of both historical conceptualisations and contemporary views of literacy. On the reflective and practical level, it offers a unique way to assess our literacy practice and re-vision what we do. Demonstrating the universality of this approach, this is illustrated by a few ideas from a poem, a children's book, a dystopian novel for teenagers and a film.

The effects of phonological awareness of Zulu-speaking children learning to spell in English: a study of cross-language transfer.

PubMed

De Sousa, Diana Soares; Greenop, Kirston; Fry, Jessica

2010-12-01

Emergent bilingual Zulu-English speaking children in South Africa have spoken but no written proficiency in Zulu (L1), yet are required to learn to spell English (L2) via English-only literacy instruction. Little research exists on emergent bilingual's phonological awareness (PA) and spelling development, with no L1 formal literacy instruction. Thus, whether PA in a L1 impacts on literacy acquisition in the L2 remains unclear. Performance on monolingual PA, monolingual and emergent bilingual spelling was compared. In addition, PA and spelling in emergent bilingual Zulu-English speakers was explored to ascertain cross-language transfer relationships. Thirty emergent bilingual Zulu-English and thirty monolingual English children in grade 2 participated. Emergent bilinguals were assessed on Zulu PA, Zulu and English spelling skills. Monolinguals were assessed on English PA and English spelling skills. Emergent bilinguals had more Zulu PA levels related to spelling English tasks than to spelling Zulu tasks, and both Zulu PA and Zulu spelling were positively related to English spelling tasks. Significant differences were found between L1 Zulu and English phoneme and rime PA levels, and L1 English and L2 English spelling tasks. Findings support the language-universal hypothesis that L1 PA is related to spelling across languages in emergent bilinguals. In emergent bilinguals, both Zulu spoken proficiency and English-only literacy instruction influences the underlying repertoire of PA skills used to spell within the L1 and the L2. Rime and phoneme PA and spelling skills in Zulu/English rely on language-specific orthographic knowledge.

What Fifth-Grade Students Reveal about Their Literacies by Writing and Telling Narratives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davis, Dennis S.

2013-01-01

Written and oral literacy narratives produced by seven fifth-grade students are examined to identify the literacy identities students construct when narrating their past and present experiences with reading and writing. The narrative analyses reveal four major findings: 1. The students who contributed to this study have experienced literacy in…

Using Community Radio in a Rural Women's Post-Literacy Programme in Nepal

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nagaoka, Chizuko; Karki, Manohar

2014-01-01

This paper examines the literacy and post-literacy needs of rural women in Nepal, describes a pilot study in using community radio to supplement a classroom-based post-literacy programme for these women, analyses the findings of this intervention and considers the implications for similar programmes in other settings.

The Historical and Political Context of Adult Literacy in Turkey

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sayilan, Fevziye; Yildiz, Ahmet

2009-01-01

The aim of this article is to analyse the development of adult literacy education in Turkey in a historical and political context. The development of adult literacy education is studied in three different historical periods. To spread literacy and create novel institutions, although these institutions were closed later, played a critical role in…

Impact of health literacy on depressive symptoms and mental health-related: quality of life among adults with addiction.

PubMed

Lincoln, Alisa; Paasche-Orlow, Michael K; Cheng, Debbie M; Lloyd-Travaglini, Christine; Caruso, Christine; Saitz, Richard; Samet, Jeffrey H

2006-08-01

Health literacy has been linked to health status in a variety of chronic diseases. However, evidence for a relationship between health literacy and mental health outcomes is sparse. We hypothesized that low literacy would be associated with higher addiction severity, higher levels of depressive symptoms, and worse mental health functioning compared with those with higher literacy in adults with alcohol and drug dependence. The association of literacy with multiple mental health outcomes was assessed using multivariable analyses. Measurement instruments included the Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine (REALM), the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression (CES-D) scale, the Mental Component Summary scale of the Short Form Health Survey, and the Addiction Severity Index for drug and alcohol addiction. Subjects included 380 adults recruited during detoxification treatment and followed prospectively at 6-month intervals for 2 years. Based on the REALM, subjects were classified as having either low (< or = 8th grade) or higher (> or = 9th grade) literacy levels. In longitudinal analyses, low literacy was associated with more depressive symptoms. The adjusted mean difference in CES-D scores between low and high literacy levels was 4 (P<.01). Literacy was not significantly associated with mental health-related quality of life or addiction severity. In people with alcohol and drug dependence, low literacy is associated with worse depressive symptoms. The mechanisms underlying the relationship between literacy and mental health outcomes should be explored to inform future intervention efforts.

Designing the Information Literacy Competency Standards for nursing.

PubMed

Phelps, Sue F

2013-01-01

This column documents the rationale for creating information literacy competency standards for nursing based on the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) "Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education" and the three documents from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) on essential skills for nurses in baccalaureate, masters, and doctoral level education and practice. It chronicles the process of the task force which is designing the discipline specific skills and predicts the value of their use, once they are published.

Transforming Information Literacy in the Sciences through the Lens of e-Science

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berman, Elizabeth

2013-01-01

In 2011, the ACRL Science & Technology Section (STS) completed its five-year review of the "Information Literacy Standards for Science and Engineering/Technology." Predicated by the evolving nature of scholarship and research in the sciences, the reviewing task force strongly recommended that the standards be revised. This paper…

North Dakota Standards and Benchmarks--Content Standards: Library/Technology Literacy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

North Dakota Department of Public Instruction, 2003

2003-01-01

The Library/Technology Literacy Standards for the State of North Dakota were developed during 2000-2002 by a team of library and technology specialists, assisted by representatives from the Department of Public Instruction. The initial task was to decide whether technology and library curricula overlapped enough to create a shared set of…

Applied Workplace Literacy for the Facilities Maintenance Industry. Performance Report and Third Party Evaluation Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Texas State Technical Coll., Waco.

A project was conducted to determine if interactive video programs could produce positive results in literacy programs. During the project, staff from a technical college developed a task analysis, curriculum, and evaluation measures for the training of facilities maintenance workers in mathematical concepts. From this activity, an instructional…

Improving Math Literacy for the Facilities Maintenance Industry: A Multimedia Approach.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ziegler, John; Taylor, Don

Texas State Technical College in Waco (TSTCW) entered into a partnership with ServiceMaster, one of the largest maintenance companies in the world, to develop a contextual-based videodisc curriculum for facility maintenance workers intended to increase math literacy. TSTCW developed a task analysis, a curriculum, and evaluation measures for the…

Effects of Task Training on Kindergarten Students' Performance on Early Literacy Measures

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mackiewicz, Sara Moore

2010-01-01

The use of early literacy screening measures helps determine which students are at risk for future reading difficulties. However, there has been some recent concern related to the classification validity of screening measures (Hintze, Ryan, & Stoner, 2003; Nelson, 2008). Low classification validity results in the identification of a large number…

Revisiting the Roles of Literacy Coaches: Does Reality Match Research?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hathaway, Jennifer I.; Martin, Christie Sullivan; Mraz, Maryann

2016-01-01

This study surveyed 104 school-based elementary literacy coaches to explore their perceptions of their roles as coaches. These perceptions were then examined relative to the Standards for Reading Professionals-Revised 2010, developed by the International Reading Association. Overall, coaches reported the majority of the tasks they carried out as…

Comprehension for What? Preparing Students for Their Meaningful Future

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Conley, Mark W.; Wise, Antoinette

2011-01-01

Researchers, policymakers, and educators face a daunting task these days concerning literacy education for the here and now and literacy for the future. Even though one clings to the romantic notion that education provides the building blocks in a straight line to a meaningful future, the reality is that mixed goals and instructional messages…

A Problem-Solving Model for Literacy Coaching Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Toll, Cathy A.

2017-01-01

Literacy coaches are more effective when they have a clear plan for their collaborations with teachers. This article provides details of such a plan, which involves identifying a problem, understanding the problem, deciding what to do differently, and trying something different. For each phase of the problem-solving model, there are key tasks for…

Development of an Experimental Literacy Assessment Battery. Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sticht, Thomas G.; Beck, Lawrence J.

This report describes the development of a Literacy Assessment Battery (LAB) for determining the relative efficiency with which adults can comprehend language by reading or listening. Development of the LAB included: the tryout with adults of two listening and reading tests designed for children; experimental studies of a decoding task involving…

The Effects of a Summary Writing Strategy on the Literacy Skills of Adolescents with Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Asaro-Saddler, Kristie; Muir-Knox, Haley; Meredith, Holly

2018-01-01

Many adolescents, particularly adolescents with disabilities, have difficulty with literacy tasks such as reading and writing. Yet research has found that when students with disabilities receive appropriate instruction, they typically are able to improve their overall writing outcomes. This study explored the effectiveness of a summary writing…

The Foundations of Technology Course: Teachers Like It!

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moye, Johnny J.

2009-01-01

Over the past several decades there has been a call to raise student technological literacy. To take such an abstract concept and produce a program that will increase student science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) literacy was not an easy task. However, it was accomplished. During the past two years many United States school…

Enhancing the Development of Statistical Literacy through the Robot Bioglyph

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bragg, Leicha A.; Koch, Jessica; Willis, Ashley

2017-01-01

One way to heighten students' interest in the classroom is by personalising tasks. Through designing Robot Bioglyphs students are able to explore personalised data through a creative and engaging process. By understanding, producing and interpreting data, students are able to develop their statistical literacy, which is an essential skill in…

Cornerstones: Literacy Units Ready for Teachers, Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blasko, Jennifer; Donahue, Sheila

2008-01-01

Every day, teachers face the time-consuming task of adapting materials from curricula that do not meet their students' needs or match their learning styles. This article discusses ready-made literacy units specifically designed for teachers of deaf and hard of hearing students. The units were part of the Cornerstones Project, an activity of the…

Common Literacy Struggles with College Students: Using the Reciprocal Teaching Technique

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gruenbaum, Elizabeth A.

2012-01-01

Many college students struggle with the literacy skills needed to be successful in higher education (Bettinger & Long, 2009; Snyder, Tan, & Hoffman, 2004). The difficulties emerge within students' capabilities in reading and writing. Students must be taught the skills needed to be successful to complete the tasks assigned in college classes and in…

Health literacy and warfarin therapy at two anticoagulation clinics in Brazil

PubMed Central

Martins, Maria Auxiliadora Parreiras; Costa, Josiane Moreira; Mambrini, Juliana Vaz de Melo; Ribeiro, Antonio Luiz Pinho; Benjamin, Emelia J; Brant, Luisa Campos Caldeira; Paasche-Orlow, Michael K; Magnani, Jared W

2017-01-01

Objective Health literacy has been related to health-related conditions and health outcomes. Studies examining the association of health literacy and anticoagulation have had variable results. We sought to investigate the relations of health literacy and percentage of time in therapeutic range (TTR) in a vulnerable Brazilian cohort at two hospital-based anticoagulation clinics. Methods We measured health literacy with the Short Assessment of Health Literacy for Portuguese-speaking Adults (SAHLPA-18) in 2015–2016. We identified the demographic and clinical characteristics associated with health literacy and related health literacy to TTR. Results We enrolled 422 adults prescribed chronic warfarin therapy in our observational study (median age 62.1 years; 58.8% women; monthly income $200.00). The prevalence of inadequate health literacy (score 0–14 points) was 72.3% with a median score of 12 (quartiles, Q1=10; Q3=15) on the SAHLPA-18. The median TTR was 66.1%. In the multivariable logistic analysis, cognitive impairment and assistance with taking warfarin were associated with inadequate health literacy. Prosthetic heart valves and more school years were associated with adequate health literacy. Our analyses showed no significant relation between health literacy and TTR, analysing health literacy as a categorical (adjusted OR 1.05; 95% CI 0.65 to 1.70) or continuous variable (Spearman’s coefficient 0.02; p=0.70). Conclusions Inadequate health literacy was highly prevalent in this impoverished Brazilian cohort receiving anticoagulation with warfarin. However, we did not identify an association between health literacy and TTR. Future investigations may consider the systemic factors that contribute towards successful anticoagulation outcomes for vulnerable patient cohorts with inadequate health literacy. PMID:28258243

Health literacy and warfarin therapy at two anticoagulation clinics in Brazil.

PubMed

Martins, Maria Auxiliadora Parreiras; Costa, Josiane Moreira; Mambrini, Juliana Vaz de Melo; Ribeiro, Antonio Luiz Pinho; Benjamin, Emelia J; Brant, Luisa Campos Caldeira; Paasche-Orlow, Michael K; Magnani, Jared W

2017-07-01

Health literacy has been related to health-related conditions and health outcomes. Studies examining the association of health literacy and anticoagulation have had variable results. We sought to investigate the relations of health literacy and percentage of time in therapeutic range (TTR) in a vulnerable Brazilian cohort at two hospital-based anticoagulation clinics. We measured health literacy with the Short Assessment of Health Literacy for Portuguese-speaking Adults (SAHLPA-18) in 2015-2016. We identified the demographic and clinical characteristics associated with health literacy and related health literacy to TTR. We enrolled 422 adults prescribed chronic warfarin therapy in our observational study (median age 62.1 years; 58.8% women; monthly income $200.00). The prevalence of inadequate health literacy (score 0-14 points) was 72.3% with a median score of 12 (quartiles, Q1=10; Q3=15) on the SAHLPA-18. The median TTR was 66.1%. In the multivariable logistic analysis, cognitive impairment and assistance with taking warfarin were associated with inadequate health literacy. Prosthetic heart valves and more school years were associated with adequate health literacy. Our analyses showed no significant relation between health literacy and TTR, analysing health literacy as a categorical (adjusted OR 1.05; 95% CI 0.65 to 1.70) or continuous variable (Spearman's coefficient 0.02; p=0.70). Inadequate health literacy was highly prevalent in this impoverished Brazilian cohort receiving anticoagulation with warfarin. However, we did not identify an association between health literacy and TTR. Future investigations may consider the systemic factors that contribute towards successful anticoagulation outcomes for vulnerable patient cohorts with inadequate health literacy. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

Polysyllable Speech Accuracy and Predictors of Later Literacy Development in Preschool Children With Speech Sound Disorders.

PubMed

Masso, Sarah; Baker, Elise; McLeod, Sharynne; Wang, Cen

2017-07-12

The aim of this study was to determine if polysyllable accuracy in preschoolers with speech sound disorders (SSD) was related to known predictors of later literacy development: phonological processing, receptive vocabulary, and print knowledge. Polysyllables-words of three or more syllables-are important to consider because unlike monosyllables, polysyllables have been associated with phonological processing and literacy difficulties in school-aged children. They therefore have the potential to help identify preschoolers most at risk of future literacy difficulties. Participants were 93 preschool children with SSD from the Sound Start Study. Participants completed the Polysyllable Preschool Test (Baker, 2013) as well as phonological processing, receptive vocabulary, and print knowledge tasks. Cluster analysis was completed, and 2 clusters were identified: low polysyllable accuracy and moderate polysyllable accuracy. The clusters were significantly different based on 2 measures of phonological awareness and measures of receptive vocabulary, rapid naming, and digit span. The clusters were not significantly different on sound matching accuracy or letter, sound, or print concept knowledge. The participants' poor performance on print knowledge tasks suggested that as a group, they were at risk of literacy difficulties but that there was a cluster of participants at greater risk-those with both low polysyllable accuracy and poor phonological processing.

The Relationship between Parental Literacy Involvement, Socio-Economic Status and Reading Literacy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hemmerechts, Kenneth; Agirdag, Orhan; Kavadias, Dimokritos

2017-01-01

In this article, we explore the relationship between parental literacy activities with the child, socio-economic status (SES) and reading literacy. We draw upon the Bourdieusian theory of habitus development to explore this relationship. Multilevel analyses of a survey of 43,870 pupils (with an average age of 10 years) in 10 Western European…

Literacy Inequalities in Theory and Practice: The Power to Name and Define

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Street, Brian V.

2011-01-01

I analyse what exactly is being addressed when the notion of "literacy inequalities" is cited in the context of international policy with regard to education in general and literacy in particular. Whilst literacy statistics are used as indicators of social inequality and as a basis for policy in improving rights, educational attainment, etc., I…

National indicators of health literacy: ability to understand health information and to engage actively with healthcare providers - a population-based survey among Danish adults.

PubMed

Bo, Anne; Friis, Karina; Osborne, Richard H; Maindal, Helle Terkildsen

2014-10-22

Health literacy is a multidimensional concept covering a range of cognitive and social skills necessary for participation in health care. Knowledge of health literacy levels in general populations and how health literacy levels impacts on social health inequity is lacking. The primary aim of this study was to perform a population-based assessment of dimensions of health literacy related to understanding health information and to engaging with healthcare providers. Secondly, the aim was to examine associations between socio-economic characteristics with these dimensions of health literacy. A population-based survey was conducted between January and April 2013 in the Central Denmark Region. Postal invitations were sent to a random sample of 46,354 individuals >25 years of age. Two health literacy dimensions were selected from the Health Literacy Questionnaire (HLQ™): i) Understanding health information well enough to know what to do (5 items), and ii) Ability to actively engage with health care providers (5 items). Response options ranged from 1 (very difficult) to 4 (very easy). We investigated the level of perceived difficulty of each task, and the associations between the two dimensions and socio-economic characteristics. A total of 29,473 (63.6%) responded to the survey. Between 8.8%, 95% CI: 8.4-9.2 and 20.2%, 95% CI: 19.6-20.8 of the general population perceived the health literacy tasks as difficult or very difficult at the individual item level. On the scale level, the mean rating for i) understanding health information was 3.10, 95% CI: 3.09-3.10, and 3.07, 95% CI: 3.07-3.08 for ii) engagement with health care providers. Low levels of the two dimensions were associated with low income, low education level, living alone, and to non-Danish ethnicity. Associations with sex and age differed by the specific health literacy dimension. Estimates on two key dimensions of health literacy in a general population are now available. A substantial proportion of the Danish population perceives difficulties related to understanding health information and engaging with healthcare providers. The study supports previous findings of a socio-economic gradient in health literacy. New insight is provided on the feasibility of measuring health literacy which is of importance for optimising health systems.

Management of Hearing Aid Assembly by Urban-Dwelling Hearing-Impaired Adults in a Developed Country

PubMed Central

Keidser, Gitte; Hartley, Lisa; Caposecco, Andrea; Hickson, Louise; Meyer, Carly

2011-01-01

A self-fitting hearing aid, designed to be assembled and programmed without audiological or computer support, could bring amplification to millions of people in developing countries, who remain unaided due to the lack of a local, professional, audiological infrastructure. The ability to assemble and insert a hearing aid is fundamental to the successful use of a self-fitting device. In this study, the management of such tasks was investigated. Eighty older, urban-dwelling, hearing-impaired adults in a developed country were asked to follow a set of written, illustrated instructions to assemble two slim-fit behind-the-ear hearing aids. Participants were allowed to access assistance with the task from an accompanying partner. A range of personal and audiometric variables was measured through the use of structured questionnaires and standardized tests of health literacy, cognitive function, and manual dexterity. The results showed that 99% of participants were able to complete the hearing aid assembly task, either on their own or with assistance. Health literacy, or the ability to read and understand health-related text, and gender most strongly influenced participants’ ability to complete the assembly task independently and accurately. Higher levels of health literacy were associated with an increased likelihood of independent and successful task completion. Male participants were more likely to complete the task on their own, while female participants were more likely to assemble the device without errors. The results of this study will inform future work regarding development of educational material for the self-fitting hearing aid as well as candidacy for such a device. PMID:22200734

Case studies of community college non-science majors: Effects of self-regulatory interventions on biology self-efficacy and biological literacy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maurer, Matthew J.

Science literacy has been at the heart of current reform efforts in science education. The focus on developing essential skills needed for individual ability to be literate in science has been at the forefront of most K--12 science curricula. Reform efforts have begun to stretch into the postsecondary arena as well, with an ever increasing dialogue regarding the need for attention to science literacy by college students, especially non-science majors. This study set out to investigate how the use of self-regulatory interventions (specifically, goal setting, concept mapping, and reflective writing) affected student biology self-efficacy and biological literacy. This study employed a qualitative research design, analyzing three case studies. Participants in the study received ten self-regulatory interventions as a set of portfolio assignments. Portfolio work was qualitatively analyzed and coded for self-efficacy, as well as evidence of biological literacy. A biology self-efficacy survey was administered pre- and post- to provide a means of self-efficacy data triangulation. Literacy data was supported via a biological literacy rubric, constructed specifically for this study. Results indicated that mastery experiences were the source of biology self-efficacy. Self-efficacy for specific tasks increased over time, and changes in self-efficacy were corroborated by the self-efficacy survey. Students were found to express biological literacy at nominal, functional, or conceptual levels depending on the specific task. This was supported by data from the biological literacy rubric scores. Final conclusions and implications for the study indicated the need for further research with more samples of students in similar and different contexts. Given the fact that the literature in this area is sparse, the results obtained here have only begun to delve into this area of research. Generalization to other biology courses or contexts outside of the one presented in this study was cautioned until future studies can be conducted.

A More Literate Georgia: An Agenda for Action. A Report by the Dean's Literacy Task Force.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Georgia Univ., Athens. Coll. of Education.

The essays contained in this document, which launches the University of Georgia Education Initiative, attempt to address Georgia's need for increased literacy in realistic and constructive terms. Taken together, these essays constitute an agenda for action--a challenge to all those who wish to provide Georgians with the quality education they…

Into the Looking Glass: Literacy Acquisition and Mirror Invariance in Preschool and First-Grade Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fernandes, Tânia; Leite, Isabel; Kolinsky, Régine

2016-01-01

At what point in reading development does literacy impact object recognition and orientation processing? Is it specific to mirror images? To answer these questions, forty-six 5- to 7-year-old preschoolers and first graders performed two same-different tasks differing in the matching criterion-orientation-based versus shape-based (orientation…

Patterns of Problem-Solving in Children's Literacy and Arithmetic

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Farrington-Flint, Lee; Vanuxem-Cotterill, Sophie; Stiller, James

2009-01-01

Patterns of problem-solving among 5-to-7 year-olds' were examined on a range of literacy (reading and spelling) and arithmetic-based (addition and subtraction) problem-solving tasks using verbal self-reports to monitor strategy choice. The results showed higher levels of variability in the children's strategy choice across Years 1 and 2 on the…

Mathematical Literacy Teachers' Engagement with Contextual Tasks Based on Personal Finance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bansilal, Sarah; Mkhwanazi, Thokozani; Mahlabela, Patisizwe

2012-01-01

This article reports on a study carried out with a group of 108 practising Mathematical Literacy (ML) teachers who participated in an Advanced Certificate in Education (ACE) programme. The purpose of the qualitative study was to identify and describe the teachers' varying levels of engagement with mathematics tools and resources. The teachers were…

New Directions in Apprentice Selection: Self-Perceived "On the Job" Literacy (Reading) Demands of Apprentices.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Edwards, Peter; Gould, Warren

A study investigated the self-perceived, on-the-job literacy tasks of electrical mechanic apprentices in Victoria, Australia. A random sample of 401 apprentices from 19 locations representing all levels of apprenticeship training were questioned about their reading needs and the consequences of making a reading error in their work. Data were…

Balancing and Pointing Tasks in Dyslexic and Control Adults

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stoodley, Catherine J.; Fawcett, Angela J.; Nicolson, Roderick I.; Stein, John F.

2006-01-01

Developmental dyslexia may affect as much as 15% of the population, but the aetiology of the disorder is still being debated. The cerebellar theory of dyslexia proposes that cerebellar dysfunction could lead to the myriad of symptoms seen in dyslexic individuals, both in literacy and non-literacy domains. The cerebellum is crucial to the fluent…

Fostering Students' Statistical Literacy through Significant Learning Experience

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Krishnan, Saras

2015-01-01

A major objective of statistics education is to develop students' statistical literacy that enables them to be educated users of data in context. Teaching statistics in today's educational settings is not an easy feat because teachers have a huge task in keeping up with the demands of the new generation of learners. The present day students have…

Behavioural/Attentional Problems and Literacy Learning Difficulties in Children from Non-English Language/Cultural Backgrounds

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Everatt, John; Al-Sharhan, Abir; Al-Azmi, Yousuf; Al-Menaye, Nasser; Elbeher, Gad

2011-01-01

This article reports the findings of studies of the relationship between off-task behaviours and measures of educational achievement. The work focused on children from an Arabic-speaking/cultural background rarely studied in the literature. The first study involved children within a mainstream school context and found that measures of literacy and…

A Study of the 8th Grade Technology Literacy of a Michigan Charter School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Spruill, James E.

2014-01-01

As states adopt the common core state standards and next generation assessments for the 2014-2015 school year, the importance of students' technology literacy will increase Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium. The next generation assessments will require students to complete technology performance tasks. For the first time in mandatory testing,…

Name-Writing Proficiency, Not Length of Name, Is Associated with Preschool Children's Emergent Literacy Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Puranik, Cynthia S.; Lonigan, Christopher J.

2012-01-01

The goals of this study were twofold: first, to examine whether preschool children's name-writing proficiency differentiated them on other emergent reading and writing tasks, and second, to examine the effect of name length on preschool children's emergent literacy skills including alphabet knowledge and spelling. In Study 1, a range of emergent…

Contributions of Emergent Literacy Skills to Name Writing, Letter Writing, and Spelling in Preschool Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Puranik, Cynthia S.; Lonigan, Christopher J.; Kim, Young-Suk

2011-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine which emergent literacy skills contribute to preschool children's emergent writing (name-writing, letter-writing, and spelling) skills. Emergent reading and writing tasks were administered to 296 preschool children aged 4-5 years. Print knowledge and letter-writing skills made positive contributions to name…

Literacy Models and the Reconstruction of History Education: A Comparative Discourse Analysis of Two Lesson Plans

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Collin, Ross; Reich, Gabriel A.

2015-01-01

This article presents discourse analyses of two lesson plans designed for secondary school history classes. Although the plans focus on the same topic, they rely on different models of content area literacy: disciplinary literacy, or reading and writing like experts in a given domain, and critical literacy, or reading and writing to address…

Adolescents' Financial Literacy: The Role of Financial Socialization Agents, Financial Experiences, and Money Attitudes in Shaping Financial Literacy among South Korean Youth

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sohn, Sang-Hee; Joo, So-Hyun; Grable, John E.; Lee, Seonglim; Kim, Minjeung

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study was to test the relationships between financial socialization agents, financial experiences, money attitudes, demographic characteristics, and the financial literacy of Korean adolescents. Using the 2006 Korean National Financial Literacy Test Survey for Adolescents (N = 1185), a series of regression analyses were…

Parent Health Literacy and Communication With Diabetes Educators in a Pediatric Diabetes Clinic: A Mixed Methods Approach.

PubMed

Howe, Carol J; Cipher, Daisha J; LeFlore, Judy; Lipman, Terri H

2015-01-01

Low health literacy is associated with poor communication between adults and providers, but little is known about how parents' health literacy influences communication in pediatric encounters. We examined how parent health literacy affected communication between parents and diabetes educators in a pediatric diabetes clinic. A mixed methods study was conducted including a cross-sectional survey of 162 parents and semi-structured interviews with a subsample of 24 parents of a child with Type 1 diabetes. Parent and child characteristics, parents' report of quality of communication, and parent health literacy were assessed. Logistic regression was performed to determine associations between health literacy and 4 subscales of the Interpersonal Processes of Care (IPC) survey; directed content analyses of interview data were completed. Although health literacy was not significantly associated with the IPC subscales, results from directed content analyses revealed different communication experiences for parents by health literacy classification. Low health literate parents were confused by diabetes jargon, preferred hands-on teaching, and wished for information to be communicated in simple language, broken down into key points, and repeated. Parents with adequate health literacy wanted comprehensive information communicated through ongoing dialogue. Findings indicate that learner-driven curricula may be most appropriate for diabetes education.

Specifying a curriculum for biopolitical critical literacy in science teacher education: exploring roles for science fiction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gough, Noel

2017-12-01

In this essay I suggest some ways in which science teacher educators in Western neoliberal economies might facilitate learners' development of a critical literacy concerning the social and cultural changes signified by the concept of biopolitics. I consider how such a biopolitically inflected critical literacy might find expression in a science teacher education curriculum and suggest a number of ways of materializing such a curriculum in specific literatures, media, procedures, and assessment tasks, with particular reference to the contributions of science fiction in popular media.

Student Writing Accepted as High-Quality Responses to Analytic Text-Based Writing Tasks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Elaine; Matsumura, Lindsay Clare; Correnti, Richard

2018-01-01

Literacy standards increasingly emphasize the importance of analytic text-based writing. Little consensus exists, however, around what high-quality student responses should look like in this genre. In this study, we investigated fifth-grade students' writing in response to analytic text-based writing tasks (15 teachers, 44 writing tasks, 88 pieces…

Northeast Texas Agricultural Literacy Network (A-Lit-NeT: A Rural College Partnership Project). Handbook for Customizing Workplace Literacy to Employer Training Needs.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carnes, John

Problems associated with the poor academic and technical preparation of many workers can be addressed through the use of occupational analysis techniques coupled with the development of curricula based on the results of such analyses. This workplace literacy handbook describes five stages in analyzing business literacy needs and developing…

Word Reading and Word Spelling in French Adult Literacy Students: The Relationship with Oral Language Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eme, Elsa; Lambert, Eric; Alamargot, Denis

2014-01-01

We analysed word reading and spelling in French adults with low levels of literacy (A-IL). As well as examining phonological and lexical processes, we explored the relationship between literacy and oral language skills. Fifty-two adult literacy students were compared with reading level-matched pupils in Years 1-3 of primary school on reading tasks…

Information Literacy Practices and Student Protests: Mapping Community Information Landscapes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Špiranec, Sonja; Kos, Denis

2013-01-01

Introduction: This paper provides a contribution to understandings of information literacy regarding context and transferability of information practices. Specifically, the paper analyses the subset of information practices in situations of student protests and addresses issues of transfer of information literacy practice from a highly formal…

Predictors of Success with Writing in the First Year of School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mackenzie, Noella; Hemmings, Brian

2014-01-01

Language and literacy skills are instrumental to success at school and early success with writing is a key factor in literacy development. By eight years of age, children spend up to half of their school day engaged in writing tasks suggesting that those who find learning to write difficult may be disadvantaged. The ability to hear and record…

Approaches to Learning with Media and Media Literacy Education--Trends and Current Situation in Germany

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tulodziecki, Gerhard; Grafe, Silke

2012-01-01

German approaches to media literacy education are concerned with the questions, how the variety of media can be used in a meaningful way for learning and teaching and what educational tasks result from the extensive use of media. Considering these questions there are various conceptual ideas, research and development projects as well as…

Maternal Scaffolding of Preschoolers' Writing Using Tablet and Paper-Pencil Tasks: Relations with Emergent Literacy Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Neumann, Michelle M.

2018-01-01

Mothers play a key role in scaffolding children's writing using traditional tools, such as paper and pencil. However, little is known about how mothers scaffold young children's writing using touch-screen tablets (e.g., iPads) and the associations between maternal scaffolding and emergent literacy. Mother-child dyads (N = 47; M child…

Searching for French Civilization: Reflections On Situating Information Literacy Skills in an Undergraduate Curriculum

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Reilly, Carmel

2014-01-01

This chapter questions and reflects on the changing role of the foreign language and civilization lecturer as educator, when information literacy skills are situated in an undergraduate curriculum. As such, it does not set itself the task of providing solutions. Instead, it considers all the complications which occur en route to a greater use of…

Review of Interventions to Enhance the Health Communication of People with Intellectual Disabilities: A Communicative Health Literacy Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chinn, Deborah

2017-01-01

Background: Communicative health literacy is a term relating to the range of competencies and capabilities patients bring to the task of seeking information about their health and sharing it with others. This exchange can be problematic for people with intellectual disabilities. The aim of this review was to synthesize findings from interventions…

A Quantitative Methodology for Determining the Critical Benchmarks for Project 2061 Strand Maps

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kuhn, G.

2008-01-01

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) was tasked with identifying the key science concepts for science literacy in K-12 students in America (AAAS, 1990, 1993). The AAAS Atlas of Science Literacy (2001) has organized roughly half of these science concepts or benchmarks into fifty flow charts. Each flow chart or strand map…

A Case Study of the Features of Oral Narratives Produced by a Small Group of Children with Sensory Processing Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kingston, Helen Chen

2009-01-01

Research indicates that oral narrative is the discourse form that functions as a bridge between conversational oral language and language skills that contribute to the acquisition of literacy in children (Westby, 1991). Learning to tell stories, therefore, is important to children's literacy development. Mastering extended discourse tasks such as…

How to Motivate Adults with Low Literacy and Numeracy Skills to Engage and Persist in Learning: A Literature Review of Policy Interventions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Windisch, Hendrickje Catriona

2016-01-01

Low basic skills levels of adults are a complex policy problem which has neither straightforward causes nor solutions, and successful interventions are still relatively rare. Tackling serious literacy and numeracy weaknesses among adults is challenging, partly because the task itself is difficult, and partly because even if accomplished…

Making Their Voices Count: Using Students' Perspectives to Inform Literacy Instruction for Striving Middle Grade Readers with Academic Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Groff, Carolyn

2014-01-01

The consequences of lack of reading and poor reading skills are problematic for all students, regardless of background; however, for middle grade striving readers with academic difficulties these problems can lead to lower self-efficacy and motivation to engage in literacy tasks. Using the perspectives of urban, middle grade special education…

Approaches to Costing Adult Literacy Programmes, Especially in Africa

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carr-Hill, Roy; Roberts, Fiona; Currie, Elizabeth

2010-01-01

Background: This study was originally prepared for the African Inter-Ministerial Conference on Literacy (September 2007) with the objective of analysing the costs of successful adult literacy programmes run both by government ministries, as well as international and national non-governmental organisations. Objectives: This study aims to increase…

Digital Literacy: A Palestinian Refugee Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Traxler, John

2018-01-01

This paper is the first attempt to explore digital literacy in the specific context of the Palestinian refugee community in the Middle East by looking at the cultural specificity of digital literacy theorising and practice, by analysing current digital education policy in the countries hosting the Palestinian refugee community and by documenting…

ARE LITERACY SKILLS ASSOCIATED WITH YOUNG ADULTS’ HEALTH IN AFRICA? EVIDENCE FROM MALAWI

PubMed Central

Smith-Greenaway, Emily

2014-01-01

This study investigates whether literacy skills are a distinct dimension of education that influences young adults’ health in the southeast African context of Malawi. It uses new data from Tsogolo la Thanzi, a study of young adults in southern Malawi, to achieve three aims. The first is descriptive: to demonstrate a direct assessment for measuring literacy in a population-based survey, and show that it captures variability in skills among young adults, including those with comparable levels of educational attainment. The second aim is to identify whether literacy influences young adults’ health—net of their educational attainment and other confounding factors. Multivariate analyses reveal that literacy is associated with two measures of physical health: self-rated health and prolonged sickness. Because literacy is a key determinant of health, the third aim is to provide insight into how to measure it: can commonly used indirect approaches to estimating literacy (e.g., based on educational attainment or self-reports), accurately capture its prevalence and relationship with health? In a second set of analyses, bivariate results show whether, and the extent to which, indirect measures of literacy overestimate literacy’s prevalence, and multivariate models assess whether indirect estimates of literacy capture its relationship with health. The findings support future efforts to incorporate literacy assessments into population surveys to accurately estimate literacy’s prevalence and health benefits, particularly in contexts like Malawi where access to high-quality schools remains limited. PMID:25164414

Health literacy and participation in sports club activities among adolescents.

PubMed

Paakkari, Leena; Kokko, Sami; Villberg, Jari; Paakkari, Olli; Tynjälä, Jorma

2017-12-01

The aim of this research was to compare the levels of perceived health literacy among adolescents who do or do not participate in sports club activities. Organized sport club activities reach a high proportion of adolescents, and have the potential to contribute to the development of their health literacy. The cross-sectional data on health literacy among school children in Finland (aged 13 and 15, n=3852) were measured, as a part of the Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC) study, using the Health Literacy for School-aged Children (HLSAC) instrument. Sports club participation and its association with health literacy were examined in relation to age, gender, family affluence, school achievement, and physical activity. The statistical analyses included cross-tabulation and the multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression analyses. Perceived health literacy was higher among adolescents who participated in sports club activities. This conclusion was valid for boys and girls, for both age groups, among those who were physically active 6-7 days a week, had at least moderate school achievement, and those who belonged to the middle or high affluence families. From the health literacy perspective, participation in sports club activities was especially beneficial for those having low or moderate school achievement level. The sports club setting may work towards equalizing health literacy differences related to school achievement. However, the clubs should ensure that access is available to as many adolescents as possible; by this means they may spread beneficial influences, supporting the development of health literacy among broader population groups.

The Montana State University Conceptual Model of Complementary and Alternative Medicine Health Literacy

PubMed Central

Shreffler-Grant, Jean; Nichols, Elizabeth; Weinert, Clarann; Ide, Bette

2016-01-01

This article aims to present and describe a model of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) health literacy. The model is the conceptual basis for CAM health literacy, which is operationally defined as the information about CAM needed to make informed self-management decisions regarding health. Improving health literacy is a national priority, and widespread use of CAM has added to the complexity of this task. There are no currently available models or measures of health literacy regarding CAM. The authors developed the model using an iterative process of deriving concepts, constructs, and empirical indicators from the literature and the author’s prior work, review and critique by experts, and revision. The model of CAM health literacy can serve as the basis for future research on the use and efficacy of CAM and the constructs and concepts within it can be used to identify points of intervention for research or for clinical practice. It is anticipated that the model will have scientific and clinical application for assessing health literacy in other self care decision-making situations. PMID:23889542

The Montana State University conceptual model of complementary and alternative medicine health literacy.

PubMed

Shreffler-Grant, Jean; Nichols, Elizabeth; Weinert, Clarann; Ide, Bette

2013-01-01

This article aims to present and describe a model of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) health literacy. The model is the conceptual basis for CAM health literacy, which is operationally defined as the information about CAM needed to make informed self-management decisions regarding health. Improving health literacy is a national priority, and widespread use of CAM has added to the complexity of this task. There are no currently available models or measures of health literacy regarding CAM. The authors developed the model using an iterative process of deriving concepts, constructs, and empirical indicators from the literature and the author's prior work, review and critique by experts, and revision. The model of CAM health literacy can serve as the basis for future research on the use and efficacy of CAM and the constructs and concepts within it can be used to identify points of intervention for research or for clinical practice. It is anticipated that the model will have scientific and clinical application for assessing health literacy in other self care decision-making situations.

Student’s STEM Literacy in Biotechnology Learning at Junior High School

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nurlaely, N.; Permanasari, A.; Riandi, R.

2017-09-01

A considerable study to student’s STEM literacy achievement profile, especially in biotechnology learning, has been conducted to make the innovation of the STEM-based learning. The study aims to find out the STEM literacy. The sample is taken through purposive sampling technique to 45 students of 9th grade of a junior high school in Tasikmalaya district. The instruments are multiple choice questions. Data are analysed by calculating mean score of students’ STEM literacy achievement. The results show that student’s STEM literacy achievement was low. Science literacy aspect was the lowest, while mathematical literacy gained better than another aspect. The low achievement of students’ STEM literacy was because of learning activities that have not been able to integrate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in science learning. The literacy profile indicates the importance of applying STEM approach to science learning, and it is recommended to improve students’ STEM literacy achievement.

"What if This Really Happened?" Using Critical Literacy Practices and Dystopian Fiction to Mediate Self-Efficacy with At-Risk Readers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wilcox, Sherri Kirkland

2015-01-01

At-risk students are oftenn unmotivated and disengaged from literacy activities. They are sometimes below grade level and feel inadequate to accomplish the complex reading tasks with which they are confronted in high school; therefore, they often will not even attempt to do the work (Bandura, 1986). Students who are assigned to a Disciplinary…

Environmental Literacy in America: What Ten Years of NEETF/Roper Research and Related Studies Say about Environmental Literacy in the U.S.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coyle, Kevin

2005-01-01

In 1944, noted conservationist Aldo Leopold wrote: "Acts of conservation without the requisite desires and skill are futile. To create these desires and skills, and the community motive, is the task of education." Almost sixty years later, in January 2003, the National Science Foundation released a report of its Advisory Committee for…

Using Writing Process and Product Features to Assess Writing Quality and Explore How Those Features Relate to Other Literacy Tasks. Research Report. ETS RR-14-03

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Deane, Paul

2014-01-01

This paper explores automated methods for measuring features of student writing and determining their relationship to writing quality and other features of literacy, such as reading rest scores. In particular, it uses the "e-rater"™ automatic essay scoring system to measure "product" features (measurable traits of the final…

A Linguistic Analysis of the Sample Numeracy Skills Test Items for Pre-Service Teachers Issued by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Keeffe, Lisa; O'Halloran, Kay L.; Wignell, Peter; Tan, Sabine

2017-01-01

In 2015, the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) was tasked with developing literacy and numeracy skills testing for pre-service teachers. All undergraduate and postgraduate trainee teachers are now required to pass these literacy and numeracy tests at some stage on their journey to becoming a teacher; for commencing students from…

Scientific Literacy and the South African School Curriculum

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lelliott, Anthony

2014-01-01

The notion of scientific literacy is contested terrain, particularly when the term is used in school curricula. Using a scientific literacy framework of Vision I (covers science products and processes) and Vision II (based on science-related situations as a starting point for discussion), the article analyses the Natural Science (grades 7-9)…

Constructing Identities through Literacy Events in HIV/AIDS Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Higgins, Christina

2014-01-01

This article examines the literacy events in HIV/AIDS education in Tanzania to investigate how they construct social identities for participants and to what extent they provide opportunities for critical health literacies. The projects took place as collaborative research partnerships with local Tanzanian NGOs in an effort to analyse and improve…

Challenges of Literacy Coaching in High School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gross, Patricia A.

2012-01-01

This qualitative case study examined a state-run, foundation-funded initiative to introduce literacy coaching in a medium-sized urban high school district over a period of two years. Data analyses revealed the complex development and multiple understandings of the process of literacy coaching on the secondary level. The role of the coaches…

Technological Difficulties: A Theoretical Frame for Understanding the Non-Relativistic Permanence of Traditional Print Literacy in Elementary Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hassett, Dawnene D.

2006-01-01

Currently, definitions of "science", "reading", and "literacy" in the US lend a seemingly nonrelativistic permanence to these terms, and render them resistant to critique. This paper offers a theoretical frame for critiquing this permanence, analysing why early-literacy instruction is tightly tied to traditional forms…

Analysis of Expert Readers in Three Disciplines: History, Mathematics, and Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shanahan, Cynthia; Shanahan, Timothy; Misischia, Cynthia

2011-01-01

The purpose of this study is to describe educationally relevant differences in literacy use among three subject-matter disciplines--history, chemistry, and mathematics. These analyses were drawn from an investigation of the teaching of disciplinary literacy in high schools. The purpose of the overall project was to improve the literacy-teaching…

Information literacy in science writing: how students find, identify, and use scientific literature

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Klucevsek, Kristin M.; Brungard, Allison B.

2016-11-01

For undergraduate students to achieve science literacy, they must first develop information literacy skils. These skills align with Information Literacy Standards and include determining appropriate databases, distinguishing among resource types, and citing resources ethically. To effectively improve information literacy and science literacy, we must identify how students interact with authentic scientific texts. In this case study, we addressed this aim by embedding a science librarian into a science writing course, where students wrote a literature review on a research topic of their choice. Library instruction was further integrated through the use of an online guide and outside assistance. To evaluate the evolution of information literacy in our students and provide evidence of student practices, we used task-scaffolded writing assessments, a reflection, and surveys. We found that students improved their ability and confidence in finding research articles using discipline-specific databases as well as their ability to distinguish primary from secondary research articles. We also identified ways students improperly used and cited resources in their writing assignments. While our results reveal a better understanding of how students find and approach scientific research articles, additional research is needed to develop effective strategies to improve long-term information literacy in the sciences.

Constructing Literacy in the Kindergarten: Task Structure, Collaboration, and Motivation

PubMed Central

Nolen, Susan Bobbitt

2009-01-01

This ethnographic study explores kindergarten children’s emergent motivation to read and write, its relation to their developing concepts of reading and writing (Guice & Johnston, 1994; Johnston, 1997; Turner, 1995), and to their teachers instructional goals and classroom norms. Teachers and students together constructed legitimate literate activity in their classrooms, and this construction framed the motivation of students who were at risk for developing learning disabilities in reading and writing. Specifically, the kinds of reading and writing activity that were sanctioned in each class and the role of student–student collaboration colored students’ views of the purposes of literacy and their own ability to learn. Findings extend our understanding of how young children’s literacy motivation influences, and is influenced by, their classroom literacy culture. Implications for early literacy instruction for children with learning disabilities, and for their continuing motivation to read and write, are discussed. PMID:19727336

Maternal Health Literacy Is Associated with Early Childhood Nutritional Status in India.

PubMed

Johri, Mira; Subramanian, S V; Koné, Georges K; Dudeja, Sakshi; Chandra, Dinesh; Minoyan, Nanor; Sylvestre, Marie-Pierre; Pahwa, Smriti

2016-07-01

The global burden of child undernutrition is concentrated in South Asia, where gender inequality and female educational disadvantage are important factors. Maternal health literacy is linked to women's education and empowerment, can influence multiple malnutrition determinants, and is rapidly modifiable. This study investigated whether maternal health literacy is associated with child undernutrition in 2 resource-poor Indian populations. We conducted cross-sectional surveys in an urban and a rural site, interviewing 1 woman with a child aged 12-23 mo/household. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted independently for each site. The main exposure was maternal health literacy. We assessed respondents' ability to understand, appraise, and apply health-related information with the use of Indian health promotion materials. The main outcomes were severe stunting, severe underweight, and severe wasting. We classified children as having a severe nutritional deficiency if their z score was <-3 SDs from the WHO reference population for children of the same age and sex. Analyses controlled for potential confounding factors including parental education and household wealth. Rural and urban analyses included 1116 and 657 mother-child pairs, respectively. In each site, fully adjusted models showed that children of mothers with high health literacy had approximately half the likelihood of being severely stunted (rural adjusted OR: 0.50; 95% CI: 0.33, 0.74; P = 0.001; urban adjusted OR: 0.58; 95% CI: 0.35, 0.94; P = 0.028) or severely underweight (rural adjusted OR: 0.57; 95% CI: 0.38, 0.87; P = 0.009; urban adjusted OR: 0.48; 95% CI: 0.25, 0.91; P = 0.025) than children of mothers with low health literacy. Health literacy was not associated with severe wasting. In resource-poor rural and urban settings in India, maternal health literacy is associated with child nutritional status. Programs targeting health literacy may offer effective entry points for intervention. © 2016 American Society for Nutrition.

Addressing the "other" health literacy competencies--knowledge, dispositions, and oral/aural communication: development of TALKDOC, an intervention assessment tool.

PubMed

Helitzer, Deborah; Hollis, Christine; Sanders, Margaret; Roybal, Suzanne

2012-01-01

Most health literacy assessments evaluate literacy skills including reading, writing; numeracy and interpretation of tables, graphs, diagrams and charts. Some assess understanding of health systems, and the ability to adequately apply one's skills to specific health-related tasks or demands in health situations. However, to achieve functional health literacy, the ability to "obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions," other health literacy dimensions should be assessed: a person's knowledge and attitudes about a health issue affects his or her ability to and interest in participating in his or her own care. In patient care settings, the abilities to listen, ask questions and check one's understanding are crucial to making appropriate decisions and carrying out instructions. Although literacy is a skill associated with educational attainment and therefore difficult to change in a short time, health education interventions can address health literacy domains such as knowledge, attitudes and oral communication skills. For this reason, an instrument that can assess these constructs is a valuable part of a health educator's toolbox. The authors describe the development and process and outcomes of testing a novel instrument targeted to assess HPV and cervical cancer health literacy competencies, TALKDOC, including its validation with the Health Activities Literacy Scale.

Visual cortex activation in late-onset, Braille naive blind individuals: an fMRI study during semantic and phonological tasks with heard words.

PubMed

Burton, Harold; McLaren, Donald G

2006-01-09

Visual cortex activity in the blind has been shown in Braille literate people, which raise the question of whether Braille literacy influences cross-modal reorganization. We used fMRI to examine visual cortex activation during semantic and phonological tasks with auditory presentation of words in two late-onset blind individuals who lacked Braille literacy. Multiple visual cortical regions were activated in the Braille naive individuals. Positive BOLD responses were noted in lower tier visuotopic (e.g., V1, V2, VP, and V3) and several higher tier visual areas (e.g., V4v, V8, and BA 37). Activity was more extensive and cross-correlation magnitudes were greater during the semantic compared to the phonological task. These results with Braille naive individuals plausibly suggest that visual deprivation alone induces visual cortex reorganization. Cross-modal reorganization of lower tier visual areas may be recruited by developing skills in attending to selected non-visual inputs (e.g., Braille literacy, enhanced auditory skills). Such learning might strengthen remote connections with multisensory cortical areas. Of necessity, the Braille naive participants must attend to auditory stimulation for language. We hypothesize that learning to attend to non-visual inputs probably strengthens the remaining active synapses following visual deprivation, and thereby, increases cross-modal activation of lower tier visual areas when performing highly demanding non-visual tasks of which reading Braille is just one example.

Visual cortex activation in late-onset, Braille naive blind individuals: An fMRI study during semantic and phonological tasks with heard words

PubMed Central

Burton, Harold; McLaren, Donald G.

2013-01-01

Visual cortex activity in the blind has been shown in Braille literate people, which raise the question of whether Braille literacy influences cross-modal reorganization. We used fMRI to examine visual cortex activation during semantic and phonological tasks with auditory presentation of words in two late-onset blind individuals who lacked Braille literacy. Multiple visual cortical regions were activated in the Braille naive individuals. Positive BOLD responses were noted in lower tier visuotopic (e.g., V1, V2, VP, and V3) and several higher tier visual areas (e.g., V4v, V8, and BA 37). Activity was more extensive and cross-correlation magnitudes were greater during the semantic compared to the phonological task. These results with Braille naive individuals plausibly suggest that visual deprivation alone induces visual cortex reorganization. Cross-modal reorganization of lower tier visual areas may be recruited by developing skills in attending to selected non-visual inputs (e.g., Braille literacy, enhanced auditory skills). Such learning might strengthen remote connections with multisensory cortical areas. Of necessity, the Braille naive participants must attend to auditory stimulation for language. We hypothesize that learning to attend to non-visual inputs probably strengthens the remaining active synapses following visual deprivation, and thereby, increases cross-modal activation of lower tier visual areas when performing highly demanding non-visual tasks of which reading Braille is just one example. PMID:16198053

Teaching for Skill Mastery

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chepko, Stevie; Doan, Robert

2015-01-01

This article focuses on establishing a mastery climate where all students find success and start on the road to physical literacy. Using a five-step approach, physical educators will be offered guidance for developing practice tasks that lead to skill mastery. These steps include creating a mastery environment, designing deliberate practice tasks,…

Using Writing Tasks to Elicit Adolescents' Historical Reasoning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Monte-Sano, Chauncey; De La Paz, Susan

2012-01-01

One path to improving adolescents' literacy skills is to integrate reading and writing into the content areas in which such work occurs. Although argumentative writing has been found to help students understand historical content and transform information, scholars do not know the influence of specific task structures on students' writing or…

A Literacy Task to Assist Reader Awareness in Children's Informational Writing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Holliway, David

2010-01-01

That our writing can be misunderstood by our readers is a conceptual difficulty for developing writers. This paper outlines a perspective-taking process that assists elementary students in composing referentially detailed descriptions. Through a procedural sequence that includes drafting, feedback, readers' perspective task, revision and drafting…

Visual Processing on Graphics Task: The Case of a Street Map

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Logan, Tracy; Lowrie, Tom

2013-01-01

Tracy Logan and Tom Lowrie argue that while little attention is given to visual imagery and spatial reasoning within the Australian Curriculum, a significant proportion of National Assessment Program--Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) tasks require high levels of visuospatial reasoning. This article includes teaching ideas to promote visuospatial…

Association between maternal health literacy and child vaccination in India: a cross-sectional study

PubMed Central

Johri, Mira; Subramanian, S V; Sylvestre, Marie-Pierre; Dudeja, Sakshi; Chandra, Dinesh; Koné, Georges K; Sharma, Jitendar K; Pahwa, Smriti

2015-01-01

Background Education of mothers may improve child health. We investigated whether maternal health literacy, a rapidly modifiable factor related to mother's education, was associated with children's receipt of vaccines in two underserved Indian communities. Methods Cross-sectional surveys in an urban and a rural site. We assessed health literacy using Indian child health promotion materials. The outcome was receipt of three doses of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP3) vaccine. We used multivariate logistic regression to investigate the relationship between maternal health literacy and vaccination status independently in each site. For both sites, adjusted models considered maternal age, maternal and paternal education, child sex, birth order, household religion and wealth quintile. Rural analyses used multilevel models adjusted for service delivery characteristics. Urban analyses represented cluster characteristics through fixed effects. Results The rural analysis included 1170 women from 60 villages. The urban analysis included 670 women from nine slum clusters. In each site, crude and adjusted models revealed a positive association between maternal health literacy and DTP3. In the rural site, the adjusted OR was 1.57 (95% CI 1.11 to 2.21, p=0.010) for those with medium health literacy, and OR=1.30 (95% CI 0.89 to 1.91, p=0.172) for those with high health literacy. In the urban site, the adjusted OR was 1.10 (95% CI 0.65 to 1.88, p=0.705) for those with medium health literacy, and OR=2.06 (95% CI 1.06 to 3.99, p=0.032) for those with high health literacy. Conclusions In these study settings, maternal health literacy is independently associated with child vaccination. Initiatives targeting health literacy could improve vaccination coverage. PMID:25827469

Poorer Financial and Health Literacy Among Community-Dwelling Older Adults With Mild Cognitive Impairment

PubMed Central

Han, S. Duke; Boyle, Patricia A.; James, Bryan D.; Yu, Lei; Bennett, David A.

2015-01-01

Objective Literacy is an important determinant of financial and health outcomes in old age, and cognitive decline has been linked with lower literacy. We tested the hypothesis that mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is associated with poorer financial and health literacy. Method Participants (n = 730) from the Rush Memory and Aging Project were given a clinical evaluation and an assessment of total, financial, and health literacy. Regression was used to examine whether MCI was associated with lower literacy. In secondary analyses, we investigated the association of particular cognitive systems with literacy. Results MCI was associated with lower total, financial, and health literacy. An interaction was observed such that higher education reduced the effect of MCI on total and financial literacy. Multiple cognitive systems were associated with literacy in participants with MCI, and semantic memory accounted for the most variance. Discussion Persons with MCI exhibit poorer financial and health literacy, and education mitigates this effect. PMID:25903976

Poorer Financial and Health Literacy Among Community-Dwelling Older Adults With Mild Cognitive Impairment.

PubMed

Han, S Duke; Boyle, Patricia A; James, Bryan D; Yu, Lei; Bennett, David A

2015-09-01

Literacy is an important determinant of financial and health outcomes in old age, and cognitive decline has been linked with lower literacy. We tested the hypothesis that mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is associated with poorer financial and health literacy. Participants (n = 730) from the Rush Memory and Aging Project were given a clinical evaluation and an assessment of total, financial, and health literacy. Regression was used to examine whether MCI was associated with lower literacy. In secondary analyses, we investigated the association of particular cognitive systems with literacy. MCI was associated with lower total, financial, and health literacy. An interaction was observed such that higher education reduced the effect of MCI on total and financial literacy. Multiple cognitive systems were associated with literacy in participants with MCI, and semantic memory accounted for the most variance. Persons with MCI exhibit poorer financial and health literacy, and education mitigates this effect. © The Author(s) 2015.

Lexical restructuring in the absence of literacy.

PubMed

Venturaa, Paulo; Kolinsky, Régine; Fernandesa, Sandra; Queridoa, Luís; Morais, José

2007-11-01

Vocabulary growth was suggested to prompt the implementation of increasingly finer-grained lexical representations of spoken words in children (e.g., [Metsala, J. L., & Walley, A. C. (1998). Spoken vocabulary growth and the segmental restructuring of lexical representations: precursors to phonemic awareness and early reading ability. In J. L. Metsala & L. C. Ehri (Eds.), Word recognition in beginning literacy (pp. 89-120). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.]). Although literacy was not explicitly mentioned in this lexical restructuring hypothesis, the process of learning to read and spell might also have a significant impact on the specification of lexical representations (e.g., [Carroll, J. M., & Snowling, M. J. (2001). The effects of global similarity between stimuli on children's judgments of rime and alliteration. Applied Psycholinguistics, 22, 327-342.]; [Goswami, U. (2000). Phonological representations, reading development and dyslexia: Towards a cross-linguistic theoretical framework. Dyslexia, 6, 133-151.]). This is what we checked in the present study. We manipulated word frequency and neighborhood density in a gating task (Experiment 1) and a word-identification-in-noise task (Experiment 2) presented to Portuguese literate and illiterate adults. Ex-illiterates were also tested in Experiment 2 in order to disentangle the effects of vocabulary size and literacy. There was an interaction between word frequency and neighborhood density, which was similar in the three groups. These did not differ even for the words that are supposed to undergo lexical restructuring the latest (low frequency words from sparse neighborhoods). Thus, segmental lexical representations seem to develop independently of literacy. While segmental restructuring is not affected by literacy, it constrains the development of phoneme awareness as shown by the fact that, in Experiment 3, neighborhood density modulated the phoneme deletion performance of both illiterates and ex-illiterates.

How the Mastery Rubric for Statistical Literacy Can Generate Actionable Evidence about Statistical and Quantitative Learning Outcomes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tractenberg, Rochelle E.

2017-01-01

Statistical literacy is essential to an informed citizenry; and two emerging trends highlight a growing need for training that achieves this literacy. The first trend is towards "big" data: while automated analyses can exploit massive amounts of data, the interpretation--and possibly more importantly, the replication--of results are…

Lifelong Literacies. Papers from the 1996 Conference (Manchester, England, United Kingdom, May 1996).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fitzpatrick, Stella, Ed.; Mace, Jane, Ed.

This collection of 17 papers, presented at a conference in May 1996, documents some of the current thinking about adult literacy education in Great Britain. The first of the three sections of the papers, "Some Context," contains two analyses of the political and economic realities within which potential participants in adult literacy and…

Unraveling Genetic and Environmental Components of Early Literacy: A Twin Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bus, A. G.; Out, D.

2009-01-01

Even though the acquisition of early literacy skills obviously depends on stimuli and incentives in children's environment we may expect that genes define the constraints for acquiring some or all early literacy skills. Therefore behavior genetic analyses were carried out on twin data including 27 identical and 39 same sex dizygotic twins, 4 years…

Developing Deep Understanding and Literacy while Addressing a Gender-Based Literacy Gap

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sun, Yanqing; Zhang, Jianwei; Scardamalia, Marlene

2010-01-01

Online discourse from a class of 22 students (11 boys and 11 girls) was analysed to assess advances in conceptual understanding and literacy. The students worked over a two-year period (Grades 3-4), during which they contributed notes to an online Knowledge Building environment--Knowledge Forum[R]. Contributions revealed that both boys and girls…

Implementation Quality of Family Literacy Programmes: A Review of Literature

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de la Rie, S.; van Steensel, R. C. M.; van Gelderen, A. J. S.

2017-01-01

Raising the literacy levels of young children is a major concern in many countries for which various programmes have been suggested. One of these is family literacy programmes. In previous meta-analyses wide variability in effects has been found and it has been suggested that this is partly caused by variability in implementation quality. This…

Swimming against the Tide: Boys, Literacies, and Schooling--An Australian Story

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alloway, Nola

2007-01-01

This article focuses on issues related to boys, literacies, and schooling as played out in the Australian context. It reflects on the swathe of populist discourse centring on boys, and on literacy, that drives a potentially divisive education agenda. In providing more nuanced analyses of the debates surrounding the disputed territory of boys,…

The influence of graphic display format on the interpretations of quantitative risk information among adults with lower education and literacy: a randomized experimental study.

PubMed

McCaffery, Kirsten J; Dixon, Ann; Hayen, Andrew; Jansen, Jesse; Smith, Sian; Simpson, Judy M

2012-01-01

To test optimal graphic risk communication formats for presenting small probabilities using graphics with a denominator of 1000 to adults with lower education and literacy. A randomized experimental study, which took place in adult basic education classes in Sydney, Australia. The participants were 120 adults with lower education and literacy. An experimental computer-based manipulation compared 1) pictographs in 2 forms, shaded "blocks" and unshaded "dots"; and 2) bar charts across different orientations (horizontal/vertical) and numerator size (small <100, medium 100-499, large 500-999). Accuracy (size of error) and ease of processing (reaction time) were assessed on a gist task (estimating the larger chance of survival) and a verbatim task (estimating the size of difference). Preferences for different graph types were also assessed. Accuracy on the gist task was very high across all conditions (>95%) and not tested further. For the verbatim task, optimal graph type depended on the numerator size. For small numerators, pictographs resulted in fewer errors than bar charts (blocks: odds ratio [OR] = 0.047, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.023-0.098; dots: OR = 0.049, 95% CI = 0.024-0.099). For medium and large numerators, bar charts were more accurate (e.g., medium dots: OR = 4.29, 95% CI = 2.9-6.35). Pictographs were generally processed faster for small numerators (e.g., blocks: 14.9 seconds v. bars: 16.2 seconds) and bar charts for medium or large numerators (e.g., large blocks: 41.6 seconds v. 26.7 seconds). Vertical formats were processed slightly faster than horizontal graphs with no difference in accuracy. Most participants preferred bar charts (64%); however, there was no relationship with performance. For adults with low education and literacy, pictographs are likely to be the best format to use when displaying small numerators (<100/1000) and bar charts for larger numerators (>100/1000).

Examination of an eHealth literacy scale and a health literacy scale in a population with moderate to high cardiovascular risk: Rasch analyses.

PubMed

Richtering, Sarah S; Morris, Rebecca; Soh, Sze-Ee; Barker, Anna; Bampi, Fiona; Neubeck, Lis; Coorey, Genevieve; Mulley, John; Chalmers, John; Usherwood, Tim; Peiris, David; Chow, Clara K; Redfern, Julie

2017-01-01

Electronic health (eHealth) strategies are evolving making it important to have valid scales to assess eHealth and health literacy. Item response theory methods, such as the Rasch measurement model, are increasingly used for the psychometric evaluation of scales. This paper aims to examine the internal construct validity of an eHealth and health literacy scale using Rasch analysis in a population with moderate to high cardiovascular disease risk. The first 397 participants of the CONNECT study completed the electronic health Literacy Scale (eHEALS) and the Health Literacy Questionnaire (HLQ). Overall Rasch model fit as well as five key psychometric properties were analysed: unidimensionality, response thresholds, targeting, differential item functioning and internal consistency. The eHEALS had good overall model fit (χ2 = 54.8, p = 0.06), ordered response thresholds, reasonable targeting and good internal consistency (person separation index (PSI) 0.90). It did, however, appear to measure two constructs of eHealth literacy. The HLQ subscales (except subscale 5) did not fit the Rasch model (χ2: 18.18-60.60, p: 0.00-0.58) and had suboptimal targeting for most subscales. Subscales 6 to 9 displayed disordered thresholds indicating participants had difficulty distinguishing between response options. All subscales did, nonetheless, demonstrate moderate to good internal consistency (PSI: 0.62-0.82). Rasch analyses demonstrated that the eHEALS has good measures of internal construct validity although it appears to capture different aspects of eHealth literacy (e.g. using eHealth and understanding eHealth). Whilst further studies are required to confirm this finding, it may be necessary for these constructs of the eHEALS to be scored separately. The nine HLQ subscales were shown to measure a single construct of health literacy. However, participants' scores may not represent their actual level of ability, as distinction between response categories was unclear for the last four subscales. Reducing the response categories of these subscales may improve the ability of the HLQ to distinguish between different levels of health literacy.

Evaluation of a Modified User Guide for Hearing Aid Management.

PubMed

Caposecco, Andrea; Hickson, Louise; Meyer, Carly; Khan, Asaduzzaman

2016-01-01

This study investigated if a hearing aid user guide modified using best practice principles for health literacy resulted in superior ability to perform hearing aid management tasks, compared with the user guide in the original form. This research utilized a two-arm study design to compare the original manufacturer's user guide with a modified user guide for the same hearing aid--an Oticon Acto behind-the-ear aid with an open dome. The modified user guide had a lower reading grade level (4.2 versus 10.5), used a larger font size, included more graphics, and had less technical information. Eighty-nine adults ages 55 years and over were included in the study; none had experience with hearing aid use or management. Participants were randomly assigned either the modified guide (n = 47) or the original guide (n = 42). All participants were administered the Hearing Aid Management test, designed for this study, which assessed their ability to perform seven management tasks (e.g., change battery) with their assigned user guide. The regression analysis indicated that the type of user guide was significantly associated with performance on the Hearing Aid Management test, adjusting for 11 potential covariates. In addition, participants assigned the modified guide required significantly fewer prompts to perform tasks and were significantly more likely to perform four of the seven tasks without the need for prompts. The median time taken by those assigned the modified guide was also significantly shorter for three of the tasks. Other variables associated with performance on the Hearing Aid Management test were health literacy level, finger dexterity, and age. Findings indicate that the need to design hearing aid user guides in line with best practice principles of health literacy as a means of facilitating improved hearing aid management in older adults.

To What Extent Do Biology Textbooks Contribute to Scientific Literacy? Criteria for Analysing Science-Technology-Society-Environment Issues

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Calado, Florbela M.; Scharfenberg, Franz-Josef; Bogner, Franz X.

2015-01-01

Our article proposes a set of six criteria for analysing science-technology-society-environment (STSE) issues in regular textbooks as to how they are expected to contribute to students' scientific literacy. We chose genetics and gene technology as fields prolific in STSE issues. We derived our criteria (including 26 sub-criteria) from a literature…

Developing the Understanding of the Role of Interpersonal Interaction in Early Literacy Development: A Case Study of a Thai Public Preschool

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Klibthong, Sunanta

2012-01-01

This study focuses on the role of interpersonal interaction in early literacy development in one public preschool school in Bangkok, Thailand. Specifically, it explores and analyses the nature of interpersonal interaction and collaborative activities the teachers employ in teaching literacy to children. The study involves observation of 82…

Building Sustainable Adult Literacy Provision: A Review of International Trends in Adult Literacy Policy and Programs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McKenna, Rosa; Fitzpatrick, Lynne

2004-01-01

This document summarizes an extensive study of policies and practices in adult literacy and adult basic education in a number of countries undertaken by Rosa McKenna and Lynne Fitzpatrick. The original study contains considerably greater detail and analyses issues on a country-by-country basis. The countries studied--Canada, the Republic of…

Literacy is Just Reading and Writing, Isn't It? The Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test and Its Press Coverage

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pinto, Laura; Boler, Megan; Norris, Trevor

2007-01-01

This article examines how the public discourse of print news media defines and shapes the representation of the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT) based on coverage in three primary newspapers between 1998 and 2004. The data were analysed using qualitative and quantitative measures to identify types of coverage, themes, and…

Development and Evaluation of Job Reading Task Tests.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sticht, Thomas G.; Caylor, John S.

The use of readability formulae to estimate the difficulty levels of vocational reading materials, the determination of relationships of reading skills to job proficiency, and the relationship of general reading ability to performance on specially constructed job reading task tests (JRTT) are discussed to define the literacy skill demands (i.e.,…

Analyzing Workforce Education. Monograph.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Texas Community & Technical Coll. Workforce Education Consortium.

This monograph examines the issue of task analysis as used in workplace literacy programs, debating the need for it and how to perform it in a rapidly changing environment. Based on experiences of community colleges in Texas, the report analyzes ways that task analysis can be done and how to implement work force education programs more quickly.…

Basic Auditory Processing Skills and Phonological Awareness in Low-IQ Readers and Typically Developing Controls

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kuppen, Sarah; Huss, Martina; Fosker, Tim; Fegan, Natasha; Goswami, Usha

2011-01-01

We explore the relationships between basic auditory processing, phonological awareness, vocabulary, and word reading in a sample of 95 children, 55 typically developing children, and 40 children with low IQ. All children received nonspeech auditory processing tasks, phonological processing and literacy measures, and a receptive vocabulary task.…

Spatial Orienting of Attention in Dyslexic Adults Using Directional and Alphabetic Cues

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Judge, Jeannie; Knox, Paul C.; Caravolas, Marketa

2013-01-01

Spatial attention performance was investigated in adults with dyslexia. Groups with and without dyslexia completed literacy/phonological tasks as well as two spatial cueing tasks, in which attention was oriented in response to a centrally presented pictorial (arrow) or alphabetic (letter) cue. Cued response times and orienting effects were largely…

On-Line Orthographic Influences on Spoken Language in a Semantic Task

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pattamadilok, Chotiga; Perre, Laetitia; Dufau, Stephane; Ziegler, Johannes C.

2009-01-01

Literacy changes the way the brain processes spoken language. Most psycholinguists believe that orthographic effects on spoken language are either strategic or restricted to meta-phonological tasks. We used event-related brain potentials (ERPs) to investigate the locus and the time course of orthographic effects on spoken word recognition in a…

Patterns of Tasks, Patterns of Talk: L2 Literacy Building in University Spanish Classes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gleason, Jesse; Slater, Tammy

2017-01-01

Second language (L2) classroom research has sought to shed light on the processes and practices that develop L2 learners' abilities [Nunan, D. 2004. "Task-based language teaching." London: Continuum; Verplaetse, L. 2014. "Using big questions to apprentice students into language-rich classroom practices." "TESOL…

Bilingual health literacy assessment using the Talking Touchscreen/la Pantalla Parlanchina: Development and pilot testing.

PubMed

Yost, Kathleen J; Webster, Kimberly; Baker, David W; Choi, Seung W; Bode, Rita K; Hahn, Elizabeth A

2009-06-01

Current health literacy measures are too long, imprecise, or have questionable equivalence of English and Spanish versions. The purpose of this paper is to describe the development and pilot testing of a new bilingual computer-based health literacy assessment tool. We analyzed literacy data from three large studies. Using a working definition of health literacy, we developed new prose, document and quantitative items in English and Spanish. Items were pilot tested on 97 English- and 134 Spanish-speaking participants to assess item difficulty. Items covered topics relevant to primary care patients and providers. English- and Spanish-speaking participants understood the tasks involved in answering each type of question. The English Talking Touchscreen was easy to use and the English and Spanish items provided good coverage of the difficulty continuum. Qualitative and quantitative results provided useful information on computer acceptability and initial item difficulty. After the items have been administered on the Talking Touchscreen (la Pantalla Parlanchina) to 600 English-speaking (and 600 Spanish-speaking) primary care patients, we will develop a computer adaptive test. This health literacy tool will enable clinicians and researchers to more precisely determine the level at which low health literacy adversely affects health and healthcare utilization.

Factors Associated with Medication Refill Adherence in Cardiovascular-related Diseases: A Focus on Health Literacy

PubMed Central

Gazmararian, Julie A; Kripalani, Sunil; Miller, Michael J; Echt, Katharina V; Ren, Junling; Rask, Kimberly

2006-01-01

BACKGROUND The factors influencing medication adherence have not been fully elucidated. Inadequate health literacy skills may impair comprehension of medical care instructions, and thereby reduce medication adherence. OBJECTIVES To examine the relationship between health literacy and medication refill adherence among Medicare managed care enrollees with cardiovascular-related conditions. RESEARCH DESIGN Prospective cohort study. SUBJECTS New Medicare enrollees from 4 managed care plans who completed an in-person survey and were identified through administrative data as having coronary heart disease, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and/or hyperlipidemia (n=1,549). MEASURES Health literacy was determined using the short form of the Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (S-TOFHLA). Prospective administrative data were used to calculate the cumulative medication gap (CMG), a valid measure of medication refill adherence, over a 1-year period. Low adherence was defined as CMG≥20%. RESULTS Overall, 40% of the enrollees had low refill adherence. Bivariate analyses indicated that health literacy, race/ethnicity, education, and regimen complexity were each related to medication refill adherence (P<.05). In unadjusted analysis, those with inadequate health literacy skills had increased odds (odds ratio [OR]=1.37, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.08 to 1.74) of low refill adherence compared with those with adequate health literacy skills. However, the OR for inadequate health literacy and low refill adherence was not statistically significant in multivariate analyses (OR=1.23, 95% CI: 0.92 to 1.64). CONCLUSIONS The present study suggests, but did not conclusively demonstrate, that low health literacy predicts poor refill adherence. Given the prevalence of both conditions, future research should continue to examine this important potential association. PMID:17105519

Low caregiver health literacy is associated with higher pediatric emergency department use and nonurgent visits.

PubMed

Morrison, Andrea K; Schapira, Marilyn M; Gorelick, Marc H; Hoffmann, Raymond G; Brousseau, David C

2014-01-01

We sought to determine the association between low caregiver health literacy and child emergency department (ED) use, both the number and urgency of ED visits. This year long cross-sectional study utilized the Newest Vital Sign questionnaire to measure the health literacy of caregivers accompanying children to a pediatric ED. Prior ED visits were extracted from a regional database. ED visit urgency was classified by resources utilized during the index ED visit. Regression analyses were used to model 2 outcomes-prior ED visits and ED visit urgency-stratified by chronic illness. Analyses were weighted by triage level. Overall, 503 caregivers completed the study; 55% demonstrated low health literacy. Children of caregivers with low health literacy had more prior ED visits (adjusted incidence rate ratio 1.5; 95% confidence interval 1.2, 1.8) and increased odds of a nonurgent index ED visit (adjusted odds ratio 2.4; 95% confidence interval 1.3, 4.4). Among children without chronic illness, low caregiver health literacy was associated with an increased proportion of nonurgent index ED visits (48% vs. 22%; adjusted odds ratio 3.2; 1.8, 5.7). Over half of caregivers presenting with their children to the ED have low health literacy. Low caregiver health literacy is an independent predictor of higher ED use and use of the ED for nonurgent conditions. In children without a chronic illness, low health literate caregivers had more than 3 times greater odds of presenting for a nonurgent condition than those with adequate health literacy. Copyright © 2014 Academic Pediatric Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Low Caregiver Health Literacy is Associated with Higher Pediatric Emergency Department Use and Non-urgent Visits

PubMed Central

Morrison, Andrea K.; Schapira, Marilyn M.; Gorelick, Marc H.; Hoffmann, Raymond G.; Brousseau, David C.

2014-01-01

Objective We sought to determine the association between low caregiver health literacy and child emergency department (ED) use, both the number and urgency of ED visits. Methods This year long cross-sectional study utilized the Newest Vital Sign to measure the health literacy of caregivers accompanying children to a pediatric ED. Prior ED visits were extracted from a regional database. ED visit urgency was classified by resources utilized during the index ED visit. Regression analyses were used to model the outcomes: 1) prior ED visits and 2) ED visit urgency, stratified by chronic illness. Analyses were weighted by triage level. Results Overall, 503 caregivers completed the study; 55% demonstrated low health literacy. Children of caregivers with low health literacy had more prior ED visits (aIRR 1.5; 95% C.I.1.2, 1.8) and increased odds of a non-urgent index ED visit (AOR 2.4; 1.3, 4.4). Among children without chronic illness, low caregiver health literacy was associated with an increased proportion of non-urgent index ED visits (48% vs 22%; AOR 3.2; 1.8, 5.7). Conclusions Over half of caregivers presenting with their children to the ED have low health literacy. Low caregiver health literacy is an independent predictor of higher ED use and use of the ED for non-urgent conditions. In children without a chronic illness, low health literate caregivers had more than three times great odds of presenting for a non-urgent condition than those with adequate health literacy. PMID:24767784

Science education as a pathway to teaching language literacy: a critical book review

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tolbert, Sara

2011-03-01

In this paper, I present a critical review of the recent book, Science Education as a Pathway to Teaching Language Literacy, edited by Alberto J. Rodriguez. This volume is a timely collection of essays in which the authors bring to attention both the successes and challenges of integrating science instruction with literacy instruction (and vice versa). Although several themes in the book merit further attention, a central unifying issue throughout all of the chapters is the task of designing instruction which (1) gives students access to the dominant Discourses in science and literacy, (2) builds on students' lived experiences, and (3) connects new material to socially and culturally relevant contexts in both science and literacy instruction— all within the high stakes testing realities of teachers and students in public schools. In this review, I illustrate how the authors of these essays effectively address this formidable challenge through research that `ascends to the concrete'. I also discuss where we could build on the work of the authors to integrate literacy and science instruction with the purpose of `humanizing and democratizing' science education in K-12 classrooms.

Addressing the “Other” Health Literacy Competencies—Knowledge, Dispositions, and Oral/Aural Communication: Development of TALKDOC, an Intervention Assessment Tool

PubMed Central

HELITZER, DEBORAH; HOLLIS, CHRISTINE; SANDERS, MARGARET; ROYBAL, SUZANNE

2013-01-01

Most health literacy assessments evaluate literacy skills including reading, writing; numeracy and interpretation of tables, graphs, diagrams and charts. Some assess understanding of health systems, and the ability to adequately apply one’s skills to specific health-related tasks or demands in health situations. However, to achieve functional health literacy, the ability to “obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions,” other health literacy dimensions should be assessed: a person’s knowledge and attitudes about a health issue affects his or her ability to and interest in participating in his or her own care. In patient care settings, the abilities to listen, ask questions and check one’s understanding are crucial to making appropriate decisions and carrying out instructions. Although literacy is a skill associated with educational attainment and therefore difficult to change in a short time, health education interventions can address health literacy domains such as knowledge, attitudes and oral communication skills. For this reason, an instrument that can assess these constructs is a valuable part of a health educator’s toolbox. The authors describe the development and process and outcomes of testing a novel instrument targeted to assess HPV and cervical cancer health literacy competencies, TALKDOC, including its validation with the Health Activities Literacy Scale. PMID:23030568

Mathematical literacy skills of students' in term of gender differences

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lailiyah, Siti

2017-08-01

Good mathematical literacy skills will hopefully help maximize the tasks and role of the prospective teacher in activities. Mathematical literacy focus on students' ability to analyze, justify, and communicate ideas effectively, formulate, solve and interpret mathematical problems in a variety of forms and situations. The purpose of this study is to describe the mathematical literacy skills of the prospective teacher in term of gender differences. This research used a qualitative approach with a case study. Subjects of this study were taken from two male students and two female students of the mathematics education prospective teacher who have followed Community Service Program (CSP) in literacy. Data were collected through methods think a loud and interviews. Four prospective teachers were asked to fill mathematical literacy test and video taken during solving this test. Students are required to convey loud what he was thinking when solving problems. After students get the solution, researchers grouped the students' answers and results think aloud. Furthermore, the data are grouped and analyzed according to indicators of mathematical literacy skills. Male students have good of each indicator in mathematical literacy skills (the first indicator to the sixth indicator). Female students have good of mathematical literacy skills (the first indicator, the second indicator, the third indicator, the fourth indicator and the sixth indicator), except for the fifth indicators that are enough.

Online patient websites for electronic health record access among vulnerable populations: portals to nowhere?

PubMed

Tieu, Lina; Schillinger, Dean; Sarkar, Urmimala; Hoskote, Mekhala; Hahn, Kenneth J; Ratanawongsa, Neda; Ralston, James D; Lyles, Courtney R

2017-04-01

With the rapid rise in the adoption of patient portals, many patients are gaining access to their personal health information online for the first time. The objective of this study was to examine specific usability barriers to patient portal engagement among a diverse group of patients and caregivers. We conducted interviews using performance testing and think-aloud methods with 23 patients and 2 caregivers as they first attempted to use features of a newly launched patient portal. In navigating the portal, participants experienced basic computer barriers (eg, difficulty using a mouse), routine computer barriers (eg, mistyping, navigation issues), reading/writing barriers, and medical content barriers. Compared to participants with adequate health literacy, participants with limited health literacy required 2 additional minutes to complete each task and were more likely to experience each type of navigational barrier. They also experienced more inaccuracies in interpreting a test result and finding a treatment plan within an after-visit summary. When using a patient portal for the first time, participants with limited health literacy completed fewer tasks unassisted, had a higher prevalence of encountering barriers, took longer to complete tasks, and had more problems accurately interpreting medical information. Our findings suggest a strong need for tailored and accessible training and support to assist all vulnerable patients and/or caregivers with portal registration and use. Measuring the health literacy of a patient population might serve as a strong proxy for identifying patients who need the most support in using health technologies. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Medical Informatics Association. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com

The dynamics of narrative writing in primary grade children: writing process factors predict story quality.

PubMed

von Koss Torkildsen, Janne; Morken, Frøydis; Helland, Wenche A; Helland, Turid

In this study of third grade school children, we investigated the association between writing process measures recorded with key stroke logging and the final written product. Moreover, we examined the cognitive predictors of writing process and product measures. Analyses of key strokes showed that while most children spontaneously made local online revisions while writing, few revised previously written text. Children with good reading and spelling abilities made more online revisions than their peers. Two process factors, transcription fluency and online revision activity, contributed to explaining variance in narrative macrostructural quality and story length. As for cognitive predictors, spelling was the only factor that gave a unique contribution to explaining variance in writing process factors. Better spelling was associated with more revisions and faster transcription. The results show that developing writers' ability to make online revisions in creative writing tasks is related to both the quality of the final written product and to individual literacy skills. More generally, the findings indicate that investigations of the dynamics of the writing process may provide insights into the factors that contribute to creative writing during early stages of literacy.

Scientific Literacy in Seventh Grade Life Science: A Study of Instructional Process, Task Completion, Student Perceptions, and Learning Outcomes. Final Report of the Intermediate Life Science Study. Secondary Science and Mathematics Improvement Program.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mitman, Alexis L.; And Others

This 10-chapter report provides detailed information on a study which examined what combinations of teacher, student, and curricular variables were associated with more effective life science instruction at the intermediate level. The conception of effectiveness was guided by the normative framework of scientific literacy and by student growth on…

Literacy in the 21st century: Towards a dynamic nexus of social relations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Benavot, Aaron

2015-06-01

Literacy is an essential means of communication. It enables individuals, communities and institutions to interact, over time and across space, as they develop a web of social relations via language. Effective literacy policies, programmes and practices expand the scale of social communication and interaction. Thus, literacy thrives when a state of connectedness - or social nexus of relations - is forged and sustained among individuals, households, communities and social institutions. This paper provides an overview of recent literacy trends and challenges as well as core aspects of the policy strategies which seek to address them. It reviews the main barriers or complicating factors which limit the effective implementation of literacy policies. The paper describes how the notion of non-formal education, which frames many scholarly and policy accounts of adult literacy work today, is under-conceptualised. One result of this is a relatively undifferentiated view of literacy programmes and their specific non-formal components. The author argues that the concept of the social nexus of literacy is implicit in many analyses of literacy policies and strategies. Thus, well-defined, context-specific and sharply conceived literacy policies, which enhance the social nexus of literacy, are crucial for improving the effectiveness of literacy work.

Association between health literacy and medical care costs in an integrated healthcare system: a regional population based study.

PubMed

Haun, Jolie N; Patel, Nitin R; French, Dustin D; Campbell, Robert R; Bradham, Douglas D; Lapcevic, William A

2015-06-27

Low health literacy is associated with higher health care utilization and costs; however, no large-scale studies have demonstrated this in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). This research evaluated the association between veterans' health literacy and their subsequent VHA health care costs across a three-year period. This retrospective study used a Generalized Linear Model to estimate the relative association between a patient's health literacy and VHA medical costs, adjusting for covariates. Secondary data sources included electronic health records and administrative data in the VHA (e.g., Medical and DCG SAS Datasets and DSS-National Data Extracts). Health literacy assessments and identifiers were electronically retrieved from the originating health system. Demographic and cost data were retrieved from the VHA centralized databases for the corresponding patients who had VHA use in all three years. In a study of 92,749 veterans with service utilization from 2007-2009, average per patient cost for those with inadequate and marginal health literacy was significantly higher ($31,581 [95 % CI: $30,186 - $32,975]; $23,508 [95 % CI: $22,749 - $24,268]) than adequate health literacy ($17,033 [95 % CI: $16,810 - $17,255]). Estimated three-year cost associated with veterans' with marginal and inadequate health literacy was $143 million dollars more than those with adequate health literacy. Analyses suggest when controlling for other person-level factors within the VHA integrated healthcare system, lower health literacy is a significant independent factor associated with increased health care utilization and costs. This study confirms the association of lower health literacy with higher medical service utilization and pharmacy costs for veterans enrolled in the VHA. Confirmation of higher costs of care associated with lower health literacy suggests that interventions might be designed to remediate health literacy needs and reduce expenditures. These analyses suggest 17.2 % (inadequate & marginal) of the Veterans in this population account for almost one-quarter (24 %) of VA medical and pharmacy cost for this 3-year period. Meeting the needs of those with marginal and inadequate health literacy could produce potential economic savings of approximately 8 % of total costs for this population.

Prevention literacy: community-based advocacy for access and ownership of the HIV prevention toolkit.

PubMed

Parker, Richard G; Perez-Brumer, Amaya; Garcia, Jonathan; Gavigan, Kelly; Ramirez, Ana; Milnor, Jack; Terto, Veriano

2016-01-01

Critical technological advances have yielded a toolkit of HIV prevention strategies. This literature review sought to provide contextual and historical reflection needed to bridge the conceptual gap between clinical efficacy and community effectiveness (i.e. knowledge and usage) of existing HIV prevention options, especially in resource-poor settings. Between January 2015 and October 2015, we reviewed scholarly and grey literatures to define treatment literacy and health literacy and assess the current need for literacy related to HIV prevention. The review included searches in electronic databases including MEDLINE, PsycINFO, PubMed, and Google Scholar. Permutations of the following search terms were used: "treatment literacy," "treatment education," "health literacy," and "prevention literacy." Through an iterative process of analyses and searches, titles and/or abstracts and reference lists of retrieved articles were reviewed for additional articles, and historical content analyses of grey literature and websites were additionally conducted. Treatment literacy was a well-established concept developed in the global South, which was later partially adopted by international agencies such as the World Health Organization. Treatment literacy emerged as more effective antiretroviral therapies became available. Developed from popular pedagogy and grassroots efforts during an intense struggle for treatment access, treatment literacy addressed the need to extend access to underserved communities and low-income settings that might otherwise be excluded from access. In contrast, prevention literacy is absent in the recent surge of new biomedical prevention strategies; prevention literacy was scarcely referenced and undertheorized in the available literature. Prevention efforts today include multimodal techniques, which jointly comprise a toolkit of biomedical, behavioural, and structural/environmental approaches. However, linkages to community advocacy and mobilization efforts are limited and unsustainable. Success of prevention efforts depends on equity of access, community-based ownership, and multilevel support structures to enable usage and sustainability. For existing HIV prevention efforts to be effective in "real-world" settings, with limited resources, reflection on historical lessons and contextual realities (i.e. policies, financial constraints, and biomedical patents) indicated the need to extend principles developed for treatment access and treatment literacy, to support prevention literacy and prevention access as an integral part of the global response to HIV.

Measuring health literacy in populations: illuminating the design and development process of the European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire (HLS-EU-Q)

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background Several measurement tools have been developed to measure health literacy. The tools vary in their approach and design, but few have focused on comprehensive health literacy in populations. This paper describes the design and development of the European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire (HLS-EU-Q), an innovative, comprehensive tool to measure health literacy in populations. Methods Based on a conceptual model and definition, the process involved item development, pre-testing, field-testing, external consultation, plain language check, and translation from English to Bulgarian, Dutch, German, Greek, Polish, and Spanish. Results The development process resulted in the HLS-EU-Q, which entailed two sections, a core health literacy section and a section on determinants and outcomes associated to health literacy. The health literacy section included 47 items addressing self-reported difficulties in accessing, understanding, appraising and applying information in tasks concerning decisions making in healthcare, disease prevention, and health promotion. The second section included items related to, health behaviour, health status, health service use, community participation, socio-demographic and socio-economic factors. Conclusions By illuminating the detailed steps in the design and development process of the HLS-EU-Q, it is the aim to provide a deeper understanding of its purpose, its capability and its limitations for others using the tool. By stimulating a wide application it is the vision that HLS-EU-Q will be validated in more countries to enhance the understanding of health literacy in different populations. PMID:24112855

The Effects of Discourses in Regional Contexts on the Development of Curriculum-Based Literacy Standards for Adolescents in Schooling: A Comparative Study of South Australia and Ontario

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fenwick, Lisl

2017-01-01

This study analyses how discourses in regional contexts affect the development of curriculum-based literacy standards for adolescents in schooling. A comparative case-study research design enabled the influences of discourses at the regional level to be analysed. The case studies include the development of curricula to define a minimum literacy…

Visual Literacy in Preservice Teachers: a Case Study in Biology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ruiz-Gallardo, José Reyes; García Fernández, Beatriz; Mateos Jiménez, Antonio

2017-07-01

In this study, we explore the competence of preservice teachers (n = 161) in labelling and creating new cross-sectional human diagrams, based on anatomy knowledge depicted in longitudinal sections. Using educational standards to assess visual literacy and ad hoc open questions, results indicate limited skills for both tasks. However, their competence is particularly poor creating diagrams, where shortcomings were observed not only in visual literacy but in content knowledge. We discuss the misconceptions detected during these assessments. Visual literacy training should be strengthened for these students, as it is a skill that is especially important for future teachers to use in learning, assessing, and reflecting on content in science education. This is particularly important in preservice teachers since they should be fluent in the use of visual teaching tools in teaching anatomy and other content in the biology curriculum.

Toward a Better Understanding of Patient Health Literacy: A Focus on the Skills Patients Need to Find Health Information.

PubMed

Champlin, Sara; Mackert, Michael; Glowacki, Elizabeth M; Donovan, Erin E

2017-07-01

While many health literacy assessments exist, this area of research lacks an instrument that isolates and reflects the four components driving this concept (abilities to find, understand, use, and communicate about health information). The purpose of this study was to determine what abilities comprise the first component, how a patient finds health information. Low ( n = 13) and adequate ( n = 14) health literacy patients, and health professionals ( n = 10) described their experiences when looking for health information and the skills they employed to complete these tasks. Major skills/themes elicited included knowing when to search, credibility assessments, finding text and numerical information, interpersonal seeking, technology and online search, and spatial navigation. Findings from this study suggest that each of the dimensions included in the definition of health literacy warrants specific attention and assessment. Given identification of the skills comprising each dimension, interventions targeting deficits across health literacy dimensions could be developed to improve patient health.

Effective literacy instruction for adults with specific learning disabilities: implications for adult educators.

PubMed

Hock, Michael F

2012-01-01

Adults with learning disabilities (LD) attending adult basic education, GED programs, or community colleges are among the lowest performers on measures of literacy. For example, on multiple measures of reading comprehension, adults with LD had a mean reading score at the third grade level, whereas adults without LD read at the fifth grade level. In addition, large numbers of adults perform at the lowest skill levels on quantitative tasks. Clearly, significant instructional challenges exist for adults who struggle with literacy issues, and those challenges can be greater for adults with LD. In this article, the literature on adults with LD is reviewed, and evidenced-based instructional practices that significantly narrow the literacy achievement gap for this population are identified. Primary attention is given to instructional factors that have been shown to affect literacy outcomes for adults with LD. These factors include the use of explicit instruction, instructional technology, and intensive tutoring in skills and strategies embedded in authentic contexts.

What's Missing When Empowerment Is a Purpose for Adult Literacies Education? Bourdieu, Gee and the Problem of Accounting for Power

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Galloway, Sarah

2015-01-01

This writing critiques the idea that literacies education can and should empower adult learners. The ideas of Pierre Bourdieu and James Paul Gee are analysed with reference to how power and empowerment are understood and what this means for the concrete practice of adult literacies education by educators and students. My concern is that their…

Role and Activation Time Course of Phonological and Orthographic Information during Phoneme Judgments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lafontaine, Helene; Chetail, Fabienne; Colin, Cecile; Kolinsky, Regine; Pattamadilok, Chotiga

2012-01-01

Acquiring literacy establishes connections between the spoken and written system and modifies the functioning of the spoken system. As most evidence comes from on-line speech recognition tasks, it is still a matter of debate when and how these two systems interact in metaphonological tasks. The present event-related potentials study investigated…

Learners' Approaches to Solving Mathematical Tasks: Does Specialisation Matter?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Machaba, France; Mwakapenda, Willy

2016-01-01

This article emerged from an analysis of learners' responses to a task presented to learners studying Mathematics and Mathematical Literacy (ML) in Gauteng, South Africa. Officially, Mathematics and ML are two separate learning areas. Learners from Grade 10 onwards are supposed to take either one or the other, but not both. This means that by…

Contributions of Academic Language, Perspective Taking, and Complex Reasoning to Deep Reading Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

LaRusso, Maria; Kim, Ha Yeon; Selman, Robert; Uccelli, Paola; Dawson, Theo; Jones, Stephanie; Donovan, Suzanne; Snow, Catherine

2016-01-01

"Deep reading comprehension" refers to the process required to succeed at tasks defined by the Common Core State Literacy Standards, as well as to achieve proficiency on the more challenging reading tasks in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) framework. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that three…

Low health literacy predicts decline in physical function among older adults: findings from the LitCog cohort study

PubMed Central

Smith, Samuel G; O'Conor, Rachel; Curtis, Laura M; Waite, Katie; Deary, Ian J; Paasche-Orlow, Michael; Wolf, Michael S

2015-01-01

Background Limited health literacy is associated with worse physical function in cross-sectional studies. We aimed to determine if health literacy is a risk factor for decline in physical function among older adults. Methods A longitudinal cohort of 529 community-dwelling American adults aged 55–74 years were recruited from an academic general internal medicine clinic and federally qualified health centres in 2008–2011. Health literacy (Newest Vital Sign), age, gender, race, education, chronic conditions, body mass index, alcohol consumption, smoking status and exercise frequency were included in multivariable analyses. The 10-item PROMIS (Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System) physical function scale was assessed at baseline and follow-up (mean=3.2 years, SD=0.39). Results Nearly half of the sample (48.2%) had either marginal (25.5%) or low health literacy (22.7%). Average physical function at baseline was 83.2 (SD=16.6) of 100, and health literacy was associated with poorer baseline physical function in multivariable analysis (p=0.004). At follow-up, physical function declined to 81.9 (SD=17.3; p=0.006) and 20.5% experienced a meaningful decline (>0.5 SD of baseline score). In multivariable analyses, participants with marginal (OR 2.62; 95%CI 1.38 to 4.95; p=0.003) and low (OR 2.57; 95%CI 1.22 to 5.44; p=0.013) health literacy were more likely to experience meaningful decline in physical function than the adequate health literacy group. Entering cognitive abilities to these models did not substantially attenuate effect sizes. Health literacy attenuated the relationship between black race and decline in physical function by 32.6%. Conclusions Lower health literacy increases the risk of exhibiting faster physical decline over time among older adults. Strategies that reduce literacy disparities should be designed and evaluated. PMID:25573701

Association between maternal health literacy and child vaccination in India: a cross-sectional study.

PubMed

Johri, Mira; Subramanian, S V; Sylvestre, Marie-Pierre; Dudeja, Sakshi; Chandra, Dinesh; Koné, Georges K; Sharma, Jitendar K; Pahwa, Smriti

2015-09-01

Education of mothers may improve child health. We investigated whether maternal health literacy, a rapidly modifiable factor related to mother's education, was associated with children's receipt of vaccines in two underserved Indian communities. Cross-sectional surveys in an urban and a rural site. We assessed health literacy using Indian child health promotion materials. The outcome was receipt of three doses of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP3) vaccine. We used multivariate logistic regression to investigate the relationship between maternal health literacy and vaccination status independently in each site. For both sites, adjusted models considered maternal age, maternal and paternal education, child sex, birth order, household religion and wealth quintile. Rural analyses used multilevel models adjusted for service delivery characteristics. Urban analyses represented cluster characteristics through fixed effects. The rural analysis included 1170 women from 60 villages. The urban analysis included 670 women from nine slum clusters. In each site, crude and adjusted models revealed a positive association between maternal health literacy and DTP3. In the rural site, the adjusted OR was 1.57 (95% CI 1.11 to 2.21, p=0.010) for those with medium health literacy, and OR=1.30 (95% CI 0.89 to 1.91, p=0.172) for those with high health literacy. In the urban site, the adjusted OR was 1.10 (95% CI 0.65 to 1.88, p=0.705) for those with medium health literacy, and OR=2.06 (95% CI 1.06 to 3.99, p=0.032) for those with high health literacy. In these study settings, maternal health literacy is independently associated with child vaccination. Initiatives targeting health literacy could improve vaccination coverage. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

Print Awareness in Pre-School Children: A Working Paper. A Study of the Development of Literacy in Preschool Children. Program in Language and Literacy Occasional Paper No. 4.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goodman, Yetta M.; Altwerger, Bess

A study was conducted to explore preschool children's awareness of and responses to print and their concepts of reading and writing. Eleven children, aged three, four, and five years, were given three print awareness tasks in which they were asked to identify a common household product first by its complete label, then by the same label without…

Identity, Subjectivity, and Agency in L1-L2 Literacy Processes among Young Spanish-English Learners in a K-12 Bilingual School in Bogota, Colombia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Serna Dimas, Hector Manuel

2013-01-01

Literacy is one of the most fundamental processes in the life of people. It is complex enough when people develop these processes in their first language, and the nature of the task becomes even more challenging when it is developed with students in a second language within the context of a bilingual setting. Bilingual education has been based on…

Selection and Effects of Channels in Distributed Communication and Decision-Making Tasks: A Theoretical Review and a Proposed Research Paradigm

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-04-01

in speaking, writing, and oral literture. In Deborah Tannen (Ed.) Spoken and written lanquage: Exploring orality and literacy. Norwood, NJ: Ablex...strategies. Cambridge: Cambridge .’. University Press. Gumperz, John J., Tannen , Deborah . (1978). Individual and social differences in lanquaqe use. In W. Wang...Hannah, & O’Connor, Mary Catherine. (1984). Cohesion in spoken and written discourse: Ethnic style and the transition to literacy. In Deborah Tannen (Ed

Narrative Ability of Children With Speech Sound Disorders and the Prediction of Later Literacy Skills

PubMed Central

Wellman, Rachel L.; Lewis, Barbara A.; Freebairn, Lisa A.; Avrich, Allison A.; Hansen, Amy J.; Stein, Catherine M.

2012-01-01

Purpose The main purpose of this study was to examine how children with isolated speech sound disorders (SSDs; n = 20), children with combined SSDs and language impairment (LI; n = 20), and typically developing children (n = 20), ages 3;3 (years;months) to 6;6, differ in narrative ability. The second purpose was to determine if early narrative ability predicts school-age (8–12 years) literacy skills. Method This study employed a longitudinal cohort design. The children completed a narrative retelling task before their formal literacy instruction began. The narratives were analyzed and compared for group differences. Performance on these early narratives was then used to predict the children’s reading decoding, reading comprehension, and written language ability at school age. Results Significant group differences were found in children’s (a) ability to answer questions about the story, (b) use of story grammars, and (c) number of correct and irrelevant utterances. Regression analysis demonstrated that measures of story structure and accuracy were the best predictors of the decoding of real words, reading comprehension, and written language. Measures of syntax and lexical diversity were the best predictors of the decoding of nonsense words. Conclusion Combined SSDs and LI, and not isolated SSDs, impact a child’s narrative abilities. Narrative retelling is a useful task for predicting which children may be at risk for later literacy problems. PMID:21969531

The Construction of Mathematical Literacy Problems for Geometry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Malasari, P. N.; Herman, T.; Jupri, A.

2017-09-01

The students of junior high school should have mathematical literacy ability to formulate, apply, and interpret mathematics in problem solving of daily life. Teaching these students are not enough by giving them ordinary mathematics problems. Teaching activities for these students brings consequence for teacher to construct mathematical literacy problems. Therefore, the aim of this study is to construct mathematical literacy problems to assess mathematical literacy ability. The steps of this study that consists of analysing, designing, theoretical validation, revising, limited testing to students, and evaluating. The data was collected with written test to 38 students of grade IX at one of state junior high school. Mathematical literacy problems consist of three essays with three indicators and three levels at polyhedron subject. The Indicators are formulating and employing mathematics. The results show that: (1) mathematical literacy problems which are constructed have been valid and practical, (2) mathematical literacy problems have good distinguishing characteristics and adequate distinguishing characteristics, (3) difficulty levels of problems are easy and moderate. The final conclusion is mathematical literacy problems which are constructed can be used to assess mathematical literacy ability.

First report of factors associated with satisfaction in patients with neurofibromatosis.

PubMed

Riklin, Eric; Talaei-Khoei, Mojtaba; Merker, Vanessa L; Sheridan, Monica R; Jordan, Justin T; Plotkin, Scott R; Vranceanu, Ana-Maria

2017-03-01

Patient satisfaction is an integral part of quality health care. We assessed whether health literacy and psychosocial factors are associated with patient satisfaction among adults with neurofibromatosis. Eighty adults (mean age = 44 years; 55% female, 87% white) with NF (50% NF1, 41% NF2, and 9% schwannomatosis) completed an adapted Functional, Communicative, and Critical Health Literacy Questionnaire (FCCHL), the Health Literacy Assessment, a series of Patient Reported Outcome Measures Information System (PROMIS) psychosocial tests, and demographics before the medical visit. After, participants completed two measures of satisfaction: the Medical Interview Satisfaction Scale (MISS) to assess satisfaction with the medical visit, and an adapted version of the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems Health Literacy Item Set (CAHPS-HL) to assess satisfaction with communication with the provider. Although higher FCCHL health literacy (r = 0.319, P = 0.002), male gender (t = 2.045, P = 0.044) and better psychosocial functioning (r = -0.257 to 0.409, P < 0.05) were associated with higher satisfaction with the medical visit in bivariate correlations, only male gender and higher health literacy remained as significant predictors in multivariable analyses. Higher FCCHL health literacy, less pain interference, fewer pain behaviors, and higher satisfaction with social roles and social discretionary activities (r = -0.231 to 0.331, P < 0.05) were associated with higher satisfaction with the communication with the provider in bivariate analyses. Results support the use of psychosocial and health literacy measures in clinical practice. Referrals to psychosocial treatments in addition to brief interventions focused on increasing health literacy may also be beneficial. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

A Study of Cognitive Load for Enhancing Student’s Quantitative Literacy in Inquiry Lab Learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nuraeni, E.; Rahman, T.; Alifiani, D. P.; Khoerunnisa, R. S.

2017-09-01

Students often find it difficult to appreciate the relevance of the role of quantitative analysis and concept attainment in the science class. This study measured student cognitive load during the inquiry lab of the respiratory system to improve quantitative literacy. Participants in this study were 40 11th graders from senior high school in Indonesia. After students learned, their feelings about the degree of mental effort that it took to complete the learning tasks were measured by 28 self-report on a 4-point Likert scale. The Task Complexity Worksheet were used to asses processing quantitative information and paper based test were applied to assess participants’ concept achievements. The results showed that inquiry instructional induced a relatively low mental effort, high processing information and high concept achievments.

Empowering students to respond to alcohol advertisements: results from a pilot study of an Australian media literacy intervention.

PubMed

Gordon, Chloe S; Jones, Sandra C; Kervin, Lisa; Lee, Jeong Kyu

2016-06-01

Alcohol media literacy programs in the United States have increased students' media literacy skills and lowered pre-drinking behaviour. In Australia, no such programs have yet been implemented or evaluated. This pilot study aimed to examine the feasibility and potential impact of an alcohol media literacy program for Australian upper-primary school children. Thirty-seven Year 5 and 6 students (aged 10-12) from one school in the Sydney region participated in 10 one-hour media lessons. Teacher interviews, student exit slips, teacher observations and a researcher reflective journal were analysed to examine the implementation process, while a pre- and post-questionnaire was analysed to measure outcome. Key factors in implementation were the importance of school context; attainment of English and PDHPE learning outcomes to differing extents; program's useability provided flexibility; perceived complexity and achievability of the lessons and program's engagement and relevance for the students. The program significantly increased media literacy skills and understanding of persuasive intent; decreased interest in alcohol branded merchandise; and lowered perception of drinking norms. An Australian alcohol media literacy program for upper-primary school children appears feasible, and has potential to lead to measurable outcomes. © 2015 Public Health Association of Australia.

Concept mapping as an approach for expert-guided model building: The example of health literacy.

PubMed

Soellner, Renate; Lenartz, Norbert; Rudinger, Georg

2017-02-01

Concept mapping served as the starting point for the aim of capturing the comprehensive structure of the construct of 'health literacy.' Ideas about health literacy were generated by 99 experts and resulted in 105 statements that were subsequently organized by 27 experts in an unstructured card sorting. Multidimensional scaling was applied to the sorting data and a two and three-dimensional solution was computed. The three dimensional solution was used in subsequent cluster analysis and resulted in a concept map of nine "clusters": (1) self-regulation, (2) self-perception, (3) proactive approach to health, (4) basic literacy and numeracy skills, (5) information appraisal, (6) information search, (7) health care system knowledge and acting, (8) communication and cooperation, and (9) beneficial personality traits. Subsequently, this concept map served as a starting point for developing a "qualitative" structural model of health literacy and a questionnaire for the measurement of health literacy. On the basis of questionnaire data, a "quantitative" structural model was created by first applying exploratory factor analyses (EFA) and then cross-validating the model with confirmatory factor analyses (CFA). Concept mapping proved to be a highly valuable tool for the process of model building up to translational research in the "real world". Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Health Literacy and Older Adults

PubMed Central

Chesser, Amy K.; Keene Woods, Nikki; Smothers, Kyle; Rogers, Nicole

2016-01-01

Objective: The objective of this review was to assess published literature relating to health literacy and older adults. Method: The current review was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta Analyses. Results: Eight articles met inclusion criteria. All studies were conducted in urban settings in the United States. Study sample size ranged from 33 to 3,000 participants. Two studies evaluated health-related outcomes and reported significant associations between low health literacy and poorer health outcomes. Two other studies investigated the impact of health literacy on medication management, reporting mixed findings. Discussion: The findings of this review highlight the importance of working to improve health care strategies for older adults with low health literacy and highlight the need for a standardized and validated clinical health literacy screening tool for older adults. PMID:28138488

Developing information literacy with first year oral health students.

PubMed

Ford, P J; Foxlee, N; Green, W

2009-02-01

In this time of rapid expansion of the scientific knowledge base, subject matter runs the risk of becoming outdated within a relatively short time. Instead of adding more content to already crowded curricula, the focus should be on equipping students to adapt to their changing world. The ability to access, evaluate and apply new knowledge for the benefit of patients has been acknowledged as an important goal for dental education. Information literacy is key to achieving this. An information literacy programme for first year oral health students was instituted. This was integrated within a biosciences course and linked with its assessment. Small group instruction reinforced by the use of a tailored online Assignment Guide was used in the context of a specific task. Effectiveness was measured in terms of assessment outcome, processes used and student experience. Twenty-seven students participated in the intervention which was effective in enhancing foundation literacy skills and confidence of students in accessing and evaluating information sources in the context of a clinical problem. Improvement in higher level literacy skills required to articulate this information in the synthesis of a scientific review was not demonstrated. Integration of this information literacy programme within the learning activities and assessment of a basic sciences course resulted in significantly enhanced information literacy skills. As this is highly relevant for higher education students in general, the wider promotion of information literacy should be encouraged.

Health Literacy and Education as Mediators of Racial Disparities in Patient Activation Within an Elderly Patient Cohort.

PubMed

Eneanya, Nwamaka D; Winter, Michael; Cabral, Howard; Waite, Katherine; Henault, Lori; Bickmore, Timothy; Hanchate, Amresh; Wolf, Michael; Paasche-Orlow, Michael K

2016-01-01

The Patient Activation Measure (PAM) assesses facets of patient engagement to identify proactive health behaviors and is an important predictor of health outcomes. Health literacy and education are also important for patient participation and successful navigation of the health care system. Because health literacy, education, and patient activation are associated with racial disparities, we sought to investigate whether health literacy and education would mediate racial differences in patient activation. Participants were 265 older adults who participated in a computer-based exercise interventional study. Health literacy was assessed using the Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (TOFHLA). Of 210 eligible participants, 72% self-identified as Black and 28% as White. In adjusted analyses, education and health literacy each significantly reduced racial differences in patient activation. These findings are especially important when considering emerging data on the significance of patient activation and new strategies to increase patient engagement.

High School Science Teachers' Interpretations and Perceptions of Reform and Literacy in the Discipline of Science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lesinski-Roscoe, Rachel A.

This qualitative study sought to gain an understanding of science teachers' perceptions of reform and their role in implementing reform and science-based literacy practices in the classroom, as well as gain an understanding of science teachers' knowledge of disciplinary literacy as the implied framework of reform (i.e., the Next Generation Science Standards). Four focal participants from a suburban, middle-class high school district comprised of two high schools participated in semi-structured interviews, observations, and a stimulated recall task and interview. Data analysis revealed some of the Discourse memberships in which participants claimed membership and the tensions that resulted from those memberships. From this data, a theory emerged of the role of third space in navigating these tensions, and a model for developing a third space is presented, which literacy professionals can reference when working to develop collaborative relationships with science teachers in order to scaffold science-specific literacy practices for student engagement. The information in this study prompts future research regarding the ability of science teachers and literacy professionals to navigate Discourses in a Field Code Changed third space using a disciplinary literacy approach to developing curriculum in order to apprentice students into the discipline of science and develop a citizenry of scientifically literate individuals.

Creating effective and engaging information literacy programmes for the dental curriculum.

PubMed

Ford, P J; Hibberd, K

2012-02-01

In this time of rapid expansion of the scientific knowledge base, subject matter runs the risk of becoming outdated within a relatively short time. Instead of adding more content to already crowded curricula, the focus should be on equipping students to adapt to their changing world. The ability to access, evaluate and apply new knowledge for the benefit of patients has been acknowledged as an important goal for dental education. Information literacy is key to achieving this. A template for an Information Literacy programme for undergraduate students is described. This was embedded within a compulsory course for each of the first and second years of the Bachelor of Oral Health programme and consisted of a hands-on workshop (attendance voluntary), information literacy quiz, self-evaluation and a summative assessment task, with the second year of the programme building upon the learning of the previous year. Effectiveness was measured in terms of demonstration of information literacy skills and confidence in using these skills. Integration of this programme within the learning activities and assessment of first- and second-year courses resulted in enhanced information literacy skills and confidence. Self-perceived high skill levels may be a potential barrier to student engagement with information literacy programmes. © 2010 John Wiley & Sons A/S.

The relationship between health, education, and health literacy: results from the Dutch Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey.

PubMed

van der Heide, Iris; Wang, Jen; Droomers, Mariël; Spreeuwenberg, Peter; Rademakers, Jany; Uiters, Ellen

2013-01-01

Health literacy has been put forward as a potential mechanism explaining the well-documented relationship between education and health. However, little empirical research has been undertaken to explore this hypothesis. The present study aims to study whether health literacy could be a pathway by which level of education affects health status. Health literacy was measured by the Health Activities and Literacy Scale, using data from a subsample of 5,136 adults between the ages of 25 and 65 years, gathered within the context of the 2007 Dutch Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey. Linear regression analyses were used in separate models to estimate the extent to which health literacy mediates educational disparities in self-reported general health, physical health status, and mental health status as measured by the Short Form-12. Health literacy was found to partially mediate the association between low education and low self-reported health status. As such, improving health literacy may be a useful strategy for reducing disparities in health related to education, as health literacy appears to play a role in explaining the underlying mechanism driving the relationship between low level of education and poor health.

Literacy and life skills education for vulnerable youth: What policy makers can do

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bernhardt, Anna Caroline; Yorozu, Rika; Medel-Añonuevo, Carolyn

2014-04-01

In countries with a high concentration of youth with low literacy levels, the policy and programming task related to education and training is particularly daunting. This note briefly presents policies and practices which have been put in place to provide vulnerable youth with literacy and life skills education. It is based on a multi-country research study undertaken by the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) in cooperation with the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada (DFATD Canada; previously Canadian International Development Agency, CIDA), and on subsequent policy dialogue forums with policy makers, practitioners, researchers and youth representatives held in Africa, the Arab region and Asia. Built on this review of existing policies and their implementation, this note provides lessons for innovative practices and suggests six concrete ways to address the needs of vulnerable youth through literacy and life skills education.

A Tri-part Model for Genetics Literacy: Exploring Undergraduate Student Reasoning About Authentic Genetics Dilemmas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shea, Nicole A.; Duncan, Ravit Golan; Stephenson, Celeste

2015-08-01

Genetics literacy is becoming increasingly important as advancements in our application of genetic technologies such as stem cell research, cloning, and genetic screening become more prevalent. Very few studies examine how genetics literacy is applied when reasoning about authentic genetic dilemmas. However, there is evidence that situational features of a reasoning task may influence how students apply content knowledge as they generate and support arguments. Understanding how students apply content knowledge to reason about authentic and complex issues is important for considering instructional practices that best support student thinking and reasoning. In this conceptual report, we present a tri-part model for genetics literacy that embodies the relationships between content knowledge use, argumentation quality, and the role of situational features in reasoning to support genetics literacy. Using illustrative examples from an interview study with early career undergraduate students majoring in the biological sciences and late career undergraduate students majoring in genetics, we provide insights into undergraduate student reasoning about complex genetics issues and discuss implications for teaching and learning. We further discuss the need for research about how the tri-part model of genetics literacy can be used to explore students' thinking and reasoning abilities in genetics.

Health literacy, numeracy, and graphical literacy among veterans in primary care and their effect on shared decision making and trust in physicians.

PubMed

Rodríguez, Vanessa; Andrade, Allen D; García-Retamero, Rocio; Anam, Ramanakumar; Rodríguez, Remberto; Lisigurski, Miriam; Sharit, Joseph; Ruiz, Jorge G

2013-01-01

Studies reveal high levels of inadequate health literacy and numeracy in African Americans and older veterans. The authors aimed to investigate the distribution of health literacy, numeracy, and graph literacy in these populations. They conducted a cross-sectional survey of veterans receiving outpatient care and measured health literacy, numeracy, graph literacy, shared decision making, and trust in physicians. In addition, the authors compared subgroups of veterans using analyses of covariance. Participants were 502 veterans (22-82 years). Low, marginal, and adequate health literacy were found in, respectively, 29%, 26%, and 45% of the veterans. The authors found a significant main effect of race qualified by an age and race interaction. Inadequate health literacy was more common in African Americans than in Whites. Younger African Americans had lower health literacy (p <.001), graph literacy (p <.001), and numeracy (p <.001) than did Whites, even after the authors adjusted for covariates. Older and younger participants did not differ in health literacy, objective numeracy, or graph literacy after adjustment. The authors found no health literacy or age-related differences regarding preferences for shared decision making. African Americans expressed dissatisfaction with their current role in decision making (p =.03). Older participants trusted their physicians more than younger participants (p =.01). In conclusion, African Americans may be at a disadvantage when reviewing patient education materials, potentially affecting health care outcomes.

Prevention literacy: community-based advocacy for access and ownership of the HIV prevention toolkit

PubMed Central

Parker, Richard G; Perez-Brumer, Amaya; Garcia, Jonathan; Gavigan, Kelly; Ramirez, Ana; Milnor, Jack; Terto, Veriano

2016-01-01

Introduction Critical technological advances have yielded a toolkit of HIV prevention strategies. This literature review sought to provide contextual and historical reflection needed to bridge the conceptual gap between clinical efficacy and community effectiveness (i.e. knowledge and usage) of existing HIV prevention options, especially in resource-poor settings. Methods Between January 2015 and October 2015, we reviewed scholarly and grey literatures to define treatment literacy and health literacy and assess the current need for literacy related to HIV prevention. The review included searches in electronic databases including MEDLINE, PsycINFO, PubMed, and Google Scholar. Permutations of the following search terms were used: “treatment literacy,” “treatment education,” “health literacy,” and “prevention literacy.” Through an iterative process of analyses and searches, titles and/or abstracts and reference lists of retrieved articles were reviewed for additional articles, and historical content analyses of grey literature and websites were additionally conducted. Results and discussion Treatment literacy was a well-established concept developed in the global South, which was later partially adopted by international agencies such as the World Health Organization. Treatment literacy emerged as more effective antiretroviral therapies became available. Developed from popular pedagogy and grassroots efforts during an intense struggle for treatment access, treatment literacy addressed the need to extend access to underserved communities and low-income settings that might otherwise be excluded from access. In contrast, prevention literacy is absent in the recent surge of new biomedical prevention strategies; prevention literacy was scarcely referenced and undertheorized in the available literature. Prevention efforts today include multimodal techniques, which jointly comprise a toolkit of biomedical, behavioural, and structural/environmental approaches. However, linkages to community advocacy and mobilization efforts are limited and unsustainable. Success of prevention efforts depends on equity of access, community-based ownership, and multilevel support structures to enable usage and sustainability. Conclusions For existing HIV prevention efforts to be effective in “real-world” settings, with limited resources, reflection on historical lessons and contextual realities (i.e. policies, financial constraints, and biomedical patents) indicated the need to extend principles developed for treatment access and treatment literacy, to support prevention literacy and prevention access as an integral part of the global response to HIV. PMID:27702430

Introducing Information Literacy Competency Standards for Nursing.

PubMed

Phelps, Sue F; Hyde, Loree; Planchon Wolf, Julie

2015-01-01

The Association for College and Research Libraries published the Information Literacy Competency Standards for Nursing (ILCSN) in January 2014, written by a task force of the Health Sciences Interest Group of the American Library Association. The ILCSN describes skills ranging from basic to advanced information research competencies for students enrolled in nursing programs at all levels and for professional nurses. This article guides administrators and faculty in use of the standards to design programs and coursework in information skills to support evidence-based practice.

Using Assessment Tasks to Develop a Greater Sense of Values Literacy in Pre-Service Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Christian, Beverly J.

2014-01-01

Although much emphasis is given to teaching values in schools, there appears to be less evidence that teacher education courses are explicitly preparing pre-service teachers for this responsibility. In this study, the Values for Australian Schools were integrated into two assessment tasks in the second year of a Bachelor of Education (Primary)…

Rethinking Task Design for the Digital Age: A Framework for Language Teaching and Learning in a Synchronous Online Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hampel, Regina

2006-01-01

This article discusses a framework for the development of tasks in a synchronous online environment used for language learning and teaching. It shows how a theoretical approach based on second language acquisition (SLA) principles, sociocultural and constructivist theories, and concepts taken from research on multimodality and new literacies, can…

The role of health literacy in explaining the association between educational attainment and the use of out-of-hours primary care services in chronically ill people: a survey study.

PubMed

Jansen, Tessa; Rademakers, Jany; Waverijn, Geeke; Verheij, Robert; Osborne, Richard; Heijmans, Monique

2018-05-31

Low socioeconomic status (SES) is persistently associated with poor health and suboptimal use of healthcare services, and more unplanned healthcare use. Suboptimal use of emergency and acute healthcare services may increase health inequalities, due to late diagnosis or lack of continuity of care. Given that health literacy has been associated with healthcare utilisation and with education attainment, we sought to explore whether health literacy is related to the use of out-of-hours (OOH) Primary Care Services (PCSs). Additionally, we aimed to study whether and to what extent health literacy accounts for some of the association between education and OOH PSC use. A survey including measures of education attainment, health literacy (assessed by means of the Dutch version of the nine-dimension Health Literacy Questionnaire) and use of PCS was conducted among a sample of adults diagnosed with (any) somatic chronic condition in the Netherlands (response 76.3%, n = 1811). We conducted linear and logistic regression analyses to examine associations between education level and PCS use in the past year. We performed mediation analyses to assess whether the association between education and PCS use was (partly) explained by different aspects of health literacy. We adjusted the models for patient characteristics such as age and morbidity. Higher education attainment was associated with higher scores on the health literacy aspects Appraisal of health information, and Navigating the healthcare system. Additionally, appraisal and navigating the healthcare system partially accounted for educational differences in PCS use. Finally, higher appraisal of health information scores were associated with higher PCS utilisation. Several aspects of health literacy were demonstrated to relate to PCS use, and partly accounted for educational differences herein. Accordingly, developing health literacy within individuals or communities may help to reduce inappropriate PCS use among people with low education.

Adolescents' financial literacy: the role of financial socialization agents, financial experiences, and money attitudes in shaping financial literacy among South Korean youth.

PubMed

Sohn, Sang-Hee; Joo, So-Hyun; Grable, John E; Lee, Seonglim; Kim, Minjeung

2012-08-01

The purpose of this study was to test the relationships between financial socialization agents, financial experiences, money attitudes, demographic characteristics, and the financial literacy of Korean adolescents. Using the 2006 Korean National Financial Literacy Test Survey for Adolescents (N = 1185), a series of regression analyses were performed to determine the factors related to financial literacy. It was found that those who chose media as their primary financial socialization agent, and those who had a bank account, exhibited higher levels of financial literacy. Among the sample, those who saw money as good or as a reward for efforts tended to report higher levels of financial literacy, while those perceiving money in terms of avoidance or achievement had lower levels of financial literacy. Students with mid-range monthly allowances showed higher levels of financial literacy compared to the highest allowance group. Implications for financial educators, policy makers, and researchers are provided. Copyright © 2012 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Enhancing the Effectiveness of Consumer-Focused Health Information Technology Systems Through eHealth Literacy: A Framework for Understanding Users' Needs.

PubMed

Kayser, Lars; Kushniruk, Andre; Osborne, Richard H; Norgaard, Ole; Turner, Paul

2015-05-20

eHealth systems and applications are increasingly focused on supporting consumers to directly engage with and use health care services. Involving end users in the design of these systems is critical to ensure a generation of usable and effective eHealth products and systems. Often the end users engaged for these participatory design processes are not actual representatives of the general population, and developers may have limited understanding about how well they might represent the full range of intended users of the eHealth products. As a consequence, resulting information technology (IT) designs may not accommodate the needs, skills, cognitive capacities, and/or contexts of use of the intended broader population of health consumers. This may result in challenges for consumers who use the health IT systems, and could lead to limitations in adoption if the diversity of user attributes has not been adequately considered by health IT designers. The objective of this paper is to propose how users' needs and competences can be taken into account when designing new information and communications technology solutions in health care by expanding the user-task-context matrix model with the domains of a new concept of eHealth literacy. This approach expands an existing method for supporting health IT system development, which advocates use of a three-dimensional user-task-context matrix to comprehensively identify the users of health IT systems, and what their needs and requirements are under differing contexts of use. The extension of this model involved including knowledge about users' competences within the seven domains of eHealth literacy, which had been identified based on systematic engagement with computer scientists, academics, health professionals, and patients recruited from various patient organizations and primary care. A concept map was constructed based on a structured brainstorm procedure, card sorting, and computational analysis. The new eHealth literacy concept (based on 7 domains) was incorporated as a key factor in expanding the user-task-context matrix to describe and qualify user requirements and understanding related to eHealth literacy. This resulted in an expanded framework and a five-step process, which can support health IT designers in understanding and more accurately addressing end-users' needs, capabilities, and contexts to improve effectiveness and broader applicability of consumer-focused health IT systems. It is anticipated that the framework will also be useful for policy makers involved in the planning, procuring, and funding of eHealth infrastructure, applications, and services. Developing effective eHealth products requires complete understanding of the end-users' needs from multiple perspectives. In this paper, we have proposed and detailed a framework for modeling users' needs for designing eHealth systems that merges prior work in development of a user-task-context matrix with the emerging area of eHealth literacy. This framework is intended to be used to guide design of eHealth technologies and to make requirements explicitly related to eHealth literacy, enabling a generation of well-targeted, fit-for-purpose, equitable, and effective products and systems.

Enhancing the Effectiveness of Consumer-Focused Health Information Technology Systems Through eHealth Literacy: A Framework for Understanding Users' Needs

PubMed Central

2015-01-01

Background eHealth systems and applications are increasingly focused on supporting consumers to directly engage with and use health care services. Involving end users in the design of these systems is critical to ensure a generation of usable and effective eHealth products and systems. Often the end users engaged for these participatory design processes are not actual representatives of the general population, and developers may have limited understanding about how well they might represent the full range of intended users of the eHealth products. As a consequence, resulting information technology (IT) designs may not accommodate the needs, skills, cognitive capacities, and/or contexts of use of the intended broader population of health consumers. This may result in challenges for consumers who use the health IT systems, and could lead to limitations in adoption if the diversity of user attributes has not been adequately considered by health IT designers. Objective The objective of this paper is to propose how users’ needs and competences can be taken into account when designing new information and communications technology solutions in health care by expanding the user-task-context matrix model with the domains of a new concept of eHealth literacy. Methods This approach expands an existing method for supporting health IT system development, which advocates use of a three-dimensional user-task-context matrix to comprehensively identify the users of health IT systems, and what their needs and requirements are under differing contexts of use. The extension of this model involved including knowledge about users’ competences within the seven domains of eHealth literacy, which had been identified based on systematic engagement with computer scientists, academics, health professionals, and patients recruited from various patient organizations and primary care. A concept map was constructed based on a structured brainstorm procedure, card sorting, and computational analysis. Results The new eHealth literacy concept (based on 7 domains) was incorporated as a key factor in expanding the user-task-context matrix to describe and qualify user requirements and understanding related to eHealth literacy. This resulted in an expanded framework and a five-step process, which can support health IT designers in understanding and more accurately addressing end-users’ needs, capabilities, and contexts to improve effectiveness and broader applicability of consumer-focused health IT systems. It is anticipated that the framework will also be useful for policy makers involved in the planning, procuring, and funding of eHealth infrastructure, applications, and services. Conclusions Developing effective eHealth products requires complete understanding of the end-users’ needs from multiple perspectives. In this paper, we have proposed and detailed a framework for modeling users’ needs for designing eHealth systems that merges prior work in development of a user-task-context matrix with the emerging area of eHealth literacy. This framework is intended to be used to guide design of eHealth technologies and to make requirements explicitly related to eHealth literacy, enabling a generation of well-targeted, fit-for-purpose, equitable, and effective products and systems. PMID:27025228

Exploring the Language and Literacy Outcomes of Pediatric Cochlear Implant Users

PubMed Central

Spencer, Linda J.; Barker, Brittan A.; Tomblin, J. Bruce

2011-01-01

Objective The principal goal of this study was to investigate the relationship between language and literacy (i.e., reading and writing) skills in pediatric cochlear implant users. A peripheral objective was to identify the children's skills that were in need of remediation and subsequently to provide suggestions for remedial programming. It was predicted that the robust language skills often associated with children who have cochlear implant experience would facilitate the development of literacy skills. It was further proposed that the language and literacy skills of pediatric cochlear implant users would approximate the language and literacy skills of children with normal hearing. Design Sixteen pediatric cochlear implant users' language and literacy skills were evaluated and then compared with a reference group of 16 age-matched, normal-hearing children. All 32 participants were educated in mainstream classes within the public school system in the Midwest. The “Sentence Formulation” and “Concepts and Directions” subtests of the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-3 test were used to evaluate receptive and expressive language skills. Reading comprehension was evaluated with the “Paragraph Comprehension” subtest of the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test. Performance measures for the writing analyses included productivity, complexity and grammaticality measures. Results Children with cochlear implants performed within 1 SD of the normal-hearing, age-matched children on measures of language comprehension, reading comprehension and writing accuracy. However, the children with cochlear implants performed significantly poorer than the children with normal hearing on the expressive “Sentence Formulation” subtest. The cochlear implant users also produced fewer words on the written narrative task than did the normal-hearing children, although there was not a significant difference between groups with respect to total words per clause. Furthermore there was a strong correlation between language performance and reading performance, as well as language performance and total words produced on the written performance measure for the children using cochlear implants. Conclusions The results of this study suggest that the language skills of pediatric cochlear implant users are related to and correlated with the development of literacy skills within these children. Consequently, the performance of the cochlear implant users, on various language and literacy measures, compared favorably to an age-matched group of children with normal hearing. There were significant differences in the ability of the cochlear implant users to correctly utilize grammatical structures such as conjunctions and correct verb forms when they were required to formulate written and oral sentences. Given this information, it would be appropriate for their educational or remedial language programs to emphasize the use and development of these structures. PMID:12799546

Identifying Preschool Children At-Risk of Later Reading Difficulties: Evaluation of two Emergent Literacy Screening Tools

PubMed Central

Wilson, Shauna B.; Lonigan, Christopher J.

2012-01-01

Emergent literacy skills are predictive of children’s early reading success, and literacy achievement in early schooling declines more rapidly for children who are below-average readers. It is therefore important for teachers to identify accurately children at risk for later reading difficulty so children can be exposed to good emergent literacy interventions. In this study, 176 preschoolers were administered two screening tools, the Revised Get Ready to Read! (GRTR-R) and the Individual Growth and Development Indicators (IGDIs), and a diagnostic measure at two time points. Receiver operating characteristic curve analyses revealed that at optimal cut scores, GRTR-R provided more accurate classification of children’s overall emergent literacy skills than did IGDIs. However, neither measure was particularly good at classifying specific emergent literacy skills. PMID:19822699

Association of Acculturation and Health Literacy with Prevalent Dysglycemia and Diabetes Control Among Latinos in the Boston Area Community Health (BACH) Survey.

PubMed

López, Lenny; Grant, Richard W; Marceau, Lisa; Piccolo, Rebecca; McKinlay, John B; Meigs, James B

2016-12-01

This study assessed the effect of acculturation on type 2 diabetes and whether health literacy may mediate this association. The Boston Area Community Health cohort is a multi-stage stratified random sample of adults from Boston including 744 Latinos. We defined dysglycemia as a HbA1c ≥5.7 %. Multivariable analyses examined the associations between acculturation and health literacy adjusting for demographic and clinical variables. Similar analyses were performed among participants with HbA1c ≥7.0 % to assess the association between acculturation and diabetes control. Among an insured primarily foreign born Spanish speaking Latino population, with a long residence period in the US and good healthcare utilization, higher levels of acculturation were not associated with dysglycemia. Lower levels of acculturation were associated with worse diabetes control. Health literacy level did not modify these associations. Elucidating the components of heterogeneity among Latinos will be essential for understanding the influence of acculturation on diabetes.

Health literacy in old age: results of a German cross-sectional study.

PubMed

Vogt, Dominique; Schaeffer, Doris; Messer, Melanie; Berens, Eva-Maria; Hurrelmann, Klaus

2017-03-22

Health literacy is especially important for older people to maintain or enhance remaining health resources and self-management skills. The aim of the study was to determine the level of health literacy and the association between health literacy, demographic and socio-economic factors in German older adults aged 65 years and above stratified by age group. Health literacy was assessed via computer-assisted personal interviews using HLS-EU-Q47 on a representative sample of the German-speaking population. Descriptive statistics, bivariate analyses and logistic regression modelling stratified by age group were conducted to assess health literacy of 475 respondents aged 65 years and above. Overall, 66.3% of all respondents aged 65 years and above had limited health literacy. Limited health literacy was especially prevalent among respondents above 76 years of age (80.6%). Limited health literacy was associated with financial deprivation (OR: 3.05; 95% CI: 1.99-4.67) and limited functional health literacy (OR: 2.16; 95% CI: 1.29-3.61). Financial deprivation was strongest predictor for limited health literacy in the total sample and stratified by age group. Limited health literacy is a frequent phenomenon in German adults aged 65 years and above. Research on health literacy in old age and the role in health disparities is urgently needed. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Using a cashbook as textbook.

PubMed

Mullinix, B B

1985-11-01

In the Gambia, an innovative shceme was developed by government and parastatal organizations to provide small-scale businessmen and women with the skills required for banking and record-keeping. The course they developed applied the approach of specific literacy and numeracy. Specific literacy identifies and transmits a select group of literacy skills necessary to perform a given task. The course encouraged the learner to recognize, copy, and associate words with objects or ideas and, at the same time, learn to identify sounds with written letters. Role plays, homework assignments, self-corrected quizzes, and cashbook/workbooks were some of the techniques used to ensure that learners were able to create records and keep accurate account of their daily cash flow. The purpose of this short 6-month course was not to achieve full literacy for each and every learner, but to introduce specific skills that integrated literacy and business. In this way, the course emphasized the essentials of record-keeping, and hopefully encouraged the learners to develop their own practice: to create a system of written conventions they would use reularly to monitor their business transactions.

Children's Behavioral Regulation and Literacy: the Impact of the First Grade Classroom Environment

PubMed Central

Day, Stephanie; Connor, Carol; McClelland, Megan

2015-01-01

Classroom learning environments are an important source of influence on children's development, particularly with regard to literacy achievement and behavioral regulation, both which requires the coordination of task inhibition, attention, and working memory. Classroom observations were conducted in 18 schools and 51 first grade classrooms for 500 children. The non-instructional activities were recorded for each student in the classroom. Hierarchical linear modeling revealed that children with weaker fall behavioral regulation were more likely to attend classrooms where more time was spent in disruptions and wasted instructional time over the course of the school year, such as waiting for the teacher to gather materials before beginning instruction. For literacy outcomes, children who were in classrooms where more time in disruptions, transitions, and waiting was observed showed weaker literacy skill gains in the spring compared to children in classrooms with lesser amounts of such unproductive non-instructional time and this effect was generally greater for students with initial weaker skills. These results also reveal that the classroom environment and the incoming characteristics of the students themselves influence students' development of behavioral regulation and literacy. PMID:26407837

Effects of dynamic text in an AAC app on sight word reading for individuals with autism spectrum disorder.

PubMed

Caron, Jessica; Light, Janice; Holyfield, Christine; McNaughton, David

2018-06-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of Transition to Literacy (T2L) software features (i.e., dynamic text and speech output upon selection of a graphic symbol) within a grid display in an augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) app, on the sight word reading skills of individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and complex communication needs. The study implemented a single-subject multiple probe research design across one set of three participants. The same design was utilized with an additional set of two participants. As part of the intervention, the participants were exposed to an AAC app with the T2L features during a highly structured matching task. With only limited exposure to the features, the five participants all demonstrated increased accuracy of identification of 12 targeted sight words. This study provides preliminary evidence that redesigning AAC apps to include the provision of dynamic text combined with speech output, can positively impact the sight-word reading of participants during a structured task. This adaptation in AAC system design could be used to complement literacy instruction and to potentially infuse components of literacy learning into daily communication.

Distributed health literacy among people living with type 2 diabetes in Portugal: Defining levels of awareness and support.

PubMed

Abreu, Liliana; Nunes, João Arriscado; Taylor, Peter; Silva, Susana

2018-01-01

This study embraces a patient-centred and narrative-oriented notion of health literacy, exploring how social networks and personal experiences constitute distributed health literacy (DHL) by mapping out health literacy mediators of each individual and how they enable self-management skills and knowledge of health conditions. Semi-structured interviews with 26 patients with type 2 diabetes were conducted in a Primary Care Center of Porto (Portugal) from October 2014 to December 2015. Data were collected based on McGill Illness Narrative Interview (MINI). Following the grounded theory, interviews were analysed as case-based and process-tracing-oriented. Three awareness narratives emerged: (i) a narrative of minimisation revealing minimal impact of diabetes in patients' lives and daily routines, resignation towards "inevitable" consequences of the diagnosis and dependence of a large network of health literacy mediators; (ii) a narrative of empathy, where patients tended to mention readjustments in their lives by following medical recommendations regarding medication without criticism and with few health literacy mediators; (iii) a narrative of disruption, with patients highlighting the huge impact of diabetes on their lives and their individual responsibility and autonomy with respect to the management of diabetes and the search for alternatives to medication, relying on a very restrictive network of mediators. Exploring meanings given to diagnosis, identifying health mediators and analysing the structure of social networks can contribute to understand the distributed nature of health literacy. Assessing DHL can assist health professionals and those providing care in the community in promoting health literacy and providing models for a more patient-centred health system. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Functional, interactive and critical health literacy: Varying relationships with control over care and number of GP visits.

PubMed

van der Heide, Iris; Heijmans, Monique; Schuit, A Jantine; Uiters, Ellen; Rademakers, Jany

2015-08-01

The aim of this study is to examine the extent to which functional, interactive and critical health literacy are associated with patients' perceived control over care and frequency of GP visits. Data from the Dutch 'National Panel of People with Chronic Illness or Disability' was used (N=2508). Health literacy was assessed by the Functional, Communicative and Critical Health Literacy measure. Perceived control over care was indicated by perceived ability to organize care, interact with providers and to perform self-care. By multivariate linear and logistic regression analyses, associations between health literacy and perceived control over care and subsequently frequency of GP visits were studied. Mainly interactive health literacy was associated with patients' perceived ability to organize care, interact with healthcare providers and perform self-care, whereas only functional health literacy was associated with number of GP visits. The results imply that some patients' may be less able to exert control over their care because of lower health literacy. Functional, interactive and critical health literacy vary in their relevance for patients' ability to exert control. Initiatives for strengthening patients' role in healthcare may be improved by paying attention to patients' health literacy, specifically functional and interactive health literacy. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Health Literacy and ESL study: a community-based intervention for Spanish-speaking adults.

PubMed

Soto Mas, Francisco; Ji, Ming; Fuentes, Brenda O; Tinajero, Josefina

2015-04-01

Although Hispanics have a documented high risk of limited health literacy, there is a scarcity of research with this population group, and particularly with Hispanic immigrants who generally confront language barriers that have been related to low health literacy. The National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy identified community-based English-language instruction as a strategy that can facilitate a health literate society. However, the literature lacks discussion on this type of intervention. This randomized control trial aimed to test the feasibility of using conventional English-as-a-second-language (ESL) instruction for improving health literacy among Spanish-speaking adults. Objectives included the development, implementation, and evaluation of a health literacy/ESL curriculum. The Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (TOFHLA) in English was used to assess health literacy levels. Analyses included independent sample t test, chi-square, and multiple linear regression. A total of 155 people participated. Results showed a significantly higher increase in the TOFHLA posttest score in the intervention group (p = .01), and noticeable differences in health literacy levels between groups. Results indicate that ESL constitutes a promising venue for improving health literacy among Spanish-speaking adults. Incorporating health literacy-related content may provide additional benefits.

The Health Literacy and ESL Study: A Community-Based Intervention for Spanish-Speaking Adults

PubMed Central

MAS, FRANCISCO SOTO; JI, MING; FUENTES, BRENDA O.; TINAJERO, JOSEFINA

2015-01-01

Although Hispanics have a documented high risk of limited health literacy, there is a scarcity of research with this population group, and particularly with Hispanic immigrants who generally confront language barriers that have been related to low health literacy. The National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy identified community-based English-language instruction as a strategy that can facilitate a health literate society. However, the literature lacks discussion on this type of intervention. This randomized control trial aimed to test the feasibility of using conventional English-as-a-second-language (ESL) instruction for improving health literacy among Spanish-speaking adults. Objectives included the development, implementation, and evaluation of a health literacy/ESL curriculum. The Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (TOFHLA) in English was used to assess health literacy levels. Analyses included independent sample t test, chi-square, and multiple linear regression. A total of 155 people participated. Results showed a significantly higher increase in the TOFHLA posttest score in the intervention group (p = .01), and noticeable differences in health literacy levels between groups. Results indicate that ESL constitutes a promising venue for improving health literacy among Spanish-speaking adults. Incorporating health literacy-related content may provide additional benefits. PMID:25602615

Food Literacy at Secondary Schools in Australia.

PubMed

Ronto, Rimante; Ball, Lauren; Pendergast, Donna; Harris, Neil D

2016-11-01

Food literacy can encourage adolescents to develop healthy dietary patterns. This study examined home economics teachers' (HET) perspectives of the importance, curriculum, self-efficacy, and food environments regarding food literacy in secondary schools in Australia. A 20-item cross-sectional survey was completed by 205 HETs. The survey focused on the importance of aspects of food literacy, HETs' self-efficacy, and attitudes toward food literacy and schools' food environments. Data were analyzed descriptively, and associations between participants' demographic characteristics and perceptions were investigated by chi-square analyses. HETs rated aspects of food literacy including preparing and cooking food, knowing about healthy foods and food safety and hygiene practices as very important. They indicated animal welfare, where food comes from, and plan and manage time for food shopping to be the least important aspects of food literacy. HETs reported that students' involvement in food literacy activities resulted in healthier diets and improved food practices, but the schools' food environments are not comprehensively supportive of food literacy. HETs report that food literacy is very important for adolescents to learn. The focus is more on microaspects in comparison to macroaspects of food literacy. Schools' food environments are ideally positioned to shape dietary intake of adolescents but their potential is not being realized. © 2016, American School Health Association.

The association between financial literacy and Problematic Internet Shopping in a multinational sample.

PubMed

Lam, Lawrence T; Lam, Mary K

2017-12-01

To examine the association between financial literacy and Problematic Internet Shopping in adults. This cross-sectional online survey recruited participants, aged between 18 and 60 years, through an online research facility. The sample consisted of multinational participants from mainly three continents including Europe, North America, and Asia. Problematic Internet Shopping was assessed using the Bergen Shopping Addiction Scale (BSAS). Financial Literacy was measured by the Financial Literacy subscale of the Financial Wellbeing Questionnaire. Multiple linear regression analyses were conducted to elucidate the relationship between the study and outcome variables with adjustment for other potential risk factors. Of the total of 997 respondents with an average age of 30.9 (s.d. = 8.8), 135 (13.8%) could be classified as having a high risk of being Problematic Internet Shoppers. Results from the multiple regression analyses suggested a significant and negative relationship between financial literacy and Problematic Internet Shopping with a regression coefficient of - 0.13, after controlling for the effects of potential risk factors such as age, region of birth, employment, income, shopping frequency, self-regulation and anxiety (t = - 6.42, p < 0.001). The clinical management of PIS should include a financial counselling as a component of the treatment regime. Enhancement of financial literacy in the general population, particularly among young people, will likely have a positive effect on the occurrence of PIS.

Just a subtle difference? Findings from a systematic review on definitions of nutrition literacy and food literacy.

PubMed

Krause, Corinna; Sommerhalder, Kathrin; Beer-Borst, Sigrid; Abel, Thomas

2018-06-01

Nutrition literacy and food literacy have become increasingly important concepts in health promotion. Researchers use one or the other term to describe the competencies needed to maintain a healthy diet. This systematic review examines whether these terms are synonymous or if their meanings are substantially different.We searched major bibliographic databases (Web of Science, PubMed, ScienceDirect, CINAHL, SocIndex and ERIC) for publications that provided an original definition of nutrition or food literacy. Then we used Nutbeam's tripartite health literacy model as an analytical grid. The definitions we found included specific competencies, which we mapped to the domains of functional, interactive, or critical literacy.In the 173 full-text publications we screened, we found six original definitions of nutrition literacy, and 13 original definitions of food literacy. Seven food literacy definitions were integrated into a conceptual framework. Analysing their structure revealed that nutrition literacy and food literacy are seen as specific forms of health literacy, and represent distinct but complementary concepts. Definitions of nutrition literacy mainly described the abilities necessary to obtain and understand nutrition information. Definitions of food literacy incorporated a broader spectrum of theoretical and practical knowledge and skills. To be food literate also means to apply information on food choices and critically reflect on the effect of food choice on personal health and on society. Since food literacy is based on a more comprehensive understanding of health behaviours, it is the more viable term to use in health promotion interventions. For the practical implication, a harmonization of the different definitions is desirable.

Just a subtle difference? Findings from a systematic review on definitions of nutrition literacy and food literacy

PubMed Central

Krause, Corinna; Sommerhalder, Kathrin; Beer-Borst, Sigrid; Abel, Thomas

2018-01-01

Abstract Nutrition literacy and food literacy have become increasingly important concepts in health promotion. Researchers use one or the other term to describe the competencies needed to maintain a healthy diet. This systematic review examines whether these terms are synonymous or if their meanings are substantially different. We searched major bibliographic databases (Web of Science, PubMed, ScienceDirect, CINAHL, SocIndex and ERIC) for publications that provided an original definition of nutrition or food literacy. Then we used Nutbeam’s tripartite health literacy model as an analytical grid. The definitions we found included specific competencies, which we mapped to the domains of functional, interactive, or critical literacy. In the 173 full-text publications we screened, we found six original definitions of nutrition literacy, and 13 original definitions of food literacy. Seven food literacy definitions were integrated into a conceptual framework. Analysing their structure revealed that nutrition literacy and food literacy are seen as specific forms of health literacy, and represent distinct but complementary concepts. Definitions of nutrition literacy mainly described the abilities necessary to obtain and understand nutrition information. Definitions of food literacy incorporated a broader spectrum of theoretical and practical knowledge and skills. To be food literate also means to apply information on food choices and critically reflect on the effect of food choice on personal health and on society. Since food literacy is based on a more comprehensive understanding of health behaviours, it is the more viable term to use in health promotion interventions. For the practical implication, a harmonization of the different definitions is desirable. PMID:27803197

Health literacy and logical inconsistencies in valuations of hypothetical health states: results from the Canadian EQ-5D-5L valuation study.

PubMed

Al Sayah, Fatima; Johnson, Jeffrey A; Ohinmaa, Arto; Xie, Feng; Bansback, Nick

2017-06-01

To examine the association of health literacy with logical inconsistencies in time trade-off valuations of hypothetical health states described by the EQ-5D-5L classification system. Data from the EQ-5D-5L Canadian Valuation study were used. Health literacy was assessed using the Brief Health Literacy Screen. A health state valuation was considered logically inconsistent if a respondent gave the same or lower value for a very mild health state compared to the value given to 55555, or gave the same or lower value for a very mild health state compared to value assigned to the majority of the health states that are dominated by the very mild health state. Average age of respondents (N = 1209) was 48 (SD = 17) years, 45% were male, 7% reported inadequate health literacy, and 11% had a logical inconsistency. In adjusted analysis, participants with inadequate health literacy were 2.2 (95%CI: 1.2, 4.0; p = 0.014) times more likely to provide an inconsistent valuation compared to those with adequate health literacy. More specifically, those who had problems in "understanding written information" and "reading health information" were more likely to have a logical inconsistency compared to those who did not. However, lacking "confidence in completing medical forms" was not associated with logical inconsistencies. Health literacy was associated with logical inconsistencies in valuations of hypothetical health states described by the EQ-5D-5L classification system. Valuations studies should consider assessing health literacy, and explore better ways to introduce the valuation tasks or use simpler approaches of health preferences elicitation for individuals with inadequate health literacy.

Developing and validating a scale to measure Food and Nutrition Literacy (FNLIT) in elementary school children in Iran.

PubMed

Doustmohammadian, Aazam; Omidvar, Nasrin; Keshavarz-Mohammadi, Nastaran; Abdollahi, Morteza; Amini, Maryam; Eini-Zinab, Hassan

2017-01-01

Food and nutrition literacy is an emerging term which is increasingly used in policy and research. Though research in this area is growing, progression is limited by the lack of an accepted method to measure food and nutrition literacy. The aim of this study is to develop a valid and reliable questionnaire to assess food and nutrition literacy in elementary school children in the city of Tehran. The study was conducted in three phases. To develop Food and Nutrition Literacy (FNLIT) questionnaire, a comprehensive literature review and a qualitative study were initially performed to identify food and nutrition literacy dimensions and its components. Content and face validity of the questionnaire were evaluated by an expert panel as well as students. In the second phase, construct validity of the scale was evaluated using Explanatory Factor Analyses (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analyses (CFA). In the last phase (confirmatory phase), the final version of the questionnaire was evaluated on 400 students. Findings show Content Validity Ratio (CVR) and Content Validity Index (CVI) of the 62-item questionnaire at acceptable levels of 0.87 and 0.92, respectively. EFA suggested a six-factor construct, namely, understanding food and nutrition information, knowledge, functional, interactive, food choice, and critical. The results of CFA indicated acceptable fit indices for the proposed models. All subscales demonstrated satisfactory internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha≥0.70), except for critical skill subscale (0.48). The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC = 0.90, CI: 0.83-0.94) indicated that Food and Nutrition Literacy (FNLIT) scale had satisfactory stability. Each phase of development progressively improved the questionnaire, which resulted in a 46-item (42 likert-type items and 4 true-false items) Food and Nutrition Literacy (FNLIT) scale. The questionnaire measured two domains with 6 subscales, including: 1) cognitive domain: understanding and knowledge; 2) skill domain: functional, food choice, interactive, and critical skills. The developed food and nutrition literacy scale is a valid and reliable instrument to measure food and nutrition literacy in children. This measure lays a solid empirical and theoretical foundation for future research and tailored interventions to promote food and nutrition literacy in this age group.

Understanding critical health literacy: a concept analysis.

PubMed

Sykes, Susie; Wills, Jane; Rowlands, Gillian; Popple, Keith

2013-02-18

Interest in and debates around health literacy have grown over the last two decades and key to the discussions has been the distinction made between basic functional health literacy, communicative/interactive health literacy and critical health literacy. Of these, critical health literacy is the least well developed and differing interpretations of its constituents and relevance exist. The aim of this study is to rigorously analyse the concept of critical health literacy in order to offer some clarity of definition upon which appropriate theory, well grounded practice and potential measurement tools can be based. The study uses a theoretical and colloquial evolutionary concept analysis method to systematically identify the features associated with this concept. A unique characteristic of this method is that it practically combines an analysis of the literature with in depth interviews undertaken with practitioners and policy makers who have an interest in the field. The study also analyses how the concept is understood across the contexts of time, place, discipline and use by health professionals, policy makers and academics. Findings revealed a distinct set of characteristics of advanced personal skills, health knowledge, information skills, effective interaction between service providers and users, informed decision making and empowerment including political action as key features of critical health literacy. The potential consequences of critical health literacy identified are in improving health outcomes, creating more effective use of health services and reducing inequalities in health thus demonstrating the relevance of this concept to public health and health promotion. While critical health literacy is shown to be a unique concept, there remain significant contextual variations in understanding particularly between academics, practitioners and policy makers. Key attributes presented as part of this concept when it was first introduced in the literature, particularly those around empowerment, social and political action and the existence of the concept at both an individual and population level, have been lost in more recent representations. This has resulted in critical health literacy becoming restricted to a higher order cognitive individual skill rather than a driver for political and social change. The paper argues that in order to retain the uniqueness and usefulness of the concept in practice efforts should be made to avoid this dilution of meaning.

Examining Relationships among Dialect Variation and Emergent Literacy Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Terry, Nicole Patton

2012-01-01

This study examined the relationship between nonmainstream American English (NMAE) dialect use and various emergent literacy skills among typically developing children in prekindergarten. Correlation and regression analyses were used to examine the relationship between children's production of NMAE forms (i.e., dialect variation [DVAR]) and their…

Hunger Artists: Literacy, Testing & Accountability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Illesca, Bella; Doecke, Brenton

2008-01-01

This article interrogates the dominant ideology that is shaping education in Victoria at the current moment. It does so by analysing the government school publication, "Education Times," focusing on the years 2000-2003. During those years the Victorian Government invested a significant amount of money into improving the literacy outcomes…

Health Literacy, Numeracy, and Graphical Literacy Among Veterans in Primary Care and Their Effect on Shared Decision Making and Trust in Physicians

PubMed Central

Rodríguez, Vanessa; Andrade, Allen D.; García-Retamero, Rocio; Anam, Ramanakumar; Rodríguez, Remberto; Lisigurski, Miriam; Sharit, Joseph; Ruiz, Jorge G.

2013-01-01

Studies reveal high levels of inadequate health literacy and numeracy in African Americans and older veterans. The authors aimed to investigate the distribution of health literacy, numeracy, and graph literacy in these populations. They conducted a cross-sectional survey of veterans receiving outpatient care and measured health literacy, numeracy, graph literacy, shared decision making, and trust in physicians. In addition, the authors compared subgroups of veterans using analyses of covariance. Participants were 502 veterans (22–82 years). Low, marginal, and adequate health literacy were found in, respectively, 29%, 26%, and 45% of the veterans. The authors found a significant main effect of race qualified by an age and race interaction. Inadequate health literacy was more common in African Americans than in Whites. Younger African Americans had lower health literacy (p < .001), graph literacy (p < .001), and numeracy (p < .001) than did Whites, even after the authors adjusted for covariates. Older and younger participants did not differ in health literacy, objective numeracy, or graph literacy after adjustment. The authors found no health literacy or age-related differences regarding preferences for shared decision making. African Americans expressed dissatisfaction with their current role in decision making (p = .03). Older participants trusted their physicians more than younger participants (p = .01). In conclusion, African Americans may be at a disadvantage when reviewing patient education materials, potentially affecting health care outcomes. PMID:24093361

Reading-Related Literacy Activities of American Adults: Time Spent, Task Types, and Cognitive Skills Used

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

White, Sheida; Chen, Jing; Forsyth, Barbara

2010-01-01

This article presents data on the types and duration of reading-related activities reported by a volunteer sample of 400 adults (demographically similar to the U.S. adult population age 20 and older in terms of race, ethnicity, education, and working status) in the 2005 Real-World Tasks Study. This diary study revealed that adults spent, on…

The Role of Phonological Working Memory and Environmental Factors in Lexical Development in Italian-Speaking Late Talkers: A One-Year Follow-Up Study.

PubMed

Marini, Andrea; Ruffino, Milena; Sali, Maria Enrica; Molteni, Massimo

2017-12-20

This follow-up study assessed (a) the influence of phonological working memory (pWM), home literacy environment, and a family history of linguistic impairments in late talkers (LTs); (b) the diagnostic accuracy of a task of nonword repetition (NWR) in identifying LTs; and (c) the persistence of lexical weaknesses after 10 months. Two hundred ninety-three children were assessed at approximately 32 (t1) and 41 (t2) months. At t1, they were administered the Italian adaptation of the Language Development Survey, an NWR task (used to assess pWM), and questionnaires assessing home literacy environment and family history of language impairments. Thirty-three LTs were identified. The linguistic skills of the participants were evaluated at t2 by administering tasks assessing Articulation, Naming, Semantic Fluency, and Lexical Comprehension. At t2, LTs performed more poorly as compared with age-matched typically developing peers in articulatory and naming skills, had reduced lexical comprehension abilities, and had limited lexical knowledge. Their performance on the NWR task at t1 correlated with the extension of their vocabularies at t2 (as estimated with a Semantic Fluency task). The Language Development Survey recently adapted to Italian is sensitive to LTs. Former LTs still have a mild lexical delay at approximately 40 months. As an indirect measure of pWM, the task of NWR is an early indicator of future lexical deficits.

Exploring health literacy competencies towards patient education programme for Chinese-speaking healthcare professionals: a Delphi study

PubMed Central

Chang, Li-Chun; Chen, Yu-Chi; Wu, Fei Ling; Liao, Li-Ling

2017-01-01

Objectives To achieve consensus on a set of competencies in health literacy practice based on a literature review and expert consultation. Setting Hospitals and community health centres in Taiwan. Method A 2-stage modified Delphi study involving a literature review was conducted, followed by qualitative interviews and 3 rounds of email-based data collection over a 3-month period in 2011. Participants 15 Chinese healthcare practitioners with more than 6 months’ experience in patient education were interviewed to collect data on health literacy practice. 24 experts (12 academic scholars in health literacy and 12 professionals with training related to health literacy practice) were invited to participate in the Delphi process. Results Qualitative data from the interviews were analysed and summarised to form 99 competency items for health literacy practice, which were categorised into 5 domains of health literacy practice including those pertaining to knowledge and skills. Consensus was reached on 92 of 99 competencies, using a modified Delphi technique. Conclusions The 92 competencies in health literacy practice embraced core components of patient education in the Chinese healthcare profession. PMID:28093428

Media Literacy Interventions: A Meta-Analytic Review

PubMed Central

Jeong, Se-Hoon; Cho, Hyunyi; Hwang, Yoori

2012-01-01

Although numerous media literacy interventions have been developed and delivered over the past 3 decades, a comprehensive meta-analytic assessment of their effects has not been available. This study investigates the average effect size and moderators of 51 media literacy interventions. Media literacy interventions had positive effects (d=.37) on outcomes including media knowledge, criticism, perceived realism, influence, behavioral beliefs, attitudes, self-efficacy, and behavior. Moderator analyses indicated that interventions with more sessions were more effective, but those with more components were less effective. Intervention effects did not vary by the agent, target age, the setting, audience involvement, the topic, the country, or publication status. PMID:22736807

Reflections on the PIAAC Literacy and Numeracy Frameworks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Belzer, Alisa

2017-01-01

The Program for International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) results, released in 2013, have spurred researchers to engage in rich analyses. In addition to making it possible to compare skill levels among the 23 participating nations, the PIAAC data have enabled researchers to analyze relationships among cognitive literacy, numeracy, and…

Marital Satisfaction, Family Emotional Expressiveness, Home Learning Environments, and Children's Emergent Literacy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Froyen, Laura C.; Skibbe, Lori E.; Bowles, Ryan P.; Blow, Adrian J.; Gerde, Hope K.

2013-01-01

The current study investigates associations among marital satisfaction, family emotional expressiveness, the home learning environment, and preschool-aged children's emergent literacy skills among 385 Midwestern mothers and their children. Path analyses examined how marital satisfaction related to emotional expressiveness in the home and whether…

Energy Literacy and Agency of New Zealand Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aguirre-Bielschowsky, I.; Lawson, R.; Stephenson, J.; Todd, S.

2017-01-01

The development of energy literacy (knowledge, attitudes, and intended behaviour) and agency of New Zealand children (age 9-10) were investigated through thematic and exploratory statistical analyses of interviews (October 2011-April 2012) with 26 children, their parents and teachers, focus groups and photo elicitation. The children knew that…

Beyond Reading Alone: The Relationship Between Aural Literacy And Asthma Management

PubMed Central

Rosenfeld, Lindsay; Rudd, Rima; Emmons, Karen M.; Acevedo-García, Dolores; Martin, Laurie; Buka, Stephen

2010-01-01

Objectives To examine the relationship between literacy and asthma management with a focus on the oral exchange. Methods Study participants, all of whom reported asthma, were drawn from the New England Family Study (NEFS), an examination of links between education and health. NEFS data included reading, oral (speaking), and aural (listening) literacy measures. An additional survey was conducted with this group of study participants related to asthma issues, particularly asthma management. Data analysis focused on bivariate and multivariable logistic regression. Results In bivariate logistic regression models exploring aural literacy, there was a statistically significant association between those participants with lower aural literacy skills and less successful asthma management (OR:4.37, 95%CI:1.11, 17.32). In multivariable logistic regression analyses, controlling for gender, income, and race in separate models (one-at-a-time), there remained a statistically significant association between those participants with lower aural literacy skills and less successful asthma management. Conclusion Lower aural literacy skills seem to complicate asthma management capabilities. Practice Implications Greater attention to the oral exchange, in particular the listening skills highlighted by aural literacy, as well as other related literacy skills may help us develop strategies for clear communication related to asthma management. PMID:20399060

Developing a Test of Scientific Literacy Skills (TOSLS): measuring undergraduates' evaluation of scientific information and arguments.

PubMed

Gormally, Cara; Brickman, Peggy; Lutz, Mary

2012-01-01

Life sciences faculty agree that developing scientific literacy is an integral part of undergraduate education and report that they teach these skills. However, few measures of scientific literacy are available to assess students' proficiency in using scientific literacy skills to solve scenarios in and beyond the undergraduate biology classroom. In this paper, we describe the development, validation, and testing of the Test of Scientific Literacy Skills (TOSLS) in five general education biology classes at three undergraduate institutions. The test measures skills related to major aspects of scientific literacy: recognizing and analyzing the use of methods of inquiry that lead to scientific knowledge and the ability to organize, analyze, and interpret quantitative data and scientific information. Measures of validity included correspondence between items and scientific literacy goals of the National Research Council and Project 2061, findings from a survey of biology faculty, expert biology educator reviews, student interviews, and statistical analyses. Classroom testing contexts varied both in terms of student demographics and pedagogical approaches. We propose that biology instructors can use the TOSLS to evaluate their students' proficiencies in using scientific literacy skills and to document the impacts of curricular reform on students' scientific literacy.

Developing a Test of Scientific Literacy Skills (TOSLS): Measuring Undergraduates’ Evaluation of Scientific Information and Arguments

PubMed Central

Gormally, Cara; Brickman, Peggy; Lutz, Mary

2012-01-01

Life sciences faculty agree that developing scientific literacy is an integral part of undergraduate education and report that they teach these skills. However, few measures of scientific literacy are available to assess students’ proficiency in using scientific literacy skills to solve scenarios in and beyond the undergraduate biology classroom. In this paper, we describe the development, validation, and testing of the Test of Scientific Literacy Skills (TOSLS) in five general education biology classes at three undergraduate institutions. The test measures skills related to major aspects of scientific literacy: recognizing and analyzing the use of methods of inquiry that lead to scientific knowledge and the ability to organize, analyze, and interpret quantitative data and scientific information. Measures of validity included correspondence between items and scientific literacy goals of the National Research Council and Project 2061, findings from a survey of biology faculty, expert biology educator reviews, student interviews, and statistical analyses. Classroom testing contexts varied both in terms of student demographics and pedagogical approaches. We propose that biology instructors can use the TOSLS to evaluate their students’ proficiencies in using scientific literacy skills and to document the impacts of curricular reform on students’ scientific literacy. PMID:23222832

An Evaluation of a Media Literacy Program Training Workshop for Late Elementary School Teachers

PubMed Central

Scull, Tracy Marie; Kupersmidt, Janis Beth

2012-01-01

The present study examined the efficacy of a media literacy education, substance abuse prevention training workshop for late elementary school teachers. Analyses revealed that the randomly assigned intervention (n = 18) and control (n = 23) teachers were similar in demographic characteristics and pre-training beliefs and knowledge. Teachers who participated in the workshop reported stronger beliefs in the importance of and familiarity with media literacy education and scored higher on a direct assessment of media deconstruction skills than teachers in the control group. Teachers reported positive program assessment ratings. This randomized controlled trial provides evidence that a one-day teacher training workshop on media literacy education is effective at improving teachers’ beliefs and knowledge about media literacy that are relevant for successful student outcomes. PMID:23275894

Navigating the digital divide: A systematic review of eHealth literacy in underserved populations in the United States.

PubMed

Chesser, Amy; Burke, Anne; Reyes, Jared; Rohrberg, Tessa

2016-01-01

eHealth provides an important mechanism to connect medically underserved populations with health information, but little is known about gaps in eHealth literacy research in underserved adult populations within the U.S. Between June and July 2013, three systematic literature reviews of five databases were conducted and a subsequent hand search was completed. Identified literature was screened and studies meeting exclusion and inclusion criteria were synthesized and analyzed for common themes. Of the 221 articles critically appraised, 15 met these criteria. Thirty-five of these studies were excluded due to international origin. Of the articles meeting the inclusion criteria, underserved populations assessed included immigrant women, the elderly, low-income, the un- and underemployed, and African-American and Hispanic populations. eHealth literacy assessments utilized included one or two item screeners, the eHEALS scale, health information competence and cognitive task analysis. Factors examined in relation to eHealth literacy included age, experience, overall health literacy, education, income and culture. The majority did not assess the impact of locality and those that did were predominately urban. These data suggest that there is a gap in the literature regarding eHealth literacy knowledge for underserved populations, and specifically those in rural locations, within the U.S.

Clapping in time parallels literacy and calls upon overlapping neural mechanisms in early readers.

PubMed

Bonacina, Silvia; Krizman, Jennifer; White-Schwoch, Travis; Kraus, Nina

2018-05-12

The auditory system is extremely precise in processing the temporal information of perceptual events and using these cues to coordinate action. Synchronizing movement to a steady beat relies on this bidirectional connection between sensory and motor systems, and activates many of the auditory and cognitive processes used when reading. Here, we use Interactive Metronome, a clinical intervention technology requiring an individual to clap her hands in time with a steady beat, to investigate whether the links between literacy and synchronization skills, previously established in older children, are also evident in children who are learning to read. We tested 64 typically developing children (ages 5-7 years) on their synchronization abilities, neurophysiological responses to speech in noise, and literacy skills. We found that children who have lower variability in synchronizing have higher phase consistency, higher stability, and more accurate envelope encoding-all neurophysiological response components linked to language skills. Moreover, performing the same task with visual feedback reveals links with literacy skills, notably processing speed, phonological processing, word reading, spelling, morphology, and syntax. These results suggest that rhythm skills and literacy call on overlapping neural mechanisms, supporting the idea that rhythm training may boost literacy in part by engaging sensory-motor systems. © 2018 New York Academy of Sciences.

Pain awareness and medication knowledge: a health literacy evaluation.

PubMed

Devraj, Radhika; Herndon, Christopher M; Griffin, Jake

2013-03-01

Chronic pain is a significant burden to the U.S. health care system. Patient-related barriers such as low health literacy can prevent optimal management of pain. This study aimed to determine the relationship between health literacy, pain awareness, and medication knowledge. Chronic pain patients visiting a family health center were administered a survey addressing the study objectives. Health literacy was measured using the Newest Vital Sign. A total of 139 chronic pain patients participated in the study. Patients with low health literacy had significantly lower overall pain medication knowledge (mean score = 63.3± 18.9 versus 74.3 ± 18.5, p <0.05), and did not know where to find health care professionals to help manage their pain. Patients with low health literacy lacked knowledge of non-medication modes of treating pain, and did not know which non-prescription medications could provide pain relief. The mean Visual Analogue Scale score for the entire sample was 51.54 mm (range = 0 - 100 mm). Pain intensity was not related to health literacy (p > 0.05). Multivariate analyses showed a significant relationship between health literacy and medication knowledge after controlling for demographics. Patients with low health literacy have poor knowledge of pain medications. Educational interventions to meet the needs of patients with low health literacy are essential to safely relieve pain.

A Psychometric Analysis of the Italian Version of the eHealth Literacy Scale Using Item Response and Classical Test Theory Methods

PubMed Central

Dima, Alexandra Lelia; Schulz, Peter Johannes

2017-01-01

Background The eHealth Literacy Scale (eHEALS) is a tool to assess consumers’ comfort and skills in using information technologies for health. Although evidence exists of reliability and construct validity of the scale, less agreement exists on structural validity. Objective The aim of this study was to validate the Italian version of the eHealth Literacy Scale (I-eHEALS) in a community sample with a focus on its structural validity, by applying psychometric techniques that account for item difficulty. Methods Two Web-based surveys were conducted among a total of 296 people living in the Italian-speaking region of Switzerland (Ticino). After examining the latent variables underlying the observed variables of the Italian scale via principal component analysis (PCA), fit indices for two alternative models were calculated using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The scale structure was examined via parametric and nonparametric item response theory (IRT) analyses accounting for differences between items regarding the proportion of answers indicating high ability. Convergent validity was assessed by correlations with theoretically related constructs. Results CFA showed a suboptimal model fit for both models. IRT analyses confirmed all items measure a single dimension as intended. Reliability and construct validity of the final scale were also confirmed. The contrasting results of factor analysis (FA) and IRT analyses highlight the importance of considering differences in item difficulty when examining health literacy scales. Conclusions The findings support the reliability and validity of the translated scale and its use for assessing Italian-speaking consumers’ eHealth literacy. PMID:28400356

What predicts successful literacy acquisition in a second language?

PubMed Central

Frost, Ram; Siegelman, Noam; Narkiss, Alona; Afek, Liron

2013-01-01

We examined whether success (or failure) in assimilating the structure of a second language could be predicted by general statistical learning abilities that are non-linguistic in nature. We employed a visual statistical learning (VSL) task, monitoring our participants’ implicit learning of the transitional probabilities of visual shapes. A pretest revealed that performance in the VSL task is not correlated with abilities related to a general G factor or working memory. We found that native speakers of English who picked up the implicit statistical structure embedded in the continuous stream of shapes, on average, better assimilated the Semitic structure of Hebrew words. Our findings thus suggest that languages and their writing systems are characterized by idiosyncratic correlations of form and meaning, and these are picked up in the process of literacy acquisition, as they are picked up in any other type of learning, for the purpose of making sense of the environment. PMID:23698615

Multimodal representation contributes to the complex development of science literacy in a college biology class

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bennett, William Drew

This study is an investigation into the science literacy of college genetics students who were given a modified curriculum to address specific teaching and learning problems from a previous class. This study arose out of an interest by the professor and researcher to determine how well students in the class Human Genetics in the 21st Century responded to a reorganized curriculum to address misconceptions that were prevalent after direct instruction in the previous year's class. One of the components to the revised curriculum was the addition of a multimodal representation requirement as part of their normal writing assignments. How well students performed in these writing assignments and the relationship they had to student learning the rest of the class formed the principle research interest of this study. Improving science literacy has been a consistent goal of science educators and policy makers for over 50 years (DeBoer, 2000). This study uses the conceptualization of Norris and Phillips (2003) in which science literacy can be organized into both the fundamental sense (reading and writing) and the derived sense (experience and knowledge) of science literacy. The fundamental sense of science literacy was investigated in the students' ability to understand and use multimodal representations as part of their homework writing assignments. The derived sense of science literacy was investigated in how well students were able to apply their previous learning to class assessments found in quizzes and exams. This study uses a mixed-methods correlational design to investigate the relationship that existed between students' writing assignment experiences connected to multimodal representations and their academic performance in classroom assessments. Multimodal representations are pervasive in science literature and communication. These are the figures, diagrams, tables, pictures, mathematical equations, and any other form of content in which scientists and science educators are communicating ideas and concepts to their audience with more than simple text. A focused holistic rubric was designed in this study to score how well students in this class were able to incorporate aspects of multimodality into their writing assignments. Using these scores and factors within the rubric (ex. Number of original modes created) they were correlated with classroom performance scores to determine the strength and direction of the relationship. Classroom observations of lectures and discussion sections along with personal interviews with students and teaching assistants aided the interpretation of the results. The results from the study were surprisingly complex to interpret given the background of literature which suggested a strong relationship between multimodal representations and science learning (Lemke, 2000). There were significant positive correlations between student multimodal representations and quiz scores but not exam scores. This study was also confounded by significant differences between sections at the beginning of the study which may have led to learning effects later. The dissimilarity between the tasks of writing during their homework and working on exams may be the reason for no significant correlations with exams. The power to interpret these results was limited by the number of the participants, the number of modal experiences by the students, and the operationalization of multimodal knowledge through the holistic rubric. These results do show that a relationship does exist between the similar tasks within science writing and quizzes. Students may also gain derived science literacy benefits from modal experiences on distal tasks in exams as well. This study shows that there is still much more research to be known about the interconnectedness of multimodal representational knowledge and use to the development of science literacy.

Cost of best-practice primary care management of chronic disease in a remote Aboriginal community.

PubMed

Gador-Whyte, Andrew P; Wakerman, John; Campbell, David; Lenthall, Sue; Struber, Janet; Hope, Alex; Watson, Colin

2014-06-16

To estimate the cost of completing all chronic care tasks recommended by the Central Australian Rural Practitioners Association Standard Treatment Manual (CARPA STM) for patients with type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease (CKD). The study was conducted at a health service in a remote Central Australian Aboriginal community between July 2010 and May 2011. The chronic care tasks required were ascertained from the CARPA STM. The clinic database was reviewed for data on disease prevalence and adherence to CARPA STM guidelines. Recommended tasks were observed in a time-and-motion study of clinicians' work. Clinicians were interviewed about systematic management and its barriers. Expenditure records were analysed for salary and administrative costs. Diabetes and CKD prevalence; time spent on chronic disease care tasks; completion of tasks recommended by the CARPA STM; barriers to systematic care identified by clinicians; and estimated costs of optimal primary care management of all residents with diabetes or CKD. Projected annual costs of best-practice care for diabetes and CKD for this community of 542 people were $900 792, of which $645 313 would be met directly by the local primary care service. Estimated actual expenditure for these conditions in 2009-10 was $446 585, giving a projected funding gap of $198 728 per annum, or $1733 per patient. High staff turnover, acute care workload and low health literacy also hindered optimal chronic disease care. Barriers to optimal care included inadequate funding and workforce issues. Reduction of avoidable hospital admissions and overall costs necessitates adequate funding of primary care of chronic disease in remote communities.

Neuroscience Literacy: "Brain Tells" as Signals of Brain Dysfunction Affecting Daily Life.

PubMed

Royeen, Charlotte B; Brašić, James R; Dvorak, Leah; Provoziak-O'Brien, Casey; Sethi, Chetna; Ahmad, S Omar

2016-01-01

The structures and circuits of the central and the peripheral nervous systems provide the basis for thinking, speaking, experiencing sensations, and performing perceptual and motor activities in daily life. Healthy people experience normal functioning without giving brain functions a second thought, while dysfunction of the neural circuits may lead to marked impairments in cognition, communication, sensory awareness, and performing perceptual and motor tasks. Neuroscience literacy provides the knowledge to associate the deficits observed in patients with the underlying deficits in the structures and circuits of the nervous system. The purpose of this paper is to begin the conversation in this area via a neuroscience literacy model of "Brain Tells," defined as stereotypical or observable behaviors often associated with brain dysfunction. Occupational therapists and other allied health professionals should be alert for the signs of "Brain Tells" that may be early warning signs of brain pathology. We also suggest that neuroscience literacy be emphasized in training provided to public safety workers, teachers, caregivers, and health care professionals at all levels.

Chinese children's early knowledge about writing.

PubMed

Zhang, Lan; Yin, Li; Treiman, Rebecca

2017-09-01

Much research on literacy development has focused on learners of alphabetic writing systems. Researchers have hypothesized that children learn about the formal characteristics of writing before they learn about the relations between units of writing and units of speech. We tested this hypothesis by examining young Chinese children's understanding of writing. Mandarin-speaking 2- to 5-year-olds completed a graphic task, which tapped their knowledge about the formal characteristics of writing, and a phonological task, which tapped their knowledge about the correspondence between Chinese characters and syllables. The 3- to 5-year-olds performed better on the graphic task than the phonological task, indicating that learning how writing appears visually begins earlier than learning that writing corresponds to linguistic units, even in a writing system in which written units correspond to syllables. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? Learning about writing's visual form, how it looks, is an important part of emergent literacy. Knowledge of how writing symbolizes linguistic units may emerge later. What does this study add? We test the hypothesis that Chinese children learn about writing's visual form earlier than its symbolic nature. Chinese 3- to 5- year-olds know more about visual features than character-syllable links. Results show learning of the visual appearance of a notation system is developmentally precocious. © 2016 The British Psychological Society.

The relationship of phonological ability, speech perception, and auditory perception in adults with dyslexia

PubMed Central

Law, Jeremy M.; Vandermosten, Maaike; Ghesquiere, Pol; Wouters, Jan

2014-01-01

This study investigated whether auditory, speech perception, and phonological skills are tightly interrelated or independently contributing to reading. We assessed each of these three skills in 36 adults with a past diagnosis of dyslexia and 54 matched normal reading adults. Phonological skills were tested by the typical threefold tasks, i.e., rapid automatic naming, verbal short-term memory and phonological awareness. Dynamic auditory processing skills were assessed by means of a frequency modulation (FM) and an amplitude rise time (RT); an intensity discrimination task (ID) was included as a non-dynamic control task. Speech perception was assessed by means of sentences and words-in-noise tasks. Group analyses revealed significant group differences in auditory tasks (i.e., RT and ID) and in phonological processing measures, yet no differences were found for speech perception. In addition, performance on RT discrimination correlated with reading but this relation was mediated by phonological processing and not by speech-in-noise. Finally, inspection of the individual scores revealed that the dyslexic readers showed an increased proportion of deviant subjects on the slow-dynamic auditory and phonological tasks, yet each individual dyslexic reader does not display a clear pattern of deficiencies across the processing skills. Although our results support phonological and slow-rate dynamic auditory deficits which relate to literacy, they suggest that at the individual level, problems in reading and writing cannot be explained by the cascading auditory theory. Instead, dyslexic adults seem to vary considerably in the extent to which each of the auditory and phonological factors are expressed and interact with environmental and higher-order cognitive influences. PMID:25071512

What did the doctor say? Health literacy and recall of medical instructions.

PubMed

McCarthy, Danielle M; Waite, Katherine R; Curtis, Laura M; Engel, Kirsten G; Baker, David W; Wolf, Michael S

2012-04-01

Limited literacy has repeatedly been linked to problems comprehending health information, although the majority of studies to date have focused on reading various print health materials. We sought to investigate patients' ability to recall spoken medical instructions in the context of a hypothetical clinical encounter, and whether limited health literacy would adversely affect performance on the task. A total of 755 patients aged 55 to 74 were recruited from 1 academic internal medicine clinic and 3 federally qualified health centers. Participants' health literacy skills and recall of spoken medical instructions for 2 standard hypothetical video scenarios [wound care, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) diagnosis] were assessed. The majority (71.6%) of participants had adequate health literacy skills, and these individuals performed significantly better in correctly recalling spoken information than those with marginal and low literacy in both scenarios: [wound care-mean (SD): low 2.5 (1.3) vs. marginal 3.5 (1.3) vs. adequate 4.6 (1.1); P<0.001), GERD: low 4.2(1.7) vs. marginal 5.2 (1.7) vs. adequate 6.5 (1.7); P<0.001]. Regardless of literacy level, overall recall of information was poor. Few recognized pain (28.5%) or fever (28.2%) as signs of infection. Only 40.5% of participants correctly recalled when to take their GERD pills. Many older adults may have difficulty remembering verbal instructions conveyed during clinical encounters. We found those with lower health literacy to have poorer ability to recall information. Greater provider awareness of the impact of low health literacy on the recall of spoken instructions may guide providers to communicate more effectively and employ strategies to confirm patient understanding.

What Did the Doctor Say? Health Literacy and Recall of Medical Instructions

PubMed Central

McCarthy, Danielle M; Waite, Katherine R; Curtis, Laura M; Engel, Kirsten G; Baker, David W; Wolf, Michael S

2011-01-01

Background Limited literacy has repeatedly been linked to problems comprehending health information, although the majority of studies to date have focused on reading various print health materials. We sought to investigate patients’ ability to recall spoken medical instructions in the context of a hypothetical clinical encounter, and whether limited health literacy would adversely affect performance on the task. Methods A total of 755 patients age 55–74 were recruited from one academic internal medicine clinic and three federally qualified health centers. Participants’ health literacy skills and recall of spoken medical instructions for two standard, hypothetical video scenarios (wound care, GERD diagnosis)were assessed. Results The majority (71.6%) of participants had adequate health literacy skills, and these individuals performed significantly better in correctly recalling spoken information than those with marginal and low literacy in both scenarios: [wound care - mean (SD): low 2.5 (1.3) vs. marginal 3.5 (1.3) vs adequate 4.6 (1.1); p<0.001), GERD: low 4.2(1.7) vs. marginal 5.2(1.7) vs. adequate 6.5 (1.7);p<0.001]. Regardless of literacy level, overall recall of information was poor. Few recognized pain (28.5%) or fever (28.2%) as signs of infection. Only 40.5% of participants correctly recalled when to take their GERD pills. Conclusions Many older adults may have difficulty remembering verbal instructions conveyed during clinical encounters. We found those with lower health literacy to have poorer ability to recall information. Greater provider awareness of the impact of low health literacy on the recall of spoken instructions may guide providers to communicate more effectively and employ strategies to confirm patient understanding. PMID:22411440

Selective attention to phonology dynamically modulates initial encoding of auditory words within the left hemisphere

PubMed Central

Yoncheva; Maurer, Urs; Zevin, Jason; McCandliss, Bruce

2015-01-01

Selective attention to phonology, i.e., the ability to attend to sub-syllabic units within spoken words, is a critical precursor to literacy acquisition. Recent functional magnetic resonance imaging evidence has demonstrated that a left-lateralized network of frontal, temporal, and posterior language regions, including the visual word form area, supports this skill. The current event-related potential (ERP) study investigated the temporal dynamics of selective attention to phonology during spoken word perception. We tested the hypothesis that selective atten tion to phonology dynamically modulates stimulus encoding by recruiting left-lateralized processes specifically while the information critical for performance is unfolding. Selective attention to phonology was captured by ma nipulating listening goals: skilled adult readers attended to either rhyme or melody within auditory stimulus pairs. Each pair superimposed rhyming and melodic information ensuring identical sensory stimulation. Selective attention to phonology produced distinct early and late topographic ERP effects during stimulus encoding. Data- driven source localization analyses revealed that selective attention to phonology led to significantly greater re cruitment of left-lateralized posterior and extensive temporal regions, which was notably concurrent with the rhyme-relevant information within the word. Furthermore, selective attention effects were specific to auditory stimulus encoding and not observed in response to cues, arguing against the notion that they reflect sustained task setting. Collectively, these results demonstrate that selective attention to phonology dynamically engages a left-lateralized network during the critical time-period of perception for achieving phonological analysis goals. These findings support the key role of selective attention to phonology in the development of literacy and motivate future research on the neural bases of the interaction between phonological awareness and literacy, deemed central to both typical and atypical reading development. PMID:24746955

Subcortical processing of speech regularities underlies reading and music aptitude in children.

PubMed

Strait, Dana L; Hornickel, Jane; Kraus, Nina

2011-10-17

Neural sensitivity to acoustic regularities supports fundamental human behaviors such as hearing in noise and reading. Although the failure to encode acoustic regularities in ongoing speech has been associated with language and literacy deficits, how auditory expertise, such as the expertise that is associated with musical skill, relates to the brainstem processing of speech regularities is unknown. An association between musical skill and neural sensitivity to acoustic regularities would not be surprising given the importance of repetition and regularity in music. Here, we aimed to define relationships between the subcortical processing of speech regularities, music aptitude, and reading abilities in children with and without reading impairment. We hypothesized that, in combination with auditory cognitive abilities, neural sensitivity to regularities in ongoing speech provides a common biological mechanism underlying the development of music and reading abilities. We assessed auditory working memory and attention, music aptitude, reading ability, and neural sensitivity to acoustic regularities in 42 school-aged children with a wide range of reading ability. Neural sensitivity to acoustic regularities was assessed by recording brainstem responses to the same speech sound presented in predictable and variable speech streams. Through correlation analyses and structural equation modeling, we reveal that music aptitude and literacy both relate to the extent of subcortical adaptation to regularities in ongoing speech as well as with auditory working memory and attention. Relationships between music and speech processing are specifically driven by performance on a musical rhythm task, underscoring the importance of rhythmic regularity for both language and music. These data indicate common brain mechanisms underlying reading and music abilities that relate to how the nervous system responds to regularities in auditory input. Definition of common biological underpinnings for music and reading supports the usefulness of music for promoting child literacy, with the potential to improve reading remediation.

US Consumers' Understanding of Nutrition Labels in 2013: The Importance of Health Literacy.

PubMed

Persoskie, Alexander; Hennessy, Erin; Nelson, Wendy L

2017-09-28

We examined US adults' understanding of a Nutrition Facts panel (NFP), which requires health literacy (ie, prose, document, and quantitative literacy skills), and the association between label understanding and dietary behavior. Data were from the Health Information National Trends Survey, a nationally representative survey of health information seeking among US adults (N = 3,185) conducted from September 6, 2013, through December 30, 2013. Participants viewed an ice cream nutrition label and answered 4 questions that tested their ability to apply basic arithmetic and understanding of percentages to interpret the label. Participants reported their intake of sugar-sweetened soda, fruits, and vegetables. Regression analyses tested associations among label understanding, demographic characteristics, and self-reported dietary behaviors. Approximately 24% of people could not determine the calorie content of the full ice-cream container, 21% could not estimate the number of servings equal to 60 g of carbohydrates, 42% could not estimate the effect on daily calorie intake of foregoing 1 serving, and 41% could not calculate the percentage daily value of calories in a single serving. Higher scores for label understanding were associated with consuming more vegetables and less sugar-sweetened soda, although only the association with soda consumption remained significant after adjusting for demographic factors. Many consumers have difficulty interpreting nutrition labels, and label understanding correlates with self-reported dietary behaviors. The 2016 revised NFP labels may address some deficits in consumer understanding by eliminating the need to perform certain calculations (eg, total calories per package). However, some tasks still require the ability to perform calculations (eg, percentage daily value of calories). Schools have a role in teaching skills, such as mathematics, needed for nutrition label understanding.

The measurement of psychological literacy: a first approximation

PubMed Central

Roberts, Lynne D.; Heritage, Brody; Gasson, Natalie

2015-01-01

Psychological literacy, the ability to apply psychological knowledge to personal, family, occupational, community and societal challenges, is promoted as the primary outcome of an undergraduate education in psychology. As the concept of psychological literacy becomes increasingly adopted as the core business of undergraduate psychology training courses world-wide, there is urgent need for the construct to be accurately measured so that student and institutional level progress can be assessed and monitored. Key to the measurement of psychological literacy is determining the underlying factor-structure of psychological literacy. In this paper we provide a first approximation of the measurement of psychological literacy by identifying and evaluating self-report measures for psychological literacy. Multi-item and single-item self-report measures of each of the proposed nine dimensions of psychological literacy were completed by two samples (N = 218 and N = 381) of undergraduate psychology students at an Australian university. Single and multi-item measures of each dimension were weakly to moderately correlated. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of multi-item measures indicated a higher order three factor solution best represented the construct of psychological literacy. The three factors were reflective processes, generic graduate attributes, and psychology as a helping profession. For the measurement of psychological literacy to progress there is a need to further develop self-report measures and to identify/develop and evaluate objective measures of psychological literacy. Further approximations of the measurement of psychological literacy remain an imperative, given the construct's ties to measuring institutional efficacy in teaching psychology to an undergraduate audience. PMID:25741300

Does Training in Table Creation Enhance Table Interpretation? A Quasi-Experimental Study with Follow-Up

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Karazsia, Bryan T.; Wong, Kendal

2016-01-01

Quantitative and statistical literacy are core domains in the undergraduate psychology curriculum. An important component of such literacy includes interpretation of visual aids, such as tables containing results from statistical analyses. This article presents results of a quasi-experimental study with longitudinal follow-up that tested the…

Statistical Literacy in the Data Science Workplace

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grant, Robert

2017-01-01

Statistical literacy, the ability to understand and make use of statistical information including methods, has particular relevance in the age of data science, when complex analyses are undertaken by teams from diverse backgrounds. Not only is it essential to communicate to the consumers of information but also within the team. Writing from the…

Pennsylvania's Family Literacy Programs: Results of a Statewide Evaluation, 1999-2000.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Van Horn, Barbara; Kassab, Cathy; Grinder, Elisabeth

Pennsylvania's family literacy programs were subjected to a statewide evaluation in 1999-2000. Data were collected through focus groups with parents, a survey of staff in community agencies and organizations, and analyses of program data and the findings of selected assessments administered to adults and children involved in the program.…

An Evaluation of a Media Literacy Program Training Workshop for Late Elementary School Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scull, Tracy Marie; Kupersmidt, Janis Beth

2011-01-01

The present study examined the efficacy of a media literacy education, substance abuse prevention training workshop for late elementary school teachers. Analyses revealed that the randomly assigned intervention (n = 18) and control (n = 23) teachers were similar in demographic characteristics and pre-training beliefs and knowledge. Teachers who…

Financial Literacy and the Use of Interest-Only Mortgages

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Seay, Martin C.; Preece, Gloria L.; Le, Vincent C.

2017-01-01

This study explored the relationship between financial literacy and the use of interest-only mortgages using data from the 2009 National Financial Capability Study (NFCS). A series of analyses were conducted to investigate characteristics associated with the use of an interest-only mortgage as a primary mortgage, as compared to fixed-rate mortgage…

Cheating Literacy: The Limitations of Simulated Classroom Discourse in Educational Software for Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walton, Marion

2007-01-01

This paper presents a multimodal discourse analysis of children using "drill-and-practice" literacy software at a primary school in the Western Cape, South Africa. The children's interactions with the software are analysed. The software has serious limitations which arise from the global political economy of the educational software…

The digital divide: Examining socio-demographic factors associated with health literacy, access and use of internet to seek health information.

PubMed

Estacio, Emee Vida; Whittle, Rebecca; Protheroe, Joanne

2017-02-01

This article aims to examine the socio-demographic characteristics associated with access and use of Internet for health-related purposes and its relationship with health literacy. Data were drawn from a health literacy survey ( N = 1046) and analysed using logistic regression. Results show a strong association between health literacy, internet access and use. Socio-demographic characteristics particularly age, education, income, perceived health and social isolation also predict internet access. Thus, in addition to widening access, the movement towards digitisation of health information and services should also consider digital skills development to enable people to utilise digital technology more effectively, especially among traditionally hard-to-reach communities.

Children's behavioral regulation and literacy: The impact of the first grade classroom environment.

PubMed

Day, Stephanie L; Connor, Carol McDonald; McClelland, Megan M

2015-10-01

Classroom learning environments are an important source of influence on children's development, particularly with regard to literacy achievement and behavioral regulation, both of which require the coordination of task inhibition, attention, and working memory. Classroom observations were conducted in 18 schools and 51 first grade classrooms for 500 children. The non-instructional activities were recorded for each student in the classroom. Hierarchical linear modeling revealed that children with weaker fall behavioral regulation were more likely to attend classrooms where more time was spent in disruptions and wasted instructional time over the course of the school year, such as waiting for the teacher to gather materials before beginning instruction. For literacy outcomes, children who were in classrooms where more time in disruptions, transitions, and waiting was observed showed weaker literacy skill gains in the spring compared to children in classrooms with lesser amounts of such unproductive non-instructional time and this effect was generally greater for students with initial weaker skills. These results also reveal that the classroom environment and the incoming characteristics of the students themselves influence students' development of behavioral regulation and literacy. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Use of a modified informed consent process among vulnerable patients: a descriptive study.

PubMed

Sudore, Rebecca L; Landefeld, C Seth; Williams, Brie A; Barnes, Deborah E; Lindquist, Karla; Schillinger, Dean

2006-08-01

Little is known about patient characteristics associated with comprehension of consent information, and whether modifications to the consent process can promote understanding. To describe a modified research consent process, and determine whether literacy and demographic characteristics are associated with understanding consent information. Descriptive study of a modified consent process: consent form (written at a sixth-grade level) read to participants, combined with 7 comprehension questions and targeted education, repeated until comprehension achieved (teach-to-goal). Two hundred and four ethnically diverse subjects, aged > or = 50, consenting for a trial to improve the forms used for advance directives. Number of passes through the consent process required to achieve complete comprehension. Literacy assessed in English and Spanish with the Short Form Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (scores 0 to 36). Participants had a mean age of 61 years and 40% had limited literacy (s-TOHFLA<23). Only 28% of subjects answered all comprehension questions correctly on the first pass. After adjustment, lower literacy (P=.04) and being black (P=.03) were associated with requiring more passes through the consent process. Not speaking English as a primary language was associated with requiring more passes through the consent process in bivariate analyses (P<.01), but not in multivariable analyses (P>.05). After the second pass, most subjects (80%) answered all questions correctly. With a teach-to-goal strategy, 98% of participants who engaged in the consent process achieved complete comprehension. Lower literacy and minority status are important determinants of understanding consent information. Using a modified consent process, little additional education was required to achieve complete comprehension, regardless of literacy or language barriers.

Evaluation of a single-item screening question to detect limited health literacy in peritoneal dialysis patients.

PubMed

Jain, Deepika; Sheth, Heena; Bender, Filitsa H; Weisbord, Steven D; Green, Jamie A

2014-01-01

Studies have shown that a single-item question might be useful in identifying patients with limited health literacy. However, the utility of the approach has not been studied in patients receiving maintenance peritoneal dialysis (PD). We assessed health literacy in a cohort of 31 PD patients by administering the Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine (REALM) and a single-item health literacy (SHL) screening question "How confident are you filling out medical forms by yourself?" (Extremely, Quite a bit, Somewhat, A little bit, or Not at all). To determine the accuracy of the single-item question for detecting limited health literacy, we performed sensitivity and specificity analyses of the SHL and plotted the area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUROC) curve using the REALM as a reference standard. Using a cut-off of "Somewhat" or less confident, the sensitivity of the SHL for detecting limited health literacy was 80%, and the specificity was 88%. The positive likelihood ratio was 6.9. The SHL had an AUROC of 0.79 (95% confidence interval: 0.52 to 1.00). Our results show that the SHL could be effective in detecting limited health literacy in PD patients.

The Influence of Texting Language on Grammar and Executive Functions in Primary School Children.

PubMed

van Dijk, Chantal N; van Witteloostuijn, Merel; Vasić, Nada; Avrutin, Sergey; Blom, Elma

2016-01-01

When sending text messages on their mobile phone to friends, children often use a special type of register, which is called textese. This register allows the omission of words and the use of textisms: instances of non-standard written language such as 4ever (forever). Previous studies have shown that textese has a positive effect on children's literacy abilities. In addition, it is possible that children's grammar system is affected by textese as well, as grammar rules are often transgressed in this register. Therefore, the main aim of this study was to investigate whether the use of textese influences children's grammar performance, and whether this effect is specific to grammar or language in general. Additionally, studies have not yet investigated the influence of textese on children's cognitive abilities. Consequently, the secondary aim of this study was to find out whether textese affects children's executive functions. To investigate this, 55 children between 10 and 13 years old were tested on a receptive vocabulary and grammar performance (sentence repetition) task and various tasks measuring executive functioning. In addition, text messages were elicited and the number of omissions and textisms in children's messages were calculated. Regression analyses showed that omissions were a significant predictor of children's grammar performance after various other variables were controlled for: the more words children omitted in their text messages, the better their performance on the grammar task. Although textisms correlated (marginally) significantly with vocabulary, grammar and selective attention scores and omissions marginally significantly with vocabulary scores, no other significant effects were obtained for measures of textese in the regression analyses: neither for the language outcomes, nor for the executive function tasks. Hence, our results show that textese is positively related to children's grammar performance. On the other hand, use of textese does not affect--positively nor negatively--children's executive functions.

The Influence of Texting Language on Grammar and Executive Functions in Primary School Children

PubMed Central

van Dijk, Chantal N.; van Witteloostuijn, Merel; Vasić, Nada; Avrutin, Sergey; Blom, Elma

2016-01-01

When sending text messages on their mobile phone to friends, children often use a special type of register, which is called textese. This register allows the omission of words and the use of textisms: instances of non-standard written language such as 4ever (forever). Previous studies have shown that textese has a positive effect on children’s literacy abilities. In addition, it is possible that children’s grammar system is affected by textese as well, as grammar rules are often transgressed in this register. Therefore, the main aim of this study was to investigate whether the use of textese influences children’s grammar performance, and whether this effect is specific to grammar or language in general. Additionally, studies have not yet investigated the influence of textese on children’s cognitive abilities. Consequently, the secondary aim of this study was to find out whether textese affects children’s executive functions. To investigate this, 55 children between 10 and 13 years old were tested on a receptive vocabulary and grammar performance (sentence repetition) task and various tasks measuring executive functioning. In addition, text messages were elicited and the number of omissions and textisms in children’s messages were calculated. Regression analyses showed that omissions were a significant predictor of children’s grammar performance after various other variables were controlled for: the more words children omitted in their text messages, the better their performance on the grammar task. Although textisms correlated (marginally) significantly with vocabulary, grammar and selective attention scores and omissions marginally significantly with vocabulary scores, no other significant effects were obtained for measures of textese in the regression analyses: neither for the language outcomes, nor for the executive function tasks. Hence, our results show that textese is positively related to children’s grammar performance. On the other hand, use of textese does not affect—positively nor negatively—children’s executive functions. PMID:27031708

Why do early mathematics skills predict later reading? The role of mathematical language.

PubMed

Purpura, David J; Logan, Jessica A R; Hassinger-Das, Brenna; Napoli, Amy R

2017-09-01

A growing body of evidence indicates that the development of mathematics and literacy skills is highly related. The importance of literacy skills-specifically language-for mathematics development has been well rationalized. However, despite several prominent studies indicating that mathematics skills are highly predictive of literacy development, the reason for this relation is not well understood. The purpose of this study was to identify how and why early mathematics is predictive of early literacy development. Participants included 125 preschool children 3-5 years old (M = 4 years 3 months). Participants were assessed on mathematics, literacy, and cognitive measures in both the fall and spring of their preschool year. Mediation analyses indicated that the relation between early mathematics and literacy skills is mediated by children's mathematical language skills. These findings suggest that, in prior research identifying mathematical performance as a significant predictor of later literacy skills, mathematical performance may have acted only as a proxy measure for more complex language skills such as those assessed on a mathematical language measure. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Understanding critical health literacy: a concept analysis

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background Interest in and debates around health literacy have grown over the last two decades and key to the discussions has been the distinction made between basic functional health literacy, communicative/interactive health literacy and critical health literacy. Of these, critical health literacy is the least well developed and differing interpretations of its constituents and relevance exist. The aim of this study is to rigorously analyse the concept of critical health literacy in order to offer some clarity of definition upon which appropriate theory, well grounded practice and potential measurement tools can be based. Method The study uses a theoretical and colloquial evolutionary concept analysis method to systematically identify the features associated with this concept. A unique characteristic of this method is that it practically combines an analysis of the literature with in depth interviews undertaken with practitioners and policy makers who have an interest in the field. The study also analyses how the concept is understood across the contexts of time, place, discipline and use by health professionals, policy makers and academics. Results Findings revealed a distinct set of characteristics of advanced personal skills, health knowledge, information skills, effective interaction between service providers and users, informed decision making and empowerment including political action as key features of critical health literacy. The potential consequences of critical health literacy identified are in improving health outcomes, creating more effective use of health services and reducing inequalities in health thus demonstrating the relevance of this concept to public health and health promotion. Conclusions While critical health literacy is shown to be a unique concept, there remain significant contextual variations in understanding particularly between academics, practitioners and policy makers. Key attributes presented as part of this concept when it was first introduced in the literature, particularly those around empowerment, social and political action and the existence of the concept at both an individual and population level, have been lost in more recent representations. This has resulted in critical health literacy becoming restricted to a higher order cognitive individual skill rather than a driver for political and social change. The paper argues that in order to retain the uniqueness and usefulness of the concept in practice efforts should be made to avoid this dilution of meaning. PMID:23419015

Developing and validating a scale to measure Food and Nutrition Literacy (FNLIT) in elementary school children in Iran

PubMed Central

Doustmohammadian, Aazam; Omidvar, Nasrin; Keshavarz-Mohammadi, Nastaran; Abdollahi, Morteza; Amini, Maryam; Eini-Zinab, Hassan

2017-01-01

Background Food and nutrition literacy is an emerging term which is increasingly used in policy and research. Though research in this area is growing, progression is limited by the lack of an accepted method to measure food and nutrition literacy. The aim of this study is to develop a valid and reliable questionnaire to assess food and nutrition literacy in elementary school children in the city of Tehran. Methods The study was conducted in three phases. To develop Food and Nutrition Literacy (FNLIT) questionnaire, a comprehensive literature review and a qualitative study were initially performed to identify food and nutrition literacy dimensions and its components. Content and face validity of the questionnaire were evaluated by an expert panel as well as students. In the second phase, construct validity of the scale was evaluated using Explanatory Factor Analyses (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analyses (CFA). In the last phase (confirmatory phase), the final version of the questionnaire was evaluated on 400 students. Results Findings show Content Validity Ratio (CVR) and Content Validity Index (CVI) of the 62-item questionnaire at acceptable levels of 0.87 and 0.92, respectively. EFA suggested a six-factor construct, namely, understanding food and nutrition information, knowledge, functional, interactive, food choice, and critical. The results of CFA indicated acceptable fit indices for the proposed models. All subscales demonstrated satisfactory internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha≥0.70), except for critical skill subscale (0.48). The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC = 0.90, CI: 0.83–0.94) indicated that Food and Nutrition Literacy (FNLIT) scale had satisfactory stability. Each phase of development progressively improved the questionnaire, which resulted in a 46-item (42 likert-type items and 4 true-false items) Food and Nutrition Literacy (FNLIT) scale. The questionnaire measured two domains with 6 subscales, including: 1) cognitive domain: understanding and knowledge; 2) skill domain: functional, food choice, interactive, and critical skills. Conclusion The developed food and nutrition literacy scale is a valid and reliable instrument to measure food and nutrition literacy in children. This measure lays a solid empirical and theoretical foundation for future research and tailored interventions to promote food and nutrition literacy in this age group. PMID:28654646

Low Health Literacy Is Associated with Increased Transitional Care Needs in Hospitalized Patients.

PubMed

Boyle, Joseph; Speroff, Theodore; Worley, Katherine; Cao, Aize; Goggins, Kathryn; Dittus, Robert S; Kripalani, Sunil

2017-11-01

To examine the association of health literacy with the number and type of transitional care needs (TCN) among patients being discharged to home. A cross-sectional analysis of patients admitted to an academic medical center. Nurses administered the Brief Health Literacy Screen and documented TCNs along 10 domains: caregiver support, transportation, healthcare utilization, high-risk medical comorbidities, medication management, medical devices, functional status, mental health comorbidities, communication, and financial resources. Among the 384 patients analyzed, 113 (29%) had inadequate health literacy. Patients with inadequate health literacy had needs in more TCN domains (mean = 5.29 vs 4.36; P < 0 .001). In unadjusted analysis, patients with inadequate health literacy were significantly more likely to have TCNs in 7 out of the 10 domains. In multivariate analyses, inadequate health literacy remained significantly associated with inadequate caregiver support (odds ratio [OR], 2.61; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.37-4.99) and transportation barriers (OR, 1.69; 95% CI, 1.04-2.76). Among hospitalized patients, inadequate health literacy is prevalent and independently associated with other needs that place patients at a higher risk of adverse outcomes, such as hospital readmission. Screening for inadequate health literacy and associated needs may enable hospitals to address these barriers and improve postdischarge outcomes. © 2017 Society of Hospital Medicine

Development and validation of a reading-related assessment battery in Malay for the purpose of dyslexia assessment.

PubMed

Lee, Lay Wah

2008-06-01

Malay is an alphabetic language with transparent orthography. A Malay reading-related assessment battery which was conceptualised based on the International Dyslexia Association definition of dyslexia was developed and validated for the purpose of dyslexia assessment. The battery consisted of ten tests: Letter Naming, Word Reading, Non-word Reading, Spelling, Passage Reading, Reading Comprehension, Listening Comprehension, Elision, Rapid Letter Naming and Digit Span. Content validity was established by expert judgment. Concurrent validity was obtained using the schools' language tests as criterion. Evidence of predictive and construct validity was obtained through regression analyses and factor analyses. Phonological awareness was the most significant predictor of word-level literacy skills in Malay, with rapid naming making independent secondary contributions. Decoding and listening comprehension made separate contributions to reading comprehension, with decoding as the more prominent predictor. Factor analysis revealed four factors: phonological decoding, phonological naming, comprehension and verbal short-term memory. In conclusion, despite differences in orthography, there are striking similarities in the theoretical constructs of reading-related tasks in Malay and in English.

Issues in post-literacy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dave, Ravindra H.; Ouane, Adama; Sutton, Peter

1989-12-01

While school enrolments have been rising, the absolute number of illiterates in the world has grown too. Eradication of adult illiteracy and universalization of primary education are hindered by high drop-out in schools and relapse into illiteracy among adults. Post-literacy programmes seek to stop this reversal by ensuring retention, application and continuation of literacy skills. The Unesco Institute for Education (UIE) has been researching and promoting post-literacy strategies since 1980, but finds that most projects do not include provision for post-literacy from the outset, despite the evident need. Those programmes which have been mounted use a variety of strategies, which UIE has analysed in 12 categories. The exact delimitation of the post-literacy stage in the lifelong education continuum differs from project to project, and the emphasis on individual or societal advance depends on local perceptions of the goals of development. Examples are given of successful programmes, and the challenges of increasing participation and motivation, securing adequate funding, and making efficient and flexible use of institutional facilities are discussed.

Neurocognitive Development and Predictors of L1 and L2 Literacy Skills in Dyslexia: A Longitudinal Study of Children 5–11 Years Old

PubMed Central

Morken, Frøydis

2015-01-01

The aim of this study was to find valid neurocognitive precursors of literacy development in first language (L1, Norwegian) and second language (L2, English) in a group of children during their Pre‐literacy, Emergent Literacy and Literacy stages, by comparing children with dyslexia and a typical group. Children who were 5 years old at project start were followed until the age of 11, when dyslexia was identified and data could be analysed in retrospect. The children's neurocognitive pattern changed both by literacy stage and domain. Visuo‐spatial recall and RAN appeared as early precursors of L1 literacy, while phonological awareness appeared as early precursor of L2 English. Verbal long term memory was associated with both L1 and L2 skills in the Literacy stage. Significant group differences seen in the Pre‐literacy and Emergent literacy stages decreased in the Literacy stage. The developmental variations by stage and domain may explain some of the inconsistencies seen in dyslexia research. Early identification and training are essential to avoid academic failure, and our data show that visuo‐spatial memory and RAN could be suitable early markers in transparent orthographies like Norwegian. Phonological awareness was here seen as an early precursor of L2 English, but not of L1 Norwegian. © 2015 The Authors. Dyslexia published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. PMID:26511662

Neurocognitive Development and Predictors of L1 and L2 Literacy Skills in Dyslexia: A Longitudinal Study of Children 5-11 Years Old.

PubMed

Helland, Turid; Morken, Frøydis

2016-02-01

The aim of this study was to find valid neurocognitive precursors of literacy development in first language (L1, Norwegian) and second language (L2, English) in a group of children during their Pre-literacy, Emergent Literacy and Literacy stages, by comparing children with dyslexia and a typical group. Children who were 5 years old at project start were followed until the age of 11, when dyslexia was identified and data could be analysed in retrospect. The children's neurocognitive pattern changed both by literacy stage and domain. Visuo-spatial recall and RAN appeared as early precursors of L1 literacy, while phonological awareness appeared as early precursor of L2 English. Verbal long term memory was associated with both L1 and L2 skills in the Literacy stage. Significant group differences seen in the Pre-literacy and Emergent literacy stages decreased in the Literacy stage. The developmental variations by stage and domain may explain some of the inconsistencies seen in dyslexia research. Early identification and training are essential to avoid academic failure, and our data show that visuo-spatial memory and RAN could be suitable early markers in transparent orthographies like Norwegian. Phonological awareness was here seen as an early precursor of L2 English, but not of L1 Norwegian. © 2015 The Authors. Dyslexia published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Phonological Representations and Early Literacy in Chinese

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kidd, Joanna C.; Shum, Kathy Kar-Man; Ho, Connie Suk-Han; Au, Terry Kit-fong

2015-01-01

Phonological processing skills predict early reading development, but what underlies developing phonological processing skills? Phonological representations of 140 native Cantonese-speaking Chinese children (age 4-10) were assessed with speech gating, mispronunciation detection, and nonword repetition tasks; their nonverbal IQ, reading, and…

Vygotskian Perspectives on Literacy Research: Constructing Meaning through Collaborative Inquiry. Learning in Doing: Social, Cognitive, and Computational Perspectives.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Carol D., Ed.; Smagorinsky, Peter, Ed.

In this collection of essays, the authors use Lev Vygotsky's cultural-historical theory of human development to frame their analyses of schooling, with particular emphasis on the ways in which literacy practices are mediated by social interaction and cultural artifacts. The collection extends Vygotsky's cultural-historical theoretical framework to…

Teachers' Classroom Assessment Practices and Fourth-Graders' Reading Literacy Achievements: An International Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hao, Shiqi; Johnson, Robert L.

2013-01-01

This study, through multilevel analyses of the data of four English-speaking nations (i.e., Canada, England, New Zealand and the United States) from the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2001 database, investigated the relationship between teachers' uses of various types of classroom assessments and their fourth-graders'…

Critical Literacies in the Making: Social Class and Identities in the Early Reading Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jones, Stephanie

2013-01-01

Drawing from a four-year critical ethnographic study of young girls and their literacy practices inside and outside school, this article foregrounds a lived pedagogical moment when conflicting discourses about reading instruction collided in a critically focused second-grade classroom. Through my analyses I make the argument that the pervasiveness…

Literacy as a Pathway between Schooling and Health-Related Communication Skills: A Study of Venezuelan Mothers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schnell-Anzola, Beatrice; Rowe, Meredith L.; LeVine, Robert A.

2005-01-01

This article addresses the mechanisms by which women's schooling might affect the survival and health of their children. A theoretical model is proposed in which academic literacy skills serve as a pathway between formal schooling and maternal health-related behaviors. The model is tested through multivariate analyses of interview and literacy…

Influences of Metacognitive and Self-Regulated Learning Strategies for Reading on Mathematical Literacy of Adolescents in Australia and Singapore

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kaur, Berinderjeet; Areepattamannil, Shaljan

2012-01-01

This study, drawing on data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2009, explored the influences of metacognitive and self-regulated learning strategies for reading on mathematical literacy of adolescents in Australia and Singapore. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analyses revealed the positive influences of…

Literacy-Related Play Activities and Preschool Staffs' Strategies to Support Children's Concept Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Norling, Martina; Lillvist, Anne

2016-01-01

This study investigates language-promoting strategies and support of concept development displayed by preschool staffs' when interacting with preschool children in literacy-related play activities. The data analysed consisted of 39 minutes of video, selected systematically from a total of 11 hours of video material from six Swedish preschool…

The Complexity of Scientific Literacy: The Development and Use of a Data Analysis Matrix

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garthwaite, Kathryn; France, Bev; Ward, Gillian

2014-01-01

Data were gathered from 95 Year 10 students in a New Zealand secondary school to explore how the indicators of scientific literacy are expressed in student responses. These students completed an activity based around the two contexts of lighting and health. A matrix, which incorporated descriptive indicators, was developed to analyse the student…

Are Gender Differences in Perceived and Demonstrated Technology Literacy Significant? It Depends on the Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hohlfeld, Tina N.; Ritzhaupt, Albert D.; Barron, Ann E.

2013-01-01

This paper examines gender differences related to Information and Communication Technology (ICT) literacy using two valid and internally consistent measures with eighth grade students (N = 1,513) from Florida public schools. The results of t test statistical analyses, which examined only gender differences in demonstrated and perceived ICT skills,…

How Mathematical Literacy Teachers Facilitate Mathematisation in Modelling Situations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Botha, Hanlie; van Putten, Sonja

2018-01-01

Mathematical literacy (ML) is a compulsory subject in South Africa for those learners who choose not to do mathematics to Grade 12 level. ML is designed to enable a learner to become a self-managing person by providing opportunities to analyse and solve real-life problems through the mathematisation of contextual situations. The subject thus lends…

Sibling Negotiations and the Construction of Literacy Events in an Urban Area of Tanzania

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Frankenberg, Sofia Johnson; Holmqvist, Rolf; Rubenson, Birgitta; Rindstedt, Camilla

2012-01-01

This study presents findings from analyses of naturally occurring literacy events, where children jointly focus on reading and writing letters of the alphabet, illustrating social constructions of learning created through language and embodied action. Video recorded data from two different families living in an urban low-income area in Tanzania is…

Genres and Registers of Student Report Writing: An SFL Perspective on Texts and Practices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gardner, Sheena

2012-01-01

Academic literacies research has tended to focus on writers in context, while systemic functional linguistic research has tended to focus on texts in context. While literacy practices and written texts may be usefully analysed independently, this paper describes how an investigation of genres of academic writing in the BAWE (British Academic…

Relationships of Out-of-School-Time Mathematics Lessons to Mathematical Literacy in Singapore and Australia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kaur, Berinderjeet; Areepattamannil, Shaljan

2013-01-01

This study, drawing on date from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2009, examined the relationships of out-of-school-time mathematics lessons to mathematical literacy in Singapore and Australia. Results of two-level hierarchical linear modelling (HLM) analyses revealed that out-of-school-time enrichment lessons in…

Developing Early Literacy Skills: Things We Know We Know and Things We Know We Don't Know

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lonigan, Christopher J.; Shanahan, Timothy

2010-01-01

This rejoinder provides responses to the conceptual concerns expressed in the nine critiques published in this issue of "Educational Researcher" of the 2008 National Early Literacy Panel report. It explains the necessity of adhering to clearly established study selection parameters in conducting trustworthy meta-analyses and the need to be…

Using Music to Promote Children's Thinking and Enhance Their Literacy Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Salmon, Angela

2010-01-01

In an effort to understand how children's literacy is affected by their life experiences, this article analyses the natural disposition of children to engage in musical activities that connect them to previous experiences and allow them to build new thoughts. Music is inherent to children's experiences and is related to sounds heard everyday,…

Evaluation of a Digital Story Pedagogical Module for the Indigenous Learners Using the Stake Countenance Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thanabalan, T. Vanitha; Siraj, Saedah; Alias, Norlidah

2015-01-01

This study involved the development of a literacy pedagogy for the indigenous people in Malaysia. The Developmental Research Approach was used where insights about the indigenous people and their lifestyle were gathered and analysed for content in developing a literacy pedagogical module. Several principles emerged from the data collected and…

Digital Play as a Means to Develop Children's Literacy and Power in the Swedish Preschool

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marklund, Leif; Dunkels, Elza

2016-01-01

This paper presents different angles on the subject of digital play as a means to develop children's literacy and power, using an online ethnographical study of Swedish preschool teachers' discussions in informal online forums. Question posts (n = 239) were analysed using the Technological Pedagogical Knowledge framework and the Caring, Nurturing…

An Assessment of Children Literacy Development in Nigeria in the Context of EFA 2015 Policy Targets

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ozohu-Suleiman, Yakubu

2012-01-01

The paper analyses the interface between Nigeria's anticipated failure in the Education for All (EFA) 2015 targets and her policy implementation strategies in relation to children literacy. The principal purpose is to locate evidences that may explain the expected failure. The paper relies largely on secondary data and existing literature to…

A Psychometric Analysis of the Italian Version of the eHealth Literacy Scale Using Item Response and Classical Test Theory Methods.

PubMed

Diviani, Nicola; Dima, Alexandra Lelia; Schulz, Peter Johannes

2017-04-11

The eHealth Literacy Scale (eHEALS) is a tool to assess consumers' comfort and skills in using information technologies for health. Although evidence exists of reliability and construct validity of the scale, less agreement exists on structural validity. The aim of this study was to validate the Italian version of the eHealth Literacy Scale (I-eHEALS) in a community sample with a focus on its structural validity, by applying psychometric techniques that account for item difficulty. Two Web-based surveys were conducted among a total of 296 people living in the Italian-speaking region of Switzerland (Ticino). After examining the latent variables underlying the observed variables of the Italian scale via principal component analysis (PCA), fit indices for two alternative models were calculated using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The scale structure was examined via parametric and nonparametric item response theory (IRT) analyses accounting for differences between items regarding the proportion of answers indicating high ability. Convergent validity was assessed by correlations with theoretically related constructs. CFA showed a suboptimal model fit for both models. IRT analyses confirmed all items measure a single dimension as intended. Reliability and construct validity of the final scale were also confirmed. The contrasting results of factor analysis (FA) and IRT analyses highlight the importance of considering differences in item difficulty when examining health literacy scales. The findings support the reliability and validity of the translated scale and its use for assessing Italian-speaking consumers' eHealth literacy. ©Nicola Diviani, Alexandra Lelia Dima, Peter Johannes Schulz. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (http://www.jmir.org), 11.04.2017.

Predicting Future Reading Problems Based on Pre-reading Auditory Measures: A Longitudinal Study of Children with a Familial Risk of Dyslexia

PubMed Central

Law, Jeremy M.; Vandermosten, Maaike; Ghesquière, Pol; Wouters, Jan

2017-01-01

Purpose: This longitudinal study examines measures of temporal auditory processing in pre-reading children with a family risk of dyslexia. Specifically, it attempts to ascertain whether pre-reading auditory processing, speech perception, and phonological awareness (PA) reliably predict later literacy achievement. Additionally, this study retrospectively examines the presence of pre-reading auditory processing, speech perception, and PA impairments in children later found to be literacy impaired. Method: Forty-four pre-reading children with and without a family risk of dyslexia were assessed at three time points (kindergarten, first, and second grade). Auditory processing measures of rise time (RT) discrimination and frequency modulation (FM) along with speech perception, PA, and various literacy tasks were assessed. Results: Kindergarten RT uniquely contributed to growth in literacy in grades one and two, even after controlling for letter knowledge and PA. Highly significant concurrent and predictive correlations were observed with kindergarten RT significantly predicting first grade PA. Retrospective analysis demonstrated atypical performance in RT and PA at all three time points in children who later developed literacy impairments. Conclusions: Although significant, kindergarten auditory processing contributions to later literacy growth lack the power to be considered as a single-cause predictor; thus results support temporal processing deficits' contribution within a multiple deficit model of dyslexia. PMID:28223953

"So we would all help pitch in:" The family literacy practices of low-income African American mothers of preschoolers.

PubMed

Jarrett, Robin L; Hamilton, Megan-Brette; Coba-Rodriguez, Sarai

2015-01-01

The development of emergent literacy skills are important for the development of later literacy competencies and affect school readiness. Quantitative researchers document race- and social class-based disparities in emergent literacy competence between low-income African American and middle-income White children. Some researchers suggest that deficits in parenting practices account for limited literacy skills among low-income African American children. A small body of qualitative research on low-income African American families finds that despite economic challenges, some African American families were actively engaged in promoting child literacy development. Using qualitative interviews that emphasize family strengths, we add to this small body of research to highlight positive family practices obscured in many quantitative analyses that concentrate on family shortcomings. Specifically, we examine in-home literacy practices and child literacy development with a sample of low-income African American mothers (families) of preschoolers. Key findings include identification of various literacy activities promoting child literacy development and inclusion of multiple family members assisting in literacy activities. These findings add to substantive discussions of emergent literacy and resilience. Insights from the qualitative interviews also provide culturally-sensitive recommendations to childhood educators and speech-language pathologists (SLP) who work with low-income African American families and children. Reader should recognize that (1) there is not a 'right' phenotype and therefore not a right form of environmental input and (2) that context matters (at both the level of the cell and the individual organism). Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The home literacy and numeracy environment in preschool: Cross-domain relations of parent-child practices and child outcomes.

PubMed

Napoli, Amy R; Purpura, David J

2018-02-01

There is a growing body of evidence indicating that home literacy and numeracy environments are predictive of children's literacy and numeracy skills within their respective domains. However, there is limited research on the relations between the home literacy environment and numeracy outcomes and between the home numeracy environment and literacy outcomes. Specifically, there is limited information on relations between the home numeracy environment and specific literacy outcomes (e.g., vocabulary). The purpose of the current study was to investigate the relations of the home literacy and numeracy environments to children's literacy and numeracy outcomes both within and across domains. Participants were 114 preschool children and their parents. Children ranged in age from 3.01 to 5.17 years (M = 4.09 years) and were 54% female and 72% Caucasian. Parents reported the frequency of parent-child literacy (code-related practices and storybook reading) and numeracy practices. Children were assessed in the fall and spring of their preschool year on their literacy (definitional vocabulary, phonological awareness, and print knowledge) and numeracy skills. Four mixed-effects regression analyses were conducted to predict each of the child outcomes. Results indicate that although code-related literacy practices and storybook reading were not broadly predictive of children's literacy and numeracy outcomes, the home numeracy environment was predictive of numeracy and definitional vocabulary outcomes. These findings demonstrate a relation between the home numeracy environment and children's language development and contribute to the growing body of research indicating the important relations between early numeracy and language development. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Parental health literacy and its impact on patient care.

PubMed

Scotten, Mitzi

2015-03-01

The process of navigating through the modern American health care system is becoming progressively challenging. The range of tasks being asked of patients in the digital age is vast and complex and includes completing intricate insurance applications, signing complex consent forms, and translating medical data and prescription medication directions. Nearly 9 out of 10 adults have difficulty using the everyday health information that is routinely offered by medical providers. Mounting evidence now supports a growing awareness that general health literacy is the greatest individual factor affecting a person's health status. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Towards the measurement of food literacy with respect to healthy eating: the development and validation of the self perceived food literacy scale among an adult sample in the Netherlands.

PubMed

Poelman, Maartje P; Dijkstra, S Coosje; Sponselee, Hanne; Kamphuis, Carlijn B M; Battjes-Fries, Marieke C E; Gillebaart, Marleen; Seidell, Jacob C

2018-06-18

Food literacy refers to the capability to make healthy food choices in different contexts, settings and situations. The aim of this study is to develop and validate the self-perceived food literacy (SPFL) scale, to assess individuals' level of food literacy, including a knowledge, skills and behavior to plan, manage, select, prepare and eat food healthfully. An initial set of 50 items for the SPFL scale were generated based on expert insights and literature. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted among a sample of Dutch adults (n = 755) in order to determine convergent, divergent and criterion validation against psychosocial variables that were expected to correlate with food literacy (self-control, impulsiveness) and against the expected outcome of high food literacy, namely healthy food consumption. Principal Component Analyses (PCA), Pearson correlation tests and linear regression analyses were conducted. The capacity to distinguish of the SPFL scale was determined by comparing SPFL scores of the general population with that of a sample of dieticians (n = 207). The participants in the general sample had an average age of 44.8 (SD:16.1), the majority were women (90.7%), they had a healthy weight (61.4%) and were highly educated (59.1%). Of the initial 50 items, 29 items remained after PCA and reflected eight domains of food literacy. SPFL was positively correlated with self-control (r = 0.51, p = <.001) and negatively with impulsiveness (r = - 0.31, p = <.01). Participants with higher levels of food literacy reported a significantly higher frequency of fruit consumption (≥5 times/week), vegetable consumption (≥5times/week) and fish consumption (≥1times/week) and consumed larger portions of fruit (≥2pieces/day) and vegetables ≥200 g/day) in comparison with participants who had lower levels of food literacy. Dieticians had slightly higher scores on SPFL than general adults (B = 0.08, SE = 0.03, t = 2.83, 95%-CI = 0.03 to 0.14). The 29 item SPFL scale is a validated, expert-based and theory-driven tool for measuring self-perceived food literacy with respect to healthy eating among adults. Higher levels of food literacy were associated with more self-control, less impulsiveness and healthier food consumption. Additional research is needed to validate the SPFL scale in different populations (different age groups, socioeconomic groups, male populations) and in different contexts.

Relationships Between English Language Proficiency, Health Literacy, and Health Outcomes in Somali Refugees.

PubMed

Murphy, Jessica E; Smock, Laura; Hunter-Adams, Jo; Xuan, Ziming; Cochran, Jennifer; Paasche-Orlow, Michael K; Geltman, Paul L

2018-06-15

Little is known about the impacts of health literacy and English proficiency on the health status of Somali refugees. Data came from interviews in 2009-2011 of 411 adult Somali refugees recently resettled in Massachusetts. English proficiency, health literacy, and physical and mental health were measured using the Basic English Skills Test Plus, the Short Test of Health Literacy in Adults, and the Physical and Mental Component Summaries of the Short Form-12. Associations were analyzed using multiple linear regression. In adjusted analyses, higher English proficiency was associated with worse mental health in males. English proficiency was not associated with physical health. Health literacy was associated with neither physical nor mental health. Language proficiency may adversely affect the mental health of male Somali refugees, contrary to findings in other immigrant groups. Research on underlying mechanisms and opportunities to understand this relationship are needed.

Associations between health literacy and established predictors of smoking cessation.

PubMed

Stewart, Diana W; Adams, Claire E; Cano, Miguel A; Correa-Fernández, Virmarie; Li, Yisheng; Waters, Andrew J; Wetter, David W; Vidrine, Jennifer Irvin

2013-07-01

We examined associations between health literacy and predictors of smoking cessation among 402 low-socioeconomic status (SES), racially/ethnically diverse smokers. Data were collected as part of a larger study evaluating smoking health risk messages. We conducted multiple linear regression analyses to examine relations between health literacy and predictors of smoking cessation (i.e., nicotine dependence, smoking outcome expectancies, smoking risk perceptions and knowledge, self-efficacy, intentions to quit or reduce smoking). Lower health literacy was associated with higher nicotine dependence, more positive and less negative smoking outcome expectancies, less knowledge about smoking health risks, and lower risk perceptions. Associations remained significant (P < .05) after controlling for demographics and SES-related factors. These results provide the first evidence that low health literacy may serve as a critical and independent risk factor for poor cessation outcomes among low-socioeconomic status, racially/ethnically diverse smokers. Research is needed to investigate potential mechanisms underlying this relationship.

Formal and informal home learning activities in relation to children's early numeracy and literacy skills: the development of a home numeracy model.

PubMed

Skwarchuk, Sheri-Lynn; Sowinski, Carla; LeFevre, Jo-Anne

2014-05-01

The purpose of this study was to propose and test a model of children's home numeracy experience based on Sénéchal and LeFevre's home literacy model (Child Development, 73 (2002) 445-460). Parents of 183 children starting kindergarten in the fall (median child age=58 months) completed an early home learning experiences questionnaire. Most of the children whose parents completed the questionnaire were recruited for numeracy and literacy testing 1 year later (along with 32 children from the inner city). Confirmatory factor analyses were used to reduce survey items, and hierarchical regression analyses were used to predict the relation among parents' attitudes, academic expectations for their children, reports of formal and informal numeracy, and literacy home practices on children's test scores. Parental reports of formal home numeracy practices (e.g., practicing simple sums) predicted children's symbolic number system knowledge, whereas reports of informal exposure to games with numerical content (measured indirectly through parents' knowledge of children's games) predicted children's non-symbolic arithmetic, as did numeracy attitudes (e.g., parents' enjoyment of numeracy). The home literacy results replicated past findings; parental reports of formal literacy practices (e.g., helping their children to read words) predicted children's word reading, whereas reports of informal experiences (i.e., frequency of shared reading measured indirectly through parents' storybook knowledge) predicted children's vocabulary. These findings support a multifaceted model of children's early numeracy environment, with different types of early home experiences (formal and informal) predicting different numeracy outcomes. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Systematic review of health literacy in Cochrane database studies on paediatric asthma educational interventions: searching beyond rigorous design.

PubMed

Zeni, Mary Beth

2012-03-01

The purpose of this study was to evaluate if paediatric asthma educational intervention studies included in the Cochrane Collaboration database incorporated concepts of health literacy. Inclusion criteria were established to identify review categories in the Cochrane Collaboration database specific to paediatric asthma educational interventions. Articles that met the inclusion criteria were selected from the Cochrane Collaboration database in 2010. The health literacy definition from Healthy People 2010 was used to develop a 4-point a priori rating scale to determine the extent a study reported aspects of health literacy in the development of an educational intervention for parents and/or children. Five Cochrane review categories met the inclusion criteria; 75 studies were rated for health literacy content regarding educational interventions with families and children living with asthma. A priori criteria were used for the rating process. While 52 (69%) studies had no information pertaining to health literacy, 23 (31%) reported an aspect of health literacy. Although all studies maintained the rigorous standards of randomized clinical trials, a model of health literacy was not reported regarding the design and implementation of interventions. While a more comprehensive health literacy model for the development of educational interventions with families and children may have been available after the reviewed studies were conducted, general literacy levels still could have been addressed. The findings indicate a need to incorporate health literacy in the design of client-centred educational interventions and in the selection criteria of relevant Cochrane reviews. Inclusion assures that health literacy is as important as randomization and statistical analyses in the research design of educational interventions and may even assure participation of people with literacy challenges. © 2012 The Author. International Journal of Evidence-Based Healthcare © 2012 The Joanna Briggs Institute.

An analysis of reading and spelling abilities of children using AAC: Understanding a continuum of competence.

PubMed

Dahlgren Sandberg, Annika; Smith, Martine; Larsson, Maria

2010-09-01

The over-representation of reading and spelling difficulties in children with complex communication needs has been well documented. However, most of the studies reported have indicated that at least some children using augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) can achieve and demonstrate effective literacy skills, highlighting the heterogeneity of this group. This paper presents findings from a cross-linguistic study of 14 Swedish and 14 Irish children with cerebral palsy who use AAC, outlining their performance on a range of phonological awareness, reading, and spelling tasks developed for the purposes of the study. All participants were referred to the study as functioning in the average range of intellectual ability. Of the 28 participants, eight were classified as good readers, on the basis of their success on tasks involving connected text; while 10 presented with single-word reading skills; and 10 were categorized as non-readers. This paper explores the similarities and differences within and across these groups, in terms of associated skills and experiences. While analyses of group data suggests some common abilities and difficulties, exploration of individual profiles highlights the heterogeneity of the participants' profiles, suggesting a need for detailed individual assessment and interventions.

Generalization of Auditory Sensory and Cognitive Learning in Typically Developing Children.

PubMed

Murphy, Cristina F B; Moore, David R; Schochat, Eliane

2015-01-01

Despite the well-established involvement of both sensory ("bottom-up") and cognitive ("top-down") processes in literacy, the extent to which auditory or cognitive (memory or attention) learning transfers to phonological and reading skills remains unclear. Most research has demonstrated learning of the trained task or even learning transfer to a closely related task. However, few studies have reported "far-transfer" to a different domain, such as the improvement of phonological and reading skills following auditory or cognitive training. This study assessed the effectiveness of auditory, memory or attention training on far-transfer measures involving phonological and reading skills in typically developing children. Mid-transfer was also assessed through untrained auditory, attention and memory tasks. Sixty 5- to 8-year-old children with normal hearing were quasi-randomly assigned to one of five training groups: attention group (AG), memory group (MG), auditory sensory group (SG), placebo group (PG; drawing, painting), and a control, untrained group (CG). Compliance, mid-transfer and far-transfer measures were evaluated before and after training. All trained groups received 12 x 45-min training sessions over 12 weeks. The CG did not receive any intervention. All trained groups, especially older children, exhibited significant learning of the trained task. On pre- to post-training measures (test-retest), most groups exhibited improvements on most tasks. There was significant mid-transfer for a visual digit span task, with highest span in the MG, relative to other groups. These results show that both sensory and cognitive (memory or attention) training can lead to learning in the trained task and to mid-transfer learning on a task (visual digit span) within the same domain as the trained tasks. However, learning did not transfer to measures of language (reading and phonological awareness), as the PG and CG improved as much as the other trained groups. Further research is required to investigate the effects of various stimuli and lengths of training on the generalization of sensory and cognitive learning to literacy skills.

Parent health literacy and adherence-related outcomes in children with epilepsy.

PubMed

Paschal, Angelia M; Mitchell, Qshequilla P; Wilroy, Jereme D; Hawley, Suzanne R; Mitchell, Jermaine B

2016-03-01

The relationship between parent health literacy and adherence to treatment in children with epilepsy has not been fully explored. The purpose of this study was to determine whether parent health literacy and other variables predicted factors associated with adherence, such as missed medication doses, missed medical appointments, and seizure frequency, in children with epilepsy between 1 and 12 years old. It was hypothesized that parents with adequate parent health literacy would report fewer missed doses, missed appointments, and seizure occurrences. Using a nonexperimental, cross-sectional study design, interviews were conducted with 146 parents and guardians of children with epilepsy who resided in rural communities. Univariate analyses, including ANOVA, and multiple linear regressions were conducted. Results indicated that parent health literacy was the strongest predictor of two of the adherence-related factors. Higher health literacy scores were associated with fewer missed medication doses and seizure occurrences. However, health literacy was not associated with missed medical appointments. Among other study variables, higher household income was also predictive of fewer missed doses. The study findings suggest that inadequate health literacy among parents may serve as an independent risk factor for adherence-related outcomes among children with epilepsy. Further research, as well as effective, targeted parent health literacy strategies used to improve epilepsy management and care in children, is recommended. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Research That Counts: OECD Statistics and "Policy Entrepreneurs" Impacting on Australian Adult Literacy and Numeracy Policy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Black, Stephen; Yasukawa, Keiko

2016-01-01

This paper analyses research that has impacted on Australia's most recent national policy document on adult literacy and numeracy, the National Foundation Skills Strategy (NFSS). The paper draws in part on Lingard's 2013 paper, "The impact of research on education policy in an era of evidence-based policy", in which he outlines the…

The Labour Party and the Need for Change: Values, Education and Emotional Literacy/Intelligence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Matthews, Brian

2012-01-01

The author argues that when the Labour Party has analysed its values emotional development has been neglected. He shows the importance of emotional literacy and uses education as a vehicle to show how Labour when in power reinforced right-wing ideology. Ways of changing education policy are indicated. It is hoped that this article will promote a…

Visual Communication in Transition: Designing for New Media Literacies and Visual Culture Art Education across Activities and Settings

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zuiker, Steven J.

2014-01-01

As an example of design-based research, this case study describes and analyses the enactment of a collaborative drawing and animation studio in a Singapore secondary school art classroom. The design embodies principles of visual culture art education and new media literacies in order to organize transitions in the settings of participation and…

A Crisis of Professional Identity: How Primary Teachers Are Coming to Terms with Changing Views of Literacy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McDougall, Jenny

2010-01-01

As definitions of literacy become conceptualized, so too do constructions of the primary teacher's identity. This study analyses the discourses that emerged from interviews with a group of Australian primary teachers who talked about their reactions to teaching media. Teachers who embraced this area of learning had a more futures-oriented view of…

Emergent Literacy Skills, Behavior Problems and Familial Antecedents of Reading Difficulties: A Follow-Up Study of Reading Achievement from Kindergarten to Fifth Grade

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Costa, Hugo Camara; Perdry, Herve; Soria, Carmen; Pulgar, Salome; Cusin, Francoise; Dellatolas, Georges

2013-01-01

This study examined the relation between emergent literacy skills, teachers' reports of behavioral problems, and word reading achievement in a community sample of French students. Family background was investigated and included familial antecedents of reading difficulties (Fa/Rd) and parents' educational level. The analyses explored the pattern of…

Developmental Trajectories of Preschool Early Literacy Skills: A Comparison of Language-Minority and Monolingual-English Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lonigan, Christopher J.; Farver, JoAnn M.; Nakamoto, Jonathan; Eppe, Stefanie

2013-01-01

This study utilized latent growth-curve analyses to determine if the early literacy skills of children who were Spanish-speaking language-minority (LM) followed a similar quantitative growth profile over a preschool year as that of a group of children from a comparable socioeconomic (SES) background but who were not LM. Participants, who ranged in…

The Professional Translator and Information Literacy: Perceptions and Needs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sales, Dora; Pinto, Maria

2011-01-01

This paper is part of a broader research project, the main goal of which is to provide translators with solid instruction in information literacy (IL). For this, it is important to know the views of the community of professional translators. The results of the ongoing research which we analyse in this paper provide this view, by means of a…

Creating TUIs Using RFID Sensors--A Case Study Based on the Literacy Process of Children with Down Syndrome.

PubMed

Jadán-Guerrero, Janio; Guerrero, Luis; López, Gustavo; Cáliz, Doris; Bravo, José

2015-06-24

Teaching children with intellectual disabilities is a big challenge for most parents and educators. Special education teachers use learning strategies to develop and enhance motivation for complex learning tasks. Literacy acquisition is an essential and life-long skill for a child with intellectual disabilities. In this context, technology can support specific strategies that will help children learn to read. This paper introduces a Tangible User Interface (TUI) system based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to support literacy for children with Down syndrome. Our proposed system focuses on the integration of RFID tags in 3D printed objects and low cost toys. The paper describes the experience of using some materials covering the tags and the different problems related to the material and distance of radio wave propagation. The results of a preliminary evaluation in a special education institution showed that the system helps to improve the interaction between teachers and children. The use of a TUI seems to give a physical sensory experience to develop literacy skills in children with Down syndrome.

Creating TUIs Using RFID Sensors—A Case Study Based on the Literacy Process of Children with Down Syndrome

PubMed Central

Jadán-Guerrero, Janio; Guerrero, Luis; López, Gustavo; Cáliz, Doris; Bravo, José

2015-01-01

Teaching children with intellectual disabilities is a big challenge for most parents and educators. Special education teachers use learning strategies to develop and enhance motivation for complex learning tasks. Literacy acquisition is an essential and life-long skill for a child with intellectual disabilities. In this context, technology can support specific strategies that will help children learn to read. This paper introduces a Tangible User Interface (TUI) system based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to support literacy for children with Down syndrome. Our proposed system focuses on the integration of RFID tags in 3D printed objects and low cost toys. The paper describes the experience of using some materials covering the tags and the different problems related to the material and distance of radio wave propagation. The results of a preliminary evaluation in a special education institution showed that the system helps to improve the interaction between teachers and children. The use of a TUI seems to give a physical sensory experience to develop literacy skills in children with Down syndrome. PMID:26115455

Exploring health literacy competencies towards patient education programme for Chinese-speaking healthcare professionals: a Delphi study.

PubMed

Chang, Li-Chun; Chen, Yu-Chi; Wu, Fei Ling; Liao, Li-Ling

2017-01-16

To achieve consensus on a set of competencies in health literacy practice based on a literature review and expert consultation. Hospitals and community health centres in Taiwan. A 2-stage modified Delphi study involving a literature review was conducted, followed by qualitative interviews and 3 rounds of email-based data collection over a 3-month period in 2011. 15 Chinese healthcare practitioners with more than 6 months' experience in patient education were interviewed to collect data on health literacy practice. 24 experts (12 academic scholars in health literacy and 12 professionals with training related to health literacy practice) were invited to participate in the Delphi process. Qualitative data from the interviews were analysed and summarised to form 99 competency items for health literacy practice, which were categorised into 5 domains of health literacy practice including those pertaining to knowledge and skills. Consensus was reached on 92 of 99 competencies, using a modified Delphi technique. The 92 competencies in health literacy practice embraced core components of patient education in the Chinese healthcare profession. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

Auditory brainstem responses to stop consonants predict literacy.

PubMed

Neef, Nicole E; Schaadt, Gesa; Friederici, Angela D

2017-03-01

Precise temporal coding of speech plays a pivotal role in sound processing throughout the central auditory system, which, in turn, influences literacy acquisition. The current study tests whether an electrophysiological measure of this precision predicts literacy skills. Complex auditory brainstem responses were analysed from 62 native German-speaking children aged 11-13years. We employed the cross-phaseogram approach to compute the quality of the electrophysiological stimulus contrast [da] and [ba]. Phase shifts were expected to vary with literacy. Receiver operating curves demonstrated a feasible sensitivity and specificity of the electrophysiological measure. A multiple regression analysis resulted in a significant prediction of literacy by delta cross-phase as well as phonological awareness. A further commonality analysis separated a unique variance that was explained by the physiological measure, from a unique variance that was explained by the behavioral measure, and common effects of both. Despite multicollinearities between literacy, phonological awareness, and subcortical differentiation of stop consonants, a combined assessment of behavior and physiology strongly increases the ability to predict literacy skills. The strong link between the neurophysiological signature of sound encoding and literacy outcome suggests that the delta cross-phase could indicate the risk of dyslexia and thereby complement subjective psychometric measures for early diagnoses. Copyright © 2016 International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Aphasia and literacy—the insider's perspective

PubMed Central

Kjellén, Emma; Laakso, Katja

2016-01-01

Abstract Background Few studies have investigated how people with aphasia (PWA) experience literacy skills. Taking the insider's perspective is a way to increase understanding of the individual experiences of literacy among PWA, which may have clinical implications. Aims To describe how literacy, i.e., reading and writing, is experienced in everyday life by PWA and to gain insight into the part played by literacy skills in their lives. Methods & Procedures A qualitative descriptive research approach was taken. In‐depth interviews were conducted with 12 PWA (six women and six men) who had all lived with aphasia for at least 6 months post‐stroke. The interviews were analysed using qualitative content analysis. Outcomes & Results One overarching theme emerged from the data: literacy as an ongoing recovery process. Based on this overarching theme, two subthemes were identified: changes in conditions for literacy (experiences of reading and writing initially post‐onset compared with experiences at the time of the interview); and facing expectations about literacy (participants’ own and other people's expectations of them in terms of literacy). Conclusions & Implications The findings are important at a general level in that they indicate that PWA are able to articulate their individual experiences and thoughts about literacy, i.e., reading and writing. Specifically, PWA in this study experience literacy as playing an essential part in their lives and the findings imply that personal experiences are important in the design of reading and writing interventions in speech and language therapy. PMID:28039933

Assessing the impact of health literacy on education retention of stroke patients.

PubMed

Sanders, Kalina; Schnepel, Loretta; Smotherman, Carmen; Livingood, William; Dodani, Sunita; Antonios, Nader; Lukens-Bull, Katryne; Balls-Berry, Joyce; Johnson, Yvonne; Miller, Terri; Hodges, Wayne; Falk, Diane; Wood, David; Silliman, Scott

2014-04-10

Inadequate health literacy is a pervasive problem with major implications for reduced health status and health disparities. Despite the role of focused education in both primary and secondary prevention of stroke, the effect of health literacy on stroke education retention has not been reported. We examined the relationship of health literacy to the retention of knowledge after recommended stroke education. This prospective cross-sectional study was conducted at an urban safety-net hospital. Study subjects were patients older than 18 admitted to the hospital stroke unit with a diagnosis of acute ischemic stroke who were able to provide informed consent to participate (N = 100). Health literacy levels were measured by using the short form of Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults. Patient education was provided to patients at an inpatient stroke unit by using standardized protocols, in compliance with Joint Commission specifications. The education outcomes for poststroke care education, knowledge retention, was assessed for each subject. The effect of health literacy on the Stroke Patient Education Retention scores was assessed by using univariate and multivariate analyses. Of the 100 participating patients, 59% had inadequate to marginal health literacy. Stroke patients who had marginal health literacy (mean score, 7.45; standard deviation [SD], 1.9) or adequate health literacy (mean score, 7.31; SD, 1.76) had statistically higher education outcome scores than those identified as having inadequate health literacy (mean score, 5.58; SD, 2.06). Results from multivariate analysis indicated that adequate health literacy was most predictive of education outcome retention. This study demonstrated a clear relationship between health literacy and stroke education outcomes. Studies are needed to better understand the relationship of health literacy to key educational outcomes for primary or secondary prevention of stroke and to refine stroke education for literacy levels of high-risk populations.

The relationship between attendance at birth and maternal mortality rates: an exploration of United Nations' data sets including the ratios of physicians and nurses to population, GNP per capita and female literacy.

PubMed

Robinson, J J; Wharrad, H

2001-05-01

The relationship between attendance at birth and maternal mortality rates: an exploration of United Nations' data sets including the ratios of physicians and nurses to population, GNP per capita and female literacy. This is the third and final paper drawing on data taken from United Nations (UN) data sets. The first paper examined the global distribution of health professionals (as measured by ratios of physicians and nurses to population), and its relationship to gross national product per capita (GNP) (Wharrad & Robinson 1999). The second paper explored the relationships between the global distribution of physicians and nurses, GNP, female literacy and the health outcome indicators of infant and under five mortality rates (IMR and u5MR) (Robinson & Wharrad 2000). In the present paper, the global distribution of health professionals is explored in relation to maternal mortality rates (MMRs). The proportion of births attended by medical and nonmedical staff defined as "attendance at birth by trained personnel" (physicians, nurses, midwives or primary health care workers trained in midwifery skills), is included as an additional independent variable in the regression analyses, together with the ratio of physicians and nurses to population, female literacy and GNP. To extend our earlier analyses by considering the relationships between the global distribution of health professionals (ratios of physicians and nurses to population, and the proportion of births attended by trained health personnel), GNP, female literacy and MMR.

Health Literacy, Cognitive Ability, and Functional Health Status among Older Adults

PubMed Central

Serper, Marina; Patzer, Rachel E; Curtis, Laura M; Smith, Samuel G; O'Conor, Rachel; Baker, David W; Wolf, Michael S

2014-01-01

Objective To investigate whether previously noted associations between health literacy and functional health status might be explained by cognitive function. Data Sources/Study Setting Health Literacy and Cognition in Older Adults (“LitCog,” prospective study funded by National Institute on Aging). Data presented are from interviews conducted among 784 adults, ages 55–74 years receiving care at an academic general medicine clinic or one of four federally qualified health centers in Chicago from 2008 to 2010. Study Design Study participants completed structured, in-person interviews administered by trained research assistants. Data Collection Health literacy was measured using the Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults, Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine, and Newest Vital Sign. Cognitive function was assessed using measures of long-term and working memory, processing speed, reasoning, and verbal ability. Functional health was assessed with SF-36 physical health summary scale and Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System short form subscales for depression and anxiety. Principal Findings All health literacy measures were significantly correlated with all cognitive domains. In multivariable analyses, inadequate health literacy was associated with worse physical health and more depressive symptoms. After adjusting for cognitive abilities, associations between health literacy, physical health, and depressive symptoms were attenuated and no longer significant. Conclusions Cognitive function explains a significant proportion of the associations between health literacy, physical health, and depression among older adults. Interventions to reduce literacy disparities in health care should minimize the cognitive burden in behaviors patients must adopt to manage personal health. PMID:24476068

Examining Associations between Self-Rated Health and Proficiency in Literacy and Numeracy among Immigrants and U.S.-Born Adults: Evidence from the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC)

PubMed Central

2015-01-01

This paper uses data from the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) to analyze the relationship between self-reported health (SRH) and literacy and numeracy proficiency for immigrants compared to U.S.-born respondents and for Hispanic versus Asian immigrants. The research questions were: (1) Are literacy and numeracy scores associated with adults’ SRH? (2) Are associations between SRH and literacy and numeracy proficiency moderated by immigrant status? (3) Among immigrants, are literacy and numeracy scores more strongly associated with SRH for Hispanics versus Asians? Immigrants had significantly lower literacy and numeracy scores, yet reported better health than U.S.-born respondents. Ordinal logistic regression analyses showed that literacy and numeracy were both positively related to SRH for immigrants and U.S.-born adults, and should therefore be viewed as part of the growing evidence that literacy is an independent and significant social determinant of health. Second, U.S.-born and immigrant adults accrued similarly positive health benefits from stronger literacy and numeracy skills. Third, although Hispanic immigrants were more disadvantaged than Asian immigrants on almost all socioeconomic characteristics and had significantly lower literacy and numeracy scores and worse SRH than Asian immigrants, both Hispanic and Asian immigrants experienced similar positive health returns from literacy and numeracy proficiency. These findings underscore the potential health benefits of providing adult basic education instruction, particularly for immigrants with the least formal schooling and fewest socioeconomic resources. PMID:26132212

Examining Associations between Self-Rated Health and Proficiency in Literacy and Numeracy among Immigrants and U.S.-Born Adults: Evidence from the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC).

PubMed

Prins, Esther; Monnat, Shannon

2015-01-01

This paper uses data from the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) to analyze the relationship between self-reported health (SRH) and literacy and numeracy proficiency for immigrants compared to U.S.-born respondents and for Hispanic versus Asian immigrants. The research questions were: (1) Are literacy and numeracy scores associated with adults' SRH? (2) Are associations between SRH and literacy and numeracy proficiency moderated by immigrant status? (3) Among immigrants, are literacy and numeracy scores more strongly associated with SRH for Hispanics versus Asians? Immigrants had significantly lower literacy and numeracy scores, yet reported better health than U.S.-born respondents. Ordinal logistic regression analyses showed that literacy and numeracy were both positively related to SRH for immigrants and U.S.-born adults, and should therefore be viewed as part of the growing evidence that literacy is an independent and significant social determinant of health. Second, U.S.-born and immigrant adults accrued similarly positive health benefits from stronger literacy and numeracy skills. Third, although Hispanic immigrants were more disadvantaged than Asian immigrants on almost all socioeconomic characteristics and had significantly lower literacy and numeracy scores and worse SRH than Asian immigrants, both Hispanic and Asian immigrants experienced similar positive health returns from literacy and numeracy proficiency. These findings underscore the potential health benefits of providing adult basic education instruction, particularly for immigrants with the least formal schooling and fewest socioeconomic resources.

Improving health literacy through adult basic education in Australia.

PubMed

Morony, Suzanne; Lamph, Emma; Muscat, Danielle; Nutbeam, Don; Dhillon, Haryana M; Shepherd, Heather; Smith, Sian; Khan, Aisha; Osborne, Julie; Meshreky, Wedyan; Luxford, Karen; Hayen, Andrew; McCaffery, Kirsten J

2017-05-25

Adults with low literacy are less empowered to take care of their health, have poorer health outcomes and higher healthcare costs. We facilitated partnerships between adult literacy teachers and community health providers to deliver a health literacy training program in adult basic education classrooms. Following course completion we interviewed 19 adult education teachers (15 delivering the health literacy program; 4 delivering standard literacy classes) and four community health providers (CHPs) about their experiences, and analysed transcripts using Framework analysis. Written feedback from eight teachers on specific course content was added to the Framework. Health literacy teachers reported a noticeable improvement in their student's health behaviours, confidence, vocabulary to communicate about health, understanding of the health system and language, literacy and numeracy skills. CHP participation was perceived by teachers and CHPs as very successful, with teachers and CHPs reporting they complemented each other's skills. The logistics of coordinating CHPs within the constraints of the adult education setting was a significant obstacle to CHP participation. This study adds to existing evidence that health is an engaging topic for adult learners, and health literacy can be successfully implemented in an adult basic learning curriculum to empower learners to better manage their health. Health workers can deliver targeted health messages in this environment, and introduce local health services. Investment in adult literacy programs teaching health content has potential both to meet the goals of adult language and literacy programs and deliver health benefit in vulnerable populations. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Theory-Based Parameterization of Semiotics for Measuring Pre-literacy Development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bezruczko, N.

2013-09-01

A probabilistic model was applied to problem of measuring pre-literacy in young children. First, semiotic philosophy and contemporary cognition research were conceptually integrated to establish theoretical foundations for rating 14 characteristics of children's drawings and narratives (N = 120). Then ratings were transformed with a Rasch model, which estimated linear item parameter values that accounted for 79 percent of rater variance. Principle Components Analysis of item residual matrix confirmed variance remaining after item calibration was largely unsystematic. Validation analyses found positive correlations between semiotic measures and preschool literacy outcomes. Practical implications of a semiotics dimension for preschool practice were discussed.

Financial literacy is associated with medial brain region functional connectivity in old age.

PubMed

Han, S Duke; Boyle, Patricia A; Yu, Lei; Fleischman, Debra A; Arfanakis, Konstantinos; Leurgans, Sue; Bennett, David A

2014-01-01

Financial literacy refers to the ability to access and utilize financial information in ways that promote better outcomes. In old age, financial literacy has been associated with a wide range of positive characteristics; however, the neural correlates remain unclear. Recent work has suggested greater co-activity between anterior-posterior medial brain regions is associated with better brain functioning. We hypothesized financial literacy would be associated with this pattern. We assessed whole-brain functional connectivity to a posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) seed region of interest (ROI) in 138 participants of the Rush Memory and Aging Project. Results revealed financial literacy was associated with greater functional connectivity between the PCC and three regions: the right ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), the left postcentral gyrus, and the right precuneus. Results also revealed financial literacy was associated negatively with functional connectivity between the PCC and left caudate. Post hoc analyses showed the PCC-vmPFC relationship accounted for the most variance in a regression model adjusted for all four significant functional connectivity relationships, demographic factors, and global cognition. These findings provide information on the neural mechanisms associated with financial literacy in old age. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Financial Literacy is Associated with Medial Brain Region Functional Connectivity in Old Age

PubMed Central

Han, S. Duke; Boyle, Patricia A.; Yu, Lei; Fleischman, Debra A.; Arfanakis, Konstantinos; Leurgans, Sue; Bennett, David A.

2014-01-01

Financial literacy refers to the ability to access and utilize financial information in ways that promote better outcomes. In old age, financial literacy has been associated with a wide range of positive characteristics; however, the neural correlates remain unclear. Recent work has suggested greater co-activity between anterior-posterior medial brain regions is associated with better brain functioning. We hypothesized financial literacy would be associated with this pattern. We assessed whole-brain functional connectivity to a posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) seed region of interest in 138 participants of the Rush Memory and Aging Project. Results revealed financial literacy was associated with greater functional connectivity between the PCC and three regions: the right ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), the left postcentral gyrus, and the right precuneus. Results also revealed financial literacy was associated negatively with functional connectivity between the PCC and left caudate. Post-hoc analyses showed the PCC-vmPFC relationship accounted for the most variance in a regression model adjusted for all four significant functional connectivity relationships, demographic factors, and global cognition. These findings provide information on the neural mechanisms associated with financial literacy in old age. PMID:24893911

Validating the European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire in people with type 2 diabetes: Latent trait analyses applying multidimensional Rasch modelling and confirmatory factor analysis.

PubMed

Finbråten, Hanne Søberg; Pettersen, Kjell Sverre; Wilde-Larsson, Bodil; Nordström, Gun; Trollvik, Anne; Guttersrud, Øystein

2017-11-01

To validate the European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire (HLS-EU-Q47) in people with type 2 diabetes mellitus. The HLS-EU-Q47 latent variable is outlined in a framework with four cognitive domains integrated in three health domains, implying 12 theoretically defined subscales. Valid and reliable health literacy measurers are crucial to effectively adapt health communication and education to individuals and groups of patients. Cross-sectional study applying confirmatory latent trait analyses. Using a paper-and-pencil self-administered approach, 388 adults responded in March 2015. The data were analysed using the Rasch methodology and confirmatory factor analysis. Response violation (response dependency) and trait violation (multidimensionality) of local independence were identified. Fitting the "multidimensional random coefficients multinomial logit" model, 1-, 3- and 12-dimensional Rasch models were applied and compared. Poor model fit and differential item functioning were present in some items, and several subscales suffered from poor targeting and low reliability. Despite multidimensional data, we did not observe any unordered response categories. Interpreting the domains as distinct but related latent dimensions, the data fit a 12-dimensional Rasch model and a 12-factor confirmatory factor model best. Therefore, the analyses did not support the estimation of one overall "health literacy score." To support the plausibility of claims based on the HLS-EU score(s), we suggest: removing the health care aspect to reduce the magnitude of multidimensionality; rejecting redundant items to avoid response dependency; adding "harder" items and applying a six-point rating scale to improve subscale targeting and reliability; and revising items to improve model fit and avoid bias owing to person factors. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Phonological abilities in literacy-impaired children: Brain potentials reveal deficient phoneme discrimination, but intact prosodic processing.

PubMed

Männel, Claudia; Schaadt, Gesa; Illner, Franziska K; van der Meer, Elke; Friederici, Angela D

2017-02-01

Intact phonological processing is crucial for successful literacy acquisition. While individuals with difficulties in reading and spelling (i.e., developmental dyslexia) are known to experience deficient phoneme discrimination (i.e., segmental phonology), findings concerning their prosodic processing (i.e., suprasegmental phonology) are controversial. Because there are no behavior-independent studies on the underlying neural correlates of prosodic processing in dyslexia, these controversial findings might be explained by different task demands. To provide an objective behavior-independent picture of segmental and suprasegmental phonological processing in impaired literacy acquisition, we investigated event-related brain potentials during passive listening in typically and poor-spelling German school children. For segmental phonology, we analyzed the Mismatch Negativity (MMN) during vowel length discrimination, capturing automatic auditory deviancy detection in repetitive contexts. For suprasegmental phonology, we analyzed the Closure Positive Shift (CPS) that automatically occurs in response to prosodic boundaries. Our results revealed spelling group differences for the MMN, but not for the CPS, indicating deficient segmental, but intact suprasegmental phonological processing in poor spellers. The present findings point towards a differential role of segmental and suprasegmental phonology in literacy disorders and call for interventions that invigorate impaired literacy by utilizing intact prosody in addition to training deficient phonemic awareness. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Influences of health literacy, judgment skills, and empowerment on asthma self-management practices.

PubMed

Londoño, Ana Maria Moreno; Schulz, Peter J

2015-07-01

Asthma self-management has been recognized as an essential factor for the improvement of asthma outcomes and patients' quality of life (WHO, 2013). Likewise, empowerment and health literacy have been noted as important elements for the management of chronic diseases. To study the influence of health literacy and empowerment on asthma self-management. This cross-sectional study used a self-reported questionnaire assessing health literacy, judgment skills, empowerment, and asthma self-management; 236 patients were recruited from medical offices in Switzerland and Italy. Judgment skills (B=2.28, p<0.001) and empowerment (B=0.19, p<0.05) have a significant and positive influence on several asthma self-management practices such as use of medicines, timely medical consultation, and asthma triggers control whereas health literacy (B=-0.15, p<0.175) appeared to have a negative effect on self-management practices. However, this was not significant. These findings suggest that empowered patients with adequate judgment skills carry out key self-management tasks more appropriately, which in turn will potentially result in better asthma control. This study recommends that both empowerment and judgment skills should be addressed in patient education as they serve as essential motivators to engage patients in these behaviors. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Associations of health literacy with diabetic foot outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

PubMed

Chen, P Y; Elmer, S; Callisaya, M; Wills, K; Greenaway, T M; Winzenberg, T M

2018-05-26

People with diabetes have low health literacy, but the role of the latter in diabetic foot disease is unclear. To determine, through a systematic review and meta-analysis, if health literacy is associated with diabetic foot disease, its risk factors, or foot care. We searched PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL, Web of Science, Scopus and Science Direct. All studies were screened and data extracted by two independent reviewers. Studies in English with valid and reliable measures of health literacy and published tests of association were included. Data were extracted on the associations between the outcomes and health literacy. Meta-analyses were performed using random effects models. Sixteen articles were included in the systematic review, with 11 in the meta-analysis. In people with inadequate health literacy, the odds of having diabetic foot disease were twice those in people with adequate health literacy, but this was not statistically significant [odds ratio 1.99 (95% CI 0.83, 4.78); two studies in 1278 participants]. There was no statistically significant difference in health literacy levels between people with and without peripheral neuropathy [standardized mean difference -0.14 (95% CI -0.47, 0.18); two studies in 399 participants]. There was no association between health literacy and foot care [correlation coefficient 0.01 (95% CI -0.07, 0.10); seven studies in 1033 participants]. There were insufficient data to exclude associations between health literacy and diabetic foot disease and its risk factors, but health literacy appears unlikely to have a role in foot care. The contribution of low health literacy to diabetic foot disease requires definitive assessment through robust longitudinal studies. © 2018 Diabetes UK.

Adolescent Healthcare Brokering: Prevalence, Experience, Impact, and Opportunities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Banas, Jennifer R.; Wallis, Lisa C.; Ball, James W.; Gershon, Sarah

2016-01-01

Background: Limited health literacy disproportionately affects those with limited English proficiency (LEP). Parents with LEP might rely on their adolescent children to interpret health information. We call this "adolescent healthcare brokering." This study uncovers the prevalence of brokering, kinds of tasks, emotional and academic…

Information Literacy in a Digital Era: Understanding the Impact of Mobile Information for Undergraduate Nursing Students.

PubMed

Doyle, Glynda J; Furlong, Karen E; Secco, Loretta

2016-01-01

Recent entry-to-practice nursing informatics competencies for Registered Nurses in Canada mean nurse educators need educational strategies to promote student competency within the rapidly evolving informatics field. A collaborative research team from three Canadian nursing programs completed a mixed method survey to describe how nursing students used mobile nursing information support and the extent of this support for learning. The Mobile Information Support Evaluation Tool (MISET) assessed Usefulness/Helpfulness, Information Literacy Support, and Use of Evidence-Based Sources. The quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed to describe students' perspectives and the ways they used mobile resources in learning situations. Findings suggest nursing students mainly accessed mobile resources to support clinical learning, and specifically for task-oriented information such as drug medication or patient conditions/diagnoses. Researchers recommend a paradigm shift whereby educators emphasize information literacy in a way that supports evidence-based quality care.

Modes of acquisition of health literacy skills in informal learning contexts.

PubMed

Calha, António Geraldo Manso

2014-12-01

In this article we try to analyze the learning processes of health literacy skills in informal contexts. We intend to broaden the understanding of the learning process beyond the formal contexts, thus contributing to the elucidation of health professionals on how individuals acquire and manage their knowledge in health matters. Given our goal, we use an analytic corpus constituted by one hundred autobiographical narratives written between 2006 and 2011, in educational contexts but with recognized potential for use in different scientific fields, including health. The results reveal the existence of three different types of modes of learning health literacy skills in informal context: : i) learning that takes place in action, in achieving daily tasks; ii) learning processes that result from problem solving; iii) learning that occurs in an unplanned manner, resulting from accidental circumstances and, in some cases, devoid of intentionality.

Books and babies: clinical-based literacy programs.

PubMed

Fortman, Kristine K; Fisch, Robert O; Phinney, Margaret Y; Defor, Terese A

2003-01-01

The purpose of this study was to assess parental response to a clinic-based literacy program at a health maintenance organization. It was hypothesized that participation would be associated with increased literacy orientation by children. This randomized community trial took place at a Midwestern health maintenance organization. Six clinics were paired and randomly assigned to participate or not participate in Project Read. The main outcome variable was literacy orientation (book use). The target population was parents of children younger than 12 months (N = 165). After 6 months of participation, parents were surveyed by telephone. Seventy-five percent and 77% of the treatment and control groups, respectively, had positive literacy orientation; this difference was not significant. Persons receiving a videotape were more likely to have a positive literacy orientation (82.9% vs 69.2%; P <.05). The multivariate regression analyses also showed that receiving the free videotape was a significant intervention exposure. The members of the population in this study are reading to their children. Parents who receive a videotape on the importance of reading are likely to read more to their children.

Measuring Actual eHealth Literacy Among Patients With Rheumatic Diseases: a Qualitative Analysis of Problems Encountered Using Health 1.0 and Health 2.0 Applications

PubMed Central

Drossaert, Constance HC; de Heus, Miriam; Taal, Erik; van de Laar, Mart AFJ

2013-01-01

Background The Internet offers diverse opportunities for disease management, through information websites (Health 1.0) and interactive applications such as peer support forums, online consults, and insight into electronic medical records (Health 2.0). However, various skills are required to benefit from Health 1.0 and Health 2.0 applications for one’s own health, known as eHealth literacy. Objective To study the eHealth literacy of patients with rheumatic diseases and the types of problems they encounter when using the Internet in relation to their disease. Methods In two studies, patients were asked about their current disease-related Internet use and their eHealth literacy was observed during performance tests. In study 1, 15 patients (aged 39-74) performed 6 information-retrieval tasks on the Internet (Health 1.0). In study 2, 16 patients (aged 24-72) performed 3 Health 2.0 tasks on a hospital-based online Web portal and 2 Health 2.0 tasks on interactive websites. Participants were asked to think aloud while performing the assignments, and screen activities were recorded. Types and frequency of problems were identified by 2 independent researchers and coded into categories using inductive analysis. Results Almost all patients in our studies had searched the Internet for information about rheumatic diseases in the past. Fewer patients had used Health 2.0 applications, but many were nevertheless enthusiastic about the possibilities from Health 2.0 applications after finishing the assignments. However, nearly all participants experienced difficulties, and a substantial number of participants were not able to complete all of the assignments. Encountered problems could be divided into 6 sequential categories: (1) operating the computer and Internet browser, (2) navigating and orientating on the Web, (3) utilizing search strategies, (4) evaluating relevance and reliability, (5) adding content to the Web, and (6) protecting and respecting privacy. Most severe difficulties occurred in levels 3 and 4—in formulating a search query, evaluating the source of the information, and in scanning a website for relevant information. Conclusions Many patients have insufficient skills to properly use Health 1.0 and Health 2.0. Formulating proper search strategies and evaluating the found information caused problems among the majority of patients. Concerning Health 2.0, use and awareness of these applications is low and patients should be guided in the use of them. Our findings may contribute to the awareness of patients’ eHealth literacy problems among health professionals, and stress the importance of usability guidelines in Web design. PMID:23399720

The development of health literacy in patients with a long-term health condition: the health literacy pathway model

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background Inadequate health literacy has been associated with poor management of long-term health conditions and has been identified as a key social determinant of health outcomes. However, little is understood about how health literacy might develop over time or the processes by which people may become more health literate. Our objectives were to describe how patients with a long-term condition practice health literacy in the management of their health and communication with health professionals, how they become more health literate over time and their experience of using health services. We also sought to identify and describe the motivations, facilitators and barriers in the practice of health literacy in healthcare consultations. Methods We designed a longitudinal qualitative study using serial interviews with 18 participants to explore their experiences of learning to manage their condition and their experiences of health literacy when participating in healthcare processes. Participants were recruited from patient education programmes and were interviewed three times over a period of 9 months. A framework approach was used to analyse data. Results A model is presented that illustrates the development of health literacy along a trajectory that includes the development of knowledge, health literacy skills and practices, health literacy actions, abilities in seeking options and informed and shared decision making opportunities. Motivations and barriers to developing and practising health literacy skills partly reflected participants' characteristics but were also influenced by health professionals. Some participants developed their health literacy to a point where they became more involved in healthcare processes (including informed and shared decision-making). Conclusions Patients with a long-term condition can develop health literacy skills over time and put their skills into practice in becoming more active in healthcare consultations. Our findings have implications for developing health literacy interventions aimed at patient involvement in healthcare processes and improved self-management of long-term conditions. PMID:22332990

How to motivate adults with low literacy and numeracy skills to engage and persist in learning: A literature review of policy interventions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Windisch, Hendrickje Catriona

2016-06-01

Low basic skills levels of adults are a complex policy problem which has neither straightforward causes nor solutions, and successful interventions are still relatively rare. Tackling serious literacy and numeracy weaknesses among adults is challenging, partly because the task itself is difficult, and partly because even if accomplished successfully, the returns on the investment (of expertise, time and money) are uncertain. The Survey of Adult Skills, an international investigation conducted in 22 member and two partner countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) as part of the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), has revealed that a considerable number of adults possess only limited literacy and numeracy skills. Governments now recognise the need to upskill these adults in order to maintain national prosperity. This literature review examines current evidence on policy interventions for adults with low literacy and numeracy proficiencies to pinpoint what has so far proven to motivate adults to join and persist in basic literacy and numeracy learning. The author identifies three approaches which seem promising in helping to address individual learners' needs: (1) adapting instruction to learners' needs by means of regular assessment (formative assessment); (2) complementary e-learning (blended learning); and (3) contextualisation of basic skills provision both at work and at home (workplace learning and family literacy). The central challenge is to put the evidence to work.

Proceedings of the TRADOC Chiefs of Analysis Seminar (3rd) held 15-17 January 1980, Hampton, Virginia.

DTIC Science & Technology

1980-01-25

11:00 Functional Literacy COL Merrick TRADOC BSEP DR Spangenberg Task Force 11:45 Lunch 13:00 Skill Knowledge Survey Data CMDR Hawrysh Canadian Forces... PSYCHOMOTOR WE HAVE TO TRAIN PEOPLE TO DO MOTOR SKILLS , RIGHT? (ONLY FINE MOTOR!) FOR EXAMPLE ..... IT WOULD BE NICE IF A GIVEN TASK ONLY INVOLVED...GENERALIZATION IS NEEDED REASONS "WHY" MUST BE GIVEN *USER IS NOT FAMILIAR WITH THE TERMINOLOGY *FINE PSYCHOMOTOR SKILLS ARE REQUIRED. THIS JOB AID HELPS YOU

Adherence and health literacy as related to outcome of patients treated for rheumatoid arthritis : Analyses of a large-scale observational study.

PubMed

Kuipers, J G; Koller, M; Zeman, F; Müller, K; Rüffer, J U

2018-04-24

Disabilities in daily living and quality of life are key endpoints for evaluating the treatment outcome for rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Factors possibly contributing to good outcome are adherence and health literacy. The survey included a representative nationwide sample of German rheumatologists and their patients with RA. The physician questionnaire included the disease activity score (DAS28) and medical prescriptions. The patient questionnaire included fatigue (EORTC QLQ-FA13), health assessment questionnaire (HAQ), quality of life (SF-12), health literacy (HELP), and patients' listings of their medications. Adherence was operationalized as follows: patient-reported (CQR5), behavioral (concordance between physicians' and patients' listings of medications), physician-assessed, and a combined measure of physician rating (1 = very adherent, 0 = less adherent) and the match between physicians' prescriptions and patients' accounts of their medications (1 = perfect match, 0 = no perfect match) that yielded three categories of adherence: high, medium, and low. Simple and multiple linear regressions (controlling for age, sex, smoking, drinking alcohol, and sport) were calculated using adherence and health literacy as predictor variables, and disease activity and patient-reported outcomes as dependent variables. 708 pairs of patient and physician questionnaires were analyzed. The mean patient age (73% women) was 60 years (SD = 12). Multiple regression analyses showed that high adherence was significantly associated with 5/7 outcome variables and health literacy with 7/7 outcome variables. Adherence and health literacy had weak but consistent effects on most outcomes. Thus, enhancing adherence and understanding of medical information could improve outcome, which should be investigated in future interventional studies.

Making Sense in the City: Dolly Parton, Early Reading and Educational Policy-Making

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hall, Christine; Jones, Susan

2016-01-01

In this paper, we present a case study of a philanthropic literacy initiative, Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, a book-gifting scheme for under 5s, and consider the impact of the scheme on literacy policy in the English city where it was introduced. We bring four lenses to bear on the case study. First, we analyse the operation of the scheme in…

Literacy Theory and Research: Analyses from Multiple Paradigms. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of The National Reading Conference (39th, Austin, Texas, November 28-December 2, 1989).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zutell, Jerry, Ed.; McCormick, Sandra, Ed.

Reflecting diversified views, this National Reading Conference yearbook contains 45 articles in the field of literacy theory and research. Articles and their authors include: "The Myth of Teaching" (J. V. Hoffman); "Reading-Writing Connections: The Relations among Three Perspectives" (T. Shanahan and R. J. Tierney);…

Syntactic error modeling and scoring normalization in speech recognition: Error modeling and scoring normalization in the speech recognition task for adult literacy training

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Olorenshaw, Lex; Trawick, David

1991-01-01

The purpose was to develop a speech recognition system to be able to detect speech which is pronounced incorrectly, given that the text of the spoken speech is known to the recognizer. Better mechanisms are provided for using speech recognition in a literacy tutor application. Using a combination of scoring normalization techniques and cheater-mode decoding, a reasonable acceptance/rejection threshold was provided. In continuous speech, the system was tested to be able to provide above 80 pct. correct acceptance of words, while correctly rejecting over 80 pct. of incorrectly pronounced words.

Self-Publishing Indigenous Language Materials.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

St. Clair, Robert N.; Busch, John; Webb, B. Joanne

Indigenous language programs that have a literacy component require reading materials. Recent advances in computer technology and certain legal changes in the publishing industry have made self-publishing such materials an easier task. This paper describes some of the steps necessary to self-publish indigenous language materials. Suggestions are…

Is Phonological Encoding in Naming Influenced by Literacy?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ventura, Paulo; Kolinsky, Regine; Querido, Jose-Luis; Fernandes, Sandra; Morais, Jose

2007-01-01

We examined phonological priming in illiterate adults, using a cross-modal picture-word interference task. Participants named pictures while hearing distractor words at different Stimulus Onset Asynchronies (SOAs). Ex-illiterates and university students were also tested. We specifically assessed the ability of the three populations to use…

Creating Standards-Based Technology Education Facilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Daugherty, Michael K.; Klenke, Andrew M.; Neden, Michael

2008-01-01

One of the most intimidating tasks faced by new or practicing technology education teachers is the challenge of creating new facilities or renovating current facilities for a new purpose. While the fourth program standard in "Advancing Excellence in Technological Literacy: Student Assessment, Professional Development, and Program Standards (AETL)"…

Development and initial validation of a computer-administered health literacy assessment in Spanish and English: FLIGHT/VIDAS.

PubMed

Ownby, Raymond L; Acevedo, Amarilis; Waldrop-Valverde, Drenna; Jacobs, Robin J; Caballero, Joshua; Davenport, Rosemary; Homs, Ana-Maria; Czaja, Sara J; Loewenstein, David

2013-01-01

Current measures of health literacy have been criticized on a number of grounds, including use of a limited range of content, development on small and atypical patient groups, and poor psychometric characteristics. In this paper, we report the development and preliminary validation of a new computer-administered and -scored health literacy measure addressing these limitations. Items in the measure reflect a wide range of content related to health promotion and maintenance as well as care for diseases. The development process has focused on creating a measure that will be useful in both Spanish and English, while not requiring substantial time for clinician training and individual administration and scoring. The items incorporate several formats, including questions based on brief videos, which allow for the assessment of listening comprehension and the skills related to obtaining information on the Internet. In this paper, we report the interim analyses detailing the initial development and pilot testing of the items (phase 1 of the project) in groups of Spanish and English speakers. We then describe phase 2, which included a second round of testing of the items, in new groups of Spanish and English speakers, and evaluation of the new measure's reliability and validity in relation to other measures. Data are presented that show that four scales (general health literacy, numeracy, conceptual knowledge, and listening comprehension), developed through a process of item and factor analyses, have significant relations to existing measures of health literacy.

The Swiss Health Literacy Survey: development and psychometric properties of a multidimensional instrument to assess competencies for health

PubMed Central

Wang, Jen; Thombs, Brett D.; Schmid, Margareta R.

2012-01-01

Abstract Background  Growing recognition of the role of citizens and patients in health and health care has placed a spotlight on health literacy and patient education. Objective  To identify specific competencies for health in definitions of health literacy and patient‐centred concepts and empirically test their dimensionality in the general population. Methods  A thorough review of the literature on health literacy, self‐management, patient empowerment, patient education and shared decision making revealed considerable conceptual overlap as competencies for health and identified a corpus of 30 generic competencies for health. A questionnaire containing 127 items covering the 30 competencies was fielded as a telephone interview in German, French and Italian among 1255 respondents randomly selected from the resident population in Switzerland. Findings  Analyses with the software MPlus to model items with mixed response categories showed that the items do not load onto a single factor. Multifactorial models with good fit could be erected for each of five dimensions defined a priori and their corresponding competencies: information and knowledge (four competencies, 17 items), general cognitive skills (four competencies, 17 items), social roles (two competencies, seven items), medical management (four competencies, 27 items) and healthy lifestyle (two competencies, six items). Multiple indicators and multiple causes models identified problematic differential item functioning for only six items belonging to two competencies. Conclusions  The psychometric analyses of this instrument support broader conceptualization of health literacy not as a single competence but rather as a package of competencies for health. PMID:22390287

Defining food literacy: A scoping review.

PubMed

Truman, Emily; Lane, Daniel; Elliott, Charlene

2017-09-01

The term "food literacy" describes the idea of proficiency in food related skills and knowledge. This prevalent term is broadly applied, although its core elements vary from initiative to initiative. In light of its ubiquitous use-but varying definitions-this article establishes the scope of food literacy research by identifying all articles that define 'food literacy', analysing its key conceptualizations, and reporting outcomes/measures of this concept. A scoping review was conducted to identify all articles (academic and grey literature) using the term "food literacy". Databases included Medline, Pubmed, Embase, CAB Abstracts, CINAHL, Scopus, JSTOR, and Web of Science, and Google Scholar. Of 1049 abstracts, 67 studies were included. From these, data was extracted on country of origin, study type (methodological approach), primary target population, and the primary outcomes relating to food literacy. The majority of definitions of food literacy emphasize the acquisition of critical knowledge (information and understanding) (55%) over functional knowledge (skills, abilities and choices) (8%), although some incorporate both (37%). Thematic analysis of 38 novel definitions of food literacy reveals the prevalence of six themes: skills and behaviours, food/health choices, culture, knowledge, emotions, and food systems. Study outcomes largely focus on knowledge generating measures, with very few focusing on health related outcome measures. Current definitions of food literacy incorporate components of six key themes or domains and attributes of both critical and functional knowledge. Despite this broad definition of the term, most studies aiming to improve food literacy focus on knowledge related outcomes. Few articles address health outcomes, leaving an important gap (and opportunity) for future research in this field. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Financial literacy is associated with white matter integrity in old age.

PubMed

Han, S Duke; Boyle, Patricia A; Arfanakis, Konstantinos; Fleischman, Debra; Yu, Lei; James, Bryan D; Bennett, David A

2016-04-15

Financial literacy, the ability to understand, access, and utilize information in ways that contribute to optimal financial outcomes, is important for independence and wellbeing in old age. We previously reported that financial literacy is associated with greater functional connectivity between brain regions in old age. Here, we tested the hypothesis that higher financial literacy would be associated with greater white matter integrity in old age. Participants included 346 persons without dementia (mean age=81.36, mean education=15.39, male/female=79/267, mean MMSE=28.52) from the Rush Memory and Aging Project. Financial literacy was assessed using a series of questions imbedded as part of an ongoing decision making study. White matter integrity was assessed with diffusion anisotropy measured with diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging (DTI). We tested the hypothesis that higher financial literacy is associated with higher diffusion anisotropy in white matter, adjusting for the effects of age, education, sex, and white matter hyperintense lesions. We then repeated the analysis also adjusting for cognitive function. Analyses revealed regions with significant positive associations between financial literacy and diffusion anisotropy, and many remained significant after accounting for cognitive function. White matter tracts connecting right hemisphere temporal-parietal brain regions were particularly implicated. Greater financial literacy is associated with higher diffusion anisotropy in white matter of nondemented older adults after adjusting for important covariates. These results suggest that financial literacy is positively associated with white matter integrity in old age. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Financial Literacy is Associated with White Matter Integrity in Old Age

PubMed Central

Han, S. Duke; Boyle, Patricia A.; Arfanakis, Konstantinos; Fleischman, Debra; Yu, Lei; James, Bryan D.; Bennett, David A.

2016-01-01

Financial literacy, the ability to understand, access, and utilize information in ways that contribute to optimal financial outcomes, is important for independence and wellbeing in old age. We previously reported that financial literacy is associated with greater functional connectivity between brain regions in old age. Here, we tested the hypothesis that higher financial literacy would be associated with greater white matter integrity in old age. Participants included 346 persons without dementia (mean age=81.36, mean education=15.39, male/female=79/267, mean MMSE=28.52) from the Rush Memory and Aging Project. Financial literacy was assessed using a series of questions imbedded as part of an ongoing decision making study. White matter integrity was assessed with diffusion anisotropy measured with diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging (DTI). We tested the hypothesis that higher financial literacy is associated with higher diffusion anisotropy in white matter, adjusting for the effects of age, education, sex, and white matter hyperintense lesions. We then repeated the analysis also adjusting for cognitive function. Analyses revealed regions with significant positive associations between financial literacy and diffusion anisotropy, and many remained significant after accounting for cognitive function. White matter tracts connecting right hemisphere temporal-parietal brain regions were particularly implicated. Greater financial literacy is associated with higher diffusion anisotropy in white matter of nondemented older adults after adjusting for important covariates. These results suggest that financial literacy is positively associated with white matter integrity in old age. PMID:26899784

eHealth Literacy and Partner Involvement in Treatment Decision Making for Men With Newly Diagnosed Localized Prostate Cancer.

PubMed

Song, Lixin; Tatum, Kimberly; Greene, Giselle; Chen, Ronald C

2017-03-01

To examine how the eHealth literacy of partners of patients with newly diagnosed prostate cancer affects their involvement in decision making, and to identify the factors that influence their eHealth literacy.
. Cross-sectional exploratory study.
. North Carolina.
. 142 partners of men with newly diagnosed localized prostate cancer. 
. A telephone survey and descriptive and multiple linear regression analyses were used.
. The partners' eHealth literacy, involvement in treatment decision making, and demographics, and the health statuses of the patients and their partners. 
. Higher levels of eHealth literacy among partners were significantly associated with their involvement in getting a second opinion, their awareness of treatment options, and the size of the social network they relied on for additional information and support for treatment decision making for prostate cancer. The factor influencing eHealth literacy was the partners' access to the Internet for personal use, which explained some of the variance in eHealth literacy.
. This study described how partners' eHealth literacy influenced their involvement in treatment decision making for prostate cancer and highlighted the influencing factors (i.e., partners' access to the Internet for personal use).
. When helping men with prostate cancer and their partners with treatment decision making, nurses need to assess eHealth literacy levels to determine whether nonelectronically based education materials are needed and to provide clear instructions on how to use eHealth resources.

Health literacy, health information seeking behaviors and internet use among patients attending a private and public clinic in the same geographic area.

PubMed

Gutierrez, Natalia; Kindratt, Tiffany B; Pagels, Patti; Foster, Barbara; Gimpel, Nora E

2014-02-01

Despite the growing body of health information available online, patients with limited health literacy may lack either internet access or skills necessary to utilize this information. Nonetheless, patients at all health literacy levels may prefer other primary sources to obtain health information. We conducted a cross-sectional study to measure health literacy of patients attending two clinics in Dallas, TX and determine associations between health literacy, health information access and internet usage before and after controlling for confounders. Patients from both clinics (county N = 265; private N = 233) completed a brief survey which included sociodemographics, internet patterns, confidence in filling out medical forms and a self-administered Newest Vital Sign to measure health literacy. In the county clinic, most patients (61.5 %) were Hispanic, had low income (<$19,000/year), limited education (<11th grade) and a high likelihood or possibility of limited health literacy (68.5 %). In the private clinic, participants were mostly black (40.4 %) or white (38.6 %), had higher incomes (≥$46,000), higher education (technical college or college) and adequate health literacy (75.1 %). The primary source of obtaining health information in both clinics was their health care professional (50.6 % county; 40.1 % private). In multivariate analyses to determine differences by health literacy level, there were no statistically significant differences between patients with limited and adequate health literacy and their primary information source. Regardless of health literacy, patients rely on their health care providers to obtain health information. These results showcase the importance of providers' effective communication with patients to make shared decisions about their health regardless of other factors.

Structural correlates of literacy difficulties in the second language: Evidence from Mandarin-speaking children learning English.

PubMed

Li, Hehui; Booth, James R; Bélanger, Nathalie N; Feng, Xiaoxia; Tian, Mengyu; Xie, Weiyi; Zhang, Manli; Gao, Yue; Ang, Chen; Yang, Xiujie; Liu, Li; Meng, Xiangzhi; Ding, Guosheng

2018-06-12

Several neuroimaging studies have explored the neural basis of literacy difficulties in the second language (L2). However, it remains unclear whether the associated neural alterations are related to literacy abilities in the first language (L1). Using magnetic resonance imaging, we explore this issue with two experiments in Mandarin-speaking children learning English as second language. In the first experiment, we investigated children with literacy difficulties in L2 and L1 (poor in both, PB) and children with literacy difficulties only in L2 (poor in English, PE). We compared the brain structure in these two groups to a control literacy (CL) group. The results showed that the CL group had significantly less gray matter volume in the left supramarginal gyrus compared to the PB group and moderately less gray matter volume compared to the PE group. In addition, the PB group had significant greater gray matter volume in the left medial fusiform gyrus compared to the PE group and had marginally greater gray matter volume compared to the CL group. In the second experiment, we explored the relationship between the two atypical regions and literacy abilities in the two languages in an independent sample consisting of children with typical literacy. Correlation analyses revealed that the left supramarginal gyrus was significantly associated with literacy performance only in the second language, English, whereas the left medial fusiform gyrus did not correlate with the performances in either L1 or L2. Taken together, these findings suggest that literacy difficulties in an alphabetic L2 are associated with a structural abnormality in the left supramarginal gyrus, a region implicated in phonological processing, which is independent of literacy abilities in the native language. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Health literacy interventions for immigrant populations: a systematic review.

PubMed

Fernández-Gutiérrez, M; Bas-Sarmiento, P; Albar-Marín, M J; Paloma-Castro, O; Romero-Sánchez, J M

2018-03-01

Health literacy is considered a social health determinant that influences improvement in health, patient empowerment and reduction in inequalities. There is a lack of health literacy interventions for vulnerable social groups (i.e. immigrants), and nurses have shown little familiarity with the concept. This study aimed to identify and analyse whether interventions directed at immigrant populations improve the functional (basic reading, writing and arithmetic skills), interactive (social and cognitive skills) and critical (advanced cognitive and social skills in critically analyzing information and making informed decisions) dimensions of health literacy, taking into account the role played by nursing in these interventions. A systematic review of four databases including PubMed, PsycINFO, the Cochrane Library and ERIC was conducted to identify relevant articles published between 2000 and 2015. Thirty-four articles met the inclusion criteria, and nine articles used a validated instrument. Few specific health literacy interventions for immigrant populations were found. The main findings of the studies showed positive changes in functional health literacy. However, the interventions were less effective in improving interactive and critical health literacy. Several of the findings of this review were based on studies that had their own limitations. The assessment of the articles was not blinded, and the review was restricted to articles written in Spanish and English. The interventions studied were reported as being effective in improving health literacy in immigrants, particularly the functional aspects. Regarding the role played by nursing, this review observed little involvement. It is important for educational strategies to include health literacy dimensions. The concept of health literacy should be included as a Nursing Outcomes Classification and in its subsequent validation taxonomy. To promote community health, health literacy must be a prioritized objective of health management and policies. © 2017 International Council of Nurses.

Associations Between Health Literacy and Established Predictors of Smoking Cessation

PubMed Central

Adams, Claire E.; Cano, Miguel A.; Correa-Fernández, Virmarie; Waters, Andrew J.; Wetter, David W.; Vidrine, Jennifer Irvin

2013-01-01

Objectives. We examined associations between health literacy and predictors of smoking cessation among 402 low-socioeconomic status (SES), racially/ethnically diverse smokers. Methods. Data were collected as part of a larger study evaluating smoking health risk messages. We conducted multiple linear regression analyses to examine relations between health literacy and predictors of smoking cessation (i.e., nicotine dependence, smoking outcome expectancies, smoking risk perceptions and knowledge, self-efficacy, intentions to quit or reduce smoking). Results. Lower health literacy was associated with higher nicotine dependence, more positive and less negative smoking outcome expectancies, less knowledge about smoking health risks, and lower risk perceptions. Associations remained significant (P < .05) after controlling for demographics and SES-related factors. Conclusions. These results provide the first evidence that low health literacy may serve as a critical and independent risk factor for poor cessation outcomes among low-socioeconomic status, racially/ethnically diverse smokers. Research is needed to investigate potential mechanisms underlying this relationship. PMID:23678912

Barriers and Facilitators to Online Portal Use Among Patients and Caregivers in a Safety Net Health Care System: A Qualitative Study.

PubMed

Tieu, Lina; Sarkar, Urmimala; Schillinger, Dean; Ralston, James D; Ratanawongsa, Neda; Pasick, Rena; Lyles, Courtney R

2015-12-03

Patient portals have the potential to support self-management for chronic diseases and improve health outcomes. With the rapid rise in adoption of patient portals spurred by meaningful use incentives among safety net health systems (a health system or hospital providing a significant level of care to low-income, uninsured, and vulnerable populations), it is important to understand the readiness and willingness of patients and caregivers in safety net settings to access their personal health records online. To explore patient and caregiver perspectives on online patient portal use before its implementation at San Francisco General Hospital, a safety net hospital. We conducted 16 in-depth interviews with chronic disease patients and caregivers who expressed interest in using the Internet to manage their health. Discussions focused on health care experiences, technology use, and interest in using an online portal to manage health tasks. We used open coding to categorize all the barriers and facilitators to portal use, followed by a second round of coding that compared the categories to previously published findings. In secondary analyses, we also examined specific barriers among 2 subgroups: those with limited health literacy and caregivers. We interviewed 11 patients and 5 caregivers. Patients were predominantly male (82%, 9/11) and African American (45%, 5/11). All patients had been diagnosed with diabetes and the majority had limited health literacy (73%, 8/11). The majority of caregivers were female (80%, 4/5), African American (60%, 3/5), caregivers of individuals with diabetes (60%, 3/5), and had adequate health literacy (60%, 3/5). A total of 88% (14/16) of participants reported interest in using the portal after viewing a prototype. Major perceived barriers included security concerns, lack of technical skills/interest, and preference for in-person communication. Facilitators to portal use included convenience, health monitoring, and improvements in patient-provider communication. Participants with limited health literacy discussed more fundamental barriers to portal use, including challenges with reading and typing, personal experience with online security breaches/viruses, and distrust of potential security measures. Caregivers expressed high interest in portal use to support their roles in interpreting health information, advocating for quality care, and managing health behaviors and medical care. Despite concerns about security, difficulty understanding medical information, and satisfaction with current communication processes, respondents generally expressed enthusiasm about portal use. Our findings suggest a strong need for training and support to assist vulnerable patients with portal registration and use, particularly those with limited health literacy. Efforts to encourage portal use among vulnerable patients should directly address health literacy and security/privacy issues and support access for caregivers.

Barriers and Facilitators to Online Portal Use Among Patients and Caregivers in a Safety Net Health Care System: A Qualitative Study

PubMed Central

Sarkar, Urmimala; Schillinger, Dean; Ralston, James D; Ratanawongsa, Neda; Pasick, Rena; Lyles, Courtney R

2015-01-01

Background Patient portals have the potential to support self-management for chronic diseases and improve health outcomes. With the rapid rise in adoption of patient portals spurred by meaningful use incentives among safety net health systems (a health system or hospital providing a significant level of care to low-income, uninsured, and vulnerable populations), it is important to understand the readiness and willingness of patients and caregivers in safety net settings to access their personal health records online. Objective To explore patient and caregiver perspectives on online patient portal use before its implementation at San Francisco General Hospital, a safety net hospital. Methods We conducted 16 in-depth interviews with chronic disease patients and caregivers who expressed interest in using the Internet to manage their health. Discussions focused on health care experiences, technology use, and interest in using an online portal to manage health tasks. We used open coding to categorize all the barriers and facilitators to portal use, followed by a second round of coding that compared the categories to previously published findings. In secondary analyses, we also examined specific barriers among 2 subgroups: those with limited health literacy and caregivers. Results We interviewed 11 patients and 5 caregivers. Patients were predominantly male (82%, 9/11) and African American (45%, 5/11). All patients had been diagnosed with diabetes and the majority had limited health literacy (73%, 8/11). The majority of caregivers were female (80%, 4/5), African American (60%, 3/5), caregivers of individuals with diabetes (60%, 3/5), and had adequate health literacy (60%, 3/5). A total of 88% (14/16) of participants reported interest in using the portal after viewing a prototype. Major perceived barriers included security concerns, lack of technical skills/interest, and preference for in-person communication. Facilitators to portal use included convenience, health monitoring, and improvements in patient-provider communication. Participants with limited health literacy discussed more fundamental barriers to portal use, including challenges with reading and typing, personal experience with online security breaches/viruses, and distrust of potential security measures. Caregivers expressed high interest in portal use to support their roles in interpreting health information, advocating for quality care, and managing health behaviors and medical care. Conclusions Despite concerns about security, difficulty understanding medical information, and satisfaction with current communication processes, respondents generally expressed enthusiasm about portal use. Our findings suggest a strong need for training and support to assist vulnerable patients with portal registration and use, particularly those with limited health literacy. Efforts to encourage portal use among vulnerable patients should directly address health literacy and security/privacy issues and support access for caregivers. PMID:26681155

Assessment of health literacy and numeracy among Spanish-Speaking parents of young children: validation of the Spanish Parental Health Literacy Activities Test (PHLAT Spanish).

PubMed

Yin, H Shonna; Sanders, Lee M; Rothman, Russell L; Mendelsohn, Alan L; Dreyer, Benard P; White, Richard O; Finkle, Joanne P; Prendes, Stefania; Perrin, Eliana M

2012-01-01

To assess the health literacy and numeracy skills of Spanish-speaking parents of young children and to validate a new Spanish language health literacy assessment for parents, the Spanish Parental Health Literacy Activities Test (PHLAT Spanish). Cross-sectional study of Spanish-speaking caregivers of young children (<30 months) enrolled at primary care clinics in 4 academic medical centers. Caregivers were administered the 10-item PHLAT in addition to validated tests of health literacy (S-TOFHLA) and numeracy (WRAT-3 Arithmetic). Psychometric analysis was used to examine item characteristics of the PHLAT-10 Spanish, to assess its correlation with sociodemographics and performance on literacy/numeracy assessments, and to generate a shorter 8-item scale (PHLAT-8). Of 176 caregivers, 77% had adequate health literacy (S-TOFHLA), whereas only 0.6% had 9th grade or greater numeracy skills. Mean PHLAT-10 score was 41.6% (SD 21.1). Fewer than one-half (45.5%) were able to read a liquid antibiotic prescription label and demonstrate how much medication to administer within an oral syringe. Less than one-third (31.8%) were able to interpret a food label to determine whether it met WIC (Special supplemental nutrition program for Women, Infants, and Children) guidelines. Greater PHLAT-10 score was associated with greater years of education (r = 0.49), S-TOFHLA (r = 0.53), and WRAT-3 (r = 0.55) scores (P < .001). Internal reliability was good (Kuder-Richardson coefficient of reliability; KR-20 = 0.61). An 8-item scale was highly correlated with the full 10-item scale (r = 0.97, P < .001), with comparable internal reliability (KR-20 = 0.64). Many Spanish-speaking parents have difficulty performing health-related literacy and numeracy tasks. The Spanish PHLAT demonstrates good psychometric characteristics and may be useful for identifying parents who would benefit from receiving low-literacy child health information. Copyright © 2012 Academic Pediatric Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Literacy Strategies in the Science Classroom The Influence of Teacher Cognitive Resources on Implementation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mawyer, Kirsten Kamaile Noelani

Scientific literacy is at the heart of science reform (AAAS, 1989; 1993: NRC, 1996). These initiatives advocate inquiry-based science education reform that promotes scientific literacy as the prerequisite ability to both understand and apply fundamental scientific ideas to real-world problems and issues involving science, technology, society and the environment. It has been argued that literacy, the very ability to read and write, is foundational to western science and is essential for the attainment of scientific literacy and the reform of science education in this country (Norris & Phillips, 2004). With this wave of reform comes the need to study initiatives that seek to support science teachers, as they take on the task of becoming teachers of literacy in the secondary science classroom. This qualitative research examines one such initiative that supports and guides teachers implementing literacy strategies designed to help students develop reading skills that will allow them to read closely, effectively, and with greater comprehension of texts in the context of science. The goal of this study is to gather data as teachers learn about literacy strategies through supports built into curricular materials, professional development, and implementation in the classroom. In particular, this research follows four secondary science teachers implementing literacy strategies as they enact a yearlong earth and environmental science course comprised of two different reform science curricula. The findings of this research suggest teacher's development of teacher cognitive resources bearing on Teaching & Design can be dynamic or static. They also suggest that the development of pedagogical design capacity (PDC) can be either underdeveloped or emergent. This study contributes to current understandings of the participatory relationship between curricular resources and teacher cognitive resources that reflects the design decision of teachers. In particular, it introduces a Cognitive Resources Framework, a tool researchers can use to identify the cognitive resources of teachers, and adds to the characterization of PDC. The data emerging from this study will inform the future design and refinement of curricular and professional development materials to better support teachers as they learn, use and adapt literacy strategies in the science classroom.

Self-reported functional, communicative, and critical health literacy on foodborne diseases in Accra, Ghana.

PubMed

Gupta, Sangeeta; Tutu, Raymond Asare; Boateng, John; Busingye, Janice Desire; Elavarthi, Sathya

2018-01-01

Although substantial progress has been made in reducing total mortality resulting from foodborne diseases, diarrheal illness are still the second most common illnesses among children. In Ghana, foodborne diseases have consistently been among the top 20 causes of outpatient illness over the last couple of decades. This study, therefore, examines health literacy on foodborne diseases and the relative effects of health literacy on self-rated health. Foodborne diseases are major causes of morbidity and mortality globally. A mixed-method approach was used for this study. A survey questionnaire and an in-depth interview guideline were administered to samples of 401 and 30 individuals, respectively. We undertook reliability and validity analyses. ANOVA and chi-square tests were undertaken to assess bivariate association between health literacy and demographic variables as well as health status. Ordinal logistic regression models were used to examine the relative effects of health literacy on self-rated health status controlling for individual characteristics. The instrument was internally consistent (Cronbach alpha = 0.744) and valid. On health literacy, 40% of the respondents reported not to require help when they are given information on foodborne diseases to read by a doctor, nurse, or pharmacist. Approximately 60% of respondents need help with completing or filling out hospital documents. Educational level was found to be positively related to functional health literacy. Ordinal logit regression models showed that health literacy is a predictor of self-rated health after controlling for demographic variables. Functional literacy is relatively low in the community. There is a positive association between educational level and functional health literacy. The study has also demonstrated the direct positive relationship between health literacy and health status controlling for covariates. Subsequent studies will need to examine multiple level dimensions of health literacy with direct link between specific foodborne diseases and health literacy.

The Literacy Divide: Health Literacy and the Use of an Internet-Based Patient Portal in an Integrated Health System—Results from the Diabetes Study of Northern California (DISTANCE)

PubMed Central

SARKAR, URMIMALA; KARTER, ANDREW J.; LIU, JENNIFER Y.; ADLER, NANCY E.; NGUYEN, ROBERT; LÓPEZ, ANDREA; SCHILLINGER, DEAN

2010-01-01

Internet-based patient portals are intended to improve access and quality, and will play an increasingly important role in health care, especially for diabetes and other chronic diseases. Diabetes patients with limited health literacy have worse health outcomes, and limited health literacy may be a barrier to effectively utilizing internet-based health access services. We investigated use of an internet-based patient portal among a well characterized population of adults with diabetes. We estimated health literacy using three validated self-report items. We explored the independent association between health literacy and use of the internet-based patient portal, adjusted for age, gender, race/ethnicity, educational attainment, and income. Among 14,102 participants (28% non-Hispanic White, 14% Latino, 21% African-American, 9% Asian, 12% Filipino, and 17% multiracial or other ethnicity), 6099 (62%) reported some limitation in health literacy, and 5671 (40%) respondents completed registration for the patient portal registration. In adjusted analyses, those with limited health literacy had higher odds of never signing on to the patient portal (OR 1.7, 1.4 to 1.9) compared with those who did not report any health literacy limitation. Even among those with internet access, the relationship between health literacy and patient portal use persisted (OR 1.4, 95% CI 1.2 to 1.8). Diabetes patients reporting limited health literacy were less likely to both access and navigate an internet-based patient portal than those with adequate health literacy. Although the internet has potential to greatly expand the capacity and reach of health care systems, current use patterns suggest that, in the absence of participatory design efforts involving those with limited health literacy, those most at risk for poor diabetes health outcomes will fall further behind if health systems increasingly rely on internet-based services. PMID:20845203

Examining health literacy among urban African-American adolescents with asthma.

PubMed

Valerio, Melissa A; Peterson, Edward L; Wittich, Angelina R; Joseph, Christine L M

2016-12-01

This exploratory study assessed health literacy among urban African-American high school students to improve understanding of the association between adolescent health literacy and asthma. We conducted a secondary data analysis of the control group (n = 181) of the Puff City randomized controlled trial (2006-2010), a web-based intervention to promote asthma management among students, grades 9 through 12. A validated self-report 3-item health literacy screening instrument was completed at final online follow-up survey. Logistic regression was used to explore the association between health literacy, demographic characteristics, quality of life, asthma management, and health care utilization. Multivariate analysis revealed that an overall inadequate health literacy score was associated with students who were more likely to be younger (OR 0.61; 95% CI 0.44-0.84), not on Medicaid (OR 0.36; 95% CI 0.17-0.76), have at least one hospitalization (OR 1.29; 95% CI 1.07-1.56); and a lower overall quality of life (OR 0.75; 95% CI 0.59-0.95). Those lacking confidence in filling out medical forms, needing help reading hospital materials, and having difficulty understanding written information were more likely to not have a rescue inhaler (OR 0.49; 95% CI 0.25-0.94), have one or more emergency visits (OR 1.21 95% CI 1.02-1.43), and one or more hospitalizations (OR 1.19; 95% CI 1.01-1.41), respectively. The findings indicate a significant association between inadequate health literary and suboptimal asthma management. It is important to advance understanding of adolescent health literacy, especially those at-risk, as they assume asthma self-management tasks and move toward independent adult self-care.

eHealth Literacy: Predictors in a Population With Moderate-to-High Cardiovascular Risk

PubMed Central

Richtering, Sarah S; Hyun, Karice; Neubeck, Lis; Coorey, Genevieve; Chalmers, John; Usherwood, Tim; Peiris, David; Chow, Clara K

2017-01-01

Background Electronic health (eHealth) literacy is a growing area of research parallel to the ongoing development of eHealth interventions. There is, however, little and conflicting information regarding the factors that influence eHealth literacy, notably in chronic disease. We are similarly ill-informed about the relationship between eHealth and health literacy, 2 related yet distinct health-related literacies. Objective The aim of our study was to investigate the demographic, socioeconomic, technology use, and health literacy predictors of eHealth literacy in a population with moderate-to-high cardiovascular risk. Methods Demographic and socioeconomic data were collected from 453 participants of the CONNECT (Consumer Navigation of Electronic Cardiovascular Tools) study, which included age, gender, education, income, cardiovascular-related polypharmacy, private health care, main electronic device use, and time spent on the Internet. Participants also completed an eHealth Literacy Scale (eHEALS) and a Health Literacy Questionnaire (HLQ). Univariate analyses were performed to compare patient demographic and socioeconomic characteristics between the low (eHEALS<26) and high (eHEALS≥26) eHealth literacy groups. To then determine the predictors of low eHealth literacy, multiple-adjusted generalized estimating equation logistic regression model was used. This technique was also used to examine the correlation between eHealth literacy and health literacy for 4 predefined literacy themes: navigating resources, skills to use resources, usefulness for oneself, and critical evaluation. Results The univariate analysis showed that patients with lower eHealth literacy were older (68 years vs 66 years, P=.01), had lower level of education (P=.007), and spent less time on the Internet (P<.001). However, multiple-adjusted generalized estimating equation logistic regression model demonstrated that only the time spent on the Internet (P=.01) was associated with the level of eHealth literacy. Regarding the comparison between the eHEALS items and HLQ scales, a positive linear relationship was found for the themes “usefulness for oneself” (P=.049) and “critical evaluation” (P=.01). Conclusions This study shows the importance of evaluating patients’ familiarity with the Internet as reflected, in part, by the time spent on the Internet. It also shows the importance of specifically assessing eHealth literacy in conjunction with a health literacy assessment in order to assess patients’ navigational knowledge and skills using the Internet, specific to the use of eHealth applications. PMID:28130203

Skills for Children Entering Kindergarten

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tindal, Gerald; Irvin, P. Shawn; Nese, Joseph F. T.; Slater, Steve

2015-01-01

Assessing kindergarten entry skills is complex, requiring attention to skill proficiency and interactive behaviors deemed critical for learning to occur. In our analysis of a state initiative, pilot data were collected on early literacy and numeracy and 2 aspects of important student interactions in the classroom (social and task behaviors) within…

Data Literacy: Real-World Learning through Problem-Solving with Data Sets

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Erwin, Robin W., Jr.

2015-01-01

The achievement of deep learning by secondary students requires teaching approaches that draw students into task commitment, integrated curricula, and analytical thinking. By using real-world data sets in project based instructional units, teachers can guide students in analyzing, interpreting, and reporting quantitative data. Working with…

Teaching Scientific Communication Skills in Science Studies: Does It Make a Difference?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Spektor-Levy, Ornit; Eylon, Bat-Sheva; Scherz, Zahava

2009-01-01

This study explores the impact of "Scientific Communication" (SC) skills instruction on students' performances in scientific literacy assessment tasks. We present a general model for skills instruction, characterized by explicit and spiral instruction, integration into content learning, practice in several scientific topics, and application of…

The Spatial-Numerical Congruity Effect in Preschoolers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Patro, Katarzyna; Haman, Maciej

2012-01-01

Number-to-space mapping and its directionality are compelling topics in the study of numerical cognition. Usually, literacy and math education are thought to shape a left-to-right number line. We challenged this claim by analyzing performance of preliterate precounting preschoolers in a spatial-numerical task. In our experiment, children exhibited…

Taking a Closer Look at Writing Conferences.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Florio-Ruane, Susan

Current literature on writing instruction focuses on the writing conference, which accompanies a shift in emphasis from product to process and potentially transforms the teacher's role from task master and evaluator to respondent, opening the door to greater peer interaction in literacy learning. However desirable this ideal may be, extant…

Unravelling Secondary Students' Challenges in Digital Literacy: A Gender Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Argelagós, Esther; Pifarré, Manoli

2017-01-01

The use of the Internet to learn involves complex cognitive activities. Educational researchers claim more attention in studying the nature of students' challenges when using digital information for learning purposes. Our research investigated in depth the challenges that secondary students face when solving web information-problem tasks. We…

The Connection among Morphological, Phonological, Orthographic, and Processing Skills, and Reading

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clark, Teixeira L.

2017-01-01

Research on morphological awareness has shown that it contributes to literacy outcomes. However, because of the way morphological awareness is traditionally measured, there is speculation that tasks may reflect cognitive flexibility, working memory, or some other type of executive processing, versus awareness of morphology. Further complicating…

Business as Usual? Not for These Middle-Grades Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crawford, Heather; Wiest, Lynda

2011-01-01

A perpetual dilemma of schooling is how to help students develop skills needed for everyday life, including the work world. Quantitative literacy, also called numeracy, involves an ability to apply essential mathematics skills to authentic or near-authentic tasks. Carefully planned classroom activities can help students develop these important…

Metalinguistic Skills and Vocabulary Knowledge in Chinese (L1) and English (L2)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McBride-Chang, C.; Cheung, H.; Chow, B. W.-Y.; Chow, C. S.-L.; Choi, L.

2006-01-01

How are metalinguistic skills associated with vocabulary knowledge in languages with contrasting phonological and morphological properties? To address this question, tasks of phonological awareness and morphological awareness, other reasoning and literacy-related skills, and measures of vocabulary knowledge in Chinese and English, were…

Developing Globally Minded, Critical Media Literacy Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harshman, Jason

2017-01-01

The transnational movement of people and ideas continues to reshape how we imagine places and cultures. Considering the volume of information and entertainment delivered and consumed via mass media, global educators are tasked with engaging students in learning activities that help them develop skill sets that include a globally minded, critical…

Health literacy in the urgent care setting: What factors impact consumer comprehension of health information?

PubMed

Alberti, Traci L; Morris, Nancy J

2017-05-01

An increasing number of Americans are using urgent care (UC) clinics due to: improved health insurance coverage, the need to decrease cost, primary care offices with limited appointment availability, and a desire for convenient care. Patients are treated by providers they may not know for episodic illness or injuries while in pain or not feeling well. Treatment instructions and follow-up directions are provided quickly. To examine health literacy in the adult UC population and identify patient characteristics associated with health literacy risk. As part of a larger cross-sectional study, UC patients seen between October 2013 and January 2014 completed a demographic questionnaire and the Newest Vital Sign. Descriptive, nonparametric analyses, and a multinomial logistic regression were done to assess health literacy, associated and predictive factors. A total of 57.5% of 285 participants had adequate health literacy. The likelihood of limited health literacy was associated with increased age (p < .001), less education (p < .001), and lower income (p = .006). Limited health literacy is common in a suburban UC setting, increasing the risk that consumers may not understand vital health information. Clear provider communication and confirmation of comprehension of discharge instructions for self-management is essential to optimize outcomes for UC patients. ©2017 American Association of Nurse Practitioners.

A Qualitative Investigation to Underpin the Development of an Electronic Tool to Assess Nutrition Literacy in Australians Adults.

PubMed

Cassar, Alyssa M; Denyer, Gareth S; O'Connor, Helen T; Gifford, Janelle A

2018-02-23

Nutrition literacy is linked to health via its influence on dietary intake. There is a need for a tool to assess nutrition literacy in research and dietetic practice. We sought guidance from nutrition professionals on topic areas and features of an electronic nutrition literacy assessment tool for Australian adults. 28 experienced nutrition professionals engaged in a range of nutrition and dietetic work areas participated in six focus groups using a semi-structured interview schedule. Data were analysed using an inductive approach using NVivo 10 (QSR International, Pty Ltd., Doncaster, Australia, 2012). Key areas identified to assess nutrition literacy included specific nutrients versus foods, labels and packaging, construction of the diet, knowledge of the Australian Dietary Guidelines and Australian Guide to Healthy Eating, understanding of serve and portion sizes, ability to select healthier foods, and demographics such as belief systems and culture. Exploitation of electronic features to enhance visual and auditory displays, including interactive animations such as "drag and drop" and virtual reality situations, were discussed. This study provided insight into the most relevant topic areas and presentation format to assess the nutrition literacy of adult Australians. The visual, auditory, and interactive capacity of the available technology could enhance the assessment of nutrition literacy.

Association between Literacy and Self-Rated Poor Health in 33 High- and Upper-Middle-Income Countries. OECD Education Working Papers, No. 165

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kakarmath, Sujay; Denis, Vanessa; Encinas-Martin, Marta; Borgonovi, Francesca; Subramanian, S. V.

2018-01-01

We assess the relationship between general literacy skills and health status by analysing data from the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), an international survey of about 250,000 adults aged 16-65 years conducted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) from 2011-15 in 33…

The Effects of Post-Compulsory Education and Training Systems on Literacy and Numeracy Skills: A Comparative Analysis Using PISA 2000 and the 2011 Survey of Adult Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pensiero, Nicola; Green, Andy

2018-01-01

This article analyses the contribution of post-compulsory education and training systems to the development of literacy and numeracy skills across OECD countries. While there is extensive cross-country comparative research on the effects of primary and lower secondary education systems on aggregate skills levels, there has been little comparative…

How Is Health Related to Literacy, Numeracy, and Technological Problem-Solving Skills among U.S. Adults? Evidence from the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Prins, Esther; Monnat, Shannon; Clymer, Carol; Toso, Blaire Wilson

2015-01-01

This paper uses data from the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) to analyze the relationship between U.S. adults' self-reported health and proficiencies in literacy, numeracy, and technological problem solving. Ordinal logistic regression analyses showed that scores on all three scales were positively and…

The English proficiency and academic language skills of Australian bilingual children during the primary school years.

PubMed

Dennaoui, Kamelia; Nicholls, Ruth Jane; O'Connor, Meredith; Tarasuik, Joanne; Kvalsvig, Amanda; Goldfeld, Sharon

2016-04-01

Evidence suggests that early proficiency in the language of school instruction is an important predictor of academic success for bilingual children. This study investigated whether English-proficiency at 4-5 years of age predicts academic language and literacy skills among Australian bilingual children at 10-11 years of age, as part of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children ( LSAC, 2012 ). The LSAC comprises a nationally representative clustered cross-sequential sample of Australian children. Data were analysed from a sub-sample of 129 bilingual children from the LSAC Kindergarten cohort (n = 4983), for whom teachers completed the Australian Early Development Index (AEDI) checklist (a population measure of early childhood development) and the Academic Rating Scale (ARS) language and literacy subscale. Linear regression analyses revealed that bilingual children who commenced school with stronger English proficiency had higher academic language and literacy scores at the end of primary school (β = 0.45). English proficiency remained a significant predictor, even when accounting for gender and socio-economic disadvantage (β = 0.38). The findings indicate that bilingual children who begin school without English proficiency are at risk of difficulties with academic language and literacy, even after 6 years of schooling. Risk factors need to be identified so early support can be targeted towards the most vulnerable children.

The Relation Between Caregivers' Multiliterate Reading Habits and Their Children's Oral Health Status

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background Caregivers’ oral health literacy (OHL) assessment results have been found to be related to their children’s oral health status. A further aspect of this relationship may be the role of caregivers’ reading habits. Objective Our goal was to describe the relationship between caregivers’ multimodal (digital and print) and multilingual (English and Chinese) reading habits, their OHL, and their child’s oral health status in Hong Kong. Methods A random sample of 301 child-caregiver dyads was recruited from kindergartens in Hong Kong. Data included sociodemographic information and caregivers’ self-reported digital print and reading habits across two languages (Chinese and English). Caregivers’ OHL levels were assessed by two locally developed and validated oral health literacy assessment tasks: Hong Kong Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Dentistry-30 (HKREALD-30) and the Hong Kong Oral Health Literacy Assessment Task for Pediatric Dentistry (HKOHLAT-P). Children’s oral health status was assessed using two measures: dental caries experience (number of decayed, missing, and filled teeth) and oral hygiene status (Visible Plaque Index). Results Bivariate variations revealed significant differences in mean OHL scores between caregivers with different reading habits (P<.01). Correlations revealed significant associations between caregivers’ practices of reading multimodal (print/digital) and multilingual (English/Chinese) texts, their literacy levels, and their children’s oral health status (P<.01). Adjusting for sociodemographics and all other reading habits in the regression analysis, the caregivers' habit of reading digital and print texts was significantly retained in the final model. Regression analysis revealed significant associations between caregivers’ reading habits (digital Chinese) and their OHL word recognition scores: OR 5.00, 95% CI 1.10-3.65, P=.027. Significant associations were also evident for their OHL comprehension scores (digital Chinese: OR 2.30, 95% CI 1.30-4.20, P=.004; print Chinese: OR 2.50, 95% CI 1.40-4.30, P=.001). However, no significant associations were found between caregivers' reading habits and child’s oral health status (P>.05). Conclusions Caregivers’ habits of reading print and digital Chinese texts are significantly associated with their OHL scores. Their reading habits, however, do not affect their children’s oral health status. PMID:25236188

The development of word recognition, sentence comprehension, word spelling, and vocabulary in children with deafness: a longitudinal study.

PubMed

Colin, S; Leybaert, J; Ecalle, J; Magnan, A

2013-05-01

Only a small number of longitudinal studies have been conducted to assess the literacy skills of children with hearing impairment. The results of these studies are inconsistent with regard to the importance of phonology in reading acquisition as is the case in studies with hearing children. Colin, Magnan, Ecalle, and Leybaert (2007) revealed the important role of early phonological skills and the contribution of the factor of age of exposure to Cued Speech (CS: a manual system intended to resolve the ambiguities inherent to speechreading) to subsequent reading acquisition (from kindergarten to first grade) in children with deafness. The aim of the present paper is twofold: (1) to confirm the role of early exposure to CS in the development of the linguistic skills necessary in order to learn reading and writing in second grade; (2) to reveal the possible existence of common factors other than CS that may influence literacy performances and explain the inter-individual difference within groups of children with hearing impairment. Eighteen 6-year-old hearing-impaired and 18 hearing children of the same chronological age were tested from kindergarten to second grade. The children with deafness had either been exposed to CS at an early age, at home and before kindergarten (early-CS group), or had first been exposed to it when they entered kindergarten (late-CS group) or first grade (beginner-CS group). Children were given implicit and explicit phonological tasks, silent reading tasks (word recognition and sentence comprehension), word spelling, and vocabulary tasks. Children in the early-CS group outperformed those of the late-CS and beginner-CS groups in phonological tasks from first grade to second grade. They became better readers and better spellers than those from the late-CS group and the beginner-CS group. Their performances did not differ from those of hearing children in any of the tasks except for the receptive vocabulary test. Thus early exposure to CS seems to permit the development of linguistic skills necessary in order to learn reading and writing. The possible contribution of other factors to the acquisition of literacy skills by children with hearing impairment will be discussed. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Adaptive Changes in Early and Late Blind: A fMRI Study of Verb Generation to Heard Nouns

PubMed Central

BURTON, H.; SNYDER, A. Z.; DIAMOND, J. B.; RAICHLE, M. E.

2013-01-01

Literacy for blind people requires learning Braille. Along with others, we have shown that reading Braille activates visual cortex. This includes striate cortex (V1), i.e., banks of calcarine sulcus, and several higher visual areas in lingual, fusiform, cuneus, lateral occipital, inferior temporal, and middle temporal gyri. The spatial extent and magnitude of magnetic resonance (MR) signals in visual cortex is greatest for those who became blind early in life. Individuals who lost sight as adults, and subsequently learned Braille, still exhibited activity in some of the same visual cortex regions, especially V1. These findings suggest these visual cortex regions become adapted to processing tactile information and that this cross-modal neural change might support Braille literacy. Here we tested the alternative hypothesis that these regions directly respond to linguistic aspects of a task. Accordingly, language task performance by blind persons should activate the same visual cortex regions regardless of input modality. Specifically, visual cortex activity in blind people ought to arise during a language task involving heard words. Eight early blind, six late blind, and eight sighted subjects were studied using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during covert generation of verbs to heard nouns. The control task was passive listening to indecipherable sounds (reverse words) matched to the nouns in sound intensity, duration, and spectral content. Functional responses were analyzed at the level of individual subjects using methods based on the general linear model and at the group level, using voxel based ANOVA and t-test analyses. Blind and sighted subjects showed comparable activation of language areas in left inferior frontal, dorsolateral prefrontal, and left posterior superior temporal gyri. The main distinction was bilateral, left dominant activation of the same visual cortex regions previously noted with Braille reading in all blind subjects. The spatial extent and magnitude of responses was greatest on the left in early blind individuals. Responses in the late blind group mostly were confined to V1 and nearby portions of the lingual and fusiform gyri. These results confirm the presence of adaptations in visual cortex of blind people but argue against the notion that this activity during Braille reading represents somatosensory (haptic) processing. Rather, we suggest that these responses can be most parsimoniously explained in terms of linguistic operations. It remains possible that these responses represent adaptations which initially are for processing either sound or touch, but which are later generalized to the other modality during acquisition of Braille reading skills. PMID:12466452

School readiness of children with language impairment: predicting literacy skills from pre-literacy and social-behavioural dimensions.

PubMed

Pentimonti, Jill M; Murphy, Kimberly A; Justice, Laura M; Logan, Jessica A R; Kaderavek, Joan N

2016-03-01

School readiness generally captures the notion that children do best when they arrive at formal schooling with a certain threshold of skill that will help them thrive in the classroom's academic and social milieu. To examine the dimensionality of the construct of school readiness among children with language impairment (LI), as well as the extent to which these dimensions relate to children's end-of-kindergarten literacy skills. Participants were 136 preschool-aged children with LI. Children were assessed on measures of pre-literacy, social, and behavioural skills in preschool and reading and spelling in kindergarten. Confirmatory factor analyses indicated that school readiness for this sample of children with LI is best characterized as two dimensions: pre-literacy and socio-emotional. Of the two dimensions, pre-literacy readiness was predictive of children's future performance in reading and spelling. The results further our theoretical understanding of the dimensions of school readiness, as well as our knowledge of how these skills are related among children with LI. Identifying domain-specific readiness skills that are predictive of kindergarten success can help to identify means of early assessment and targets for speech-language intervention. © 2015 Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists.

An Assessment of Organizational Health Literacy Practices at an Academic Health Center.

PubMed

Prince, Latrina Y; Schmidtke, Carsten; Beck, Jules K; Hadden, Kristie B

Organizational health literacy is the degree to which an organization considers and promotes the health literacy of patients. Addressing health literacy at an organizational level has the potential to have a greater impact on more health consumers in a health system than individual-level approaches. The purpose of this study was to assess health care practices at an academic health center using the 10 attributes of a health-literate health care organization. Using a survey research design, the Health Literate Healthcare Organization 10-Item Questionnaire was administered online using total population sampling. Employees (N = 10 300) rated the extent that their organization's health care practices consider and promote patients' health literacy. Differences in responses were assessed using factorial analysis of variance. The mean response was 4.7 on a 7-point Likert scale. Employee training and communication about costs received the lowest ratings. Univariate analyses revealed that there were no statistically significant differences (P = .05) by employees' health profession, years of service, or level of patient contact. There were statistically significant differences by highest education obtained with lowest ratings from employees with college degrees. Survey responses indicate a need for improvements in health care practices to better assist patients with inadequate health literacy.

IQ variations across time, race, and nationality: an artifact of differences in literacy skills.

PubMed

Marks, David F

2010-06-01

A body of data on IQ collected over 50 years has revealed that average population IQ varies across time, race, and nationality. An explanation for these differences may be that intelligence test performance requires literacy skills not present in all people to the same extent. In eight analyses, population mean full scale IQ and literacy scores yielded correlations ranging from .79 to .99. In cohort studies, significantly larger improvements in IQ occurred in the lower half of the IQ distribution, affecting the distribution variance and skewness in the predicted manner. In addition, three Verbal subscales on the WAIS show the largest Flynn effect sizes and all four Verbal subscales are among those showing the highest racial IQ differences. This pattern of findings supports the hypothesis that both secular and racial differences in intelligence test scores have an environmental explanation: secular and racial differences in IQ are an artifact of variation in literacy skills. These findings suggest that racial IQ distributions will converge if opportunities are equalized for different population groups to achieve the same high level of literacy skills. Social justice requires more effective implementation of policies and programs designed to eliminate inequities in IQ and literacy.

A conceptual model of Verbal Exchange Health Literacy

PubMed Central

Harrington, Kathleen F.; Valerio, Melissa A.

2014-01-01

Objective To address a gap in understanding of verbal exchange (oral and aural) health literacy by describing the systematic development of a verbal exchange health literacy (VEHL) definition and model which hypothesizes the role of VEHL in health outcomes. Methods Current health literacy and communication literature was systematically reviewed and combined with qualitative patient and provider data that were analyzed using a grounded theory approach. Results Analyses of current literature and formative data indicated the importance of verbal exchange in the clinical setting and revealed various factors associated with the patient-provider relationship and their characteristics that influence decision making and health behaviors. VEHL is defined as the ability to speak and listen that facilitates exchanging, understanding, and interpreting of health information for health-decision making, disease management and navigation of the healthcare system. A model depiction of mediating and influenced factors is presented. Conclusion A definition and model of VEHL is a step towards addressing a gap in health literacy knowledge and provides a foundation for examining the influence of VEHL on health outcomes. Practice Implications VEHL is an extension of current descriptions of health literacy and has implications for patient-provider communication and health decision making. PMID:24291145

Development of a conceptual model of cancer caregiver health literacy.

PubMed

Yuen, E Y N; Dodson, S; Batterham, R W; Knight, T; Chirgwin, J; Livingston, P M

2016-03-01

Caregivers play a vital role in caring for people diagnosed with cancer. However, little is understood about caregivers' capacity to find, understand, appraise and use information to improve health outcomes. The study aimed to develop a conceptual model that describes the elements of cancer caregiver health literacy. Six concept mapping workshops were conducted with 13 caregivers, 13 people with cancer and 11 healthcare providers/policymakers. An iterative, mixed methods approach was used to analyse and synthesise workshop data and to generate the conceptual model. Six major themes and 17 subthemes were identified from 279 statements generated by participants during concept mapping workshops. Major themes included: access to information, understanding of information, relationship with healthcare providers, relationship with the care recipient, managing challenges of caregiving and support systems. The study extends conceptualisations of health literacy by identifying factors specific to caregiving within the cancer context. The findings demonstrate that caregiver health literacy is multidimensional, includes a broad range of individual and interpersonal elements, and is influenced by broader healthcare system and community factors. These results provide guidance for the development of: caregiver health literacy measurement tools; strategies for improving health service delivery, and; interventions to improve caregiver health literacy. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Health education literacy in patients with chronic musculoskeletal diseases: development of a new questionnaire and sociodemographic predictors.

PubMed

Farin, Erik; Ullrich, Antje; Nagl, Michaela

2013-12-01

It was our aim to develop a questionnaire for patients with chronic musculoskeletal diseases to self-report their health education literacy, to analyse the psychometric properties of the instrument and to test hypotheses concerning sociodemographic predictors of health education literacy. A total of 577 patients with chronic back pain or osteoarthritis who underwent inpatient rehabilitation were surveyed. The resulting 'HELP questionnaire' (health education literacy of patients with chronic musculoskeletal diseases) consists of 18 items and three scales (comprehension of medical information, applying medical information, communicative competence in provider interactions). The instrument's psychometric properties are good (Cronbach's alpha between 0.88 and 0.95, unidimensionality and Rasch model fit established). Our sample's average level of self-reported health education literacy is quite high. However, 20-30% of the patients admitted to having difficulty understanding important aspects of health education programmes (i.e. comprehending what medical information means in relation to their disease). The variance explained by sociodemographic and basic medical variables is small (4-8%). Greater effort is required to make health education programmes easier to understand. There is a need for more research on interindividual variability of complex aspects of health literacy.

How does health literacy affect quality of life among men with newly diagnosed clinically localized prostate cancer? Findings from the North Carolina-Louisiana Prostate Cancer Project (PCaP).

PubMed

Song, Lixin; Mishel, Merle; Bensen, Jeannette T; Chen, Ronald C; Knafl, George J; Blackard, Bonny; Farnan, Laura; Fontham, Elizabeth; Su, L Joseph; Brennan, Christine S; Mohler, James L; Godley, Paul A

2012-08-01

Health literacy deficits affect half of the US overall patient population, especially the elderly, and are linked to poor health outcomes among noncancer patients. Yet little is known about how health literacy affects cancer populations. The authors examined the relation between health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and health literacy among men with prostate cancer. Data analysis included 1581 men with newly diagnosed clinically localized prostate cancer from a population-based study, the North Carolina-Louisiana Prostate Cancer Project (PCaP). Participants completed assessment of health literacy using Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine (REALM) and HRQOL using the Short Form-12 General Health Survey (SF12). Bivariate and multivariate regression was used to determine the potential association between REALM and HRQOL, while controlling for sociodemographic and illness-related variables. Higher health literacy level was significantly associated with better mental well-being (SF12-Mental Component Summary [MCS]; P < .001) and physical well-being (SF12-Physical Component Summary [PCS]; P < .001) in bivariate analyses. After controlling for sociodemographic (age, marital status, race, income, and education) and illness-related factors (types of cancer treatment, tumor aggressiveness, and comorbidities), health literacy remained significantly associated with SF12-MCS scores (P < .05) but not with SF12-PCS scores. Among patients with newly diagnosed localized prostate cancer, those with low health literacy levels were more vulnerable to mental distress than those with higher health literacy levels, but physical well-being was no different. These findings suggest that health literacy may be important in patients managing prostate cancer and the effects of treatment, and provide the hypothesis that supportive interventions targeting patients with lower health literacy may improve their HRQOL. Copyright © 2011 American Cancer Society.

Impact of Health Literacy in Patients with Chronic Musculoskeletal Disease–Systematic Review

PubMed Central

Loke, Yoon K.; Hinz, Ina; Wang, Xia; Rowlands, Gill; Scott, David; Salter, Charlotte

2012-01-01

Objectives To estimate the prevalence of low health literacy, and evaluate the impact of low health literacy on outcomes in patients with chronic musculoskeletal conditions. Data Sources We searched Embase, Pubmed, PsycInfo, and CINAHL in January 2011 for relevant studies, restricted to English-language articles. Study Selection and Data Extraction Studies were included if they measured health literacy and/or reported on the link between outcomes and health literacy levels in patients with osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, or rheumatoid arthritis. We assessed risk of bias from participant selection, methods of measuring health literacy and functional outcomes, missing data, and potential for confounding. Data Synthesis We reviewed 1863 citations and judged 8 studies to be relevant. Most were cross-sectional in nature, and five were based in the United States. Diversity in measurements, participant characteristics, and settings meant that results had to be synthesized narratively. Prevalence of low health literacy varied from 7% to 42%. Of the five studies that reported on musculoskeletal outcomes, only one showed an association (unadjusted) between low health literacy and greater pain and limitations in physical functioning. However, other studies, including those with multivariate analyses, found no significant relationship between health literacy and measures of pain or disease specific questionnaires. One clinical trial found short-term improvements in the mental health of patients with musculoskeletal conditions after an intervention to improve health literacy. Limitations Most of the studies were cross-sectional in nature, which precludes interpretation of a causal relationship. The sample sizes may not have been sufficiently large to enable detection of significant associations. Conclusions The current evidence does not show a consistent association between low health literacy and poorer functional outcomes in patients with chronic musculoskeletal conditions. In the absence of a definite link, efforts to develop interventions to improve health literacy would not necessarily improve health service or patient-related outcomes. PMID:22792242

Health Literacy is associated with Healthy Eating Index Scores and Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Intake: Findings from the Rural Lower Mississippi Delta

PubMed Central

Zoellner, Jamie; You, Wen; Connell, Carol; Smith-Ray, Renae L.; Allen, Kacie; Tucker, Katherine L; Davy, Brenda M.; Estabrooks, Paul A.

2011-01-01

Background Although health literacy has been a public health priority area for over a decade, the relationship between health literacy and dietary quality has not been thoroughly explored. Objective To evaluate health literacy skills in relation to Healthy Eating Index scores (HEI) and Sugar-Sweetened Beverage (SSB) consumption, while accounting for demographic variables. Design Cross-sectional survey. Participants/setting A community-based proportional sample of adults residing in the rural Lower Mississippi Delta. Methods Instruments included a validated 158-item regional food frequency questionnaire and the Newest Vital Sign (scores range 0–6) to assess health literacy. Statistical analyses performed Descriptive statistics, ANOVA, and multivariate linear regression. Results Of 376 participants, the majority were African American (67.6%), without a college degree (71.5%), and household income level <$20,000/year (55.0%). Most participants (73.9%) scored in the two lowest health literacy categories. The multivariate linear regression model to predict total HEI scores was significant (R2=0.24; F=18.8; p<0.01), such that every 1 point increase in health literacy was associated with a 1.21 point increase in healthy eating index scores, while controlling for all other variables. Other significant predictors of HEI scores included age, gender, and SNAP participation. Health literacy also significantly predicted sugar-sweetened beverages consumption (R2=0.15; F=6.3; p<0.01), while accounting for demographic variables. Every 1 point in health literacy scores was associated with 34 fewer SSB kilocalories/day. Age was the only significant covariate in the SSB model. Conclusion While health literacy has been linked to numerous poor health outcomes, to our knowledge this is the first investigation to establish a relationship between health literacy and HEI scores and SSB consumption. Our study suggests that understanding the causes and consequences of limited health literacy is an important factor in promoting compliance to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. PMID:21703379

Lifelong literacy: Some trends and issues in conceptualising and operationalising literacy from a lifelong learning perspective

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hanemann, Ulrike

2015-06-01

In a fast-changing and highly inequitable world, lifelong learning is becoming increasingly important, not only as a key organising principle for all forms of education and learning but also as an absolute necessity for everyone. It is particularly important for disadvantaged individuals and groups who have been excluded from or failed to acquire basic competencies through formal schooling. Within a lifelong learning framework, literacy and numeracy are viewed as foundation skills which are the core of basic education and indispensable to full participation in society. This article discusses recent developments in conceptualising literacy as a foundation of lifelong learning. Starting from the evolving notions of adult literacy, the author identifies some current trends, the most important being that literacy is now perceived as a learning continuum of different proficiency levels. Dichotomous states of being either "literate" or "illiterate" no longer apply. She analyses (1) findings extracted from UNESCO Member States' national reports submitted to the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) for the 2nd Global Report on Adult Learning and Education; (2) a desk study of national literacy campaigns and programmes as well as (3) some recent developments in formal education. Her suggested three-dimensional analytical framework considers literacy as a lifelong and life-wide learning process and as part of lifelong learning systems. She draws a number of conclusions for policy and practice of literacy as a foundation of lifelong learning. These conclusions are a timely contribution to the ongoing post-2015 education debate, in particular to the challenge of how to mainstream youth and adult literacy into the implementation of the sustainable development agenda for 2015-2030.

Health literacy and self-rated health in adults primary care patients.

PubMed

Marques, Suzana Raquel Lopes; Escarce, Andrezza Gonzalez; Lemos, Stela Maris Aguiar

2018-01-01

Purpose To verify the association between health literacy, social determinants and self-rated health in adult's primary health care patients. Methods this is an Observational cross-sectional study in which a total of 380 patients of the Unified Health System in the context of primary health care were interviewed. The sample was probabilistic, stratified by gender, age, and Basic Health Unit. Health literacy was evaluated by an instrument of analysis of the perception of adults about the understanding of health orientations and possible difficulties in this process (Health Literacy Scale). Descriptive and association analyses were performed (Pearson's chi-square test, p≤0.05). Results It was verified that the majority of the interviewees belongs to classes C1 and C2 and attended high school (complete or incomplete). Regarding self-rated health, to be considered healthy and with good health were the predominant perceptions. In the Health Literacy Scale, it was verified that most patients reported never presenting difficulties in the situations of this instrument, except understanding written orientations. It was observed the association with a statistical significance of the better perception of health literacy with higher educational level and economic classification, as well as with self-rated of good health. Conclusion There was a statistical association between health literacy, social determinants, and self-rated health in the analyzed adults. It is noteworthy the contribution of the Health Literacy Scale for emphasizing the perception of difficulties in everyday health situations. It is necessary to develop dialogic relationships that build more robust communication processes between professionals and healthcare patients to favor health literacy skills.

Subcortical processing of speech regularities underlies reading and music aptitude in children

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Background Neural sensitivity to acoustic regularities supports fundamental human behaviors such as hearing in noise and reading. Although the failure to encode acoustic regularities in ongoing speech has been associated with language and literacy deficits, how auditory expertise, such as the expertise that is associated with musical skill, relates to the brainstem processing of speech regularities is unknown. An association between musical skill and neural sensitivity to acoustic regularities would not be surprising given the importance of repetition and regularity in music. Here, we aimed to define relationships between the subcortical processing of speech regularities, music aptitude, and reading abilities in children with and without reading impairment. We hypothesized that, in combination with auditory cognitive abilities, neural sensitivity to regularities in ongoing speech provides a common biological mechanism underlying the development of music and reading abilities. Methods We assessed auditory working memory and attention, music aptitude, reading ability, and neural sensitivity to acoustic regularities in 42 school-aged children with a wide range of reading ability. Neural sensitivity to acoustic regularities was assessed by recording brainstem responses to the same speech sound presented in predictable and variable speech streams. Results Through correlation analyses and structural equation modeling, we reveal that music aptitude and literacy both relate to the extent of subcortical adaptation to regularities in ongoing speech as well as with auditory working memory and attention. Relationships between music and speech processing are specifically driven by performance on a musical rhythm task, underscoring the importance of rhythmic regularity for both language and music. Conclusions These data indicate common brain mechanisms underlying reading and music abilities that relate to how the nervous system responds to regularities in auditory input. Definition of common biological underpinnings for music and reading supports the usefulness of music for promoting child literacy, with the potential to improve reading remediation. PMID:22005291

Doctors' use of electronic medical records systems in hospitals: cross sectional survey

PubMed Central

Lærum, Hallvard; Ellingsen, Gunnar; Faxvaag, Arild

2001-01-01

Objectives To compare the use of three electronic medical records systems by doctors in Norwegian hospitals for general clinical tasks. Design Cross sectional questionnaire survey. Semistructured telephone interviews with key staff in information technology in each hospital for details of local implementation of the systems. Setting 32 hospital units in 19 Norwegian hospitals with electronic medical records systems. Participants 227 (72%) of 314 hospital doctors responded, equally distributed between the three electronic medical records systems. Main outcome measures Proportion of respondents who used the electronic system, calculated for each of 23 tasks; difference in proportions of users of different systems when functionality of systems was similar. Results Most tasks listed in the questionnaire (15/23) were generally covered with implemented functions in the electronic medical records systems. However, the systems were used for only 2-7 of the tasks, mainly associated with reading patient data. Respondents showed significant differences in frequency of use of the different systems for four tasks for which the systems offered equivalent functionality. The respondents scored highly in computer literacy (72.2/100), and computer use showed no correlation with respondents' age, sex, or work position. User satisfaction scores were generally positive (67.2/100), with some difference between the systems. Conclusions Doctors used electronic medical records systems for far fewer tasks than the systems supported. What is already known on this topicElectronic information systems in health care have not undergone systematic evaluation, and few comparisons between electronic medical records systems have been madeGiven the information intensive nature of clinical work, electronic medical records systems should be of help to doctors for most clinical tasksWhat this study addsDoctors in Norwegian hospitals reported a low level of use of all electronic medical records systemsThe systems were mainly used for reading patient data, and doctors used the systems for less than half of the tasks for which the systems were functionalAnalyses of actual use of electronic medical records provide more information than user satisfaction or functionality of such records systems PMID:11739222

Development and Field Test of Task-Based MOS (Military Occupational Specialties)-Specific Criterion Measures. Project A. Improving the Selection, Classification, and Utilization of Army Enlisted Personnel

DTIC Science & Technology

1986-07-01

a free-response format can be used to test knowledge of a task sequence, but such formats demand more of the soldier’s literacy skills and are more...correlations (over .40) with strong knowledge counterparts, or that overlapped with similar skilled psychomotor hands-on tests. However, if dropping...tested on Skill Level 1 soldiers and noncommissioned officers. Field tests were conducted among 114-178 soldiers per MOS. Results were used to revise the

Student information literacy: psychometric validation of a self-efficacy report.

PubMed

Brown, Gavin T L

2005-06-01

Psychometric characteristics of the Student Information Literacy Self-efficacy Report based on responses from 498 students ages 9 to 12 years are reported. Students report their self-efficacy (confidence and difficulty) in 11 different phases of being information literate, i.e., developing a topic, planning, self-management, locating sources, selecting sources, retrieving information, analysing information, evaluating information, synthesising knowledge, presenting knowledge, and self-evaluation using a positively packed rating scale. The data were strongly internally consistent (Cronbach alpha=.95) with a test-retest reliability of .78. The 11 phases, factors measured by a matching pair of self-efficacy questions, were confirmed (chi2=529.68; df= 198; RMSEA =.058; TLI=.940). Ratings were correlated low with teachers' ratings and test scores of information literacy skills and moderately correlated with academic self-concept. The test provides unique information about students' self-efficacy for information literacy. Its use in classrooms is warranted.

Abnormal pap tests among women living in a Hispanic migrant farmworker community: A narrative of health literacy.

PubMed

Vamos, Cheryl A; Lockhart, Elizabeth; Vázquez-Otero, Coralia; Thompson, Erika L; Proctor, Sara; Wells, Kristen J; Daley, Ellen M

2016-08-01

This study explored narrative responses following abnormal Pap tests among Hispanic migrant farmworkers ( N = 18; ages 22-50 years) via in-depth interviews in Florida. Qualitative analyses utilized health literacy domains (obtain/process/understand/communicate) as a conceptual framework. Participants described how they (1) obtained information about getting a Pap test, (2) processed positive and negative reactions following results, (3) understood results and recommended health-promoting behaviors, and (4) communicated and received social support. Women had disparate reactions and understanding following an abnormal Pap result. Health literacy was a meaningful conceptual framework to understand assets and gaps among women receiving an abnormal Pap test result. Future interventions should incorporate health literacy domains and facilitate patient-provider communications and social support to assist women in decision-making and health-promoting behaviors, ultimately decreasing cancer disparities.

The role of cognitive function in the relationship between age and health literacy: a cross-sectional analysis of older adults in Chicago, USA.

PubMed

Kobayashi, Lindsay C; Smith, Samuel G; O'Conor, Rachel; Curtis, Laura M; Park, Denise; von Wagner, Christian; Deary, Ian J; Wolf, Michael S

2015-04-23

To investigate how 3 measures of health literacy correlate with age and the explanatory roles of fluid and crystallised cognitive abilities in these relationships among older adults. Cross-sectional baseline analysis of the 'LitCog' cohort study. 1 academic internal medicine clinic and 5 federally qualified health centres in Chicago, USA. English-speaking adults (n=828) aged 55-74 years, recruited from August 2008 through October 2011. Health literacy was measured by the Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (TOFHLA) and the Newest Vital Sign (NVS), both of which assess reading comprehension and numeracy in health contexts, and by the Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine (REALM), which assesses medical vocabulary. Fluid cognitive ability was assessed through the cognitive domains of processing speed, inductive reasoning, and working, prospective and long-term memories, and crystallised cognitive ability through the verbal ability domain. TOFHLA and NVS scores were lower at ages 70-74 years compared with all other age groups (p<0.05 for both tests). The inverse association between age and TOFHLA score was attenuated from β=-0.39 (95% CI -0.55 to -0.22) to β=-0.06 (95% CI -0.20 to 0.08) for ages 70-74 vs 55-59 years when fluid cognitive ability was added to the model (85% attenuation). Similar results were seen with NVS scores (68% attenuation). REALM scores did not differ by age group (p=0.971). Crystallised cognitive ability was stable across age groups, and did not influence the relationships between age and TOFHLA or NVS performance. Health literacy skills show differential patterns of age-related change, which may be explained by cognitive ageing. Researchers should select health literacy tests appropriate for their purposes when assessing the health literacy of older adults. Clinicians should be aware of this issue to ensure that health self-management tasks for older patients have appropriate cognitive and literacy demands. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

The role of cognitive function in the relationship between age and health literacy: a cross-sectional analysis of older adults in Chicago, USA

PubMed Central

Kobayashi, Lindsay C; Smith, Samuel G; O'Conor, Rachel; Curtis, Laura M; Park, Denise; von Wagner, Christian; Deary, Ian J; Wolf, Michael S

2015-01-01

Objectives To investigate how 3 measures of health literacy correlate with age and the explanatory roles of fluid and crystallised cognitive abilities in these relationships among older adults. Design Cross-sectional baseline analysis of the ‘LitCog’ cohort study. Setting 1 academic internal medicine clinic and 5 federally qualified health centres in Chicago, USA. Participants English-speaking adults (n=828) aged 55–74 years, recruited from August 2008 through October 2011. Outcome measures Health literacy was measured by the Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (TOFHLA) and the Newest Vital Sign (NVS), both of which assess reading comprehension and numeracy in health contexts, and by the Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine (REALM), which assesses medical vocabulary. Fluid cognitive ability was assessed through the cognitive domains of processing speed, inductive reasoning, and working, prospective and long-term memories, and crystallised cognitive ability through the verbal ability domain. Results TOFHLA and NVS scores were lower at ages 70–74 years compared with all other age groups (p<0.05 for both tests). The inverse association between age and TOFHLA score was attenuated from β=−0.39 (95% CI −0.55 to −0.22) to β=−0.06 (95% CI −0.20 to 0.08) for ages 70–74 vs 55–59 years when fluid cognitive ability was added to the model (85% attenuation). Similar results were seen with NVS scores (68% attenuation). REALM scores did not differ by age group (p=0.971). Crystallised cognitive ability was stable across age groups, and did not influence the relationships between age and TOFHLA or NVS performance. Conclusions Health literacy skills show differential patterns of age-related change, which may be explained by cognitive ageing. Researchers should select health literacy tests appropriate for their purposes when assessing the health literacy of older adults. Clinicians should be aware of this issue to ensure that health self-management tasks for older patients have appropriate cognitive and literacy demands. PMID:25908675

Literacy, Instruction, and Technology: Meeting Millennials on Their Own Turf

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marks, Diane

2009-01-01

Novice teachers today struggle to integrate engaging pedagogy into their standards based curriculum. 21st century students have been immersed in technology from birth and are accustomed to multi-tasking with several types of technology each day. Students no longer rely on the traditional ways of communication and absorb their information via…

Self-Regulation and Task Engagement as Predictors of Emergent Language and Literacy Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bohlmann, Natalie L.; Downer, Jason T.

2016-01-01

Research Findings: A growing emphasis in the literature on children's self-regulation signals the need for increased understanding of the ways in which young children become active players in the acquisition of knowledge. In particular, self-regulation may be linked to subsequent academic achievement through greater engagement with the learning…

Practices and Preferences among Students Who Read Braille and Use Assistive Technology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

D'Andrea, Frances Mary

2010-01-01

An increased emphasis on the use of technology and the focus on "multiliteracies" in the classroom has great implications for both teachers and students regarding the expectation that all students will become skilled and critical users of computers and other technology for literacy-related tasks. Students who are braille readers use…

Development of Orthographic Knowledge in German-Speaking Children: A 2-Year Longitudinal Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ise, Elena; Arnoldi, Carolin Judith; Schulte-Körne, Gerd

2014-01-01

There is growing evidence that children develop orthographic knowledge from the very beginning of literacy acquisition. This study investigated the development of German-speaking children's orthographic knowledge with a nonword choice task. One nonword in each pair contained a frequent consonant doublet ("zommul") and the other…

Adolescents' Constructively Responsive Reading Strategy Use in a Critical Internet Reading Task

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cho, Byeong-Young

2011-01-01

The goal of this study was to examine types and patterns of reading strategies that proficient adolescent readers used while reading on the Internet. Informed by research related to reading comprehension, intertextuality, and new literacies, I drew upon the model of "Constructively Responsive Reading" that had evolved from print reading to…

Info Lit 2.0 or Déjà Vu?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ianuzzi, Patricia Anne

2013-01-01

In 1999, the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) convened a national task force to draft Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. ACRL has recently launched a revision to those standards. The original standards were influential because they helped advance a national need in higher education at the time: a…

Assessment of Academic Literacy Skills: Preparing Minority and LEP (Limited English Proficient) Students for Postsecondary Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kuehn, Phyllis

Addressing the problem of the language-related barriers to successful postsecondary education for underprepared college students, an assessment of academic language proficiency and a curriculum to help students improve their academic language skills were developed. The nature of the language tasks required in the undergraduate curriculum was…

A Program for Job Related Reading Training.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fox, Lynn C.; Sticht, Thomas G.

A functional job-related reading program was developed to cope with literacy problems of Army personnel; the program involves students who work individually on instructional worksheets in six main modules, each designed to teach a specific job-related reading task. This paper presents an overview of background research for the program, which was…

Courage in the Classroom: Exploring a New Framework Predicting Academic Performance and Engagement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martin, Andrew J.

2011-01-01

In the context of 7,637 high school students, the present study explored an hypothesized formulation of academic courage (defined as perseverance in the face of academic difficulty and fear) and its role in predicting academic performance (literacy and arithmetic) and various academic engagement measures (planning, task management,…

Transmodal Redesign in Music and Literacy: Diverse Multimodal Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tomlinson, Michelle M.

2015-01-01

Two classrooms of diverse 5-year-old children were set the task of exploring ways of realising music invention through the semiotic import of composing resources. In both a rural and an inner-urban setting in Australia, children demonstrated syncretism in bilingual practices in communication. Visual multimodal analysis demonstrated how children…