Canadian Council on Learning | Conseil Canadien sur l'Apprentissage

Learning Link: March 19, 2009

Testing literacy skills: CCL launches free, online assessments

CCL is committed to enhancing literacy by informing Canadians about the state of literacy in Canada and by providing a variety of tools and resources. Now, CCL has launched free, online literacy assessments to help literacy practitioners evaluate the numeracy, prose and document literacy skills of Canadian adults aged 16 and over, as well as a free, online self-assessment for Canadians who wish to measure their proficiency independently. More on assessments » 

Aboriginal holistic lifelong learning models

Since January 2007, CCL and its Aboriginal Learning Knowledge Centre have been working in partnership with First Nations, Inuit and Métis to redefine how success is measured in Aboriginal learning.

The result has been the development of three Holistic Lifelong Learning Models. From the outset, there has been a strong commitment to keep the three learning models as living documents. Through workshops, meetings and dialogue via the internet over the past two years, CCL and the Aboriginal Learning Knowledge Centre have collected feedback on these models. But we need your help to make the necessary improvements.

Aboriginal communities, learning organizations and experts are invited to provide comments by April 30. Please visit the ‘Feedback’ page on the site for the interactive model(s) you wish to address.

Go to Holistic Lifelong Learning Models » 
Feedback page for First Nations model » 
Feedback page for Métis model » 
Feedback page for Inuit model »

Lessons in Learning: Does placement matter? Comparing the academic performance of students with special needs in inclusive and separate settings

Statistics Canada reports that in 2006, 4.6% of 5- to 14-year-old students had some kind of disability. As well, recent data from the British Columbia and Ontario ministries of education indicate that students with designated special educational needs comprise close to 9% of the primary and secondary school population. Despite a widespread trend toward inclusion of students with special needs in mainstream classrooms and a widely held belief in the social and emotional advantages of inclusion, the academic consequences of educating students with special needs in inclusive rather than separate settings remain contested.

Go to article » 

Evolving Education Video on YouTube

Evolving Education: Learning in the 21st Century is a three-part series that presents viewers with compelling questions about the way we educate students and offers successful, if provocative, answers. The series celebrates three case studies that reflect the ideas of John Abbott, an advocate of cognitive apprenticeship. The series can be viewed in CCL’s Multimedia Centre and on CCL's YouTube channel.

More CCL News

• The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), in collaboration with CCL, has developed Statistics, Knowledge and Policy: Understanding Societal Change, a five-day training course designed for those wanting to understand the progress of their societies and promote evidence-informed debate and policy-making, in Ottawa, May 11–15, 2009. Limited spaces still available for qualified candidates
• Education, Training and Sustainability, a CCL publication aimed at stimulating broader dialogue on innovative approaches to achieve sustainable development was launched in Paris, March 11, 2009
• Three posters celebrating the joy, power and transformative capacity of learning were launched by CCL's Adult Learning Knowledge Centre during International Adult Learners' Week, March 2–8, 2009  to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• New events have been added to CCL’s Adult Learning Knowledge Centre (AdLKC) 2009 Speakers program, an initiative designed to bring innovative and informed speakers to address the general public about a wide range of adult learning issues. The AdLKC is still accepting new applications for this program
  

Reminders

• Linking Communities / Overcoming Barriers, the 4th annual national symposium of CCL's Adult Learning Knowledge Centre, is being held from June 8–10, 2009, in Montreal, Quebec 
• This spring, CCL's Aboriginal Learning Knowledge Centre will be a sponsor and contributor to the following events:
  • First Nations and Métis Education Promising Practices Symposium;
  • Manitoba Aboriginal Education Research Forum - Shawane Dagosiwin;
  • and Alberta Provincial Indigenous Language Symposium: Taking Action for Indigenous Languages

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