Improving Retention in Adult Basic Education and Recommended Strategies for Effective Instructional and Counseling Interventions [and] Reasons for Resistance to Attending Adult Basic Literacy. Research in Adult Literacy.

Two studies examined why many adults choose not to attend adult basic education (ABE) classes and ways of improving retention in ABE. In the first study, 17 adults from the Pittsburgh area who had recently quit attending ABE classes (termed "reluctant learners") and 20 adults who had persisted in ABE were interviewed. It was recommended that teachers and counselors make ABE programs more attractive to reluctant learners in the following ways: asking about students' past and previous school experience, providing individual or small group instruction for identified reluctant learners, making the ABE curriculum academically challenging, and offering tutoring and computer-assisted instruction. In the second study, 20 predominantly African-American adults who had dropped out of school an average of 17 years earlier were interviewed to identify the personal and situational barriers and other factors preventing their participation in ABE. The following actions were recommended to encourage nonparticipants to attend ABE: base course design and marketing on needs assessments from potential learners and incorporate an "unlearning" component to overcome previous negative associations with schooling, include cultural awareness in teacher training, use local instructors, and test alternate programs through demonstration projects. (MN)