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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Educational Psychology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1338014
This article is part of the Research Topic Adult Functional (Il)Literacy: A Psychological Perspective View all articles

It's About Time! Exploring Time Allocation Patterns of Adults with Lower Literacy Skills on a Digital Assessment

Provisionally accepted
Gal Kaldes Gal Kaldes 1*Elizabeth L. Tighe Elizabeth L. Tighe 2Qiwei He Qiwei He 3
  • 1 Adult Literacy Research Center, College of Education and Human Development, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Colorado, United States
  • 2 Department of Psychology, Georgia State University, Department of Phychology, College of Arts and Sciences, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Colorado, United States
  • 3 Georgetown University, Data Science and Analytics, Washington DC, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    This study leverages process data from the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) to examine adult respondents’ time allocation patterns (time to first action, time for last action, total time) across all levels of proficiency on nine digital literacy items that were considered the easiest and most appropriate for adults with lower literacy skills (Testlet L11). Additionally, cluster analysis was used to examine groups of time allocation within the group of adults who scored lower on the digital literacy assessment, and whether individual (e.g., race/ethnicity, age, employment) and contextual (e.g., information communication and technology [ICT], reading, numeracy, and writing skills-use at home) factors predicted these groups. Results indicated that adults with lower reading proficiencies spent significantly less time on many of the items across all timing variables than adults who demonstrated higher literacy proficiencies. Cluster analysis revealed distinct patterns among adults exhibiting lower proficiency levels, delineating two specific groups defined by their time allocation – one group (Cluster 1) exhibited significantly longer engagement times, whereas the other group (Cluster 2) demonstrated comparatively shorter durations. Finally, we found that adults who had relatively higher literacy performance, higher self-reported engagement in writing skills at home, reported a learning disability, were older, unemployed, and self-identified as Black, had a higher probability of Cluster 1 membership (spending more time). These findings offer educational insights for enhancing the performance of adults with lower literacy skills on digital literacy assessments.

    Keywords: Adult literacy, PIAAC, Digital Literacy, behavioral process data, assessment

    Received: 15 Nov 2023; Accepted: 03 May 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Kaldes, Tighe and He. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Gal Kaldes, Adult Literacy Research Center, College of Education and Human Development, Georgia State University, Atlanta, 30302-3980, Colorado, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.