Can brain research inform educational policies on Adult Literacy?

Dr. Laura Virginia Sánchez, Ph. D.Universidad Iberoamericana UNIBE

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Adult literacyDominican Republic

Amount of people who are illiterate (percentages)

Adult literacyDominican Republic

Adult literacyDominican Republic 2013

Dominican Republic has declared adult literacy as a high-priority national interest.

In 2012, the government launched the national adult literacy program “Quisqueya aprende contigo” (Quisqueya learns with you).

Decreto 546-12, Decreto 375-13

Quisqueya aprende contigo

Objectives:- Reduce illiteracy index from 9.7% to 4% in

2014 and 3.5% in 2016.- Targets people who are 15 years of age and

older.- Enhance organization and social participation.- Contribute to elevate the quality of life.

Quisqueya aprende contigo

- Literacy- Basic Education- Middle School- Technical and professional skills

Alfabetizacionnaciona.org

Connecting research to education

The problem

“Literacy departments and agencies worldwide focus on social, motivational, and methodological issues related to adult literacy”.

“Governments and donors have strongly emphasized the management, planning, and institutional issues for large-scale literacy programs to succeed”.

Abadzi 2003

What does neuroscience say about people who are neoliterate?

There are structural changes that happen in the brain after learning to read in adulthood.

Carreiras et al., 2009

What does neuroscience say about people who are neoliterate?

Reading tasks elicit bilateral activation in neoliterates, and left-lateralized activation in literates.

Silva Nuñes et al., 2009

What does neuroscience say about people who are neoliterate?

Neoliterates engage broader brain areas than literates in reading tasks.

Dehaene et al., 2010

What does neuroscience say about people who are neoliterate?

Neoliterates present the same activation for words (linguistic stimuli), and symbols (non-linguistic stimuli) in both left and right occipito-temporal region, indicating no evidence of word recognition automaticity .

Light line: wordsDark line: symbols Sánchez (2014)

What does neuroscience say about people who are neoliterate?

Neoliterates present not significant larger right occipito-temporal activation than left occipito-temporal activation on an intentional word recognition task.

Light line: leftDark line: right

What does neuroscience say about people who are neoliterate?

Light line: leftDark line: right

Frontal

Central

What don’t we know?

• Why?• How?• What works? What doesn’t? • Neuroscience has the potential to assess these

questions.

Lost in translation?

• Policy language is very different to scientific language.

Disintegration?

ScientistsResearch based impactTested methodsInnovation

Policy makersHigh impactFast impact

AccessInnovation

TECHNOLOGY

Can brain research inform educational policies on Adult Literacy?

• Yes, but only if researchers are allowed to ask the right question.

• We need to create a collaborative platform between the existing educational projects, and academia.

References• Abadzi, H. (2003). Improving adult literacy outcomes: Lessons from cognitive research for

developing countries. Washington, D.C.: The World Bank. doi:10.1596/978-0-8213-5493-3

• Carreiras-Seghier, M. L., Baquero, S., Estévez, A., Lozano, A., Devlin, J. T., & Price, C. J. (2009). An anatomical signature for literacy. Nature, 461, 983–988. doi:10.1038/nature08461

• Decreto 375-13. Sobre el “2014, Año de la Superación del Analfabetismo” (2013).• Decreto 546-12. Sobre el Plan Nacional de Alfabetización “Quisqueya Aprende Contigo”

(2012). República Dominicana.• Dehaene, S., Pegado, F., Braga, L. W., Ventura, P., Nunes Filho, G., Jobert, A., … Cohen, L.

(2010). How learning to read changes the cortical networks for vision and language. Science, 330(1359-1364). doi:10.1126/science.1194140

• Sanchez, L. (2014). N170 visual word specialization on implicit and explicit reading tasks in Spanish-speaking adult neoliterates. Columbia University, Teacher College.

• Silva Nunes, M. V., Castro-Caldas, A., Del Rio, D., Maestú, F., & Ortiz, T. (2009). The ex-illiterate brain: The critical period, cognitive reserve and HAROLD model. Dementia & Neuropsychologia, 3(3), 222–227.

Obrigada!