This study aims to address how practitioners successfully implement action learning in organizations with different cultural values. To effectively adopt action learning, Japanese learners need to learn questioning skills, as they have been brought up in an atmosphere that negates questioning. Using Kolb's learning model, this study aims to…

Learning Styles of Older Adults in Educational Settings, is an investigation into the learning styles of the baby boomer generation who are now entering retirement. With typical retirement at 65 years of age and life expectancy now 80 to 85 years of age, millions of retirees will have fifteen to twenty years of healthy retirement to fill. This…

This study explores professional learning of teachers in a web-based Open-Ended Learning Environment (OELE). Adult learning theorists suggest that adults are self-directed, experience-based, personally- and socially-related, problem-oriented, and application-focused learners. Constructivists suggest that the OELE affords learners opportunities to…

The learning needs for adults that result from the constant increase in technology are rooted in the adult learning concepts of (a) andragogy, (b) self-directed learning, (c) learning-how-to-learn, (d) real-life learning, and (e) learning strategies. This study described the learning strategies that adults use in learning to engage in an online…

Describes a method of teaching adult educators about learning through an analysis of their own learning processes. After general discussion about learning principles and differences between adults and children, a diagnostic exercise is used to develop a profile of individual learning styles. (SK)

Distinguishes between the collaborative learning process and a collaborative learning group. Lists conditions basic to the development of effective collaborative learning groups through training programs: (1) knowledgeable trainer, (2) participant commitment, (3) open communication, and (4) appropriate normative controls. (JOW)

This report discusses an interview study that examined the thinking about adult learning of major decision makers, staff development practitioners, and influencial researchers. Brief descriptions are presented of assumptions inferred from the interview data: (1) adult learning experiences are envisioned as potentially similar for all individuals;…

A content analysis of 1,462 written responses provided by the adult learners explaining their rationales for preferring differing learning interaction patterns was conducted. Eight major response categories emerged, including instructor-centered and collaborative rationales. The rationales found were compared to rationales suggested in the adult…

Kolb's Experiential Learning Model suggests that people differ in how they perceive and process information. Public agency training should incorporate knowledge of brain hemisphere dominance and learning style preferences in training design. (SK)

Recounts one teacher's experience at unsuccessfully solving spatial problems in a workshop experimenting with individualistic and cooperative learning approaches to problem solving. This humbling experience reminded the author that failure is humiliating and can arise from simply not knowing how to think about a task. All humans are "at-risk"…

The exploratory study focused on the existence, variability, and effectiveness of adult learning styles among participants receiving computer-based instruction in the metric system. A pretest was administered to 75 adults not currently involved in formal educational programs, and 40 participants were selected whose pretest indicated no knowledge…

Selecting appropriate teaching strategies to optimize learning of a particular body of knowledge presents a challenge to adult educators. There has been little emphasis, however, on the role that subject matter plays in the learning process. From a literature review, a model that relates teaching methods to subject matter and learner dependence…

Ned Herrmann is interviewed regarding his latest theories on "applied creativity" and the design and delivery of "whole brain learning." He discusses the roles of the brain's two hemispheres, the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument, the importance of brain dominance to trainers, and the link between creativity and productivity.…

In earlier work we have shown that adults, young children, and infants are capable of computing transitional probabilities among adjacent syllables in rapidly presented streams of speech, and of using these statistics to group adjacent syllables into word-like units. In the present experiments we ask whether adult learners are also capable of such…

Analyzes the literature pertaining to the adult's need to learn how to learn and this concept's relevance for successful adult learning in three modes (learning on one's own, collaborative learning, and institutional learning). Also, discusses training (which helps adults acquire learning skills) and suggests some researchable questions. (EM)