History museum professionals make many assumptions about how visitors learn at their sites but, for various reasons, they rarely do research to test those assumptions. The primary purpose of this study was to explore how adults learn in history museums to fill that gap in understanding. This research utilized a conceptual framework that combined…

Amid a long period of deskilling in art school curricula, craft has been denigrated as inferior to art and confining for artists, but can craft liberate imagination? The purpose of this study was to understand the relationship between an adult learner's self-perceived capacity for imaginative expression in representational drawing and the…

Adults who enrol in higher education institutions (HEIs) often have contributions that could serve in enhancing the planning and implementation of their programmes. Importantly, while terms such as active learner engagement and knowledge co-creation dominate adult learning discussions, there are unanswered questions pertaining to how adult…

This paper reports a critical comparative analysis of two popular and significant theories of adult learning: the transformation and the deep approach theories of learning. These theories are operative in different educational sectors, are significant, respectively, in each, and they may be seen as both touching on similar concerns with learning…

In order to enable the widespread adoption of online education, faculty must be trained in the pedagogy of teaching in this medium. This book offers an understanding of how cognition and learning theory applies to an online learning environment. Through behaviorist, constructivist, and cognitive approaches it provides strategies for incorporating…

Describes a study that investigated the relationship between instructional design and powerful learning. Highlights include key features of instructional design; the nature of powerful learning experiences; a survey of instructional design experts; interviews with adult learners; instructional strategies suggested by powerful learning factors; and…

Despite its continuing popularity as both a practical and theoretical basis upon which to ground pedagogical practice, experiential learning is nonetheless recognised as a difficult concept to "pin down." One serious attempt to schematise and systematise the specific components of the learning process has been made, however. Jarvis's model…

Examines the place of caring, constructivist learning, and community in teachers' professional development. Professional-learning communities provide a conversational space for connecting teachers' personal, practical knowledge in the classroom with the larger professional-knowledge landscape. Profiles two professional-development initiatives that…

Discusses two current monograph publications that provide frameworks for adult learning approaches that stress active, participatory, and reflective learning experiences for early care and education professionals, in an effort to eliminate passive learning by adults. A constructivist teacher-education approach is drawn from both works. (SD)

The concept of narrative was used to examine the process of transformative learning and explore the possibilities for using narrative as a central construct for theorizing transformation and thereby expanding the possibilities for research and practice. The concepts of narrative used in the analysis were as follows: (1) it moves from past to…

This document contains four papers from a symposium on adult learning in the workplace. The first paper, "Measuring Critical Thinking: Is There a Single Instrument?" (Patricia K. Leitsch, Carol A. Lentz), examines two issues: the relationship between tests measuring critical thinking and those measuring readiness for self-directed…

A study identified adult learning principles critical for effective Web-based instructional design (WBID), barriers to effective WBID, and practices of professionals who design WBID. National experts in adult education and WBID were interviewed, and the resulting product was an online assessment that 10 Web-based instructional designers completed.…

As in other countries, older adults in Australia could benefit from acquiring information technology (IT) skills in many ways, including improved access to information on health issues and development of the skills needed for employment in high-demand IT-related occupations. The research on adult learning and the problems faced by many older…

Self-directed learning (SDL) is among the most productive areas of research in adult education. Malcolm S. Knowles is credited with a comprehensive synthesis of adult teaching and adult learning principles. Andragogy, the art and science of helping adults learn, lies at the heart of Knowles' work. Lucy M. Guglielmino theorized regarding the…

This book reviews the literature on reflection, explores the relationship between reflection and learning, and discusses how reflection can be used to improve learning and professional practice. The following are among the topics discussed: (1) common-sense and developmental stage approaches to reflection; (2) the philosophies of Dewey and…