Conferences are a major form of professional development. The educational outcomes of conference attendance would be improved by adherence to such principles as empowerment of the adult learner, mutual responsibility for learning, attention to the learning climate, awareness and use of participants' experience, diagnosis of needs, and evaluation…

Practitioner research strengthens teachers as they learn how knowledge is made. The right time for teacher research is after initial training and some years of experience. (SK)

Includes "Part-time Teachers of Adults: Some Professional Issues" (Summers); "The Competence Approach" (Sims); and "Training the Trainers" (Daines, Graham). (SK)

Recent growth in professional courses in continuing and community education in Britain is occurring at the same time as substantial reduction in funding and increased marginalization in local and federal government policy. (SK)

Therapeutic recreation is a means of empowering individuals with disabilities through arts or sports. The field has developed differently in the United States and the United Kingdom; the former emphasizes professionalization and the latter the right to adult education. (SK)

Students in a master's level course on adult guidance participated in mapping, locating, and translating guidance and counseling concepts in learning settings. The different maps that emerged suggest that the impact of professional development may be diffuse and indirect. (SK)

Competency-based models such as Britain's National Vocational Qualifications should not be adopted for adult education professional development. The values underlying competency models are incompatible with the values of reflective practice, such as ownership of curriculum and entitlement to lifelong learning. (SK)

Professional development is displacing personal development as the economic model of education takes hold. Traditional adult education is marginalized by funding policies, and programing is narrowing in focus. (SK)