Research indicates that creating a psychologically safe school climate matters for adult learning in the same way it matters for children's learning. School leaders can help teachers feel safe to take risks, share differing opinions, and be vulnerable in front of peers before and during professional learning activities. An example of why…

Adult learners require supports and services to help them successfully transition into taking on the demands and expectations of college students. Transition programs have grown in popularity as a means to aid adult learners as they transition to higher education. Unfortunately, previous research on adult learner participation in transition…

Partnerships between community colleges and employers to create apprenticeships have been around for decades. These traditionally have covered fields like the building trades--electrical, construction and others--as well as heavy manufacturing like the automobile industry. Inspired partly by a new federal apprenticeship consortium--and $175…

To support rural postsecondary students' college access and completion, researchers, policy makers, and educators need a more comprehensive understanding of their demographic characteristics and financial needs, especially compared to nonrural students. Previous rural-nonrural analyses have not disaggregated students by degree type (bachelor's,…

As information literacy programs become more robust, finding methods of reaching students beyond the traditional undergraduate has become a priority for many institutions. At Duquesne University, efforts have been made to reach adult learners in an accelerated program targeted to nontraditional students, much of which is provided online. This…

The foundation and impetus for a sustained professional development program offering 44 graduate courses serving 641 FCS educators (approximately 50% returning participants) in Pennsylvania and the surrounding area were the six assumptions of Knowles related to the motivation of adult learners. Education researcher Malcolm Knowles asserts that…

Surely "massive open online course" (MOOC) has one of the ugliest acronyms of recent years, lacking the deliberate playfulness of Yahoo (Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle) or the droll shoulder shrug suggested by the word "snafu" (Situation Normal, All Fouled Up). The author is not a complete neophyte to online…

This qualitative study utilized a meta-ethnographic approach to synthesize findings of five dissertations that focused on distance learning support services. The history of ethnographical studies stemmed from an anthropological background. Researchers have applied ethnographical approaches to examine and document various phenomena. This…

Interrupted formal education is a barrier that makes learning English as an adult an extremely challenging commitment. Besides the many work and family responsibilities that most adult English as a second language (ESL) learners face, students with interrupted formal education (SIFE) often lack familiarity with school-based skills and typical…

This study investigates how poverty and residential mobility affect adult persistence and participation in family literacy (FL) programs. Combining data from interviews with directors and participants from a sample of FL sites in Pennsylvania, this study examines (a) the perceptions of practitioners and adult learners regarding the role of…

Background/Context: Educational researchers have long sought to understand the factors that enable or constrain persistence in non-formal family literacy and adult education programs. Scholars typically posit three sets of factors influencing persistence: situational (learners' life circumstances), institutional (programmatic factors), and…

Cooperative extension agents in four areas (agriculture, 4-H/youth, family living, county directors) completed Kolb's Learning Style Inventory (n=211) to identify learning style preferences to develop the best ways to present state-level inservice education. (SK)

From its inception, Penn State has played a role in Pennsylvania's economy. As a land-grant university, it has functioned as a change agent, transferring research and knowledge to increase farm yields, encouraging business and "the mechanic arts," and transmitting technology to the general population. While the university still does…

Computer-mediated-communication (CMC) tools allowing learners to be in contact with native speakers of their target language in other locations are becoming increasingly flexible, often combining different modes of communication in a single web- and internet-based environment. The literature on telecollaborative exchanges reveals, however, that…