In this article, Ellen Scully-Russ responds to St. Clair's analysis (EJ1072357) of the recent policy report from the Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education, "Making Skills Everyone's Business: A Call to Transform Adult Learning in the United States" (MSEB) (United States Department of Education [USDoE], 2015). While Scully-Russ…

This essay offers a commentary on how the relationship between language and literacy practices in and out of school has been conceptualized. It draws upon two new books in the field. Shirley Brice Heath's new book, "Words at Work and Play: Three Decades in Family and Community Life," which makes use of rich ethnographic accounts of…

In this paper, the author shares his perspective on the future of lifelong learning by looking back to the vision of the pioneers of adult learning, and picking out four messages that are relevant as people face their own, distinct, challenges. The author stresses the need to seize the opportunity to reinvigorate the original vision of adult…

Cognitive apprenticeship teaches acceptable performance, integration of practical and theoretical knowledge, and understanding specific situations. Five phases are involved: modeling, approximating, fading, self-directed learning, and generalizing. (SK)

The author brings together the question posed in Kathryn Ecclestone's article in last month's "Adults Learning--"Where's the vision?"--and the letter from Wayne Bennett, General Manager of Dillington House, about the threat to residential colleges. The author brings out some of the connections between them and issues surrounding adult community…

Suggests four characteristics that any training programs for women in developing countries must share if they are to be effective: (1) they must utilize adult learning principles and (2) participatory methodologies; (3) train for action; and (4) build self-confidence. (MBR)

Reactions to proposed British legislation include "A Warm Welcome"; "Learning to Succeed" (Taubman); "Counting down to 1 April 2001" (Silver, Gravatt); "Two Cheers (at Least) for the Learning and Skills Bill" (Taylor); "Reflecting Our Priorities" (Gibson); "The Beginning of a Golden Age?"…

The items in this report represent the proceedings of a national conference that explored ways in which community colleges can serve the nontraditional student. The report contains the program for the two-day conference, a list of the participants and their addresses, and excerpts from speeches on the following topics: assessing past performance…

To design a learner-centered training process, the author emphasizes focusing on the creative artistry of people and the logic of human beings. Lists sixteen key skills designers should obtain to design and develop training programs. (CSS)

Futurists claim that computers will change the workplace and the entire society of the United States within the next few years. Already they are making many changes such as displacement of clerical workers and creation of more jobs for programmers and analysts. In the future, the majority of adults will need to be computer literate. However,…

Analyzes current opinion on the development of information literacy skills among adult higher education students. Highlights include lifelong learning; information literacy and the role of the academic librarian; adult learning theory; defining information skills; and information literacy and the external student, including continuing education,…

This paper describes the functional-notional approach to language teaching and learning in terms of the ways it can be used to meet the communicative needs of the potential language learners, particularly adults, who vary in what they want to do in the target language. It contrasts the functional system with conventional approaches, illustrates…

College students enrolled in developmental mathematics and elementary algebra courses typically make the same mistakes repeatedly. Moreover, the same mistakes are made every semester, regardless of the students involved. Lev Vygotsky's concept of fossilization, which refers to the phenomenon of learning being lost over time and only behaviors…

Some of the leading players in adult learning and a few regular contributors of "Adults Learning" were asked about what they would like to see on the agendas of ministers in the new Government. This article shares and presents the thoughts of these players in adult learning. These include: (1) "Sounds like lifelong learning" by…

This collection of papers focuses on numeracy education for adults. In a paper entitled "Functional Numeracy," Terry Riley questions the underlying assumptions of functional numeracy and suggests that the term has often been distorted and oversimplified. Margeret Moss, in her paper "The Language of Numeracy," stresses that…