¶ … Hal Beder

Beder is interested in looking at adult literacy education and what contextual factors shape the engagement of learners in those types of classes. In order for Beder to make a determination and draw conclusions for this issue he studied six adult literacy classes at an adult learning center within an urban area. There were several sources of data that Beder used for this study including traditional observation from an ethnographic standpoint, recall interviews, open interviews, and video. The findings that Beder was looking for focused on the teachers and how they shaped the way that the students learned, as well as how engaged those students were in the learning process. Engagement was defined as the way that students worked at learning. Did they work hard to learn new things? Did they show a mental effort that was focused on the instructional tasks that they were given? These were the types of questions that Beder assessed in order to draw his conclusions. Behaviors such as writing answers to the exercises they were given, turning pages, and eye movement to indicate reading the material were looked for by Beder in this study.

When students were not engaged in learning, Beder observed them talking to one another about things that had nothing to do with the class, day dreaming, and taking breaks. These were clear indications that the students were not interested in what they were learning. People cannot learn if they are not interested and engaged in the material, so getting this engagement is critical for teachers who want to help adult learners with their literacy. Beder's main problem was that there were no previous, identifiable studies that provided this kind of information for adult learners. His conclusions, though, showed that there were three main issues where the engagement of these students were concerned: behavioral norms, the instructional system itself, and the roles of the teachers. All of these must work together for adult learner success.