England's mainstream upper secondary curriculum is driven by academic, exam-based GCSEs and A levels, with applied learning qualifications an alternative for 'less-academic' 16-18-year-olds. This paper elides two studies of the impact of the BTEC National Diploma on employment and career trajectories, one from the perspective of 16-22-year-olds,…

Students in adult education (AE) programs have limited access to quality writing instruction due to lack of empirical research. The current study is part of a larger research project to design and test the feasibility and effectiveness of a writing curriculum based on strategy instruction with self-regulation. We present the findings of our…

Our research aims to evaluate the impact of teachers' behavior on the intention of master students from two generations (Generation Z and Millennials) to participate in volunteering activities. We also aim to assess the factors that influence master students' motivation toward volunteering activities, how intention mediates the relationship…

The number of mature students in PhD programs in Canada has increased over recent years. While research suggests older adults are more intrinsically motivated and tend to academically outperform their younger peers, studies generally focus on the problems and barriers mature students frequently encounter. The purpose of this research is to fill a…

This article is written by two researchers and a teacher involved with the development and implementation of a web-based intelligent tutoring system for adults reading at elementary levels. A description of the tool is provided, followed by some of the challenges faced in designing, developing, and using the tool in adult literacy classrooms.

This paper presents the results of a retrospective study that investigates the cognitive effects of learning a foreign language in late adulthood. The learner group, consisting of 21 L1 Chinese speakers who have been learning to read Arabic for 2 years and 4 months, were compared to the matched group on their performance on a series of cognitive…

One of the primary goals of adult basic education programs is to help individuals develop the reading, writing, and math skills necessary to access stable employment opportunities. In the US, this need has been largely overlooked by the burgeoning educational technology sector. To understand how learning technologies might support these learners…

This practice-based case study explores how digital education practices within an inclusive, supportive environment can help to transform the practice and meet the specific needs of adult literacy education practitioners in their specific contexts. In an effort to contribute to discourse in relation to what works in various programmes and…

Mind-wandering (MW) is a universal cognitive process that is estimated to comprise [approximately] 30% of our everyday thoughts. Despite its prevalence, the functional utility of MW remains a scientific blind spot. The present study sought to investigate whether MW serves a functional role in cognition. Specifically, we investigated whether MW…

As the number of older Americans double in the next forty years, it will be important to delay the decline in cognition. The aim of this paper is to describe the feasibility and acceptability of a six-week cognitively stimulating program focusing on visual arts (Picasso, Andrew Wyeth, and Carl Warner), music (Bach and Franklin), and travel…

Purpose: Multiple methods have been suggested for quantifying syntactic complexity in speech. We compared eight automated syntactic complexity metrics to determine which best captured verified syntactic differences between old and young adults. Method: We used natural speech samples produced in a picture description task by younger (n = 76, ages…

Background: The impact of hearing impairment is typically studied in terms of its effects on speech perception, yet this fails to account for the interactive nature of communication. Recently, there has been a move towards studying the effects of age-related hearing impairment on interaction, often using referential communication tasks; however,…

Host country education can be crucial for the social integration as well as labour market outcomes of refugees and asylum seekers. To meet the same admission criteria for studying at German higher education institutions (HEI) as other international student applicants, refugees and asylum seekers can attend pre-study programmes at preparatory…

Anti-Black racism can be difficult to discuss in English language teaching because teachers often feel unprepared. This article describes our experiences as researchers and educators from a duoethnographic self-study to understanding the possibilities of addressing social justice issues in an adult English as a second language (ESL) classroom.…

A link between literacy and health has already been demonstrated in various national and international surveys. Previous research has shown that adults with low literacy are very frequent users of social media. Increasingly, people are gaining their health-related knowledge and skills by being in digital spaces and consuming health-related content…