In fall 1984, students who enrolled in credit-free courses at Dutchess Community College (DCC) were asked to provide demographic information as part of their registration process. Approximately 2,000 students, from almost all of the credit-free courses offered both on-campus and at off-campus sites, completed the student data form. Findings…

In spring 1984, almost 8,000 students, who were enrolled in 42 different college-credit telecourses, were surveyed to determine the students' background, how they learned about telecourses, and how they intended to view programs. Data from the study were tabulated by state, course type, and selected individual courses and were cross-tabulated and…

The performance of two groups of adult students on the General Educational Development (GED) test was compared to determine whether there was a relationship between the level of student performance on a timed versus non-timed GED test. Each group consisted of the first three hundred students who took the test at twenty-six different testing…

The purpose of this study was to compare low readers and high readers in adult basic education (ABE) programs in New Jersey in terms of demographic characteristics, motives for enrolling in ABE, and desire to learn certain functional competencies. Fifty-two low readers and 52 high readers responded to items on the Interview Schedule of the Adult…

This synthesis of selected manuscripts, submitted to the Bureau of Occupational and Adult Education to aid in developing position statements that reflected the Bureau's view of chief issues surrounding the concept of lifelong learning, presents an overview of adult education in the United States. The first section is a brief listing of the public…

Non-traditional adult students at West Los Angeles Community College (WLACC) who already had bachelor's or higher degrees were surveyed to ascertain why they had returned to college, why particularly to the community college, and what they expected to get from it. Questionnaires were mailed to 120 students who had completed the fall 1977 semester;…

This paper describes an experiment in which the Developmental Sentence Scoring procedure, which has been used successfully for scoring sentence complexity in child language, was examined for its usefulness when applied to adult learners of English as a Second Language. The technique is based upon a developmental scale of syntax acquisition within…

Three studies examined General Educational Development (GED) students in postsecondary institutions and determined their ability to achieve in college without a traditional high school education. A literature review focused on admittance of GED students to institutions of higher learning and students' characteristics. Tests that predict GED…

A study attempted to substantiate empirically whether changes occurred in the personality functioning of adult learners and traditional-age students during the first year of college. The Omnibus Personality Inventory and companion questionnaires were administered to randomly selected groups of students from two campuses of a midwestern state…

New students and faculty have expressed a growing interest in academic advising. However, little research has been reported about adult students and the academic advising process. A survey of adult students and faculty members at Metropolitan State University, a nontraditional university, showed that faculty members were sensitive to their role as…

Not only is industry seeking a closer relationship with the community college, but employees themselves are becoming more interested in making career advances or mid-career changes. The Metropolitan Community Colleges of Kansas City, Missouri, have become aware of these changing educational needs through the realization that 2% of the students…

To determine the relationship between reading comprehension and the measures of logical judgement and concepts of language, forty-one adult basic education students were tested using the California Achievement Test and Peel's tests of logical judgement. The findings include the following: (1) concepts of language structure vary in adults; (2) the…

A discussion of the role of the student personnel worker in counseling adult students, identification of the needs of women students and the reasons they return to college, and a review of research regarding women's utilization of a student personnel department are presented. Other areas of concern addressed in this monograph include: (1)…

SOME EFFECTS OF AGE ON ADULT LEARNING WERE STUDIED IN A SERIES OF FOUR EXPERIMENTS ON THE FOLLOWING VARIABLES--(1) SUSCEPTIBILITY TO SET-INDUCING CONDITIONS, (2) ATTITUDES ABOUT A TOPIC, (3) PRIOR KNOWLEDGE, AND (4) LEARNING SPEED OR EFFECTS OF VARIED PRESENTATION RATES. A REPRESENTATIVE SAMPLE OF 211 SUBJECTS WAS SELECTED ON THE BASIS OF SEX,…

A study was conducted among adults enrolled in adult basic education (ABE) General Educational Development (GED) courses to determine their perceptions of the impact of the ABE/GED programs on their employment/economic position, skill and knowledge acquisition, community involvement, attitudinal changes, personal relationships, and continuing…