A key commitment of the Adult Literacy for Life Strategy (2021) is to reduce the number of adults in Ireland with unmet numeracy needs from 25% to 12%. One of the main challenges in achieving this is the varied provision of adult numeracy education. Many numeracy practitioners are either employed parttime or are volunteers with few opportunities…

After tracking barriers of adult education learners pursuing their GED®, the Career Learning Center of the Black Hills (CLCBH) found that high rates of poverty, homelessness, unemployment, and other trauma-related experiences led to an ongoing sense of helplessness and despair among many of our adult learners, in particular Native American…

Engagement of learners is a critical determinant of efficacy in any educational program, and presents a unique challenge in a distributed, virtual method of delivery. The purpose of this phenomenological study is to explore lived experiences and perceptions of K-12 teachers and administrators about cognitive engagement in distributed, virtual…

In further education (FE), teachers and trainers are not legally required to undertake continuing professional development (CPD), with this mandate removed in 2013. Nevertheless, the Education and Training Foundation has emphasised the importance of maintaining and updating professional knowledge. Literature highlights CPD's contentious role among…

Graduate courses and programs in the educational field are intended to enhance instructional practice and leadership skills and prepare leaders with increased critical thinking skills applicable to their profession. With attrition rates rising in graduate programs, universities must seek the reasons why, and this begins with instructors and…

Teaching reading to adults who struggle with literacy learning is a difficult task, and there is a paucity of evidence-based programming designed especially for them. Three research teachers describe their experiences while teaching an evidence-based reading program to adult literacy students. This article provides an overview of the program…

The guided pathways approach to community and technical college redesign has significant impacts for adult basic education (ABE). The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) and Ability to Benefit provide federal support that complements the work being done in Guided Pathways. Washington state's approach to implementing guided pathways…

Colleges and universities continue to experience growth in their online programs, yet retention, persistence, and graduation rates of adult online learners remain problematic. However, only some higher education institutions offer professional development specifically on teaching adult learners online to address the long-standing issue. This…

This article describes the experiences of three research teachers working for an adult literacy research and development center (csal.gsu.edu). This paper provides an overview of the program content delivered in the research adult literacy classes, shares experiences teaching this program, describes the learners' responses to the program, and…

The 48th annual conference of the Adult and Higher Education Alliance (AHEA) was held online and in person in March 2024. This year's conference theme is "Enriching the Adult Learner's Experience in Higher Education." The proceedings are comprised of the following papers: (1) Creating a More Humanized Online Learning Experience (Janet…

Data show that the university student population is increasingly more diverse than in the past. Certainly, the conventional college student profile has evolved with approximately three out of every four students now falling into groups previously deemed nontraditional, including adult learners and first-generation students and students who…

This qualitative study of students in mid- and later-life (MLL; age 40 and older) sought to address the role faculty play in facilitating student success and how institutions support faculty, especially adjunct faculty. Adjunct faculty teach a majority of classes at community colleges but are not provided the same professional development…

Using Desimone's (2009) framework for studying the effects of teacher professional development (PD), this qualitative study examines the effectiveness and impact of a 10-week professional development course on 31 foreign language (FL) instructional faculty and staff in a U.S. Government language school. Data sources included 31 K-W-L reflections,…

Over the past thirty years, higher education for adult students has emerged to help prepare the labor force for the 21st century in a world of globalization. At the same time, there have been massive advances in computing and the internet that provide many tools useful in higher education. Most universities now offer some form of electronic…

Interest in mentoring, which is an innovative method in adult education (CEDEFOP, 2013), has been growing rapidly in Europe, especially since the Lisbon European Council in 2000. In Greece, this interest has found expression either through the development of educational material in the context of adult educator training programmes, or the…