This research seeks to define and understand the experience of adult learners in the Experiential Learning (EXL) Program at MTSU. It looks at how this EXL program prepares these students for the workforce. This has made the role of EXL programs imperative to help deal with the issue of graduates having the proper competency levels for employment.…

This paper probes whether a formal college education is linked to the quality of policing. Citizens desire a higher level of professionalism with ever-increasing demands placed on their police departments. Annual on-the-job training for police is common with proposed reform initiatives, however, the difference between police training and requiring…

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the advantages of combining place-as-text curriculum with an oral history collection to act as catalysts for transformational learning. These experiential and service learning practices complement each other to enrich the encounters students are afforded. First, the nature and procedures of place-as-text and…

This document presents the modelling and engagement process that emerge from content creation on a social network device. The latter is used informally and collaboratively to provide a meaningful learning environment and to constitute the distant side of a blended learning. This device puts into perspective the use of social network that can be…

Current higher education practices do not sufficiently address the needs of international adult learners. With higher education's emphasis on pedagogical assumptions, adult learners are both isolated and oppressed by higher education. This article focuses on the following: assumptions of pedagogy versus andragogy, oppression of adult learners…

In 2010, the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL) conducted the first major multi-institutional study of the relationship between prior learning assessment (PLA) credit-earning and student academic outcomes, which found that adult students with PLA credit were two and a half times more likely to have earned a postsecondary degree…

Program evaluation is recognized as an essential skill set for practitioners in service-related fields, such as education, nonprofit management, social work, and public health. Recently, the need for a public workforce trained in evaluation has increased and is driven primarily by our nation's emphasis on accountability during a time when…

Over the past 30+ years, many colleges have made themselves more accessible for adult students. These innovations include flexible scheduling, online learning, professionally-oriented degrees, and credit for what students already know. However, there is more work to be done, particularly in the areas of financial aid for the very large number of…

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…

Introducing exemplary theory and research findings bearing upon adult experiential learning, this article describes three emerging learning models that are "active" oriented. Implications for the future in terms of individual learning and postsecondary institutions are highlighted. (Author/DS)

This report, a review of literature combined with two case studies, poses the question of whether tactual resources-hands-on, manipulative materials--help reduce college attrition and foster development of necessary academic skills. At George Mason University (Virginia), an exploratory, embedded case study was designed to investigate experiential…

The monograph provides a systematic explication of the underlying standards and principles that have been developed to help adult learners articulate what they know and can do, to clarify their claims to creditable achievement, to help assessors improve the reliability of assessment, and to save assessor time. Ten academic and administrative…

Perspectives on adult students at the College of New Rochelle are offered in response to Howard R. Bowen's address entitled, "Adult Learning, Higher Education, and the Economics of Unused Capacity." The College of New Rochelle suggests a modest modification of Bowen's thesis that there should be efforts toward full integration of…

Papers from the 1979 conference of the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia, whose theme was the promotion of higher education research and development, are presented. Specific topics were staff development in higher education, field experience, assessment and evaluation, teaching methods and curriculum design, and the…

This document contains three articles on teaching the growing population of nontraditional students. "The Changing Demographics of the Classroom" defines "nontraditional students"; reviews the characteristics, risk factors, and special needs of nontraditional students; and identifies the following services as particularly important to…