What do Others Say Functional Context Education?

"The popularity at "functional context literacy training," which presents literacy training in the context of skills required on the job, and the emerging convention that students learn best when competencies are taught in some concrete application (or contextualized) suggest that coordinating remediation with job skills training might be effective.(p.iv)....functional context training seeks to "integrate literacy training into technical training" on the grounds that learning basic skills is easier in the context of vocational training where such skills have obvious applications."---W. Norton Grubb, et al (1991, September). Readin', Critic', and 'rithmetic one more time: The role of remediation in vocational education and job training programs. Report to Congress, the Secretary of Education, and the Secretary of Labor. Berkeley, CA: National Center for Research in Vocational Education.

"Although there is some argument about the differences between education and training, the functional context approach transcends such differences and operates from similar assumptions about how the human mind operates...."The functional context principle states that skills and knowledge are best learned if they are presented in a context that is meaningful to the person . " ---Anthony Carnevale, Leila Gainer & Ann Meltzer (1990). Workplace Basics: The Essential Skills Employers Want. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. pp. 415-416.

"The workplace literacy movement evolved directly from ... analysis of literacy demands in the military which found that using job-specific materials improved job performance more than using general academic materials....ln a functional context-oriented program, instructional materials are drawn from actual work materials"---Mark Kurner. Renee Sherman & Lenore Webb (1991, May). A Review of the National Workplace Literacy Program. Report prepared for the U.S. Department of Education. Office of Planning. Budget & Evaluation Washington, DC: Pelavin Associates. pp. 14, 22.

"In recent years it has come lo be widely accepted that the form of workplace basic skills training that most effectively motivates employees to seek and complete training and apply it successfully to the job is the functional context (FC) method....ln the workplace, some of the strongest motivations among applicants and employees are to get or to hold a job or to gain a better one. These goals, then which coincide with the employer's, provide the most reliable functional context for basic skills training in the workplace, and the training methods and contents are specifically organized to achieve them."---Jerome Rosow & Robert Zage (1991). Job-Linked Literacy: Innovative Strategies at Work. Scarsdale, NY: Work in America Institute, pp. 8,9.

"Individuals learn best when they are taught in a Context of application--in a functional context. . ..Cognitive science strongly implies that people learn knowledge and skills best when they are taught in the context of real situations, real activities, and real problems "---Michael Kane. Sue Berryman. David Goslin. & Ann Melba (September 17. 1990). How to Identify and Describe Necessary Skills Required by Work. Report prepared for the Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills. U. S. Department of Labor. Washington, D.C.: Pelavin Associates. pp 1,7.

"...literacy skills can be learned far more rapidly when they are taught as pan of the processes of teaching job skills....A side benefit of functional context instruction is that there is no stigma attached to learning job skills as there can be in learning "literacy" skills. Thus the dignity of the adult learner is safeguarded."-Ray Uhalde. Deputy Administrator. Office Of Strategic Planning and Policy Development. Employment and Training Administration. U.S. Department of Labor. Washington. D.C. In: Literacy and the Marketplace. New York: The Rockefeller Foundation. June 1989,pp. 37-38.

"The basic skills requirements of ..jobs should ...be determined and the curriculum built on that basis, using artifacts and simulations of actual tasks to be performed. These activities are best articulated in the functional context approach...work in the military indicated that "we can improve the capability of people by teaching basic skills embedded in job materials. Basic skills can be learned while you apply them."--Benita Somerfield, Executive Director, The Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy; (formerly) Special Advisor. Division of Adult Education. U.S. Department of Education. Washington. D.C. In: Literacy and the Marketplace. New York: The Rockefeller Foundation. June 1989. p 61.