One of the main problems facing andragogy is that its systematic nature is more the result of other theoretical deliberations than those of its own. Until the mid-19th century, andragogy founded its development mainly on prevailing communal, social, economic, political, and cultural conditions in various countries. In the 1950s, andragogy turned…

A qualitative case study approach with individual and focus group interviews identified senior enlisted Army soldiers' primary motivations and perceived barriers to postsecondary education participation. The 92 interviewees shared these common characteristics: they were enlisted soldiers, were older, attended college part time, worked full time,…

The relationship between adult educators' disciplinary and pedagogic identities was explored through case studies of two adult educators. Both were males. One became an adult educator after spending 15 years as a social worker and social work trainer, and the other became a part-time adult educator after being a chartered surveyor. The former…

A number of factors have come together to generate a renewed interest in adult learning in Organization for Economic Cooperation Development (OECD) countries, including emphasis on demand shifts associated with technology and globalization; large size of skills needs; and aging population. Major gaps in knowledge about adult learning still hinder…

John Dewey's reflections regarding education, experience, and communication remain relevant to all educators, especially educators and trainers in the field of human resource development (HRD). Dewey viewed education as a process of growing in meaning. He stated, "all genuine education comes about through experience." Another essential…

N.F.S. Grundtvig was a priest, historian, poet, and founder of the Danish Folk High School. He believed that education for adults should be geared to adults and wanted schools to be independent of the church. Grundtvig was among the first to call for Denmark's schools to use the native Danish language. Grundtvig believed that each group or culture…

This document is designed to introduce practitioners in the United Kingdom's learning and skills sector to the principles and practice of benchmarking. The first section defines benchmarking and differentiates metric, diagnostic, and process benchmarking. The remainder of the booklet details the following steps of the benchmarking process: (1) get…

This report reviews the economic and the social benefits and costs of adult education and training (AET) in Canada and examines training in industry. Chapter I provides an introduction and background. Chapter II sets this context: Canada is a country in which legislative authority is shared by federal, provincial, and territorial governments;…

Many organizations are not satisfied that their methods of evaluating training are rigorous or extensive enough to answer questions of value to them. Complaints about Kirkpatrick's popular four-step model (1959) of training evaluation are that each level is assumed to be associated with the previous and next levels and that the model is too simple…

The New Britain Public Library (Connecticut) conducted a project that involved recruitment, collection development, tutoring, computer-assisted services, and English as a Second Language (ESL) services. The project served a community of 50,000-100,000 and targeted ESL learners. Tutoring was done one-on-one, in small groups, and in classes, using…

This book contains 14 essays exploring how the theory of women's psychology, development, and ways of knowing has developed during the past decade. The following essays are included: "The Beginning of the Story: Collaboration and Separation" (Nancy Rule Goldberger); "Looking Backward, Looking Forward" (Nancy Rule Goldberger);…

This book contains eight case studies of critical literacy in action in Victoria, Australia. The following papers are included: "Preface" (John Dewar Wilson); "Introduction" (Delia Bradshaw); "Making the Time and Space for Critical Literacy: Why Bother?" (Barbara Comber); "Questioning Text: Critical Literacy in…

The questions of how managers learn and what kind of learning really makes a difference in managers' development were examined through case studies during which some 60 managers from five well-known organizations (a large private sector firm, the British Post Office, a British government department, Britain's open university, and a British large…

"CONNECTIONS: The New Hampshire Reading Project," a project of the New Hampshire State Library (Concord), involved coalition building, public awareness, training, reading and discussion, and evaluation. The project served a community of over 200,000 people, and targeted students and tutors of library literacy programs and New Hampshire…

The relationship between adults' self-directed learning readiness (SDLR) and selected variables was examined in a study of 25 Hong Kong Chinese Baptist Churches. A Chinese version of the Self-Directed Learning Readiness Scale (SDLRS) was administered to a stratified sample of 820 adult learners and 210 youth learners, and a modified version of the…