Across the United States, educators are searching for ways to increase student achievement, particularly in urban districts that often have large populations of underachieving students. A popular strategy is the use of instructional coaches, highly-skilled teachers with expertise in adult learning, who spend time coaching teachers. One decision…

Many adult basic education (ABE) programs do not achieve a high success rate in meeting student academic needs. Rooted in Knowles' theory of andragogy and Bandura's theory of modeling, this quantitative causal comparative study examined the effects of individualized instruction (IGI) and of facilitated, participatory group programs (SPOKES) on the…

This research report investigates the links between formal, non-formal and informal learning and the differences between them. In particular, the report aims to link these notions of learning to the field of sciences and engineering in Canada and the United States, including professional development of adults working in these fields. It offers…

The major priorities that should guide leadership education in preparing leaders for their work of leading schools in a democratic society are: (1) Teaching leaders to understand the inequities of society; (2) Teaching leaders to serve as agents for social transformation; and (3) Teaching leaders to help each and every student learn and succeed.…

The relationship between the academic labour market and the global labour market provides an important context for this research. There appear to be growing numbers of part-time lecturers at universities worldwide, which is seen as an extension of casualisation of labour more generally. From a social justice perspective, it is therefore of concern…

The purpose of this study was to examine the self-reported technology competencies of adult online learners and whether self-reported technology competence was related to students' intent to continue learning via web-based courses. The results indicated that there was no relationship between self-reported level of computer competence and intent to…

Community workers are often described as unsung heroes who work for, with and alongside others in order to make qualitative differences to the communities they serve. This paper reports on the story of a community-based arts educator, Morgan Jai-Morincome, winner of the ACT Adult Learners Week Award for an outstanding program in 2007. This…

Originally aimed at young learners, Robert Schumann's maxim that "There is no end to learning" also applies to increasing numbers of people beginning and continuing to learn music as adults. This article presents a discussion on how researchers in the field of adult education discuss the adult learner and learning. Topics include: (1) adults'…

The fortunes of publicly funded adult learning have fluctuated widely over the years, and the current downturn in organised learning provision is well known to readers of "Adults Learning". Lifelong learning in higher education has borne its share of policy and funding crises, but from the beginning of the 1980s it has been subject to a…

This conceptual paper contributes to the scholarship on life-long learning programs at public universities. It investigates the unique relationship between these institutions and their state, utilizing Ohio as an illustrative example. A review of several university mission statements illuminates the responsibility of these institutions to their…

Opportunities for incidental vocabulary acquisition were explored in a 121,000-word corpus of teacher talk addressed to advanced adult learners of English as a second language (ESL) in a communicatively-oriented conversation class. In contrast to previous studies that relied on short excerpts, the corpus contained all of the teacher speech the…

Innovation, Universities and Skills. The new title of the department offers much food for thought. The title is indeed an intriguing and important one. Bringing the idea of innovation right to the fore is, to use an overworked term, challenging. Pinning down what innovation means is not at all easy. There are three different lines of argument. The…

Most people involved in post-16 education and training do not know enough about the public financing of adult learning. Whether learners, teachers or administrators, people prefer very often to look at the microdetails that they understand--the fees they or their students pay, the salaries they earn, what their departments or institutions will let…

Malcolm S. Knowles stands as a giant catalyst at the juncture--past, present, and future--of andragogy (the art and science of helping adults learn) within the field of Adult Education and Human Resource Development. For more than 50 years until his death in 1997, Malcolm devoted his personal and professional life to exemplifying the theory and…

As a mental health project officer, the author's work is underpinned by a belief that people who have mental health problems are as intelligent, talented and creative as anyone else, and deserve opportunities to reach their full potential. She actively seeks to persuade partner agencies across different sectors that the further education system is…