How does participation in nonformal learning influence the self-perceived well-being among older adults? This article looks into that issue through a study of people aged 65 years or older who have participated in Swedish study circles. The data analyzed consists of a nation-wide survey of study circle participants. The results show that there are…

This article reports an investigation of the musical and extra-musical outcomes of participation in a music programme for students in four socio-economically disadvantaged school settings. Drawing on the theory of Positive Youth Development, which provides a focus on the positive assets young people bring to their engagement rather than perceived…

The factors influencing development of basic skills from birth to age 37 were examined by analyzing a sample of 1,700 people who were part of the National Child Development Study (NCDS), a longitudinal study in which data on more than 17,000 people who were born in Great Britain in a single week in 1958 were collected when they were 7, 11, 16, 23,…

Many organizations are not satisfied that their methods of evaluating training are rigorous or extensive enough to answer questions of value to them. Complaints about Kirkpatrick's popular four-step model (1959) of training evaluation are that each level is assumed to be associated with the previous and next levels and that the model is too simple…

This book contains 15 papers on the following topics related to lifelong learning: lifespan development and education, capacity to learn in the lifespan, skills formation in the workplace, learning to learn in the lifespan, and implications for policy and practice. The following papers are included: "Learning for Life: New Ideas, New…

This book on the culture and processes of adult learning contains 16 papers organized into sections on power, purpose, and outcomes; adulthood and learning; and learners' experience and facilitating learning. The following papers are included: "'Really Useful Knowledge', 1790-1850" (Johnson); "Feminist Challenges to Curriculum…

There is dissonance between the lives of adult students in rural Nepal in a subsistence-level agrarian community and their participation in school. The concept of "transfer" has several shortcomings from the standpoint of understanding relations between mathematical reasoning in the classroom and in the workplace. It is more helpful to…

This document contains three papers on key skills and competencies and human resource development (HRD). "Career Related Competencies" (Marinka A.C.T. Kuijpers) reports findings from surveys completed by Dutch employees who identified these issues: self-reflection is more important than career control; age and gender influence attitude…