The child care workforce is changing. More than ever before, directors must contend with faculty whose educational levels, job expectations, and career aspirations differ widely. Teachers vary in their experience, professional demeanor, stages in career development, and most recently, generational differences that impact the significance and…

An interesting area of adult development is "gender shift": the transition from the traditional life patterns or ways of making meaning that are associated with stereotypically male or female roles. One may experience the wish to fulfill those parts of one's personality often associated with feminine or masculine constructs not yet explored.…

The increase in the numbers of adult students studying on college and university campuses has created a new set of ethical and administrative challenges for those institutions. Projections for the nineties suggest 50 percent of enrollment will be adults. Characteristically, adult students perceive themselves to be responsible for their own lives;…

This publication is a guide for those planning and facilitating a "Helping Adults Learn" Workshop designed to assist higher education faculty and staff in promoting greater access and success for adult learners in higher education. An overview of the workshop describes the purpose, goals (to increase understanding of theory and research…

In Australia, the two principal streams of emancipatory adult education have been focused on the liberal tradition of freedom from traditional social and religious constraints through learning and on having suppressed groups understand and overthrow the conditions of their oppression. Australians appear to be having difficulty coping with the…

Social, political, economic, and technological changes in American society that affect higher education, characteristics of faculty careers, and the concept of faculty career development are considered. It is suggested that societal changes and the colleges' attempts to secure institutional vitality have resulted in dramatic changes in faculty…

Current theories of intellectual development claim that such development proceeds through invariant sequences of increasingly more adequate cognitive structures. According to the two dominant theories on changes in intellectual functioning during adulthood, intellectual development is essentially accomplished by adolescence, although sharpening…

This document consists of the third section of a book of readings on issues related to adult career development. The six chapters in this third section focus on target populations. "Career Counseling Women: Principles, Procedures, and Problems" (Louise Fitzgerald) reviews major approaches to career development and demonstrates ways in which they…

A study was made to determine what developmental tasks typify life stages and how schools have used these tasks and their "teachable moments" to increase employee receptivity to staff development. Data came from a review of adult development and staff development literature, observations of innovative staff development procedures used by school…

Structural-interactive vocational theory shows that both aspirational and work histories have continuity over the life span and provide useful explanations of stability and change. This paper suggests some implications of structural-interactive theory for the study of adult development. Common principles of structural-interactive theories are…

Some research suggests that sources of social support change through the lifespan. Given that the support network changes because of both the individual's needs and the particular life stage of the individual, peer relationships may emerge as crucial sources of emotional support at different times in the lifespan. This study examined friend and…

A study tried to determine if development can continue through middle age, if education can stimulate adult development, and, if so, what the contributing factors are. The subjects were 60 men and women who had begun doctoral studies between ages 37 and 48, half of whom had just finished and half of whom had just started. Half of the students were…

This document contains descriptions of 38 projects that were undertaken between 1985 and 1989 by English university continuing education departments. The projects were considered innovative and were funded under new arrangements that required competitive bids or encouraged high student enrollment and low unit costs. The project descriptions appear…

This booklet was developed to help literacy instructors of older adults become more knowledgeable about these students. The guide is organized in eight sections that cover the following topics: older adults--who are they?; characteristics of older adults; barriers to learning; older adult developmental stages; the older adult learner; finding…

When adult learners come to the learning program, they bring the individual "baggage" that they carry around--such as home problems, time constraints, employment problems, and positive or negative feelings about self. The baggage of an adult's life contains all that adults are, have been, and hope to be, as well as all that life means to them.…