This monograph contains three symposium presentations that are intended to help define and clarify possible options for a future research agenda for lifelong learning. "Adult Learning: A Review of the Literature with Suggestions for the Direction of Future Research" (Sharan Merriam) thoroughly develops a matrix that explains the contributions of…

This handbook is intended to provide some specific and practical suggestions for those involved in the education of adults. It is concerned with the ways that people learn as adults and with how teachers and tutors can help them learn more efficiently. The first of two main sections deals with adult learning and is concerned with the…

To overcome the barriers that deny part-time adult learners the opportunity for continuing their educations, the University of Mid-America proposes the creation of a nationwide American Open University (AOU). The AOU will be an independent, accredited institution with its own board, faculty, and administration. It will have regional centers across…

The field manual for a series of coordinated studies of the spontaneous acquisition of a second language by adult immigrant workers provides a theoretical and practical framework for the entire project and a source of information about it for other researchers. Chapters 1 and 2 describe the project's objectives and organization. Chapter 3 reviews…

The term andragogy, often defined as "the art and science of helping adults learn," has gained wide recognition during the last decade or so. Although used in the early 19th century, the term was popularized in this country by Malcolm Knowles in his book, "The Modern Practice of Adult Education: Andragogy Versus Pedagogy"…

A model for adult language learning should integrate theories in language acquisition with theories about learnability and proposals about adult language structures. Two particular problems in language acquisition are examined: (1) establishing what counts as a formal relationship in a particular domain, and (2) retreating from overgeneralizations…

The philosophical roots of the concept of lifelong learning are considered in relation to the views of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. They pioneered in their analyses of intellectual development and in the importance of the use of the mind throughout the life span. Plato and Aristotle added metaphysical arguments to support their systems of…

This document--a survey identifying federal legislation and programs that in some way address the adult learner--is one in a series of four developed to provide a comprehensive overview of the scope of training practices relating to adult learning. It provides a panoramic view of adult learning in response to national priorities based upon…

Research methodologies are "word-specific," that is, they assume frames of reference which do not include all of reality. They are like the "sets" in mathematics in which axioms apply only within certain realities. (Parallel lines do converge, for example, on the horizon; the geometric postulate that says they do not holds only for the set of a…

Functionally illiterate adults differ in several ways from children in a learning setting: they have a broader range of experience, they are more rigid and resistant to change, they know what they want from education, they are free to drop out at any time, they may have a long history of failure, they want to see immediate and visible progress,…

In this group of presentations from the 1978 National Conference on Higher Education, three researchers examine the need for the educational community to become more creatively responsive to the learning needs of adults. K. Patricia Cross delineates the difference between "adult education" and "adult learning". She discusses findings on adult…

The complexities of designing and operating inservice education programs are examined. This publication is organized into four major areas. Chapter one defines the interrelated series of current staff development activities as observed by the authors. Chapter two contains findings that have influenced thinking about the problems discussed in the…

A study was conducted which focused on specific teaching strategies and their impact on shifting externalized students toward internality (change of locus of control), on completion rate, and on increase in knowledge of math over a three-month period. Eight adult education classes with ninety-two students from the north Texas area participated in…

Implications of Maslow's Need Hierarchy are considered in this paper, along with possible qualifications to the suggested structure and potential effects of superimposing relative deprivation theory onto the hierarchy as an approach to adult education. The interfacing of needs and alternative structurings is discussed in terms of two theories: (1)…

TO DETERMINE THE COMPARATIVE AMOUNT OF LEARNING THAT OCCURRED AND THE AUDIENCE REACTION TO MEETING EFFECTIVENESS, A 20-MINUTE INFORMATIVE SPEECH, "THE WEATHER," WAS PRESENTED WITH VISUAL AIDS TO 23 AND WITHOUT VISUAL AIDS TO 23 INFORMAL, VOLUNTARY, ADULT AUDIENCES. THE AUDIENCES WERE RANDOMLY DIVIDED, AND CONTROLS WERE USED TO ASSURE IDENTICAL…