This book contains 11 theory-based chapters reporting the findings of a study on patterns of work, love, and learning in adulthood. (The study gathered data about events related to work, relationships, and learning from 405 adults and graphed them to identify life patterns.) The following topics are covered: (1) the origins and development of the…

The socially constructed beliefs that teachers hold about knowing, teaching, learning, and praxis are likely to have a profound influence on their practice. Too often teachers serve to reproduce traditional authoritarian and didactic patterns of instruction in schools, apparently because they themselves have never been given the opportunity to…

A consultation was conducted in China to examine the use of the experience and competence of the elderly in the education of youth and adults; the education of the elderly was also studied. Participants were 15 experts from Australia, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, the United States, the Sudan, France, the Soviet Union, and China, along with…

"Literacy/Alphabetisation" is the Journal of the Movement for Canadian Literacy. Each issue appears in an English version and a separate French version. This document consists of the four issues comprising Volume 15, with the French issue immediately following the corresponding English issue. Each issue begins with Notes from the Editor…

Military personnel facing forced retirement are prime candidates for retraining as teachers. As mature adult learners, retiring/retired military personnel have certain needs that must be addressed if they are to become successful in their educational careers. Knowles' six assumptions of andragogy acknowledge these special needs as follows: adults…

This manual, which is part of a series of training and information materials for managers and trainers of health staff in developing countries, is designed to assist individuals responsible for designing national health learning materials. The introduction explains the manual's purpose, organization, and use and discusses the importance of…

These 23 papers provide as complete a picture as possible of the current efforts in self-directed learning application and research. The papers are: "Learning about Self-Directed Learning" (Long); "Philosophical, Psychological, and Practical Justifications for Studying Self-Direction in Learning" (Long); "In Search of…

Although the emphasis on adult literacy/basic education is increasing, the high dropout rate from programs in these areas is a concern. Why learners choose to participate or not to participate in such programs can be understood in terms of three sets of factors. Learner-inherent factors include self-evaluation, goals, and capabilities. Life…

This publication contains 11 papers, all of which reflect the emphasis on literacy that continues to dominate adult education at the end of International Literacy Year. The papers include four presentations from conferences related to literacy held in 1990, one on literacy and peace held in Indonesia and one on literacy in China held in Macao. The…

The purpose of a review of course materials and teaching methods in the area of adult development and learning was to identify commonalities that existed in course titles, objectives, content areas, texts, required reading, resources used, course requirements, and instructional processes. Thirty-two course syllabi and 1 curriculum guide from 24…

A discussion of adult learners and a description of instructional reading strategies--based on thinking--for adult learners are presented in this paper. A definition of adulthood and the nontraditional learner in the paper highlights adults' cognitive skills, interests, and literacy levels, while the metacognitive awareness of disabled and good…

A study of the kinds of requests for foreign language information made by adult students of Spanish, and a comparison of the kinds of inquiries made by students aged 19 to 23 and those over 55 years, are reported. The objective was to learn more about what language learning processes are contributing to the difference in success of the two groups.…

The four year Teacher Development Program in Ohio features inservice programs which are based on adult learning styles; the learning is self-directed, experiential, job-related, problem centered, and individualized. Staff development activities encourage participants to be actively involved, allow flexibility and freedom of choice, use a variety…

This discussion of the relationship between self-directed learning, adult development, and distance education presents findings from researchers in the field of autonomous learning. In addition, the implications of self-directed learning for the curriculum and teaching methods in distance education are considered. The document is divided into the…

Adults enrolled in local adult basic education programs at six sites in Louisiana were used to compare the credibility of Adult Performance Level (APL) competency-based instructional programs (experimental group) with traditional adult education instructional activities (control group). Focus was on determining the correlation between grade level…