How brain research can improve teaching and learning in adult literacy

Why are literacy learning achievements often modest and progress slow? Which cognitive processes are involved when adults learn to read? How can these processes be supported through more efficient methods and modern technologies? What are the implications for policy, programme design and teacher training?

These were some of the key questions raised by Helen Abadzi, Senior Education Specialist at the Education for All – Fast Track Initiative Secretariat (World Bank), in a lecture organised by UIL on Tuesday 11 October. Representatives from Hamburg University, the Hamburg Adult Education Centre for Literacy and Basic Education, the Federal Association for Literacy and Basic Education and UIL staff took part in a lively discussion with the Greek educational psychologist who has vast experience of working in many low-income countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

A key insight was that reading involves complex cognitive processes. It is critical to help learners quickly to attain a reading speed of one word per second. Realistically, only this level of automaticity can enable independent reading. In debate it became clear that it is important not only to improve understanding of these processes by literacy providers and teachers in order to increase the efficiency of their work. It is just as important to convince decision-makers to invest in good-quality adult literacy instead of squandering money on low-quality provision, with long-term costs for the societies concerned.