The Communities of Practice (CofP) framework and theories of engaged participation have profoundly shaped how we theorize, investigate, and represent a variety of learning and teaching processes, both in and out of classroom contexts. Within this framework, useful distinctions have been made between a teaching curriculum and a learning curriculum,…

The purpose of this study is to expand understanding and discover knowledge about degree attainment among adult learners. This qualitative inquiry explores what recent non-traditional-age bachelor's degree recipients report contributes to attaining the degree. Professional research and expert material on demographics, motivation, challenges and…

The purpose of this research was to provide information to school administrators about the impact differentiated instruction and teacher behavior have on students' decision to drop out of high school or persist. The ultimate goal of this study is to determine if a significant relationship exists between differentiated instruction, teacher behavior…

Teaching adults is a specialist area. Current education policy defines adult learners as those over 19. However these days if one teaches in some parts of the further education sector one may find teaching students from age 14 upwards. Adult learners may be studying to improve their skills and qualifications for work, or to progress to further…

This paper reports findings from research into the benefits of e-mentoring for mature students (21 years old and above) preparing for university study through taking Access courses. The research was carried out at Kingston University in the UK in the context of current policies of widening participation in higher education (HE). It was aimed at…

This empirical study investigates the effect of online textual, pictorial, and textual pictorial glosses on the incidental vocabulary learning of 90 adult elementary Iranian EFL learners. The participants were selected from a pool of 140 volunteers based on their performance on an English placement test as well as a knowledge test of the target…

Background/Context: Educational researchers have long sought to understand the factors that enable or constrain persistence in non-formal family literacy and adult education programs. Scholars typically posit three sets of factors influencing persistence: situational (learners' life circumstances), institutional (programmatic factors), and…

The Breaking Through (BT) initiative of the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation seeks to prepare low-skilled adults, adult learners who are below college-level in reading, writing and/or mathematics, often lacking a high school diploma, and frequently low-income, to be successful in college and the labor market by strengthening and expanding policies…

British Columbia offers multiple educational pathways to address the literacy and academic needs of its adult population. In BC, Adult Basic Education (ABE) is offered through two public systems: the secondary system offers the Adult Graduation program in various school district facilities, typically through Continuing Education, and the public…

One way of addressing individual differences among adult learners is to identify the Multiple Intelligences of the learner. Multiple Intelligences refers to the concept developed by Howard Gardner that challenges the traditional view of intelligence and explains the presence of nine different Multiple Intelligences. The purpose of this study was…

One of the successes of the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) has been to recognize the importance of advice and guidance to adults on courses as well as those wanting to access provision. Information, advice and guidance (IAG) matters: it helps people to overcome barriers to learning. It enables adults to identify what learning is right for them.…

Learning is an act of hope. Although adults enter learning experiences from many frames of emotion and cognitive beliefs, each views this experience as the purposeful choice for a new and different future, a future of hope and possibilities. For adult learners, the pursuit of higher education is a choice and a life-changing engagement. Given the…

Educational discourse has often struggled to genuinely move beyond deficit-based language. Even action research, a predominant model for teacher development, starts with the identification of a problem (Cardno 2003). It would appear that the vocabulary for a hope-filled discourse which captures the imagination and influences our future educational…

This article investigates the experience of individual learners who have been allocated learning support in the further education system in England. The particular focus is on interviewees' constructions of their emotional and psychic experiences. Through the adoption of a psycho-social perspective, learners' tendency to "idealise" their…

Students in Further Education colleges in England read and write in many different kinds of ways in different areas of their everyday lives. As part of their participation in Further Education, these students face a multitude of literacy demands: through the bureaucracies of the college, the pedagogic content of their courses, the textual nature…