Physicians, physician educators, and nonphysician educators attended a workshop on learning style and personality type inventories. One month later participants were interviewed regarding their reactions to the inventories. Physicians found the inventories interesting and fun to take and thought the styles and types of information were applicable…

A student-centered and transformative perspective on learning acknowledges different forms of knowledge and methods of knowledge construction. It is incompatible with competency-based models such as the New Zealand Qualifications framework, which has a narrow utilitarian view, ignores connections between knowledge and power, and obscures…

With the Labour Government's second term imminent, 11 Britons involved in adult education each provide three recommendations for what the government should do for adult learners. (SK)

Research shows that adults respond primarily to positive reinforcement, want to be involved, and prefer to operate in a collegial environment. Traditional teacher evaluation violates many of these understandings. Fortunately, schools are beginning to experiment with observations and mentoring for beginning teachers and long-term…

This article presents principles for effective adult learning applicable in child care settings. These principles include the need for motivation to learn, the view that learning is an active process, the benefits from guidance, the importance of appropriate materials and activities for sequential learning, the need for reinforcement and varied…

Multiple collaborative inquiry groups were established in a K-12 rural school for teacher professional development and school improvement. Outcomes included individual teacher renewal, creation of a network for teacher interaction, change in teachers' classroom behavior, and structural and cultural change in the school. (SK)

Analysis of over 450 contributions to electronic discussions by 52 adult learners showed the learning processes used were engaging, developing conceptual relationships, drawing conclusions, and reflecting. Learning progressed to a high analytical level and was facilitated by group process development. Faculty supported discussion by synthesizing…

Explores the problematic relationship between public education and adult education in the United States and Canada since World War II, the shift in understanding of adult education as social education, and the rise of cultural politics in lifelong learning in postindustrial society. (SK)

Problems in research on participation in adult education include the following: (1) treatment of participants as voluntary, which ignores the growth of compulsory training in the workplace; (2) lack of knowledge about the choice to be a nonlearner; (3) individualistic focus; and (4) inadequate investigation of informal learning. (SK)

Presents qualitative information about the persistence of GED students enrolled in a four-year institution; in-depth interviews of twelve students taken from a sample of 251 GED students enrolled during a specific semester provide themes of persistence. Many financial, social, and academic factors were found to influence whether students remain in…

Explains the growing importance of higher-level qualifications for adults in the UK, highlighting statistical trends in commitment to learning and qualifying-the result of taking part-time courses in higher education. Most part-time undergraduates fund their own tuition. Mature students' backgrounds and perspectives partly account for their rising…

Technology is the key to improving student achievement, but without high-quality professional development, technology will never be successful in fulfilling that role. To create successful professional development, it is necessary to carefully plan programs and activities that model constructivism and take into consideration characteristics of…

This examination of the pedagogical and curricular characteristics and imperatives of an interdisciplinary studies program for adult learners, within a wider context of theory and practice, draws on the example of a general education course to demonstrate the vitality between interdisciplinary thinking and adult learning.

Traditional forms of teaching and learning based on textual forms of representation and rational thought may limit how we perceive our world. Artistic forms of expression and their implications for adult education are discussed.

What motivates adult language learners in the city of Belfast to enrol and remain in an Irish class in the first years of the twenty-first century is the subject of the research study reported here. The research is placed within the context of the long history of interest in Irish revival in the city as far back as the eighteenth century and is…