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Connecting Practice, Policy & Research

From its start, NCSALL was a leader in bringing a research perspective to improving policy and practice, and in highlighting adult literacy’s crucial connections to other fields, such as health, employment development, and postsecondary education. Towards those ends, and in furthering the work that NCSALL initially undertook through its Practitioner Dissemination and Research Network (PDRN), NCSALL established the Connecting Practice, Policy, and Research (CPPR) initiative.

Research Utilization in the Field of Adult Learning and Literacy: Lessons Learned by NCSALL About Connecting Practice, Policy, and Research (2007) [PDF-200 KB], a NCSALL Occasional Paper, is a summary of what the staff of the NCSALL Dissemination Initiative learned about how to connect research, policy and practice in ways that promote evidence-based practice in the field of adult learning and literacy.

This section of the Web site provides materials developed by NCSALL intended to more closely integrate the work of the adult literacy field's key sectors. Such resources include:

Practitioner Research, Practitioner Knowledge: This section describes the research and development projects NCSALL conducted to explore ways to use professional development to connect practice and research.

Training Materials: These resources are guides for professional development activities, such as study circles and mentor teacher groups, that help teachers develop their own knowledge and skills in a specific area.

Teaching Materials: These resources provide lesson plans and approaches to conducting instruction that research has shown to be effective.

NCSALL by Role: This section offers a variety of professional development ideas, including tracks for professional developers, program administrators, teachers/tutors, and policymakers.

NCSALL by Topic: This section brings together in one location various NCSALL materials, with annotations and organized according to five key topics: authentic contexts, adult multiple intelligences, adult student persistence, general educational development (GED), and reading.


Updated 7/27/07 :: Copyright © 2005 NCSALL