This large-scale national survey of specialized literacy professionals was designed to answer questions about responsibilities, including leadership, and preparation for these roles. Questionnaires, completed by over 2,500 respondents, indicated that respondents had multiple responsibilities that included both instruction of struggling readers and…

Many empirical investigations have demonstrated that explicit Focus on Form (FOF) methods are more effective than implicit Focus on Meaning (FOM) methods (Norris & Ortega, 2000), because in FOF instruction learners' attention is drawn to linguistic form while FOM instruction requires learners' attention to communicate (Ellis, 2001). However,…

The nature of apprenticeships is changing. Increasing proportions of adult apprentices are prompting demand for various alternative pathways to completion. One option for an alternative pathway to accelerate completion is the use of recognition of prior learning (RPL) to identify existing skills and knowledge in combination with gap training. This…

Within more recent years, there has been a gravitation of non-traditional adult learners to higher education. Despite the motivational factors associated with this decision, it is evident that compared to the traditional learner, the non-traditional learner journey in higher education is equipped with numerous barriers. Such barriers can hinder or…

The continuing challenge of engaging adult learners in the process of positive social change has summoned adult educators to a new understanding of their role as change agents in an increasingly complex world. Despite all obstacles presented by our contemporary culture, the nature of adult development continues to offer opportunities for adult…

When 75-year-old Margaret Corston saw a poster in her local library advertising a course in basic radio broadcasting skills, she little thought that some 18 months later she would be hosting her own weekly show, with thousands of listeners, on community radio. From small beginnings--her first course was called "First Steps in Radio"--she began to…

Open Stages is Britain's biggest amateur theatre project, a hugely ambitious scheme to bring the professional and amateur theatre worlds together. It is a learning project but, as the Royal Shakespeare Company's Ian Wainwright tells this author, it is not only the amateurs who are learning. Wainwright states that the amateur and professional…

Melaneia Warwick has never found it difficult to empathise with her adult students. She knows first-hand how untidy and unpredictable an adult's learning journey can be. She also knows how difficult it can be to take the first step, and how rewarding the experience can be if the teacher manages to create an atmosphere that is both supportive and…

To maximise people's chances to reach their potential and so build a more cohesive and just society, one must acknowledge that learning is not only for the young; one must know that it's a lifelong activity. And one must also value and support the role that informal learning plays in transferring skills and knowledge. The author launched a review…

This article focuses on individuals emerging from traditional oral cultures with limited education and few economic resources who use mobile telephones to maintain their writing and communication skills, despite the scarcity of reading materials, or a lack of social, economic, political, and cultural incentives. Drawing on two case studies--one of…

This article is an account of a study that aimed to elicit the perceptions of school principals and middle managers in Lebanon on teachers' professional development (PD) and to promote an understanding of PD that extends beyond workshops. The study was qualitative and exploratory and used online interviewing to collect data. Questions were emailed…

This study seeks to understand how adult learning takes place in homestay programme at Kanchong Darat, Banting, and Selangor in Malaysia. The study seeks to provide an overview evaluation and some salient lessons that could be derived in providing quality homestay services to learners. More so, the study succinctly covers socio-cultural issues in…

One effect of the recession has been substantially to alter the position of part-time workers in the economy. As a result, part-time jobs now make up over a quarter (27 per cent) of the total numbers working. Everyone knows that women work part-time far more commonly than men. How far this is a matter of "choice" is a real political as…

We in the U.S. live at the edge of radical possibilities, but few seem to actually see openings available for profound change, or perhaps have become simply too paralyzed to act. After all, the U.S. government in the post 9-11 world has placed "national security" above "liberty" and taken unprecedented measures to monitor citizens'…

This article examines the elusive concept of safety in liberal arts classrooms which are often contoured by a plurality of social, cultural, political, psychological, historical, and discursive forces and performances. Using select principles from adult education and social work with groups as an organizing metaphor, the article discusses the…