Learning Through Training: The PRINTS Family Literacy Program (continued)

Prior to and after the training program, the youth were administered a questionnaire: Fostering Learning for the Very Young Child. This consists of 25 statements, with five statements based on each of the five STEPS. An example of a belief statement is. Children as young as six months can learn helpful information about becoming a reader or writer. For each statement the participants marked one of four choices: 4-Totally believe, 3-Almost believe, 2-Somewhat believe, 1-Don't believe which were weighted according to the numbers indicated. Two examples of a general nature (Oranges are good for children) were given first to ensure that participants knew how to mark the response sheets.

Results

The highest possible score for the group for each block of items (STEP) was 40. The pre-and post-response scores are given below. Titles of STEPS are abbreviated.

The participants held fairly strong beliefs about literacy development at the beginning of the training. This supports an "asset model' of family literacy which recognizes the strengths that parents/caregivers and other adults possess. For BOOKS, PLAY, and ENVIRONMENTAL PRINT, they "Almost believed" in the various statements on early literacy development for these categories or steps. They were closer to somewhat believing certain aspects of TALK/ORAL LANGUAGE and SCRIBBLING/DRAWING/WRITING.

After the workshop, the participants were closer to "Totally believing" the various statements for TALK, PLAY, and ENVIRONMENTAL PRINT. They were midway between "Totally believe" and "Almost believe" for the various statements on SCRIBBLING/DRAWING/WRITING and "Almost believe" what they heard about BOOKS and BOOK SHARING.

The greatest change in conviction of beliefs occurred for TALK, and SCRIBBLING/DRAWING/WRITING. Changes also occurred for the strength of their beliefs about PLAY, and ENVIRONMENTAL PRINT. It may be noted there was more room (ceiling) to change beliefs about the latter two categories due to lower pre-test scores. Least change in beliefs occurred for BOOKS and BOOK SHARING.

Conclusion

Participants who have no background in early childhood education and limited educational experience of their own can learn a lot in a training workshop. It must first be remembered that all participants have a lot to bring to an early family literacy program - information they have gained from interacting with their own children or deductions they can make based on using common sense knowledge. Not only do youth participants bring a lot of knowledge to the training, but they gain a lot as well, as evidenced by the increase in scores in the different categories. A combination of knowledge input and hands-on learning, with an emphasis on the latter, more than likely accounted for this.

Note: An analysis of responses by category (STEP) will be shared in the next PRINTS Newsletter.

PRINTS AGES 0-2

Participants in the
0-2 training workshop

A training session for facilitators of parents of children ages 0-2 took place on May 24 at the Brighter Futures Office in St. john's, NL. There are 37 activities for children at this age level who are very different learners from children ages 3 to 6. Because children at the early ages are not as independent and goal directed in their learning, the responsibility rests with the parents who must engage in a lot of modelling, nurturing and patience. It is perhaps at this early level that the notion of emergent is best understood when "lights go on" at unexpected moments due to the investment by parents.