Adult education is an umbrella concept under which come various dimensions, including adult literacy, adult basic education, continued education, continued professional education, and adult vocational education. To be effective, an adult educator must realize that: (1) adults learn differently than children do; (2) adult education must develop…

This report presents findings of a study of a variety of factors relating the processes of aging and faith development among adults. Part I is an overview of the entire study. The introduction (chapter 1) provides its setting. Chapter 2 delineates the project's overall structure and its use of two complementary research designs to gather similar…

A study investigated the relationship between language style and variability in the phonology of Japanese learners of English. The subjects were five adult native speakers of Japanese at the intermediate stage of English learning. Speech materials elicited three different speech styles of varying formality: reading of a word list, reading of a…

The Time Management Workshop for adult learners at the University of Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania) is described. It was developed when many adults, upon returning to school, expressed anxiety, questioned their skills and abilities, and reported study related problems associated with time management. Most of the self-instructional and workshop…

Two experiments examining the "distinctiveness of encoding" hypothesis are reported. The hypothesis suggests that specific forms of processing of events may result in the formation of more exact perceptual descriptions and thus more distinctive records in memory. The two experiments reported address shortcomings in previous research on…

This monograph presents five papers which focus on the importance of computers and technology as tools for increasing the amount and the quality of adult counseling, especially in the area of adult learning. The first paper, "Excellence, Equality, and Education: A Future for Counseling," by H. B. Gelatt, discusses the compatibility of the concepts…

Varied aspects of adult learning and media use are discussed in three papers. In the first, "Adult Learning and Television," a summary of concerns about the negative influences of commercial television viewing and criticisms of instructional television is followed by a discussion of the potential of new technologies for two-way…

A study examined achievement and attitudes of traditional and nontraditional age students enrolled in an undergraduate behavioral sciences statistics course. Performance and attitude data were collected from a class of 25 traditional students (average age 22) and from a class of 15 nontraditional students (average age 35). The two groups were…

Adult learning at Penn State, New Kensington Campus, is discussed. The history of adult continuing education is presented, noting the precedent for adults to attend college was set after World War II. The 1980s has been a decade where the trickle of adult students has become a flood with the addition of adult women returning to campuses across the…

These guidelines are adapted from Verderber and Verderber's "Inter-Act," a manual for interpersonal communication. The examples are from English composition classes, but the general principles are applicable in any situation involving criticism. Guidelines for giving constructive criticism include making the criticism relevant and…

This booklet addresses two of the competencies needed by part-time faculty who teach adults. The competencies are adult learning and the need for quality in preparation to assure quality in instruction. The booklet begins with a discussion of just who the adult learners are. The next topic is adult motivation to learn at the beginning, during, and…

The Personal Adult Learning Lab, part of the Georgia Center for continuing Education, was established to (1) provide the type of learning environment that can support adult learners in their efforts to develop and direct their own learning projects and (2) enable researchers to learn more about the nature of self-directed learning as demonstrated…

Recent research in preservice and inservice teacher education has led to four generalizations concerning effective staff development: (1) teachers should be actively engaged in their own learning; (2) collaboration based upon mutual trust and respect between institutions of higher education, school districts, and the community is essential; (3)…

This study examined writings of Canadian adult educators for the purpose of describing their field of inquiry. The study described the field by its four basic areas of inquiry--learner, learning, process, and environment--and by the components of each area. The methodology was divided into three phases: creation of a glossary of descriptive adult…

The thesis of this paper is that television can effectively disseminate information to adult learners, thereby freeing the instructor from repetitive tasks and allowing him to assume a facilitative, diagnostic, and consultative role for larger numbers of adult students on an individualized basis. Research data and an example of a mediated…