To maximise people's chances to reach their potential and so build a more cohesive and just society, one must acknowledge that learning is not only for the young; one must know that it's a lifelong activity. And one must also value and support the role that informal learning plays in transferring skills and knowledge. The author launched a review…

This article focuses on individuals emerging from traditional oral cultures with limited education and few economic resources who use mobile telephones to maintain their writing and communication skills, despite the scarcity of reading materials, or a lack of social, economic, political, and cultural incentives. Drawing on two case studies--one of…

This article is an account of a study that aimed to elicit the perceptions of school principals and middle managers in Lebanon on teachers' professional development (PD) and to promote an understanding of PD that extends beyond workshops. The study was qualitative and exploratory and used online interviewing to collect data. Questions were emailed…

This study seeks to understand how adult learning takes place in homestay programme at Kanchong Darat, Banting, and Selangor in Malaysia. The study seeks to provide an overview evaluation and some salient lessons that could be derived in providing quality homestay services to learners. More so, the study succinctly covers socio-cultural issues in…

One effect of the recession has been substantially to alter the position of part-time workers in the economy. As a result, part-time jobs now make up over a quarter (27 per cent) of the total numbers working. Everyone knows that women work part-time far more commonly than men. How far this is a matter of "choice" is a real political as…

We in the U.S. live at the edge of radical possibilities, but few seem to actually see openings available for profound change, or perhaps have become simply too paralyzed to act. After all, the U.S. government in the post 9-11 world has placed "national security" above "liberty" and taken unprecedented measures to monitor citizens'…

This article examines the elusive concept of safety in liberal arts classrooms which are often contoured by a plurality of social, cultural, political, psychological, historical, and discursive forces and performances. Using select principles from adult education and social work with groups as an organizing metaphor, the article discusses the…

This program description presents a unique, radically simple mentoring model for post-secondary institutions. The Faculty Peer Support Program invites all faculty members, regardless of rank, to connect for personalized professional development support. Participants self-select partner(s), meeting times, places, and topics. They also self-direct…

This study examines the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-IIIB (PPVT-IIIB) performance of 130 adults identified as struggling readers, in comparison to 175 third-grade children. Response patterns to the items on the PPVT-IIIB by these two groups were investigated, focusing on items, semantic categories, and lexical features, including word length,…

Self-assessment is promoted as an ideal form of assessment, particularly for adult learners as they need to be able to make judgements about how well they are doing something--whether it is related to learning, work or social interactions. However, there is also opposition to summative self-assessment on the grounds that students cannot validly…

This study uses audio-recordings of naturally occurring classroom discussions to examine how adult numeracy students drew on their informal knowledge as they worked together to solve mathematical problems. Analysis of the recordings not only reveals the knowledge which the participating students contributed to their discussions, but also…

From time to time, every educator asks the question "why am I doing this?" Some of the answers may relate to personal goals or needs, but some are invariably focused on beliefs about the impact their work has on learners. For postsecondary educators, those answers may include thoughts about increased employability or better citizenship or mastery…

As traditional classroom settings are transitioning to online environments, teachers now face the challenge of using this medium to promote effective learning strategies, especially when teaching older age groups. Because adult learners bring a different set of understandings and skills to education than younger students, such as more job and life…

"Education at a Glance: OECD Indicators" is the authoritative source for information on the state of education around the world. It provides data on the structure, finances and performance of education systems in the 35 OECD and a number of partner countries. With more than 100 charts and tables, Education at a Glance 2018 imparts key…

Language learning has been increasingly influenced by technology over the last decades thanks to its positive effects on language acquisition. It is thanks to the technology's supportive role towards language learning that an increasing number of online foreign language courses have appeared. Besides, foreign language courses are more and more…