[Reading-hall-of-fame] Adult Literacy and Human and Social Capital

[Thomas Sticht]

7/18/2018



Making the Nation Smarter: Thirty Years On

Tom Sticht, International Consultant in Adult Education (Ret.)

Thirty years ago, in 1988, Sticht & McDonald produced a draft report
entitled Making the Nation Smarter: The Intergenerational Transfer of
Cognitive Ability. Following reviews by experts in cognitive science and
education, a slightly revised report was published in January of 1989.

The Importance of Contextualized Instruction in Human Capital Development

In this report, Sticht & McDonald (1989) noted that “ More and more,
cognitive processing is understood to be dependent on the nature of the
task and the nature of the information used within that task. This
emphasizes the need to develop ability within the context of the types of
situations and tasks to which one expects knowledge to be applied.”

A year later, the Secretary of Labor’s Commission on Achieving Necessary
Skills (SCANS) published a report of the SCANS work and said: “Cognitive
science strongly implies that people learn best when they are taught in the
context of situations, activities, and problems (Sticht, 1984, 1986, 1987;
Resnick, 1987b; Lave, 1988). Learning in context provides meaning and
therefore motivation to learn. It helps to break down the separation
between knowledge (knowing what) and practice (knowing how and when) that
has resulted from the formal approach to instruction in schools and the
resulting mismatch between school and work. (Kane, Berryman, Goslin, &
Meltzer, September 1990).”



Over the next two decades a number of initiatives took place across the
United States focusing on integrating basic skills instruction within
important functional contexts as called for in the Making the Nation
Smarter and the SCANS reports. The importance of the development of
cognitive abilities ( knowledge and information processing) within
important functional contexts is supported by funding in Title II: The
Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA) of the Workforce Innovation
and Opportunity Act (WIOA) of 2014. The AEFLA states: ‘‘… “integrated
education and training’’ means a service approach that provides adult
education and literacy activities concurrently and contextually with
workforce preparation activities and workforce training …The term
‘‘integrated English literacy and civics education’’ means education
services provided to English language learners who are adults… .Such
services shall include instruction in literacy and English language
acquisition and instruction on the rights and responsibilities of
citizenship and civic participation, and may include workforce training.”



The Importance of Social Capital in Human Capital Development

In addition to its focus on contextualized teaching and learning in the
development of human capital, Making the Nation Smarter also addressed the
social basis of the development of cognitive abilities: “The individual's
potential for intellectual growth and development is primarily determined
by the social and cultural groups into which the person is born and raised.
…A society that wants to bring about the development of individual human
capital must also attend to the development of social capital*.” *

In 2016, a little over a quarter century later, the idea that the
development of human capital, i.e., an individual’s knowledge and
skills,  depends
to a large extent upon the development of social capital was expressed by
Kirsch, Braun, Lennon, & Sands (2016) within the context of the
determinants of opportunity for social and economic advancement  in
America. After discussing the need for increased cognitive skills and
knowledge in developing human capital in contemporary times, they go on to
say, “Of course, who you know, broadly speaking, is important as well. The
family into which you are born and raised, the social networks that connect
you with fellow members of religious organizations, clubs, … – all of these
factors, collectively termed social capital, impact life outcomes as well.
…over the past generation or two, social capital has become more strongly
related to human capital; that is, those with more human capital also tend
to have the networks, norms, and behaviors that provide the most benefits
in today's environment.”



The Role of Adult Education in the Intergenerational Transfer of Human and
Social Capital



As noted, one’s social capital includes the family into which one is born.
In general, parents with higher human capital, i.e., higher education,
knowledge, and skills, tend to pass on higher human capital to their
children. Making the Nation Smarter called attention to the strong
relationship among the education levels of parents to that of their
children. It suggests that “…by increasing our investments in the education
of adults, we might improve the educability of their children through an
"intergenerational transfer" of the parent's cognitive ability.” In other
words, increasing the human capital level of adults who have or will have
children provides a higher degree of social capital for the adults’
children. This in turn improves the opportunity for those children to
acquire higher levels of human capital through informal education with
their parents and increased achievement in formal education in the schools.




Twenty-five years after the Making the Nation Smarter report, the
intergenerational transfer of both human and social capital from parents to
their children is discussed by Kirsch, Braun, Lennon, & Sands (2016) who
note that the strengthening of the relationship between human and social
capital in one generation “…leads to differential prospects for their
children…. Although the lottery of birth has always shaped an individual's
life chances, it is increasingly determining opportunity in America today –
and this reality stands in stark contrast to the American Dream.”



As Making the Nation Smarter suggested three decades ago, investments in
the education of adults often opens opportunities for human and social
capital development for millions of adults and changes the “lottery of
their birth”  for their children and helps make the American Dream for them
a reality again.





References



Kane, M., Berryman, S., Goslin, D. & Meltzer, A. (September 1990). The
Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills: Identifying and
Describing the Skills Required by Work.



Kirsch, I.,  Braun, H., Lennon, M. & Sands, A. (2016). Choosing Our Future:
A Story of Opportunity in America. Princeton, NJ:  Educational Testing
Service.

(Available online using a Google search)



Lave, J. Cognition in Practice. Cambridge, England: Cambridge

University Press, 1988.



Resnick, L.B. "Learning in School and Out," Educational Researcher, Vol.16,
No.9, 1987b, pp.13-20.



Sticht, T. & McDonald, B. (1989). Making the Nation Smarter: The
Intergenerational Transfer of Cognitive Ability. San Diego, CA:  Applied
Behavioral & Cognitive Sciences, Inc. San Diego.

(Available online using a google search)

Sticht, T.G. Functional Context Education, Workshop Resource Notebook. San
Diego: The Applied Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences, Inc., 1987.



Sticht, T.G., Chang, F.R. and Wood, S. Cognitive Sciences and Human
Resource Management. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, 1986.



Sticht, T.G., Chang, F.R. and Wood, S. "The Tri-Services Cognitive Science
Synthesis Conference." Monterey, CA: Naval Post Graduate School, 1984.
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