Adult learners are attracted to learning opportunities (e.g. course offers) which seem promising in terms of allowing them to match their choices to their own perceived predispositions. To find out more about their personal learning style, some adult learners may fill in a questionnaire designed by researchers who aim (and claim) to enable both…

Foreign language aptitude is defined as one's potential to learn a second language. A language learner with higher aptitude is predicted to learn more, faster, and reach a higher level of proficiency. If this is the case, one way to validate the construct of aptitude and its measure is to conduct a validation study in which measures of aptitude is…

There exists cross-cultural differences in English classes regarding the factors that demotivate students and lead to dropout. The present study, following the guidelines suggested by Rowsell (1992), mainly aimed to design and validate a questionnaire for the reasons for dropout. To do so, the researchers, first, interviewed with 20 translation…

Besides work-oriented training, most Dutch adult learning courses of formal and non-formal education focus on three basic skills: literacy, numeracy and problem solving in technology-rich environments. In the Netherlands, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science recently initiated the development of a new adult education framework concerning…

This article presents empirical research conducted with French speaking adults studying for a diploma. Their training took place mainly in e-learning. The goal of this research was to identify and explain the processes of influence existing between two specific dimensions: the degree of openness of the components of the e-learning situation and…

The present study was designed to identify the quality dimensions as perceived by adult learners who had taken one or more e-learning courses offered by higher education institutions in South Korea and to identify and confirm the structural features of these quality dimensions. The results of the exploratory factor analysis arising from a survey…

Reviews of past research on psychosocial learning environments show that relatively few studies have involved the use of environment dimensions either as criterion variables in the evaluation computer education programs or with adult learners (in contrast to elementary and secondary school students). This study is distinctive in that it used a…

Responding to Field's criticism of the Self-Directed Learning Readiness Scale (SDLRS), Guglielmino cites evidence supporting the scale's validity and reliability, Long notes gaps in Field's literature review, and McCune critiques Field's approach to factor analysis in testing the scale. (SK)

Notes problems in using reading tests intended for children when testing adults; attempts to clarify some of these problems by making explicit the assumptions implicit in the practice of using children's reading tests with adults. (GT)

A study reanalyzed the 1977 original form of the Self-Directed Learning Readiness Scale (SDLRS) developed by Guglielmino. It questioned whether there is an intracultural and intercultural factorial consistency, whether raters would reconfirm the eight-factor solution, and whether raters would reconfirm the main characteristics of a "highly…

Identifying individuals with specific learning disabilities (SLD) is a complex task, particularly for adult populations. Adult agencies such as vocational rehabilitative services or adult basic education often use different SLD definitions and criteria, are often understaffed, have limited resources, and have a shortage of staff trained on SLD…

This research emerged from an effort to develop a theory of computer anxiety relevant to beginning adult learners in a range of university disciplines. To this end, the first step was to design and refine an instrument which was reliable and valid for this population. The development of the "a priori" model of computer anxiety used in this study…

The structure and validity of Guglielmino's Self-Directed Learning Readiness Scale (SDLRS) have been examined repeatedly. In 1979, Mourad and Torrance investigated the construct validity of the SDLRS in a study involving a random sample of 684 of the 1,500 students enrolled in the University of Georgia's Program on Gifted/Talented Education. In…

Adult secondary education learners approach the goal of college-level postsecondary education through three assessment gateways: (a) measures of adult education program learning gains, (b) a high-school equivalency exam, and (c) college placement tests. On the surface, the assessments in this sequence might appear to work in concert and point…

This paper addresses the issue of whether four of the learning styles instruments currently available are of sufficient psychometric quality to warrant their continued use either for research or educational purposes. Four instruments, which purport to measure learning styles, were selected for review. Criteria for selection were based in part on…