Literacy proficiency and reading at work across Canada

Reading literacy is often understood as a basic skill, and it is gaining recognition as the most functional means to educational attainment and individual development. It not only sets a benchmark but also reveals students’ strengths and weaknesses through performance measurement. This paper attempts to investigate sixteen-year-olds’ reading literacy proficiency using a performance band system in reporting their ‘can’s and ‘cant’s in reading. It drew insights from the Text-Task Respondent Theory of Functional Literacy (White, 2011) and the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy (Anderson Krathwohl, 2001), where pertinent concepts were drawn to address students’ functional abilities. The study involved a total of 813 sixteen-year-old students representing the northern, southern, central, and east coast regions of Peninsular Malaysia (Penang, Perak, Perlis, Selangor, Kedah, Kelantan, Terengganu, and Johor). A survey research method was employed to capture cognitive competencies that denoted students’ functional abilities when it came to reading literacy. The study measured the students’ reading literacy attainment based on a proficiency scale spanning on five-band levels. The findings of the present study revealed that the majority of the students attained Band 3, where they demonstrated a moderate understanding of texts and were able to integrate some part of texts to infer meaning. The study provides valuable insights to policymakers, educationists, employers in making data-driven decisions to improve educational outcomes. It also attempts to shed some light on the current pedagogical trends and provide suggestive practices in reading.

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Exploring the Disproportionate Impact of Disasters: Social Service Providers’ Perceptions of Factors Increasing Vulnerability Among Hurricane Survivors

Families in Society The Journal of Contemporary Social Services ◽

10.1177/10443894211051570 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 104438942110515

Author(s):

Shinwoo Choi ◽

Tara M. Powell ◽

Jenna M. Muller ◽

Emily A. Lux

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Social Service ◽

Service Providers ◽

Vital Role ◽

Language And Literacy ◽

Physical And Mental Health ◽

Service Workers ◽

Social Service Providers ◽

Literacy Proficiency ◽

Group Interviews

Social service providers play a vital role in addressing the physical and mental health needs of vulnerable individuals, families, and communities during and after disasters. Considering the essential role of social service providers during and after disasters, it is vital to understand the challenges their clients encounter during emergencies. Our study explored social service providers’ perceptions of the barriers socially vulnerable individuals and communities experienced after hurricanes Michael and Irma struck coastal communities in Florida in 2017–2018. Seventeen social service workers who provided direct support to survivors during and after the hurricanes participated in four focus group interviews. Providers described five factors that increased vulnerability of their clients including risk perception, socioeconomic constraints, physical and mental health challenges, language and literacy proficiency, and resource dependency.

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Understanding Online Learners' Media Literacy for Effective Training of Online Instructors

Handbook of Research on Virtual Training and Mentoring of Online Instructors - Advances in Educational Technologies and Instructional Design ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-6322-8.ch001 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 1-19

Author(s):

Cathryn Crosby

Keyword(s):

Media Literacy ◽

Online Courses ◽

Online Course ◽

Academic Literacies ◽

Online Learners ◽

Online Instructors ◽

Course Content ◽

Literacy Proficiency ◽

Academic Reading ◽

Writing Practices

The increase in online courses offered in higher education, the reliance on highly developed academic literacy skills to learn course content, the complex nature of media literacy, the negotiation of multiple technologies, and the corresponding media literacy together can be quite challenging for online learners. Most research conducted on academic literacies has focused primarily on academic reading and writing practices rather than on media literacy. This chapter discusses an investigation of media literacy in an online course, the experience learners had with this literacy and online tasks. The chapter discusses results of data from the online learners and instructor, which showed the instructor required different media literacy proficiency than what the online learners possessed prior to beginning the online course. Finally, the chapter presents implications the study findings have for online instructors' effective development, design, and delivery of online courses and development of online learners' media literacy.

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