This paper provides a transcript of a videotaped roundtable discussion on learning disabilities among people in adult literacy programs in Canada. Panelists discussed several definitions of learning disabilities, such as processing difficulties, physical difficulties, and receptive difficulties. They debated the usefulness of labeling persons with…

This paper describes the long-term effects of a staff-development program, "Dealing with Multi-Grade Classes," based on selected findings from teaching-effectiveness research in schools with multi-grade or mixed-age classes. The short-term effects were examined in two studies conducted in 1986-87 and 1989-90. In 1992 a follow-up study…

A study investigated whether male and female tutors, as institutional representatives, use the same pragmatic features in their language. Ten graduate-student writing tutors, five male and five female, were recorded in sessions with both male and female students at a university writing center. Transcripts were analyzed for turn transition type…

This practicum was designed to improve the attendance rate for African American male students in the After School Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) program. The attendance rate for male students was far below that of female students. The following strategies to increase male participation in the reading program were developed: local businesses and…

Of concern in the problem-based learning process in medical student education is the effect of allowing students to generate their own learning issues while discussing cases and problems. This study considered learning issues in problem-based learning, studying faculty and student overlap and consistency across learning groups while adding the…

This handbook provides assistance for tutors in Operation Success, a program to provide limited-income and first-generation college students with academic support services to enable them to persist and graduate from Wichita State University (Kansas). The program provides an interconnected series of academic support services; peer tutoring is…

This document contains the final report of Project PAL (Pennsylvania Adult Literacy), designed to address staff development needs at a Pennsylvania adult literacy center, and three manuals: a tutor training resource manual for use by coordinators in developing a 9.5 hour tutor-training session, a tutor handbook for volunteers, and a coordinator's…

This document is a two-part workshop resource manual intended to help trainers of literacy tutors and others to raise awareness of the particular needs of older adult literacy learners. Part 1 contains basic information on the topic of older adult literacy obtained from a review of the most current literature available and has a Canadian and,…

Initiatives are described that have been undertaken by the Student Development Tutorship Programme at the M.L. Sultan Technikon in South Africa, a program established in 1990 to provide assistance and support to disadvantaged students, primarily Black students from areas with inadequate facilities and instructors in the "homelands" and…

Developed as part of a project to upgrade the workplace vocabulary and comprehension skills of Pennsylvania workers in light industry, health, hotel and hospitality, and food service occupations, this document consists of four parts: a project report, a trainer's manual, a tutor handbook, and assessment report/resource packet. The project report…

The resource manual was developed by a staff development project that trained both paid staff and volunteer tutors to integrate CASAS (Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment System) as an assessment and curriculum tool. It is designed to assist tutors in linking task and skill competencies. The manual begins with an overview of assessment and…

The Lifelong Learning Center (LLC) of the Buffalo and Erie County, New York, Public Library is described with emphasis on objectives and programming developed for a grant project. The objectives included the following: conduct monthly support services for literacy tutors; sponsor training and information sessions for tutors; provide assistance to…

Questions about the necessity of tutors' content experience and what skills are required to make tutor behavior effective have received increased attention in the literature about problem-based learning. The present study attempts to examine the effects of context-specific variables through analysis of the generalizability of tutor behavior and…

The Literacy Volunteers of America-Danbury, Connecticut, is a nonprofit community organization that provides free instruction in English for those to whom English is still largely a foreign language. For 10 years it has also provided free instruction in reading and writing for English-speaking persons whose education has not provided these skills.…

Evaluation of adult literacy programs requires different criteria from those used to judge regular schooling. Indicators for evaluating adult voluntary programs with individualized curricula are recruitment; retention, including absenteeism; one-on-one tutoring with volunteers; training in a context; support services; the "quick-fix" syndrome;…