This article puts forward several proposals for replicating two well-known "First Exposure" studies dealing with the earliest stages of adult second language acquisition. Both of them enquire into the word-level knowledge that complete beginners are able to extract from minimal input when exposed to a new language for the first time.…

Higher education has provided New England with an economic advantage, as the region without strong natural resource advantages has relied on its higher education institutions (HEIs) and brainpower. A higher education-based economic advantage has enabled the region to develop strong well-paying technology and knowledge-based industries tied to New…

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…

The Young Adults Learning Partnership Awards were launched to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the NIACE/NYA Young Adults Learning Partnership. Throughout the last 10 years the partnership has undertaken a diverse range of research and development projects. These projects have brought YALP into contact with young adult learners from a variety of…

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…

The author's initial entry into the field of adult education has been via an indirect route from the industrial environments where she has worked for the last 20 years in various engineering positions. She came to recognize many years ago that a large part of her job involved the education of adult employees. As a research and development…

Training for the role of police officer is not just about acquiring skills but also learning to implement them from within a framework of attitudes, values and beliefs, which are congruent with the professional culture. Thus there are implications about the selection process, the degree of change different probationers will need to undergo within…

Since 1991, the U.S. has had a national research and development (R&D) center focused on programs that help adults to improve their language, literacy, and numeracy skills; to acquire a General Educational Development (GED) or other high school certification; and to transition into postsecondary education or training. For the first five years,…

Describes the Alliance for Research and Development in Applied Learning Technology, an effort of the University of Minnesota and the Wilson Learning Corporation to promote cooperation in research, training, and development. The alliance sponsors projects that address questions on adult learning and technological applications facilitating adult…

This article highlights a five-year project known as Enhancing "Skills for Life": Adult Basic Skills and Workplace Learning which focuses on what workplace basic skills programmes "do" work, when and by what means. A research team headed by Alison Wolf will assess the impact of workplace basic skills programmes on employers and…

Theory and research provide insight into the characteristics, needs, and teaching preferences of adult learners in the college classroom. This chapter provides an overview of the literature on adult learning and education theory, along with recommendations for practice. (Contains 46 references.) (Author)

This article reports research findings from a 21-month empirical project called "Making Numeracy Teaching Meaningful to Adult Learners," which was funded by the National Research and Development Centre for Adult Literacy and Numeracy (NRDC). It looks at motivations behind adult learners returning to study numeracy in three FE colleges, and finds…