Adult second language learners arrive at the language learning situation with an already formed first language grammar system in place. The study of cross-language similarity across the first and second languages explores how the similarities and differences in the two languages make learning more or less difficult, particularly for adult…

Practitioners use an expansive array of instructional design models. Although many of these models acknowledge the need for analyzing occupational roles, they do not define steps for conducting these analyses. This article reviews prominent models and provides prescriptive guidance for selecting appropriate models given a project's (a) Product…

Instructional designers are tasked with making instructional strategy decisions to facilitate achievement of learning outcomes as part of their professional responsibilities. While the instructional design process includes learner analysis, that analysis alone does not embody opportunities to assist instructional designers with demonstrations of…

Dynamic Concept Analysis (DCA) is introduced as a means of building conceptual models in case studies and using information of concept relations in developing general and individual models to depict a particular phenomenon. DCA enables holistic studies of complex phenomena and analyzes the relationships between concepts to express these relations…

The purpose of this paper is to outline a judgement-based model of adult learning. This approach is set out as a Perceptual-Judgemental-Reinforcement approach to social learning under conditions of complexity and where there is no single, clearly identified correct response. The model builds upon the Hager-Halliday thesis of workplace learning and…

A case study of the development of a time management workshop for adult learners at the University of Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania) is presented. This workshop was designed because of the lack of appropriate support programs for adult learners. Many times, programs and materials created for traditional age students are inappropriate and impossible to…

A study examined how developmental learning and adaptive flexibility relate to critical thinking though a survey of 119 organizational leaders (of 341) who had attended a 5-day Leadership Development Program. A questionnaire adapted from the Center for Creative Leadership's Job Challenge Profile measured developmental learning, the Adaptive Style…

This report describes a simulation of adults' retrieval of arithmetic facts from a network-based memory representation. The goals of the simulation project are to: demonstrate in specific form the nature of a spreading activation model of mental arithmetic; account for three important reaction time effects observed in laboratory investigations;…

Studies of self-directed learning (SDL) have generally concentrated on who self-directed learners are and what/how they learn. In 1980, Gibbons et al. used biographies of 20 "expert" self-directed learners to explore the principles and determinants of SDL. Tough (1967), Guglielmino (1977), and Spear and Mocker (1984) have respectively…

A conceptual framework of the modes of problem-solving action has been developed on the basis of a simple relationship cone to assist individuals in diversified professions in inquiry and implementation of theory and practice in their professional development. The conceptual framework is referred to as the Cone-Deciphered Modes of Problem Solving…

Distance education's use of the instructional systems design model has been challenged by critics who suggest that the learner is passive and learning is superficial. A suggestion is that distance education should be structured so that learners assume a more active role in the development and use of autonomous and self-directed learning…

This document contains three papers from a symposium on management development. "LMX (Leader-Member Exchange) Theory, Personality Type, and Management Development" (Janet Z. Burns) reports the results of a study on the similarities and differences in personality type (as outlined in the theories of Carl Jung and Isabel Myers) and its relationship…

This document contains four papers from a symposium on strategic human resource development (HRD). "Examination of the Use of Scenarios as Learning and Decision-Making Tools for Human Resource Development" (Roger F. Miller, Susan A. Lynham, Joanne Provo, Jeanne M. St. Claire) explores the potential value of scenarios as learning and…

The hypothesis that making judgments is the basis for workplace learning was examined by studying work in a range of occupations with a view to identifying and analyzing the main judgments involved in individuals' work performance. To test the hypothesis, six practicing professionals (three men and three women) were interviewed. Two of…

This guide for developing programs for adult learners is called "interactive" because it involves cooperation among planners, organizational sponsors, and program participants. The following are among the topics covered in the guide's 14 chapters: understanding the program planning enterprise (who plans programs and how); using the interactive…