Kristianne Bartolome

Prof. Rogers
ENGL202B
Master Essay
20 June 2013
Individual Learning vs. Environmental Effects
When literacy is discussed, most people think of reading, writing, and education. The
CIA World Factbook defines literacy as, age 15 and over, who can read and write.
With each generation we see some kind of evolution of education and some people find
it hard to determine what the meaning of literacy is in this day and age. Some argue that
without education you cannot be literate. However, how far does literacy go in an
education system? Research has been done to observe the individual potential for
education and the effects that ones environmental background can have on learning. Is
it possible and under what circumstances?
Statistics from a 2008 report by Kevin ODonnell, a researcher for National
Household Educational Surveys Program, show that of children ages three through six,
sixty percent could write their first name, thirty-two percent could recognize all the
letters, and eight percent could read words in books. These findings also showed that
fifty-six percent of parents believed the essential to teach their child the alphabet and to
prepare them for kindergarten. Forty-five percent believed the essential to teach their
child to read. From this perspective, it seems that parents understand the importance of
education at an early age before reaching the classroom. So if these children are
capable of reading and writing, are they considered literate? The question of an
individual potential doesnt stop at reading and writing, but continues on to how far can
an individual go with regards to learning.


Gary Anderson, and Assistant Professor at McGill University, with regards to
classroom environment suggests different theories about a student's reaction to
different social settings in a classroom. He discusses, like Hall and Schultz that a class
is "guided by formal organization" which provides a setting that gives rise to students'
cohesiveness and intimacy towards others, and serves as a dimension of classroom
social climate. He finds these studies similar to other groups like fraternities, industrial
groups, and other similar groups as well. In learning settings he finds that
"cohesiveness increases learning for the highly intelligent and decreases learning for
the less able." Essentially he suggests that classes with pleasant learning environments
provides general individual learning success and promotes learning whilst
disorganization in the class or group does not provide the same kind of experience.
Suggesting that children continue on to higher education, now we focus on adult
literacy. As stated before, the United States starts the adult literacy rate at the age of
fifteen. According to the CIA World Factbook, the United States has a ninety-nine
percent literacy rate in males and females, meaning almost all of the U.S. population
can read and write. What is unclear is how many of these individuals had higher
education and are they workplace literate?
Thomas G. Sticht, who works for Applied Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences, Inc.
reviews research on adult literacy education. Through the historical context, several
programs for adult literacy were done in order to gauge how much of a gain adults
could get with certain amounts of hours of instructions. Studies showed that with certain
amount of instruction, the student subjects were able to achieve about six months to


three years of knowledge with regards to a certain topic. With higher education these
individuals were able to achieve workplace literacy.
With regards to higher education and independent learning, studies done by Lyn
Gow and David Kember gave the results stating that, "Achieving motivation declines as
a student progresses through a course and with the level of the highest qualification, or
the period of time spent in the education system, but deep motivation increases with
age with regards to a person's interest." From a student perspective, this seems
believable, but this study fails to factor in the environmental aspect of the motivation.
Michael Grahame Moore, an assistant professor of adult education at the University
of Wisonsin stated that education is a tradition. The 1960s and 70s gave rise to new
fashions of the institutions which were established and had the purpose of "serving the
independent learner". Names such as the "open university or university without walls"
came to being as new methods of instructions were being created to work with those
not capable or unwanting of conventional teachings and "chose to learn apart from their
teachers". Glynda Hall, an Associate Professor of Education at the University of
California, Berkeley and Katherine Schultz, an Assistant Professor of Education at the
University of Pennsylvania, review the research of out of school learning and examine
how these studies affects our views on literacy and educational theories and if the
studies of how these cases evolve with respect to literacy can affect how new research
and new educational theories are established. They found that children, who drop out of
school, learn how to function and survive with other means besides learning through
school. Mathematics was self-taught in order to sell items in the streets. Reading and


writing was learned through the necessity to buy items, commute from one place to
another, and other necessities of life.
Both of the studies done by Moore, Hall, and Schultz are supported by evidence
found in a study by Borenstein, Feldman, and Aoki where they use a model of the
situation stating, The simplest model assumes that an individual learner always
achieves the correct behavior, but suffers an exogenous cost, for example due to
mistakes made before the mature behavior is realized.
A study of kindergarten children resulted in the conclusion that the progress of
acquiring literacy skills in children is not equal. There is a variation in which individuals
differ which includes different classrooms, different schools, and different literacy
instructional approaches that can affect children of different cultural backgrounds
differently. (Xue & Meisels 193) In the review by Hall and Schultz, previous research
found that different environmental backgrounds allowed for different ways of literacy to
enter their lives based on habits and values of behaving that is common within that
certain group. When children from these communities entered school, only the middle-
class students whose language use was similar to that of the teachers were successful.
Both studies acknowledged that at a young age, an individual is already affected by
their environmental differences which can continue on towards higher education. As
previously stated before adult literacy programs and their usefulness to the workplace
and for the potential to achieve independent learning has positive results and impacts.
However, these adult literacy programs are not always prioritized with individuals in
certain environmental circumstances. With regards to the problems discovered, it is by
common sense and not by complex research. A financially poor individual will be faced


with the limitation of education because the need to feed a family is greater than the
need for the continuation of education. These literacy programs will now be a second
priority, and how long will it be before it becomes a first priority? (Heyneman 29)
I asked my father, a man passionate for learning having been a student and
eventually a professor; of a different cultural background; and a successful
Americanized citizen what his ideas were on individual learning and how his
experiences related to his education. When asked about his motivation he replied,

I believe there is no singular sourceand while some people can succeed on
their own, rare are these self-sufficient occasions. There are so many factors involved
to improve the chances of success, that help from others is normally needed. Not just
the inspirational teacher- but supporting parents, siblings, friends who can comfort in
times of stress and distress, and peers who can check and challenge somebody to
better performance. In my case, I love learning, but also pursued my studies to make
sure I can provide a more secure future for my wife and children.

There are a few different aspects of my life so far that I feel has affected my
education. I was born in the Philippines and in the few years that I spent in school there
when I was younger, I understand and acknowledge that there are different educational
systems that affect how a child is motivated to learn. My upbringing as a Filipino-born,
which then transitions to my upbringing as an Americanized Filipino have allowed me to
experience two different cultures which made me curious as to how different or similar
my educational motivations are and how has it affected me as a student.


With regards to my future workplace, I have two: the military workplace as an
Army officer and an archaeological scientist. The two are quite different, but I felt the
need to acknowledge how my education can affect me later on as an adult in the
workplace.
The studies and the researches done by many in the field of education suggest
that individual learning can be achieved. They showed that the environmental
backgrounds, socially and culturally, did affect students. The variation in these
backgrounds either hindered or helped the collective group with regards to learning and
education. My fathers interview and experiences reflect his agreement with these
credited researches. Weve seen and heard many success stories of a financially poor
or culturally different individual coming up from a foundation of nothing and becoming a
huge scholarly success. My father said, (and behavorial research has agreed), that it
depends on the individual. One can have all the access to resources, but ultimately if
there is a lack of motivation that piece of the puzzle was what was missing that was
required in order to continue with further education.




Bibliography
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