This document contains four papers from a symposium on performance, productivity, and continuous improvement. "Investigating the Association between Productivity and Quality Performance in Two Manufacturing Settings" (Constantine Kontoghiorghes, Robert Gudgel) summarizes a study that identified the following quality management variables…

The effects of adult education in welfare-to-work programs were examined in a national evaluation of welfare-to-work strategies. The evaluation used a random research design to estimate the overall effects of welfare-to-work programs in the following states: Georgia, Ohio, Michigan, Oklahoma, Oregon, and California. The study focused on the…

Research indicates that the "college for all" policies encouraged by well-intentioned but misguided educators are preventing many students from getting crucial information about how they are doing, seeing the full range of their desirable options, assessing the appropriateness and likely outcomes of available options, and identifying actions that…

The progress made by adults in dedicated mainstream basic skills provision in England and Wales and factors associated with students' progress were examined. Of the 2,135 students from 71 colleges of further education and local education authorities who took the reading pretest, 1,224 (57%) took the reading posttest. Writing scripts were received…

Teaching and learning in the high-technology workplace were examined through case studies of four individuals who were selected for study because they represented a broad spectrum of personal agendas, learning styles, and backgrounds. The employees' one-on-one meetings with their managers were analyzed to identify the kinds of lessons each…

Patterns of success and failure in the transition from school to work in Australia in the 1980s-1990s were examined by analyzing data from the Australian Youth Survey. Of those studied, 20% found full-time jobs upon leaving school and remained in full-time employment for the next 7 years, 13% obtained apprenticeships or traineeships leading to…

This collection of 16 monographs centers around the theme the "future compatible campus," which is based on the premise that higher education will become a "connected campus" in a technology-enabled environment consisting of three components: connected learning, connected service to the community; and connected management. In…

Anticipated demographic changes in the United States adult population in the decade between the National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS) of 1992 and the National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL), which is scheduled for 2002, were reviewed. Next, the implications of those changes for the NALS and NAAL were analyzed. The analysis focused on births,…

This document contains three papers on distance learning and human resource development (HRD). "An Exploration of Perceived Differences in Teaching Roles between On-Site and On-line Instruction" (James J. Kirk) reports on a study in which 144 online instructors at selected institutions across the United States were asked to share their…

This document contains three papers on issues in evaluation. "Evaluation of the Method of Modeling: A Case Study of the Finnish Steel Industry" (Ville Nurmi) describes the method of modeling as an educational strategy to support both specific goal-directed transformative learning focused on work process and learning in workplaces, and it…

The passage of the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education Amendments of 1998 (Perkins III) and the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA) marked a new era in the performance accountability partnership among the states, the U.S. Department of Education, and the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). Evaluation of vocational education…

The issue of increasing productivity was examined from an interdisciplinary perspective focusing on the impact of workplace practices on various productivity-related outcomes. First, the following methodological issues were discussed: defining workplace practices that affect productivity; linking employer behavior and organizational performance;…

Although objectively measurable achievement of outcomes is an important guide to the quality of education, the process of defining and assuring the quality of technical education and training must include consideration for the context in which technical education and training occurs. It is also critical to remember that education has two sets of…

This book, which is designed for human resource practitioners and students in courses on professional development and adult and vocational learning, examines strategies for effective practice in workplace learning. The introduction discusses interest in and ambivalence toward workplace learning and key premises of workplace learning. The following…

Research on adult basic skills in the United Kingdom and elsewhere in the English-speaking world was reviewed. The most-researched areas of adult basic skills were literacy, numeracy, English for speakers of other languages, information and computer technology, and oracy. Oracy skills for monolingual English speakers and numeracy skills for…