This practice report describes a 12-week stand-alone course designed to address the challenges university students face in foreign language classes. Adopting principles of transformative language learning, course content, activities and resources were designed and implemented to dispel myths and preconceptions regarding language instruction,…

School leaders enrolled in CPED-influenced and practitioner focused doctoral programs require specific research-based skills and knowledge that bridge both educational scholarship and practice in order to be relevant for both their dissertation process and school practice. In doing so, these doctorate in education (EdD) programs must critically…

Engaging a complexity theory view of learning, this study examined an atypical timescale for tracking L2 authorial voice development through the interaction of cognitive processes that inform voice construction. A microgenetic analysis of seven adult Japanese learners of English in a three-week writing course designed to help students develop…

Adult second language (L2) learning often exhibits great variability in its rate and outcome. Although research shows that learning trajectories are partly shaped by social and contextual factors (e.g. Larson-Hall, 2008), certain learner factors play an important role in enhancing L2 pronunciation learning by helping L2 learners notice and process…

The difficult times in which we live require innovative, creative, and hopeful pedagogies of adult education. This article describes a nontraditional experiential, "empathy-invoking" approach to the teaching of a graduate course on the theory and research of adult learning. The approach begins with the building of a safe learning…

As information literacy programs become more robust, finding methods of reaching students beyond the traditional undergraduate has become a priority for many institutions. At Duquesne University, efforts have been made to reach adult learners in an accelerated program targeted to nontraditional students, much of which is provided online. This…

In this article, I describe my reflections on developing student authors through a class research project. I review the assignment origins and description and my role in the students' developmental journey from transforming a class assignment to a publishable work. (Contains 1 figure.)

English as a foreign language (EFL) learners' language use in 3-D virtual environments is a vibrant avenue that still deserves more research attention in the field of CALL. To contribute research and pedagogical implications to the current Second Life (SL) literature, this study aims to examine EFL adult learners' use of communication strategies…

Emerging from the 1960s and a focus on transformative learning, Walden University is a pioneering program for adult learners. The authors outline how Walden's doctoral program engaged mid-career professionals in student-designed inquiry and applied scholarship. They first discuss the founding of Walden University. Then they describe how the…

Seven elements found in professional development research are necessary for successful professional development programs. High-quality professional learning must be sustained, job-embedded, collegial, interactive, integrative, practical, and results-oriented.

Program evaluation is recognized as an essential skill set for practitioners in service-related fields, such as education, nonprofit management, social work, and public health. Recently, the need for a public workforce trained in evaluation has increased and is driven primarily by our nation's emphasis on accountability during a time when…

To live and work in today's global community, adults need to develop an intercultural responsiveness and flexibility in order to interact sensitively in situations involving international cultural contexts, practices, beliefs, understandings, and communications. One way to support this development in adult and higher education is to offer…

The number of online continuous education and training initiatives continues to increase in Caribbean Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and by extension, the number of adult learners who are unfamiliar with the peculiarities of the online teaching and learning environment. The extent to which these learners can derive maximum benefit from…

This article describes (a) a Web-based course for substance abuse counselors on cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), and (b) the evaluation of a prototype module from the Web-based course to determine the feasibility of the e-learning program for a community-based counselor audience. The course is part of a unique study that trains…

Two perspectives are used to reflect on the learning design of a postgraduate online course--that of the designer/facilitator and that of the learner. While the course focus is on online pedagogical approaches, the main aim is to connect learners with each other and with the facilitator so that together they may investigate, trial, challenge and…