Motivational research identifies utility value, or the importance of a learning task to future goals, as central to motivation to learn. This study analyzed survey data (N = 86) collected from adult literacy learners to examine their utility value of writing improvement in grammar and spelling skills, word processing skills, and planning,…

In Pakistan, adult literacy programs are offered to enable learners to function effectively to attain individual, family, and social sustainability, but these programs are continuously reporting low participation. This study aimed to explore the reasons behind low participation, employing a descriptive phenomenological design to examine the…

This study explores the impact of adult basic education programs aimed at enhancing social inclusion for immigrant learners in the Netherlands. Basic literacy skills are vital for performing everyday tasks and building human capital, which in turn facilitates employment and skill acquisition. Low adult literacy is often associated with social…

This paper contributes to debates that shaped a special issue of "Discourse" in 2017 by taking the debate about "responsibilisation" in education into the realm of Foundations Skills in Australia. The difficulties that many Australian adults experience with low levels of language, literacy and numeracy skills (Foundation…

When I began my career in adult education as an adjunct ESL teacher, I felt well-equipped with an understanding of second language acquisition and evidence-based teaching methods. At the time, I knew nothing about digital literacy. Once I began to understand its importance and the challenges that it posed in the classroom, I developed the Digital…

Under UNESCOs global mission, fundamental education became an essential tool for development that was praised for promoting peace and improving the human condition. The Centro de Cooperación Regional para la Educación de Adultos en América Latina y el Caribe (CREFAL) hosted educators from throughout the Americas in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, to study…

Many adult English learners enroll in U.S. Adult Basic Education programs every year. The federally defined goal of these programs is to increase adult learners' skills to enable them to enter the workforce, but it is not clear whether this purpose matches learners' own motivations for entering these programs. Using the lens of self-authorship…

This paper discusses adults who are dealing with limited financial means under the premises of disability and over-indebtedness. To this end, the authors examined the concepts of vulnerability, financial literacy and the numerate environment for systematising and presenting findings from a qualitative secondary analysis of qualitative data sets…

The purpose of this quantitative, comparative study was to identify statistical differences that may have existed between adult basic education students in traditional and blended classrooms on the variables of perceptions of self-efficacy and academic performance. The seminal theories underpinning the research were andragogy, heutagogy, and the…

This article describes three programs which provide formal student engagement training and leadership opportunity with adult basic education learners.

The goal of this study was to describe how underlying vocabulary knowledge manifests into vocabulary usage, and in turn, how usage predicts writing quality among adult basic education (ABE) learners. ABE learners were administered tasks that measured vocabulary knowledge, in the forms of both vocabulary breadth and depth. Participants were also…

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's (UNESCO, 2022) Fifth "Global Report on Adult Learning and Education" (GRALE) highlights that vulnerable groups such as rural populations, migrants, prisoners, people with disabilities, and indigenous peoples are among those who would benefit from adult basic…

The Foundation Skills Framework (FSF) is a work-based model developed in 1999 in response to a need for common language and understanding of the skills needed by Pennsylvania's workforce. Through funding provided by the Pennsylvania Department of Education, Bureau of Adult Basic and Literacy Education (ABLE), the original project was designed to…

Shorthand is, by definition, coded symbolism used for purposes of speed. It's a system of abbreviation, intended to skim the top of more complex systems of meaning, taking shortcuts but keeping track of the important facts. Shorthand is used all the time in adult basic education (ABE). The very name of the field, adult "basic" education,…

Functional education and human development are not mutually exclusive. To achieve an all-round development, the fourth Sustainable Development Goal partly emphasizes the need to '… promote lifelong learning opportunities for all' by year 2030. This article, therefore, uses a case study approach to analyse the impact of a government funded adult…