Although decision making should be shared between teachers and learners, teachers should take a leadership role in establishing learning objectives, organizing learning activities, and maintaining a positive social environment for learning. (SK)

Major concepts about adult learning, program planning, and the teaching-learning transaction, along with brief descriptions of instructional procedures that reflect such concepts illustrate how adult educators can increase their effectiveness. (Author/SK)

Examines the proposed federal 1980 budget with respect to federal support for Lifelong Learning and Higher Education Act reauthorization. Although major programs are slated for no funds or slashed, there is some federal commitment to lifelong learning over the long term. Tables provide details of present and proposed funds. (MF)

Describes a project that explored the use of Web sites with adults with learning disabilities. Highlights include advantages and weaknesses of Web-based learning for adults with learning disabilities; creating multimedia work related to the Web sites; motivating effects; and Web site access difficulties for people with low literacy levels.…

Examines the representation of culture in texts designed for adult learners of English as a Second Language in Canada. Guiding the analysis is a view of culture as a process of making sense of the world and a site of struggles of people with multiple and shifting identities over meaning and representation. (Author/VWL)

Theory and research provide insight into the characteristics, needs, and teaching preferences of adult learners in the college classroom. This chapter provides an overview of the literature on adult learning and education theory, along with recommendations for practice. (Contains 46 references.) (Author)

Seven section and committee representatives of the Public Library Association (PLA) describe how technology has affected the activities in their immediate PLA areas, identify trends in technology likely to change the way public libraries do business, and assess staff and patron reactions to automation. (Six references) (CLB)

Sixty doctoral students aged 37-48 completed the Sentence Completion Test and a personal orientation inventory. Results indicated that they experienced significant personal growth and greater intrinsic locus of control at schools with nonauthoritarian environments emphasizing support, trust, respect, and self-directed learning. Exposure to a level…

Open Access courses in Great Britain are a means of increasing adult student enrollment in science, engineering, and technology. However, these mature students are not performing as well in the physical and natural sciences as in the social sciences and humanities, raising questions about the curriculum, teaching methods, and assessment used with…

Two recent theoretical developments in adult education, self-directed learning and transformative learning, are applied to the college faculty development process. With this approach, faculty learn to direct their own learning process, become aware of their assumptions about teaching, and revise them using critical self-reflection. (MSE)

Describes a systematic method for producing pictures to accompany textual instructional materials. The resulting instructional design model is then used in an attribute by treatment interaction study of post-secondary school students that was designed to investigate the role of analogical pictures in adult learners' acquisition of higher level…

Perceptions of 94 adult learners and 31 teachers regarding the nature and goals of literacy education revealed that adult learners tended to view literacy from a fundamental perspective, but entered programs for job-related (functional) reasons. On the other hand, teachers viewed literacy from a functional perspective, but presented programs that…

Reports on a study of the economic literacy of 942 adults and compares the results with the economic literacy of high school students. Finds that high school students outscored the adults. Also finds that adult scores were related positively to both the level of education achieved and the completion of an economics course. (CFR)

Examines the emergence of lifelong education globally, addressing the changing relationship between initial education, adult education, and general learning environments. Discusses changing employment patterns and the disparity between the demand for education and institutional response. Describes the economy of lifelong learning as it relates to…

Identifies the relative learning priorities for older students based on a study of older adult students. Indicates that older adult learners participated in education primarily to remain intellectually engaged, and that they were more interested in intellectual stimulation than in learning professionally or vocationally relevant skills. (26…