A quantitative predictive correlational study was conducted to find to what extent, if any, gender and adult student status, individually or in combination, moderates the predictive relationships between resilience and self-regulated strategies of Goal Setting (GS), Environment Structuring (ES), Task Strategies (TS), Time Management (TM), Help…

This article considers the potential benefits of integrating the knowledge base on adult learning with teacher inquiry. The first part of the article provides an overview of key concepts discussed in the literature on adult learning, including the characteristics of adult learners, self-directed learning, experiential learning, transformative…

Adults with low numeracy skills often start adult foundational education services or work with individual tutors. Using U.S. PIAAC 2012/2014/2017 data, this paper examines the characteristics, educational backgrounds, and numeracy proficiency of adult learners in adult foundational education, along with use of numeracy skills at home and how…

Through a gerontological lens, using grounded theory methods and both qualitative and quantitative data, we investigated the "off-time" enrollment of mid- and later-life (MLL) community college students (age 40+) to explore how their enrollment decisions and academic goals are situated in the timing and intersection of life events and…

The purpose of this qualitative case study is to understand the experiences of adult graduate students who stop-out, or take a break from enrollment, but who ultimately persist by reenrolling. The participants in this study were enrolled in an online master's degree program. Symbolic interactionism was the theoretical framework for this study…

Andragogy was the first adult learning model to identify adult learners' characteristics and provide a pragmatic framework for responding to them. It is still considered a foundational and significant contribution to understanding adult learners despite substantial critique over the last 50 years. Current research supports the notion that…

According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, Census Bureau, Current Population Survey (2019), 13 percent of full-time college students were employed fewer than 20 hours per week, 17 percent were employed 20 to 34 hours per week, and 10 percent were employed 35 hours or more per week. Despite the prevalence of student employment, few studies have…

Research on learning strategies and learning motivation in different educational contexts has provided valuable insights, but in this field, low-educated adults remain an understudied population. This study addresses this gap by means of a person-oriented approach and seeks to investigate whether quantitatively and qualitatively different learner…

This paper reports on the coping strategies of mature female students whilst studying a Foundation Programme at a Business School. In recent years, research has focussed less on the problems that confront adult learners and more on how they exercise personal agency and cope with the multifarious challenges of combining study with part-time…

English as an additional language (EAL) adult literacy learners have special needs and unique characteristics. The various challenges they face include decoding, comprehending, and developing basic skills for reading and writing. At the same time, it is extremely important to understand EAL adult literacy programming, as the right approaches for…

Adult students are critical to addressing the college completion crisis. Retention and completion for adults lags behind students who enter college directly from high school. However, higher education has largely been built around service to younger high school graduates, and institutions are slow to change. A shift in focus to accommodate the…

When strategic enrollment management plans center around traditional high school graduating classes, non-profit public higher education institutions do not recruit, admit, and enroll adult learners with the same energy and resources as they do traditional high school students. This single case study of qualitative design examined how enrollment…

This follow-up study aimed to examine (a) the impact of 4.5 years participation in postsecondary education (PSE) on students with intellectual disability (ID) compared to adults with ID who did not participate in PSE, (b) whether a different impact on crystallized and fluid intelligence after 4.5 years would be found among PSE students with higher…

Adult learners, or undergraduate students aged 24 years or older, represent one third of the undergraduate student population in the United States. The purpose of this study was to explore the pathways to thriving for undergraduate adult learners, taking into consideration their entering characteristics and life circumstances. Thriving has been…

This empirical study uses a random forest algorithm to examine the factors that influence learners' persistence in online learning at a prominent Korean institution. The data were collected from students who began their studies in Spring 2021, and encompassed a range of variables including individual attributes, academic engagement, academic…