Since the 1920s, the focus of adult education has shifted from social change to professionalization to an emphasis on literacy and lifelong learning in a changing workplace. The adult education literature reflects ongoing debate over whether adult education should focus primarily on individuals or society and whether it should serve as a means of…

Postmodernism, which has been characterized as an outgrowth of or reaction to modernism, is more a form of questioning and a perspective than a theory or set of ideas. Although postmodernism resists definition, the following appear to be among its generally agreed-upon characteristics: questioning of all claims to absolute, universal truth;…

The federal Cooperative Extension Service (CES) began more than 80 years ago as a way to disseminate agricultural research and information through land-grant universities. Today, extension education is evolving to meet the demands of diversity, technology, and new ways of working and learning. Diversity is one of the core values of the CES's…

At the heart of the controversy over market-driven continuing education programs is the issue of whether they are necessarily antithetical to the principles and philosophy of adult learning. Opponents identify the following problems of market-driven programs: they perpetuate inequality by neglecting needs of those less able to pay; they may meet…

Within the last decade, many schools and departments of home economics have changed their name to "human ecology," whereas others have become "family and consumer sciences," and still others have remained unchanged. "Human ecology" has tended to be used more in higher education, and "family and consumer…

Trends and issues related to arts and humanities in adult and continuing education can be categorized in three ways: ways of knowing, informal sites of learning, and cultural pluralism. The arts and humanities are vehicles for critical reflection, and they present paths to the individual construction of knowledge that are intuitive, relational,…

Breaking the continuing cycle of low literacy levels transmitted from one generation to another is the philosophy behind family and intergenerational literacy programs. This Practice Brief describes some of the family literacy program models that are proving effective. It also summarizes strategies and resources that can help practitioners. The…

Like most institutions in a world of change, the practice of mentoring is being influenced by new forms of work, technology, and learning. Organizational trends such as downsizing, restructuring, teamwork, increased diversity, and individual responsibility for career development are contributing to a resurgent interest in mentoring in the 1990s.…

Social, economic, political, and technological changes in the last quarter century have changed the volunteer sector. This publication identifies some of the trends and the issues they raise for the emerging profession of volunteer management. Volunteers are more diverse than ever in age and background. Volunteers' motivations and expectations are…

In one school of thought, self-directed learning (SDL) is based in the autonomous, independent individual who chooses to undertake learning for personal growth. However, another school of thought stresses the social construction of knowledge and the social context of learning. Some writers challenge the exclusive emphasis on the autonomous self…

Proponents of competency-based education and training (CBET) promote it as a way to improve the correspondence between education/training and workplace requirements. CBET's opponents consider it excessively reductionist, narrow, and rigid, as well as theoretically, empirically, and pedagogically unsound. The following are among the issues…

The landscape of higher education is being changed by increasing numbers of adult students, most of whom are part time. By 1992, it is predicted that 48 percent of all higher education enrollments would be part time and half of all college students would be over the age of 25. Causes of the trend include shrinking numbers of traditional-age…

The need for career development services is growing. One-stop career centers and school-to-work programs have spurred demand for career development facilitators (CDFs). Working under the supervision of a qualified career counselor, CDFs can serve the following functions: career group facilitator, job search trainer, career resource center…

Emerging research findings demonstrate a relationship between learning styles and approaches to using the World Wide Web and other hypermedia, especially in terms of success with information retrieval. One of the most widely used conceptions of learning styles is Witkin's Field Dependence (FD)/Field Independence (FI). FI individuals perceive…

Women now represent 45% of the work force, and 74% of all 25- to 54-year-old women now work. Despite these statistics, women are still clustered in 20 of 400 occupational categories, and 70% of female secondary vocational students are preparing for low-wage jobs. These statistics, coupled with the findings of research on self-esteem and identity…