Community colleges have been called the "people's college"; enrolling a diverse student population and serving their communities are both central to the roots and present-day mission of community colleges. A diverse student population consisting of students, who face financial, academic, and personal issues creates a unique challenge for community…

To test if adult learning theory can inform a training program for newly-hired employees in industry, a training program was set up using Knowles' concepts of andragogy. Evaluation results from before and after the new training program indicate that the perceptions of those in the new training program changed in a positive direction. This…

The global economy is changing, say ministers, and the British need to develop the skills to keep up. Will the proposals set out in the Government's plan for implementing the Leitch review deliver the step change required? In this article, three main parties respond. Bill Rammell, Minister of State for Lifelong Learning, Further and Higher…

Ofsted's Annual Report for 2006-2007 revealed signs of continuing improvement in adult learning and skills provision. Inspection of further education (FE) colleges revealed that 17 were outstanding, and a further 44 good in relation to overall effectiveness. In this article, the author argues that despite these signs of continuing improvement,…

The Campaign for Learning, with its partners NIACE and ContinYou, established the National Family Learning Network (NFLN) in 2001. Most of the expertise in any field, including family learning, exists at grassroots level, but all too often stays at the very local, even single-institutional, level, because structures make effective sharing on a…

Although the loss of certainty in the age of postmodernism is questioning knowledge production in general, the emerging discourse of lifelong learning demands a different theory of adult learning in particular. This article aims to offer a conceptual tool for describing learning in adulthood in terms of postmodern and lifelong learning conditions.…

This article discusses how a personal approach to online learning can yield a successful experience for adults earning advanced degrees or certification in teaching. Distance learning has become increasingly popular among learners with family and work obligations. Degree-seeking adult learners appreciate the flexibility and convenience of learning…

There have been few studies comparing student performance in online and face-to-face economics courses. Those studies that have been undertaken have concentrated on traditional students (18- to 22-year-olds). This paper examines student outcomes in an undergraduate course in microeconomics taught to non-traditional students (average age is 33…

Much research (Ma, 1999; Cohen & Leung, 2004; English, 2003) has been done on mathematics education and pre-service teachers with special emphasis on how the mathematics is taught and the psychology of the pre-service teachers. While there is concern among North American mathematicians that mathematics instruction in K-12 grades needs to be…

Adult education literature suggests that the instructional perspective of the teacher has an important effect on adult satisfaction with learning. In this study, the relationships between instructional perspective, satisfaction with language learning, and certain teacher and student characteristics were investigated. Study participants were adult…

The aim of this study is to examine the costs and benefits of undertaking adult education courses from the perspective of the individual, using three different case studies. This will give a snapshot of the benefits and the types of costs incurred by three adult learners. Three individuals were contacted by Aontas and were asked if they would be…

The present state of adult education is perilous, as all readers of "Adults Learning" will know well. All sectors are damagingly affected by funding decisions, as witnessed by the large numbers of organisations and providers represented at the recent Parliamentary lobby by the Campaigning Alliance for Lifelong Learning (CALL). The damage…

How do underrepresented populations, with little exposure to global media discourse, begin not only to develop a critical stance toward dominant messages in the media, but also to assert their own voices and perspectives in unfamiliar formats? How can a school with a mission to develop leadership skills for members of indigenous populations…

Past research has indicated that different students learn differently. If we could identify into which group(s) students were more closely aligned, then we could help students learn more effectively. One such classification has been whether students were considered to be traditional or nontraditional, where traditional students were frequently…

This paper explores the role that action learning might play in micro and small enterprise development. It is divided into two parts. The first part focuses upon the distinctive characteristics of smallness and ownership and their implication for management development processes in the owner managed firm. In particular the impact of personal…