This article addresses how older people understand and engage with contemporary art in the gallery context--whether there is something unique to the art, the format of the visits, the pedagogical approaches used by gallery educators, the social contact, or a combination of all these factors. It also addresses the psychosocial barriers to…

In the past few decades, senior centers have developed at an exponential rate. To investigate elderly citizens' knowledge of senior center activities and services, 250 white older adults (125 center users and 125 nonusers) from a small urban community were personally interviewed about the services and activities provided by their local senior…

Previous studies have focused almost exclusively on the contribution of community and institutional traits to institutional success. This study indicates that the degree of institutional effectiveness in serving local educational needs may be predicated more on manipulatable institutional policies and practices affecting educational barriers than…

The framework of temporary systems theory was the basis for forming theoretical units and propositions pertaining to the outcomes of intensive adult education programs. Empirical indicators and research hypotheses were then developed and applied in the 1972 residential program of the Labour College of Canada. (Author)

A study described the nontraditional adult students attending full-time, occupationally specific vocational training programs in Ohio. It also developed a dropout prediction model of enrolled students using sets of independent variables adapted from the Conceptual Model of Nontraditional Student Attrition and Persistence in Postsecondary…

This document suggests the following eight model indicators of quality in adult education programs: (1) learners demonstrate progress toward attainment of basic skills and competencies that support their educational needs; (2) learners advance in the program or complete program requirements that allow them to continue their education or training;…

To further develop a previously tested commitment analysis model for analyzing the commitments of local leaders to community education programs, telephone interviews were conducted of 272 leaders (255 men and 17 women) in a rural Wisconsin county of 30,000. The interview questions focused on their commitments to program goals in the latter…

A study examined the difficulties encountered by first-year, part-time Technical and Further Education (TAFE) students that cause them to consider withdrawing from, and in many cases, dropping out of their TAFE programs. Questionnaires were administered to 4,150 early withdrawers (persons who dropped out between January 1 and May 16, 1986), 2,940…

Factors influencing 834 Swedish men to participate in organized adult education programs on a life-long basis were studied. Indicators of social origins, cognitive ability, formal youth education, occupational status, job satisfaction, and attitudes toward education collectively explained little of the variation in participation. Factors possibly…

The relationship between adults' self-directed learning readiness (SDLR) and selected variables was examined in a study of 25 Hong Kong Chinese Baptist Churches. A Chinese version of the Self-Directed Learning Readiness Scale (SDLRS) was administered to a stratified sample of 820 adult learners and 210 youth learners, and a modified version of the…

A study examined the relationship of learning style, reading vocabulary, reading comprehension, and aptitude for learning to achievement in the self-paced and computer-assisted instructional (CAI) modes of the Yeoman "A" School at the Naval Technical Training Center in Meridian, Mississippi. To gather data for the study, researchers…

This document contains five papers examining the meaning and operation of leadership as a variable affecting student achievement in further education colleges in the United Kingdom. "Introduction" (Chris Horsfall) discusses school effectiveness studies' findings regarding the relationship between leadership and effective schools,…

Among the papers included are the following: "Exploring Literacy through Theater" (Andruske); "Heuristic Research" (Beckstrom); "Self-Direction in Adult Undergraduates" (Blowers); "Commodification of Adult Education" (Briton, Plumb); "Collective Group Learning" (Brooks); "Psychosocial Development of Women" (Caffarella, Barnett); "Writing Wrongs"…