Recent years have seen a major decline in community college enrollments across the country. Although the market to attract secondary school students contains many pathways, the overall marketplace is very competitive as most schools are competing for the same body of students. The adult market is the largest and most neglected group of potential…

This is the protocol for a Campbell systematic review. The objectives are as follows: The purpose of this review is to synthesize the evidence about the efficacy of problem solving before instruction (PS-I) to promote learning and motivation in students. Specifically, this review is designed to answer the following questions: To what degree does…

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on adult education programs throughout the world, abruptly transforming in-person instruction to distance teaching/learning. Can the lessons learned from adult students, especially related to the "digital divide," be leveraged to enhance adult education and create more inclusive policies…

Refugee Background Mature Students, with many having come from the global South to seek asylum, form a minority group in higher education. This qualitative study uses a Critical Race Theory framework to examine the lived experience of four Refugee Background Mature Students from Angola and Nigeria with a focus on microaggresions, the everyday…

This study adapted and validated Barnard's Online Self-Regulated Learning Questionnaire (OSLQ) to assess adult learners' (n = 1302) online self-regulation, and examined its relation with attitude towards online learning and perceived online learning satisfaction. It was found that age and employment status were important demographic factors…

In asynchronous online video-based learning, learners experience various affective states, which may make them disengaged and negatively influence learning outcomes. This study aimed to examine the effect of the utility value (UV) intervention to help learners emotionally and behaviorally engage in online learning. The UV intervention includes…

The author examines how Latinx migrant and seasonal farmworkers (MSFW) engaged in survivance, active presence and resistance, in transition from K-12 schools to a High School Equivalency Program (HEP). Ethnographic methods were used to understand the educational experiences of Latinx students from MSFW backgrounds while pursuing a General…

Nontraditional students pursuing an advanced degree face unique challenges as compared to full-time traditional students. Current and former masters and PhD students (N = 266) were surveyed to examine differences in their educational experiences and emotional outcomes, and determinants of their positive and negative graduate education experiences.…

[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Qualitative Methods in PER: A Critical Examination.] This article details methodologies employed to enable sharing and coconstructing the stories of three women's lives in physics. The first case explores the usefulness of timeline interviewing, where participants narrate episodes that are…

Teaching presence is critical to online student success. While progress has been made in conceptualising and researching teaching presence, little is known about how it is experienced by older adult online learners. This article explores teaching presence indicators for older adult learners (55+ years old) in online courses, using the conceptual…

This qualitative study examines how a student-generated meme activity influences adult learners' interaction in online class discussions. A multiple-case design is applied to understand how this class discussion activity facilitates online threaded interactions. This study recruited 28 adult learners from a two-section graduate-level asynchronous…

Adults with disabilities face challenges during transition points in their lives, including while transitioning into and out of post-secondary education. Both learners and educators share responsibility for understanding strategies that enhance educational inclusion. Creating an inclusive learning environment provides the means for overcoming…

This spotlight discusses the critical role of immigrants in the U.S. labor market and the importance of services that support their economic integration. Immigrants represent a significant and growing portion of the U.S. workforce and are essential for addressing labor market needs, especially in multilingual and diverse roles. The workforce…

Education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is essential to achieving continued technological advancement. The most critical years for instilling knowledge are during childhood, and a strategic way to accomplish this is through playful materials. Therefore, there is a need to develop more inclusive solutions to achieve…

Open education and vocational education are crucial for building a learning society and promoting national development. This study uses CiteSpace software to conduct an in-depth analysis of keywords visual timelines for research hotspots, and keywords with the strongest citation bursts in China and other countries. Given the rapid global…