Most research on virtual reality (VR) for learning has focused on young populations in formal learning contexts. Little research has been conducted on how adults engage in informal learning using VR. This study examined adults' informal learning experiences in high-immersion VR, focusing on the aspects of VR they enjoyed and the challenges they…

VR has been widely acknowledged for its capacity to allow perspective-taking, increase empathy, engage learners, and facilitate experiential learning; however, the availability, accessibility, and limitations of the content have slowed implementation. One instance of this can be seen in implementing XR content to engage global citizens with…

Like drawing, reading, and math, visual literacy is a developmental process in children. It appears that the same progression occurs in adults who have no prior experience with print-based material. This paper traces the gaps around linking visual two- and three-dimensional representations to the people, objects, and concepts they represent…

To date, little attention has been placed on older men (aged 50+ years) as learners, with much of the literature on adult learning concerned with younger age-groups and issues around gender equity directed mainly at women. This article examines the impact of community-based men's sheds on informal and nonformal learning by older men in Ireland. It…

The proliferation of postsecondary programs for working adults is not surprising, given the importance of a bachelor's degree to employment and higher earnings. However, the demographics of adult learners have changed significantly over the past 30 years, when degrees for adults targeted a middle-class population. Adults now return to college…

This research is an exploratory multiple case study of adult serving undergraduate colleges and universities. Using the Council of Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL) Principles of Effective Practice for Serving Adult Learners, this study examines the differences of adult serving undergraduate colleges across the three sectors of higher…

This article proposes the need to address scaffold instructions from a situated learning perspective. Based on an empirical study of how apprentice bakers learn their trade, it is claimed that studies of learning at the workplace yield important insights into our understanding of scaffold instructions. Seen from the perspective of the apprentices,…

Presents three perspectives on power in an adult education course--learner, teacher, and manager--that illustrate how, regardless of role, each holds multiple positions in power relationships. Discusses power issues in terms of democratic teaching practices, language, and culture. (SK)

In this article, Eric Riedel, Leilani Endicott, Anna Wasescha, and Brandy Goldston describe the scholar-practitioner model that frames ee-learning at Walden University. Traditional approaches to experiential learning emphasize experiences concurrent with or following classroom instruction as a way to make knowledge more meaningful. By contrast,…

Theories of social interaction and lifelong learning have been advanced by K. Lewin, J. Moreno, T. Sarbin, J. W. Thibaut and H. H. Kelley, R. S. Perinbanayagam, and B. Dervin. From this research lifelong learning can be seen as an affective and cognitive activity that occurs in the life-space of the actor in response to positive or negative field…

This article reports an empirical research project that investigated the ways in which people's commitment to Christian faith content influenced their ways of learning. The project was set in a context of theories of adult experiential learning, and took the concept of the processes of internalization and externalization as its major focus. Within…

A survey of 405 adults and interviews with 19 showed the majority of learning experiences were informal. For learning to be significant, it must personally affect the learner by expanding skills or causing a transformation, and it must be subjectively valued by the learner. (SK)

Most adults are both learners and consumers of goods and services across their life span. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the body of literature that analyzes consumer behavior in the light of lifelong learning. Learning activities, whether formal or experiential, have both costs and benefits. Interviews with hundreds of persons,…

In order to capitalize on the learning experience which adults bring to the classroom, it is necessary to identify some of the components of the self-initiated learning cycle. A study of 12 adult graduate students' learning experiences in an adult learning class was used to identify a common pattern of experience. The pattern of the learning…

Educators and researchers have long equated the term "educated" with number of grades of formal schooling completed, relegating to the ranks of the "undereducated" those persons without higher education, and especially those without at least 12 years of schooling. Recent research by Alan Tough, however, and case studies in…