Students in part-time courses were interviewed about their perceptions of good teaching and tutoring. The perceptions differed markedly between those with reproductive conceptions of learning and students holding self-determining ones. The former preferred didactic teaching but disliked interaction, whereas the latter had almost diametrically…

It has long been orthodoxy among adult educators that those who teach adults need to take into account the existing knowledge, practices, perceptions and expectations of the learners. This is true at both central level where curricula and teaching-learning materials are developed and at local level where adult teacher/facilitator meets adult…

This article explores the ways in which prior experiences in formal learning contexts influence adult learners' views of their current context. Using interview data from five women participating in a General Educational Development program, this study suggests that these learners' constructions of previous learning contexts function as "screens"…

Little empirical evidence exists on how adult literacy learners act as consumers. Yet, adult literacy programs often employ a "functional" approach to consumer education and assume that adult learners are deficient in consumer skills. Data from a qualitative study of the consumer behaviors of adult literacy learners are used to explore how adult…

The rapid growth in the number of older adult learners presents new challenges and opportunities for adult educators. These include facilitating the development of individuals as they make the transition to their later years and of American society as it struggles to reenvision aging.

How do we teach and learn, knowing that adults are complex, connected individuals who want to change but also want to maintain continuity of the Self? (Contains 1 figure.)

This chapter addresses ethical issues that can arise for an educator who ascribes to and practices from the theoretical perspective of transformative learning.

This chapter discusses the challenges, characteristics, and transitional roles of adult learners. Implications for student services professionals are presented.

Typically, non-credit or credit-granting adult higher-education programs are primarily staffed by non-tenured and part-time adjunct faculty. Not surprisingly, these are the faculty members with the least power to affect or influence change regarding an institution's approach to serving the adult learner population. But full-time tenured and…

Based on a qualitative study of Latin American adults enrolled in a California English as a second language (ESL) program, this article examines the ways in which gender as a social construct mediates learners' decisions and opportunities to learn English. In narratives audiotaped during life-history interviews, participants shared their varying…

With the rise of education and training markets and the rhetoric of lifelong learning, individuals have been reconfigured as learner-consumers and vested with responsibilities as choosers of their own destinies and, by implication, agents of government economic policy. Against this backdrop, this paper reviews empirical research on adult choice in…

In her recent article ("Adults Learning," Vol. 16, No. 3), Kathryn Ecclestone makes clear her distaste for links between education and therapy. She is opposed to education being seen as a route to "emotional wellbeing" or to "raised self-esteem", which are modish, under-researched concepts at best. If adult educators are unwise enough to be…

Adult students in higher education comprise a sizeable and expanding group of college and university students. While Sissel, Hansman, and Kasworm (2001) note the dearth of scholarship on adult learners in higher education, this same group of scholars and some of their colleagues have certainly produced a solid foundation of scholarly work on the…

This study presents a theory of critical components that affect the effectiveness of computer-based instruction (CBI) for adults. The theory was developed to provide a framework for research to explain or predict effective learning by adults using a desktop computer. The five conclusions drawn from this theory are as follows: (a) the…

As part of the impetus to increase and widen participation in the UK, and in Scotland in particular, there has been considerable effort put into creating links between Further Education Colleges (FECs) and Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). However, because no unique identifier is used to track students between the two sectors, little is known…