This study investigated characteristics and experiences of teachers of adult music learners, instructional aspects they perceive to be unique to teaching adults, and their self-perceived needs in providing quality experiences for adult learners. A 25-item questionnaire investigating the topics of preparation, goals, methodology, materials,…

Patient education about managing chronic illness is critical given the growing burden of health care costs on society. Transplant recipients are forced into obtaining and learning how to understand complex information. The purpose of this mixed methods study was to highlight learning barriers and effective techniques used to manage care through…

This study investigated the types, use, and effectiveness of distance learning (DL) for General Education Development (GED) candidates in rural Pennsylvania. The research goal was to provide information for enhancing DL GED study options. Specifically, the study, which was conducted in 2009-2010, sought to: identify the types and use of GED…

This study shows that financial aspects of state higher education policies, particularly tuition, have an impact on the level of enrollment of adult undergraduates within a state. This study also demonstrates how stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) can be utilized to examine the "potential" maximum enrollment of adult learners in…

The concept of transnationalism in many disciplines has deepened appreciation for stories of immigrant adaptation in today's globalizing world--stories that reveal shifting conceptualizations of "home," the everyday practices (e.g., cooking) that help families establish meaningful connections to home, as well as the struggles to maintain those…

This essay will discuss the creation of adult-learner degree programs at Wichita State University's satellite campuses with a particular focus on how such programs complement the mission of a traditional urban-serving research institution. It will assess the decision-making process that led to the transformation of satellite campuses into…

The study expands reported here Extension education's knowledge regarding characteristics of potential change agents. Graduate students learning to become agricultural Extension educators were studied to determine their definition of a change agent. Participants' cognitive styles were assessed using Kirton's Adaptation-Innovation Inventory to…

This article examines the affordances of virtual worlds for initiating a transformative learning experience for adults. In particular, it addresses the capacity of virtual worlds to allow creation of an alternate self which requires some level of personal self-reflection; provide atypical experiences that can initiate reflection; allow experience…

The second annual implementation report for the Accelerating Opportunity (AO) initiative in four states finds that: (1) colleges aligned pathways and supports with local needs; (2) students were satisfied with AO; (3) AO instructors grew more adept at team teaching; (4) colleges struggled to recruit adult education students; (5) states and…

After following career interests that included anthropology and the visual arts, the author realized that working with adult immigrants with limited formal education and literacy skills was her path and her passion. Since few programs in the TESOL field focused on these learners, the author sought out instruction in nontraditional spaces to…

Teaching grammar is still a topic of heated debate in second/foreign language teaching. One major approach to teaching grammar holds that the learners should receive reactive focus on form in the context of communicative language teaching. The present study is an attempt to examine the effect of task repetition along with reactive focus on form on…

This study examined the teacher education of novice teachers of English to speakers of other languages (ESOL). A survey and follow-up interviews were employed to investigate novice teachers' perceptions about four aspects of their teacher preparation: (a) degree of preparedness to teach after graduating from a teaching English to speakers of other…

A college's graduation rate is such a basic consumer fact for would-be students these days that it's difficult to imagine that the federal government didn't even collect the information as recently as the early 1990s. If not for two former Olympic basketball players who made their way to Congress and wanted college athletes to know about their…

When we separate the process of learning that is experienced by adults and children from the methods, systems and settings that are used, a clear case can be made for a very distinct, andragogical model. This concept exists separately from the notion that there is undoubtedly a common pedagogy or "art of teaching" that is shared by the…

Grounded in Vygotskyan sociocultural theory, this qualitative, classroom-based investigation incorporates an open-ended task framework. Open tasks in the present study were defined as ones designed to take shape in the second language classroom as teacher and adult learners jointly worked through exploratory problems. One central feature of open…