The Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL) is a private, nonprofit organization with over 50 years' experience in the application of research on language and culture to educational and societal concerns. CAL carries out its mission to improve communication through better understanding of language and culture by engaging in a variety of projects in…

Lifelong learning is often promoted in ageing societies, but little is known about its returns or governments' ability to advance it. This paper evaluates the effects of a large-scale randomized field experiment issuing vouchers for adult education in Switzerland. We find no significant average effects of voucher-induced adult education on…

This annual newsletter contains updates on the latest CCRC research, new publications and details of upcoming presentations at major conferences. The feature article in this issue, "Addressing the Needs of Underprepared Students," by Thomas Bailey, summarizes the discussion found in the paper "Challenge and Opportunity: Rethinking…

Given the changes made to the GED® test in 2014, one concern among state policy makers, adult educators, and GED® service providers has been the impact of these changes on students as well as teachers, staff, volunteers, and other GED® program stakeholders. Using a qualitative, case study research approach focused on one GED® test preparation site…

Since its inception in 2002, the National Center for Education Research (NCER) in the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) has funded over 700 education research grants and over 60 education training grants. The research grants have supported exploratory research to build theory or generate hypotheses on factors that may affect educational…

A series of 30 telelessons and an accompanying manual designed to train teachers of adult basic education was developed by the Maryland State Department of Education and then utilized and evaluated in 25 colleges and universities throughout the United States. The purpose of the evaluation was to describe the types of courses, students, faculty,…

This is a critical review of methodological issues in the evaluation of adult literacy education programs in the United States. It addresses the key research questions: What are the appropriate methods for evaluating these programs under given circumstances. It identifies 15 evaluation studies that are representative of a range of adult literacy…

Between 2004 and 2008, the Council for Advancement of Adult Literacy (CAAL) published four lengthy research reports on projects to examine the nature and effectiveness of Adult Education English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) programs at several community colleges. The research was conducted by field studies, interviews, and the review of a large…

The responses of 68 out of approximately 150 adult educators in regions throughout Canada to a questionnaire regarding the importance and development of adult education in Canada are summarized. Their voting on the 14 most significant adult education programs are presented. (JB)

Extension education evaluators are concerned about accounting for lack of control over and the value of describing environmental influences when assessing impact. Evaluability assessment (EA) identifies relationships between and describes external influences on program events. It provides information regarding clarity about goals and objectives…

AN EVALUATION OF ADULT EDUCATION RESEARCH ON SPECIFIC FUNCTIONS CONDUCTED AT CERTAIN INSTITUTIONS WAS REPORTED. IDENTIFICATION AND ANALYSIS WERE CONDUCTED FOR OCCUPATIONAL, LIBERAL, RELATIONAL, AND LITERACY EDUCATION FUNCTIONS. RESEARCH PROCEDURES WERE (1) TO IDENTIFY, SELECT, AND OBTAIN RESEARCH STUDIES, (2) TO MAKE CRITICAL ANALYSES AND…

This annotated bibliography contains 14 citations of books, papers, and videotapes that pertain to learner outcomes in adult education. The following are cited: "Understanding and Facilitating Adult Learning" (S. Brookfield); "Self-Direction for Lifelong Learning" (P. Candy); "Helping Adults Learn Workshop" (A. Chickering); "Adults as Learners"…

This document, the second of a two-part study, focuses on the area of continuing and adult education at Ferris State College (FSC), Michigan. An overview of the status of adult and continuing education and recommendations are provided by the schools of allied health, business, general education, education, pharmacy, technical and applied arts, and…

To test the effectiveness of teaching machine technology, an experiment was conducted in which an existing course in "Forestry Camp Watershed Fire Training" was translated to teaching machine format and delivered via the Videosonic Teaching Machine. A 252-step lesson was administered to 34 firemen recruits. A pretest, posttest, and retention test…