The French philosopher Michel Foucault asks, "What's going on just now? What's happening to everyone? What is this world, this period, this precise moment in which everyone is living? Answers to these questions have a profound impact on learning. Before probing Foucault's questions regarding the nature of this precise moment and how they relate to…

With an increase in life expectancy in modern complex communities, there will be a prolonged period, post-retirement, in which older adults will seek meaningful projects. Juxtaposed with the longer period after retirement is the realisation that life is nearing the end. This paper draws on research undertaken from 2003-2010. The purpose of the…

When adult students write their life story, they gather selected life experiences and transform these onto the written page. In the course of this literary process they revisit sites of the past and reflect on the meaning of past events; many reconstruct these events from the point of view of the present, and most close their narrative by…

We don't have a lot of evidence of what people see and think about communities after the fact. What are their worldviews when they look at experiences in blended learning communities in retrospect? Which elements do they find most meaningful? This study explores the character, meaning, and impact of community using the lived experiences of…

McCormack and Hoerl's state of the art review of the development of temporal concepts from the end of infancy to the end of the fifth year shows that young children's conception of time is quite different from that of adults. Adults and 5-year-old children can construe an event from a range of temporal perspectives and can describe it from a…

In this paper, we argue against the over-simplistic accusation that the media "dumb down" the study of history. Instead, we critically examine the contemporary presentation of history on British television within a framework of analysis of commodification and consumption. We argue that central to the debate is the idea that whilst…

How adults change over time is best understood through consideration of three kinds of time: historical time period, chronological age, and culturally specific social timetable of life events. Time provides a context for understanding developmental processes. (SK)

In the last decade of the twentieth century nearly 40 million people enrolled in the programs of the U.S. Adult Education and Literacy System (AELS). This chapter provides a broad-brush history of the emergence of the present-day AELS in the United States over the last four hundred years. Exhibit 2.1 provides some historical signposts for keeping…

The differences among children, adolescents, and adults with respect to concept formation and learning processes and speed are discussed. (CK)

Addressed to those who are involved in the education of adults, this paper reviews hypotheses of patterns in adult development, and discusses possible roles of educators and educational programs in facilitating growth throughout adult life. The following topics are included: Time and the Life Cycle, Socialization and Roles, Stages of Adult…

Examines the expression of temporality in the basilang speech (the earliest stage of second language development) of five adult subjects. Temporality is studied from three perspectives: morphology, semantics, and pragmatics. The taxonomy provided by the pragmatic analysis best captures the expression of time at this level of interlanguage…

Discusses the basic concepts of andragogy, or the teaching of adults. Topics include differences between children and adults; characteristics of adult learners, including time perspective, motivation, being self-directed, and experienced in life skills; and effective program design for adults. (LRW)