Since the 1980s, educators in adult basic education and special education have speculated that a substantial if unknown percentage of adults have specific learning disabilities (LDs) and have sought to identify and address effectively the needs of these learners. Two rarely intersecting bodies of historical literature on LDs provide the background…

How do we teach and learn, knowing that adults are complex, connected individuals who want to change but also want to maintain continuity of the Self? (Contains 1 figure.)

Examination of the library-learner dynamic within an environment of change defines literacy broadly and relates it to educational design. Libraries are placed within overall structure of the national education system and resulting cooperative efforts are described, as well as attributes of the adult and related stages of life development. (EM)

This publication presents the stories of 10 men and women who overcame seemingly insurmountable obstacles to become self-supporting citizens of Pennsylvania. Their stories tell how, through their participation in Pennsylvania's adult basic education and literacy programs, they were aided in their successful struggles to enhance their reading and…

This report of the proceedings of the Third Annual Lifelong Learning Research Conference held at the University of Maryland, February 6-7, 1981, contains abstracts of forty-eight papers, three symposium papers, and the plenary address. The conference focus was on nonformal adult education. Papers deal with environmental/leisure education issues,…

The Equipped for the Future (EFF) initiative asked adult learners to describe the knowledge and skills needed to fulfill their roles as parents, citizens, and workers and identified these four purposes: to provide access to information; to give voice to their ideas and opinions, to take action to solve problems, and to provide a bridge to the…

In much research, learners' perspectives tend to be considered in light of a program's expectations or U.S. society's definitions of learner needs, rather than considering how learners would define and make sense of their own experiences, hopes, and needs. In contrast, this study considers learners' meanings as the fundamental starting point for…

These 41 papers reflect the conference's focus on nonformal adult education. A major goal of the conference was to facilitate dialogue between researchers and practitioners who are concerned with lifelong learning issues. Four papers focus on aging, specifically intergenerational experiences, preretirement leisure counseling, aging of the work…