This article is focused on the concept of partnership within the learning relationship. It develops the argument that leaders' personal experiences of reciprocal learning relationships will influence their leadership practice, and thus ultimately the school culture. The examination of values and beliefs is central to this process. The co-creation…

A disorienting dilemma is related to a sense of loss of balance or normalcy complicated by a problem that seemingly has an unsatisfactory solution. According to Mezirow (1998), disorienting dilemmas are also connected to events that have been set into motion, causing a learner to engage in self-examination resulting from feelings emanating from an…

As someone more at home in jeans and pumps it was a bit of a shock. The author could not quite get used to the sight of his feet in his father-in-law's black and pointy dancing shoes. Jennie, more often seen in trainers or steel-capped boots, had on a pair of strappy heels she'd borrowed from her mum. They felt like kids dressing up in their…

A decade after the National Advisory Group for Continuing Education and Lifelong Learning (NAGCELL) report, "The Learning Age", born in the first flush of the New Labour Government, the task of providing and securing an overall strategic framework for lifelong learning remains as large as ever. NIACE is the Inquiry into the Future for…

This article presents two responses on the publication of the government's consultation paper on informal adult learning. Ball writes that the publication should be welcomed, not as a friend, and certainly not as either a change in the weather or the climate, but as an opportunity to speak up for the importance of adult learning. This consultative…

There is an instinctive drive among all humans to make meaning of their daily lives. Because there are no enduring truths, and change is continuous, people cannot always be assured of what they know or believe. It therefore becomes imperative in adulthood that they develop a more critical worldview as they seek ways to better understand the world.…

In this article I call for adult educators to begin taking consumption seriously as a site of adult learning and education. I provide an overview of various sociological perspectives on consumption, and also discuss several areas where education, learning, and consumption intersect. In doing so, I seek to convince adult educators to more…

This article draws on ethnographic research to examine relationships between literacy and identity for newly literate men and women in the southern African country of Botswana. Situating beliefs about literacy in the intersection of evangelical missionary discourse, colonial-era labor practices, and modernity rhetoric, I argue that literacy is…

Adult learning theory and practice supports the common sense approach that lasting learning takes place when the learners have both a cognitive and emotional experience with the topic at hand. While learning is a complex individual process, it needs to be meaningful, familiar, and challenging in order for each person to learn. Story telling on…

This tenth edition of the best-selling book teaches reading using sounds and spelling patterns. These sounds and patterns are introduced one at a time, and slowly built into words, syllables, phrases, and sentences. Simple step-by-step directions begin every lesson. Although originally designed for K-2 emergent readers, this award-winning book is…

Professor Peter Jarvis has spent over 30 years researching, thinking and writing about some of the key and enduring issues in education. He has contributed well over 30 books and 200 papers and chapters in books on learning theory, adult education and learning, continuing professional education, nurse education, primary school education, distance…

The purpose of this case study was to identify characteristics of learners who completed their master's degrees online and to explore the reasons adult learners chose to enroll in a particular institution to complete their online master's degrees. As more postsecondary institutions explore the online environment, more research-based information is…

The objective of this research was to identify the effects of participation in learning on the subjective wellbeing of older adults. Data were from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), a large-scale, nationally representative survey of those aged 50 and above. The survey contains several wellbeing measures and information on three…

Past research has shown that, as workers age, their participation in education and training declines, which is a problem in our fast changing society and economy. This study focuses on the stimulating and prohibiting reasons for participation in formal learning activities. It investigates whether employees in the second half of their career differ…

This study examined the reliability and validity of administering Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) to adult basic education (ABE) students. Ninety ABE participants were administered DIBELS measures, the Woodcock-Johnson III Broad Reading (WJ III BR) measures, and four orthographic ability tests. Since ABE students are a…