The purpose of this qualitative, phenomenological study was to explore adult immigrant learners' perspectives and motivations for participating in an ESL program through the lens of McClusky's Theory of Margin. Nine adult immigrant ESL students were interviewed about their learning experiences. Creswell's (1994) systematic process informed the…

A fundamental aspect of adult education is engaging adults in becoming lifelong learners. More often than not, this requires removing barriers to learning, especially those relating to the actual organisational or institutional learning process. This article explores some of the main barriers to adult learning discussed in the literature and…

When we separate the process of learning that is experienced by adults and children from the methods, systems and settings that are used, a clear case can be made for a very distinct, andragogical model. This concept exists separately from the notion that there is undoubtedly a common pedagogy or "art of teaching" that is shared by the…

This paper examines the extent of patients' health-related learning from a range of sources and aims to identify psycho-cognitive variables that predict learning. Using a survey design, we found that people higher in perceived health competence were lower in anxiety and took a more logical approach to decision making. Low perceived health…

This paper explores participation in social partnerships as a space for learning. It analyses interview data about participation in social partnership from partnerships involved in vocational education and training (VET) to argue that social partnerships constitute a form of learning space. Partnership participants engage in new learning through…

The purpose of this paper is to outline a judgement-based model of adult learning. This approach is set out as a Perceptual-Judgemental-Reinforcement approach to social learning under conditions of complexity and where there is no single, clearly identified correct response. The model builds upon the Hager-Halliday thesis of workplace learning and…