This handbook is designed to help community-based organizations that provide adult education improve their program quality in order to better achieve results that matter. The target audience for this handbook includes administrators and other members of program improvement teams in community-based organizations that want to use Equipped for the…

Background: Universities of the 21st century have a new majority in the non-traditional student. Today, the non-traditional student represents 73% of all undergraduate students, making this group the New-Traditional student. Despite this shift in demographics, there remains a paucity of theories that can assist colleges and universities in the…

An action research study attempted to identify the learning style prevalent among 7 male and 3 female adult learners in an Adult Basic Education (ABE) program in New York City and the attributes of a classroom environment that promote the retention of adult learners. These four learning style modalities were considered: concrete experience,…

An action research project was conducted to understand the learning style profile of Irish adult learners better and to integrate the findings into development seminars for adult education teachers and tutors. The Grasha-Riechmann Student Learning Styles Scale (GRSLSS) was chosen as the research instrument to explore Irish adults' learning styles…

The movement for developing and implementing adult English as a Second Language (ESL) content standards is gaining momentum in the United States as more emphasis is placed on learner outcomes, accountability, and professionalism in the field. Additional research is needed to investigate the impact that adult ESL content standards have on…

The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the benefits of on-line learning for adult learners and to further demystify three common misconceptions concerning on-line learning: students certainly do receive support from their on-line professors, the professor is pro-active rather than passive, and students may be more motivated to learn than in…

This report summarizes for fiscal years 1992 and 1993 the adult education activities that were implemented throughout the state of Florida in response to and in support of the Florida Model Literacy Program Act of 1987 (Florida Adult Literacy Act). The report also summarizes activities initiated under "Blueprint 2000," a system of school…

This document contains the following 25 papers from a conference on adult higher educational practices: "Learning and Workplace Linkages via Applied Research Projects" (Elaine Cahalan Hollensbe, Linda Hauber); "Practical Action Research in Non-Traditional Students' Senior Projects" (Elliott Lauderdale); "Obtaining the Elusive: An Innovative Degree…

This document is the final report on the experiences of mature students who had entered higher education through the Scottish Wider Access Programme (SWAP), a one-year course designed to provide an alternative route into higher education for adults and which utilizes a supportive environment plus an incremental, modular approach and small-group…

A national forum was conducted in September 1997 to obtain the views of former and current students in adult literacy education programs about challenges they faced and ways to facilitate success for future students. The thoughts of 57 literacy delegates from 44 states were elicited on 4 topics: participants' hopes and expectations; accessibility…

A study investigated tenacity of adult students who have once again made their way back to academia. The specific purpose was to discover how these students understood their own history of college enrollment and their perceptions of themselves as persisters. Participants were 63 "tenacious persisters" in three sections of an orientation class at a…

In the fall of 1998, Broome Community College (BCC) began the process of examining its mission in light of its re-accreditation review by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. In its Self-Study Report, submitted in January 2000, the college committed itself to developing a set of core indictors that would measure how well it was…

This book, which is about five alternative points of view or perspectives on teaching adults, is the result of several years of teaching and research in Canada, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, and the United States. The perspectives were obtained through a study of 253 teachers of adults. The book is organized in three sections. Section 1 contains…

This study demonstrates how an institutional research process focused on Ph.D. students contributed to programmatic changes that increased the effectiveness of the program for part-time, adult graduate learners. From 1985-92 faculty in an adult and vocational education doctoral program gathered feedback from students on challenges regarding…

Certificates are a valuable new currency in the information economy. Through a postbaccalaureate or postmaster's certificate, adults acquire market-demanded competencies in a short time. Many certificate-seekers are currently employed adults looking for focused, flexible, interdisciplinary, and highly relevant education opportunities. Certificate…