National Adult Literacy Database

Rationale and Core Principles for the Development of Health Literacy Curricula

Authors: Clifford Coleman, Sabrina Kurtz-Rossi, Julie McKinney, Andrew Pleasant, Irving Rootman, Linda Shohet

This document grew out of a three-day institute held in Calgary, Alberta, in October 2008, which brought together participants from Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom.

Participants agreed on the need to identify core principles for developing and adapting health literacy curricula. This document formally establishes those principles and urges anyone involved in developing or evaluating health literacy curricula to incorporate them.

The authors define health literacy as encompassing the use of a wide range of skills that improve the ability of people to act on information in order to live healthier lives. These skills include reading, writing, listening, speaking, numeracy, critical analysis, and interaction skills.

The authors note that health literacy applies to both individuals and to health systems, explaining that a system is health literate when it provides equal, easy and shame-free access to and delivery of health care and health information.

The authors have provided this link for anyone interested in becoming a signatory to the charter: http://www.centreforliteracy.qc.ca/health_literacy/calgary_charter.

Funders:

• OLES

Added: 2011-03-25

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See also:

• La charte de Calgary pour la littératie en santé

Final report

Authors: UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL)

The sixth international conference on adult education (CONFINTEA VI), held in Brazil in December 2009, was organized by the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning in partnership with the Brazilian ministry of education and brought together more than a thousand participants from 144 countries.

This final report begins with an overview of the conference, including the history of the gathering. The authors go on to provide summaries of keynote speeches, round-table discussions and workshops. Themes discussed include participation and inclusion in adult education; policies and governance; financing of adult education; literacy as a key skill for lifelong learning; and assessing learning outcomes.

The final part of the report deals with the outcomes of the conference, including the adoption of the Belém Framework for Action, which is contained in an appendix to the document. It takes its name from the city where the conference was held.

Added: 2011-09-20

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See also:

• CONFINTEA VI : sixième conférence internationale sur l'éducation des adultes

Authors: Patrick Bussière

This presentation describes the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), an initiative of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) that aims to provide assessment of adult literacy in the information age.

Canada is one of 26 countries to be involved in the initiative.

The author explains that PIAAC will assess literacy, numeracy skills and the ability to solve problems in a technology-rich environment in a coherent and consistent way across countries; focus on the key cognitive and workplace skills that are required for successful participation in the economy and in society; provide a sound basis for international benchmarking and analysis of adult competencies; and offer a far more complete and subtle picture of the stock of human capital than has yet been available to policy-makers.

The presentation also touches on the Longitudinal Platform (LP), a new Canadian data instrument that can be used with PIAAC to fill information gaps and allow for more comparisons between outcomes and competencies.

Added: 2012-07-11

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See also:

• PEICA au Canada : Présentation lors d'un « webinaire » organisé par Le centre d'alphabétisation – le 16 février 2012

Helping the Economic Recovery

Authors: The Alliance of Sector Councils (TASC)

This document brings together a number of articles that deal with the tools, programs and resources developed and delivered by Canada’s sector councils. Sector councils are industry-led partnership organizations that address skills development issues and implement solutions in key sectors of the economy.

The articles are grouped according to four themes: job-ready education; supporting diversity; training, standards, and labour market information; and international comparisons. Individual articles deal with such issues as workplace training; integrating immigrants into the Canadian economy; and recognizing the human resources potential of the country’s Aboriginal population.

The document was commissioned and published by The Alliance of Sector Councils (TASC), the network of Canada’s sector councils dedicated to implementing industry-driven labour market solutions in key sectors of the economy. For more information about TASC, please click here: http://www.councils.org.

Funders:

• Government of Canada's Sector Council Program

Added: 2012-08-30

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See also:

• Le développement des compétences

Perspectives from Academic and Practitioner Researchers in Canada and Ireland

Authors: Maurice Taylor, Rob Mark, Christine Pinsent-Johnson, Vanessa Montgomery

This document summarizes material presented during the annual conference of the Canadian Association for the Study of Adult Education (CASAE), held in Ottawa in 2009.

The symposium explores four diverse perspectives towards the development of a research strategy. The perspectives come from academic researchers and practitioner researchers, two from Canada’s University of Ottawa and two from Queen’s University Belfast, in Northern Ireland. The authors note that the two countries share comparable rates of adult literacy.

The authors attempt to identify the types of elements in such a strategy that might be promoted at an international level on the common topic of literacy and essential skills.

Added: 2011-08-12

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