This article describes and analyses the background and goals of students at the Finnish open university in the beginning of the twenty-first century. The material consists of statistics based on the student records of the Finnish open university in 2000 (n = 9080) and of the stories, educational autobiographies written by the adult learners (n =…

The authors report on an interpretive case study that investigated how three elementary teachers summatively assessed their own students' written work over a three and one-half month period. Their collaborative assessment sessions reflected their ongoing routines that created productive social spaces that sowed the seeds for transformational adult…

A common outcome of entering post-compulsory education as a mature aged learner appears to be development and growth of the self. However, this is often only viewed as an outcome or considered an added benefit, rather than an integral part of the academic process itself. This paper explores the relationship between academic growth and personal…

This article describes how two African American young adults engage in learning and activism in their Harlem community through employment of art forms. Observations on the reversal of learning--from adults to young people in classrooms and young people to adults in the community--are critiqued.

People learn in many different ways and in many different places. What is learned informally or experientially is often the same or similar to what may be learned in traditional formal learning environments. There are many reasons why recognizing experiential learning is viable educational option, more so in today's economy than ever before. Prior…

This study sets out to examine the pragmatic competence of Cantonese adult learners of English possessing different levels of proficiency when performing the speech act of requesting for a formal purpose in writing. Pragmatic judgment--one of the two aspects of pragmatic competence--was examined by studying the most proficient group (i.e., native…

The state of adult literacy programs, including the Chicago Public Library Literacy Initiative, is described. After the Vietnam War, Congress passed adult education legislation, and Laubach Literacy Action and Literacy Volunteers of America became the nation's largest network of literacy providers. These and other literacy programs have problems:…

The Delta Adult Literacy Council, Inc. (DALC) is a volunteer, nonprofit organization that seeks to recruit, assess, train, match, and support volunteer tutors and adult new readers. Its accomplishments, its history as a literacy organization, and its tutor training process are described. The process of student recruitment and support involves…

Museums, zoos, nature centers, science centers, aquariums, and other similar places provide an opportunity for lifelong learning in a nonthreatening setting for most adults. They are places where nonformal learning (outside the formal learning setting and characterized by voluntary participation) can easily take place through such methods as…

Theories of social interaction and lifelong learning have been advanced by K. Lewin, J. Moreno, T. Sarbin, J. W. Thibaut and H. H. Kelley, R. S. Perinbanayagam, and B. Dervin. From this research lifelong learning can be seen as an affective and cognitive activity that occurs in the life-space of the actor in response to positive or negative field…

Researchers have documented links between a number of behavioral issues and homelessness, including the following: limited/no social networks; social isolation; proneness of victimization; history of emotional, physical, sexual, and substance abuse; lack of education; and anxiety resulting from inadequate physical space. The possible benefits of…

This collection of 35 poems, essays, and extracts from daily journals offers insight into the thoughts and experiences of prison education and prison life from the prisoner's perspective. The contributions come from men and women prisoners and young offenders from various ethnic backgrounds from 14 prisons; they demonstrate just how much can be…

Development through learning (the concept that managers learn, grow, and undergo personal change resulting from the roles, responsibilities, and tasks encountered in their jobs) has become an important field with a developed body of literature. Although on-the-job experiences have always been a powerful source of managerial learning, they have…

The Process Model of Experiential Learning, expanded from Dean (1993), is based on stages adapted from Pfeiffer and Jones (1983) and assumes a group of learners working together under the guidance of a group leader or facilitator. The model consists of seven stages, each composed of four different functions: leader's role regarding the content of…

The controversy over the optimal age for learning a second language is discussed, examining, from the perspective of Piagetian theory: (1) the argument which suggests that children have an advantage in language learning; and (2) the arguments which states that adults have an advantage in language learning. The first part provides an overview of…