* View of Literacy *

The Five Literacies:

Most of the efforts to improve education today deal with development of and testing of literacy and basic skills. Schools, public sector agencies, and private sector corporations are all struggling with the lack of skills found around the world. Pointing fingers will not solve the problem. Intelligent use of our educational resources and a clear strategy for remedying the situation will. 

A broadly educated workforce is necessary to fuel industrial development and schools are focused on imparting the skills for life and work. Economics is the modern method of domination and control and, as technology has progressed, the level of job skills necessary for the modern worker has increased. A more educated and capable worker is necessary for this new environment.

Basic Definitions:

We are used to talking about "literacy" as a measure of education. Generally, this is narrowly defined as the ability to read and write, but the industrialized world requires so much more, that a new definition of literacy needs to be created. In fact, in addition to an expanded concept of language literacy (reading, writing, and foreign language studies), four other critical skill sets are necessary. These five new literacies are:

1. Language Literacy

2. Mathematical Literacy

3. Scientific Literacy

4. Technological Literacy

5. Interpersonal Literacy

Addressing reading/language literacy and basic skills education are not the same thing, though the processes look similar. Learning to read, write and figure are essential to both. But there is a disturbing tendency to think that if you can read at a certain level, you are literate. In today's workplace that is just not true.

The spread of technology in the workplace and the institutionalized change that has become a part of modern corporate operation require a worker with skills for adaptation, problem solving, being conversant with technology and an ability to communicate. Communication in the modern international workplace is complicated by the increasing complexity of the work environment.

Traditional definitions of literacy rely on measures like reading level and comprehension level and vocabulary level. All are important, but there is a serious gap between the functionally literate worker of fifty years ago and the techno-worker of today. The ability to read and comprehend has to be augmented. In addition, foreign language study is now an essential part of language literacy. The international languages of science, technology, and commerce must be mastered to compete in the global economy.

Mathematics literacy has received a great deal of worldwide attention.

Mathematics now pervades the workplace. Desktop publishing, spread sheets, computer analysis, graphs, charts, statistics and computation are the language of modern business and government, and are stern task masters for the average student with only eighth or ninth grade mathematical ability.

Executives and Directors wanting to emulate the quality management practices found in worldwide businesses have discovered that their workers often lack the skills to analyze, quantify and communicate problems and solutions. Fortunately, the hierarchy of mathematics competencies are well known. Achievement in this area is a function of motivation and training time (time on task).

Much has been written about scientific literacy. We live in the age of science, yet it is the most poorly taught subject in most schools. True scientific literacy has two components - content and process. To be sure, there is a body of facts, or content, that comprise the body of scientific knowledge. The names of subatomic particles, the order of the planets, the major parts of a cell, the chemical compositions of minerals and organic material, even the order of the colors of the rainbow.

But, perhaps more importantly, science is a process. Science is a way of formally solving problems, of analyzing and testing information and drawing conclusions from that information. It is a way of validating ideas and information. Problem solving skills are among those most requested by employers in the modern international workplace, and the lack of quality science teaching is as much a lack of effective teaching of problem solving. Scientific literacy, then, can be thought of as problem solving literacy, and needs to be integrated with reading and mathematics to produce a worker capable of reasoning and interpreting. 

The fourth literacy is technological literacy. The modern word "science" comes from the Latin word scientum, or knowledge. The Greeks were the first to use the word for knowledge in conjunction with philosophy. Their word was episteme. The word was juxtaposed with the word techne which referred to the application of knowledge. Techne is the root of the word "technology". This idea of application versus knowledge also separates scientific literacy from technical literacy. Technological literacy deals with the ability to interact with and utilize technology - machines, equipment, tools, devices. A familiarity with principles of design, operation, function, materials, safety, etc. are all elements of technical literacy.

Most people can use a telephone and a television, but safety procedures in a machine environment, logical operations in a computer environment or complex interpretation of operational data in a control environment all require a different sort of understanding. Most employers think of this as on-the-job training, but without a basic technological literacy, the workplace can be frustrating and dangerous. As industry automates, the routine is replaced by the analytical, and the simple machine is replaced by the semi-intelligent system.

Technical literacy has never been taught in schools as a formal area of instruction. Computer education is the only major technological methodology for instruction that has had a literacy prerequisite. But, clearly, our students and workers need to be conversant with the new electronic and electro-mechanical workplace. TLRI projects like MARS CITY will be premier technological experiences for their participants. Not only will they involve "living" technology, but will provide a realistic and accurate experience for learning technology.

Finally, there is interpersonal literacy. The ability of workers to work together, to be good leaders and collaborators, and to increase efficiency and productivity through the use of "TEAMING" and successful interpersonal interaction is critical to the success of the modern business enterprise. The millennial workplace is one where the work is more important than the job, and knowledge is the principle product. This will require more interdependency and sharing than ever before. And it will require all workers to understand intra-group and inter-group processes in a new way. Schools actually teach a great many of the necessary skills for teaming, but they introduce the skills like Swiss cheese. A little here and a little there, and a lot of holes in it.

Together, these five literacies can produce a generation that is wise in ways of the workplace, competent in the skills needed for the next century, and able to understand how to deal with times of great change. But radically new ways to teach them need to be employed.