Review of research and evaluation on improving adult literacy and numeracy skills

The purposes of this literature review are threefold. First, this review summarises findings of the research from the last decade in six fields identified by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) as critical to its forward planning: (1) the economic, personal and social returns to learning; (2) the quality and effectiveness of provision; (3) the number of learning hours needed for skills gain; (4) learner persistence; (5) the retention and loss of skills over time; (6) the literacy and numeracy skills that are needed. Second, this review assesses this evidence base in terms of its quality and robustness, identifying gaps and recommending ways in which the evidence base can be extended and improved. Thirdly, this review attempts to interpret the evidence base to suggest, where possible, how returns to ALN learning for individuals, employers and wider society might be increased through effective and cost-effective interventions

Your money matters evaluation: money management for older people

The National Research and Development Centre for adult literacy and numeracy (NRDC) was commissioned by Help the Aged to evaluate Your Money Matters, a free, confidential and impartial money advice service for older people run by Help the Aged in partnership with Barclays. Your Money Matters was launched in 2006. The three-year funding partnership with Barclays ended in April 2009

The Relationship Between Small-Group Discourse and Student-Enacted Levels of Cognitive Demand When Engaging with Mathematics Tasks at Different Depth of Knowledge Levels

High cognitive demand (HCD) tasks can help students develop a deeper understanding of mathematics. Teachers need interventions that encourage students to engage in HCD activities. Small-group discourse provides HCD opportunities for students while solving mathematics problems. Discourse can take place after students solve problems individually (reflective) or in groups as students solve problems (exploratory). This study looks at the relationship between these two types of small-group discourse and student-enacted cognitive demand. This study looks at how students engage with tasks that were designed at four different cognitive demand levels using Webb’s depth of knowledge (DOK) framework. Ninety-seven grade 5 students from four different classrooms were grouped in small groups of two or three students to solve two sets of mathematics problems on operations with fractions and decimals. Each class engaged in Reflective Discourse after solving one set and engage in Exploratory Discourse while solving the other set. To help understand any order effects, half the classes used Reflective Discourse with Set 1 while the other half used Exploratory Discourse with Set 1. Then, they switched for Set 2, so that whoever used Reflective Discourse with Set 1 used Exploratory Discourse with Set 2 and vice versa. The researcher analyzed whether there were patterns in levels of cognitive demand and quality of the discussion when students engaged in each type of discourse for math problems at four different levels. First, the researcher looked at any numerical differences between the intended cognitive demand of the problems and how students engaged with the problems using frequency tables, heat maps, and statistical analyses. Next, the researcher looked at differences in student actions and the way they talked about the math problems. Findings showed that both Reflective and Exploratory Discourse can be used by teachers to promote high student-enacted levels of cognitive demand. Results also showed that a supportive environment, such as the environment created by Reflective Discourse, can help support typically struggling students. Finally, this research reinforced the importance of dissonance in prompting students to engage with the tasks at higher levels of cognitive demand

Supernovas, auroral sounds and hungry tides: unpacking First Nations knowledge of the skies

Duane Hamacher’s The First Astronomers explores the deep and living star knowledge of First Nations people from around the world – and challenges the notion that Indigenous knowledge is not scientific

Self-Consistent Theory of Normal-to-Superconducting Transition

I study the normal-to-superconducting (NS) transition within the Ginzburg-Landau (GL) model, taking into account the fluctuations in the $m$-component complex order parameter \psi\a and the vector potential $\vec A$ in the arbitrary dimension $d$, for any $m$. I find that the transition is of second-order and that the previous conclusion of the fluctuation-driven first-order transition is an artifact of the breakdown of the \eps-expansion and the inaccuracy of the $1/m$-expansion for physical values \eps=1, $m=1$. I compute the anomalous $\eta(d,m)$ exponent at the NS transition, and find $\eta (3,1)\approx-0.38$. In the $m\to\infty$ limit, $\eta(d,m)$ becomes exact and agrees with the $1/m$-expansion. Near $d=4$ the theory is also in good agreement with the perturbative \eps-expansion results for $m>183$ and provides a sensible interpolation formula for arbitrary $d$ and $m$.Comment: 9 pages, TeX + harvmac.tex (included), 2 figures and hard copies are available from [email protected] To appear in Europhysics Letters, January, 199

Time-Resolved Spectroscopy of Condensed Matter

Contains reports on three research projects.Joint Services Electronics Program (Contract DAAG29-78-C-0020

The Great Plan of Happiness: The Intersections of the Restored Gospel of Christ and Positive Psychology

Happiness has been the Holy Grail sought by most of humanity for millennia. What it is and how to find it has been discussed and debated since the earliest records of humankind, and has been the object of countless studies by scholars the world over, including those in the field of positive psychology. Several empirically-based theories of happiness and well-being have emerged, and there is much commonality between them. It is proposed here that religion and spirituality are primary sources of happiness and well-being, and that there is much overlap between these sources and the research and practices emerging within the field of positive psychology. One religion in particular, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), shows many broad intersections with positive psychology research and the interventions which contribute to well-being. Examining these intersections may deepen the appreciation LDS adherents feel toward their membership and more fully inform their level of participation. In addition, there are many interventions found within positive psychology which, if learned and applied, may increase the happiness and well-being of members of the LDS Church, and the public at large

The Scottish context of L.M. Montgomery

This thesis is the first full-length study to assess the impact of the Scottish diaspora in Canada through the writing of Canadian author L.M. Montgomery [1874-1942], Scottish legacies are key to Montgomery's identity, and a pivotal force in her writing.L.M. Montgomery's clan and community genealogies are retraced in a threefold examination of roots. Family legends are analysed with reference to Scottish migration to Prince Edward Island, Montgomery's native province and favoured fictional setting. This thesis aims to provide a more accurate picture of Montgomery's background, and questions some of her assumptions about her Lowland Scots heritage. Integral to each strand is the Canadian context that endorses Montgomery's Scots progenitors as "a chosen people".This legacy becomes the central motif in Montgomery's fiction. This thesis establishes a new critical framework to facilitate the study of this superiority complex, classifying Montgomery's books as either community or clan novels. It argues that Montgomery's first novel, Anne of Green Gables [1908], is not a model for all her subsequent fiction, only those books where community is primary. She diversifies from the "Anne" genre in novels where clan is central, and Scottish family history and folklore increasingly important. This trend is consolidated in the autobiographical "Emily" trilogy, where Scottish roots are expressly an essential component of the heroine's Canadian identity.L.M. Montgomery achieved commercial success partly by attuning her work to existing literary markets. Her antecedents in popularjuvenile literature are significant, but her books and stories also appealed to an adult audience conversant with "local color" writing. This thesis finds parallels between Montgomery's "regional idylls" and those of the popular Scottish authors, J.M. Barrie and Ian Maclaren. Montgomery perceives elements of her Canadian childhood in their books, but adds ironic subtexts when echoing the "Kailyard" world in her fiction.The Scottish milieu in Montgomery's work is neither static nor sentimental. The First World War had an enormous impact on Montgomery personally and on Canadian society. Montgomery's fiction grapples with a new focus on national identity instigated in post-war Canada. In some books, old country antecedents recede, or become contrived. More often, Montgomery imports a darker, more divisive, and less idealistic Scottish heritage, particularly as regards Scottish Presbyterianism.In the inter-war years, Montgomery advocated the preservation of family lore and oral history in order to protect and celebrate Canadian diversity. Scottish customs—Presbyterian faith, folk beliefs, literary and linguistic traditions, clan and community connections—lie at the heart of her Canadian romance and Canadian realism